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Posts Tagged ‘Nautical’

Bold Boats: 15 Wild, Fantastical & Futuristic Nautical Designs

12 Jul

[ By SA Rogers in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

File these awesome boat and watercraft designs under ‘things you’ll wish you had access to this summer.’ Who wouldn’t want their very own personal submarine, or a house boat shaped like a UFO? Some of these wild-sounding creations are concepts – like automated, self-piloted cargo ships and yachts shaped like giant illuminated swans – but others are available to rent or purchase right now.

UFO Houseboat by Jet Capsule

This UFO-shaped fiberglass floating object features a main living area with kitchen, bathroom an storage in its above-water level, while the submerged level contains a bedroom and second bathroom. Or, you could commission one to hold a floating restaurant, gym or hotel reception area. They’re powered by electric engines that push them along at a speed of about nine knots, and their batteries are charged by solar panels, wind turbines and water turbines. The manufacturer, Jet Capsule, will reportedly be ready to start shipping these out via helicopter in 2018.

Quadrofoil: Electric Hydrofoiling Personal Watercraft

This thing looks like a mechanical animal galloping through the water. It also looks really fun to ride in. The Quadrofoil gets a top speed of 21 knots and features an electric engine that can be fully charged in under two hours. They’re available for order now at the company’s website, in three models.

U-Boat Worx C-Explorer 3

This ‘luxury personal submersible’ boat by U-Boat features a 360-degree acrylic pressure hull capable of containing a pilot and two passengers, zooming around underwater for up to 16 hours at a time at a maximum depth of 3,300 feet. Plus, it’s air-conditioned. That’s pretty incredible! While it’s primarily geared toward scientists and researchers rather than the general public, it looks like anyone can order one, provided you have the cash.

Hydrohouse by Max Zhivov

A houseboat, dock, garage and water parking for a hydroplane all come together in a single nautical creation called the HH Hydrohouse, with all parts made from prefab modules so it can be transported by truck. It contains a kitchen, master bedroom and two guest bedrooms and a bathroom, and its upper canopy is one big solar panel array.

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Bold Boats 15 Wild Fantastical Futuristic Nautical Designs

The Best Boats: 22 Crazy Nautical Creations

There is a definite appeal to life on the high sea, cruising into vast and dangerous unknowns, with just the wind at one’s back, and wood beneath the feet. For those who are not into this kind of …

Shipwrecked: 12 Historic Abandoned Boats, Ships & Docks

(images via: divenorway, hyperfish, vigidal and sanjuan)
Like trains, ships once played a much larger part in the worldwide economy than they do now.  Their reach has been significantly reduced …

Dream Boats: 15 Insanely Luxurious Super-Yacht Designs

If you have a few hundred million in the bank (or just like to fantasize about it,) you’ll want to peruse this selection of superyachts decked out with retractible swimming pools, underwater …

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[ By SA Rogers in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

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Water Buses: New Nautical Transit Solution for Urban Islands

31 May

[ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

water bus rendering

Fathoms beyond traditional boat taxis, this modular water bus proposal for Stockholm bridges critical gaps within the current public transit system while also making boarding faster and transfers easier.

water bus sketch idea

Developed by the KTH Royal Institute of Technology’s Department of Aeronautical and Vehicle Engineering, the Waterway 365 project fills in transportation voids, in part by taking the quickest and most direct routes possible across the water. Featuring wide back and side exits as well as, the solution is also bike-friendly for rapid boarding and disembarking. Adding versatility to the design, modular detachable sections make the approach more adaptable to different passenger volumes.

water bus flow diagram

These water buses are also designed to run year-round, operating through winter freezes. To save materials and energy, the designers eschewed steel reinforced hulls in favor of lighter metal. The resulting vehicles are structured to handle some ice but are ultimately to be paired with ice-breaking plow boats as needed in extreme conditions. Initially envisioned for the country’s biggest city, the idea is to deploy these to bridge other urban waterways around Sweden as well.

water bus route map

From the design study: “A city comprised of islands, Stockholm seems a natural for the concept of water transit. Door-to-door travel time on at least one typical trip across town, the study shows, could potentially be reduced by one-third.” Connecting essential nodes, the idea is to reduce congestion as well as energy consumption in the long run.

water and land vehicles

nautical bus taxi design

water train horizontal

Water-based public transit already exists in many places, including the canals of Venice, but generally utilizes either flat-style ferries or streamlined boats. These approaches represent two extremes that this new water bus design aims to navigate between – the ease of getting on and off, on the one hand, versus speed and handling of the vehicle on the other.

