It was invented for disasters like earthquakes, but the Octagon House-in-a-Box makes a great temporary home. Created by Sago Mokuzai, it's made of cardboard and duct tape, and looks a great deal easier to assemble than any tent I've ever (tried to) put up.
Folding bikes have never really been very cool, but Josef Cadek has broken the mold with his Locust. Currently a concept bike, it's being developed and a version of it will be available to buy in 2010.
Many cinephiles will remember the recent guerrilla films She's Gotta Have It, El Mariachi and Pi. Besides being thoroughly entertaining films, and springboards to commercial success by their respective directors, they are also inspirational testaments to the courage, resourcefulness and passion of emerging artists burning to tell these stories. For Cavite at least the latter is true. And while time will tell if the film launches the careers of its creators, the film is also an unforgettably stark look at the Phillipines.
It was only temporary, but so much in life is. A paper bridge, created by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, crossed the Gardon river near Remoulin, in southern France for a couple of months last year. A bridge made of paper doesn't sound very sturdy, but don't let preconceptions fool you.
According to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics, there is no busier day than today for long-distance travel. For Americans, at least.
What do you do with your old glass bottles? Do you recycle? Do you sell them back at five cents a bottle? Or do you build a monumental, gorgeous work of art? The monks of Sisaket province, Thailand, decided to choose the third answer. Welcome to Wat Lan Kuad, or Temple of a Million Glass Bottles.
If you think you know LA, but secretly yearn to find out more secrets from its undoubtedly checkered past, you might want to board the 1947project Crime Bus. The vehicle for Esotouric, a rather unconventional tour company, it'll take you to dark mysterious places. And dumplings.
Some people live in ridiculously beautiful places. Luckily, I'm one of them. But if I didn't have the privilege of living in southern California, I might take myself off to this island in Norway.
The idea of a floating hotel isn't new, I know, but check out this cool alternative to a gleaming white cruise ship. The Vat Phou is a former teak wood ferry boat, converted into a boutique hotel that cruises the Mekong River in Laos.
Travel doesn't always have to happen physically: a good work of art can take us on a journey inside our own heads, changing our perception of the world around us just as much as a trip to London or Fiji. What if you didn't even have to go to a gallery to get your dose of whimsy?
Byambasuren Davaa is a city girl. She grew up in the city of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and later moved to Munich to study film. There, she found a 'better life'. She'd been told about the countryside of western Mongolia by her parents and grandparents, and as she became less and less convinced of the better life she'd found for herself, she went in search of something simpler. From that search, The Cave of the Yellow Dog was born.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then is a video worth a million? It's an interesting question to ask the people who make the wheels go round in the travel world. Tourism has become the world's largest and most lucrative industry, and as a result, many forms of media have jumped on board. There are countless magazines, websites, books, and photo galleries on travel. And then there are the travel shows and documentaries, the Travel Channels and Globetrekkers; the legions of shaky clips shot on digital cameras by regular folks touting themselves as 'travel experts'. But in the beginning, there was The Compulsive Traveler.
