Tag Archives: Construction

Metéora

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Metéora

Metéora is a mystical location of amazing architecture.

  • Metéora is a group of six remaining monasteries, of the 24 that were built in the area, located on the outskirts of the Plain of Thessaly, in central Greece.
  • The monasteries in Metéora are built atop sandstone rock cliffs that reach up to 400 metres (1312 feet) in height.
  • The first residents of Metéora were hermit monks, most likely in the 11th century, who sought refuge from Turkish armies in the caves during this period.
  • The Metéora monasteries were mostly constructed during the 1300 and 1400s, as a safe haven for monks and nuns who felt threatened by the political instability that was apparent in the area at the time.
  • Lengthy ladders, and ropes or nets were originally used to access the monasteries at Metéora, and there is now cable car access to some sites, although it wasn’t until the early 1900s that steps carved from rock were added for convenience.
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Part of Metéora
Image courtesy of Antonio Picascia/Flickr
  • Metéora’s rock pillars are believed to have been formed by tectonic movement and erosion by wind and water.
  • ‘Metéora’ means ‘suspended in the air’ or similar, in Greek, and the monasteries and the cliffs they sit upon have been used in. or inspired literature, music and film.
  • Metéora covers an area of 2.72 square kilometres (1.05 square miles) and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988.
  • Metéora has a large temperature range that varies from very cold to very hot, and has significant quantities of rain throughout the year.
  • Metéora is a popular tourist destination, visited by thousands annually, and to access the sites, steps or rock climbing are the two main options.
Bibliography:
Meteora, 2014, UNESCO WHC, http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/455
Meteora, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteora
Meteora: The most photogenic spiritual site in Greece, 2014, Visit Greece, http://www.visitgreece.gr/en/destinations/meteora_the_most_photogenic_spiritual_site_in_greece

Salina Turda

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Salina Turda

Salina Turda is a salt mine, theme park and museum – all underground!

  • Salina Turda is the world’s deepest underground entertainment park and museum, and has its origins as a salt mine.
  • Salina Turda is located in Cluj County, in the region of Transylvania, in Europe’s Romania.
  • Salina Turda was mined from as early as 1075 AD, in Medieval Europe, until its closure in 1932, for table salt.
  • Salina Turda underwent an improvement program costing €5.8 million, that began in 2008 and was completed in 2010.
  • Salina Turda has four main mines and a number of other rooms, that either contain historic equipment, or are impressively shaped, and some feature large stalactites and other salt formations.
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Part of Salina Turda
Image courtesy of Cristian Bortes/Flickr
  • Salina Turda contains constructions that are strange in appearance, often compared with science fiction architecture, with the tube lighting adding to the effect.
  • Salina Turda is said to have very clean air and limited bacteria, as well as a constant temperature of 11°C to 12°C (52°F to 53.5°F), and its environment therefore does not trigger asthmatic reactions.
  • Salina Turda mines are as deep as 120 metres (394 feet), and others are 108 metres (354 feet) and 42 metres (138 feet) deep, and they are connected by narrow corridors.
  • Salina Turda is a popular tourist destination, and it has an underground lake that can be travelled on via boat, a Ferris wheel, mini golf course, bowling lanes, sports field, amphitheatre, billiard tables, table tennis, a spa treatment room and more.
  • At different times in the 20th century, Salina Turda was used as an antiaircraft shelter and a cheese storage facility, and it opened for tourism in 1992.
Bibliography:
Ryan R, Salina Turda salt mine in Romania is now an underground theme park, 2014, News, http://www.news.com.au/travel/world-travel/salina-turda-salt-mine-in-romania-is-now-an-underground-theme-park/story-e6frfqai-1227016762579
Turda Salt Mine, 2013, Salina Turda, http://salinaturda.eu/salt-mine-turda/?lang=en
Salina Turda, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salina_Turda
Salina turda salt mines turned subterranean history museum, 2013, Designboom Architecture, http://www.designboom.com/architecture/salina-turda-salt-mines-turned-subterranean-history-museum-11-30-2013/

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Silo

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Silo

While silos may be dangerous, these facts are not.

