15 Eccentric Endangered Trees, Plants, and Flowers

Unusual rotten meat corpse flowers, endangered plants, rare trees, unusual cactus and other bizarre flora threatened by global warming and deforestation.
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Life Thrives in Strange Places: 14 Urban Ecosystems

[ By Steph in Animals & Habitats & Nature & Ecosystems. ]

Boars wreaking havoc in urban Berlin, dogs riding the subway in Moscow, a species of mosquitoes that only lives in man-made underground spaces and snakes that make their way up into our toilets – all of these creatures and more have adapted to human encroachment in surprising (and sometimes terrifying!) ways. These 14 unique urban and man-made ecosystems – including two of the most insane human communities of modern times – shed light on how we affect the natural world for better or worse.

Metro Dogs in Moscow

(images via: english russia)

Not only do dogs ride the subways in Moscow, stretching out across a row of seats while amused passengers smile down at them, they have adapted to their unusual urban habitat by developing new survival tactics. An astounding 35,000 stray dogs have actually figured out how to get from point A to point B, getting on and off at their favorite stops. Surviving off scraps, the dogs have realized which techniques are best at securing food, including sending off the youngest, cutest member of the pack to beg or barking loudly at a human holding food, hoping (often successfully) that they’ll drop it on the ground.

Microbes in the Gowanus Canal

(images via: jgny, brainware3000)

The Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn is a sickening sight, full of chemical sludge and such odd and disturbing ‘wildlife’ as discarded medical supplies, raw sewage, debris from scrap metal yards and various specimens of unidentifiable refuse. Now a Superfund site, the canal is home to fish that are too contaminated to eat (though it’s amazing that anything can live in that water at all). But there’s a silver lining to the stench and mess: the canal has become something like a huge petri dish for microbes that could hold the key to combating heart disease, AIDS and other health ailments. Two New York biologists found ‘white gunk’, a combination of bacteria, microbes and chemicals, under the canal bed that could form the basis of new antibiotics.

Chernobyl Reclaimed by Animals

(images via: ssis.edu.vn, wired)

First a bustling urban home to humans, then an abandoned wasteland in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the town of Pripyat, Ukraine is now rapidly becoming a sanctuary for plants and animals. A documentary entitled ‘Chernobyl Reclaimed: An Animal Takeover‘ captured some the creatures that have come to call the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone home in the absence of people. Animals spotted there include wolves, wild boar, deer, moose and beavers. It’s not all paradise, however; although most mutations may not be obvious to our eyes, scientists say that radiation continues to affect the species that remain within the zone.

Berlin’s Wild Boars

(images via: freelens.com)

Thousands of wild boars have come to call the streets of the busy German city of Berlin home. Thanks to increasingly mild winters, plenty of wooded parks and gardens full of grubs, the boars have found the city to be more than hospitable, a preference which has unfortunately led to hundreds of car accidents, not to mention property damage. In addition to the dangers they face from the boars, which can weigh 250 pounds and sport sharp curved tusks, forestry officials charged with killing nuisance animals have to contend with angry animal rights activists who don’t want the boars to be harmed. Up to 7,000 boars now live in the city.

“There is no way that hunting can get rid of them all,” biologist Derk Ehlert told The Wall Street Journal. “Ultimately we must learn to share the city with the swine.”

Hemingway’s Cats, Key West, Florida

(images via: hemingwayhome.com, wikimedia commons)

Visitors to Ernst Hemingway’s estate in Key West, Florida, now a museum, will notice something peculiar: dozens and dozens of cats roaming the fenced property. And these aren’t just any cats – they’re descendents of the famous writer’s own six-toed ship cat that have interbred extensively, carrying on the unusual trait of polydactylism. This genetic defect, which is characterized by extra toes, is also commonly found in America’s Northeast and in Southwest England.

Cape Town Penguins

(images via: wikimedia commons)

Cape Town’s famous penguins frolic on Boulder Beach,  bathing and playing to the delight of human swimmers and sunbathers. This colony started with just a single pair, first spotted in 1983, which began to lay two years later. By 1997, thanks to both reproduction and immigration, there were 2,350 adult birds. However cute these critters may be, nearby residents weren’t too happy when the penguins began invading their gardens, making loud noises and pooping all over the streets and sidewalks. The beach has since been taken over by Cape Peninsula National Park to keep the penguins fenced in and away from urban settings.

