Architectural firm called “Al Qaeda lovers” over new project’s resemblance to New York City’s Twin Towers under attack

by Jessica Festa on

MVRDV, an architectural firm located in Rotterdam, Netherlands, has recently become the target of an outraged public. The company’s new luxury highrise project in Seoul, South Korea, called “The Cloud”, is being said to resemble New York City’s Twin Towers during the tragic 9/11 attacks. Not only have many of the media outlets and public turned against the company, but they are receiving threatening letters and are being called “Al Qaeda lovers”, among other names.

On the MVRDV Facebook page, the company has issued an explanation and apology to the public:

“MVRDV regrets deeply any connotations The Cloud projects evokes regarding 9/11, it was not our intention. The Cloud was designed based on parameters such as sunlight, outside spaces, living quality for inhabitants and the city. It is one of many projects in which MVRDV experiments with a raised city level to reinvent the often solitary typology of the skyscraper. It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks nor did we see the resemblance during the design process. We sincerely apologize to anyone whose feelings we have hurt, the design was not meant to provoke this.”

On a their Facebook page under the photo shown here, the debate has gotten heated, with over 600 comments and over 100 shares. While some feel strongly that the design is beautiful and a common design framework there are others who are arguing that it is ugly, disgraceful, and that the architects weren’t thinking (along with an overwhelming amount of obcenities and name-calling). What are your thoughts?

Megalithic site discovered in India

by Sean McLachlan on


The term “megalithic” generally brings to mind stone circles in the British Isles such as Stonehenge and Avebury, or giant tombs such as Wayland’s Smithy, yet prehistoric peoples in many parts of the world erected megalithic monuments.

India is rich in megalithic sites. In Cherrapunji, Meghalaya, India, are some imposing menhirs, or standing stones, shown in the Wikimedia Commons image above. In the Mahabubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh is a site with more than 80 menhirs, some 14 feet tall, plus numerous smaller stones. Some rows of stones are aligned to the rising and setting Sun on the summer and winter solstices and equinoxes. Also at the site is a map of the constellation Ursa Major (the Big Dipper, which points to the all-important North Star).

Now a new megalithic site has been discovered. Road construction in Chatra district, Jharkhand, has revealed numerous tall menhirs. Artifacts found at the site, such as a small copper ring and copper bell, date to the Chalcolithic (“Copper Age”) or 3300-1200 BC, although this has been disputed and officially the Archaeological Survey of India is dating the site to the 7th century AD.

Sadly the road work destroyed several stones, and others have been removed by local villagers. Now archaeologists are trying to educate the locals about the importance of such sites. The researchers are also hoping for an excavation license to figure out just how old the megaliths are.

For more on India’s ancient past, check out this extensive website on megalithic India.

The best Italian restaurant in the world?

by David Farley on
“Prego,” said the Italian woman sitting behind an elevated counter. She waved me into one of the dining rooms, bedecked with rich wood paneling and white tablecloths draped over the half dozen tables. I was given a menu, which listed the canon of Italian cuisine: sausage and polenta, spaghetti alla vongole, and a colorful and fresh-looking anti-pasta bar, among others. It would be perfectly understandable if you thought I was dining in Rome or Ravenna.

But I was, in fact, about 3,000 miles from Rome. The chaotic, but intriguing miasma of concrete, steel, and car exhaust known as Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, dwelled just outside the window of Castelli. The restaurant, opened, according to Rossella Castelli, the woman at the counter, in 1957 (though many reports have suggested 1948). It’s a relic of the failed Italian occupation. The Castelli family opened the restaurant and stayed here instead of following Italian troops back home.


I didn’t come to Ethiopia to eat Italian food. In New York, where I live, there’s an Italian restaurant on every block, many of which are sub-mediocre quality. I lived in Italy for a few years, where I ate the cuisine every single day. Italian cuisine has managed to conquer the world, to borrow the title of a recently published book. But when I’m in a place like Ethiopia, I’m going to eat the local fare.

