There’s something about the contrast of opulent ornamentation and expensive materials with rot and deterioration that makes luxury resorts and mansions some of the most fascinating abandonments. Someone once cared about these places so much, they invested untold sums of money and hours of labor into them, perhaps having their walls hand-painted with frescoes or calling in master craftspeople to apply the finishing touches.

But nothing lasts forever, and neglect has the same effect on high end structures as it does on those more humble. Different viewers may look at them with sadness or schadenfreude, thinking about the larger context of human impermanence or just the potential wasted, but either way, we can’t help but look.

For many people, those feelings came into play this week as photos emerged of an eerie abandoned complex of castle-like mansions in Turkey. About halfway complete, the $200 million complex of fake chateaus modeled after historic European architecture is in limbo after economic uncertainty led large numbers of buyers and investors to pull out of the project. The developers don’t have enough funds to keep going, and though they say they’ll find a way to move the Burj al Babas development forward by the end of the year, it’s unclear whether that will actually happen.

Mocking commenters across the internet note not only the Disney-like quality of the $400,000 houses but how closely spaced they are. Row after row of identical Cinderella McMansions swirl through the valley, all sitting empty, many with gaping maws where their doors and windows should be. But while this is a particularly eye-catching example of stalled luxury development, it’s never been occupied, leaving it empty in another sense. The ghostly echoes of the lives that were lived in abandoned places, the hopes and dreams that their remains represent, are what lend them emotional weight.

Echoes of Past Promise

French photographer Thomas Jorion captures this particular quality of abandoned mansions and palaces throughout Italy in his series “Veduta,” which is on display at Esther Woerdehoff Galerie in Paris through April 6, 2019.

Each photograph depicts a real mansion – not a facsimile of one – still decked out in traditional Italian finery despite its considerably lowered circumstances. There are no background stories given for what happened to these beautiful villas, why they’ve fallen into disrepair; it could be that the cost of restoration is too high for most buyers, or the locations are inconvenient, or any number of other things. These places feel frozen in time, records of an era that has passed or perhaps an empire in the midst of falling.

Belgium seems to be brimming with abandoned castles, perhaps due to the simple fact that the country is full of historic architecture that’s difficult and expensive to maintain. Château Miranda, also known as Château de Noisy, stood as a stunning example of ornate abandonments before its demolition in 2017.

The 19th-century neo-Gothic castle in Celles was occupied by German forces during World War II and later became an orphanage and a “holiday camp for sickly children” before it was abandoned in 1991. Mesen Castle in Lede has a similar story. Purchased by a Catholic institution after the noble family that commissioned it died out, it became a boarding school for girls before its abandonment in 1970. It was destroyed in 2011.

North America has some abandoned castle-like structures of its own, including a once-beautiful mansion that now looks like the perfect setting for Netflix’s next gothic horror series. The villa on Carleton Island in Cape Vincent, New York has been unoccupied for over 70 years, and it has deteriorated to the point of serious safety concerns.

Businessman William O. Wyckoff commissioned the mansion in 1890 and promptly died of a heart attack on his first night there; his wife had passed away a month prior. Though the house was passed on to his sons, the family seems to have lost its fortune during the Great Depression, and the property was abandoned. The current owners live in a nearby cottage, putting it on the market every few years with no luck. One potential buyer estimated that it would cost up to $12 million to rebuild.

Remains of Wasted Wealth

Built in 1963, Japan’s Hachijo Royal Hotel quickly became a popular destination for wealthy Japanese natives looking for a quick and easy weekend getaway. At the time, passports were hard to acquire, keeping a lot of travel limited to domestic destinations. Set on a volcanic island just a short ferry ride from the mainland, the hotel offered luxe accommodations in a beautiful hillside setting the Japanese government promoted as “The Hawaii of Japan.”

But as soon as international travel became more accessible, Japanese tourists began leaving the country for new adventures, and the hotel languished. It was abruptly abandoned in 2006, and the ensuing years have been brutal. Nearly everything remains exactly as it was then: towels draped over the edges of the tubs, toys in the play rooms, offices full of outdated electronics. Many of the rooms have been invaded by ferns and moss.

Known for its constant frenzy of construction, innovation and over-the-top spending, Dubai has its fair share of arrested developments. But one of the weirder displays of seemingly casual extravagance is the country’s high number of abandoned luxury vehicles. Some of the world’s most expensive cars are little more than street litter here, collecting dust curbside or in parking garages.

But this particular millionaire habit isn’t quite as it appears. Though some might truly be cast aside by owners too rich to care, many are abandoned by owners who bought them during a boom but can no longer afford them. In Dubai, bouncing a check or failing to pay back debt is a criminal offense, so it’s likely that formerly wealthy expats dumped the cars and then high-tailed it back home.

