5 Coolest Theme Parks Around The World
November 5, 2009 by uphaa
Filed under all, Lead Story, new
Harry Potter Theme Park
Universal Orlando Resort will soon be expanding their Islands of Adventure park with The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, set to open in the spring of 2010.
Said Diane Nelson, President of DC Entertainment, who is also responsible for overseeing the Harry Potter brand team worldwide:
“The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is yet another way that fans will be able to experience and enjoy Harry Potter for many years to come,” said . “The power of this brand speaks for itself, as the enthusiasm of our dedicated fans around the world continues to grow even stronger as we move into the future.” Source
Ferrari Theme Park in Abu Dhabi.
Supercar aficionados will undoubtedly be salivating at the thought of a visit to Ferrari’s Theme Park. Now set to open in 2010 it will be home to a range of multi-sensory experiences ranging from rollercoasters to displays and driving experiences.
A few more details have emerged since our original report, including confirmation of the “world’s fastest rollercoaster”, which reaches speeds of 125mph (200kmh) while rising over 200ft (62m) through the Ferrari GT inspired roof and back down again.
A range of state-of-the-art racing simulators use a similar system to the Ferrari racing team, a flume ride takes you on a water-filled journey through a 599 engine and punters can opt for an aerial voyage over Italy following a Ferrari.Source
Dickens World
Charles Dickens drab portrayals of the United Kingdom during the industrial revolution come to life at Dickensworld, resembling a Tim Burton movie set. Now the whole family can pay to be bothered by grifters, hussies, walkabouts and other choreographed nuisances.
The attraction has been heavily promoted as containing Europe’s longest indoors dark ride, the “Great Expectations” log flume. Other attractions include the Haunted House of Ebenezer Scrooge (which incorporates a Pepper’s ghost effect), a Victorian school room, a 4D high definition cinema show, “The Six Jolly Fellowship Porters”, a themed bar and restaurant, and Fagin’s Den, a play area. There are also mockup Dickensian-style London buildings around a central square, populated with sundry costumed characters from Dickens’ works. Source
The Restless Planet Dinosaur Theme Park
Imagine going back 100 million years or more to feel the power of the cosmic forces that helped shape our planet, and come face to face with giant dinosaurs.
Restless Planet is a unique electronic media and natural history experience, where visitors enter a prehistoric world.
Located in the heart of Dubailand, this place has the feeling of being back 100 million years ago in the era the prehistoric dinosaurs.
Partnering with Natural History Museum of London , dinosaur authority Jack Horner, Tokyo-situated animatronics team Kokoro and international theme park specialists Jack Rouse Associates, the Restless Planet will become real very soon.Source
F1 Theme Park
Racing is inherent to Formula One, but this kind of race is something different altogether. While Ferrari prepares its theme park in Abu Dhabi, in neighboring emirate Dubai they’re gearing up for the grand opening of the first F1-X theme park.
Dubai-based development company Union Properties secured the rights from Bernie Ecclestone to construct a series of F1 theme parks around the world, and the first, in its home base, is preparing to open its doors around the same time as Ferrari World.Source
7 Futuristic Projects Currently Under Construction
Burj Dubai – the tallest building in the world
The largest and most famous construction project currently taking place in Dubai is of course the Burj Dubai. Opening in 2009, the Burj Dubai is a super duper tall skyscraper set to be the tallest in the world (818 meters or 2,684 ft). Currently it is the tallest man-made structure on Earth but Burj Dubai will not officially gain the title of tallest building in the world until its completion in 2009.
The total budget for the Burj Dubai project is about US$4.1 billion and the price of office space had reached $4,000 per sq ft.
World Trade Center or the Freedom Tower
Is the main building of the new World Trade Center complex currently under construction in Lower Manhattan in New York City.
The tower will be located in the northwest corner of the 16-acre (65,000 m²) World Trade Center site, bound by Vesey, West, Washington and Fulton streets.Construction on below-ground utility relocations, footings, and foundations for the 1,776-foot (541 m) Freedom Tower began on April 27, 2006.