People Packed in Kowloon Walled City

(images via: doobybrain)

One of the most extraordinary human habitats ever produced was Kowloon Walled City, originally built as a watchpost to protect the area against pirates during British rule, occupied by the Japanese during WWII and taken over by squatters after Japan’s surrender. Located outside Hong Kong, Kowloon became an insanely compacted, lawless, unclaimed city full of labyrinthine passages and towers that extended so high into the air that sunlight couldn’t reach the lower levels.  Within 6.5 acres, the city’s population grew to at least 33,000 by 1987. Residents were evicted and the city was demolished by the Hong Kong Housing Authority in 1993. The area where it once stood is now the Kowloon Walled City Park, where artifacts are displayed, including inscribed stones and old wells.

Urban Monkeys in Malaysia

(images via: plassen, atlai)

It’s not the fault of the monkeys in Malaysia that they’re now city dwellers, dangling from power lines, begging tourists for food and potentially spreading disease to humans. They’ve been forced out of their natural forest habitat by urban development. About 250,000 of Malaysia’s 700,000 monkeys, mostly macaques and leaf monkeys, live in towns and cities amongst humans. Veterinary experts warn that they carry blood parasites, herpes, malaria and dengue and could transmit these diseases to people.

Toilet Snakes Around the World

(images via: nydailynews.com, observer, herald sun)

Rationally, you can say that snakes can’t possibly live in sewer systems, ready to pop up out of the toilet when you’re at your most vulnerable. But tell that to the many people around the world to whom this has actually happened. While ‘sewer gators’ may be entirely the stuff of urban legend, snake-in-the-toilet stories are all too real, and usually result from pets or wild snakes making their way into plumbing systems. In 2007, a Brooklyn woman was shocked to find a 7-foot python in her toilet, while a Bronx man found a 3-foot corn snake coiled atop his own toilet last fall. In India, snakes in the toilet seem to be a common occurrence. While people usually aren’t harmed by these encounters, a Jacksonville, Florida woman wasn’t so lucky. One night in 2005, she lifted up the lid to her toilet and was immediately bitten by a deadly water moccasin with a head “three fingers wide”. As the woman was rushed off to the hospital, the snake got away, and the family still fears running into it in the dark.

Lonely Bacteria in a South Africa Gold Mine

(images via: new scientist)

Two miles beneath the surface of the earth in fluid-filled cracks of the Mponeng goldmine in South Africa, a species of bacteria exists far beyond the reach of oxygen and sunlight. Scientists believe that the discovery of Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator, a new species, could hold clues about alien life. Amazingly, this species – which lives all by itself in a place where nothing else can survive – extracts everything it needs from an otherwise dead environment, getting its energy from the radioactive decay of uranium in the rocks.

“One question that has arisen when considering the capacity of other planets to support life is whether organisms can exist independently, without access even to the Sun,” says astrobiologist Dylan Chivian. “The answer is yes and here’s the proof. It’s philosophically exciting to know that everything necessary for life can be packed into a single genome.”

South Africa’s Baboons

(images via: amuse.ment, snigl3t)

Baboons are finding themselves bulldozed out of house and home by the rampant expansion of Cape Town, South Africa’s suburbs, so is it any surprise that they’ve chosen to make their home in these newly urbanized environments? 400 urban baboons have been cut off from other troops by human activity, and as a result, male baboons in charge of finding food and breeding partners are growing more aggressive. Local wildlife managers have turned to a ‘three strikes, you’re out’ tactic for misbehaving baboons, euthanizing repeat troublemakers. The baboons have begun breaking into homes and restaurants, but animal activists say that peaceful coexistence is possible, portraying the so-called pests as ‘tremendous recyclers of what we humans casually discard.’

Mosquitoes of the London Underground

(images via: phsource.us)

You’re not just imagining it – the mosquitoes that bite you while you’re waiting for the subway really are more vicious than those above ground. In fact, they’re likely to be a different species altogether – a species that evolved to live in man-made underground environments. The London Underground mosquito, which is found around the world, is thought to have evolved recently from the overground species Culex pipiens, and as opposed to that species, C.p. molestus is cold-intolerant and bites rats, mice and humans. It is believed that old tires carrying larvae may have introduced the population that spawned the new species.

