A giant metallic head splits into segments and rotates in a ‘metamorphosis’ worthy of its subject, author Franz Kafka. All 42 of its layers spin independently, catching the sunlight on their reflective stainless steel edges, magnifying the strange transformation as the head briefly blurs into something more abstract and then comes together again. The 45-ton sculpture was installed in a Prague plaza in 2014, visualizing the inner workings of a psyche the sculptor may identify with, himself. It’s perhaps the tamest and least controversial piece Czech artist David Cerný has ever put out for public consumption.

Entitled ‘K’, the sculpture has a nearly-identical twin called METALMORPHOSIS in Technology Plaza in Charlotte, North Carolina, which even had its own live webcam feed for a while so anyone in the world could watch passersby interact with it at any given moment. The Charlotte version is not based on Kafka, and sits in the center of a fountain, occasionally spitting water. Its mirrored exterior almost makes it seem like an optical illusion in certain lights, like some kind of apparition made of the sky itself.

Born in Prague, David ?erný first gained notoriety in 1991 when he took it upon himself to paint a Soviet tank serving as a war memorial in his home city bright pink. A number of his statues feature grown men peeing, and the literally masturbatory ‘Nation for Itself Forever’ had to be perched on the roof of the National Theater to keep it from being defaced.

Crawling babies with bizarrely punched-in faces scale the Czech Republic’s highest tower and wander blindly around parks, while the nation’s most revered saint, St. Wenceslas, is depicted riding a dead horse. A permanent exhibition at FUTURA gallery Prague features ladders leading up to two white posteriors; climb up and stick your head inside to view a video of two Czech politicians spoon-feeding each other to ‘We Are the Champions.” Czech out a tour of the irreverent sculptor’s works in Prague if you’re ever in the city to see them all.

The living play karaoke among headstones, hang their laundry from mausoleums, put on plays in crypts and golf right on top of graves in multipurpose cemeteries around the world, where the dead are integrated into modern life instead of remaining in solemn roped-off spaces. In some cases, it’s happening due to sprawl, like the family graveyard in a Walmart parking lot in Georgia, but in others, it’s more deliberate. As we grapple with population growth and urbanization, alternate ideas for the burial of our dead are coming into focus, all seemingly sending the same message: life goes on.

Habitable Cemeteries: Living with the Dead in the Philippines

Within the walls of Manila’s largest cemetery, 6,000 living residents thrive, going about their lives right on top of gravestone after gravestone, sometimes living in mausoleums alongside the tombs of their dead. The residents of North Cemetery are typically extremely poor, creating makeshift domiciles and living surprisingly normal lives. Within their cemetery city, they’ve created systems of public transit and schools.

A second cemetery in the Philippines, the Chinese Cemetery, is nicknamed the ‘Beverly Hills of the Dead’ for the spacious, luxurious tombs that are fancier and more comfortable than most homes of the living. These houses of the dead have fully-functioning kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms where relatives can sleep alongside their deceased loved ones, and sometimes live there full-time.

New Lucky Graveside Restaurant, India

The patrons of New Lucky Restaurant in Ahmadabad, India don’t seem to mind dining right next to coffins from an old Muslim cemetery, which may belong to the followers of a 16th century Sufi saint. The owner decided to leave the coffins in place when building his establishment, and says the proximity to death hasn’t put a dent in business, which is brisk. In fact, he believes that it brings good luck, hence the restaurant’s name. Each morning, the servers pay their respects to the graves, wiping them, covering them with cloth and decorating them with fresh flowers.

Solar Power in Santa Coloma de Gramanet, Spain

With so much of the rest of the land too hilly and shaded to be of use, the town of Santa Coloma de Gramanet outside Barcelona found the one location that would be viable for its solar energy program. It just happens to be a cemetery. The densely-built town packs 124,000 residents into 1.5 square miles, so they have to make creative use of every inch. Now, 462 solar panels provide enough energy to power 60 homes each year. The panels are perched above ground level, so there’s no notable change to the feel of the sacred spaces below. “The best tribute we can pay to our ancestors, whatever your religion may be, is to generate clean energy for new generations, says the director of Const-Live Energy, which runs the cemetery.

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Living With The Dead 12 Cemeteries With Surprising Alternate Uses

After a long day of traveling and sightseeing, how does a relaxing evening sleeping in a shark tank, a subterranean vault filled with human skeletons or the trunk of a Tesla sound? Some of the weirdest and most unique listings to ever be offered on AirBNB.com include actual museums, stunning ruins, a three-dimensional recreation of a Van Gogh painting, a hippie paradise and a hotel where giraffes stick their necks through the windows to steal your breakfast.

