The "Falling Towers" of New Chinese TV Center

A New Home for the "Faulty Towers" of Chinese Propaganda Machine

Just like the classic British comedy was set in a slightly crazy hotel, this temple of propaganda and Olympic Games TV coverage is being built in the middle of a pretty nutty ideological and political situation, on a fantastically tight schedule.






Everybody may have a different take on what China should and should not do, but one thing is clear - they are doing their darnedest to appear the best in the Olympic spotlight. We've heard about their desperate attempt to make Peking an ecologically cleaner city (part of which is... a massive killing of cats, no less!) and we may doubt if they're really going to clean up their act - but they certainly choose eye-catching designs when it comes to architecture!









Construction is fully underway

The center will cost upwards of 900 million dollars, providing office space for 10,000 people.








The building is also designed to withstand magnitude 8 earthquakes! Even though it looks like it's going to fall on your head (some tourists reported a reeling, dizzy feeling and some reportedly fainted while looking up) - this weird skyscraper is incredibly stable.






The un-attached towers leaning toward each other during construction look even more other-worldly during the night.
Think about it: the "Falling Towers" building will be only the FIRST of 300 towers that will be constructed in Peking business district. Truly totalitarian scale of planning.

Russian Nuclear Icebreakers: to the North Pole!

Odyssey in the Arctic with Russian Icebreaker Fleet

The nuclear-powered icebreakers served as a symbol of Soviet technological power for many decades. Today this fleet is used to aid ship navigation in the seas north of Siberia - and for elite tourism, which helps to pay the bills.

The most powerful of all icebreakers "50 years of Victory" (one of six "Arktika" class) has two nuclear reactors and is capable of reaching North Pole in a couple of days.



Svetlana Bogdanova has recently returned from a very special trip on board of icebreaker "Vaigach" and provided us with these unique pictures. Thanks to her exclusive permission (and collection of photos by seamen of the Murmansk Sea Shipping Company) we can now have a glimpse of what it means to follow along the caravan of ships in the northern seas, led by a colossal nuclear-powered vessel.



Svetlana says: "A nuclear icebreaker almost feels alive, like a huge proud creature with a benevolent and dependable character. See it moving in the dark of night, projecting a powerful light ahead, making the snow sparkle in a misty path, feel it tremble under your feet... Its sheer immensity is inspiring, making one think of heroic exploration of unknown lands, the stuff that kids should be dreaming about"



Its population lives in the Arctic wasteland, enduring the most extreme climate. A significant part of Dixon has become a ghost town during Soviet years - and a series of ghastly buildings line up to haunt the endless night.















Launching the deep sea research vessel (Bathysphere) "MIR-1"










Encountering some heavy seas










Staying in port for maintenance






Here are Some of the Giants of the Arctic Fleet:

"Lenin" was the first Russian nuclear icebreaker, built in 1957. It looked imposing, but suffered two nuclear accidents while in operation till 1989, and now is being converted into a museum ship. Another milestone: "Arktika" became the first surface ship ever to reach the North Pole in 1977.

"50 Years of Victory" - is the largest, most powerful icebreaker ever constructed

Totalitarian Architecture of the Third Reich

Imperial dreams... and the agony of taste

Fascist and communist governments in the first half of the twentieth century both created monumental architecture, largely to intimidate their people and showcase the regime's strengths.







In a totalitarian system such as existed in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, the government attempted to control every aspect of daily life. It used architecture to some degree to achieve this, to firmly establish its authority leaving no doubt as to who was in charge. One of the chief aims of Nazi architecture was also to reflect the beliefs of National Socialism, celebrate the German national identity and glorify the idea of the master Aryan race, as perceived by Hitler and his associates.


Imperial Rome all over again

There was no official Nazi architectural style although most of the structures and monuments designed by Albert Speer and others imitated Imperial Rome. Hitler was an admirer of the Roman Empire and imagined himself to be creating a realm to both rival and then surpass that of the Caesars. The Nazis, who dismissed much of the customary decoration and used only the raw, muscular elements, exaggerated the classical Roman style, which portrayed their ideal image of a strong, warlike state. This was known as stripped classicism and was not only used in Germany, but was relatively popular in other countries as well in the inter war period.


