7 Engineers Suspended Over $2.3 Million Bridge with 90-Degree Turn

Central India’s Madhya Pradesh Government recently suspended seven engineers for the faulty design of a 200 million rupee ($2.3 million)bridge with a 90-degree turn.

The new Rail Over Bridge in Bhopal was announced 10 years ago and cost the state of Madhya Pradesh over 200 million rupees to complete. It was supposed to improve connectivity between Mahamai Ka Bagh, Pushpa Nagar, and the station area with New Bhopal, but all it has managed to do so far is spark controversy over a major blunder in its design – a nearly 90-degree turn built into the bridge. Photos of the questionable feature recently went viral on Indian social media, raising concerns over safety and how engineers could have overlooked such a critical error.

Read More »

Chinese City Moves Entire Historic Neighborhood Using Hundreds of Hydraulic Legs

Shanghai authorities recently moved a traditional shikumen-style building complex at a pace of 10 meters per day with the help of an army of 432 hydraulic-powered robots.

The Huayanli complex, located within Zhangyuan in Shanghai’s Jing’an district, has been touted as China’s largest relocation project of its kind, both in terms of size and complexity. The tight layout of the building complex, which dates back to the 1920s and 1930s, made traditional construction and relocation tools virtually unusable, but authorities needed to find a way to move the entire block several hundred meters for the construction of a three-story underground structure. The project required all sorts of advanced technology that allowed the team in charge to temporarily relocate the 7,382-ton (7,500 metric ton), 13,222 square foot (4,030 square meter) building complex.

Read More »

Tor Alva – The World’s Tallest 3D-Printed Building

Towering above the rooftops of Mulegns, a picturesque village in the Swiss Alps, the recently unveiled Tor Alva (White Tower) is the world’s tallest 3D-printed building.

Mulegns, a tiny village of only 12 permanent residents nestled at the foot of the Swiss Alps, hardly seems like the perfect place to install the world’s tallest 3D-printed building, but local authorities decided that the unique installation could help revitalize the slowly fading community. Tor Alva stands 30 meters high and has a modular design featuring a total of 32 individually printed columns connected by giant screws and steel cables rather than glued with cement. No steel frame was used when printing the tower’s pieces, but its creators claim that the technological innovations showcased by the tower make it both extremely safe and easy to dismantle and move, if necessary.

Read More »

China to Inaugurate New World’s Highest Bridge

The Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge spanning 625 meters (2,051 feet) above the Beipan River, in China’s Guizhou Province, is set to become the world’s highest bridge upon completion, in the second half of 2025.

The mountainous province of Guizhou is well-known for its complex terrain and the incredible bridges traversing it. Guizhou is home to more than half of the world’s top 100 highest bridges and has set the record for the world’s highest bridge more than once. This year, the Chinese province will once again claim the record for the third consecutive time! The first was in 2003 when the Beipanjiang Guanxing Bridge became the first suspension bridge in the world to surpass the 1,000-foot height threshold. The second time was in 2016, with the innovative Beipanjiang Duge Bridge, and this year, it’s doing it again with a bridge over the deepest part of the Beipan River Valley, a place known as the Huajiang Grand Canyon, or the ‘Earth Crack’.

Read More »

Homeowner Who Refused to Relocate Now Lives in the Middle of a Motorway

A Chinese man who refused the Government’s generous offer to buy his property for the construction of a new motorway now finds himself living in the middle of said motorway.

A few years ago when Chinese authorities knocked on his door in Jinxi, a town southwest of Shanghai, offering to buy his two-storey house for a fair bit of money and three other properties, Huang Ping decided to play hard-to-get in hopes of getting an even better deal. Unfortunately, his bet didn’t pay off, as the Government simply decided to build around his property instead of giving in to his absurd demands. In the end, all the other property owners in the area sold their land to the Government, leaving Huang isolated in the middle of a soon-to-be-inaugurated highway.

