Standing nearly 40 feet tall, this giant arcing whale is composed entirely of plastic waste gathered from the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, carefully assembled in a canal of Bruges, Belgium.

Following a Liquid City theme, Brooklyn designers from STUDIOKCA chose the form to help observes visualize the magnitude and shape of both what winds up clogging the world’s oceans and the creatures impacted.

The net effect is striking, the arched water mammal rising up from the deep in a graceful curve, which, upon closer inspection, is made up of white and blue refuse, stamped with languages and brands from around the world.

Dubbed Skyscraper, the sculpture brings together 4,000 square feet of discarded plastic gathered in Hawaii beach cleanups, a small fraction of the 150 million tons currently lost at sea.

And while the majestic sea creature ricing from the canal might seem large, “pound for pound that is more plastic waste swimming in the ocean than there is whales,” say the creators. “So an opportunity like this to show the type of plastic and the amount of plastic that ends up in our oceans is really important.”

The simple and linear form of this remote vacation home juts out from a cliff over a sea-lion reserve in Chile; crafted to look aged and monolithic, it appears almost like a modern ruin in the natural landscape.

Designed by architects Mauricio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen, based in nearby Concepción, the Loba House juts out off the Coliumo Peninsula. For the clients, it is a dream getaway, but it takes a particular personality to enjoy the rugged forms and structural simplicity of this quiet place.

The heavy concrete structure is predominantly made of concrete, its roof forming a terrace overlooking the ocean below (with a stepped chimney sticking up from it).

“In its under-dimensioned thickness, in its narrow and tall proportion, the building could be read as an inhabited wall that runs perpendicular to the natural topography.”

The interior is intentionally sparse and rough, seeming almost like something constructed out of mud brick by hand, or an ancient retreat for some monastic order. The floors step up the hill, following the topography.

The place is just 750 square feet. Kitchen and bathroom fixtures as well as the hearth are built into the concrete columns, as is storage space below various platform levels. Below are common spaces — above: sleeping quarters.

Skylights illuminate various rooms and the board-formed walls, while limited windows keep down costs while framing specific views of the surroundings. Simplicity and geometry dominate the design inside and out, which are also common themes in the architects’ other projects (their own home is a simple concrete tower).

Do you ever think about just how far into the Earth the ocean actually reaches at its greatest depths? Truly the last frontier aside from outer space and the core of the Earth itself, much of the area below the ocean’s surface remains unexplored despite the fact that it represents 95% of the living space on this planet. We know very little about what it looks like down there and what kinds of creatures might be lurking in its darkest corners. To put it all into perspective, webcomic Xkcd.com created an infographic comparing various oceanic features to markers like the world’s deepest lake and tallest building. Note the Burj Khalifa, taller than Crater Lake is deep.

While Lake Baikal in southern Russia, the deepest lake on Earth, reaches 5,387 feet below the surface (compare that to Lake Huron’s mere 751 feet), the deepest spot known to scientists hits an incredible 10,994 meters (36,070 feet.) That’s 6.8 miles. Now, consider the fact that we’ve trashed the planet so thoroughly, divers have found a heartbreaking amount of trash and toxic pollutants within this crater in the Pacific Ocean. It may be remote, but pristine it is not. At least, not anymore.

Look closely at the infographic and you’ll also catch a couple jokes. In March 2012, director James Cameron took a jaunt into the Mariana Trench in a quest to reach the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest known point on Earth, inside a 24-foot deep-diving submersible known as the Deepsea Challenger. It was the fourth dive to the Challenger Deep altogether, the second one to be manned and the first solo dive. Cameron spent three hours exploring the bottom. In case you don’t get the joke – the quest to find a ‘door’ is something straight out of a dumb big-budget summer movie. Give it a Google to read some fun conspiracy theories on his ‘real motives.’

But do we have to explain the Freddie Mercury and David Bowie reference?

Click here to view the infographic full-size.

h/t Reddit r/interestingasfuck

This 230-foot-long musical instrument contains 35 organ pipes and is powered by the Adriatic Sea, producing sounds for visitors that seem eerily composed rather than random.

Whistle holes cut into the stone steps are ‘powered’ by air pushed in by waves of water, creating chords that are strikingly harmonious in nature. The sounds are constantly shifting, but you can listen to a clip above (a .wav file of the waves, if you will).

The Sea Organ, or the Morske Orgulje, is part of plan to revive Zadar, a city over 3,000 years old that was nearly obliterated in the Second World War. Architect Nikola Baši? wanted to give the place something with character, differentiated from the stark and boring concrete buildings that were created during initial years of rebuilding.

The design was inspired by the Hydraulis, an ancient Greek instrument that used water to push air through tuned pipes, but also borrows from the Wave Organ in San Francisco, a likewise seaside device amplifying the sounds of the Pacific Ocean. (images by linssimato, Lisa and J We).

A stunning blend of old and new, this lovely oceanfront home is intertwined with remnants of an industrial ruin; the two are combined while differentiating existing from added architecture.

The house seems to grow out of the deserted walls of the former structure, resting above and pushing beyond them. Designed by Razvan Barsan + Partners of Romania, the program of this seaside California home consists of a series of residential buildings and outdoor decks leading out to a private island.

Local materials like wood, reed and bamboo along with modern lines and copious amounts of glass set the additions apart from the existing remains of both functional and ornate masonry.

Miscellaneous metal cylinders and barrels were also left, the primary home space floating above them on the shore.

The island, bridged by a minimal walkway, features trees, seating and a fire pit for gatherings, all balanced against the secondary structure between it and the mainland..