Battersea Power Station in england

Battersea Power Station  in england::

Battersea Power Station is a decommissioned coal-fired power station located on the south bank of the River Thames in Battersea, an inner-city district of Southwest London. It comprises two individual power stations which were built in two stages in the form of a single building. Battersea A Power Station was built in the 1930s, and Battersea B Power Station, to its east, was built in the 1950s. The two stations were built with an identical design, providing the well-known four chimney layout. The station ceased generating electricity in 1983, but over the past 50 years it has become one of the best known landmarks in London and is Grade II* listed. The station owes much of its celebrity to numerous cultural appearances, which include a shot in The Beatles' 1965 movie Help! and the cover art of Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals.

The station is the largest brick building in Europe and is notable for its original, lavish Art Deco interior fittings and decor. However, the building's condition has been described as "very bad" by English Heritage.

World's biggest mall

World's biggest mall in china::

The New South China Mall in Guangdong Province opened in 2005. With 5 million square feet of shopping area , the mall can accommodate 2,350 stores, making it the largest shopping center in the world in terms of leasable space -- more than twice the size of the mall in americk, the biggest shopping center in the United States. At the outdoor plaza, hundreds of palm trees blend in with a replica arc de trimophe a giant Egyptian Sphinx, fountains, and extensive canals with gondols.

The only problem is that the mall is virtually deserted. Despite the bombastic design and grand plans, only a handful of stores are occupied. Walking among shattered shops, with dusty corridors and escalators covered in soiled sheets, is like a walk through a ghost mall. Rubbish is piled up along the sides, paint is coming off of the walls, and store signs and advertisements have faded. The mall's indoor amusement park staff lay half asleep over counters, or kill time chatting with each other.

Sci Fi Structures

 Sci Fi Structures::

These structures were commissioned by former Yugoslavian President Josip Broz Tito in the 1960s and 70s to commemorate sites where WWII battles had taken place (like Tjentište, Kozara and Kadinjača), or where concentration camps stood (like Jasenovac and Niš). They were designed by different sculptors (Dušan Džamonja, Vojin Bakić, Miodrag Živković, Jordan and Iskra Grabul, to name a few) and architects (Bogdan Bogdanović, Gradimir Medaković...), conveying a powerful visual impact to show the confidence and strength of the Socialist Republic. In the 1980s, these monuments attracted millions of visitors per year, especially young pioneers for their "patriotic education." After the Republic dissolved in early 1990s, they were completely abandoned and their symbolic meanings were forever lost.

From 2006 to 2009, Kempenaers toured around the ex-Yugoslavian region (now Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc.) with the help of a 1975 map of memorials, presenting before our eyes a series of melancholy yet striking images. His photos raise a question: can these former monuments continue to exist as pure sculptures? On the one hand, their physically dilapidated condition and institutional neglect reflect a more general social and historical fracturing.

Taj Mahal ; one of the top landmarks in the world.

Taj Mahal::

Taj Mahal, the pinnacle of Mughal architecture, was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (1628-1658), grandson of Akbar the great, in the memory of his queen Arjumand Bano Begum, entitled ‘Mumtaz Mahal’. Mumtaz Mahal was a niece of empress Nur Jahan and granddaughter of Mirza Ghias Beg I’timad-ud-Daula, wazir of emperor Jehangir. She was born in 1593 and died in 1631, during the birth of her fourteenth child at Burhanpur. Her mortal remains were temporarily buried in the Zainabad garden. Six months later, her body was transferred to Agra to be finally enshrined in the crypt of the main tomb of the Taj Mahal.

According to TripAdvisor's 2013 Travellers Choice Attractions Awards, Taj Mahal was ranked third in the list of Top 25 landmarks. 

Taj Mahal, listed among the new seven wonders of the world, is renowned the world over for its architecture and aesthetic beauty. 

