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Met Home's Surreal Estate

Whether they defy gravity or turn traditional function on its head, Metropolitan Home has unearthed nine architecture projects that you'll have to see to believe

Surreal Estates

    Floating Hotel

    Talk about a room with a view. French designer Jean-Marie Massaud has envisioned a flying hotel he calls the Manned Cloud. The whale-shaped vessel is designed to accommodate 40 guests along with a restaurant, spa and fitness center and would fly high above the treetops at up to 100 miles per hour. The odds of this dirigible bed-and-breakfast becoming a reality may seem slim but Massaud is working with ONERA, the center of French aerospace research, so you may someday be able to drift along in your own hotel. -Katherine Lagomarsino

    Massaud

    Climbing Wall

    Forget fake rock overhangs. The Illoiha fitness center in Omotesando, Tokyo's stylish shopping district, is home to what is arguably the most unusual climbing wall yet. Created by the young design group Nendo, headed by Oki Sato (MH, Nov '07), the wall is a tongue-in-cheek take on a chic country house. The hard-to-find holds and unusual finger grips are hidden amongst baroque picture frames, mirrors, deer heads, birdcages and flower vases-giving inventive new meaning to getting a leg up (Illoiha.com). -Arlene Hirst

    Daici Ano

    Parking Garage

    Driving a car isn't the greenest of activities, but the Ballet Valet Parking Garage and Retail Center in Miami Beach, designed by Arquitectonica, puts a sustainable face on it. The building includes street-level shops, a restored Art Deco façade and six parking levels concealed behind a trellised, carbon-dioxide-absorbing planting of Clusia guttifera, Conocarpus erectus, serecius and Scaevola frutescans. Palm trees planted along the sidewalk provide shade. It may be a garage-mahal, but it's a green one. -Arlene Hirst

    Dan Forer, Courtesy of Arquitectonica

    Xstrata Treetop Walkway

    See London's Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew as the birds do-nearly 60 feet above ground. The new 650-foot-long walkway designed by Marks Barfield Architects (designers of the London Eye) allows visitors to meander among the leafy canopies of 50 mature sweet chestnut, lime and oak trees. The weathered steel of the twelve steel trusses, which connect to ten circular platforms, resembles tree bark (Apps.Kew.org/Trees). -Katherine Lagomarsino

    RBG Kew

    Elbe Philharmonic Hall

    As the centerpiece of Hamburg, Germany's massive revitalization of its harbor area (called HafenCity), the new music hall by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron pays homage to the city's connection to the sea. The soaring, shiplike glass structure, currently under construction and set to open in 2011, sits atop the former site of the historic, neo-gothic Kaiserspeicher warehouse. Damaged during World War II, it was eventually detonated and rebuilt in 1963. The new building, at 360,000 square feet, will house three concert halls, a hotel, apartments, a wellness center and a nightclub (ElbPhilharmonie.de). -Katherine Lagomarsino

    Herzog & De Meuron

    Selexyz Dominicanen Bookstore

    Dutch bookseller Selexyz hired the architectural firm Merkx Girod to convert the interior of a former Dominican church into a bookstore in Maastricht. The architects created what amounts to a monumental walk-in bookcase that rises up three stories. There's also a café, housed on the former altar, with a large central reading table in the shape of a cross; just call it an article of faith. -Arlene Hirst

    Roos Aldershoff

    Banq Restaurant

    An undulating birch plywood ceiling by architecture firm Office dA sets the culinary stage in this Boston South End restaurant housed in a former bank. Chef Ranveer Brar, trained in India, explores such pairings as mung bean crepes with wild mushrooms and Asian fruit ($11) and char-grilled haddock with sautéed bok choy, water chestnut ragout and olive-tomato butter. -Donna Paul

    Catie Newman

    Lego-like Hotel

    The stylish, budget-friendly hotel trend continues in Amsterdam with Citizen M, short for Citizen Mobile, the first from a new European chain. Opened at Schiphol Airport, it caters to those seeking luxury and good design at an affordable price. The secret to keeping prices low? The ultra-mod rooms, containing big comfy beds and power rain showers, are manufactured at a factory off-site. (From $100 per night; CitizenM.com). -Katherine Lagomarsino

    Nestle Chocolate Museum

    Move over Willy Wonka-Nestle's museum in Mexico City is the coolest thing in candy land. The bright folds and turns of the origami-inspired building, completed in just 21⁄2 months by Rojkind Arquitectos, house the chocolate museum, a theater, shop and a tunnel that leads to the factory, where visitors can watch their favorite treats being made. -Flannery Hoard

    Paul Rivera/Archphoto.com



Recent Comments

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162 comments

Damnyankeesports 05:01:31 PM Jan 30 2009

last thing we need is to screw up the ocean with hotels,just look at the poor job we have done above the waters surfice.NEED TO KEEP IT OUT OF USA WATERS OR OBOMA WILL END UP TAXING IT

Eugene C N 01:48:59 PM Jan 26 2009

Why can't I copy the pictures and send to my friends?The pics can't even be printed out for private use. Ridiculous site and info format.

Mac2jr 10:12:20 AM Jan 26 2009

There are dozens of underground cities. A British company has already started on the making of this flying motel/hotel and there is actually a much better plan that was dreamed up in the 1960's; a flying city, which is very possible.

CardiacBuzz 07:33:50 AM Jan 26 2009

ZOned........let me guess.........was conceived on an office desk covered with a huge acid blotter.

Emmitt Ashford 07:31:14 AM Jan 26 2009

WHAT ABOUT AN UNDERGROUND CITY, INSTEAD OF A FLYING RESTAURANT. BETTER FOR ENVIROMENT.

Emmitt Ashford 07:27:53 AM Jan 26 2009

INSTEAD OF A FLYING RESTUARANT, WHAT ABOUT AN UNDERGROUND CITY. MUCH BETTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT.

Doona BugDI 07:21:22 AM Jan 26 2009

Dah... AOL, if you can't show us the imiage, don't include it in the article.We want to see what your talking about, not just read about it. You do this all the time.

X13thWitchX 06:24:15 AM Jan 26 2009

Now I know why Nestle chocolate tastes so bad nowadays.

fruitylalaland16 03:52:16 PM Jan 25 2009

ZOned is a gives a really bad impression of republicans. I don't think you can be considered a rebublican if you can't spell it.... lol

fruitylalaland16 03:50:30 PM Jan 25 2009

ZOned, here's two pieces of advice that I think you should follow. They are in little rhymes so even you can remember them!!!!!1. Crack is whack2. Hugs not drugs3. Pot is a notThere you go. Take my advice into deep consideration.

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