Back in Belgium, urban explorers hit the motherlode when they entered the grounds of the Kasteel van Heers a 13th century castle near Brussels that fell into decay when the descendants of its original owners couldn’t afford to maintain it.

The castle and all its contents were seized by the Flemish government in 2007, but somehow they missed a collection of six 1060s Alfa Romeo sports cars held within a dusty basement – including a rare and extra-valuable prototype. They were all sold at auction in 2015. Kind of makes you wonder what else dusty castles around the world might be hiding, doesn’t it?

If all of this waste makes you wish you could save an abandoned mansion, the governments of several countries would like to assist you with that venture. Italy is giving away over 100 historic castles and villas for free as long as the new owners can produce concrete plans for renovating the sites to help boost tourism to their local villages, and rural Japanese towns are so desperate for residents they’re giving away abandoned houses. In France, you can “adopt a chateau” without becoming solely responsible for its upkeep through a collective effort to preserve neglected structures with historic value.

The concept renderings for this wildly unusual hotel design in an abandoned Chinese quarry debuted on the internet over a decade ago, and now the finished complex is welcoming guests. The InterContinental Shimao Wonderland is the “world’s first underwater quarry hotel” set into the cliff faces of the 288-foot-deep former quarry, with the lowest two floors descending beneath the surface and the highest two poking out above ground level. Designed by London- and Shanghai-based architect Martin Jochman of Atkins in 2006, who later brought the project to his own firm Jade + QA, the hotel is described as a “groundscraper.”

Jochman says his design takes inspiration from the site itself – its shape, its unusual nature and the potential it still had after decades of disuse. The structure follows the contours of the cliff faces and features a glass central circulation atrium full of elevators and staircases that mimics the look of a waterfall cascading down to the pool below. Inside, the 16-story hotel contains 337 guest rooms, a large conference center, a spa, an underwater restaurant and water-based leisure facilities; visitors who aren’t staying overnight can enjoy a range of adventurous activities in the outdoor entertainment park as well as the cantilevered glass walkway extending over the water.

The convex and concave guest wings on either side of the “Glass Waterfall” are described as “Hanging Gardens,” and the underwater areas are called “The Lagoon.” These elements are intended to seamlessly segue into the rocky cliff faces on either side. Jochman hopes the hotel will not only become a landmark, but also an extension of the rugged landscape itself.

“Apart from minimising the impact of this building on the local environment by its orientation and adopting low profile with only 2 floor levels above the ground, the mainly passive sustainable features will take advantage of the orientation, low profile, grass roof minimising the impact of North wind and providing biodiversity. The unique microclimate caused by the thermal properties of the quarry rock mass and the quarry lake, cooling the structure in the summer and heating in the winter will also have positive effect on the energy consumption of the hotel.”

“This successful ‘Brownfield’ site recycling (or even up-Cycling) by utilisation of a disused industrial quarry site and giving it new purpose will make this project important contribution to the principles of sustainability in China and around the world giving an example how difficult industrial sites can be given new lease of life.”

The hotel cost $555 million to complete, and suites start at $4,270 per night. Jade + QA is also responsible for the super-tall Burj Al Arab in Dubai.

Photography by Blakstation & Kevin 

Would you ever go to an airport just to hang out? Chances are, unless you’re an avid people-watcher, the answer to that question is no. Modern airports aren’t typically pleasant places to be, and most of us associate them with lengthy lines, security pat-downs, cramped gates and possibly a harried sprint to a terminal that seems like it’s on another continent to catch a connecting flight.

But some experts in aviation and architecture say all that is about to be history as airports adapt to evolving technology. In fact, airports around the world are already incorporating features like automated baggage checks, free wifi that actually works, better wayfinding and even checking in with selfies – and there are more advancements and improvements on the way.

Airports as Attractions

In Singapore, people really do go to the Changi Airport for a good time, even when they’re not traveling. While airports are usually transient spaces, whisking you through them on the way to somewhere else, Changi is a destination in its own right with a giant slide, kinetic rain sculptures, a butterfly garden, a sunflower garden, free massages, a huge swimming pool and some of the island nation’s best shopping. In early 2019, its new “Jewel” addition will open, offering a lush five-story terraced garden, a 40-meter-tall waterfall, a sculpture made of four gigantic slides and other attractions dreamed up by architect Moshe Safdie as a “magical garden.”

