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Super-Deluxe Swim Platform: Rent This DIY Floating Sauna

19 Jan

[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

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In Finland, where the tradition of sitting in steamy saunas is even more appealing in frigid winter, a group of enterprising DIYers has built their own multi-level floating spa, sun deck and dive platform out of recycled materials. The Saunalatta features a lower deck, a sauna cabin that transforms into sleeping bunks in the summer, and a second-story platform with a lookout, and it’s available for rent at the cost of about $ 410 per day.

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In a nation that boasts roughly one sauna for every three residents – about two million in total – it’s not surprising that Finns come up with some creative variations. Up to fifteen people can cram into the sauna at a time, where the temperature can get as high as 194 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, they jump right into the icy waters of the lake before repeating the ritual.

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In the summertime, the cabin offers sleeping space for five on simple platforms, with hammocks offering lounge space. On the roof terrace you’ll find a table and chairs, a BBQ and a 19-foot diving tower. Made of recycled and reclaimed materials, the simple shack-style houseboat also has a fridge, heated shower and a sound system wired throughout the vessel.

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The Saunalatta Facebook page has lots of wistful-daydream-worthy photos that’ll appeal to water-lovers in either hemisphere, since it’s cozy and warm in the winter and the perfect home base for swimming in the summer, including some fun images of the creators testing out the boat’s durability with a trampoline.

[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

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Seascraper: Lush 3D-Printed Self-Sustaining Floating Cities

05 Jan

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

seascraper 1

In the not-so-distant future, once we land-dwelling humans have exhausted all of our resources and trashed the climate-change-ravaged continents we live on, a new civilization will inhabit a floating 7th continent made up of self-sustaining 3D-printed cities. Architect Vincent Callebaut has unveiled a new vision encapsulating his hope for humanity’s kinder, gentler post-disaster future in the form of ‘Aequorea,’ an underwater farm recycling ocean pollution into building materials.

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Taking inspiration from a variety of sea creatures, the structure self-builds its own exoskeleton via natural calcification like sea shells, and is named for a bioluminescent jellyfish. Shaped like a Klein bottle, each structure is largely made up of petroleum-based waste recovered from the ocean gyres, mixed with a gelling algae and extruded by 3D printers. These ‘sea scrapers’ would recycle all of their own waste, generate energy through ocean turbines, filter sea water into freshwater and grow their own food. Each one houses 20,000 so-called ‘aquanauts.’

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In classic Vincent Callebaut fashion, the architect released information about the design by way of a dramatized letter from the future, addressed to ‘People of the Land’ and written by a fictional resident of Aequorea: “My name is Océane. I’m 15 years old. I’m an aquanaut teen. I was born in immersion in 2050 in an underwater farm called ‘Aequorea’ off the coast of Rio de Janeiro… When my grandfather tells me about his terrestrial way of life of the time, it seems totally preposterous today. The People of the Land, those supposedly, self-proclaimed Homo Sapiens, took two centuries to understand that they were living on finite territory with limited natural resources. They were consuming the city like a commodity, rather than a common good that should be nurtured in symbiosis with nature.”

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“They were suffocating from inhaling urban smogs, the infamous photochemical clouds caused by pollution. Without knowing it, they were ingesting plastic infesting the food chain. And because of overfishing, they had almost emptied the supply of fish in the oceans. In this December month of 2065, it’s still hard for me to believe how carelessly the Pople of the Land mortgaged the fate of future generations.”

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“…faced with climate change and the rise of water levels, a new civilization emerged: the People of the Seas. Once their lands and islands were underwater and salinize, a large portion of the 250 million climate refugees got involved with interdependent NGOs like the ones my grandparents created. Together, they invented new underwater urbanization processes that were energy self-sufficient, recycled all waste, and fought ocean acidification.”

