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Archive de la catégorie ‘Out Of The Ordinary’

The room’s walls disappeared!

Via Capitale - 2 May 2013

Amber Room by Jeanyvan (Wikipedia Commons)

We laughed at Indiana Jones at the time. It’s only a movie, we said, watching Raiders of the Lost Ark. Treasure hunters no longer exist. Archeologists searching for the Ark of the Covenant are pure fiction.

First off, it’s true that some archeologists still hope to get hold of the Ark of the Covenant—unless it was destroyed. They look for it without lassos or guns, but they still look for it.

Second, treasure hunters do indeed exist. And one of the most coveted treasures is the Amber Room. Why? Because six tonnes of rare amber covered the walls. What’s more, the amber panels were backed by gold leaf and mirrors.

Let’s travel back to the time of the Russian tsars. In 1701, a Prussian king ordered construction of the room for the Charlottenberg Palace. In 1716, as a political move, he gave it as a gift to Tsar Peter the Great, who decided to increase the splendor of the room with additional work. Finished in 1755, the Amber Room was moved from the winter palace to the summer palace, near Saint Petersburg. (more…)

Tags: Amber Room, Germany, Russia, walls
Catégories: Out Of The Ordinary |

This is a hotel

Via Capitale - 4 April 2013

In Bora Bora, you take a nap listening to the ocean murmur under the floor. In Kenya, you lounge in your hotel room while lions, buffalo, cheetahs, hyenas and other wild animals walk under your feet. From time to time you take a look outside: Look over there—it’s a giraffe!

All of that thanks to construction on stilts (piles).

Carole and her daughter Catherine, a future anthropologist, returned from their trip to Kenya totally amazed. They brought back this photo of Sarova Salt Lick Game Lodge where they stayed during their trip to Africa. Do you know who built this unusual hotel? Hilton International—back in 1972!

Built on wood piles, the hotel allows tourists to observe the comings-and-goings of African animals without having to go on safari. The animals come to drink from a source located nearby. No harm is caused to the wildlife because the hotel does not block the natural migration routes.

Source: Casarazzi

(more…)

Tags: Africa, animals, hotel, Kenya, Sarova Salt Lick Game Lodge, stilts
Catégories: Out Of The Ordinary |

He mortgaged his house to see a movie

Via Capitale - 4 March 2013

George Harrison. Photo : Steve Mathieson (Wikipedia)

We’ve often heard of filmmakers and producers who mortgage their homes to complete their oft-dreamed-about movie. Financing is a chronic problem in the art world. But for a musician to mortgage his home to see a movie that an experienced producer declares a big risk? Pretty rare indeed!

Here’s the story.

Perhaps you recognized him. It’s George Harrison, of the Beatles. (more…)

Tags: Beatles, George Harrison, London, Monty Python, mortgage, movie, musician
Catégories: Out Of The Ordinary |

The cottage that dominates the world

Via Capitale - 6 February 2013

The desire to dominate is often reflected in real estate. Think of cathedrals, basilicas, churches built high above valleys, huge castles, the manors of British lords and the luxurious properties of the rich and famous.

Adolf Hitler was certainly not immune to the desire to dominate. We know that painting was one of the German dictator’s passions, but it’s through architecture that he best expressed his need for domination, power and absolute liberty—the very essence of fascism.

Apart from his many headquarters, Hitler built three buildings in Bavaria, on the slopes of the Alps close to the Austrian border, near the city of Salzburg. First there was the Berghof, his second home and favourite refuge, where he entertained foreign dignitaries. Hitler designed the plans himself. Built on the side of a mountain, the home overlooked a scenic valley.

In front of the Berghof was a teahouse, the second of his three buildings. Every afternoon, Hitler took his daily walk and headed to this small structure, where it’s said he liked to relax alone, with friends or with his companion, Eva Braun. Perhaps some of the dictator’s political decisions were made during his daily walks there.

The most spectacular of the three buildings is the Kehlsteinhaus, a cottage designed to serve as a Nazi conference centre. A French diplomat visiting Hitler before World War II was so impressed by the building’s setting that he called it the Eagle’s Nest. The building is located on the side of the Hoher Göll (2500 metres), at the top of a mountain called Kehlstein, whose height is 1,834 metres. When you look at the photo, you feel a slight shiver because you sense that the building conveys Hitler’s ultimate goal: to dominate the world by crushing it under his boots. (more…)

Tags: Adolf Hitler, Alps, buildings, domination, Germany, Kehlsteinhaus
Catégories: Out Of The Ordinary |

A house travels from Paris to the heart of the jungle

Via Capitale - 9 January 2013

There’s Ironside (an American TV series), the Iron Lady (Margaret Thatcher), the Iron Curtain, the Iron Gates (a gorge on the Danube). Real estate has now joined the club by offering us “the iron house.”

The “Casa de fierro” is in the middle of the jungle, in the streets of the city of Iquitos, Peru. The walls, ceilings and balcony are made of iron. Other metal alloys were also used.

The long veranda, which stretches along the entire façade, and numerous archways allow for better ventilation of the building, which is subject to the tropical heat. The Ulysses travel guide describes the house as a strange building. Hard to argue with that. The architecture is rather ordinary. It’s the iron that gives the building a special cachet.