Brazil’s Marmosets

(images via: wagner machado carlos lemes)

The adorable urban marmosets of Brazil, which have adapted to life in the nation’s developed areas, has learned a nifty trick to escape the cats that try to catch them. Unlike their jungle counterparts, these marmosets choose a favorite tree and return to it each and every night – because their favored trees either have limbs to high off the ground or smooth bark, so that cats can’t climb up. This behavior was noted by researchers in marmosets at the Belo Horizonte City Park in Minas Gerais, which is also home to about 115 domestic cats. Like the cats, many of these marmosets may be the descendents of former pets that were dumped in the park.

Medina Zabbaleen, Egypt’s Trash City

(images via: marketplace)

Can you imagine living in a city where trash is stacked on absolutely every available surface, from streets and rooftops to the floors and tables of homes? Medina Zabbaleen isn’t so full of trash because the people don’t know what to do with it; rather, they’re a highly efficient community of trash collectors and recyclers, taking unwanted refuse off the hands of wealthier people in Cairo and bringing it back to their own city where they sort it and recycle as much as 80 percent of it (including feeding all of the food scraps to their pigs, which then provide meat – smart!).The city was featured in the award-winning 2009 documentary, ‘Garbage Dreams‘.

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Rock Steady: The World’s 10 Most Amazing Balanced Stones

December 14, 2010 by thegreenchildrenfoundation · View Comments 

[ By Steve in 7 Wonders Series, Geography & Travel, History & Trivia. ]

Earth may be one of the most geologically active planets in the solar system, but don’t tell that to these 10 brazenly oblivious balanced stones. Poised between inertial stability and the relentless force of gravity, these rock-steady rocks maintain a precarious balance between soil and sky.

Balanced Rock, Colorado, USA

(images via: Suhafuha, World Is Round, Bagel! and Transformations and Whispers)

The huge balanced rock known as, er, Balanced Rock can be found in the Garden of the Gods, a Registered National Natural Landmark located near Pike’s Peak in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The rock looms over a paved access road that provides an excellent view – hopefully, not the last view an unlucky driver ever sees.

(image via: BamaWester)

The photo above highlights the layers of sandstone that make up Balanced Rock while accentuating the narrow base that has weathered away over the eons, partially freeing the boulder of harder red sandstone from its imprisoning matrix of softer stone.

Balancing Rock, Digby, Nova Scotia, Canada

(images via: Joanpopular, Nova Scotia Blogs and Welcome To Nova Scotia)

Balancing Rock in Digby, Nova Scotia, is a 30-odd foot high spire of columnar basalt that has gradually eroded out from the cliff face over countless years. The town of Digby has lately built an infrastructure of railings and walkways so that access to this striking phenomenon of nature is now much safer – both for tourists and for the rock itself.

(image via: Archer10)

According to Wally Hayes, a first-time visitor to Balancing Rock, “I was even more awestruck when I approached for a closer view and could look under the rock through a narrow horizontal crack and see the ocean beyond. The rock column didn’t appear to have much attachment to base rock on which it stood. Not only that, part of the base protruded out from the supporting rock. It looked like a pencil standing upright, half on and half off the edge of a table top. But this was not pencil, rather many tons of solid rock.”

Idol Rock, Brimham Moor, North Yorkshire, UK

(images via: Armchair Travelogue, Tj.Blackwell and The Pilgrim Club)

A number of oddly shaped and curiously balanced rocks dot a 50-acre expanse of Brimham Moor in North Yorkshire, England. One of the most outstanding – from a balanced rock point of view – is the so-called Idol Rock. Estimated to weight around 200 tons, Idol Rock balances its enormous weight atop a comparatively tiny, pyramidal stone upon which frighteningly high pressures are being expended.

(image via: Deputy Dog)

Idol Rock and its companion Brimham Rocks, which include The Sphinx, The Watchdog, The Camel, The Turtle, and The Dancing Bear, can be viewed at the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The UK’s National Trust oversees the area and admittance is free.