World Capital Germania

Hitler had Speer, his favoured architect, design plans for the rebuilding of Berlin. This was a monumental task in itself, to create Welthauptstadt ("World Capital") Germania, the new city, which would be the capital of German-dominated Europe. The photographs of the plans for Hitler's city survive to this day in the German federal archives.





The Big Dumb (Concrete) Object

Berlin is located on marshy ground and there were some concerns as to whether the land would actually be able to sustain such massive structures. Consequently some testing was undertaken. The Schwerbelastungskörper ("Heavy load-bearing body") was constructed in 1941 to test the muddy ground.
The mushroom shaped cylinder is made from 12,650 tons of concrete and is sixty feet high. Instruments measured that the huge block sank seven inches in three years, more than the 2.5 inches deemed acceptable, making it unlikely the soil could have supported Hitler's new capital without substantial preparation work. The massive Schwerbelastungskörper couldn't be demolished at the end of the war because of the proximity of nearby apartments and has been considered a historical monument since 1995.


Olympic Stadium for the Superior Race' Triumph in Sports

Most of the huge projects were halted with the outbreak of war in 1939 or as the war progressed, then turned against Germany and the country's attention turned to more pressing matters. Some structures were completed however, including the Olympic Stadium. Germany was awarded the 1936 summer Olympics in 1931, and once Hitler came to power he was determined to use the event for propaganda purposes. Work on the stadium was begun in 1934 and when completed in time for the Games had a capacity of 110,000.
An even bigger stadium, the Deutsches Stadion, designed for some 400,000 people, was planned for Nuremberg, but the project was abandoned shortly after the foundations were completed. Had the stadium actually been built it would still be the largest arena of its kind in the world.
Berlin's Olympic Stadium survived the war relatively unscathed and the area was used as a headquarters by the British occupation forces in the city until 1994. The stadium was at one time considered for demolition, but was eventually completely renovated and played host to the World Cup Final in 2006.


The Zeppelinfield Arena - big enough to launch a fleet of airships

Allied bombing took a huge toll on German cities and Berlin suffered greatly in the Soviet assault in the spring of 1945. Some buildings however survived intact or are still visible as ruins. Some of the better known structures are in Nuremberg, site of the huge Nazi rallies throughout the thirties. The Zeppelinfield Arena was one of Speer's first projects for the party in 1934 and was based on the Pergamon Altar, an ancient Greek structure, which has featured in lists of wonders of the world. Used for the enormous Nazi rallies and party ceremonies, the arena was built on a huge scale and could hold 240,000 people.

Old power plants

Still generating power... to creep us out

The way some power plants and substations look, you'd think they fell out of some crack in the sky and materialized in our world - only to haunt and disturb normal citizens. Their incessant humming, occasional insectoid twittering and subliminal noise can be plenty annoying, but when they get abandoned, the tangle of cables, machinery and crumbling towers (combined with deep silence) makes it visually much, much worse.


Before we embark on a tour of some depressing abandoned power plants, here is a wonderfully bizarre structure still intact in London:

Duke Street Electricity Substation in London... with a garden on top.

London-based photographer Mark Obstfeld, a friend of our site, shares with us his urban discovery in London: "While wandering round the west side of town, I remembered I'd seen an unusual building before - just off Oxford St (main shopping street) in the West End, near Selfridges (a big department store). A few people were having lunch away from the bustle 50 metres away.




The English Heritage site has more of the history of this unusual substation: "This unusual and stylish edifice, together with the paved garden on top, was built in 1903–5 for the Westminster Electric Supply Corporation to the designs of C. Stanley Peach, with C. H. Reilly as assistant. As built, the sub-station rose to a greater height than had been contemplated, with a balustrade all round, and Diocletian windows along the sides to light the galleries of the engine rooms, which occupied deep basements. The garden above was paved and allotted the trees in tubs suggested, though these no longer exist...



