geekosystem

London Britannia Airport, a floating airport proposed to the British government by global architecture firm Gensler, could be the coolest building ever made... If it ever gets approved. An alternative to the publicly protested plans to expand London's Heathrow Airport, the hypothetical floating airport would be the world's first, breaking ground on an idea that architects and governments have been trying to achieve since the 1940's.

When I was kid, I thought it would be awesome to live in a mall. My family and I stayed in a hotel built in or on top of one: We could go get Starbucks for breakfast in our PJs and if I ever needed something new and shiny to validate my existence, it was readily available. Of course, even I thought there were limits to what living above a mall could be like; for instance, I always assumed that living in a building like that meant you pretty much had to live in an apartment. I was a foolish child. You can both live in a house and live above a mall, thanks to the Chinese. You can have it all, people.

It's a classic story: Boy becomes successful software engineer, boy retires. But this story about Joel Allen goes on, because instead of reclining into his early golden years, he ran out of cash and decided to take up carpentry. One thing led to another, and Allen built an egg-shaped house on Canadian government land near Whistler, British Columbia. Now, after keeping it secret for so long, he's trying to figure out how to save the place he calls the Hemloft.

Cinematographer Philip Bloom, commissioned by the crown prince of Dubai Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, created this startlingly beautiful time lapse video called Abraj. The name is apparently the Arabic plural for "tower," and refers to the iconic Burj Al Arab and the enormous Burj Khalifa. Though they are the centerpieces, the film introduces viewers to the stunning beauty of the city. Turn up the volume, make it full screen, and let the imagery just wash over your eyeballs.

When school teacher Eric Schneider bought his Manhattan apartment in 2005, had achieved what, for most, is an unachievable dream. However, the realities of life in the big city can be daunting: His apartment was a mere 450 square-feet, and consisted of a single room with an attached kitchen. That's when architects Michael Chen and Kari Anderson at Normal Projects designed an amazing transforming cabinet that turned his studio into four room home. Read on after the break, and see how this tiny apartment unfolds into an amazing living space.

This hotel in Berlin is not falling over (or folding). It's actually built like that on purpose. Billed as the first hotel in Europe specifically designed for musicians, the Nhow Hotel features state-of-the-art recording studios and guitars. The interior design, by Karim Rashid, has been described as "an amusement park for lovers of glossy, hyper design." (via Jetsetta via Neatorama)

The architects from the firm of Königsberger Vannucchi in Brazil needed a new way to help their clients visualize the buildings that they had commissioned, and they really liked augmented reality as a way of doing so. So they created the worlds largest AG marker (as verified by Guinness) in the lot where their skyscraper was going to be built, and then flew around it in a helicopter. Hey presto! Instant tower. You can watch their short video below.