According to Panasonic, their system controls lighting to guarantee “good sleeping”. I don’t know about you but, to me, “good sleeping” means a large bed, a good doona and someone special to spoon with all night. Still, if you want to get close to the experience of hibernation in a deep space vessel, this is the place to go. [9hours via 9h]

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!]

This week’s all about where gadgets meet gastronomy, but the truth is, the magic’s not in the gear, it’s what you do with it. Just look at what comedian George Egg does with the crap in his hotel room.

I would totally eat that—tortellini and spinach boiled in an electric kettle, followed by ciabatta bread baked on a clothes iron. Mmm mmm good. [George Egg via Consumerist]

Taste Test is our week-long tribute to the leaps that occur when technology meets cuisine, spanning everything from the historic breakthroughs that made food tastier and safer to the Earl Grey-friendly replicators we impatiently await in the future.

Except for the cockpit room, the rest of the rooms are low cost, which in reality is quite expensive: $US45 to share a room with other male or female guests, or $US122 for an individual room. In both cases, you have to share toilet and shower. You know, it’s like having all the inconveniences of flying—and more—but without the possibility of crashing.

And here you can see it in a video:

I’m curious, but for those prices, I would rather go sleep in a hotel room with its own bathroom—and keep having sex in actual flights. [Jumbo Hostel]

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!]

According to BldgBlog, approximately 4,000 oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico will be decommissioned within the next century. Morris proposed to convert this space into exclusive, self-sufficient eco-friendly, high-end resort islands off the Gulf of Mexico, dubbing it our very own American Dubai, as you can tell from the yacht parking lot seen in the gallery below.

Currently, the method of removing these sorts of oil rigs would be to blow them up, which would cost millions of dollars and would kill a ton of sea life in the process. With a deck of each oil rig at 20,000 square feet, that creates about 80 million square feet of usable space. One reason this proposal is cheaper than blasting is that the rooms themselves are efficiently shipped out on big tankers and installed by stacking and sliding open, Transformers-style:

[BldgBlog]

A hotel designed by famous architect Lord Norman Foster will be cut down to little more than half of its intended design because of improperly installed rebar on 15 floors.

The hotel, called the Harmon, was just essentially “kneecapped.” What did they do, take an X-acto knife across the blueprints? You have to wonder what Foster thinks of all this. [LasVegasSun via BLDGBLOG]

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 43ºC 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]