Forgotten New York Power House

The New York Subway at one point had its own dedicated power system, called the Power House which was built in 1904. This huge complex covering an entire city block now sits forgotten. At its peak capacity, the plant could produce 132,000 horsepower.


More wanderings in and around forgotten power plants

Unlike most other abandoned hydroelectric plants, White River Falls Power Station in Oregon looks pretty unassuming, in fact like nothing more than a barn. Built in 1901, and closed after WW2, much of the steampunk-ish machinery remains inside, to the delight of the occasional explorer:

Construction on Cherokee Nuclear Power Plant was halted in 1983, after $633 million (or about $1.2 billion U.S. adjusted for inflation). The unfinished cooling tower was used as the set for "Deepcore" during the filming of "The Abyss". Once the filming was over, funding went dry and the film set was left to rot. It was covered in notices stating that it was property of the 20th Century Fox and any access to it was prohibited. In 2007 a new power plant was approved to be constructed next door, and the remaining parts of the Cherokee Power Plant were slated for demolition

Painted Buildings

Bleak Walls Transformed by Creativity

Urban landscape can be quite drab, and the artists of these exceptional wall paintings are doing a great job of spicing it up. Some murals can be considered realistic illusions, some have historical meaning, some can be labeled as "kitsch", but all of them are welcome splashes of color and creativity in day-to-day life.































3D Murals of Eric Grohe

An artist, who really breaks the monotonous geometry of official buildings and shopping malls with his own marvelous perspective and 3D illusions - Eric Grohe has an impressive array of projects.





Gaudy but impressive colors of Ramenskoe apartments in Moscow

Here you can observe the utmost in urban psychedelics: the whole apartment complex painted in unbelievably bright colors. Looks interesting enough, but how would you like to live in the midst of this paint explosion?

Narrow-minded Architecture

Narrow-minded architecture can be brilliant, indeed

If you looked closely at high-res photographs of Tokyo in our recent article, you may have noticed a few buildings that are apparently functional, housing either a business or a residence, but are extremely slim - sometimes not more than a meter in width. We got intrigued with this way of squeezing the most use out of every square foot, and decided to look at other examples in Japan and around the world.

"—And He Built a Crooked House—" rogue architect Quintus Teal builds a cross-shaped house that, because of a classic Los Angeles earthquake collapses not into 3 dimensional rubble but instead into a four-dimensional tesseract.

While we've yet to see any buildings with extra-rooms that cross space and time there are plenty of other houses out there that certainly look like they do.



A Lack of Dimension We Call Width

Just take a look at these exceptionally lovely, and surrealistically narrow buildings. Some of them, sure, look like they were shoehorned into whatever empty space was available -- but others look less like seizing every opportunity, and inch of land, and more like jewels of design and elegance ... if a bit too thin.



Fold it into the other dimension, or take off into space

When you need to "park" your house on a thinnest strip of land imaginable, consider the design by Atelier Tekuto company, bearing a humble name "A House in Tokyo". It is more of the cathedral, a spiritual experience, especially warmly illuminated at night.




Kloveniersburgwal, 26 is also called "Trippen House", or ‘The House of Mr. Trip’s coachman’. "Legend has it that Mr. Trip’s coachman exclaimed: 'Oh my, I would be happy if I had a house that was only as wide as the front door of my master’s house.' Mr. Trip overheard him and made sure that his wish came true."





Try to haul up furniture up these incredibly narrow stairways (on the right is yet another "narrowest" house in Amsterdam)
Across the channel and up into the cold gray loveliness of Great Cumbrae, Scotland is what is considered to be the thinnest house in Great Britain ("The Wedge" in Millport) with an face just shy of 47 inches. 'Cozy' and 'intimate' would best describe the place -- and 'claustrophobic' and 'confining' being the worst.

You're Building It Wrong

So what happened here?.. maybe these people got tired of living in a narrow cramped house and decided to expand a little? or do they simply have a very wide bed on the second floor?