Changi may be an extreme example – it was named best airport in the world six years in a row by Skytrax, after all – but other airports are taking a similar approach as their operators take cues from the hospitality industry and shift toward more customer-friendly features and designs. The Seoul Incheon airport in South Korea has its own indoor skating rink, you can catch a movie at the Hong Kong airport’s IMAX movie theater, and the San Francisco airport has a yoga room. In the near future, many airports in larger cities will likely expand these kinds of amenities as they attempt to rebrand as community hubs.

Biometric Boarding

Ready or not, here come biometric identity verification systems that will make the process of checking in and going through security a lot smoother, albeit in a way that stokes privacy concerns among some travelers. You might not have to go through a security line at all, as airports integrate technology that constantly scans you and your bags as you walk through the complex. Theoretically, that means airports will be more secure from the moment you walk onto the property.

Heathrow Airport in London is already testing biometric identification gates that use facial recognition to match flyers to their passports, immigration photos or visas, and British Airways has expanded the use of these gates to airports in New York, Miami and Orlando. The airline claims this process allows them to board twice the customers in the same amount of time as traditional methods. Delta has already integrated facial recognition into some of its bag drop stations, Dubai is using the technology at security checkpoints by passing flyers through face-scanning tunnels and JetBlue offers a biometric ID process in which customers step up to a camera and take a photo to board.

All of this means airports could be able to devote a lot less square footage to queues, opening that space to alternate uses – like making the rest of the facility more comfortable.

User-Centric Designs

Just like customers at any other business, air travelers want speed, efficiency, cleanliness, pleasant ambiance and great service, and that includes the choice to either use self-service kiosks or interact with an attentive and friendly customer service agent if they need more help.

Some airport executives stress a desire to treat passengers more like “guests,” regardless of the class of their ticket or their frequent flyer status. That may mean doing away with grand lobbies full of individual airline check-in counters and all of their snaking lines in favor of a more open system of kiosks and employees scattered around, approaching people who seem like they could use some assistance. Travelers already prefer self-check methods to interacting with agents before they fly. Some airports are even experimenting with “virtual” boarding agents that are just holograms.

As lobbies shrink, airports could expand their small, uncomfortable gates – where passengers spend the majority of their time – or shift their layouts altogether to make navigating these often massive facilities a lot easier. That might mean pod-like mass transit systems instead of trains to get you straight to your gate a lot faster. Dubai’s redesign will involve a format that eliminates the need to ever walk more than 400 meters (about 1300 feet) to catch a connecting flight. And while it wasn’t selected for the final design, UNStudio’s proposal for the Taiwan Taoyuan airport teases a highly efficient terminal design with a small footprint for the shortest possible walking distances.

Other high-traffic airports in cities like Los Angeles and Istanbul are currently undergoing renovations that prioritize efficiency in similar ways, and in the future, we might get electronic beacons or personalized wayfinding sent to our phones and other devices so we can navigate in a hurry.

Seamless Integration with Future Tech

How will airports adapt to a near future full of driverless electric cars, fleets of electric aircraft, increasingly car-free cities and other changes to how we travel on a daily basis? We may see airport parking garages looking more like ghost towns or devoted largely to electric car sharing services as people drive their own vehicles less often, and those garages could potentially be converted to additional terminals.

Drop-off and pickup areas are likely to expand to accommodate all the passengers using Uber, Lyft and similar services. The new Oslo Airport City (OAC) is being designed in anticipation of all these changes, including offering unprecedented access to public transport nodes, a must as the city removes cars from its city center.

Form and Function Fused

One thing airports could do with all that newly available space is pay a little more attention to aesthetics without sacrificing functionality. New airports in major cities (with the budgets to match) will likely get even more complex in their designs while incorporating passenger-friendly features like natural light and plenty of air-filtering vegetation.

Gates may be larger and more comfortable, ceilings higher, the ambiance more pleasant. We could see more parks, some of them even inhabited by birds or other wildlife, like at Singapore’s Changi. In Bangkok, a new terminal designed by DBALP will focus on offering a forest-like environment full of lush greenery and even a cascading waterfall.

Rather than the warehouse-like boxes they’ve been in the past, airports of the future could be showcases of modern architecture, perhaps celebrating the talent of local firms – as is the case at Croatia’s Zagreb Airport, which chose native firms Kincl + Neidhardt + Institute IGH – or becoming living works of art by world-class talent like Zaha Hadid Architects. The latter firm’s new international terminal at the Beijing airport will be the largest in the world once complete, and even imagery captured of the structure halfway through the building process is stunning. The airport is expected to open in 2019.

Above all, airports of the future will probably have to be as flexible as they can be to continue adapting to a constantly changing world.

