Friday, February 16, 2007

Desolation Row

CantikFotos has a great collection of photos from Taiwan of a housing development that was never completed. The set is called Desolation Row and has a companion set called Desolation Row Redux.

Someone posted it to Digg back in July. I contacted the photographer and he didn't know the backstory to the development but "ahfoo" on Digg claims to have lived within walking distance of these buildings. Their theory, which seems most credible, was that a falling out between the business partners led to the development never being finalized.

You can see the development from above via Google Maps.

10 comments:

Michael Turton said...

It's in a famous resort area called Feitsuiwan, and I've been there. I think it is a failed resort, not a development.

Michael

Tom said...

Darn Flickr, they are protected, I can't copy those photos!

I drew up the Monsanto House in 3D and put it on 3D Warehouse for all to have fun with (http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=8fdbd697932089d010bb574dae58490b). I am doing the inside of it this holiday weekend. Would of loved to try to draw this Tiawaese place, but I need pics. I'll do the Sleeper House instead.

Boris Gjenero said...

They're not very protected. For example, get the URL of a thumbnail and change the _s before .jpg to _o to view the original, largest size image.

Anonymous said...

Alternatively, get Nuke Anything Enhanced for Firefox. If you're on a Mac, Ctrl-Click on the image, select "Remove this object" from the context menu. Done. It's similar on windows machines, but I don't know what the key-combo is.
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/951/

Just discovered this blog, very original idea. Nice.

AVP said...

I never did get why there aren't more circular houses. Why all the squares?

Maybe if I wait for the future long enough... If I die before they make giant cylindrical houses in the U.S. I'm going to be very sad. Maybe by the time I'm forced into an old folk's home it will be a cylinder. Or a triangle. Or a star.

Ok. That's enough for now.

Anonymous said...

turton is right, this is not a development, just a failed resort in northern Taiwan, a seashore resort project that had been terminiated years ago due to short of budget.

翡翠灣,台灣北部的一個荒廢風景區中的房子,不是鬼屋。

Anonymous said...

After more research, I think this was one of the many failed weekend villa schemes that flourished in northern Taiwan in the 1980s. They were half resort half housing complex. All the units were individually owned by people who would use them on weekends and holidays. They were built without kitchens and so visitors ate in the (expensive) onsite restaurants. Most of these complexes had lousy management and most went bust in the late 1980s when the stock market burst.

I lived in a complex with a similar system in Hsichih.......it was wonderful in 1986 but was horrible by 1991.

Matt Novak said...

Thanks for the update cantikfotos

Scott Haley said...

It's easier to put furniture in a square room with flat walls. It's hard to shop for couches and bookshelves with the same curvature as the wall of your round house.

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Wow those are weird buildings !! You have a cool Blog here !