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So instead of just buying more bookshelfs as your books outgrow your current one, why not just expand the bookshelf you have? The Platzhalter bookshelf does just that, forming a capital V in the process of your book expansion, which adds an elegant design element to your library in the process. The exposed boards that open up the bookshelf as it expands are also hidden when the bookshelf is level vertically. Nice design as long as those expansion boards are secure.

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California is planning a state-of-the-art high speed train system that would travel north and south through the state from Sacramento and San Francisco to San Diego, and stop everywhere in between. The technology in the train system is inspired by the what’s already in place in Europe and Asia where trains can travel at speeds of over 200 MPH at times. The maximum trip length, from San Diego to San Francisco which is 500 miles will take just under four hours. If driving, that same trip driving would be double the time. Check out the website below for tons oh videos and information on the project.

California High-Speed Rail Authority

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An interesting looking boxy structure is soon going to help fill the skyline in Copenhagen, Denmark. Sky Village, designed by MVRDV and co-architect ADEPT, will contain space for retail, offices, housing, parking/storage and a hotel. The design is based on a grid of 60 meter pixels that allow the flexibility to re-design units like giant Lego blocks. These ‘pixels’ all surround the central core of the building.

More @ Contemporist.

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A new apartment building in New York will be a 57-story residential complex housing 145 residences, each with its own unique floor plan and private outdoor space. Each floor will be a seperate apartment. The 2 to 5-bedroom living spaces will range from $3.5 million to $33 million per floor and it looks like they will have great views too.

56 Leonard

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I’m usually not big into the Olympics or sports for that matter but when I saw Michael Phelps representing Baltimore tearing up the charts with gold medals and records, I had to see what all the fuss was about. The Olympics is a great way for all the world’s countries to show sportsmanship and respect for each through the competition of sports. It’s a beautiful thing. Another beautiful thing is the design behind the newly built Water Cube.

Breaking ground in 2003 and being completed more recently, the structure has a capacity of 17,000 during the Olympics. It is composed of steel space frame. The Swimming, Diving and Synchronized Swimming events are being held there during the Olympics. What makes the design so successful is the the outer wall which is based on the Weaire-Phelan structure and look like soap suds. The way the light shines through the outer wall is breathtaking.

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The China Central Television in Beijing has finished its facade just in time for the Olympics. Construction of this 600,000 square meter project began in September 2004 and is due for completion by the end of 2009. So how did they design this building to be structurally sound? Lots of steel. More can be seen at Dezeen.

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This is the Sinosteel International Plaza in Tinajin, China, designed by Beijing-based architects MAD. What will make this skyscraper different is that unlike a traditional building structure, the Sinosteel International Plaza carries its support on the outside, similar to the exoskeleton of a bee. Construction has already begun on the plaza and should be complete in 2012. It will feature office space, a hotel and the complex will be a key building in the Binhai New District, the new economic hub of Northern China. Check out Dezeen for more pics and info.

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Architect David Fisher has designed the first ever rotating skyscraper. Each floor can rotate up to once an hour, changing the overall look of the building daily. According to the plans, the rotation of the floors will be powered by wind turbines placed between the floors.

Each floor will be pre-made and lifted to the top and work its way down, a building method that differs from the usual bottom to top construction method. Make sure your checkbooks are handy because the going rate is $3000/sq foot.

Video of the building in action can be seen here.

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You are staring down a stairwell (Notice the door handle below). That’s right, someone in London made this stairwell with 270 degrees of books. Seems like a good way to utilize space and be creative at the same time. I wonder how DVDs would look in place of the books.

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• The Door Close button is mostly there to give passengers the illusion of control. The button is only enabled in emergency situations with a key held by an authority.
• The only known occurence of an elevator car free falling due to a snapped cable (barring fire or structural collapse), was in 1945 when a B25 Bomber crashed into the Empire State Building and severed the cables of two elevators. The elevator car on the 75th floor had a woman on it, but she survived due to the 1000 feet of coiled cable that had fallen, which lessened the impact.
• Elevators are twenty times safer than escalators. There are twenty times more elevators than escalators, but only 1/3 more accidents
• The New York Marriott was the first to introduce a smart elevator system that assigned passengers to elevators depending on what floor they were heading to.
• Elevators used to require a two-man dispatcher/operator team to function. The advent of navigational buttons rendered those jobs obsolete.
• Elevator hatches are generally bolted shut for safety reasons. In times of elevator crisis, the safest places is inside the elevator.

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