A publicly accessible urban beach entertainment complex is disclosed, with a man-made tropical, pristine-clear lagoon as the centerpiece of the complex. The lagoon includes a surf feature and surrounding the lagoon are entertainment, educational, sports, and commercial facilities. The complex has a controlled public access and provides the look and feel of a tropical beach with clear waters and sandy beaches. In addition a method for efficiently utilizing facilities and land that are vacant, underutilized, have limited uses, or that are contiguous to or nearby recreational, educational, sports, or commercial venues is disclosed. The method providing a publicly accessible urban beach entertainment complex with a centerpiece man-made tropical-style pristine-clear lagoon having a surf feature. The method allows for generating revenue and increasing efficiency by pairing vacant sites, underutilized sites, limited use land, or sites that are contiguous to entertainment, educational, sports, and/or commercial venues with urban beach entertainment complexes. The complex preferably has a controlled public access, thereby allowing entrance upon payment of a fee.

A marine or land habitation system includes a habitable chamber and a monopole column supporting the habitable chamber at a first end of the monopole column. The monopole column includes a second end, opposite the first end, for mounting in the seabed or dry land. The habitable chamber is moveable with respect to the column both rotationally and vertically.

A venue includes an exterior structure having a spherical-like shape, a theater area inside the exterior structure, an audience seating area positioned in the theater area, a first plurality of light-emitting diodes, and a second plurality of light-emitting diodes. The theater area includes an interior curved surface. The audience seating area has a plurality of levels of seating. The first plurality of light-emitting diodes are positioned to facilitate providing a first display along the interior curved surface and in front of, to the side, above, and behind at least a portion of the audience seating area, and a second plurality of light-emitting diodes positioned to facilitate providing a second display around at least a majority of the spherical-like shape of the exterior structure.

A half-timbered house having a multi-shell wall structure including a rafter roof having a plurality of rafters and side walls, which in turn each comprise at least one sill resting on a substrate and a plurality of posts. The multi-shell wall structure has two structural frameworks, wherein the first structural framework faces the interior and the second structural framework faces the surroundings.

A dome ride system includes a dome, a cartridge, receptacles of the cartridge configured to secure users, a media system configured to communicate a narrative to the users disposed within the cartridge utilizing an interior surface of the dome to display a visual aspect of the narrative, and a drive system. The cartridge is configured to be disposed within the dome, the dome is engaged with the drive system and configured to rotate in multiple directions about a center of the dome in response to input from the drive system, and the cartridge is configured to be coupled to and rotate with the dome.

A publicly accessible urban beach entertainment complex is disclosed, with a man-made tropical, pristine-clear lagoon as the centerpiece of the complex. The lagoon includes a surf feature and surrounding the lagoon are entertainment, educational, sports, and commercial facilities. The complex has a controlled public access and provides the look and feel of a tropical beach with clear waters and sandy beaches. In addition a method for efficiently utilizing facilities and land that are vacant, underutilized, have limited uses, or that are contiguous to or nearby recreational, educational, sports, or commercial venues is disclosed. The method providing a publicly accessible urban beach entertainment complex with a centerpiece man-made tropical-style pristine-clear lagoon having a surf feature. The method allows for generating revenue and increasing efficiency by pairing vacant sites, underutilized sites, limited use land, or sites that are contiguous to entertainment, educational, sports, and/or commercial venues with urban beach entertainment complexes. The complex preferably has a controlled public access, thereby allowing entrance upon payment of a fee.

This invention relates to a self-supporting three-dimensional prestressed structure, as well as a method and a device for erecting same, to be employed in the construction of residential and nonresidential buildings.

The structure is constructed of vertical form-defining flexible rodlike members (1) stressed during the construction of the structure, as well as horizontal flexible rodlike members (2) each forming a closed curve. The horizontal members (2) are also stressed during construction and welded or rigidly affixed by other means to the vertical form-defining members (1).

Instead of horizontal circular members (2) the structure can be constructed completely or to some extent using a spiral member, also stressed during the construction of the structure that is rigidly affixed to the vertical form-defining flexible members (1).

An expanded kiosk and kiosk system that is collapsible and deployable by expansion and contraction. The kiosk includes a lighting system adapted to provide a light characteristic to the kiosk and represent a lamp post or light post for public or private spaces. Deployment of the kiosk includes moving first and second vertically-oriented structural units away from one another such that one or more of a canopy, a working surface and/or a front-facing surface are fully deployed and the canopy surface and working surface are substantially parallel to one another.

A dwelling assembly that has a continuous sidewall and an opening for a door and a window. A roof assembly is provided with first and second roofs that are spaced apart such that the outer roof acts as a heat shield for the inner roof to ensure the interior of the dwelling is a minimum temperature. In addition, ballast boxes are utilized in order to provide additional weight to the dwelling and a planting area in association with the dwelling assembly.

An expandable structure that includes front and rear structural units having inside-facing surfaces parallel to one another, a retractable top that spans the front and rear structural units, and first and second retractable partitions each of which spans and connects the front and rear structural units. The front structural unit is fixably attached to a substrate and the rear structural unit is mounted on a rolling mechanism so that the rear structural unit may be moved away from the front structural unit in an orientation perpendicular to the face of the first structural unit to a distance equivalent to a deployed depth of the first retractable partition, the second retractable partition and the retractable top.