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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Ghostly Floating Farms: Abandoned Rural Buildings of Russia

02 Jan

[ By Steph in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned farm building ukraine

The former USSR boasts some of the world’s weirdest and most hauntingly beautiful abandoned structures, from sci-fi monuments to prison camps and military facilities. Many of Russia’s abandoned wonders are byproducts of the Soviet collapse, including remote stretches of countryside that are no longer feasible to live in due to ill-kept or destroyed roads and infrastructure. Some of the structures that can be found there include intricate hand-carved wooden farmhouses and agricultural buildings that seem to hover in midair.

19th Century Farmhouses in Kostroma

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These stunning examples of 19th century Russian architectural craftsmanship have sadly fallen into disrepair on the inside, but the exteriors generally look as cool as ever. Some are in better condition than others, looking as if they’re just waiting for their owners to return. Located deep within the forests of Kostroma, the abandoned family homes are likely too far from civilization to support most present-day occupants. Photographer Andrew Qzmn travels through the countryside documenting these forgotten structures, as well as those that are still kept up.

Floating Farm Building, Ukraine

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Reportedly located in Ukraine rather than Russia, this farm building might seem like a Photoshop job at first, but a few pictures sent into the blog Curious Places confirm it to be part of a potato sorting facility, with speculation that part of it may have been dismantled since it was actively in use.

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Ghostly Floating Farms Abandoned Rural Buildings Of Russia

[ By Steph in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Floating Forest: Trees Rise From Corpse of Abandoned Ship

29 Oct

[ By Steph in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Rusted and half-sunken yet still somehow afloat on the waters of Sydney’s Homebush Bay, the remains of a century-old ship have become fertile ground for a thriving forest. Located on the south bank of the Parramatta River on the inner west side of the city, the bay was a hub for industrial activity in the mid-20th century and became a dumping ground for unwanted materials of all kinds, from busted ships to toxic waste.

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The bay was ultimately rehabilitated, but many of the ships remain, lurking among a tangle of mangrove trees. Among them is the SS Ayrfield, which the mangroves clearly found quite hospitable, transforming it into a sort of artificial floating island. In its former life, the Ayrfield was used to transport supplies to American troops stationed in the Pacific during World War II before operating as a collier. It was sent to Homebush for disposal in 1972 after sixty years of service.

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Awash in brilliant hues of red and orange, the hull of the 1,140-ton SS Ayrfield pokes up from the surface of the water, the Sydney skyline looming in the distance. Other ghostly ships in the bay include the steam tugboat SS Heroic and the steel boom defense vessel HMAS Karangi, which helped defend Darwin Harbour from Japanese attack in 1942.

Photos: Jason Baker, gerryligon, rodney campbell / Flickr Creative Commons

[ By Steph in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Phantom City: Thousands Spot Towers Floating in the Clouds

20 Oct

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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When thousands of residents of the Chinese cities of Jiangxi and Foshan reported seeing a ‘floating city’ in the clouds earlier this month, theories attempting to explain it ran wild, speculating everything from experimental holographic technology to glimpses of an alternate reality. A shaky video captures what appears to be the silhouette of a city skyline high above the horizon, at a larger scale than that of the real skyscrapers on the ground.

Naturally, conspiracy theorists are having a field day with this one, even going so far as to wonder aloud whether NASA is attempting to establish a new world order through something called the ‘Blue Beam Project.’ The most likely explanation may not be quite as exciting, but it’s still a fascinating phenomenon that has mystified people for centuries.

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As Wired explains, a Jesuit priest named Father Domenico Giardina swore that he saw a crystal city floating in the air over Siciily in 1643, which quickly transformed into a garden and a forest crawling with armies before it all disappeared. You might think he’d claim he had a mystical vision sent from God, but he actually mused that perhaps minerals and salts were rising up into vapors in the clouds and condensing to become a sort of moving mirror. That may not be entirely accurate, but it’s relatively close to the truth.

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What we’re actually seeing in the video from China is most likely a ‘Fata Morgana,’ a rare type of mirage caused by a certain set of weather conditions bending light rays in just the right way. The clouds are essentially reflecting the nearby city. It’s most often seen above bodies of water, which explains the origins of the legendary ship the Flying Dutchman and hundreds of other age-old sailor stories about disappearing castles.