On December 19, 2006, the first steel columns were installed in the building’s foundation. Three other high-rise office buildings are planned for the site along Greenwich Street, and they will surround the World Trade Center Memorial, which is currently under construction. The area will also be home to a museum dedicated to the history of the site.
Da Vinci Tower
Visionary architect Dr. David Fisher is the creator of the world’s first building in motion – the revolutionary Dynamic Tower. It will adjust itself to the sun, wind, weather and views by rotating each floor separately.
This building will never appear exactly the same twice.
It is amazing but you will have the choice of waking up to sunrise in your bedroom and enjoying sunsets over the ocean at dinner.
In addition to being such an incredible engineering miracle it will produce energy for itself and even for other buildings because it will have wind turbines fitted between each rotating floor. So an 80-story building will have up to 79 wind turbines, making it a true green power plant.
Currently under review, construction of the Dynamic Tower, is expected to be completed in 2010.
Solar Copenhagen Bridge
US based Steven Holl Architects have won the international design competition “The LM Project”. With a program that connects office towers and civic spaces with a public walkway 65 meters above the harbor, the new design is intended to form an iconic landmark for Copenhagen’s waterfront.
Steven Holl Architects’ design for the dramatic new harbor entrance to the great city of Copenhagen is based on a concept of two towers carrying two bridges at two orientations all connecting back to the unique aspects of the site’s history. The Langenlinie site, a berth for ocean ships for decades, is expressed in the Langenlinie tower with geometry taken from the site’s shape. A prow-like public deck thrusts out to the sea horizon. This deck is the level of public entry to the bridge elevators and has public amenities such as cafes and galleries. It can be reached by a wide public stair as well as escalators. The Marmormolen tower connects back to the City with a main terrace that thrusts out towards the city horizon shaped by a public auditorium below. It can also be reached by escalators and is adjacent to the public bridge elevator lobby.
Each tower carries its own cable-stay bridge that is a public passageway between the two piers. Due to the site geometry, these bridges meet at an angle, joining like a handshake over the harbor. The soffits below the bridges and under the cantilevers pick up the bright colors of the harbor; container orange on the undersides of the Langenlinie, bright yellow on the undersides of the Marmormolen. At night the uplights washing the colored aluminum reflect like paintings in the water.
Apart from giving visitors a spectacular walk on top of the sea, the walkway is flanked by wind turbines that produce energy to light up the public places of the two towers. The solar screens and the large windows, also allow ample natural ventilation due to their reflective nature and also act as great temperature regulators.
World’s Tallest Arch Bridge
If any real city on our planet can claim an active stake in creating the urban landscape of the future, it’s probably Dubai.
They do things differently in Dubai. They like their stuff bigger, taller, and more expensive than anywhere else. The bridge will peak at 670 feet, have 12 lanes of traffic, and handle up to 2,000 vehicles per hour.
Scheduled completion is slated for 2012, after $817 million in construction.
Hydropolis Underwater Hotel
Currently under construction in Dubai, Hydropolis will be the world’s first luxury underwater hotel. It will include three elements: the land station, where guests will be welcomed, the connecting tunnel, which will transport people by train to the main area of the hotel, and the 220 suites within the submarine leisure complex. It is one of the largest contemporary construction projects in the world, covering an area of 260 hectares, about the size of London’s Hyde Park.
The ÂŁ300m, 220-suite hotel was due to open by the end of 2006 but has experienced delays and is now scheduled to open in 2009. It will incorporate a host of innovations that will take it far beyond the original blueprint for an underwater complex worthy of Jules Verne.
