DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The world's tallest skyscraper has unexpectedly closed to the public a month after its lavish opening, disappointing tourists headed for the observation deck and casting doubt over plans to welcome its first permanent occupants in the coming weeks.

Electrical problems are at least partly to blame for the closure of the Burj Khalifa's viewing platform -- the only part of the half-mile high tower open yet. But a lack of information from the spire's owner left it unclear whether the rest of the largely empty building -- including dozens of elevators meant to whisk visitors to the tower's more than 160 floors -- was affected by the shutdown.

The indefinite closure, which began Sunday, comes as Dubai struggles to revive its international image as a cutting-edge Arab metropolis amid nagging questions about its financial health.

The Persian Gulf city-state had hoped the 2,717-foot (828-meter) Burj Khalifa would be a major tourist draw. Dubai has promoted itself by wowing visitors with over-the-top attractions such as the Burj, which juts like a silvery needle out of the desert and can be seen from miles around.

In recent weeks, thousands of tourists have lined up for the chance to buy tickets for viewing times often days in advance that cost more than $27 apiece. Now many of those would-be visitors, such as Wayne Boyes, a tourist from near Manchester, England, must get back in line for refunds.

"It's just very disappointing," said Boyes, 40, who showed up at the Burj's entrance Monday with a ticket for an afternoon time slot only to be told the viewing platform was closed. "The tower was one of my main reasons for coming here," he said.

The precise cause of the $1.5 billion Dubai skyscraper's temporary shutdown remained unclear.

This is a revised lyrics of the song "I Will Survive" rewritten to describe some of the funny moments an architect faces in his career that was shared to me by my good friend "small mike" in Facebook.  If you're an architect, you will definitely relate to the lyrics of this song.  If someone out there knows the author of the lyrics to this song, please do tell us so we can properly credit him for this.

Now, to the tune of "I Will Survive", let's all sing The Architect's Song!


This of course only shows the tip of the iceberg in the kinds of troubles an architect faces in his career, but this does show, in a very funny way, that architects are real survivors in their own right.

If you can't see the image above, see the text below for the lyrics.

The true to life image of the panther above is the incredible work of New Orleans artist, Craig Tracy.  Called "Butterfly", this painting is no ordinary painting.  If you'll look a little closer, you'll notice a shapely backside figure of a woman painted to blend in with the whole portrait of the panther.  An amazing body painting job done by Craig Tracy.

Using the human skin as his canvas, Craig Tracy creates works of art in his desire to somehow affect people's lives in a positive way.

Below you'll see some of his best works:

Mildred's Temple Kitchen, a restaurant in Canada, are inviting their customers to have sex in their bathroom this Valentine's Day. 

The Janus Chairs, one sculptural piece when seen together designed by Ryder Architecture, is installed in Kielder Water & Forest Park in Northumberland in North East England.

This video by Bonsajo on vimeo reminds me of me being an architect and how the title "vanishing point" relates to what I do in my profession.  Architects create perspectives or rendered images that represent his or her ideas and clearly show and relate them to other people through these images.  In the process of making these perspectives, manual perspectives for that matter, the "vanishing points" are mostly used to accurately plot the images to scale and proportion.

This video has nothing to do with the "vanishing point" being used for any architectural purpose but it is quite interesting to watch.

Vanishing Point from Bonsajo on Vimeo.

Softwares used on this video were Cinema 4d and After Effects

Architectural Visualization 3ds Max Tutorials #18: Creating Low-Poly Foliage

Artist: Osman Tsjardiwal

Posted in: 3dtotal

1. We are going to create this orchid thingy. So take a good look at it, because we need to store its form and colors into our brain.

Architectural Visualization 3ds Max Tutorials #17: Setting Up a Background Image

Artist: Matt Sibley

Posted in: 3dtotal

Setting up a camera to match a photograph in 3D space can be a daunting task for anyone if you don't know how to go about it correctly. In this tutorial I will demonstrate a real simple way of matching a camera in 3D studio max to a photograph background for easy compositing.

Before going in to the tutorial I am going to assume to know the basics of Photoshop 3D Studio Max and Perspectives.

With the technology that is available today and the vast list of available 3d softwares available in the market, it is very possible to create realistic environments where our imagination is our only limit, creating creatures and objects that thrive in those computer generated surroundings.  Creating these 3d models and sculptures using the computer requires talent and skill.  It also involves practice and a lot of patience to further perfect the art.



Hongkiat created a list of 21 realistic 3d character models found on the net.  Below are 10 of the 3d CG (Computer Generated) Character Models from that list that really stood out for me.

A month ago, my girlfriend bought this sort of a plastic flower art piece from an old man who was making and selling this beside the street of Lacson Ave. near the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.  From afar, she thought that it was just a bunch of ordinary plastic flowers but, as she got closer, she noticed that it was unlike any plastic flower she's seen before.  It was made from recycled soft drink plastic bottles.  It reminded her of the recycled paper roll design that was posted here some time ago.  The old man who was making this by the side of the road was in his late 40s, my guess, and he was selling each piece for only 20 pesos which was approximately 0.42 US dollars.  He called them "Bote-ful" Flowers;  "Bote" - the tagalog word for bottle and then attaching the letters "ful" to make it sound like "beautiful" or "beautiful flowers".