In 1983, it became a Unesco World Heritage Site. The Taj Mahal attracts 2-4 million visitors annually, with more than 200,000 from overseas. 

In all, the Taj Mahal covers an area of 60 bighas, as the terrain gradually sloped from south to north, towards the river, in the form of descending terraces.

The main tomb of the Taj is basically square with chamfered corners. The minarets here are detached, facing the chamfered angles (corners) of the main tomb on the main plinth. Red sandstone mosque on the western, and Mehman-Khana on the eastern side of the tomb provides aesthetically a clear colour contrast.

'World's largest building' opens in China

The Largest Building Ever Constructed Has Opened in China

 

 The "New Century Global Centre" building opens to the public in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan province on June 28, 2013, the latest symbol of China's economic boom. 

At what point does a building become a city? At 1.7 million square meters, the New Century Global Center lands somewhere between the two. 

New Century, which has been under construction since spring of 2012 (which isn't long, for a building of this size), opened officially on July 1. The 18-story, glass-and-steel frame structure sits above a new subway station in Chengdu, a Sichuan province city of more than 14 million and one of China's fastest-growing megalopolises. 

What will visitors find inside its glassy walls? It's actually fairly standard, as mega-structures go: A 14-screen IMAX theater, shops, restaurants, offices, hotels, a Mediterranean village reconstruction (duh), and finally, its pièce de résistance—a massive artificial beach that boasts realistic sunsets and sea breezes, thanks to a huge LED screen on one side. A 500,000-square-foot art center designed by Zaha Hadid is under construction next door. 

 Here's a 15-minute promotional video about the centre:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eob7Ki0Vhww#t=0 

It's not so much what New Century contains as how much of it. It's hard to visualize numbers like 1.7 million square meters, so here are a few comparisons. You could fit three Pentagons inside its walls, or 20 Sydney Opera Houses. It's nearly 500,000 square feet larger than the building it beat out for the title, Dubai's International Airport Terminal 3. The largest building in the US, by comparison, is the Palazzo in Las Vegas, which comes in at #11 worldwide. 

It's worth pointing out that New Century isn't the first megastructure of its kind, though it is the largest. Architects and planners in China are pioneering the construction of entire urban regions from scratch. The title of world's largest structure, in that light, is really just a way for New Century's developers to distinguish it from the pack.

This faux seaside town offers 1,312 feet of "coastline," the world's largest artificial waves, and displays of sunrises and sunsets thanks to the world's largest LED screen--the 492 foot long and 131 foot tall backdrop of this ersatz resort. The artificial coastal area can accommodate 6,000 people and serves as the main attraction of the New Century Global Center.

Though mega-city Chengdu suffers from chronic smog, visitors to the center need not worry about the climate. "We have borrowed a Japanese technique," guide Liu Xun told the Sydney Morning Herald. "There will be an artificial sun that will shine 24 hours a day and allow for a comfortable temperature."

The Petronas Towers

The Petronas Towers::

Height: 1,483 ft (452 meters)

Owners: Kuala Lumpur City Centre Holdings Sendirian Berhad

Architects: Cesar Pelli & Associates

Engineers: Thornton-Tomasetti Engineers

Contractors: Mayjus and SKJ Joint Ventures

Topping Out: 1998

Official Opening: August 28, 1999

 Although the project's developers, a consortium of private investors in association with the Malaysian government and Petronas, the national oil company, had not originally set out to surpass Chicago's Sears Tower, they did aspire to construct a monument announcing Kuala Lumpur's prominence as a commercial and cultural capital. In the design of American architect Cesar Pelli they found a winning scheme--twin towers of elegant proportions with a slenderness ratio (height to width) of 9.4--that would capture not only the title but the public imagination.

The structure is high-strength concrete, a material familiar to Asian contractors and twice as effective as steel in sway reduction. Supported by 75-by-75-foot concrete cores and an outer ring of widely-spaced super columns, the towers showcase a sophisticated structural system that accommodates its slender profile and provides from 14,000 to 22,000 square feet of column-free office space per floo.