El Torcal de Antequera, Andalucia, Spain

(images via: Pixelhut, Spain Online and Fotonatura.org)

El Torcal Nature Reserve, situated in the mountains south of Antequera, Spain, features a plethora of karst limestone rock formations that typically feature tall, tapering spires of rock combined with horizontal weathering patterns. The result of this combination is often expressed in huge “flapjack stacks” that are actually more stable than they appear.

(image via: Graphix 1)

The karst stone towers of El Torcal de Antequera have evolved terraces of limestone over which tourists can ascend like stairs in order to get up close & personal with the rocks. Climbing further is NOT recommended, however – Darwin has provided enough examples in the reserve without your becoming another one!

Kjeragbolten, Norway

(images via: Armchair Travelogue, TheStar.com and Diamir8000)

Kjeragbolten is a 5 square meter (roughly 15 sq ft) rock that his wedged itself in a crevasse between two gigantic rocks on Kjerag mountain, Norway. It’s not your typical, top-heavy balanced rock by any means but that’s not to say that Kjeragbolten is at perfect rest – just ask Aron Ralston, whose arm was trapped by a similarly wedged boulder in Utah’s Blue John Canyon, requiring him to take desperate measures to free himself.

(image via: Vacation Ideas)

Unlike Ralston’s nemesis in an underground canyon, Kjeragbolten is lodged high up on Kjerag. How high? Those who are brave enough to walk across the boulder (and yes, this is allowed) can easily view the valley floor about 1,000 meters (over 3,000 feet) below. For sheepish hikers especially, the admonition “don’t look down” was never so appropriate.

Peyro Clabado, Sidobre, France

(images via: Notes From A Broad, L’Ardoise Magique de Christineee and Hiramabi)

Peyro Clabado (Nailed Rock) is perhaps the most famous of the many enormous, eroded granite boulders and rock formations that make up the Sidobre in Languedoc, France. The rocks are all that remain of a 300 million year old mountain range that loomed over what was to become western Europe. Today, isolated outcrops loom over intrepid visitors who have hopefully updated their wills before visiting.

(image via: TechniPIERRE)

As hard and dense as granite may be, given enough time even the hardest specimens will be reduced to sand and sediment. Peyro Clabado is on its way to that fate, but for a brief moment in geological time we’re privileged to observe this 780-ton rock perform an exquisitely delicate balancing act.

Mushroom Rocks, Kansas, USA

(images via: All The Pages Are My Days, Space Weather and Sarah/RoadTrip2007)

Mushroom Rock State Park, located in the Smoky Hills region of Kansas, may only be 5 acres in size but it holds some of the oddest balancing rocks on Earth… and yes, a couple of them do indeed resemble mushrooms. Very, very large mushrooms – one might expect to see the hookah-smoking caterpillar from Alice In Wonderland relaxing on top of one.

(image via: Susan Ward Aber)

The Kansas Mushroom Rocks are a work in progress, and unfortunately the end of the job means the end of the rock formation. Although weathering by wind and water is a slow process, it’s remarkably effective over long stretches of time. In the Mushroom Rocks, one can easily see how the harder, darker Dakota Sandstone cap rock protects (to some degree) the softer, lighter colored stone that forms its pedestal. Even more remarkable is the fact that the narrow pedestal was once part of a distinct layer of rock, the vast majority of which has eroded away.

Chiremba Balancing Rocks, Epworth, Zimbabwe

(images via: Gerald Zinnecker and Deeping Blogorama)

The Chiremba Balancing Rocks are little known outside of Zimbabwe but the locals certainly appreciate their majesty: one impressive grouping is featured on the country’s banknotes. Like the balancing rocks of the Sidobre in France, these weathered boulders are made of ancient granite and it’s taken millions of years for them to settle into their outwardly precarious positions.

(image via: TravelJournals/TheGoose)

Epworth is located a few miles southeast of Zimbabwe’s capitol, Harare, and the Chiremba Balancing Rocks are just a short taxi ride away. They were declared a national monument in 1994 and admission to the park is approximately 3 dollars.

Mexican Hat Rock, Utah, USA

Mexican Hat Rock is located just outside Monument Valley in south-central San Juan County, Utah. The 60-foot (18 m) wide by 12-foot (3.7 m) thick red sandstone rock outcropping is the only one of its kind in the area and can be seen for miles around.