  • A silo is a large storage facility used to store and/or ferment large volumes of loose materials, often in the agricultural industry, and they are most commonly used to store grain, wood chips, food products, cement, coal and sawdust.
  • ‘Silo’ comes from the word ‘siros’, a Greek word, meaning ‘a pit to keep corn in’, and there are three modern types of silos, called ‘bunker’, ‘tower’ and ‘bag’, that store materials below ground, above ground, and in small quantities respectively.
  • Tower silos are shaped as a cylinder, and are typically made of materials of wood, concrete and/or steel and are unloaded by slides or grain elevators.
  • Bag silos are typically strong plastic bags that are long and laid on the ground and are significantly cheaper and less dangerous than a tower or bunker model.
  • Bunker silos are trenches or pits in the ground, sometimes with concrete walls, that are filled with the material to be stored, and then covered in durable plastic that is often held down with weights.

Tower Silo, Steel, Row, store, 8, Farm, Ten Random Facts, Australia

  • Tower silos are approximately 10 to 84 metres (30 to 275 feet) in height and 4 to 30 metres (10 to 90 feet) in diameter, while bags are around 2.4 to 3.7 metres (8 to 12 feet) in diameter and can reach lengths of 30 to 91 metres (100 to 300 feet).
  • There is evidence of bulk storage buildings, or silos, being used in Ancient cultures, including Greece and Israel.
  • Tower silos typically have ventilation to replace the toxic methane gas produced by fermenting materials.
  • American Fred Hatch, the son of a farmer, and his father Lewis Hatch are commonly believed to have invented the first modern tower silo in 1873, in the McHenry County of the United State’s Illinois, that quickly became popular throughout the United States.
  • Silos are highly dangerous, and people are killed annually, due to poisoning, suffocation or crushing due to gases and grain or machinery collapsing, with an average of 16 people each year in the United States, dying from grain entrapment.

 

Bibliography:
Silo, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silo
What is a Grain Silo?, 2014, WiseGEEK, http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-a-grain-silo.htm

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Taipei 101

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Taipei 101

Taipei 101, a record holder.

  • Taipei 101 is a blue-green coloured skyscraper that was the tallest building in the world from 2004 to 2010.
  • ‘Taipei 101’ is also known as the ‘Taipei World Financial Center’ or ‘Taipei Financial Center’.
  • Taipei 101 is located in the city of Taipei, in east Asia’s Taiwan, and it cost US$1.76 billion to build.
  • When the building was finished, Taipei 101 was the tallest sundial in the world, it contained the largest and heaviest tuned mass damper sphere (like a pendulum to keep the building more stable), the largest countdown clock, and had the fastest elevator.
  • Taipei 101 is made to withstand severe typhoons and earthquakes, using its tuned mass damper sphere, 380 foundation piles rammed 80 metres (262 feet) into the earth, and other features.

Taipei 101, Green, Tower, skyscraper, Taiwan, Financial center, World Record, asia, Ten Random Facts, Ground

Taipei 101
Image courtesy of Luke Ma/Flickr
  • Taipei 101 has 101 floors, symbolising a new century, the coming of new years, and perfection, and it contains 8 sections, referring to the symbolic Chinese number for prosperity.
  • Taipei 101 is the home to apartments, observatories, offices, meeting centres, a club and restaurants, and has an attached shopping mall.
  • Since its construction, Taipei 101 has been the home to New Years Eve firework displays each year, with the longest display lasting 288 seconds in 2010/2011, and in 2011/2012 it is said that 30,000 rocket fireworks were launched.
  • Taipei 101’s architect was the Chinese company, C.Y. Lee & Partners, and planning started in 1997, construction began in 1999/2000, and the building opened on New Years Eve, 2004.
  • Taipei 101 boasts a height of 509 metres (1,670 feet), surpassing the 1998 built Petronas Towers in Malaysia on completion, and being surpassed by Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010.
Bibliography: Clancy R, The Building of the Taipei 101 Skyscraper, 2009, Property Forum, http://www.propertyforum.com/emerging-property-markets/230-the-building-of-the-taipei-101-skyscraper.html
Taipei 101, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei_101

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Burj Khalifa

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Burj Khalifa

Can you stand the height of these Burj Khalifa facts?

