Story telling photographs of landscapes and architecture in Tuscany by Marcin Sobas (www.marcinsobas.com)
architecture
Travel moments
Unique moments captured by Marcelo Castro (www.marcelocastrophotography.com)
The Secret Ballroom
Deep in Surrey, near Godalming, lies the village of Witley. A mile and a quarter west, in a ramshackle wood, next to a walled kitchen garden, you’ll find a holly tree wrapped around a hut with a door in it.
Go down the spiral concrete steps, and there, 40ft beneath the surface, lies a teardrop-shaped tunnel that leads to Britain’s most extraordinary folly — a ballroom, built of iron and glass, beneath a lake.
Leading off it, an aquarium-cum-smoking room was added, where guests puffed on their cigars and admired the passing carp.
Above the domed, glazed ceiling of the underwater ballroom, a yellowish natural light shines through the murky lake water. A giant statue of Neptune stands at the dome’s peak, poking above the surface, apparently walking on water.
This underwater ballroom is the last, mad, magnificent fragment of a Victorian fantasy world. To create it, 600 workmen dug out four lakes, swept aside hills that got in the way of the view, and built a 32-room neo-Tudor house which was packed with treasures from across the world, including Italian statues and a bronze dolphin’s head so big that it got stuck under a bridge on the way from Southampton. (They had to lower the road to get it out.)
Most of this architectural fantasia has gone now. The house, gutted by fire in 1952, was later demolished. A few forlorn lodges and some stables survive. No one dances in the underwater ballroom any more.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2058772/Witley-Park-Surrey-The-story-Whitaker-Wright-Britains-bizarre-folly.html#ixzz3M6qENrmI and: http://www.visualnews.com/2014/12/09/secret-underwater-ballroom-built-notorious-victorian-swindler/
Siberian mysterious site – Por-Bazhyn (Bajin)
Por-Bazhyng (Russian: Пор-Бажың) is the name of a ruined structure attributed to the Uyghur Khaganate. It is located on an island in the middle of Tere-Khol, a lake in Tuva. The name Por-Bazhyng translates from the Tuvan language as “earthenware house”.
Most likely constructed in 757 AD, the complex has fascinated and frustrated experts in equal measure since it was located in the middle Tere-Khol, a high-altitude lake in Tuva, in the late 19th century.
First explored in 1891, with small-scale excavation work later carried out between 1957 and 1963, it was not until 2007 that proper research took place at the site.
Archaeologists found clay tablets of human feet, faded coloured drawings on the plaster of the walls, giant gates and fragments of burnt wood. But nothing yet has provided a definitive answer as to why the structure was built, and excavation work continues.
Identification of the structure’s purpose is obscured because of the scant amount of evidence of daily human activity at the site. The theories include a fortress, a palace, a monastery, and an astronomical observatory.
While debate continues about the use of Por-Bajin, there is growing evidence it was a community or palace complex centred around a Buddhist monastery. Certainly, there is an argument that its layout is typical of the palaces of the Buddhist Paradises as depicted in T’ang paintings.
Sources and more details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Por-Bazhyn
http://hybridtechcar.com/secrets-siberian-lake-tere-khol-8-photos/
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Laser Research Campus – Prague, Czech Republic
Bogle Architects has won the 2014 “Czech Architect Week Building of the Year” award for their ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure) Beamlines project in Prague, Czech Republic. The campus, designed as four separate structures connected within a landscaped setting, will be the first laser research and technology facility to involve scientists from the global research community for high-powered laser experimentation.
As Bogle describes, “ELI Beamlines will house the infrastructure for world-class laser research, in particular the investigation into applications of laser-matter interaction at the highest light intensity levels. The lasers installed within the complex will have intensities 10 times higher than those currently achievable and will be used for research into material sciences and engineering, medicine, biology, chemistry, pharmacy and astrophysics, and this new generation of laser technology will make important contributions to cancer diagnosis and therapy.”
COLLECTING PLACES 