Kerala Houseboats, Kerala, India
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The houseboats or Kettuvalloms of Kerala, South India, are huge, and majestic constructions with length measured from 60 to 80 feet. They are called kettuvallam or "boat with knots" (“Kettu” means “tied with ropes” and “vallam” means “boat” in the Malayalam language) as the entire boats are held together with coir knots but not even a single nail. The boats are made of planks of jack-wood joined together with coir, and the roofs of the boats are made of palm leaves and bamboo poles with the exterior of the boats all painted with protection coats of cashew nut oil. In the past, these boats were used to transport rice and spices from Kuttanad to the Kochi port, but nowadays, these boats have turned into an engine-driven, huge, comfortable and exotic barge to enable the travelers to experience an unforgettable leisure trip while enjoying the delightful journey via the beautiful and tranquil backwaters in Kerala, where the travelers can have a complete houseboat experience.
The Blur Building, Yverdon-les-Bainz, Switzerland
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The Blur Building is a media pavilion on Lake Neuchatel in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland and was made for Swiss expo in 2002, but now it leaves as a major tourist attraction in Switzerland. It is called "blur" due to its self generated mist which gives a feel that the building is floating above the water without any structural support. An architecture magazine has described this building as “An inhabitable cloud whirling above a lake”.
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This extraordinary and intricate building was made of filtered lake water which could shoot a fine mist via 13,000 fog nozzles and thus creating an artificial cloud measured up to 300 ft in width by 200 ft deep by its height of 65 ft. There's also a built-in weather station that controls fog output in response to shifting climatic conditions (such as wind direction, wind speed, temperature and humidity).
Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, California, USA
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The project for the Walt Disney Concert Hall was launched in 1987, and completed in 2003. It is located at 111 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, California, the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Centre. This extraordinary construction can house up to 2,265 people.
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The acoustic property of the concert hall (designed by Yasuhisa Toyota) was highly praised for its most acoustically sophisticated feature that gives an utmost and unparalleled musical enthusiasm. L.A. Times music critic, Mark Swed, once wrote:
“When the orchestra finally got its next [practice] in Disney, it was to rehearse Ravel's lusciously orchestrated ballet, "Daphnis and Chloé" . . . This time, the hall miraculously came to life. Earlier, the orchestra's sound, wonderful as it was, had felt confined to stage. Now a new sonic dimension had been added, and every square inch of air in Disney vibrated merrily. Toyota says that he had never experienced such an acoustical difference between a first and second rehearsal in any of the halls he designed in his native Japan. Salonen could hardly believe his ears. To his amazement, he discovered that there were wrong notes in the printed parts of the Ravel that sit on the players' stands. The orchestra has owned these scores for decades, but in the Chandler no conductor had ever heard the inner details well enough to notice the errors.”
The Mushroom House aka Tree House, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
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The Mushroom house aka Tree House is located in the Hyde Park area of Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A. It was designed by Terry Brown, a professor and architect of architecture and interior design at the University of Cincinnati with the assistance of his students. This extraordinary house takes a place in the local residents' hearts was declared to sell in 2006. By 2008, the media reported that Terry Brown passed away.
Free Spirit Spheres, Qualicum Beach, BC, Canada
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This house which was established among the tall trees of the west coast rainforest of Vancouver Island, Canada, takes a theme of eco-friendly construction. It will be an excellent experience to live in this house particularly when one stays here for the purpose of meditation, photography, eco-research, leisure trip, and healing of diseases or be enchanted by the great natural environmental ever created.
Great Mosque of Djenné, Djenne, Mali
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The Great Mosque of Djenné is one of the most notable landmarks in Africa located in the city of Djenné, Mali on the flood plain of the Bani River. This construction gained a place in the World Heritage Site in 1988. It has been considered by many architects as the greatest architectural achievement of the Sudano-Sahelian and thus it has long been perceived as the largest mud brick building in the world. As its walls are made of sun-baked mud bricks called ferey and coated with a mud plaster, it gives a feel of its sculptured and smooth appearance.