Dubai is a city of innovation, imagination and virtually unlimited capital, with a habit of smashing world records for everything from the most expensive building to the first artificially conceived camel. It seems like nothing is ever too big, too ambitious or too silly to add to Dubai’s long list of firsts, whether we’re talking about the very latest technology (like actual functioning RoboCops) or something a little more dangerous (like driving through pits of crocodiles.) These 10 examples from the past three years alone prove that Dubai is simply the World’s First Biggest Tallest Fastest and maybe Weirdest city of the modern era.

World’s Largest Picture Frame

The Dubai Frame is a golden 492-foot (150 meter) structure rising out of Dubai’s Zabeel Park with the exact shape you’d expect given its name. Not only does it frame views of the city’s skyline, including iconic buildings like the mega-tall Burj Khalifa, it’s inhabitable. The horizontal section at the top is a viewing bridge with glass floors, and the ground floor features a museum that tells the story of Dubai. Considering that gigantic picture frames aren’t exactly an architectural norm, it’s probably safe from competition in its unofficial “World’s Largest Picture Frame” title for a while. (They also call it the “World’s Best New Attraction,” which is just a tad more more subjective.)

World’s Tallest Tower by Santiago Calatrava at Dubai Creek Harbor

Once complete in 2020, Santiago Calatrava’s Tower at Dubai Creek Harbor will officially best the Burj Khalifa as the tallest tower in the world – for now, at least. Currently under construction, the tower integrates “traditional Islamic architecture with cutting-edge design, engineering and sustainability elements,” and it will contain three public observation decks, event spaces, rotating balconies and a cafe. At the very top, the “Pinnacle Room” will offer 360-degree views of the city along with VIP Observation Garden Decks. It’ll soar 3,045 feet into the air, while the current title holder, the Burj Khalifa, tops out at 2,722 feet. But don’t worry, the Burj Khalifa (shown here peeking out of the clouds beside the new tower in a rendering) still has some reigning world firsts of its own to reveal.

World’s Largest LED Screen at the World’s Tallest Building

The facade of the Burj Khalifa got a high-tech makeover in 2015, making it the world’s largest LED screen. The screen covers an area of over 355,200 square feet (33,000 square meters) and required 10,000 connectors and nearly 45 miles (72 kilometers) of cabling to secure it. The videos above give a behind-the-scenes look at how it was installed, along with a demonstration of what it can do.

World’s First Floating Underwater Luxury Resort

Dubai is already home to artificial island resorts in complex shapes, some of which were delayed or never completed, along with various underwater hotels like the Resort Atlantis on Palm Island and a series of floating retreats. But nothing has ever quite reached the scale of “The Floating Venice,” which is described by its developers the Kleindienst Group as “the world’s first underwater luxury vessel resort.” Designed to mimic the real city of Venice, it can house up to 3,000 guests at a time, and offers transparent swimming pools with views of coral reefs, floating beaches and 12 restaurants and bars (three of which are underwater.)

World’s First Hover Taxis

In 2017, Dubai announced that it would be launching hover taxis for public use. Though it doesn’t look like they’ve made that happen quite yet, the city’s transport authority has tested out a number of these driverless drones in public spaces. Passengers will program their destinations on the ground and then reportedly zoom around 1,000 feet in the air at speeds of up to 60mph in a Chinese vehicle called the EHang 184. Designed to help with traffic woes, the flying taxi system joins another ambitious project in the making that could revolutionize the way people commute in the city.

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Only In Dubai 10 Wild Dazzling Absurd Record Breaking Projects

As striking and skillfully painted as each one of Bik Ismo’s chrome murals are, the coolest part might just be peering into each one and trying to discern what’s in its reflection. It might just be a wisp of sky or what looks like the interior of an art studio, but at other times, you can spy mysterious figures, strange architecture and other scenes, or a glimpse of the artist himself. The layers of depth in each piece are pretty incredible.

While Puerto Rican-born Bik Ismo has dropped spectacular metallic murals all over the world, including New Zealand, Dubai, Belgium, Taiwan and Miami, he’s especially dedicated to his home country. The chrome bust he completed in April, for example, was created for an upcoming series of videos about portrait and Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria for the Foundation for Puerto Rico. Another recent piece adorns the Museo de Arte de Ponce with a skull, pig and pineapple.

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Bik Ismo also made a big splash at Art Basel 2014 with ‘Chromed Dog,’ an oversized mural at the Jose de Diego Middle School in the Wynwood area of Miami. Bik was one of 33 artists who painted the prison-like school in vivid imagery to show that low income kids deserve access to the arts, too.

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Bik has been painting in the streets since 1993. You can see more of his work on Facebook and Instagram.