Floating Cities: 15 Last-Hope Homes for a Watery World
September 6, 2010 by admin · View Comments
[ By Steph in Art & Design, Geography & Travel, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
With so many visions of humanity’s future involving the devastating effects of climate change, architects are looking toward a life without land: entire self-contained cities purposefully built on water complete with housing, schools, hospitals, restaurants and shops. These floating city concepts range from recycled oil rigs to what could be the largest structure ever built (if we ever discover a material strong enough to bear the weight, that is.)
Embassy of Drowned Nations
(images via: oculus)
As sea levels rise, it seems that some nations will inevitably sink beneath the depths, leaving behind thousands or perhaps millions of displaced residents. We may hope that the Embassy of Drowned Nations is never actually needed, but time will tell. The artificial island, conceived by Australian design firm Oculus, would temporarily house climate change refugees.
Drowned London, Rebuilt on Oil Rigs
(images via: io9)
If London, too, falls victim to climate change, where will everyone go? Perhaps they’d evacuate to abandoned oil rigs and recycled ship hulls, as in this concept by Anthony Lau. Says the designer, “By utilising the flooded landscape, a floating city of offshore communities, mobile infrastructure and aquatic transport will allow the city to reconfigure through fluid urban planning. Wave, tidal and wind energy will be ideal for this offshore city and the inhabitants will live alongside the natural cycles of nature and the rhythms of the river and tides.”
New Orleans Arcology Habitat
(images via: greener ideal)
Five years later, New Orleans is just beginning to feel like its old pre-Katrina self again – but that could change all too quickly if another major hurricane happened to hit the city. Perhaps residents should aim for a solution that works with rather than against the water they’re surrounded by – like this concept for a ‘New Orleans Arcology Habitat’, a floating metropolis in the Mississippi River. It’s not just a last-ditch emergency shelter: with housing, hotels, cultural facilities, a school system and even casinos, it’s a self-contained community for everyday living.
Boston Arcology
(images via: ahearn schopfer)
Boston may not be living under the constant threat of flooding like New Orleans, but rising seas could still be a problem for this bustling coastal city. Designer Kevin Schopfer would bring 15,000 Boston residents out into the harbor with the BOA development, a floating pedestrian-only city with all the amenities one would expect in any urban setting.
Seasteading San Francisco
(images via: seasteading.org)
For some libertarians, no government is good government – and that’s why they’d like to find a way to live in self-contained, self-sustainable floating cities located in international waters. The Seasteading Institute imagines “homesteading on the high seas” on mobile platforms. The group’s first project may be ‘ClubStead’, a 200-person resort seastead in the San Francisco Bay.
Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid
(image via: wikimedia commons)
If you’re interested in futuristic architecture concepts on the opposite end of the spectrum from the “tiny house movement”, look no further than Japanese firm Shimizu, which has come up with all manner of mega-projects ranging from electricity-collecting belts for the moon to this “Mega-City Pyramid”, which if built would be the largest building ever constructed. A self-contained city for one million people situated on a river delta, the 1.25-mile-high structure isn’t technically possible yet because no known material can support that kind of weight.
Green Float – Lilypad Skyscraper City
(images via: shimizu)
Another big idea from Shimizu is “Green Float”, which is just as much a sky city as a floating city, given that it places housing in tall skyscrapers perched on lilypad-like platforms. Each skyscraper is insanely tall at one mile high each, and would house 1 million residents, with the ‘stem’ of each tower containing vertical gardens.
Disney’s 1984 Sea City of the Future
(image via: paleofuture)
In 1984, Walt Disney had some interesting ideas of what agriculture would be like in farming areas near the sea by the year 2050. Published in a book called ‘The Future World of Agriculture’, this image was accompanied by the following text: “Robots tend crops that grow on floating platforms around a sea city of the future. Water from the ocean would evaporate, rise to the base of the platforms (leaving the salt behind), and feed the crops.”
1968 Sea City
(image via: darkroastedblend)
Dark Roasted Blend bemoaned the fact that, when it comes to visions of futuristic architecture, “the future’s gotten too damned small.” But that’s definitely not the case with those Shimizu projects, or with this mysterious concept, which the blog identifies as “Sea-City, 1968 – architect Hal Moggridge for Pilkington Glass Company.” The design is sadly bereft of further information but it’s certainly a striking image with its illuminated strip of buildings forming an artificial harbor.
Freedom Ship: City at Sea
(images via: freedomship.com)
Aesthetically speaking, the Freedom Ship isn’t quite on the level of most other floating city designs – but that may actually make it easier to achieve. An amazing mile long, this mega-stretched-out cruise ship could house over 50,000 people with living quarters, work space, retail, education and health care. It has its own full-size airstrip on the roof as well as a giant port for smaller leisure boats and visiting vessels.
