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Star blog: Another planet
I wouldn't want to live in it, and I don't for a moment believe it will end up looking anything like this if indeed it is ever built at all, but the 3D animations in this video are stunning. It looks like something from another universe.
http://some-like-it-not.blogspot.com/
The Dynamic Tower in Dubai
Told you I'm not quite sure why this is news again suddenly, but it is. In the last day a few of you have written to me asking about the rotating tower that's planned for Dubai.
And apparently Moscow. And New York. You've probably seen renderings of it online at CNN, USA Today or Yahoo! News - it's an 80-story tower with individually revolving floors.
I first heard about it in April of 2007, and actually posted about it last October.
Yes folks, I'm a full eight months ahead of the news on this one.
Come back tomorrow to learn who wins the 2008 World Series, the US Presidential election, Super Bowl XLIII.
http://newlywedindubai2.blogspot.com
Rotate
It's official: Dubai is the greatest city on earth. Not only do they have artificial islands shaped like palm trees and a ski resort in the middle of the desert, but they're now building the most mind-blowing apartment building ever imagined.
Designed by Italian architect David Fisher, the 80-story Dynamic Skyscraper gives residents the ability to completely change their view.
With the use of a simple voice command, the apartment's entire floor can rotate 360 degrees. While most skyscrapers are constantly battling the effects of wind, the Dynamic building uses the wind's rotation to generate power for the entire building.
As if that wasn't enough, residents can park cars inside their apartment using a special elevator. With plans for a smaller version in Moscow, work on the Dubai skyscraper is expected to be completed in 2010. Apartment prices range from $3.7 million (Dh13.5 million) to $36 million (Dh132 million), so get your bid in now.
http://www.complex.com/blogs/2008/06/25/
shape-shifting-dynamic-skyscraper-powers
-itself/#more-13851
Kudos to dubai
I don't think that I have to say more about Dubai. Everybody knows that there you can find the most impressive structures in the modern world - world's most luxurious hotel, Burj Al Arab and world's tallest building , Burj Dubai.
Now, they have prepared a new impressive structure: it's the Rotating Tower designed by David Fisher's Dynamic Architecture.
The Rotating Tower will be the first ever in motion as the floors will be able to twirl continuously. The construction of Fisher's design will begin this month and when it's finished it will change shape in order to give to the inhabitants the possibility of choosing a new view by pressing only one button.
This dynamic tower will be self-sufficient, meaning that it will be powered by the sun and by the wind energy.
Based on a state-of-the-art technology, Fisher designed the twirling tower to withstand heavy earthquakes even if each floor will rotate independently.
A weird fact about the Rotating Tower is that each of its floors will be produced in a factory which is a first for a building this size. The floors consist of 12 units and on each floor there will be individual plumbing, electric connections and air conditioning among others.
http://www.madarchitect.org/
Diesel daze
The scenes outside our local Adnoc have started to become apocalyptic: a line of 45 buses stretches out onto the sand-roads behind the petrol station, blocking access to our house from the main road: the line of trucks on the other side stretches out just as far, curling into a strange mandala of decorated, jangling, garishly painted flat-backs.
We're looking at well over 100 vehicles stacked up for the final approach to cheap diesel: Dh10 per gallon less than Dubai's filling stations. For a lorry with a 100 gallon tank, that's a lot of Mars Bars.
Every Adnoc's the same - a line of waiting diesel consumers stretches around the back, down the road - any which way they can, really!
http://fakeplasticsouks.blogspot.com/
Summer's here
So the humidity finally hit the other day; I can't see through my window anymore, it's covered in moisture.
It's 5am and I cannot sleep; why? My air conditioner has broken (again). It's happened a few times this summer, and every time it happens I wake up at some ridiculous hour, I can't get back to sleep.
I think I might invest in a portable AC. Rather than write a post moaning about the summer (which is unlikely to change the weather), I'll write a post about my AC (which is unlikely to improve the situation).
The controller is a dial sort of contraption which uses a gauge to display the temperature, you rotate the dial, a little glass vial of mercury inside tips over and when you hit the right temperature it lets out a spark.
It's the stupidest AC I've ever seen. It's either 100 per cent on or 100 per cent off, there's no middle ground, you can't have ‘slightly cold', it's either on or off. Sure, there's a fan option, but if you put the fan on it makes humidity, the ground gets covered in a thin layer of moisture. Obviously you get covered in sweat if you use that option.
http://onebigconstructionsite.blogspot.com/2008/
06/summer.html
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