This almost transparent but massive structure is very close to Chernobyl but it is not related with the nuclear power plant. It is called OTH (Over the Horizon) or Steel Yard, a military radar facility which is capable of transmitting the radar signals far beyond the conventional radars. Since electromagnetic signals travel in straight lines, large scale radar facilities had to be developed to set up early warning systems.

More pictures are on this Pripyat website

This might look like an image shot from a fantastic science fiction film but it is not. It is taken by Edward Burtynsky in one of the world’s longest beaches, Chittagong , Bangladesh’s biggest port. Half of the large ships in the world came here at the end of their last journey to be dismantled. The other half goes to Alang in India . These largest manmade structures are destoreyed here by over 20.000 people in Bangladesh and India.
Read more

The Facility Architects director Claire Price says that they can produce energy from the sidewalks, streets etc. According to him, a lot of energy is wasted in the crowded urban areas. The movement and vibration created by thousands of footsteps in crowded streets or metro stations can be used to produce energy.

According to Wired, where this article is featured, “Price has charged Jim Gilbert, an engineering lecturer at the University of Hull, with developing the prototype system for capturing footfall. Gilbert is working with hydraulic-powered heel-strike generators, which he believes could be installed in the floors of busy public places like subway stations. Those stations typically capture the footfall of 20,000 commuters an hour during peak usage — multiplied by 5 to 7 watts a person, that’s more than enough to power a building’s lights for the day.”

Unknowingly, the architecture and building community is responsible for almost half of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions annually. Globally the percentage is even greater.

Combining the annual energy required to operate residential, commercial, and industrial buildings along with the embodied energy of industry-produced building materials like carpet, tile, glass, and concrete exposes buildings as the largest energy consuming and greenhouse gas emitting sector.

Architecture 2030, a non-profit, non-partisan and independent organization, wants to attract the attention of the architectural community to this problem. They have a well-organized and convincing web site at www.architecture2030.org address.

This a satellite image of a typical Amazon village taken from Google Earth. Its orderly set up bare soil streets are connected to a wider unpaved main road. This “street” is stretching on both directions connecting the neighboring villages with a total length over 800km. It might be the longest road for commercial transportation in the world. Looking from a distance, the scale of deforestation is unbelievable. Obviously, construction industry is one of the key players in this consumption.

Read more

It has been 20 years since the one of the biggest disasters mankind ever faced. When Chernobyl nuclear power plant’s reactor 4 was burnt and collapsed partially in 1986, radiaoactive materials started to contaminate the air and soil. The effects of the radioactive contamination is still alive around the region. The 180 tons of plutonium charged, melted lava with a half-life of around 24.000 years still lays inside the reactor 4 building. That means, this dangerous debris will exist there virtually forever until it loses its power. The same applies to the particules spreaded around to soil. The radioactivity of the soil until 20cm deep is still existing around the 30km of the Chernobyl Plant. People living around the region are not allowed to approach to the plant ,however the contamination carried by underground water and agricultural products still affects the future generations. The closest town to the reactor, Prypiat became a ghost town, which was evacuated immediatly after the accident in the reactor.
Read more

Walter R. Tschinkel from Florida State University, Department of Biological Science, shows us the interior structure of the Florida harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex badius). By pouring hot metal into the nests, the interior architecture of the nests become visible.