The Kunsthaus Graz Art Museum in Graz, Austria, is a gigantic blob-shaped building with a dozen or so tube like nozzles, acting as windows, that stick out from its curved roof, giving the structure an undeniable alien creature like look. Indeed, its designers, London architect Peter Cook and Colin Fournier, have themselves named the building the “Friendly Alien”. Inside the beast’s belly are two huge floors for modern art exhibitions.
Located on the west bank of the River Mur in the historic center, the Graz Art Museum was built as part of the European Capital of Culture celebrations in 2003, and has since become an architectural landmark in Graz.
The building’s roof is made from thousands of acrylic glass panels that generates energy with built-in photovoltaic panels. The outer skin is embedded with some nine-hundred fluorescent rings that can be individually programmed, creating a work of art on the structure itself.
Good God is this thing ugly!
It just doesn’t fit to the surrounding buildings and architecture.
A pair of friends walking along Britain’s River Thames could not believe their eyes when they spotted what appeared to be a shark swimming in the iconic waterway. The wild sighting reportedly occurred earlier this week as Olivia Kaliszewska and Charlotte Webb were crossing the Hammersmith Bridge in London. To their profound surprise, when they looked down, they caught sight of a peculiar shape resembling a fin that had popped out of the water. Fortunately, Webb managed to capture footage of the odd form and subsequently posted it online, where it has unsurprisingly sparked a debate as to what the two friends had seen.
Webb believes that the fin belonged to a five-foot-long tope shark, that are known to live in the Thames estuary approximately forty miles away. That said, in a testament to the uncertainty surrounding the sighting, fellow witness Kaliszewska was skeptical of that assessment and joked that it could have been an alligator. Similarly split are experts in England as the Port of London Authority told the BBC that it was “unlikely that any sharks would swim that far upstream.” Meanwhile, a spokesperson with the London Wildlife Trust agreed with Webb’s tope theory and marveled at the duo’s “amazing and uncommon sighting of a rare and endangered fish.”
It is absolutely amazing that the Tiger’s instincts didn’t kick in and cause the big cat to feast on the piglets. These piglets should consider themselves fortunate. On the other hand, having worked on a large hog farm and seeing many strange things indeed, I’m surprised the big sow pig didn’t eat the tigers. m
Sai Mai, a 26-month-old female tiger, plays with baby pigs at a zoo in Thailand’s Chonburi province, 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Bangkok, on May 7, 2004?. The Royal Bengali tigress was born in captivity and breast-fed by a female pig for four months after her birth.
The zoo is trying to boost visitor numbers by teaching domestic animals such as pigs, and wild animals such as tigers, to live together in harmony from an early age.
One of the latest design trends that seems to have found appeal among some architects is a towering skyscraper that twists its way up to the top. Possibly the first, modern, twisted skyscraper constructed was the Turning Torso in Malmö, Sweden. The residential building is constructed in nine segments of five-story pentagons that twist as it rises, with the topmost segment twisted 90 degrees with respect to the ground floor. The construction of this building was featured on Discovery Channel’s “Extreme Engineering” TV program. The tower received some more publicity when on 18 August 2006, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner jumped off it and parachuted to the ground.
After the successful completion of the Turning Torso, designers started proposing similar audacious structures elsewhere. Many projects got shelved, others were passed and built, and a handful of them are currently under construction. Here we explore some of the most twisted skyscraper designs around the world, but first, a few pictures of the tower that started it all.
Turning Torso, Malmo, Sweden
The project was designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and officially opened on 27 August 2005. The tower reaches a height of 190 metres (623 feet) with 54 stories – 147 apartments, relax/lounge/spa, wine cellar followed by around-the-clock Concierge service 365 days a year. Each floor consists of an irregular pentagonal shape rotating around the vertical core, which is supported by an exterior steel framework. Completed in 2005, the Turning Torso is the tallest skyscraper in Sweden and all the Nordic countries, and presently the third tallest residential building in Europe.