  • Burj Khalifa, located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Middle East, was the tallest building and man-made structure in the world at its completion in 2010.
  • The Burj Khalifa, ‘burj’ meaning ‘tower’, was originally known as ‘Burj Dubai’, but it was renamed after the United Arab Emirates’ president and ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan at its official opening, which is said to be the result of Abu Dhabi bailing Dubai out of a financial crisis just before the building was completed.
  • Burj Khalifa is a centrepiece of an area developed in the city of Dubai, built for a variety of purposes including tourism and fame for the city, and the building has won numerous awards.
  • Burj Khalifa has the height of 829.8 metres (2722 feet), has 163 official floors, and has a floor area of 309,473 square metres (3,331,100 square feet).
  • Burj Khalifa is said to be able to house over 35,000 people at once, has over 24,000 windows and 900 apartments, includes offices and a hotel, and when it opened it had the highest nightclub, restaurant and observation deck, and was host to the highest fireworks display.
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Burj Khalifa
Image courtesy of Joi Ito/Flickr
  • It is believed that the Burj Khalifa was originally going to use the scrapped Melbourne, Australia’s planned Grollo Tower design, a 560 metre (1837 feet) skyscraper, but the building was later completely redesigned by United States architect Adrian Smith from Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.
  • Burj Khalifa was constructed by South Korea’s Samsung Engineering and Construction, mostly using thousands of migrant workers from south Asia, and during the building process, there was only one reported fatality although the number of actual deaths is believed to be much higher.
  • Burj Khalifa was constructed with 330,000 cubic metres (431,600 cubic yards) of concrete and 55,000 tonnes (61,000 tons) of steel and cost approximately US$1.5 billion.
  • Work on the Burj Khalifa site started in January 2004, and the building was officially opened with 10,000 fireworks and other light and sound effects, on 4th January 2010, although the interior was not complete at that stage.
  • The Burj Khalifa is based on the design of a Hymenocallis, a desert flower, and the spire at the top of the building is said to sway 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) and is visible 95 kilometeres (60 miles) away.
Bibliography:
Burj Khalifa, 2014, The Skyscraper Center, http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/dubai/burj-khalifa/
Burj Khalifa, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Khalifa
Burj Khalifa, 2014, Burj Khalifa, http://www.burjkhalifa.ae/en/

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Sydney Opera House

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Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House – an iconic landmark.

  • The Sydney Opera House is an iconic building that is mainly dedicated to the performing arts.
  • The Sydney Opera House is located in one of Australia’s state capitals, Sydney, in Sydney Harbour, New South Wales.
  • The Sydney Opera House was designed by Jørn Utzon, an architect from Denmark, that was the winning design decided upon in an international design competition in 1957.
  • Every year, the Sydney Opera House holds approximately 1500 performances and sees 8.2 million visitors.
  • On 28 June, 2007, the Sydney Opera House was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and at the time, was the youngest building to be added to the list.

Sydney Opera House, White, Sail, Shell, Performing Arts, Music, Centre, Habour, Ten Random Facts, Australia

Sydney Opera House
Image courtesy of Australia Photos (Flickr)
  • The Sydney Opera House has a design type of modern expressionist, with the notable feature of over a million individual white to cream ceramic tiles across the ten ‘shells’ or ‘sails’.
  • The Sydney Opera House is 65 metres (213 feet) in height and 4.4 acres (1.8 hectares) in area, and is located on land that was previously used as a tram depot and even earlier, as Fort Macquarie.
  • Construction on the Sydney Opera House began in 1959 and cost $102 million to build, which was over 14 times the proposed budget.
  • The idea of having a ‘Sydney Opera House’ was proposed by Eugene Goossens in the 1940s, who was a composer and conductor, and at the time, the director of NSW State Conservatorium of Music.
  • The Sydney Opera House was officially opened on the 20 October, 1973, by Queen Elizabeth II, but the designer, Utzon, was not credited.
Bibliography:
A Danish architect, an Australian icon: the history of the Sydney Opera House, 2013, ABC News, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-21/anthony-burke-on-sydney-opera-house-history/5034028
Sydney Opera House, History and Heritage, 2014, Sydney Opera House, http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/the_building_history_heritage.aspx
Sydney Opera House, 2014, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Opera_House

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