Architecture and Culture

This "nail house" house sits on a mound above ground level because the developer dug out the land around it. Photo: China Stringer Network/Reuters A "nail house" once stood in the middle of this road in the Heilongjiang Province, but it is in the process of being demolished and removed. Photo: China Stringer Network/Reuters Cao Wenxia, the owner of this "nail house" in Hefei, lights firecrackers to celebrate the Chinese New Year. A bulldozer used to demolish nearby buildings sits ominously close. Photo: Stringer Shanghai/Reuters Residents of the Guangfuli area of Shanghai have collectively decided not to leave their homes, creating an entire "nail neighborhood." Tao Weiren sits in front of his two-story house there, which is surrounded by high-end condominium buildings. Photo: Aly Song/Reuters The last house in this area of Guangzhou stands in the middle of a construction site where an apartment complex will be built. ...

Buildings and monuments influenced by Roman Architecture

Altare della Patria, Rome Photo: Alvesgaspar/Wikimedia Commons Altare della Patria ("Altar of the Fatherland") is a monument built to honor the first king of the newly unified Italy, Victor Emmanual. The monument was designed by Giuseppe Sacconi in 1885. The final structure was inaugurated in 1911 and construction was completed in 1925. It is built in the neoclassical style and incorporates Corinthian columns, fountains, equestrian statues of Victor Emmanual and statues of the goddess Victoria riding quadrigas. Its enormous size of the monument has had its fair share of criticism both for its conspicuousness, size, and pompous design. Its construction also destroyed large parts of the ancient Roman Capitoline Hill. Arc De Triomphe, Paris Photo: Dietmar Rabich/Wikimedia Commons The Arc De Triomphe is probably the world's most famous Triumphal Arch and one of Paris's most iconic landmarks. It stands at the western end of the Champs-Élysées at the center of Pla...

Parasitic architecture gallery

The Green Exhibition House appeared in Rotterdam in 2001, designed as an experiment in assembling a prefabricated structure onto an existing building. In true parasitic fashion, the water pipes, sewage and electricity were all tapped from existing connections in the base building (By: Korteknie Stuhlmacher Architecten) Manifest Destiny, by artist Mark Reigelman, is a tiny cabin affixed to the side of a hotel in downtown San Francisco. Designed to envision the “romantic spirit of the Western myth”, this interesting structure positions itself as an compelling juxtaposition between the old and the new (By: Mark Reigelman) The Parasite office in Moscow from Za Bor architects utilizes the abandoned space between buildings to create a multistory office environment. The structure sits above the laneway between the buildings and resembles an organic growth seemingly joining up the two disparate buildings on either side (By: Peter Zaytsev) From Stefan Eberstadt the Rucksack Ho...

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