Tag: architecture

The Ultimate Roller Coaster Ends Lives

By Anupum Pant

Euthanasia Coaster, A concept designed by Julijonas Urbonas, is a one of its kind roller coaster concept designed to literally kill you. As the name suggests, it is an engineering marvel designed to intentionally end lives of people suffering from terminal illnesses or the ones who are bored of a too long life – a practice referred to as Euthanasia. The coaster is a different kind of Euthanasia machine.

The concept, according to him is a humane way of ending lives of people who don’t want to live any more. Since, Euthanasia is seen as a suicide by some, it has been banned in some countries, while there are others who consider it legal. Similarly, the humane way of ending life by inflicting euphoria and thrill is considered a marvellous concept by some, and there are also others who are extremely disgusted by the idea. Most find it morbid.

Since Julijonas neither encourages nor discourages suicide, I think it isn’t right to judge him by his concept.

It kills you by extreme G forces that are produced at certain parts of the coaster. In simple words, it kills you by depriving your brain of oxygen. The medical term for it is Hypoxia. It does this by taking you up half a kilometre high and then dropping you into a 10 second long fall. It is built to carry 24 people and it ensures that all of them come back dead.

Euthanasia Coaster from Julijonas Urbonas on Vimeo.

There is no organization who plans to build it yet.

[Find out more]

A tip you don’t need: Another way to die out of pleasure would be to feed yourself Theobromine. Now where would you find it?

Dark chocolates! A tiny bite of dark chocolate can easily kill your dog. But, if you are an 80 kg human, you need to consume about 10 kg of dark chocolate to kill yourself. That would be a great way to go, wouldn’t it?

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Yakhchal – An Ancient Cold Storage Marvel

By Anupum Pant

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During a period when electricity was only a thing for the Gods, around 400 B.C.E., in the hot-arid deserts of Iran where temperatures touched 40 degree centigrade, ancient engineers had found a way to keep their ice from melting. Two thousand years back, a cold storage facility was being used. The impressive thing about it – it was clean and sustainable technology.

What are these?

Yakhchals, or ice pits of ancient Persia were the huge mounds (buildings hollow from the inside), which made it possible for Persians to store away the ice for summers, meat, dairy products, other food items and chilled frozen Faloodeh for the palace. Beside treats for the palace, the method of preserving ice was so professional yet simple that even the poor could afford it.

Structure and Working

The structure of these buildings above the ground is a large mud brick dome, often rising to about 60 feet in height. Below it are large underground empty spaces, up to 5000 cubic meter in volume. This space had access to wind catch and often contained a system of wind-catchers that could easily bring temperatures inside the space down to frigid levels in summer days. The structures were built so well that many still remain standing.

Working: The massive insulation built into the walls (due to the use of a special mixture of sand, clay, egg whites, lime, goat hair, and ash) and the continuous cooling waters that spiralled down its side kept the ice frozen throughout the summer by evaporative cooling (just like those mist fans). They also had a trench at the bottom to catch water from the molten ice and to refreeze it during the cold desert nights. The ice was then broken up and moved to rooms deep in the ground. As more water ran into the trench the process was repeated.

Geography: These were built in the areas that had suitable condition for producing natural ice or places where there was feasibility of water freezing during the cold nights.

Major architectural elements: 

  • Shading wall – To avoid direct exposure to sunlight and to let the structure remain cool in the shade.
  • Provisional pool – To supply water for evaporative cooling to take place.
  • and Ice reservoir – To keep the cycle going. Freeze > Melt > Refreeze at night and so on…

The end of Yakhchal (reasons)

  • Since the advent of electricity-guzzling freezers and air conditioners, unfortunately, the use of these architectural wonders has been considered as foolishness. This is probably the reason no Yakhchals are being used for cold storage anymore.
  • Desert storms, caused a lot of erosion to these structures, especially to the ones that were isolated in the desert regions.
  • Since Yakhchal’s ice formed in the open it was prone to combining with dust and resulted in contamination. That was another reason it wasn’t considered as a choice useful enough for modern purposes.

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