Excited ticket holders rush past sullen-faced guards in mouse ears to gain access to Banksy’s Dismaland, a dilapidated, depressing ‘bemusement park’ that’s far from the happiest place on earth. Contained within a derelict seaside swimming complex, the attraction takes everything you love about Disneyland and subverts it into a dystopian vision where nothing works quite like it should, and whatever can go wrong probably will.

Visitors pass through a faux security screening complete with cardboard x-ray machines before submitting to a real search, with guards ironically checking for spray paint to make sure no vandals compromise the strange scene Banksy has curated. Inside, they’re greeted by a structure resembling a post-apocalyptic Cinderella’s castle, a giant pinwheel tangled with plastic and the grim reaper as the sole rider at a bumper car attraction.

A photo backdrop labeled ‘selfie hole’ tells you what it’s for and makes a statement on the person using it at the same time. Step past the ‘No Entry’ gate in the fairytale castle and you’ll be treated to CCTV-like footage of Cinderella and her prince on screens before coming upon the wreckage of her overturned carriage, paparazzi flashbulbs going off in a frenzy deliberately echoing the death of Princess Diana. Everything is designed to be a colossal let-down.

Abandoned for nearly a century, the 2.5-acre site has just the right grimy atmosphere for Banksy’s display, which includes almost none of his own work. The artists who collaborated on the project and have works featured inside include Jenny Holzer, Damien Hirst and Jimmy Cauty. The park will be open every day through September 27th, with performances by Run the Jewels, Pussy Riot, Massive Attack and others scheduled each Friday. Tickets are £3 on the Dismaland website (additional photos by Christopher Jobson of Colossal).

Kowloon Walled City, the lawless metropolis just outside Hong Kong, was evacuated and destroyed – but there is still one place in the world where it can be experienced almost as it really was, in a safer and more sanitized setting. Visitors to the Kawasaki Warehouse Amusement Game Park located between Tokyo and Yokohama can slip into those dark, virtually airless passages long after their disappearance to get a sense of what it must have been like to live in a packed dystopian city run by the mob.

David of Randomwire visited Kawasaki to get a glimpse of it himself, revealing a recreation that takes you from a faux-rusted factory exterior into dingy alleyways modeled on those of Kowloon. David describes it as “grimy, devoid of sunlight and complete with a soundtrack to match.”

Many of the items found within these halls, including the signs, are based on those that can be seen in old photos and videos of the city. Gambling dens and illegal services of all varieties can be seen just beyond hazy panes of glass. See lots more photos in large sizes at Randomwire.

The real Kowloon Walled City was once packed with at least 50,000 inhabitants in just 6.5 acres, full of refugees, squatters and those looking to evade the law. After its demolition in 1993, it became the site of a vast park full of gardens, ponds and trails.

China is set to get yet another quarry-turned-resort in an ambitious project by Coop Himmelb(l)au architecture, transforming an abandoned mining pit into an artificial icy landscape with an indoor skiing center and a cantilevered outdoor swimming pool. The Deep Pit Ice and Snow World at Dawang Mountain Resort near Changsha, China will also include a 100-meter-tall hotel with over 300 rooms looking out over Tongxi Lake and Dawang Mountain.

Spanning 170 meters cliff-to-cliff of what is currently an abandoned cement quarry, the resort will offer both cold-weather and warm-weather recreational opportunities, with the icy and snowy attractions inside a sculpted shell. Beneath this volume will be a sunken garden featuring cliffside pathways, ponds and islands. A central glass cone will cut through the building to bring natural daylight into this subterranean space.

A 60-meter (196 feet) waterfall will crash from the cantilevered outdoor swimming pool on the edge of the quarry, deep into the pit. From inside the Snow and Ice World, visitors can peer through large glass facades onto the watery landscape filled with greenery.

The project is very similar to the Shimao Intercontinental Hotel (pictured above), a 19-story, 5-star hotel located deep within a 328-foot abandoned quarry near the base of Tianmashan Mountain near Shanghai. Though the concept seemed too crazy to be true, construction has already begun. That resort will include an aquarium, restaurants, and recreational activities taking advantage of the unique landscape, like rock climbing and water-based sports.

Amusement parks are a big part of most peoples’ childhoods, with fond recollections of roller coasters and snow cones dancing in our memories. But what happens to those amusement parks after they have lived out their lives? For artist James Dive of The Glue Society, one amusement park from his past was turned into a creepily touching piece of art.

The sculpture, entitled Once, contains an entire amusement park compressed into a single four-ton cube. Dive’s treatment of the park is gentle and reverent while being inherently violent. To prepare for his unusual work of art, Dive first did the exact opposite of his ultimate goal: he carefully cleaned, painted and restored every bit and piece of the park.

Over the following two weeks, a 28-ton excavator smashed and crushed the entire amusement park into a neat, gigantic cube. Parts of the park’s former life can still be glimpsed – a brightly-painted sign here, a string of lights there, some creepy dolls scattered about. The feeling Dive tries to evoke with this exceptionally odd sculpture is “the finality of a missed moment. And how brutal that can sometimes be.”

The irony of this piece lies largely in its finality, given that the pleasures of an amusement park are so transient and fleeting. In this sculpture they become more permanent, all compressed into one strangely savage yet sentimental four-ton cube. Once was installed as part of the Sculpture By the Sea program in Aarhus, Denmark.

From a distance, this structure looks like just another winding, looping roller coaster. But look a little closer and you’ll see that all is not as it appears. This roller coaster is actually a fantastical staircase: a human-scale outdoor sculpture that just begs to be walked by visitors.

(all images via: Dezeen)

The sculpture is called Tiger and Turtle – Magic Mountain. Created by Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth, the sculpture opened to the public on November 13, 2011. It sits atop a high hill in Duisburg, Germany, offering visitors the chance to take a walk 29 meters (almost 70 feet) above the ground.

From its perch on the hill, the massive sculpture offers an exceptional view of the surrounding area and a unique pedestrian experience for those who dare to tread so far above the soil. The elaborately winding and swooping staircase has access points where it touches the ground, allowing visitors to climb on and experience the strange sensation of exploring the elevated walkway.

The carnival rides on which the sculpture is based typically draw crowds based on their thrill-inducing loops. But for the Tiger and Turtle sculpture, the central loop is a hindrance to travel rather than a thrilling part of it. The very presence of the loop makes it impossible for one to walk the entire length of the structure.

The sculpture’s rather unusual name comes from the changing perceptions one experiences while drawing nearer and nearer to the structure. At first, from a distance, it appears to be a thrill ride that zips passengers around at dizzying speeds. But upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that the pace of this particular “ride” is far more relaxed.

According to the sculptors, there is another, more serious story behind the Tiger and Turtle title. It refers to the simultaneous speed and deadlock of progress in the surrounding area with regards to environmental reform. Although there is a valuable message in the sculpture, if one chooses it can still be enjoyed on a superficial level – which is what makes public art so fun.