Their purpose was to provide anti-aircraft fire within the Thames Estuary area. Each fort consisted of a group of seven towers with a walkway connecting them all to the central control tower. The fort, when viewed as a whole, comprised one Bofors tower, a control tower, four gun towers and a searchlight tower. They were arranged in a very specific way, with the control tower at the centre, the Bofors and gun towers arranged in a semi-circular fashion around it and the searchlight tower positioned further away, but still linked directly to the control tower via a walkway.

via BLDGBLOG.

“The removal process is very costly. We could not afford such an expense,” Loci told the Associated Press, saying the army had only provided a tank to help the local initiative at Seman.

Not everyone wants to see them go.

 “The bunkers are always good attraction for foreigners.”

When built, the cost of a typical bunker was equivalent to five years of an average Albanian’s salary.

“You can’t get rid of the history and of the hard labor to build them,” Sadushi said.

via Communist-era bunkers cleared at Albanian resort; rest of the country will have a long wait.

“We had no place to live, but we had plenty of bunkers,” an Albanian spoke of the Communist era. There is still one bunker for every four Albanians today, and nobody seems to know what to do with all of them. An arms grant from China was enough to build them, but there does not seem to be enough money to dispose of these destitute reminders of a fallen political regime. So the people just live around them as they always have.

via Bunkers in Albania.

Tony Wheeler’s bad lands – Google Libri.

They also included the mass construction of bunkers, a programme which began in the early 1970s and expanded like an uncontrollable hysteria. Eventually, all except the most remote and mountainous areas of Albania were covered, and the country now looks like a desolate moon bombarded by large concrete mushrooms from outer space.

via Out of Albania: Invasion of the mushroom bunkers – Europe, World – The Independent.

They swarm over the country in their hundreds of thousands – on the roadsides and along the coast, next to schools, in parks and on open countryside: little one-man concrete bunkers, poking up like mushrooms, testimony to a time when Albania – and above all its Stalinist dictator, Enver Hoxha – felt threatened from all sides, mostly from its southern neighbour, Nato member Greece. These scattered structures, each equipped with an embrasure looking out at the enemy, are the most prominent remnant of over forty years of isolation under the communist dictatorship that eventually fell in 1990.

via Albania: polit-tourism between coves and concrete beach bunkers.

 An avid enthusiast of Stalinist principles, dictator Enver Hoxha ruled Albania from the end of World War II until 1985. The years of dictatorship brought the country to economic and social collapse. Some of the most conspicuous relics of those days include thousands of concrete bunkers on the Albanian coast. The structures emerged at the beginning of the 1970s, when the Albanian dictator severed contacts with all countries except for communist China.

via Warsaw Voice – Bunker Legacy of Dictator.

A pair of engineers in London have come up with a “building in a bag” — a sack of cement-impregnated fabric. To erect the structure, all you have to do is add water to the bag and inflate it with air. Twelve hours later the Nissen-shaped shelter is dried out and ready for use.

via Need a Building? Just Add Water.

Interesting article on Inhabitat!

1. Jumbo Hostel in Stockholm, Sweden

We head a bit farther north to visit the Jumbo Hostel, an eco-hostel that soars to the top of our list this summer. This 747-200 logged countless miles during its years of service but an early retirement to the landfill is not in the stars (or skies) for this particular plane. The jet now houses weary travelers in compact 6 square meter rooms. Some lucky visitors may even get to sleep in the cockpit, and soon more rooms will be added to the mechanical part of the plane. The interiors are decorated in simple and modern Scandinavian style and still feature the original lounge and first class seating.

via Inhabitat » Top 5 Incredible Eco-Hotels and Hostels of the World.

Today, Concrete Mushrooms project has been reviewed on Inhabitat’s Blog, too.

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