In both engineering and design, the Petronas Towers succeed at acknowledging Malaysia's past and future, embracing the country's heritage while proclaiming its modernization. The end result, says Pelli, is a monument that is not specifically Malaysian, but will forever be identified with Kuala Lumpur.

the world's first "invisible" skyscraper

South Korea greenlights 'invisible' skyscraper for construction

The tower has been designed purely for entertainment purposes, and will feature the second highest observation deck in the world, standing 392 metres above the ground.

 

Futuristic: A combination of state-of-the-art lighting and cameras will create the illusion the tower disappears

 

Disappearing act: The green-light has been given for the world's first 'invisible' tower in South Korea

 

 Landmark: The tower will be located in the Yongsan International business district on the outskirts of Seoul

 

 Leisure: Tower Infinity is being designed for entertainment purposes, featuring restaurants and a water park

 Platform: Tower Infinity will house the second tallest viewing deck in the world next to China

Rather, GDS Architects, the US firm behind the Infinity Tower project, has come up with a system that uses a series of LED lights and cameras to reflect the surrounding area onto a portion of the skyscraper's glass covering, according to a report from CNN. The system will allow the building to essentially disappear into the sky when being looked at from a very specific vantage point. In other words, most of the time the tower will be clearly visible.GDS says it expects the construction of the 1,476-foot tower to be finished sometime next year

In addition to its invisibility trick, the Infinity Tower will feature the third largest observation deck on the planet. CNN also says that the high-rise will be filled with restaurants, a movie theatre, a water park, and a roller coaster. When its done, the high-rise should end up being the sixth tallest building in the world.

Burj Dubai tower

The Burj Dubai tower, a needle-shaped skyscraper which stands more than 800 metres tall and can be seen from 95 kilometres away, will stand as a gleaming testament to Dubai's glory days before the recession ground its construction industry to a halt.

The structure easily surpasses its closest rivals, the KVLY-TV mast in Blanchard in North Dakota, U.S, which measures a lofty 628 metres-high and the Guangzhou TV & Sightseeing Tower in China, which falls short at 610 metres.

The Burj Dubai - literally meaning 'Tower Dubai' - brings records galore to the UAE. As well as being the tallest building in the world, it also has the most stories and highest occupied floor of any building in the world, and ranks as the world's tallest structure. Visitors can look out from the highest observation deck in the world on the 124th floor.

The tower's glass and steel exterior would apparently cover 17 football fields if laid out flat and will take some poor workers between six and eight weeks to clean.

The concrete used in the core of the building could build a pavement 1,283 miles long and the cooling system produces enough condensation to fill 20 Olympic swimming pools a year. It's a good thing those eco-conscious developers will be using the waste to water the grounds.

Work on the Burj Dubai began in 2004 and continued rapidly. At times, new floors were being added almost every three days, reflecting Dubai's raging push to reshape itself over a few years from a small-time desert outpost into a cosmopolitan urban giant packed with skyscrapers.

By January 2007, thousands of laborers, many of them brought in on temporary contracts from India, had completed 100 stories.

To ensure the tower doesn't twist or break during bad weather, it is built in a Y-shape, with three 'wings' evenly distributing the building's weight.

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao

 

  When it opened in 1997, the Frank Gehry–designed Guggenheim Museum Bilbao—a spectacular structure made of titanium, glass, and limestone—was hailed as the most important building of its time. Located in the Basque city of Bilbao in northern Spain, the museum features exhibitions organized by the Guggenheim Foundation and by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, as well as selections from the permanent collection of the Guggenheim Museums

Instantly hailed as the most important structure of its time, Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has celebrated more than a decade of extraordinary success. With over a hundred exhibitions and more than ten million visitors to its credit, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has changed the way people think about museums, and it continues to challenge assumptions about the connections between art, architecture, and collecting.