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The images above show how two ships appear to change shape from one second to the next as well as an illustration of the Flying Dutchman, and a video of a ‘ghost boat’ that looks awfully similar to it. In the second video, what looks like a landscape becomes an amorphous, dissipating blob.

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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Floating Farms: Agricultural Barges to Yield 10 Tons Per Year

28 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

offshore farm barges

Powered by solar-paneled roofs overhead, these barge farms feature hydroponic space for produce above and support fish farming below, using extant technologies to offshore vast quantities of food to be grown on the water.

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Based in Barcelona, Forward Thinking Architecture is pushing its Smart Floating Farms concept to interested cities and investors, boasting the modularity of this system that can start with a single barge or morph into a fleet of connected vessels. Each barge is designed to yield over 8 tons of fruits and vegetables and nearly 2 tons of fish per year.

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The barges would be 656 by 1,150 feet and contain its own desalination plant, able to turn saltwater to fresh for farming purposes. Solar, wind and wave power render each platform self-sufficient in terms of energy as well as relatively independent, needing little human interaction or intervention to function.

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While there is no set date for launching the first of these floating farms, the feasibility of the system is promising. It does not presuppose any technology that does not already exist, and represents a natural expansion of development beyond land to adjacent open spaces on the water.

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From the architects: “The world population is predicted to grow from 6.9 billion in 2010 to 8.3 billion in 2030 and to 9.1 billion in 2050. By 2030, food demand is predicted to increase by 50% (70% by 2050). The main challenge facing the agricultural sector is not so much growing 70% more food in 40 years, but making 70% more food available on the plate.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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Floating Blue: Bold Plan to Expand Dense Cities into Open Seas

23 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

Ocean cities are a longstanding Utopian dream, but many such schemes fail to address the immediate need of cramped urban centers, many of which around the world are bordered and constrained by large bodies of water.

Blue 21, a Dutch architecture and design group, aims to sustainably extend such cities into adjacent lakes and oceans, alleviating the stress on existing metropolitan areas and providing vital resources (like space to grow food) in close proximity to urban cores. The team has experience building floating homes in the Netherlands but wants to take their experience global and work at a larger scale.

These modular buoyant extensions can be added to over time and used to grow algae, veggies, crops and seafood, producing food and biofuels to support existing populations on land.

At the same time, they can serve to productively process and recycle city wastes and absorb emissions, becoming a productive rather than consumptive part of the regional ecosystem. “As an integrated concept it proposes floating development that can be ‘plugged in’ to existing cities and help them recycling waste nutrients and CO2 that often end up in the environment, polluting it.”

While Blue 21 may not be a solution on the immediate horizon as yet, it represents an approach that bridges the gap between fantastical floating cities and more realistic solutions that engage accessible stretches of ocean. “We are Blue21, starting a Blue Revolution. This is how: by building world’s first floating city with a positive impact on nature. Because we believe our future is on the water for seven reasons: 1. We are running out of land, 2. Cities on land are vulnerable, 3. Water will save us from our addiction to fossil fuels, 4. Water is the new oil, 5. Water is an innovation playground, 6. We can actually have a positive impact, 7. We can do this, now.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

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Abandoned Ship: Artist Paints Figure Onto Floating Ruins

22 Sep

[ By Steph in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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Hawaiian artist HULA paints the head and arm of a floating woman onto the rusted steel surface of an abandoned ship, all while balancing on a surfboard. The woman’s face appears and disappears with the tides, the rising water sometimes only revealing her hand. This large-scale guerrilla mural is the latest waterside work to be completed by HULA, who’s known for his unusual balancing act technique.

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Otherwise known as Sean Yoro, the Oahu-born, NYC-based artist gained attention this summer for translating his oil paintings on canvas to urban surfaces located along canals or other bodies of water. HULA’s favorite subjects are bathing women, painted with photorealistic detail onto crumbling concrete.

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The artist was inspired to create ‘Ho’i Mai’ (which translates to ‘Come Back’) on the stern of a half-sunken ship off the Hawaiian coast after watching the water rise and fall as the tides change throughout the day. Floating out to work alongside the ship on his paddle board, HULA hand-painted the image without the apparent use of a projector or, in fact, anything other than a few cans of paint and some brushes.

