|
La Digue Island – Seychelles
La Digue is the third largest inhabited island of the Seychelles, lying east of Praslin and west of Felicite Island. It has a population of about 2,000 people, who mostly live in the west coast villages of La Passe (linked by ferry to Praslin and Mahé) and La Réunion. There is no airport on La Digue, so to get there from a different country, one has to fly to Victoria, take the ferry to Praslin and then take another ferry to La Digue. La Digue has an area of 10 km², which makes it relatively easy to travel around the island on a bicycle. La Digue is named after a ship in the fleet of French explorer Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, who visited the Seychelles in 1768
Continue reading La Digue Island – Seychelles
Dancing House – Prague – Czech Republic
credit: filip.farag
The Dancing House or Dancing Building or Ginger & Fred (Czech: Tančící dům) is the nickname given to the Nationale-Nederlanden building in downtown Prague, Czech Republic at Rašínovo nábřeží 80, 120 00 Praha 2. It was designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry in co-operation with Croatian-Czech architect Vlado Milunić on a vacant riverfront plot (where the previous building had been destroyed during the Bombing of Prague in 1945). The building was designed in 1992 and completed in 1996.
The very non-traditional design was controversial at the time. Czech president Václav Havel, who lived for decades next to the site, had supported it, hoping that the building would become a center of cultural activity.
Continue reading Dancing House – Prague – Czech Republic
China Central Television Headquarters – Beijing – CHINA
The CCTV Headquarters is a 234 m (768 ft), 44-storey skyscraper in the Beijing Central Business District (CBD) and serves as headquarters for China Central Television (CCTV). Groundbreaking took place on 1 June 2004 and the building’s facade was completed in 1 January 2008. Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren of OMA were the architects in charge for the building, while Arup provided the complex engineering design.
The main building is not a traditional tower, but a loop of six horizontal and vertical sections covering 473,000 m (1,552,000 ft) of floor space, creating an irregular grid on the building’s facade with an open center. The construction of the building is considered to be a structural challenge, especially because it is in a seismic zone. Because of its radical shape, it’s said that a taxi driver first came up with its nickname dà kùchǎ (大裤衩), roughly translated as, “big boxer shorts”.
Continue reading China Central Television Headquarters – Beijing – CHINA
|
|
Follow Us!