Shanghai Expo’s Floating City
(images via: treehugger)
It never did materialize, but if this 2007 vision for a floating city had really been constructed, it certainly would have been the most innovative and eye-catching display at the 2010 Shanghai Expo. Dutch designers envisioned an eco-friendly series of honeycomb semi-spheres floating on the Shanghai River, packed with a 3D cinema, pubs, a shopping mall and a restaurant.
Ark City from ‘Brink’
(images via: io9)
The stunning “seagoing eco-city gone wrong” that serves as the setting for the game Brink was inspired by the writings of Geoff Manaugh, founder of BLDGBlog, and by concepts like the Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid. “It was familiar enough to draw on zeitgeist-ish current concerns, but distant enough in time and space that players wouldn’t have seen it before,” wrote Brink developer Ed Stern.
Buckminster Fuller’s Triton City
(images via: a place to stand)
From WebUrbanist’s ‘Retro-Futurism: 13 Failed Urban Design Ideas‘ – “If not for a certain tell-tale 1960s aesthetic, Buckminster Fuller’s ‘Triton City’ could easily fit among today’s designs for floating eco-friendly cities. The futurist, architect and inventor was ahead of his time as usual when he imagined this tetrahedronal metropolis for Tokyo Bay, a seastead for up to 6,000 residents. Fuller wrote about the possibility of desalinating and recirculating seawater ‘in many useful and non-polluting ways’ and using materials from obsolete buildings on land, which were hardly popular ideas at the time.”
The Gyre: Floating Oceanic Skyscraper
(images via: zigloo.ca)
From WebEcoist’s ‘Underwater Cities: 12 Sci-Fi Visions & Real Design Ideas’ – “Technically, the Gyre isn’t a floating skyscraper – it’s more like a seafloor-scraper. Rather than reaching high into the air, the tip of the Gyre descends 400 meters under the ocean’s surface from a floating platform with four arms that buoy the building and create harbors for massive ships. The Gyre, powered by the solar, wind and wave energy, would house a research station and a resort complete with shops, restaurants, gardens, parks and entertainment.”
Sea City 2000
(image via: futuresavvy)
FutureSavvy.net scanned this unidentified article about ‘Sea City 2000′, a concept based on the ideas of both Buckminster Fuller and Paolo Soleri, which features a pyramid-shaped building covered in solar panels on a floating platform. The pyramid contains apartments, shops, gardens and schools while the equipment underneath it would support jobs like fish farming and “mining the sea bed for minerals – sure to be an important activity in the 21st century.”
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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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Circular Logic: World’s Largest Artwork is Too Cool
August 21, 2010 by thegreenchildrenfoundation · View Comments
[ By Delana in Art & Design, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
These odd circles may look like messages from aliens or the humorous graffiti of penguins, but it’s actually the ephemeral snow and ice art of earth artist Jim Denevan, best known for his temporary beach masterpieces. The snow circles are somewhat of a departure from Denevan’s usual medium, but he’s no stranger to large-scale natural art. This nine-square-mile snow drawing currently holds the record as the world’s largest snow drawing; the record before that belonged to a sand drawing created in the Nevada desert by Denevan.
Jim Denevan’s art is all about impermanence. His large-scale artworks are meant to exist only for very short periods of time, after which they will be washed away by waves, wind and weather. This massive art was created on Siberia’s frozen Lake Baikal, the world’s largest lake.
Because of the constant threat of losing the entire piece to a sharp gust of wind, a team of helpers assisted in the creation of the gigantic masterpiece. Eight people in all got out onto the ice and used brooms to sweep the snow into simple, elegant circles. The work was chronicled on The Anthropologist, a site that features new artwork for Anthropologie.
The crew slept in a yurt on the ice, warming themselves by a fire in the lake bed that re-froze each morning in the brutal temperatures. The expedition was filmed by a documentary filmmaker and captured by a photographer; both of these documentation methods are necessary when creating art in a medium as temporary as ice.
The tundra warmed up, Lake Baikal thawed, and Jim Denevan’s lovely circles melted away forever. But the artist isn’t losing any sleep over his lost masterpiece; his goal is to create beautiful and inspiring pieces of art that only exist for a moment in time. His ephemeral art reminds us all to savor every day, to find beauty in even the most fleeting moment.
