Friday Five: Places That Appeal To My Geekiest Sensibilities

i. Experience Music Project | Science Fiction Museum, Seattle, WA, USA ::

A shrine to the influence of pop music and one of my favorite genres, all in one compact Frank Gehry-designed facility. Really, do I need to qualify this choice any further?

ii. Biosphere II, Oracle, AZ, USA ::

Frankly, i'm fascinated by the sheer audacity of human engineering, and what could be more gloriously pompous than replicating an entire frakking biosphere, under lab-controlled circumstances. Believe me, i'm wary of civilization's attempts to subdue nature's fury, but you've gotta be impressed with the vast scope of this project.

FUN FACT: This place was the likely inspiration for one of my guilty pleasures: the mid-90s Pauly Shore flop, Bio-Dome.

iii. The Bund, Shanghai, PRC ::

I mostly grew up in cities next to bays -- Singapore, Hong Kong, Manila -- so i'm predisposed toward urban forms that are clustered around bodies of water. So it ought to be no surprise that i'm all too eager to witness the flood-lit hodge-podge of architectural styles along the western embankment of the Huangpu River, facing Pudong, in Shanghai. British-era Art Deco! Neo-Classical! Pseudo Beaux-Arts! Likewise, the urban studies geek in me has a massive hard-on for the seamless integration of pedestrian thoroughfares and public transport networks in the area.

iv. The entire city of Brasília, Brazil ::

The capital of the populous South American nation is an interesting study in urban planning, psychogeography, and the forces of national will. It was designed in the 50s, ostensibly as a shining example of utopian modernist ideals about city life. Citizens were allotted residential areas amidst designated greenbelt, with communal supercuadras set aside for sporting, leisure, and business infrastructure. And yet these days, it's more often regarded as a budget travel destination for New Age aficionados, seeking out the various cults, sects, and mystical religious groups that ended up taking refuge amongst the city's monumental tower blocks.

v. The Henry Ford, Dearborn, MI, USA ::

Where else can you find Buckminster Fuller's prototype dymaxion house, alongside a replica of Thomas Edison's Menlo Park laboratory, and the interior of the actual bus in which Rosa Parks made her famed act of defiance? At the Henry Ford, that's where! And if that isn't reason enough to check out this sprawling museum complex in the outskirts of Detroit, then maybe we shouldn't be travel buddies.