The hotel, designed by ReardonSmith Architects, aims to preserve the verdant appeal of its Green Belt location while at the same time offering a full range of luxury spa, hotel, and golf accommodations. If they're able to blend it into the scenery as seamlessly as the spec art indicates, it's going to be a beautifully unobtrusive bit of five-star property. [Inhabitat via io9]

Those opaque windows combined with the concrete "fins" on the side of the building act as a heat barrier and reduce cooling costs dramatically. I just don't know if the savings are worth the mockery for living in a chunk of Swiss cheese, even if it's a pretty chunk of Swiss cheese. [WAN]

With the walls constructed of dark, solar protected glass, the abundant plant life of this Villamoda Galleries design is clearly visible at the right angles and the neatly kept vertical gardens appear as if they're part of the hotel's very structure and are a stunning blend of nature and architecture. I just wish there were some vines to swing around from. [WAN]

Berg is the world-record holder of pretty much every house-of-cards award there is, and this hotel suite is his only full-size (meaning scaled to people size) project to date. It's not a functioning hotel room—we're pretty sure that toilet could actually handle the duties of a real toilet—but it'll stay constructed until the end of the weekend as a gallery or large-scale art piece. [Daily Mail, thanks Billy!]

As you might have guessed, the experience on board the Hotelicopter is far from your standard Motel 6. This gigantic flying Titanic machine features everything you would expect from a 5-star hotel—from private entertainment systems and room service to extras like spa treatments, yoga classes, gaming and a tea garden.

If you were wondering just how big and powerful this flying hotel really is, check out the specs:

* Dimensions Length: 42 m (137 ft)
* Height: 14m (45 ft)
* Maximum Takeoff Weight: 105850 kg (232,870 lb)
* Maximum speed: 255 km/h (137 kt) (158 miles/h)
* Cruising speed: 237 km/h (127 kt) (147 miles/h)
* Original Mi Range: 515 km (320 mi)
* Our augmented Mi Range - 1,030 km (640 mi)

The inaugural flight is set to take place on June 26th for an undisclosed price. Obviously, only the affluent need apply—but anyone that is interested can head on over to the Hotelicopter website to get more info about setting up a reservation. [Hotelicopter Thanks Zlooop!]

UPDATE: Sadly, the Hotelicopter has been outed as a fake.

The small beach will protect guests' precious feet by piping cold air through a series of tubes underneath the sand, which will suck enough heat from the blistering surface to offset the beaming sun and 110F temperatures. A system of computers and thermostats will monitor and adjust the system.

Hotel proprietor Soheil Abedian, who holds the uniquely Dubaian job title of "Guy Who Takes Wild Guesses at What Very Rich People Might Pay For", had this to say about his project:

We will suck the heat out of the sand to keep it cool enough to lie on. This is the kind of luxury that top people want.

Top people! I can only assume that this means the hotel's patronage will be strictly limited to previous winners of Top Chef and/or America's Next Top Model. The hotel is set to open next year, or possible in early 2010. [Daily Mail]

Using LED lighting, the designers argue that the would be able to reduce jet-lag on guests. The room also includes an active comfort bed (read "bed with fancy vibrating apparatus"), an intelligent mirror, and a personal spa area. [Dezeen]

I was getting ready to expand my hostel business in 2006 when I heard about an old wreck of an aircraft for sale at Arlanda. Since I had for a long time wanted to establish my business at Arlanda I didn’t hesitate for a second when this opportunity struck.

It may seem like a weird thought, but being a modest owner of the hostel Uppsala Vandrarhem och Hotell, in Uppsala, Oscar knew how expensive it is to actually find a terrain near a busy airport like Arlanda, and then actually build an entire hotel from scratch.

That's why, when he learnt about the dead Jumbo, Oscar only saw cheap space for rooms and decided it was time to continue his inexpensive hotel business right there. He thought that, being the busiest, largest international airport in his country, there was going to be a lot of clients looking for cheap accommodation.

However, at the end it wasn't that easy. There was a long way from buying the airplane to finally setting up the hostel. First he needed to get the OK from the authorities of Sigtuna, the town that controls the terrains in which the Arlanda Airport is based. He had the perfect pitch for them: it was going to be a unique landmark, he thought. He wanted to place it right at the entrance of the airport itself, on top of a concrete foundation with the landing gear tied to two steel cradles. The authorities heard the story and, surprisingly enough, they agreed to approve the plan and granted him the necessary permissions.

The hotel itself was also a challenge. It wasn't going to be as easy as to install a few beds, provide clean linens, and sell curry kyckling macka, small beer cans, lousy pot coffee, and peanut bags at the airplane's second level cafeteria. The Boeing 747-200 interior—with 450 seats—needed to be completely dismantled and sanitized. Then, it needed to be insulated, divided into 25 rooms (each of them 6 square meters, with 3 meters high ceilings), and completely rewired. It also needed new plumbing, bathrooms, sanitation, and a new climate control system, since the windows on planes are fixed and can't be opened. And to finish it all, the whole result had to adhere to the strict construction policies of Sweden.

At the end, and after a two year odyssey, he did it: the Jumbo Hostel—as Oscar called his creation—has been towed to its final destination this summer, and bookings will start in December. All in the name of inexpensive accommodation, pilots and stewardesses sex fantasies, and crazy Swedish landmarks. Pass the akvavit Oscar, next time I go to that part of the world, I'll be checking in. [Jumbo Hostel via Random Good Stuff]

Yes, I know, even with 104,182 square metres, with 382 rooms over 35 floors, it's a complete letdown. Jeff Vader won't be happy with this pancaked Death Star at all. [Skyscraper News via Star Wars Blog]

Designer WATG is no stranger to high style and forward-looking design—the company had a hand in the design of the Venetian Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas among many others, and has forward-looking plans for an undersea hotel, and even a space resort. These are some big ideas, but you won't be able to make a reservation for any of these pie-in-the-sky schemes just yet. And didn't they try this before? Something about New Jersey?

Worldwide Aeros Announces Luxurious Airborne Cruise Ships [Born Rich]