Glass Shark Suite, Paris

It’s probably best if you don’t have a shark phobia prior to renting this AirBNB room at the Paris Aquarium, since the marine predators are virtually all you’ll be able to see all night. Just large enough for a circular bed for two guests, this glass room suspended inside the tank provides 360 degree views of 35 live sharks. Guests will get an intimate education on the lives of the animals from fervid and underwater photographer Fred Boyle, and can even enjoy their meals from another vantage point outside the aquarium. It’s open for just three nights in April and will then serve as an observation area for biologists.

Paris Catacombs

You’d have to be fairly free of superstitions to get a decent night’s sleep right beside a wall of human remains, but for those brave enough, a night in the bowels of Paris is surely an unforgettable experience. On Halloween night, some lucky AirBNB contest winners got to take a tour of the city’s famous catacombs, enjoy a gourmet meal and a private concert “in some of the most incredible acoustics under the earth,” listen to a storyteller’s frightening tales about this subterranean hall of the dead, and then become the only living people to wake up there.

Van Gogh’s Bedroom, Chicago

Step inside a Van Gogh painting, lay down in his slightly irregular bed and gaze at the walls and floors faithfully recreated in his own iconic brush strokes with this AirBNB offering from the Art Institute of Chicago. Recreating the Dutch artist’s famous ‘Bedroom,’ the exhibit rents for just $10 per night and aims to drum up interest in the original painting, which has long been an icon of the museum’s permanent collection. The nightly rate includes tickets to the museum.

Mirrored House, Pittsburgh

You kind of have to enjoy gazing at your own reflection to enjoy staying in this curious mirrored funhouse of a rental listing in the Pittsburgh suburb of Fox Chapel. Created by an artist, the house is like a giant habitable disco ball, with mirrors adhered to both the exterior and interior surfaces. The dining room is the crown jewel of the space, with a central aquarium reflected in all of the wall-mounted mirrors and chandeliers. The rental appears to no longer be available.

House of Collections, Brooklyn

Like one big cabinet of curiosities, Brooklyn’s House of Collections features artfully arranged and carefully chosen objects on every imaginable surface, from patterns of rusted farm tools on the living room wall to cow bones hung beside historic local treasures. There are at least seventy house plants, exotic textiles, books, musical instruments, antique furniture and almost any kind of tchotchke you can imagine. Though it may look like an antique store, it’s a private residence, rented out occasionally to lucky AirBNB guests.

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Sleep With Sharks 10 Of The Worlds Craziest Airbnbs

This gorgeous collection of photographic montages highlights regional similarities and differences between types and styles of door and window designs all across Europe, starting with Porto, Portugal:

The Alps:

Santa Susana, Spain:

Sesimbra, Portugal:

London, England:

Burano, Italy:

Andre Goncalves, a photographer from Lisbon, set about creating this catalog of colors and textures with his ‘Windows of the World’ series (mostly by city and region), then expanded to develop ‘Doors of the World’ as well (sorted by country):

Romania:

England:

Portugal:

Individually, a single door might not say much about a city or country, but taken together: patterns emerge, from tile work around doors to color preferences and decorative touches.

Barcelona, Spain:

Montemor-o-Novo, Portgual:

Evora, Portugal:

Venice, Italy:

Bucharest, Romania:

Lisbon, Portugal:

Test your heights-hardiness at a glass-floored cocktail bar cantilevered hundreds of feet above the floor of Mexico’s Copper Canyon at this stunning cliffside bar designed by Tall Arquitectos. The square-shaped, minimalist concrete building juts out from the hillside high above the trees, its overhang so dramatic it’s bound to give the squeamish a little bit of a stomach flutter just looking at the photos. But if you’re brave enough to venture out to its edges, you’ll be rewarded with views of the stunning Basaseachic Falls – not to mention a drink to calm your nerves.

Two levels offer sunny or shaded views of the surrounding natural landscape, with a glass floor allowing guests to look straight down. There’s lounge space on the upper floor observation deck and cafe tables on the perimeter of the lower level so you can soak in the sights of pines, oaks, dusty plateaus and the streaks of orange-red on the canyon walls that give the area in the northwestern state of Chihuahua its name.

The design is reminiscent of the Grand Canyon Skywalk, a controversial project that extends a loop-shaped overlook 66 feet from the canyon’s edge, with a two-inch-thick glass floor. That project received some criticism for potential ecological impact and insensitivity to the sacred traditions of local Native tribes. As cool as it looks, it’s unlikely that the Copper Canyon design will ever make it past this proposal.

Another knee-shaker of a cliff-clinging building positions a modern modular home right off a cliff wall, with its roof at the same level as the plateau. Envisioned for the Australian coast, Cliff House by Modscape Concept is another pie-in-the-sky concept that’ll never see the light of day, but it’s spectacular to look at nonetheless.