Assembled over the past decade, Bilbao’s collection of art spans from the mid-twentieth century to the present day. Concentrated on post-war painting and sculpture in America and Europe, the collection is autonomous yet complements the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s outstanding holdings of modern and contemporary art. This concept of individual collections existing within a shared network is at the heart of the Guggenheim’s aim to foster cultural exchange and exhibit art to the widest possible audience.

Under the Guggenheim Foundation’s advisement, Bilbao has acquired key works by some of the most significant artists of the second half of the twentieth century, including Anselm Kiefer, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, James Rosenquist, Clyfford Still, Cy Twombly, and Andy Warhol. The acquisition of singular masterworks by leading artists allows the museum to present a series of influential high points of modern and contemporary art. Major acquisitions include Joseph Beuys’s Lightning with Stag in Its Glare (1958–85); Jeff Koons’s Puppy (1992), now iconic in its position in the museum plaza; Mark Rothko’s Untitled (1952–53); and Robert Rauschenberg’s Barge (1962–63), purchased jointly with the museum in New York.

Facts

• This unique Museum built on a 32,500 square meter site in the center of Bilbao represents an amazing construction feat.
• The opening of the museum provided a boost for tourism. Thousands of visitors come to Bilbao every year just to see the museum.
• There are two ponds surrounding the building, one of them on the east side and the other to the southwest.
• Eleven thousand square meters of exhibition space are distributed in 19 galleries. Ten of these galleries have an almost classical orthogonal look and can be identified from outside by their stone finishes. Nine other irregularly-shaped galleries present a remarkable contrast and can be identified from outside by their unusual architecture and the covering of titanium.
• The museum has a total of 24,000 square meters of which 200 are occupied by a library, 600 by an auditorium, 1,100 by a shop and the restaurant and cafeteria occupy another 1,100 square meters. The atrium in front of the building is 300 square meters and has a height of 50 meters.
• There is a tower next to the main museum building but it is merely decorative. It contains some stairs that go from Paseo de Abandoibarra to La Salve bridge.
• The administrative offices of the museum are made of marble rather than titanium.
• Before choosing titanium, 29 different materials including stainless steel, copper and aluminum were considered.
• Each of the titanium pieces of which the museum is comprised is unique, and all of them were designed using a computer programme called "Catia".
• Some years after the completion of the building some of the titanium parts have lost their brightness due to pollution and weathering. However, the facade is cleaned many times during the year.
• The museum's location is quite noisy and because of that the glass used in the windows had to be special. The windows used are called "Natural 62" and were supplied by Idom.
• The president of the foundation in charge of the museum is Thomas Krens. The foundation receives sponsorship help as well as public donations. Approximately half the money spent by the museum comes from public authorities.
• Since its opening some people have demanded moving Picasso's painting "Guernica" from Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid to the Guggenheim as Bilbao is closer to Gernika, the town on whose bombardment the painting is based.
• In 2001 it received the Outstanding Structure Award.
• There are two sculptures outside the museum: Puppy, a 12-meter tall flower-made dog, and Mama, a 10-meter tall spider.
• The first proposed site, occupied by Alhondiga, was rejected by architect Frank Gerhy due to its small size.

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Space Needle

Space Needle, Seattle

40 years after its construction, the Space Needle remains Seattle's best visitor destination

 

The futuristic Space Needle in Seattle, Washington was built for the 1962 World's fair. The famous landmark stands at 184m high and 42m wide at its widest point.

