A classic mid-century roadside motel in Las Vegas has been turned into a fantastically colorful habitat for a series of huge animals, constructed from waste collected from dumpsters, abandoned factories and scrap yards.

This 10,000-square-foot zoo parody (dubbed ‘Wild Wild Waste’) by artist Bordalo II is his biggest installation to date. It’s designed to make statements about the commodification of animal habitats as well as human waste production and management activities.

“Bordalo is inspired by the rejected, the broken, the wasted, somehow our everyday,” explains the exhibit’s curator. “With the trash we refuse to be responsible for he creates a fantastic installation that is playful and, furthermore that question our relation to waste and our responsibility.”

The animals are simultaneously visible as a whole and a set of parts. A flock of penguins emerges from plastic cubes, car parts morph into a family of pandas, while a whale caught in a fishing net and lion caged in a truck further highlight ideas of confinement.

“We were so humbled to have the opportunity to help host the art of bordalo at life is beautiful this past weekend,” said one of the organizers. “The entire installation’s emotional nature gave us all a little lesson in doing more with less in our work and in our environment.”

Designed by architects from BIG, the new LEGO House is itself huge: a 130,000-square-foot ‘experience center’ welcoming people of all ages to play with and appreciate this ubiquitous toy.

“It has been a dream for me for many years to create a place that will give our visitors the ultimate LEGO experience,” said former president and CEO of LEGO, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen. A mesmerizing set of drone videos below show the building under construction and upon completion.

“With LEGO House, we celebrate creativity and the strength of learning through play. When they play, children learn the basic skills that they need, such as creativity, collaboration and problem-solving abilities.”

Located on the company’s main campus in Billund, Denmark, the building looks like it was made of 21 supersized blocks. Inside, differently colored zones denote different functions — red areas are for creative skills, blue for cognitive skills, green for social skills and yellow for emotional skills.

The venue includes paid attractions as well as experiences that are free and open to the public. Approximately 250,000 guests are expected annually, with around 2,500 visitors on peak days. Fans of their visit can take home something tangible from the experience as well:

The LEGO House opened its doors to the public in late September, coinciding with the release of a 744-piece kit of the building itself.

Known for his work on large-scale art projects, including the world’s biggest interior art installation, artist’s latest piece features over 1,000,000 square feet (100,000 square meters) of shimmering yellow fabric, wrapped around floating docks that span for miles up to and across Lake Iseo in Italy.

Undulating with the waves, the Floating Piers project lets visitors walk between Sulzano, Monte Isola and to the island of San Paolo; the floating platforms are visible from surrounding mountains as well.

Christo conceived of the idea with his Jeanne-Claude as far back as the 1970s, exploring different potential venues for its installation. While Jeanne-Claude passed away in 2009, Christo has carried on the idea, and finally found a place for the temporary work in Northern Italy.

Many works by this long-standing pair of ambitious artists were self-funded, in part through the sales of concept drawings and models in advance.

“like all of our projects,” says Christo, “The Floating Piers absolutely free and accessible 24 hours a day, weather permitting. There are no tickets, no openings, no reservations and no owners. The Floating Piers are an extension of the street and belong to everyone.” The project opened this weekend and will run for just 16 days. Images by Wolfgang Volz.

Remarkably intact and beautifully documented by a Russian urban explorer, this space shuttle prototype rests in a massive above-ground graveyard at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, deserted due to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Originally destined to dock with Soviet space station Mir, the model was almost finished and had even completed a test flight when the facility was shut down in the early 1990s.

Photographer Ralph Mirebs identified the massive (yet somehow still unassuming) structure as an excellent target for exploration, but did not know just how many surprises were in store for him when he took his camera into the ruins. Positioning himself on catwalks and even entering spacecraft models, he was able to take pictures of an amazing array of spaces and equipment.

As incredible as the outside of the craft may be, the insides are all the more fascinating, filled with the equipment intended to take it to space that somehow seems surprisingly fragile right here on the ground.

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Abandoned Ship Spacecraft Discovered In Huge Derelict Hangar

For an inevitable future when oil gives out in the Middle East (or nautical supply chains are replaced by pipes), a series of designers have envisioned creative ways to reuse the behemoths that currently ship this infamous commodity around the world.

The Black Gold Project proposes a different kind of design revolution for an area of the world currently striving to build the tallest and most stunning structures on the planet: pragmatic conversions of shipping vessels into functional land structures.

A joint project of  Chris Collaris Design, Ruben Esser, Sander Bakker, and Patrick van der Gronde, the resulting renderings take advantage of the versatility found inside such huge and open interior volumes.

Cultural exhibitions, shopping centers and art museums could all be housed inside these massive hulls, not to mention residential and office spaces. The decks above could become public parks and performance spaces.

There are practical drawbacks to be considered, however, including the impact of waves, saltwater and wind over time as well. Still, as a conceptual project, the idea is compelling (if more poetic than realistic): turn the very vessels responsible for the rise and fall of these oil-producing nations into something new that remains, at the same time, a monument to days gone by.