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Women at War: Reclaimed Bunker Turned Museum
August 20, 2010 by thegreenchildrenfoundation · View Comments
[ By Steph in Art & Design. ]
An old war bunker in Yorkshire, England sits empty, an unused memorial to the immense cost of war, particularly in lives, land and resources. But if Leeds Metropolitan University graduate Charlotte Wilson had her way, the RAF Bempton bunker would become a sacred space honoring the role of women in wars past, present and future, befitting the intense natural beauty of the seaside setting.
“Women . War . Peace’ will be a new and exciting war museum with the pure focus of Women and War,” says Wilson. “Journeying through the exhibition will illustrate the compassion, realism, horrors and bravery seen and felt through the eyes of women during war time, both on the front-line and behind the scenes. This museum interrogates the creativity of learning through emotional and experiential spaces and details.”
Four stages of war will be represented within the reclaimed bunker: past, present, reflection and remembrance, and future. In the ‘Past’, the main exhibition stage, museum visitors will learn the stories of ‘women at war’, told within the bunker walls, and ‘women at home’, displayed in spaces outside but connected to the bunker space. The ‘Present’, located within the courtyard spaces, will illuminate the lives of women of war from the year 2000 through the present day.
‘Reflection and Remembrance’ will make up a viewing platform that extends beyond the cliff in which the bunker is embedded to provide a vista of the sea, while ‘Future’ takes visitors high above the bunker onto a viewing platform that serves as a space to contemplate what they have seen.
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A Look Inside: Spectacular X-Ray Nature Photography
August 11, 2010 by admin · View Comments
[ By Delana in Art & Design, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
The natural world is full of surprises and hidden beauty. It’s so easy to simply walk right by countless amazing things every day without noticing just how many wonders are all around us. That’s part of the inspiration behind Hugh Turvey‘s X-ray art. He looks inside the things most of us ignore, taking an inside view of the natural world and inspiring a truly delightful sense of wonder.
Hugh Turvey is fascinated by the idea of X-ray specs: those novelty glasses often advertised in the back of comic books. The idea that one can put on an accessory and suddenly see a deeper truth appeals to Turvey and inspires his art. He likens X-ray art to the movie “The Matrix;” specifically, when Neo is suddenly able to perceive his real environment.
Although Turvey isn’t the first artist to use X-rays as art, he is one of the most well-known and respected. His art depicts familiar items in wholly unfamiliar ways. Turvey’s X-ray photos reveal hidden characteristics of ordinary things; sometimes amazing qualities can be found in the most unassuming objects.
Originally trained as a designer and art director, Turvey didn’t discover his passion for photography until he was grown. He retrained in his new craft with master photographer Gered Mankowitz and began experimenting with the X-ray art that would later become his hallmark.
These colored X-ray pictures help us get a closer look at the complex beauty of the natural world. Flowers which look so uncomplicated on the surface reveal their hidden inner structures; plants that may look plain and boring with the naked eye take on an exotic and truly wonderful quality when seen in this new way.
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Green Light! Algae-Powered Lamp Needs TLC to Provide Light
August 7, 2010 by admin · View Comments
[ By Delana in Art & Design, Energy & Fuel, Technology & Gadgets. ]
New energy sources are being developed and uncovered nearly every year, reducing our reliance on the traditional grid-based electricity. One of the oddest forms of alternative energy is one developed in 2010 by Stanford University and Yonsei University scientists. Their method uses the power of photosynthesis to produce a small electric current. Designer Mike Thompson exploits this new technology in a speculative product he calls the Latro Lamp.
The name Latro, which is Latin for “thief,” alludes to the fact that the lamp “steals” power from the process of photosynthesis to supply light. The glass chamber of the lamp contains green algae, which needs little more than sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to survive. The lamp needs to be stored in a spot where it receives the sunlight it requires. The water is enclosed in the glass chamber along with the algae. The only other element required by the living lamp is carbon dioxide, which we humans conveniently produce through another natural process: breathing.
The lamp’s owner has only to breathe into a small opening in the glass chamber to send a dose of CO2 in to the algae. Another opening allows the user to add water and also provides an escape route for the oxygen generated by the algae. Special sensors in the lamp’s machinery measure when the algae has all of the nourishment it needs, ensuring that the lamp’s light bulb will only draw energy from the plants when the plants are well cared for. In this way, the lamp acts as both an appliance and a pet, only performing its practical function when it has enough attention and care from its owner.
This concept is not yet being produced as an actual commercially-available product, but it does provide some food for thought. How much more careful would we be with our energy usage if we had to produce that energy first? The photosynthesis mini-power plant will probably never be able to power an entire house, but it could be very useful for power outages, natural disasters and camping, or any time when grid electricity just isn’t available.