Space Needle Facts

The Structure

• Top of the Space Needle – Aircraft Warning Beacon: 605 feet
• Observation Deck: 520 feet
• Revolving SkyCity Restaurant: 500 feet
• SkyLine Banquet Facility: 100 feet
• Pavilion entrance and SpaceBase Retail Shop: ground level
• Bottom of foundation: 30 feet below ground
• The Space Needle was built on a 120′ x 120′ lot formerly owned by the city of Seattle, which was sold to investors for $75,000 in 1961, just one year before the opening of the World’s Fair.
• There are 848 steps from the bottom of the basement to the top of the Observation Deck.
• During the construction of the Space Needle, it took 467 cement trucks less than 12 hours to fill the foundation hole (30 feet deep and 120 feet across); this was the largest continuous concrete pour ever attempted in the West.
• When the Space Needle was built in 1962 it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River.
• The foundation weighs 5,850 tons and there are 250 tons of reinforcing steel alone (i.e., rebar) in the foundation. The Needle structure weighs 3,700 tons.
• The center of gravity for the Space Needle is 5 feet above the ground.
• The Space Needle is fastened to its foundation with 72 bolts, each 30 feet in length.
• The Space Needle sways approximately 1 inch for every 10 mph of wind. It was built to withstand a wind velocity of 200 miles per hour, doubling the 1962 building code requirements. When winds around the Needle reach high speeds, 35 mph or higher, the elevators are designed to reduce their traveling speed to 5 mph for safety reasons. During the 1993 Inaugural Day storm, wind gusts reached 90 mph and the top house was closed for an hour and a half.
• On a hot day the Space Needle expands about one inch.
• There are 25 lightning rods (24 actual rods plus the tower) on the roof of the Needle to withstand lightning strikes.
• Diameter of the halo is 138 feet.
• Diameter of the SkyCity Restaurant is 94.5 feet.
• The Space Needle had the second revolving restaurant in the world. The first one was in the Ala Moana shopping mall in Hawaii (now closed). There are now hundreds of turntables throughout the world.
• The entire Space Needle saucer does not rotate, only a 14-foot ring next to the windows rotates on the SkyCity restaurant level.
• The restaurant turntable revolves on a track and wheel system that weighs roughly 125 tons, borrowed from railroad technology. All it takes to make the turntable revolve is a 1½ horsepower motor (originally it was a 1 hp motor).
• The 100 foot, or SkyLine, level was built in 1982.
• The original nickname of the Space Needle was “The Space Cage.” The original name of the restaurant was “Eye of the Needle.”
• From the time of its construction, the Space Needle has always had a light atop the structure. The most recent version is the Legacy Light, first illuminated on New Year’s Eve 1999/2000.
• The Space Needle was built in 1962 for a mere $4.5 million dollars. In 2000, the Space Needle completed a $20 million revitalization. The project included construction of the Pavilion Level, SpaceBase retail store, SkyCity restaurant, Deck overhaul, exterior lighting additions, installation of the Legacy Light, exterior painting and more.
• On April 21, 1999, the Space Needle’s 37th birthday, the City’s Landmarks Preservation Board named it an official City of Seattle Landmark. In its Report on Designation, the Landmarks Preservation Board wrote, “The Space Needle marks a point in history of the City of Seattle and represents American aspirations towards technological prowess. [It] embodies in its form and construction the era’s belief in commerce, technology and progress.”

The Elevators

• The Space Needle elevators weigh 14,000 pounds each with a capacity of 4,500 pounds. The counter-weight weighs 40 percent more than the elevator fully loaded. Each elevator carries 25 people.
• Each elevator has seven cables total, even though one cable is strong enough to hold the entire weight of the elevator.
• Space Needle elevators are equipped with a governor brake that would lock the elevator on the tracks in case all seven cables broke.
• Two of the Space Needle elevators are high speed and can travel at a rate of 10 mph, or 800 feet per minute. Actual travel time from the ground level to the top-house is 43 seconds. Under high wind conditions these high-speed passenger elevators are slowed to 5 mph. The third elevator, primarily used for freight but occasionally used to carry passengers, only travels at 5 mph, or 400 feet per minute.
• The last elevator arrived the day before the 1962 World’s Fair opened.
• All three elevators were replaced in 1993, at a cost of $1.5 million total.

 

seattle space needle at night

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