Infinity Tower, Dubai
Infinity Tower is 306 metres (1,004 ft) tall with 76 stories and is under construction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which when completed, will become the world’s tallest high rise building with a twist of 90˚. The tower is designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill SOM architectural group, the same group who built the Burj Khalifa also in Dubai and Trump Tower in Chicago.
Construction of the building began in February 2006 and by 2012, the intended height was reached. Unlike the Turning Torso, which is a series of cantilevered plates rotated about a straight structure, Infinity Tower’s much larger floor plates actually require the structure to be twisted as it raises from level to level. Each floor is rotated by 1.2˚ to achieve the full 90˚ spiral, creating the shape of a helix. The tower will have residential apartments, conference rooms, tennis courts, pools, a state of the art gymnasium, a nursery and a spa.
Absolute World Towers, Mississauga, Canada
Absolute World is a residential twin tower skyscraper complex in Mississauga, Ontario. One is 179 meters tall while the other stands at 161 meters. Both towers twist 209 degrees from the base to the top. The building has been nicknamed the “Marilyn Monroe” tower due to its curvaceous, hourglass figure likened to actress Marilyn Monroe.
Kuwait Trade Center
Kuwait Trade Center, also known as Al Tijaria Tower, is a magnificent 218 meter tall tower in Kuwait City and currently the tallest building in Kuwait.
Revolution Tower, Panama City
The Revolution Tower is a controversial “corkscrew” tower complex of modern offices in Panama City, just a few minutes away from the banking center. The 242-meter reinforced concrete tower consist of 52 floors and makes a 360 degree turn as it rises up.
Mode Gakuen Spiral Towers, Nagoya
Mode Gakuen Spiral Towers is a 170-meter, 36-storey educational facility located on a busy main street of Nagoya City in front of Nagoya Station in Nakamura-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. The towers’ wing-like shape, narrow at the top, changes the rotation axis as they rise and create an organic curve. Spiral Towers appears to change shape slightly when viewed from different angles, giving an elegant yet dynamic impression. The strong inner truss tube is visible through gaps between the three wings, highlighting the bold design and structure while demonstrating the overall consistency.
The towers are highlighted with many ecological features, such as a double-glassed air flow window system and a natural air ventilation system.
Always the cows getting abducted by the Space Aliens. What do those sneaky Aliens want with the bovine? They sometimes seem to release the cows, sometimes not.
Some entrepreneur has come up with a really cool idea. An abduction lamp.
Why always dairy cows? This could be more about milk than beef.
The latest intriguing sighting by way of a Loch Ness webcam features a pair of peculiar humps that emerged from the waters of the famed Scottish site. The possible glimpse of Nessie was reportedly captured earlier this month by Eoin O’Faodhagain, a diligent livestream viewer who has amassed a staggering number of virtual sightings from his home in Ireland. In this instance, he was watching one of the Visit Inverness Loch Ness webcams when he spotted two odd shapes seemingly belonging to the same creature breaking the surface of Loch Ness.
“My heart jumped,” he recalled, “and I was astonished at the length of what was coming into view.” The pair of anomalous forms were rather eyebrow-raising to the seasoned webcam watcher because of how they moved across the water. “They maintain the same distance between them throughout the video,” he observed, “the only way this is possible is that both shapes belong to one living creature.” To that end, O’Faodhagain theorized that the smaller “front object” in the footage is likely the creature’s head looking for fish to eat or possible threats. The virtual monster hunter estimated that the suspected creature lurking beneath the surface of the water was a staggering 17 feet long, which he argued precludes any species known to live at the location.
So far in 2024, O’Faodhagain has documented at least a half dozen instances wherein he spotted something weird on one of the various webcams watching over the legendary home of Nessie. While some skeptics may scoff at his sometimes hard-to-decipher screen captures, one cannot help but appreciate the livestream viewer’s indefatigable effort, especially since this year has been somewhat worryingly bereft of on-site sightings with the famed Loch Ness Sightings Register only recognizing one official report so far in 2024.
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