Read More »

The Immortal – Ecuador’s Most Controversial Building

‘El Inmortal’ (The Immortal), is an iconic building in the Ecuadorian city of Machala famous for its precarious look due to having an unusually narrow ground floor.

Located on the corner of Pichincha and Buenavista streets in the center of Machala, The Immortal has been defying earthquakes in Ecuador for more than 30 years. Looking at it, you would think that the slightest tremor would be enough to bring the four-storey building down, but you would be wrong. It has survived serious quakes, including one in 2023 measuring 6.5 degrees on the Richter scale, with minimal damage. It’s most famous for having the upper three floors overhanging a whopping five meters without any pillars for support. Its now legendary resistance to earthquakes despite its precarious appearance has earned it the nickname ‘The Immortal’.

Read More »

New World’s Largest Office Building Surpasses the Pentagon

The newly-opened Surat Diamond Bourse in Gujarat, India, is a massive office complex made up of nine rectangular buildings interconnected through a central “spine”.

For 80 years, the Pentagon held the title of the world’s largest building, but it was recently dethroned by the Surat Diamond Bourse, a massive diamond-cutting and trading hub, that exceeds the Pentagon’s area of 66,73,624 sqft by almost 55,000 sqft. The sprawling 15-story complex covers more than 35 acres of land on the outskirts of Surat, in India’s Gujarat state and features over 4,700 office spaces and workshops, as well as 131 large elevators that make traveling between the nine buildings of the Surat Diamond Bourse a breeze. Interestingly, surpassing the Pentagon was never the plan; instead, Indian architecture firm Morphogenesis just struggled to meet the huge demand for space.

Read More »

Filipino Hotel Is the World’s Largest Rooster-Shaped Building

The Campuestohan Highland Resort in the Philippines’ Negros Occidental province was recently awarded the Guinness record for the highest rooster-shaped building.

Standing 114 feet, 7 inches tall, the Rooster Hotel at Campuestohan Highland Resort is quite a sight. It’s not only shaped like the domestic bird, but actually looks like a giant realistic rooster dominating the entire area with its imposing stance. Ricardo Cano Gwapo Tan, the director of the resort, told journalists that he wanted to create something eye-catching that also paid homage to the local culture, of which gamefowl is a huge part. Negros Occidental has a gamefowl breeding industry that employs millions of Filipinos, so he hopes some of them will want to spend a night in one of the 15 air-conditioned rooms of the new hotel.

Read More »

The World’s Highest Bridge Stands 565 Meters Above a Steep River Valley

The Beipanjiang Bridge sits over 565 meters (1,854 feet) above the Beipan River Valley nestled between two very steep cliffs, making it the world’s highest bridge.

Also known as the Duge Bridge or “China’s Impossible Engineering Feat”, the world’s highest bridge may not look that impressive at first sight, but it is a testament to Chinese engineering and innovation. Located close to the border between the provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan, in one of China’s most mountainous regions, the Beipanjiang Bridge required so many design innovations and new technologies that the company that built it won a Gustav Lindenthal Gold Medal, considered the “Nobel Prize” in the field of bridge construction. Completed in 2016, the world’s highest bridge connected the provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan, opening up an entire area that had previously been inaccessible to cars and trucks.

Read More »

Introvert Heaven – Secluded Cottage in the Scottish Highlands on the Market for $175,000

A small stone cottage in the heart of the Scottish highland countryside has been labeled an introvert’s dream house because of its secluded location, miles from the nearest human settlement.

Nestled in the hills of Sutherland, Brae Cottage is a traditional stone-built cottage featuring a sitting room, two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom with water from a natural spring running to it. The property also includes two outbuildings – one for coal storage and one for general storage – and 2 acres of land, sufficient for self-sustainable living. The cottage is located close to a small stream and an infrequently used track road running between The Mound (A9) and Bonar Bridge. The closest village is 6 miles away, although aerial photos of this isolated certainly don’t show any nearby settlements. If you’re looking for a place to get away from it all and have £130,000 ($175,000) to spend, it’s certainly worth considering.