(image via: Bridgepix)

There are two designated climbing routes laid out for those who wish to make the strenuous hike to the base of Mexican Hat Rock’s sombrero-shaped cap. Though not a “balanced rock” in the pure sense of the term, the cap rock is attached to its base by a very narrow neck which will inevitably snap sooner or later… keep that in mind, hikers.

The Steady Hand Of Man

(images via: Rock On, Rock ON!, Squarewithin and Cheerful Monk)

The frozen tranquility of natural balanced rocks has inspired artists to try and replicate their beauty – not an easy proposition considering naturally balanced rocks have settled into their positions while creating such a tableau means working backwards, so to speak. Even so, the art of balancing rocks has gained a surprisingly large and talented following.

(image via: Rock On, Rock ON!)

Daliel Leite is one of these artists and his creations approach – and on occasion even match – the suspended splendor of nature’s best balanced rocks. The precisely oriented chunk of petrified wood above is one of Leite’s best known efforts. Is the rock still standing on its minuscule base, or did it tumble seconds after being photographed? Leite isn’t saying – and thanks to the marvel of photography, it really doesn’t matter.

(image via: Life Without Limits)

Those of a certain age will be very familiar with the concept of balanced rocks – and the consequences of their sudden unbalancing – shown time after time in the 48 classic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons first broadcast in 1949. The 2D desert landscape in which Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner conducted their many epic encounters was a virtual minefield of balanced rocks which suddenly, catastrophically, became unbalanced when in close proximity to poor Wile E.’s noggin. Luckily, reality is kinder to both coyotes and balanced rocks – there are still plenty of both to go around!

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20 Crazy, Creative & Amazing Green Roofs

October 8, 2010 by admin · View Comments 

[ By Steph in Art & Design, Home & Garden. ]

Green roofs are now a common sight on residential, commercial and public architecture around the world, but who knew that they were sprouting up – literally – in the most bizarre and unexpected places, like bus shelters and dog houses? These 20 green roofs take lawns to new heights, whether they’re used in strange new ways or are just totally amazing.

Living Bus Shelters

(images via: greenroofs.com, sfblogg.com, torontoist)

A bus shelter is one of the last places you’d expect to see a living roof, yet here are just three of many found around the world, whether commissioned by their respective cities or installed on the sly. In San Francisco, the grassy shelters that sprouted up were an advertising campaign by California Academy of Sciences, while one in Toronto with a white picket fence was the handiwork of guerilla gardeners.

Hidden Homes on a Private Pond

(image via: inhabitat)

From afar, it just looks like a hilly landscape, albeit one with some curious white vents sticking out of it. But get up close and you see that this incredible little community by Vetsch Architektur in Switzerland is actually a cluster of green-roofed houses on a private pond. The green roof can support edible plants, and the 9 homes fit for hobbits or regular-sized humans have all the comforts of modern dwellings.

Green Roof Subway Entrance

(image via: barclayscenter.com)

Buses aren’t the only form of public transportation sporting green roofs. While you won’t see grass growing on top of a subway anytime soon (or at least, it seems highly unlikely), the controversial Barclays Center in Brooklyn will feature a subway entrance planted with sedum.

Cars Need Green Roofs, Too?

(images via: treehugger, dangpanda)

If green roofs can help keep homes cooler, won’t it work for vehicles, too? Beijing taxi driver Zhishai planted two square meters of grass on his  roof and says that it makes a significant difference. But sometimes, it’s just decoration – like the interesting grass garden (and tree!) planted on a junk car by the Community Vehicular Reclamation Project, another guerilla group in Toronto.

It’s Happening on Houseboats

(images via: jetson green, designsquish)

Life definitely has its benefits – but you give up having a nice grassy yard to enjoy. Or do you? These two houseboats prove that green roofs work on the water, too, providing a nice little swath of soil no matter how far you are from the actual shore.

Sloping Green Roof is Also a Yard

(image via: landhouse.co.uk)

Lot too small to enjoy any green space? Create your own with this awesome sloping green-roofed prefab home. Unlike many other green roof designs, this one by land artist Mark Merer is easily accessible from ground level even on an above-ground home. ‘Landhouses’ are made of structural insulated panels and can be constructed in just a couple of days.

