Yellow Treehouse Restaurant is an environmental project by the Pacific Environment Architects ltd. (PEL) and, as you can see from the photos” it’s a beauty. They’ve managed to build a chrysalis-like restaurant 10 meters above ground, around a 40-meters-tall redwood.

The Yellow Treehouse is a marketing project of Yellow Pages, a company that is trying to get more exposure. And that’s perfectly ok, there’s nothing wrong with a little publicity, but for a company that uses that much paper to use environment as a marketing scheme…

You can book a table at the Yellow Treehouse Restaurant if you’re ever in New Zealandand, I’m sure it will be different that any other eating experience you’ve ever had. Here is the official site

Created by Marco Hemmerling, a talented German designer, Cityscope is a faceted art installation, presented at the Plano8 architectural festival, in September. Located in Cologne, Germany, the installation reflects parts of the buildings around it, offering a frafmented perception of the surroundings.

Hemmerling describes its creation as an urban kaleidoscope that offers a different perspective on the environment with every step you take. Cityscope is covered by radiant foil that reflects images in different colors, depending on daylight. At night the surface of the art installation becomes transparent and it is lit from inside.

Photo Credits

Environment is a very popular issue nowadays so environment-friendly houses are finally becoming interesting. Domespace invented their semi-spherical houses over 30 years ago but only a few of them have been purchased and only around France, especially in Brittany, where the company is based.

The Domespace house plans were designed to optimize warmth by natural means, so the house actually turns to follow the sun and gain as much energy as it needs to keep temperature at an ideal level. If you don’t want warmth and sun-rays you can just set it to turn its windows away from the sun. You can command the engine to turn the house at a certain time or program it to do a full day rotation.

These days Domespace houses only come with an engine, but a few years ago if you wanted to buy or rent a house, you had to move them manually. I can imagine such a house for lease: “It’s a great house, spacy, full of light…only thing is you have to turn it yourself”.

German designer Markus Kison invented a device that lets people experience the atmosphere of WW 2 nowadays.

Set up in the German city of Dresden, Markus Kison‘s so-called time machine takes people back to the 13th of February  1945 when bombs were dropping all over the city and the whole country was in chaos. But the most remarkable thing about Kison‘s invention is the way it operates. It’s not just some ordinary siren that emits sounds of bombing, it operates in complete silence. People just have to put their elbows on the iron fence on witch the device is installed and cover their ears with their palms. The sound is transmitted through vibrations that make their way through the bones until they reach the ears.

Fascinating invention by Markus Kison!

People seem to love having a rolercoaster in their own backyards.

This guy must have seen Jeremy Reid‘s wooden rollercoster and said he simply must top that. And he did, in the way that he built an iron rollercoster in his own backyard. John Ivers from Indiana is the man who built The Blue Flash, a miniature rollercoster, just so he wouldn’t have to wait in line at the amusement park. Judging by the photos, I’d say he did a pretty good job, but apparently he wasn’t completely satisfied so he built an improved version called The Blue Too. Some people just have too much time on their hands, don’t you think?

What’s amazing is that people pay to be close to these man-eaters.

This is Cango Wildlife Ranch in South Africa, a unique endangered animal shelter where people can dive in a pool with crocodiles and get close enough to see their teeth. Anyone over 12 years-old is allowed to dive into the cleverly designed cage that keeps the adrenalin junkies safe from the crushing bite of the crocodiles, but all children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

There is a small opening at about half the height of the cage where crocs can actually get their noses into the cage, close enough for you to touch them, but thankfully it’s to tight for them to open their mouth. Some activists may complain about how the crocodiles are treated but the organizers at The Cango Wildlife Ranch say that no harm comes to the animals and that they just want to show people how magnificent the crocodile is in its natural environment, so they can understand why it is such a perfect predator.

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Kind of like the statues on Easter Island aren’t they?

Manpupuner is a mysterious site in the northern Ural mountains, made out of seven rock towers bursting out of the flat plateau, also known as the “7 strong men“. Manpupuner is a very popular attraction in Russia, but not on an international level and information regarding its origin is scarce. We now however that their height and abnormal shapes make the top of these rock giants inaccessible even to experienced rock-climbers. Manpupuner is very hard to reach, it lies in a very harsh environment, but once there you’ll be able to enjoy a view unique in the whole world.

People who have visited this incredible site, say they have no cravings for water, food or rest, they just want to contemplate the 30-80 meter rock towers, where natives say spirits used to gather in ancient times.

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While this particular factory is hardly a place for children to play in, you can easily get confused.

This is one of the many amusement-park-looking cement factories belonging to Zapa Company, in the Czech Republic. Thanks to the unusual ornamentation of its equipment and transportation vehicles. Zapa has managed to become not only one of the most successful companies in the country, but also one of the most popular attractions. Although I doubt any parent would let their child play in such a dangerous environment, I have to admit it’s a very original idea and, on a subconscious level, makes the company more likable.

Just follow this link to Zapa‘s home site (which is also very colorful) and take a look at the photo gallery there.

A place where tourists can pet tigers just like they do their cats, here’s something you don’t see every day.

The Tiger Temple, or Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua is Theravada Buddhist forest temple, in Thailand. It has been a sanctuary for many endangered animals for quite some time now, including several tigers. It was founded in 1994 as a forest monastery, where animals could find sanctuary and in 1999 they received their first tiger cub, which died soon after. But they kept receiving tiger cubs from the villagers who probably encountered them wondering through the forest after their mothers were killed by poachers.

The Tiger Temple has raised money over the years and can now accommodate 12 mature tigers and 4 cubs. they live in cages and once a day they are taken to a nearby quarry, where they can roam freely. Tourists may watch from 10 meters distance and sometimes they are allowed to pet these magnificent creatures. Only one serious attack took place in the history of the temple.

The priests at the Tiger Temple are now gathering funds to build a larger facility and create an almost natural environment for the animals, so they can one day be let out into the wild where they belong.

In case you’re wondering, yes this is the place featured on Animal Planet.

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No matter how much you love swimming I’m willing to bet the farm you wouldn’t dare do it here…unless you have a death wish!

This is the Citarum river, in Indonesia, possibly the most polluted river in the world, due to mankind’s greed and insensibility regarding environment. Once one of the most beautiful waters in Asia, now the Citarum is a graveyard of debris, where locals, who can no longer fish, risk their lives scavenging for bottles and anything else they might sell for a small profit.

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