Suspended in time and place, only eagles dare go where these abandoned cable cars once reached as these glorified zip lines lost their zip long ago.

If you build it, they will come… or not, as was the case of the ill-conceived Okutama Ropeway. Constructed in 1962 at an artificial lake west of Tokyo, the two-car transportation system operated for only four years before shutting down for good. Perhaps the builder/owner was unaware of plans to construct a bridge that would make his pride & joy redundant.

That said, the cars and associated infrastructure have held up remarkably well over the past half-century! Kudos to Lee Chapman of Tokyo Times for visiting this long-forgotten relic and photo-documenting its current (as of July, 2013) status. This video by Riding Japan explores the abandoned and, to quote the videographer “quite eerie” station.

Georgia On My Mind

Lovely “Seaside Park” in Gagra, Abkhazia suffered significant damage during the early-1990s Abkhaz-Georgian Conflict; the still unsettled political situation and a chronic lack of funding has constrained any moves toward restoration. A single yellow gondola remains in place – its red-painted partner was blown up some years ago during the filming of a movie.

High Wire Act

Can a cable car system that’s lost its cars still move you? Yes it can… figuratively speaking. Flickr user philm1205 snapped the spindly remnants of an abandoned Soviet cable-way in August of 2007, fifteen years after the fall of communism. One thing about the commies, at least they made the cable cars run on time – or run, period.

“Top Of Youth”

It’s the “Top of Youth” and the bottom of the barrel in Berlin, courtesy of Flickr user TheSleeping03 and the photo above. Taken on February 6th, 2014 at an old abandoned theme park in the German capital, the image presents the permanently-grounded gondola in a raw yet oddly appealing light.

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Suspended 13 Hung Out To Dry Abandoned Cable Cars

These skyscrapers, homes and city concepts eschew typical architectural silhouettes, taking inspiration from cliffs, mountains and hills to create artificial landscape features of their own. Whether attempting to blend into the surrounding landscape or rising defiantly from the flattest of environments, they seek a sense of harmony with the natural world.

Walkable Green Roofs on a Mountainous Mixed-Use Complex

The Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) is behind the vast majority of recent terrain-inspired architectural concepts, including this stunner commissioned by a Taipei developer. The mixed-use complex of housing, restaurants, cafes, pedestrian walkways, gardens and more features unparalleled vertical accessibility with walkable green roofs.

Glacier-Inspired Hungerburg Train Station by Zaha Hadid

Architect Zaha Hadid wanted her glacier-inspired design for the Hungerburg Train Station in Innsbruck to merge with its snow-covered surroundings in winter. The structure contrasts heavy concrete with light, airy, amorphous glass overhangs that seem to float.

Chaoyang Park Plaza by MAD Architecture

Gleaming like polished black basalt, the towering structures that make up MAD Architects’ Chaoyang Park Plaza explore the relationship between architecture and the natural landscape. The silhouettes are an interpretation of mountains and other shapes in classical Chinese paintings.

Wroclaw Mountain by Vicente Guallart/Guallart Architects

Guallart Architects designed this mountain-inspired structure to represent Wroclaw, Poland in the race to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

The Berg by Jakob Tigges

The skyline of Berlin would be dramatically altered if this wild vision by Jakob Tigges ever came to be. The Berg is a 1,000-meter mountain partially bounded by the Tempelhof Airport. While Tigges says the proposal is more symbolic than a serious idea, it’s meant to provoke thought about how architecture can be integrated with the land to provide natural habitats for wildlife and recreation space as well as places to live, shop and work.

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Architecture As Landscape 15 Terrain Inspired Buildings

In a bold yet beautifully contextual move, this embedded mountaintop museum structure is part of a series of buildings set high in the mountains of Tyrol, Italy, and designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.

Visitors ascend the slope from below, enter a glazed above-ground space, then pass through subterranean exhibit rooms and come out onto an observation deck with stunning views down the steep sides of the mountain below.

The sixth of the set, Messner Mountain Museum is situated at the peak of Mount Kronplatz above a regional ski resort. It is designed to educate visitors on the discipline of mountaineering and celebrate the world’s greatest rock faces.

Aside from its sinuous aesthetic, the strength of this design relies on sequential experience – movement through the building provides an appreciation for both the site and the subject matter of the museum. It works, quite literally, on a number of levels.

From the architects: “A composition of fluid, interconnected volumes, the 1000 sq. m. MMM Corones design is carved within the mountain and informed by the geology and topography of its context. A sharp glass canopy, like a fragment of glacial ice, rises from the rock to mark and protect the museum’s entrance”