Living Millinery

(images via: picture is unrelated, offbeatblog)

Why stick to putting green roofs on structures when you can put one on yourself, like this grass-loving guy in a full-on grass suit complete with a tie and a matching car. But perhaps ‘green roof’ hats aren’t just for kooky guys that might just be on their way to Burning Man. They’re high-fashion, too – at least, on the runway at the 8th annual Tulips and Pansies fashion show in New York, as shown on the right.

Green Roofs are for the Birds

(images via: friendsschoolplantsale, workshopped, etsy)

Some birds come by green roofs the all-natural way, because they nest underground. But others can live it up eco-style in man-made houses with built-in planter roofs. Green-roofed birdhouses and bird feeders are available pre-made on Etsy.com, or you can make one yourself with plans from friendsschoolplantsale.com.

Green Roof Goat Pasture

(image via: treehugger)

We all know that green roofs keep buildings cooler, retain water, improve air quality and provide a habitat for local wildlife. But some people stretch that last benefit to its limit by making green roofs a high-rise pasture for goats. This one is found at Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant in Door County, Wisconsin.

Don’t Forget Your Furry Friends

(images via: instructables, indyweek, seattle times)

Doghouses can be hot, uncomfortable places, so they could definitely benefit from the cooling action of a green roof, especially in warmer climates. It’s easy to find plans on the internet, including ‘Green Roofed Dog Veranda’ at Instructables and ‘DIY Green Roof-Roof’ at Indyweek.com.

Yep, Creepy Shutter Island Prison Has One, Too

(image via: ecorazzi)

Maybe this is something that the average person wouldn’t catch, but greenies the world over marveled at the stunning expanse of grass on the roof of the Ward C complex in the movie Shutter Island. Visual effects artist Matthew Gretzner reveals that while the building as shown in the film is just a model and not a real place, it’s based on a civil war fort in Jefferson, Florida. The ‘green roof’ actually had a practical purpose for the fort, to take the impact of cannon balls – so the use of it in the film is historically accurate.

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Sky Cities: 12 Hover Homes & Flying Urban Designs

September 13, 2010 by thegreenchildrenfoundation · View Comments 

[ By Steph in Art & Design, Home & Garden, Technology & Gadgets. ]

If we make the land less than habitable, the human race grows too large or we simply develop the means and decide to use it, there’s another place to go aside from the oceans, and that’s up. With some hovering in the sky like giant air balloons and others that are more like semi-stationary aircraft, these 12 interesting concepts for floating and flying cities offer breathtaking visions of high-elevation life.

Tolgahan Gungor’s Floating City

(image via: tolgahan gungor)

Silhouetted in a hazy sky, artist Tolgahan Gungor’s digital city almost looks like it’s simply reflected in a pool of water, until you take a closer look. Hovering in the clouds above the mountains with a land-based city in the background, Gungor’s futuristic creation features airy catwalks that make you wish for a panoramic view.

Buckminster Fuller’s Cloud Nine

(image via: steve dejonckheere)

Buckminster Fuller always had big ideas, including a massive floating city that would have housed 6,000 residents off the coast of Tokyo. The inventor of the geodesic dome imagined taking his spherical creations into the sky with ‘Cloud Nine’, an airborne habitat composed of free-floating or tethered spheres, each one mile in diameter and housing thousands of people. These spheres would function as hot air balloons, and residents would get back and forth with solar-powered aircraft.

Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky

(image via: io9)

Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film Castle in the Sky sees Laputa, the floating island from Gulliver’s Travels, as the last remaining mythical sky city in an alternate-reality of Victorian Times, resembling the visions of author Jules Verne. Laputa itself is half crumbling ruins overtaken by the greenery of nature, but still futuristic in a steampunk sort of way.

Floating City of Platina from Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia

(image via: creative uncut)

The Playstation 2 game Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia was set on a floating landmass called ‘Sol Ciel’, near which floats the city of Platina and its imposing tower, Ar tonelico. The city is rendered in detail in this concept drawing, showing the land mass in the background and train tracks resembling a roller coaster which provide access to the city and wind around it.