Legend has it that the building is the first prefabricated house built in the Americas. How did it end up in the heart of the jungle? And where does it come from? The story is rather outlandish. (more…)

Tags: Casa de fierro, Eiffel, iron house, Paris, Peru
Catégories: Out Of The Ordinary |

Imagine that on your roof!

Via Capitale - 4 December 2012

Source: iStockphoto LP

No, not a Trabant, the odd East German car affectionately dubbed the Trabi, but an enormous stork nest!

In Europe, three species of storks prefer to make nests on rooftops rather than in trees according to Wikipedia.

In the GeoGuide de la Croatie, you discover that there’s even a European stork capital in the Lonjsko Polje National Park, in the small village of Cigoc. How many years do you think a stork nest can remain attached to a roof? 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, perhaps 100 years?

If you guessed 50, you’re right. That’s half a century!

And how much does a nest weigh on average? 10, 50, 100, 500, 700 or 1000 kilograms?

700! That’s 1,543 pounds!

Imagine that on your roof! The structure of the house better be solid if you don’t want to have storks landing in your living room like Santa Claus. (more…)

Tags: nest, Québec Breeding Bird Atlas, QuébecOiseaux, roof, stork
Catégories: Out Of The Ordinary |

A flower that opens to the heavens

Via Capitale - 1 November 2012

Will it open or not? And if it opens, will we see a ray of light rising to the sky? Unless of course it takes the opposite route, from the heavens to the interior of the building.

Light or not, you feel like something’s about to happen, that the building’s alive, that you’re going to make contact. No, it’s not a spaceship; it’s infinitely more poetic.

Source: iStockphoto LP

We are at the Lotus Temple in New Delhi, the capital of India. The temple belongs to the Baha’i community and its real name is the Baha’i House of Worship. (more…)

Tags: Baha’i, India, Lotus, petals, temple
Catégories: Out Of The Ordinary |

The Fall of the House of Usher

Via Capitale - 3 October 2012

On my way to work, I observe the houses I pass by. I try to guess the owner’s personality from the outside appearance of the home. It’s a game I play. Most houses don’t give off anything in particular. Some of them though, arouse my curiosity.

One rundown house suggests great sadness. It’s lived in because there are always cars in the driveway. Then there’s a house that’s absolutely impeccable, but cold as ice; it doesn’t exactly invite you to ring the bell.

At one time or another all of us have entered a house that we wanted to leave as fast as our feet could carry us, for all kinds of reasons: the decor, the atmosphere, the owner or maybe something in the very air. Human beings project themselves and are reflected in the decor, the arrangement of furniture, the division of rooms, etc. (more…)

Tags: atmosphere, Edgar Allan Poe, influence, psychologie
Catégories: Out Of The Ordinary |

Human bones reused

Via Capitale - 5 September 2012

Sedlec Ossuary (Wikipedia)

My girlfriend was visiting a church in Linz, in northern Austria. I was waiting for her outside. An Austrian friend strongly recommended that we visit the building. “You have to see it,” she said.

“You’ll never guess what I saw,” my girlfriend said as she came out of the church. “I was amazed to see such beautiful sculptures. It looked like lace. When I got closer to the pieces, I noticed that human bones were the base for the detailed sculpture work!”

She was quite shaken up.

Last year she visited a chapel in the Mauricie region. As she got closer to the relics, she jumped when she saw bones, hair, nails and teeth mounted like works of art: jewels, sculptures, objects in doll houses, etc. She thought that the relics were just objects touched by an illustrious person, not human body parts!

So far, neither of these discoveries have much to do with real estate, but we’re slowly getting there.

In the same year, a young owner told us that he called the police because he found bones in the walls of the ancestral home that he and his girlfriend were renovating. The neighbours were quite curious about the police presence in this quiet corner of Nicolet.

The young woman and her boyfriend learned that the bones were animal. They were often used at the time for insulation. Horse manes and tails were also used. People used whatever was handy at the time. (more…)

Tags: Austria, bones, chandelier, decoration, insulation, Mauricie, ossuary
Catégories: Out Of The Ordinary |

Inspired by par Gaudi and an umbel

Via Capitale - 2 July 2012

Wild carrot. Photo Alvesgaspar (Wikipedia)

The umbel[1] of a wild carrot inspired American architect James H. Johnson. His Pod House, usually called Mushroom House, stands on 14 to 20-foot high pillars (4 to 6 metres).

Do you see a resemblance?

This unusual home took root in Perinton, New York. Built for a lawyer-artist couple in the 70s, it became an emblem of the city in 1989. A basement was added at the beginning of the 2000s.

It appears to have six “mushrooms” forming a star: two central mushrooms placed side by side, each one connected to two other independent mushrooms. They are all surrounded by windows. As you can imagine, it’s highlighted by curves, both inside and out.

One of the units contains the sitting room. The cream ceiling brings to mind the texture of a paunch. Sliding windows equipped with rounded glass on each side blend with the half-circles of the ceiling. The concrete furniture incrusted with stones takes the shape of an inverted U. Cushions make everything cozy and friendly.

Pod House. Photo Daniel Penfield (Wikipedia)