Pile Of Chinese Boxes
The port city of Tianjin (Mainland China’s third largest city behind Shanghai and Beijing) is adding another skyscraper to its skyline. Construction on Atkins’ TEDA Landmark Towers (Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area), nicknamed “the pile of boxes” by local residents, is set to be underway. The design features three towers made up of stacked and slightly rotated eight-story blocks. Each tower will use a geothermal heating/cooling system and feature sky-gardens in rotating corners of the glass blocks. The gardens will “light up the corners of each tower, creating an illusion of glowing lanterns rising up into the sky.” Each of the buildings will also be crowned with mesh-like blocks that house vertical wind-powered turbines to help supply electricity.
The tallest of the three towers will rise to 356 meters (80 floors, 1168 ft) and will be Tianjin’s second tallest building after the Tianjin TV Tower (415 m) when finished. The two other towers will be 136 m (446 ft) and 198 m (650 ft) tall and will be connected to the taller tower by a nine-story building that will include a shopping mall. The three towers will house offices, residential apartments, retail shops and even a luxury five-star hotel.
Costing 4 billion yuan it is expected to be completed in 2009
Creative Architectural Designs for the Future
NVArt continues to inspire great work from artists from all over the world. In the first competition the theme was Amazing Creations. This time it the challenge was Art Space and the artists have truly created some amazing spaces that inspire the imagination.
Complex at the Centre of the Universe – Poland
Mega village 2108 – Great Britain
The Pinevalley Keeps – Great Britain
Solaric Glass Anemorne Structure V – Netherland
In a Beautiful Place out in the Country – Great Britain
5.45 to Santa Monica – now boarding – USA
Source: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15
Tallest Super Structures of the Future
March 14, 2008 by uphaa
Filed under all, Features, Lead Story, new
With the number of people living on earth growing exponential (6 billion in the last 100 years), there’s no room for cities to expand on the ground, especially in the big overcrowded areas, and that’s why architects are planning many ways of expanding through the air. No, we’re not talking about flying cities, just about structures that are getting higher and higher everyday.
So, here’s a top of the world’s highest structures that already exist nowadays or are going to be built by the end of this decade.
Burj Mubarak
This building is a little out of the time range, as it is scheduled to be completed way after 2010, but it worths being mentioned, being by far the tallest structure, with an estimated height of 1001 m (3,284 ft). And the name? Burj Mubarak al-Kabir, part of the Madinat al Hareer (City of Silk), massive complex that is going to be built in Kuweit over the next 25 years, containing the tower, a new airport, a natural reservation and many business and entertainment centers.
With 1001 m, the Burj will be almost twice as high as today’s record holder,Taipei 101. A graphic sketch of the final project is shown in this picture.
Burj Dubai
The Burj Dubai is projected to be the world’s highest land structure built on
land by the end of this decade. With its construction started in 2004, the
building is expected to be finished in 2009, when it will rise to a estimated
height of 818 m (2,684 ft) (although some sources announce numbers up to 1011
m).
Built in the “New Downtown” of Dubai, the structure was designed by the famous
”Skidmode, Owings and Merril” company, also in charge of the Sears Tower in
Chicago and Freedom Tower in New York. Having more than 160 floors, the tower
will house 30.000 accommodations (situated between floors 37 an 108, these
apartments were sold in just 8 minutes from the moment the prices were posted)
and a vast number of hotels, shopping centers and entertainment areas. A massive
park will surround the tower, and the estimated investment in Burj Dubai will be
over 8 billion dollars.
Tower of Russia
The Tower of Russia will be a part of the Moscow City project that is going to
be built in central Moscow over the next years, and will combine all the
activities that can be done in a major city. Raised over 1 square kilometer,
this “city inside the city” will contain several interesting buildings, with the
Tower od Russia as the jewelry, with it’s projected 648 m (2,129 ft) height.
Construction began this year, and the 1.5 billion $ building is supposed to be
finished by late 2010.
Incheon Tower
The Incheon Tower, would be the centerpiece of a 1,500-acre, $11 billion
residential, office and hotel complex that is going to be built in Incheon,
South Korea, only 20 miles away from Seoul.
When it’s going to be completed in 2010, the Icheon Tower is planned to rise to
640 m (2100 ft) above the sea level, placing it on the podium as our number 3
tallest structure in the world.
