Treasure discovered at Djurs

Treasure Island is the name of a new water coaster from Mack Rides at Djurs Sommerland in Nimtofte, Denmark.

The ride, which is only the fifth of its kind in the world, feaures a 28-metre-high drop and reaches speed of up to 70 km/h as rides race around the track in giant boats before splashing down in the pool bellow. In keeping with the theme, the lake is filled with sea monsters, pirates, and hidden treasures.

Treasure Island is a world-class pirate ride for the whole family. Djurs Sommerland’s 2011 season runs from May 7 to October 23.

Via World Park – online

Grafting Buildings onto Trees

Quito, Ecuador. January 14^th 2121 – More than a century after the initial dream of MIT architect Mitchell Joachim and his team at Media Lab’s Smart Cities group; the EIT (Ecuador Institute of Technology) discovered the secret for a perfect balance between nature and the built environment.

Three decades of experiments in the Ecuadorian Cloud Forest and 420 billion in governmental funds were spent to arrive to this sensational discovery.

 Biodynamic structures can now be grafted onto genetically engineered trees to create the NBH (Nature-Building-Hybrid) Species. After the final breakthrough in the understanding of photosynthesis inner dynamics, buildings are now able to use the energy stored in trees and output refined waste products that are by the tree to sustain its growth.

New composite materials developed by the Oxman Foundation perfectly integrate with the trees living cells and gradually fade into bio strengthened alloys to form the basic structural substrate for the grafted building units.

Via eVolo

By CarloMaria Ciampoli

Michelin Design Challenge Concept Car Cleans Polluted Air - VIERIA

Imagine a car that only transforms its shape to navigate different kinds of traffic but also filters and purifies polluted city air. That’s the concept that two students at Kyung-won University in South Korea, Gunwoong Kim&Suji Kim, have come up with. They call it the VIERIA. The VIERIA’s wheels are mounted on scissor-shaped legs that can be moved to various configurations that work best in the city or on the highway, and its air intake draws polluted city air into the vehicle, where it is purified before being pushed out the tailpipe.

The VIERIA, which was recently unveiled at the Michelin Challenge Design Competition , has already won several awards, including the Incheon International Design Award in 2009 and the Seoul Cycle Design Competition in 2010, and this despite the fact that the car’s rather roughly translated press materials promise “drining cofortant”(Driving comfort).What do you think of this design? Pie in the sky or car of the future?

Via Michelin Challenge Design

By Laura K. Cowan

Sinbad Land

After supplying complete amusement parks in Italy, North America and Guatemala, Zamperla has landed a contract to create a new park in Iraq.

As part of a huge new entertainment and commercial project being developed by a local operator in the capitol city of Baghdad, the Italian company will design the park called Sinbad Land, where it will also supply all the rides. The park will cover 60,000 square-meters of the development’s total 400,000 sq. m. site, which will also include a waterpark, lake, marina club, shops, restaurants and a 4-star hotel.

The park will comprise two parts including a family-focused area and a separate teenage zone. Riders earmarked for the project include tried and tested Zamperla favorites such as a Rockin’Tug,  Convoy, Family Swinger, Disk’O’ Coaster and Twister Coaster, plus novelties including a Vertical Swing, Air Race, Jump Around and Happy Swing.

Sindbad Land is scheduled to open this coming September.


via Park World