Unusual Life

Interior Seattle Public Library, originally uploaded by michael_troeger2001.

Here are a few cool photos of the Rem Koolhas designed Seattle Public Library. Following the photos of this library is a tour of other amazing libraries around the world, from Huffington Post.

Most Amazing Libraries in the World Part 1

Most Amazing Libraries in the World Part 2

Szymbark, Pomorze, Poland, originally uploaded by LeszekZadlo.

The Upside Down House is a project created by a Polish businessman and philanthropist named Daniel Czapiewski, and is located in Poland in the tiny village of Szymbark, and here are a few pics with this house. Rather than simply being a bizarre tourist attraction this house, managed to attract thousands of tourists. The house is also meant to be a profound statement about the Communist era and the state of the world. Czapiewski’s company would normally take three weeks to construct a house, but this one took 114 days because the workers were disorientated by the strange angles of the walls. Many tourists who visit complain of mild seasickness and dizziness after just a few minutes of being in the structure.

Amazing Polish Upside Down House

A “Love Hotel” has a very special place in Japanese life. It’s a short-stay hotel, not for sleeping, but for making love. They also have these hotels in Singapore, Hong Kong and other places in Asia. They’re usually for rent from 1-3 hours and you forfeit your room when you leave.

A good book about these places is “Love Hotels” by Ed Jacob.

Although cheaper hotels are often quite utilitarian, higher-end hotels may feature fanciful rooms decorated with anime characters, equipped with rotating beds, ceiling mirrors, or karaoke machines, strange lighting or styled similarly to dungeons, sometimes including S&M gear.

Love hotels can usually be identified using symbols such as hearts and the offer of a room rate for a “rest” as well as for an overnight stay. The period of a “rest” varies, typically ranging from one to three hours. Cheaper daytime off-peak rates are common.

These hotels are typically either concentrated in city districts close to stations, near highways on the city outskirts, or in industrial districts. Love hotel architecture is sometimes garish, with buildings shaped like castles, boats or UFOs and lit with neon lighting. However, some more recent love hotels are very ordinary looking buildings, distinguished mainly by having small, covered, or even no windows

It is estimated that more than 500 million visits to love hotels take place each year, which means around 1.4 million couples, or 2 percent of Japan’s population, visit a love hotel each day.

Alternative names include “romance hotel”, “fashion hotel”, “leisure hotel”, “amusement hotel”, “couples hotel”, and “boutique hotel”.

Instead of Gideon Bibles, many Love Hotels instead have menus where guests can order lube and sex toys.

No-tell love hotels cash in catering to the carnal (Japan Times)

Guide to Japan’s Love Hotels

Love Hotel Information Site

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.