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Revealing Your Inner Beast: Animal Tattoos
July 22, 2010 by admin · View Comments
[ By Marc in Art & Design. ]
People show their appreciation of nature and the ecosystem in different ways; some people join a commune and begin a sustainable, vegan existence, while others simply signify their love for nature by tattooing it onto their back. Some people do all of these things. Here are some of the coolest, and in some cases, most random animal tattoos you’ve never seen:
(Images via geniusreviews, tattooan, tattoosbydesign, free-insurance-review, tribaltattoo, wolf tattoo)
Wolves are a classic image of untamed nature. Favored by loners who are proud of their ability to howl out their emotions at the moon, it’s also great for those who have more of a pack mentality, and like how this animal is fierce and independent, but works closely and loyally in a group. It also has beautiful features and frightening teeth. These examples show there are a lot of ways to go with your wolf tattoo.
(Images via tattoo, robotnine, graphic.ward)
Giraffes would not be my first guess for an animal tattoo, but apparently they hold powerful meaning for some people. I have to say my favorite is the connect the dots example (the red lines are marker… the tattoo typically just looks like dots), though I’d worry about too much interaction from strangers itching to draw on your leg to see what it reveals.
(Images via mytipsonline, tattoobringer, cwalker71)
Elephants have held much significance in a lot of cultures, but any nature lover can appreciate their intelligence, power, and loyalty to one another. If you’ve ever seen elephants mourning over a fallen comrade, it’s heart wrenching. You have to have a lot of room and a great artist to pull this off well, but the results can be well worth it.
(Images via myspace, asseeninwi)
I originally thought a cow tattoo would be incredibly strange, imagining the image in the second photo as the only possible outcome of that train of thought. The beauty and quality of the first tattoo changed my attitude, however, as it’s beautifully done. If you want to show serenity, or loyalty to a home state known for its’ cheese, just be sure you get an inspired tattoo artist to do the work.
(Images via tattoo22, tattoospit, artbackwash, 99tattoos)
Bats are frightening, unique, and if you walk three feet in a library you’ll find yourself tripping over a book that features their mythology prominently. Whether you’ve decided to get tattooed with a bat because of your love of vampires, or it’s entirely because of your love for that particular animal, you have to be careful of what conclusions people will jump to. Regardless of the meaning behind it, bat tattoos have a lot of room to be amazing.
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Wood Carving: Trees as a Medium
July 15, 2010 by admin · View Comments
[ By Marc in Art & Design, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
Unless you’ve been to a logging competition, you probably haven’t seen someone with a large chainsaw creating a beautiful piece of art out of a dead tree, but you may have stumbled upon their handiwork in the woods or sitting outside a boutique. When a tree dies (or sometimes, while it’s alive), these tree carvers are able to take the remains and turn it into something beautiful. Here are some of the most gorgeous examples of tree carving:
(Images via treefellers, ronaldhanko, cimba7200, bruce aleksander and dennis milam)
Those who take up tree carving are typically nature lovers, and spend a lot of their time in the outdoors enjoying nature, and practicing their art. It’s unsurprising, then that animals feature heavily in tree carving subject matter. The most common tree carving tends to be a giant bear, rough hewn out of a large tree and left in the lobby of a ski lodge. Large hawks and Pelicans, and even fish leaping out of imaginary water, are just a few of the more intricate animals also chosen.
(Images via ajft, fields of view, gary and kathy, neilio, lndshlf72, treefellers)
Human faces are difficult to carve because everyone is a well attuned critic, since we’ve all been studying faces since we first opened our eyes. Despite the difficulty, the idea of an old wise tree man, or beautiful and intelligent tree woman, is incredibly common, and by far the most intriguing tree carving subject matter.
(Images via ksgirl, chigmaroff, linda, jafproject)
People are difficult to carve because they’re tall, bipedal, and typically have some sort of tool or implement lying around; not to mention the fact that we’re evolutionarily geared to be able to tell what is right or wrong about a person’s face, making everyone much more critical. The difficulty doesn’t stop tree carvers, however, and many create monuments to famous individuals from trees that have been around since they still walked the Earth.
(Images via gizmodo, coasttocoastam)
It’s surprising when a tree carver’s subject matter is something besides a jumping salmon or wise-eyed old man, but that can make it even more enjoyable. Above are two such examples; an arcade machine and an alien, defying you to pass by without studying them even more intently than you would a depiction of a large bear.
