Ned Kahn

This guys work is weird! But very unique. Influenced by weather conditions mainly, he creates large scale installations, some temporary around public places others permanent fixtures as part of a buildings or sea breakers. His work is well hard to describe so check it out! I particularly like the huge tornado he's managed to create.

Future farming

Can you believe this!? Jamie Oliver would go nuts! Farms built on skyscrapers! A new concept to save the acres and acres of land that farms take up. I think it's stupid and probably will happen at some point in the future. I have a passion for food and buy food from the market when ever i can. I hate buying massed produced crap and animals that arn't treat fairly. How is the meat going to taste better if a cow is on the 50th floor of a skyscraper in the middle of Seattle. This is inspired me to buy more fresh produce from local shops etc, join me folks! Dont succumb to the powers of Asda and Tesco.

Beijing Olympic Stadium

I can imagine everyone was just as astonished as I was when they watched the beginning of the Olympic games. Im not sure what stunned me more the amazing opening ceremony, the sheer size of the stadium or Usain Bolt's 100 metre finish time! I hadn't really been following the progress of the games or the construction of the stadium so it totally took me by surprise to see a giant birds nest. All of the 110, 000 tons of chinese steel make this the largest steel structure in the world, and at $423 million it was built for one tenth of the cost it would have taken to build in the west. Swiss architect firm Herzog & de Meuron are responsible for the amazing design of this building, and they see the nickname 'the birds nest' as something of a compliment, "In China, a bird's nest is very expensive, something you eat on special occasions." Although the olympics are over the stadium will still be used for football games, and there is also a planned exstention for a shopping mall and hotel to increase its use.

BMW Museum

Above you will see the BMW four cylinder building and in front the BMW museum. Although contructed in the 70's these building remain unique to this day. The special technique involded in constructing the four cylinder was that each of the 22 floors had to be contructed on the ground and then pulled up to the top, each floor hanging from the one above. The museum on the other hand is a self supporting body, the reinforced concrete shell of the building supports the roof. I love how BMW have the audacity to stick a giant 41 diameter BMW logo on the roof of the building!

Guggenheims

I've always loved the Guggenheim museums, especially the spiral in New York and the Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain. They look like they've been designed from the future, they don't belong in the landscape at all but there definitely a breath of fresh air. These two museums are pushing the boundaries of what is possible both in construction and concept.


The Guggenheim Bilbao (above) has been described as the greatest building of our time and I would agree. The free flowing organic contours of the building are textbook Frank Gehry design. As Bilbao is a Port town the whole construction was meant to resemble a ship, the side of the building is coated in reflective titanium resembling fish scales. Computer simulations made the construction of this design feasible although architects of an earlier era would have found this impossible.