Derelict Gothic Abbey ~ Jorge Carlos Gonzalez

Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) is a pair of residential towers in the Porta Nuova district of Milan, Italy, between Via Gaetano de Castillia and Via Federico Confalonieri near Milano Porta Garibaldi railway station. They have a height of 110 metres (360 ft) and 76 metres (249 ft) and will host more than 900 trees (approximately 550 and 350 trees in the first and second towers respectively) on 8,900 square metres (96,000 sq ft) of terraces. Within the complex is also an 11-story office building; its facade does not host plants.

The towers were designed by Boeri Studio (Stefano Boeri,Gianandrea Barreca and Giovanni La Varra). It also involved input from horticulturalists and botanists. (Source)

Soft sculpture by UniversesSwirls on Etsy

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Yatagan Sword from the Court of Süleyman the Magnificent (reigned 1520–66)

Dated: circa 1525–30

Sword maker: Workshop of Ahmed Tekelü (possibly Iranian, active Istanbul, ca. 1520–30)

Geography: Istanbul

Culture: Ottoman, Istanbul

Medium: steel, gold, ivory (walrus), silver, turquoise, pearls, rubies

Measurements: overall length 23 3/8 inches (59.3 cm); blade length 18 3/8 inches (46.7 cm); weight 1 lb. 8 oz. (691 g)

Exquisite workmanship and lavish use of precious materials distinguish this sword as a princely weapon and exemplifies the opulence and refinement of Ottoman luxury arts. Almost identical to a yatagan (now in the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul) made in 1526–27 by the court jeweller Ahmed Tekel, for the Ottoman sultan Süleyman the Magnificent (r. 1520–66), this sword was undoubtedly made in the same imperial workshop.

The gold incrustation on the blade depicts a combat between a dragon and a phoenix against a background of foliage scrolls. These figures, like the gold-inlaid cloud bands and foliage scrolls on the ivory grips, are Chinese in inspiration, and were probably introduced into Ottoman art through contacts with Persia.

This sword is one of the earliest known yatagans, distinctly Turkish weapons characterised by a double-curved blade and a hilt without a guard. Yatagans were commonplace in Turkey and the Balkans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and served as sidearms for the elite troops known as Janissaries.

Source: Copyright © 2016 Metropolitan Museum of Art

Phyllotaxy - the arrangement of leaves

Phyllotactic spirals form a distinctive class of patterns in nature, depicting the arrangement of leaves on a plant stem. The basic patterns are alternate, opposite, whorled or spiral, many of them arranged based on consecutive fibonacci numbers.

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