Tree House Community in Costarica

Finca Bellavista is a self-sustaining community in the jungles of Costa Rica. So if you are fan of everything that is eco-friendly and like to merge with nature this can be what you need. Finca Bellavista encompasses 300 acres (1.2 km2) of rainforest.

The community features houses built right on top of the trees in the Costa Rican rain forest, connected by zip lines and sky bridges.
These tree houses are accessible by stairs and ladders from the ground, reminds me of the Swiss Family Robinson.




The sustainable tree house community was founded by Americans Erica and Mathew Hogan not just as their own private escape from the crazy city life but as a community that attracts permanent residents and travellers from all over the world.



New residents can purchase plots starting from $55,000 and build their dream tree-home; travelers can rent room for the short or long term.




And just because you’re in the rain forest doesn’t mean modern amenities aren’t available; limited solar powered electricity, hot showers, and even wireless internet can be accessed.

But the whole point of this community is to get away from it all and get closer to nature.

Two rivers run around the community with crystal clear water and plenty of waterfalls for taking a dive on a hot summer day.



A small town is a few miles away and the ocean is a short hike away. Some of your neighbors will include monkeys, lizards and lots of bugs; Finca Bellavista is like living in an episode of Natural Geographic.

source:-http://bezmuke.blogspot.com/2011/02/incredible-tree-house-community-in.html

The Ark: Floating Hotel

The Ark: Floating Hotel to Address Climate Change Effects Like Rising Sea Levels & Massive Floods

Speaking to the world's rising sea levels, Russia-based architectural firm Remistudio proposes this arch shaped building as a refuge from even extreme floods. Called (quite appropriately) the Ark, the futuristic structure has the ability to exist autonomously on the surface of the water. Designed to be a bioclimatic building, the Ark incorporates several innovative gree strategies and elements to ensure that its residents can survive aboard for months at a time.

Addressing growing concern over climatic changes and the rising level of the world’s oceans, Russian architectural film. Remistudio has designed a massive hotel concept that can endure extreme floods. The arch-shaped building, dubbed the Ark, has a structure that enables it to float and exist autonomously on the surface of the water. The Ark was also designed to be a bioclimatic house with independent life-support systems, including elements ensuring a closed-functioning cycle.

Architectural Wonders OF 2008(Hearst Building, New York City)

Hearst Building, New York City
Norman Foster & Partners

Come summer 2006, Manhattan will have a new "green" wonder: Hearst Corporation's new 46-story headquarters. The structure's grid-like frame requires 20% less steel than would be used for a similar conventional perimeter frame. Sensors will control lighting, dimming or turning off interior electric lights when natural light is available.

For most of the year, a state-of-the art HVAC system will use outdoor air for cooling and ventilation. As a result, the energy used and carbon dioxide emissions will be slashed to 22% less than an average office building of a comparable size in New York. The tower is so environmentally friendly, it is expected to receive a Gold Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Norman Foster & Partners designed the expansion so that it appears to be "floating" above its historical base -- the six-story landmark building that was

Architectural Wonders OF 2008(Taipei 101, Taipei)

Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan
CY Lee & Partners

The title of "world's tallest building" seems to change hands as frequently as the Miss Universe crown. The 1,644-foot-tall Taipei 101, inaugurated this past New Year's Eve and home to the Taiwan stock market, currently holds this distinction. Taipei 101 also boasts the world's fastest elevator, which whisks passengers from zero to the 89th-floor observation deck in only 37 seconds, moving at a speed that exceeds 36 miles per hour.

Super-tall buildings must be engineered for the static vertical loads caused by gravity and the dynamic lateral loads caused by wind. CY Lee solved the latter by installing a gigantic metal ball, weighing 606 metric tons, on the 92nd floor. In the high winds of a typhoon, the ball acts as a damper, swaying back and forth and reducing the tower's overall movement up to 40%. Rather than hiding this engineering element, the architects celebrated it, painting it gold and leaving it open for visitors to see.

Architectural Wonders OF 2008(Ben Gurion International Airport)

Ben Gurion International Airport, Terminal 3, Tel Aviv, Israel
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Moshe Safdie & Associates, Karmi Architects

Airports are the most complicated of buildings, having as much in common with massive machines as with works of architecture. Yet we experience them as architecture, which leaves architects with the challenge of designing a space that is pleasant, secure, efficient, and distinctly of its place. Ben Gurion's Terminal 3 evokes the character of the Israeli landscape with elements such as walls of Jerusalem stone and a round open-air skylight through which sun and rain pour down into a central rotunda.

Arriving passengers exit the terminal into a garden, rather than the typical taxiway. And security is achieved not through heavy blast-walls and cordons, but with an openness that allows for surveillance -- and, in the process, brings natural light into the building.

The architects credit the project's success to their unusual, if sometimes strained, collaboration. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill is an international firm with experience in megaprojects. The critical local knowledge came from Israeli-born American architect Moshe Safdie and Israeli architects Ram and Ada Karmi. "The building is a result of an international firm having the benefit of local knowledge, of people who really know the land," says Roger Duffy, principal designer of the airport for SOM.

Architectural Wonders OF 2008(Government Communications Headquarters, Cheltenham)

Government Communications Headquarters, Cheltenham, Britain
Gensler

Although the building was completed last year, the Government Communications Headquarters -- the British equivalent of the CIA -- entered full operation last spring, when the last of the spies moved in. The GCHQ marks the first time that Britain's 4,000-employee intelligence establishment, formerly distributed among 50 discrete buildings, will be housed together in a central, modern facility. The new hub is a single, one-million-square-foot building, shaped like an enormous circular spaceship and affectionately nicknamed "the Doughnut."

Like a medieval fortress, the new GCHQ is designed for maximum security in an age when protection from terrorist acts is a timely concern. Innovative elements include a centralized screening area where all incoming letters and packages are inspected and then whisked to recipients via a subterranean circular road that reaches all parts of the facility. This ring-like path is also a convenient and efficient channel for distributing emergency supplies in the event of an attack or natural disaster. In addition, the building is encased by a reinforced glass wall constructed to allow those inside to see out but preventing outsiders from looking in.

Architectural Wonders OF 2008(Millau Viaduct, Millau)

Millau Viaduct, Millau, France
Norman Foster & Partners

The Millau Viaduct is a work of both engineering prowess and architectural grace. Spanning the River Tam, in the south of France, Millau is a massive piece of infrastructure that appears as light as the fog that puffs across the valley, despite the superlatives that might weigh it down: It is the tallest (1,122 feet) and longest (1.6 miles) multispan cable-stayed bridge in the world.

Its construction took only three years, thanks to a pre-fabrication process in which 2,000 sections of the steel roadway were manufactured off-site, lifted into place, and aligned with the help of a GPS. The technique also allowed for the minimum disruption of the surrounding environment -- echoing the bridge's overall goal of relieving the river valley of traffic while connecting the highway systems of France and Spain. Its remarkably slender profile and the way its graceful span emphasizes the drama of the landscape prove that cutting-edge building technology need not be at odds with the natural landscape.