Architect builds giant wind-turbine-temple for Shaolin monks

The first Shaolin temple was built as far back as 495 AD, but that doesn’t mean the architecture these fighting monks use is stuck in the past. Quite the contrary. Latvian designer Austris Mailitis recently finished construction of a wild new building for the Kung fu-practicing sect.

The new Shaolin Flying Monks Temple in Henan, China, is a 3,230-square-foot amphitheater curving around a vertical, steel-framed wind tunnel vaguely resembling one of the towers in Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay.

A set of massive turbines from manufacturer Aerodium are hidden beneath the sound-proofed performance area, shooting enough wind power upward to enable the monks and other visitors to hover in the air as though flying.

“The concept is partially based on the phenomenon of levitation explored by the Shaolin monks for centuries,” said Mailitis in an interview with Inhabitat. “Now they will all have an opportunity to try levitating. The idea is focused on growth, a spiritual and physical chance of making the next step towards solving the mystery of levitation.”

It also just looks really cool.

Via: Inhabitat