Cloud City by Alex Popescu

(image via: aksu)

Resembling a mirror image of itself complete with upside-down towers, artist Alex Popescu’s Cloud City does have a sort of Star Wars aesthetic which may or may not be reflected in its name. Popescu says he created it for a Romanian music video.

Alderaan Floating City by Ralph McQuarrie

(image via: chienworks)

As head production designer, Ralph McQuarrie is responsible for much of the imagery that Star Wars fans hold so dear. And thanks to McQuarrie, those same fanatics can finally get a look at Imperial capital city Alderaan before it was destroyed by the Death Star.

Fish-Inspired Floating City by John Berkey

(image via: io9)

Like Ralph McQuarrie, John Berkey is best known for his work as a Star Wars concept artist, but some of his creations were even more fantastic and futuristic than the original Star Wars poster art. This bizarre floating city in the sky is like a flying-fish-turned-aircraft, complete with a mouth and a single eye.

Dome Floating City by JF Liesenborghs

(image via: jfliesenborghs)

This spectacular hovering city by artist JF Liesenborghs looks as if it rivals some of the world’s biggest urban centers in sheer size, but it’s all contained within a spaceship-like dome, miles above the surface of the earth.

Migrating Floating Gardens

(image via: rael san fratello)

As green space has gone from ground level to rooftops in urban areas, at least one architect believes they’re due to go higher still. Rael San Fratello imagines ‘Migrating Floating Gardens’, trailing from large remotely controlled floating aircraft that would move around the city and even migrate seasonally to warmer locales.

Avatar’s Floating Mountains

(images via: the daily mail)

Inspired by the real-life (but sadly not floating) Hallelujah Mountains of China, Avatar’s floating mountains on the fictional planet of Pandora may not be physically possible, but they sure are beautiful. In fact, China liked them so much that it decided to rename its own incredible towering hunks of rock the ‘Avatar Hallelujah Mountains’.

The Floating House from Pixar’s ‘Up’

(image via: wired)

How many balloons would it really take to lift a house? In Pixar’s ‘Up’, a huge bunch of balloons was simply tied to the fireplace grate through the chimney. Keeping in mind that this is a fictional animated film, Wired did the calculations to determine whether balloons could really lift a house. Their conclusion: it would take 105,854 balloons, each measuring three feet in diameter, to make a 100,000 pound house buoyant.

Sky-Terra Tower Cities

(images via: inhabitat)

They may retain a tenuous connection to the ground, but the Sky-Terra Towers – living up to their name – would bring a variety of city functions far up into the clouds on landscaped platforms. City residents could escape the pollution at ground level and enjoy public parks, jogging paths, pools, amphitheaters and more high in the sky. Given annoying obstacles like fuel consumption and gravity, such sky towers may be the closest we’ll get to floating cities for a very long time.

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Art from Decay: 11 Masters of Trash, Rust & Rot

August 23, 2010 by thegreenchildrenfoundation · View Comments 

[ By Steph in Art & Design, Food & Health, Nature & Ecosystems. ]

The inescapable cycle of life, death and decay will have its way with us all, and virtually everything else on earth… and while most people find this reality of nature less than pleasant, others seek to magnify and exploit it. Because while decay can certainly be disgusting – as some artists have portrayed with rotting animals – it can also be beautiful, like allowing the sea to etch a pattern into metal.

Dieter Roth

(images via: MOMA)

No collection of decay-themed art would be complete without the inclusion of Dieter Roth, whose entire oeuvre challenged the notion that art is immortal. Bananas, sausage and dung are just a few of the items Roth used to create pieces that blossomed with maggots and mold, falling victim to the relentless cycle of life and death even under the harsh lights of exclusive art galleries. Certainly the bust of chocolate that he made of himself, covered in birdseed and threw into a courtyard as a feast for birds looks very different than it did when he created it.

Dan Dempster

(image via: wikimedia commons)

The sea is a great and mysterious artist, carving rocks and scouring patterns into sunken man-made objects with its relentless tides and currents. Bermuda artist Dan Dempster submerged pieces of steel into the ocean and let it etch patterns into the surface with a rusty, dreamy and utterly aquatic result.