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Ditch Your Car: Get From A to B Using Real-Time Transit Data

What if we could make alternative transportation ultimately faster, cheaper and more convenient than personally-owned cars, the dominant transport devices of …
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Dense City: Mixed-Use ‘Urban Alloy’ Transit Hub for New York

Taking advantage of air rights above existing an transportation nexus, this design integrates elevated train lines, apartments, offices and shops to create a …
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The Best Boats: 22 Crazy Nautical Creations

For those who are not into high seas adventure, there are other appeals to the ocean… crazy boats!
Click Here to Read More »»


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Nautical Architectures: Electrified Reefs to Waterfall Prisons

10 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

ocean artificial reef context

Like a speculative fiction novelist, Margot Krasojevic creates fantastical work that manages to combine real design challenges of our times with futuristic solutions. Whatever your position on their feasibility, these improbable concepts are daring and their renderings marvelous.

ocean reef abstract visualization

Krasojevic‘s previous rock climber resort proposed unusual accommodations only accessible to the extremely adventurous – those who could and would scale cliffs to stay there. In this newest pair of projects, she tackles another harsh and dangerous environment: the planet’s oceans.

ocean surface modeling structure

ocean reef topside model

ocean reef rendering exterior

One of these two projects, an Artificial Reef Station, serves a pair of radically different but essential functions, stimulating coral growth underwater while defending nearby shores from tsunamis.

ocean speculative floating architecture

ocean reef generative process

The first task, promoting coral, is accomplished via solar panels that introduce low-level electrical currents to the surrounding area (not enough to shock divers). This creates a field around the steel frame that condenses dissolved calcium carbonate out of seawater.

ocean plan overview scale

ocean reef with diver

The second goal, diffusing tsunamis, is achieved by virtue of the shape of the station. The organic breaks up incoming waves via complex geometries, themselves derived from chaos-driven mathematical models of wave behavior.

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Nautical Architectures Electrified Reefs To Waterfall Prisons

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Drenched by Design: Waterfall Hotel is Strangely Cool

A beautiful hotel in Chile, nestled in the middle of a nature preserve, looks just like a mountain with a waterfall spewing from the top. Click Here to Read More »»


Hanging Hotel: Hard-to-Reach Resort for Rock Climbers

This ‘Hanging Hotel’ is only accessible to rock climbers, offering a customizable dreamlike interior of pods and platforms that provide a restful refuge. Click Here to Read More »»


Only in Russia: World’s First Floating Nuclear Power Plant

It sounds at best far-fetched and at worst frightening, at least at first, but this unique water-based energy station is already under construction and is … Click Here to Read More »»


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Aren’t We Nautical: 10 Swell Ship-Shaped Buildings

17 Nov

[ By Steve in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

ship-shaped buildings
From the fish out of water department: Landlubbers leery of getting their feet wet can live vicariously by visiting these 10 swell ship-shaped buildings.

Wanlihao Ship Building – Chengdu, China

Wanlihao Ship Building Chengdu China(image via: littledutchboy)

If the Wanlihao Ship Building was an attempt to make the Chinese city of Chengdu famous for something other than pandas and spicy food, then a hearty pat on the back goes to its designers. Ditto for Flickr user littledutchboy for capturing and posting the image above.

Wanlihao Boat Building Chengdu China(images via: Kevin Fitchard and SOSO, 55tuan)

This rather large waterfront edifice houses a number of businesses and services including several seafood restaurants and the exclusive-sounding Flagship Club… sounds like the kind of place Judge Smails and Thurston Howell III might hang out at. As for being just a tad gaudy and ostentatious, well, you oughta see it at night!

Public Restroom – Chennai, India

Chennai India ship public restroom(images via: Kevin Fitchard and Lydia Depillis)

If you were expecting a “poop deck” joke, forget abou… oh. Anyway, this public restroom in the city of Chennai, India doesn’t just look like a brick ship house, it’s built like one too. The top photo from iTravelnet dates from March of 2007 while the lower image from Lydia Depillis taken in the summer of 2012 shows significant deterioration. We’ll leave the state of the interior to your imagination.

Museum of Maritime Science – Tokyo, Japan

Museum of Maritime Science ship building Tokyo Japan(images via: Funegasuki and Home Designing Weblog, Penta-Ocean)

The Museum of Maritime Science (Fune-no-Kagakukan in Japanese) in Odaiba dates from 1974 and was one of the first buildings at that location constructed on land reclaimed from Tokyo Bay… perhaps the contractors were hedging their bets a bit. The scale of the building is highlighted by the 83-meter (273ft) long Antarctic icebreaker Soya moored just offshore.