KVLY-TV
Curently the world’s tallest structure built on land, but planned to drop off
the podium by the end of 2010, is the KVLY-TV, a television mast that rises at
628 m (2063 ft). Used by Gargo station KVLY Channel 11, it serves a very large
area (30,000 square miles) in North Dakota, USA.
The tower was assembled by a 11 members crew in 33 days back in 1963, which is pretty amazing for a structure that big. Only the antenna in the top weighs 9000 pounds and can be accessed via an elevator or by stairs (just imagine how it would be to climb up an iron ladder 600 metres high…)
Chicago Spire
Chicago Spire, designed by architect Santiago Calatrava, will become America’s tallest building by the end of 2010, raising higher than the Sears Tower and and the new Freedom Tower in New York, at 609 m (2000 feet).
The shape of this structure is the one really impressing, looking like a spiral that screws itself into the sky. The Chicago Spire will be built on the piece of land (280 square miles) from the junction of Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. The current plans call for the bottom 20 floors to be occupied by a hotel, while the rest of the building is filled with 1200 luxury condominiums.
Construction began this month and the colossus is scheduled to be completed by late 2010.
Port Tower
The Port Tower is a building planned for Karachi, the financial capital of Pakistan. With collaboration from local and foreign investors, and the Karachi Port Trust, the Port Tower will be 593 m (1947 ft) high. The height of the tower has special significance as it represents the year when Pakistan won its national independence: 1947.
The Port Tower design is not final yet. The tower will be part of the Krachi Waterfront complex which will be constructed on artificial islands in the shape of symbols of the flag of Pakistan: a crescent and a star, and will house among others a hotel, a shopping center, and an expositions center. Construction didn’t yet started but could be finished by the end of 2010
Jakarta Tower
Jakarta Tower is a structure that is under construction in Kemaroyan, Central Jakarta, Indonesia, standing 558 m (1,831 ft) tall, up to the antenna. Expected to be finished by 2010-2011, the tower will have many purposes, functioning as a hotel , observation deck , tv/phone tower , discovery/science center and shopping mall.
CN Tower in Toronto
The famous CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, situated next to lake Ontario. Standing 553 m (1,815 ft) tall, it has been the world’s tallest free standing structure since its completion in 1976. Considered by most the icon of the city and even of Canada, the CN Tower is used for communications but also as a tourist site, attracting more than two million international visitors annually.
Freedom Tower
After the tragic events o September 11, 2001, when the twin World Trade Center towers collapsed, New York promised they will return with something even greater. The Freedom Tower will be they key building of the new World Trade Center complex that is going to be built in Lower Manhattan, next to Ground Zero and the Memorial that is also being built there.
The Freedom Tower, part of the new World Trade Center Complex
Construction started in spring 2006 and it is expected to be ready by 2009-2010, standing up to 541 m (1,776 ft) on the top of the antenna. That would not be enough to claim the tallest structure title by 2010, as you can see it lies at the bottom of the Top 10, but it is somewhat taller than the older building, and I guess that was the point after all.
Taipei 101, highest skycraper up to date
It is funny how technology evolves these days, as you can see that in just 3 years, currently the world’s tallest skyscraper (509 m (1670 ft)) and 3rd structure overall, the Taipei 101, will lie on the last position of our top.
As you know, Taipei 101 is a 101-floors tower situated in Taipei, Taiwan, finished in 2004 and worth 1.6 billion $ as an initial investment. Dominating the city’s sights, being the tallest structure there, the Taipei 101 incorporates many architectural aspects of Chinese heritage, as the Ancient Chinese coin myth or the dragon heads added to the corners.
Technologically, the building is very advanced, as it has to fight the harsh Taiwanese climate and the great number of earthquakes taking place there annually. The world’s fastest pressurized elevators and a 900-ton mass damper installed on the 87th floor are just a couple of the engineering marvels built inside Taipei 101.
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