Nathan Slate Joseph

(images via: sundaram tagore gallery)

Many artists whose work is displayed outdoors dread the process of weathering; they lacquer and protect their work as much as possible to defend it against fading, rust, and other hazards of wind and rain. But Nathan Slate Joseph intentionally leaves squares of steel outdoors to “empower nature by allowing it to have a hand in the making of his art.” He even applies acids to facilitate the breakdown of the pigments he applies to each square, letting them age and change naturally before soldering them together into one cohesive piece.

Damien Hirst

(images via: my modern met)

Renowned British artist Damien Hirst is known for making death a central theme in nearly all of his works, the most notable – and controversial – of which being a series made from animal corpses. One work featuring a rotting cow and bull was banned from gallery exhibition by New York public health officials for fear of “vomiting among the visitors”. Another, “A Thousand Years”, consisted of a rotting cow’s head in a glass case, covered in maggots and flies. But not all of Hirst’s dead animals are left to the ravages of nature – some are preserved in formaldehyde, like his iconic (and somehow simultaneously iconoclastic) shark.

Tony Reason

(images via: tonyreason.com)

Rust is a powerful pigment, with its vivid hues of red and orange that it lends to all sorts of metals, whether desired or not. British artist Tony Reason must see a great beauty in rust, because he has made it the center of much of his work: giant metal panels with rust designs and even rust mixed with wax and painted on canvas.

Kathy Kelley

(image via: artslant)

Few artists enjoy being told that their work looks like a bunch of trash – but Kathy Kelley knows that that’s exactly what her sculptures are. Kelley, who holds an MFA in graphic design, turned to “revaluing objects of refuse” with her large-scale found-object sculptures, saying “I am drawn to the symbolic and formal elements of decay, the way in which an object has been altered by its mere existence. The worn, broken, torn nature of the aged object seems to make it more real, more honest. So I collect decayed urban refuse. I hold onto it for awhile. Cogitate. Eventually the formal and symbolic elements of the materials and my current research meld. Then I make.”

Matthew Barney & Elizabeth Peyton

(images via: c-monster)

Take one dead shark a la Damien Hirst, throw in some drawings that have been embellished by the sea over a period of a few months a la Dan Dempster, and you’ve got the strange collaborative project “The Blood of Two” by artists Matthew Barney and Elizabeth Peyton.  Some of Peyton’s nautical-themed drawings were placed in a glass casket which was submerged in the ocean for months; the casket was ceremoniously lifted from the sea and taken on a funeral-like procession to a slaughterhouse where the drawings were removed and replaced with a dead shark. The shark was later served to onlookers. Barney is also known for his performance art videos featuring sculptures made from uncooked tapioca, which were left to decay as they would.

Rosamond Purcell

(images via: zymmogyphic)

Did you ever imagine that a dead fish could be so beautiful? Rosamond Purcell collects such natural and man-made curiosities for her assemblage art, which pays tribute to decay in all forms, from the remains of dead creatures to worm-eaten books and rusted metal. Purcell sources most of her materials at a junkyard in Maine and turns them into art installations, sculptures, collages and other collections as documented in her book Bookworm: The Art of Rosamond Purcell.

Joseph Beuys

(images via: 2thewalls)

Artist Joseph Beuys worked with all sorts of unconventional materials, but they were never randomly chosen. Beuys used edible items like butter, sausage and chocolate in some works, knowing that they would transform and decay over time, changing the way that people reacted to each piece. Fat in particular played a large role, used to signify “chaos and the potential for spiritual transcendence”. The images above show how the work ‘Fat Chair’, which featured a triangular slab of butter on a wooden chair, evolved as it decayed.

Zhang Xiaotao

(images via: saatchi gallery)
Perhaps hang Xiaotao’s art isn’t made directly from putrefying objects, but nearly as unusual is the desire to produce art that holds up decay as a subject worth portraying again and again. Xiaotao depicts moldy strawberries, rotting birthday cake, heaps of trash in the subway and ants feasting on forgotten food as lovingly as if they were stunning landscapes and beautiful models. “I am creating something that is disappointing and yet has great hopes – a cycle of positive and negative energy that is in a constant state of renewal,” he told China Daily.

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Tagged: animal, art, art & design, bizarre, book, british, crazy-animal, design, facebook, food & health, food art, nature & ecosystems, trash art, work

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