(Images via halle0909, the eggplant, trying to keep still, jaana-mari, simon lawrence, lwh1970)
A tree carver has to work with the shape and size of the tree he’s working with, and this can spur creativity in a direction maybe the tree carver didn’t even expect. They may reveal symbolic elements, or even the secret door to a dwarve’s underground abode, or even create an area meant for meditation on nature. Whatever the tree carver decides, if they have the skills, it will become awe inspiring.
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Happy Fourth of July: 7 x 4 = 28 Patriotic Animal Pictures
July 4, 2010 by thegreenchildrenfoundation · View Comments
[ By Chris in Animals & Habitats, History & Trivia, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
(Images via: Photobucket, Costume Cats, Flickr, Costume Dogs, Critteristic, PBase)
While dressing animals in clothing can certainly exude a level of creepiness, it’s all good when done for patriotic purposes, right? Whatever the case, it’s all about the red, white and blue on this day for these proud-to-be-American dogs, cats, squirrels, horses, turtles and guinea pigs.
Hot Dogs: Dressed for Success & the Best Country Going
(Images via: Costume Dogs, Bag of Nothing, Downtown Pets)
Straight out of a political convention, these patriotic dogs are styling and profiling on Independence Day, with the mutt in the upper right casting a mug worthy of a presidential profile and the fellow in the lower left literally going above and beyond for the United States. As for the tongue-wagging pup on the lower right, he or she is primarily concerned if this paint job will ever rub off.
Independence Day: (Hardly) Independent, Patriot Dogs
(Images via: A Dog Lover’s Blog, Juliannah by Design, Dachshunds Dressed for Show)
Not sure that these dogs know what’s been done to them by their owners, but there’s no need for the guy in the lower left to take a plunge. Rather, the canine in the upper left has the perfect attitude, sleeping it off until things return to normal. As for the Statue of Liberty, here’s hoping that this dog is a she and not a he, as that would be rather demeaning.
Two More Patriotic (But Less Than Enthusiastic) Dogs
(Images via: The Pet Boutique)
Speaking of demeaning, the two pictures above reflect patriotism gone wild. Come on now: patriotic dog shirts and two-piece swim suits! How many bags of Kibble-N-Bits were given to these model dogs, which certainly don’t look like the happiest or most willing participants around. In these tough economic times, a paycheck is a paycheck.
The Cats in the Uncle Sam Top Hats
(Images via: Costume Cats, Snuzzy, Almanac, Ilxor, Fur All Over, Flickr)
Mad props to the owners of the cats in the upper left and on the right, as it had to take a long time to get their felines into those patriotic pet costumes. As for the other patriotic cats, it goes without saying that these guys know what it takes to exude a casual yet cool look on a sweltering Fourth of July.
The Patriotic Squirrel, Tortoise and Bunny Rabbit
(Images via: Ilxor, Flickr, Justin Space)
For his Fourth of July, this wannabe-Framer squirrel is participating in a reenactment of the drawing up of the Declaration of Independence. For Mr. Tortoise, he is slowly but surely taking part in an Independence Day Parade. And this silly rabbit is chilling out at a July 4th barbecue, waiting for some tasty eats.
The Animal Flag Bearers
(Images via: Fat Knowledge, Cowboys and Sunsets, Ilxor)
Taking one small step for mankind, this patriotic squirrel has firmly claimed the surrounding land for the United States. Performing their own pledge of allegiance, these two horses are contemplating what the red, white and blue symbolize. As for the pink-rimmed dog, he’s just saved the flag from being buried in a hole in the backyard. All kidding aside, the Fourth of July is a day of celebration and respect. Have a safe and happy Independence Day.
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Forest for the Trees: An Endless Forest in the City
July 2, 2010 by thegreenchildrenfoundation · View Comments
[ By Delana in Art & Design, Nature & Ecosystems. ]
Stuck in the urban jungle and longing for greener places? We’ve all been there, but it’s not always easy to sneak away and take a short trip to the forest. DUS Architects made it possible to take a break from the concrete jungle and get back to nature with its uniquely wonderful project called Unlimited Urban Woods.
The Unlimited Urban Woods was a temporary public art pavilion at the Oosterdokskade, Amsterdam. The unassuming box took up only a few square meters of ground space, but inside sat a forest that went on forever.
Upon stepping into the box, visitors were greeted with an impossibly lush and full wooded area. The effect was achieved with one full-size tree and some strategically angled mirrors. The image of the tree was repeated in the mirrors over and over, making it feel as though one could simply walk through these woods for eternity.
The exhibit was an unexpected bit of green in the city, giving passers-by a chance to take a break from their normal busy day and simply relax for a while in a calm, green space. Even if the forest wasn’t real, the sense of being in a vast space certainly was.
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