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Photography

10 of the Most Breathtaking Panoramic Photos We've Ever Seen

By Matthew Bower on

Photographs rarely live up to the fullness of actually being there. But more and more digital technology provides new ways to counteract the flatness of photos, elevating panoramic and high-resolution photography to new realms both in terms of technique and in the way images are presented. 360-degree rotation, massive composites, and interactive controls allow us to explore photography in some very enticing ways. For the voyeuristically inclined, the advent of huge multi-giga-pixel images means zooming and panning indefinitely across an endless sea of visual detail. We’ve gathered ten such breathtaking panoramas for you to feast your eyes upon. Click through and explore some truly spacious visual… Read More

Architecture

The World’s Tallest Building In Lego Form

By Caroline Stanley on

Lego has just announced that the next building in their Lego Architecture series (which has previously featured replications of the Guggenheim Museum, Falling Water, and the Farnsworth House) will be Dubai’s Burj Khalifa — aka the world’s tallest building. (This should not be confused with the world’s tallest Lego tower, a 102-foot-tall monstrosity… Read More

Photography

Cedric Delsaux’s Star Wars Fantasies

By Paul Laster on

Using his own pictures of cityscapes as the backgrounds for sci-fi fantasies, French photographer Cedric Delsaux digitally inserts Star Wars film characters into his urban realms. The artist’s Dark Lens series started out with his views of warehouses, harbors, and industrial spaces in the suburbs of Paris. Finding the pictures too ordinary, Delsaux added Darth Vader, R2-D2, Jabba the Hutt, and other Star Wars figures and vehicles to the settings and presto: they were suddenly fantastic! … Read More

Architecture

Architectural Projects That Seemed Like a Great Idea at the Time

By Eva Hagberg on

Architecture! At its best, visionary, innovative, mold-breaking. At its worst, cheesy, overwrought, and ill-timed. The recent architectural follies of Dubai present a fairly good case for prudence in the building arts: a Marvel superhero-themed park is a questionable expenditure even in boom times; as for the world’s largest LED structure, a new opera house, a revolving “dynamic” tower, and an experimental resort dubbed “The Cloud,” well, it’s beginning to look like Gomorrah in Abu Dhabi. But as we know all too well, the current financial crisis is a global situation, which is why we’ve rated six new developments and their associated levels of what-were-they-thinking-ness. Follow along after the… Read More

Architecture

Video of the Day: View From the Top o’ the World

By Kelsey Keith on

Architecture blog myninjaplease posted this jaw-dropping video clip shot on top of the tallest building in the world, the Burj Dubai. Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill is nearing completion of the building, which is currently soaring at 2,300 feet. (Compare the Burj Dubai to the world’s other tallest towers here.) The aerial view from the top is just insane, from the sheer distance to the ground and severe wind gusts to the tower’s long shadow cast over the rest of Dubai. Skip to 0:40 for dizzying views and 1:12 for shadow action. This building does not mess… Read More

News

Pic of the Day: Dubai Schools Us in Public Transit

By Kelsey Keith on

If this is what the infamous Second Avenue subway line is planning to look like, then we’ll gladly wait until 2012 2034 when it’s finally finished. Dubai’s new luxury metro opened last week and the features are duly impressive. Stats and more photos after the jump. … Read More

Music

In the Midst of Financial Apocalypse, Dubai Can’t Get Kylie Out of Their Head

By Caroline Stanley on

According to this report from Bloomberg, “Dubai defied the economic crisis last night as stars flocked to South African billionaire Sol Kerzner’s Atlantis resort for a $20 million party that included the world’s largest fireworks display dazzling enough to be seen from space and a performance by pop singer Kylie Minogue.”

Fireworks that… Read More

Theatre

Fine Art Intrigue: Strange News Stories From Around the Globe

By Caroline Stanley on

Two men play everything from bossa nova to Mozart using an old car as their instrument of destruction in new stage production in Berlin. This has us wondering what would happen if you took a sledgehammer to KITT.[Spiegel]

A popular new art museum in Munich that specializes in political graffiti was formerly a… Read More