Museum of Maritime Science Tokyo Japan Odaiba(image via: TKFuruse)

The ship-like styling is purely intentional; inside visitors will find a veritable 3D history book that takes one back to the era of the Shoguns, forward through the destructive Second World War and into the present era. Models of the Yamato – the world’s largest battleship – share space with those of civilian and military ships, submarines and seaplanes.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Building – Newport News, VA, USA

Huntington Ingalls Industries ship building Newport News(images via: HII and The Arts Adventurer)

Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) is America’s largest shipbuilder and the ONLY one able to design and build the nation’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The company’s headquarters building in Newport News reflects the firm’s long history (it was known until 2008 as Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding) and continuing focus on shipbuilding.

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Arent We Nautical 10 Swell Ship Shaped Buildings

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Crossed Up: 9 Twisted Swastika-Shaped Buildings

Though most modern architects avoid using swastikas in their blueprints, a few swastika-shaped buildings are out there, twisting in the winds of change.
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In The Doghouse Again: 13 Odd Animal-Shaped Buildings

Animal House reboot anyone? This unlucky group of 13 zoomorphic buildings make being sent to the doghouse (cathouse, etc.) a decidedly different experience.
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The Best Boats: 22 Crazy Nautical Creations

For those who are not into high seas adventure, there are other appeals to the ocean… crazy boats!
Click Here to Read More »»


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The Best Boats: 22 Crazy Nautical Creations

16 Oct

[ By Marc in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

There is a definite appeal to life on the high sea, cruising into vast and dangerous unknowns, with just the wind at one’s back, and wood beneath the feet. For those who are not into this kind of adventure, there are other appeals to the ocean… boats! Humans have had a lot of time to experiment with boat-making, and have come up with some truly wild creations.

(Images via cafemom, boatdesign, inhabitat, ask, iliketowastemytime)

For the true landlubber with the heart of a sailor, why not bring the boat to land? The odd buildings at the top left look like they were designed just in case Noah makes a return visit, while the top right creation is only meant to look nautical (it would be difficult to float in that one). Old boats can be recycled to create beautiful barns like these retired fishing vessels on Holy Island in the United Kingdom. The Benson Ford is a retired vessel that still gazes out longingly at the sea, while another solidly land-based boat structure just takes on the appearance of an ocean-going ship.

(Images via yeahsnos, mongorocks, wherecoolthingshappen, coolest-gadgets, pastemagazine, redneckboats)

The Molokini is a clear kayak that is popular in Hawaii, as it allows the user to paddle around while still seeing the teeming sea life beneath them. The Baja Skimmer is a unique watercraft that looks like a mini, more agile version of an airboat and handles more like a jet ski. The HotTug is a mobile hot tub… it’s powered by a wood stove that heats the water inside to a comfortable temperature, while also providing energy to make it mobile. A barbeque dining boat might be the exact thing your dinner party needs. Take up to 10 adults out on the water with this waterborne food station! The Seabreecher X takes its inspiration from the most famous sea creature of them all: the shark. A video of it in action is embedded below. This last beauty is nothing but the cab of a truck on some pontoons. Whatever floats your boat, right?

(Images via brobible, dasolar, ecoble, volumatrix, hypemuch)

Concept boats can provide a great glimpse into the future of boating. Yacht Island Design’s concept is for a floating island paradise. Take the beach out on the ocean and always have a margarita in hand! On a more serious note, Solar Sailor created this concept for a ship powered by a solar sail, harnessing the sun’s energy rather than the wind’s. For a lazy sunday, consider this solar pedal boat, which is the perfect dock for sun-bathing and diving into the lake. Novague Studio came up with this solar powered boat, with a series of solar panels that can be rolled out for a recharge. The Why yacht is huge, and meant more as a sustainable living space than a typical boat for quick transport.

(Images via onemoregoodadventure)

Love love is more of a sculpture than an actual boat. Yes, it floats, and can move, but it’s main purpose is to intrigue and entertain. Created by Julien Berthier, it has been taken out several times, though it is likely approached by a lot of helpful citizens trying to save someone who is clearly in “trouble”.

(Images via senseslost, boats, anchmuni)

The Python is amphibious and incredibly powerful (video below), and most amazingly, manages to look more like a car than a boat, when most amphibious vehicles tend to be the other way around. The equally sporty looking Gibbs Aquada can transform from car to boat in a stunning 12 seconds. The Terra Wind is a motorhome that can be outfitted for water travel as well. It pushes the limits and is definitely more of a novelty than anything else.

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12 Historic Abandoned Boats, Ships and Docks

These abandoned and forgotten ships, boats and docks stand as proof of a bygone era where water transportation was used in every industry.
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Whatever Floats Your… House: 16 Amazing House Boats

With as many comforts as a modern home, house boat design has become something beautiful and breathtaking. It makes one wish their house could float.
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