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Yoro hopes to turn the ship into a public work of art rather than just a forgotten vessel left to slowly sink into the water over the decades. The painting won’t last forever, though, as the artist uses traditional oil paints knowing they won’t stand up to the elements for long.

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“I use it in a traditional old masters’ technique, mixing both loose brushwork with very tight strokes of sharp lines,” he told CNN. “I’m always trying to make the paint have a juicier texture to really help the portrait come alive. Oil paint outdoors definitely isn’t the best and it doesn’t last nearly as long as acrylics, but I kinda like that my figures have their own lifespan.”

[ By Steph in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

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Hive Habitats: Modular Floating Survival Shelters Band Together

04 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

survival pod swarm hive

Providing secure enclosures and other critical safety features in the face of tsunamis, floods and accidents at sea, this system of survival pods adds another critical dimension as well: connectivity. The award-winning Duckweed Survival House units come with variable-length tethers and are individually designed to stay upright and keep their occupants sheltered in the harshest conditions.

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Much like the series of independent-but-connectable space habitats proposed in Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves, each individual unit is self-supporting but also benefits by networking with the rest. The rounded-square shape helps allow the different units to be organized in grids, lines or otherwise without sharp corners that could damage adjacent units.

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Together, they provide increased stability, visibility, wave and wind resistance, but the units can be separated as well to avoid obstacles or for situations-specific emergency needs, like jettisoning a defective pod. As in the aforementioned work of science fiction, the idea is to maximize the odds for all survivors by creating options for configuration and collaboration.

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A stem projecting beneath each unit stabilizes the crafts while a built-in, reverse osmosis filter turns salty water potable. Pressurized carbon dioxide gas provides quick inflatability while an operable overhead vent allows in fresh air. Bright markers aid in night rescue while also helping people in disparate pods spot one another more easily on the ocean waves.

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

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Floatel: Modular Floating Hotel Rooms Provide Portable Privacy

20 Jul

[ By WebUrbanist in Boutique & Art Hotels & Travel. ]

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Combining centralized shared spaces like a conventional hotel and the mobility of a catamaran, this award-winning hybrid combines elements of community and seclusion on the water.

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Each individual unit comes with a standard living room, kitchen, bathroom and sleeping loft as well as deck space and a driving area for taking your space around a lake or sea. Meanwhile, the lobby structure bridges the gap between land and water and provides reception, restaurant, event and cafe spaces. Design themes also create a connection between the modules and the whole, including wood slats and white surfaces.

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The rear-facing deck provides space for sunbathing and fishing, while also framing uninterrupted views of nature. Side and front windows can be closed off for privacy, or opened when venturing out on the open water with no nosy neighbors around to sneak peaks inside.

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Designed by Salt & Water, the approach won a 2015 Millennium Yacht Design Awards for innovatively integrating architectural and nautical systems to create a unique experience for guests. Like the Botel, this remains a conceptual design for now, but clearly something is in the water since firms keep coming back to this novel combination of ideas.

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Posts Tagged ‘floating’

Super-Deluxe Swim Platform: Rent This DIY Floating Sauna

Seascraper: Lush 3D-Printed Self-Sustaining Floating Cities

Ghostly Floating Farms: Abandoned Rural Buildings of Russia

19th Century Farmhouses in Kostroma

Floating Farm Building, Ukraine

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Ghostly Floating Farms Abandoned Rural Buildings Of Russia

Floating Forest: Trees Rise From Corpse of Abandoned Ship

Phantom City: Thousands Spot Towers Floating in the Clouds

Floating Farms: Agricultural Barges to Yield 10 Tons Per Year

Floating Blue: Bold Plan to Expand Dense Cities into Open Seas

Abandoned Ship: Artist Paints Figure Onto Floating Ruins

Hive Habitats: Modular Floating Survival Shelters Band Together

Floatel: Modular Floating Hotel Rooms Provide Portable Privacy

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