Unusual Life

DOME House, originally uploaded by micamica.

An experimental home in the line of Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome home.

Here’s an interior shot:

Those windows would be awesome.

Painted Lady, originally uploaded by derickcarss.

Here’s an architectural detail of a beautiful Painted Lady on a San Francisco Victorian home. Beautiful!

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, just became home to the world’s largest LED project. The Yas Hotel looks like something out of a science fiction movie or, in the words of the hotel, “a giant fishing net tossed over the sea.” The eye-catching hotel is wrapped in 5,000 LED lights that can change colors and even display video. The hotel has several restaurants, a spa, two rooftop swimming pools and access to an 18-hole golf course on Yas Island.

World’s Biggest Stuff slideshow

Related: World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things by Erika Nelson.

World’s Fair, originally uploaded by compact collection.

This photo is from the Seattle 1962 World’s Fair, located in an area called “Show Street”.

Show Street was the “adult entertainment” section of the fair, tucked into the northeastern part of the fairgrounds. Here, cultural aficionados could take in Gracie Hansen’s Paradise International, a Las Vegas-style floor show, or Sid and Marty Krofft’s “Les Poupees de Paris,” an adults-only puppet show. For the less cultured, there was “Girls of the Galaxy,” where young women posed naked for visitors with cameras. One had to be fast to catch this show — fair officials shut it down almost immediately.

Century 21 World’s Fair on History Link

Redwood Carwash - Googie Architecture, originally uploaded by western light.

Redwood Carwash on El Camino Real in Redwood City - its upswept towers an example of googie architecture that was popularized during the 50’s & 60’s.

Seattle Googie

Space Age City (California)

My brother Den David sent me a link to the new 7-8-9 from n2a. No 2 Alike. He recalls correctly that my first car was a 1959 Chevy, saphire blue and white like the tail end of this hybrid with the Chevy styling of a ‘57 front, ‘58 sides, and ‘59 tail comprising the body, all on a C6 Corvette 440 - 1000 hp powerhouse, touting a top speed of 180 mph. Yes please!!!

Well folks, Jana has done it again and in honor of Elvis’ 75th birthday may I share with you “The Elvis Aaron Presley Cake”!

See more of Jana’s Fun Cakes here.

Meet at Noon, at the Kiddy Pool at the North end of Greenlake in Seattle, Washington on Friday, January 1st, 2010

What a great way to get the New Year off on the right foot.

Luckily, wigs do offer some insulation from hangovers and there’s no need to fret about bad bed-head.

Rain-or-shine, umbrella’s & kids ok. Meet at the Kiddy Pool on the North end of the Lake at noon. I’m pretty sure we’ll all be pretty easy to spot.

More details on Seattle Twist.

• Here’s a link to the Set on Flickr if you prefer to see the photos LARGE or for high resolution printing from the originals…

If you don’t care if your neighbors hate you:

More frightening images:

Bruce and Melanie Rosenbaum of Sharon, Massachusetts have  remodeled their 1901 Craftsman style Victorian home with an unusual steampunk design aesthetic, and actually have a business where they will give your home it’s own Steampunk Home Design. 

Read the Steampunk Workshop’s wonderful account of their visit to Bruce and Melanie’s home for the detailed description of the artistic and functional updates to this makeover, plus many more detail photos. It looks so intriguing and comfortable that I’m all ready thinking of ways to seriously employ this aesthetic into parts of our 1914 home.

And a Tip-o-th-hat to Cory Doctorow at boingboing.net for the heads-up on this gem!

The title character of Ray Bradbury’s book The Illustrated Man is covered with moving, shifting tattoos. If you look at them, they will tell you a story.

New LED tattoos from the University of Pennsylvania could make the Illustrated Man real (minus the creepy stories, of course). Researchers there are developing silicon-and-silk implantable devices which sit under the skin like a tattoo. Already implanted into mice, these tattoos could carry LEDs, turning your skin into a screen.

Read lots more about this in the WIRED Gadget Lab and h+magazine

OK, I want my own trilobite vehicle. Who doesn’t? This is The Electrobite Olenoides, A Trilobite Vehicle which Jon Sarriugarte and Kyrsten Mate of Form & Reform created from an electric wheelchair to get around at Burning Man 2009. Watch the Boing Boing Video below to check it out, and here’s a Flickr Set of the build process. Giddyup!

David Fisher’s Dynamic Tower is the world’s first building in motion, where each floor of the Tower rotates independently at different speeds, in different directions, resulting in a unique and ever-evolving shape.

The Dynamic Tower is a self-powered Green building with the ability to generate electricity for itself through the use of horizontal wind turbines and solar panels.

The first skyscraper to be built entirely from pre-fabricated parts custom-made in a factory, the assembly process of the Dynamic Tower will reduce construction time, offer cost savings, provide an environmental construction site and increase safety for workers on site.

This is the Fennell Residence in Portland, Oregon, designed in 2001, completed in 2005.

The Fennell residence, as a floating house, presented a unique opportunity for design.

The imaginative use of curved glue lam beams evoke the poetry of the ripples and contours of a river. The expansive glass facade embraces the river and frames the sunset, and one accesses the deck via an expansive sliding glass door.

A master bedroom sits over a study and looks out over the living dining area and out to the river beyond.

The curvilinear forms create spacial differentiation that enhance the experience of time as light plays through the daily and seasonal changes.

Robert Harvey Oshatz, Architect