It wasn’t until I read that Bob Geldof, member of the rock band the Boomtown Rats and the man behind LiveAid and other benefits to help eradicate famine in east Africa, said Castelli was the best Italian restaurant in the world that I decided I couldn’t leave Addis Ababa without trying it.
Besides Geldof’s superlative language about Castelli, Bono, ever the hyperbolist, has also reportedly chimed in, though tamping down his enthusiasm by relegating Castelli to the best restaurant in Africa. Brad Pitt and former U.S. President/peanut farmer Jimmy Carter have also twirled their spaghetti here.

As you know, celebrities, the great arbiters of taste and style in the 21st century, know what they’re talking about. Because they’re famous they have a superior sense of taste and style that seems to allude ordinary people. Or at least that’s what we tell ourselves. We rely on celebrities to tell us what to like. Especially when it comes to food. If it’s good enough for Bono or Brad, it must be great. Right?


I ordered a bottle of Ethiopian wine–called Gouder, which could have passed for rancid Kool Aid–and a couple pasta and secondi dishes. I’ve never experienced this before in a restaurant but the penne of my penne all’arrabbiata was actually under cooked. Al dente to the enth degree. The spaghetti with spicy saffron sauce was not overcooked, but the flavor managed to be bland. The skirt steak in a red wine reduction, though, was egregiously overcooked. The baked lamb, much to my delight, was tender and juicy and just about right.

Maybe the chef at Castelli was having an off day. Maybe she or he wasn’t even there. It was far from the best Italian restaurant I’ve ever been to (though, full disclosure, I’ve never been to another Italian restaurant in Africa, so Bono could still be right). If you’re in Addis, go to Castelli–not necessarily to eat well but to eat in a place that represents part of Ethiopia’s history. (It’s the only country in Africa that managed to rebuff European colonialism.)

Just don’t say that Bob, Bono or Brad sent you.

Charles Dickens featured at new Museum of London exhibition

by Sean McLachlan on

The Museum of London has opened a major new exhibition on one of the city’s greatest writers–Charles Dickens. Dickens and London celebrates Dickens’ 200th birthday looks at the relationship between the writer and the city he used as inspiration for many of his novels.

The exhibition recreates the sights and sounds of 19th century London, something the museum does very well for many eras. London 200 years ago was one of the greatest cities of the world, and one of the worst. The center of global commerce and culture, it was also home to grinding poverty and drug abuse. One item on display is Dickens’ notes from an opium den he used as inspiration for one of his scenes.

Dickens often wrote about the plight of the poor and he knew what he was talking about. When still a child, he had to work ten-hour shifts in a shoe polish factory while his father spent time in debtor’s prison.

The British Library in London is also marking the bicentennial with a small exhibition titled A Hankering after Ghosts: Charles Dickens and the Supernatural. Dickens loved a good horror story and penned many, although another author once accused Dickens of plagiarism, an accusation that had some foundation in fact.

Dickens fans will also not want to miss the Charles Dickens Museum. Although Dickens only lived here from 1837-1839, the prolific author finished The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, and Nicholas Nickleby in that time. Even if you’re not terribly interested in him, his house gives you a good idea of a moderately wealthy family home of the era.

Dickens and London will run until June 10, 2012.

Photo of Dickens with his two daughter courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Colombia’s Lost City gets long-term preservation plan

by Sean McLachlan on


Last year, Gadling’s Aaron Hotfelder braved the mountainous jungles of Colombia to visit Ciudad Perdida, the nation’s famous “Lost City“.

These remote ruins were built by the Tayrona, a culture that thrived from 200 AD to c.1650 AD. More than 250 of their stone settlements have been found in a 2,000 square-mile area. The Lost City is the largest Tayrona site known with more than 200 structures over 80 acres. One highlight is a strange carving, shown below, that appears to be a map of the city.

Unknown to the outside world until the 1975, the site now attracts an increasing number of tourists willing to make the five-day trek, and this is destabilizing some of the structures. Erosion and local narcotics traffickers are also taking their toll, Popular Archaeology reports.

Now the Global Heritage Fund has teamed up with the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History, which runs the Teyuna-Ciudad Perdida Archaeological Park, to preserve the site. The area will be fully mapped and examined, and they’ll create a management plan to reduce natural and man-made damage to the site. One good aspect of the plan is that it’s incorporating the local indigenous people. They’ve always known about the Lost City and consider it sacred, so their input will be crucial to ensure its future.

Photos courtesy William Neuheisal.