Read More »

Shiziguan Floating Road Bridge – A Terrifying Wonder of Engineering

The Shiziguan Floating Bridge, also known as the Bridge of Dreams, is an innovative 400-meter bridge that allows cars up to 2.8 tonnes to drive across the surface of the Qingjiang River in China.

Nestled between the forest-covered mountains of Enshi Prefecture, in Hubei Province, the Shiziguan scenic spot is one of China’s most breathtaking natural attractions. However, what really separates it from other impressive sights is the experience of taking in the beautiful scenery while driving along a bridge made of floats and placed directly on the water. Built using German technology to prevent rollovers, the Shiziguan Floating Bridge has been operational since 2016 for both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The bridge is made from high-density polyethylene floats filled with water for extra stability, so if the drivers respect the imposed speed limit of 20 km/h, they should only feel the gentle sway of the river beneath.

Read More »

Human Anthill – Russia’s Infamous Largest Residential Building

The town of Kudrovo, in Russia’s Leningrad Region, is home to the country’s largest residential building, a giant oval-shaped monstrosity featuring 3708 apartments and 35 different entrances.

Completed in 2015 as part of the massive ‘Novyy Okkervil’ residential complex on the outskirts of Kudrovo, Russia’s largest residential building got its first international coverage in 2021 when aerial photos of it made it to the first page of Reddit, getting over 50,000 upvotes and thousands of comments. People were equally fascinated and freaked out by the enormous building, and many compared it to a human anthill. The comparison is not as farfetched as it might seem, because the concrete oval of Kudrovo is home to between 11,000 and 18,000 people (reports from Russian media vary) all technically living under the same roof.

Read More »

Flimsy-Looking Suspension Bridge Is Probably the World’s Scariest

A suspension bridge stretching 150 meters over the Dadong River Gorge in Chongqing, China, has been dubbed the world’s scariest suspension bridge because of how unsafe it looks.

For the past couple of years, clips of heavy construction vehicles traversing a narrow, flimsy-looking bridge suspended about 300 meters above a wide river gorge have constantly been going viral on social media leaving people wondering about its safety. Although it spans 240 meters, this terrifying wonder of engineering has no towers or base for support, relying only on four steel cables to support vehicles up to 45 tonnes in weight. It’s only wide enough for one vehicle to traverse, and despite featuring safety nets on each side, one wrong move can spell disaster. It’s tricky enough to navigate in normal conditions, but imagine having to do so on a particularly windy day.

Read More »

This Gigantic Skyscraper Is the World’s Tallest Abandoned Building

Goldin Finance 117, an unfinished 597-meter-tall skyscraper on the outskirts of Tianjin, China’s seventh largest city, is currently the world’s tallest abandoned building.

Originally designed to be the centerpiece of a luxurious real-estate project in Tianjin, Goldin Finance 117, aka China 117 Tower, is famous for being the world’s tallest unfinished and unoccupied building. Construction began in 2008, but was halted just two years later, during the fallout of the Great Recession. Work on the project was resumed in 2011, with an estimated completion date between 2018 and 2019. However, by September 2015, construction was once again suspended and has not resumed since. When work on Goldin Finance 117 was suspended, the impressive skyscraper was the fifth tallest building in the world. Now it’s the world’s tallest abandoned building.

Read More »

Ox Horn – Huawei’s Newest R&D Complex in China Looks Bizarrely European

Ox Horn, a sprawling research and development complex built by Huawei in Shenzen, China, features 12 towns and 100 separate buildings, all inspired by European architecture.

If someone were to be teleported in the middle of Ox Horn and made to guess where they were, China would probably be at the bottom of their answer list. That’s because the Chinese tech giant’s new campus is heavily inspired by European architecture, including both replicas of well-known Western landmarks and buildings heavily influenced by various European architectural styles. Completed in 2019 at a cost of a whopping $1.5 billion, Ox Horn houses Huawei’s main research and development offices and features its own tram transportation system, but has come under fire for its obvious European inspiration.

  Read More »