Floating Barn

A picture of an apparently floating barn has recently been making the rounds.



According to whoever posted it on panoramio.com, the barn is located in Ukraine, 1 km from Krasnosilka. However, the same person also titled the picture "kin-dza-dza," which is the title of a Russian science-fiction movie. I don't know if that's supposed to mean that the picture looks like something out of a science-fiction movie, or if it's fake.

I'm inclined to think that the building is real, and that the image wasn't photoshopped. I think that the steel beams at the back of the building could support the entire structure. Here's another image of the building, from a different angle.

Photos

Posted on Thu Sep 20, 2007



Comments

Looks like it is set in a huge lump of concrete, with a metal base supporting the rest of the structure. So I presume it is real, just unusual and pretty cool looking, as well as completely impractical.
Posted by mr royale  on  Thu Sep 20, 2007  at  02:53 AM
I don't know about this particular design, but in parts of eastern US cantilevered barns were not uncommon a century ago. I believe the idea was to have a convenient way to dump feed etc. from the barn into wagons/trucks, and also provide ventilation and protection from rot and pests.
for an example in Appalachia see
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tgraham54/228251518/
Posted by joel  on  Thu Sep 20, 2007  at  10:44 AM
In the comments of the 2nd photo post (http://www.panoramio.com/photo/2558057) the OP is asked if it is Photoshop and he replies that he used Photoshop. But in the comments for the 1st photo (those that are in English anyway) it seems that it is/was a real building but is no longer standing. Pretty neat either way!
Posted by 1smileygirl  on  Thu Sep 20, 2007  at  02:06 PM
The hardest part is getting the cows to climb the ladder.
Posted by Blondin  on  Thu Sep 20, 2007  at  07:53 PM
If the internal structure is properly designed and built, the structure could work. Metal fatigue would prevent the building from lasting as long as one built on the ground, and this one seems to not be standing anymore from what 1smileygirl said. If you could get the center of gravity over the column and concrete base, I think it would last longer. A house built like this would have some interesting views I bet. And a lot of complaints from the neighbors if it was built in an urban area.
Posted by Christopher Cole  on  Thu Sep 20, 2007  at  11:05 PM
Is it just me or does it look like CGI
Posted by AAB  on  Thu Sep 27, 2007  at  11:34 AM
The ladder-like support structures are in different places in different shots - there's definitely been at least some tampering with the images, because they're not consistent with one another.

Another photo (also inconsistent with the two above) is available here:


I believe the building had four pairs of support trusses - one pair at each end and a pair at each one-third of the length. Some of these might have been physically removed, but others have I believe been 'shopped out.
Posted by Mangetout  on  Thu Sep 27, 2007  at  04:40 PM
If the steel beams are supporting the structure, why are they absent in the first picture?
Posted by T. Taylor  on  Thu Sep 27, 2007  at  05:18 PM
I wonder if it is a cold war installation of some sort with the barn built on top. The metal substructure's shape is not entirely clear, but doesn't seem to "go" with the building.
Posted by P. Ruscoe  on  Fri Oct 19, 2007  at  02:54 PM
A more realistic photo, where the building doesn't hang in the air: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/6930092
Posted by Klood  on  Tue Feb 26, 2008  at  05:50 AM
definatly CGI. I'd say it was done on Blender. The lights not natural. Everythings to vivid.
Posted by iz  on  Tue Dec 16, 2008  at  01:28 AM
Hello there I love that someone is actually talking about this thing :D

I've seen it a couple of places now and now I finnished my own version of the "Impossible barn"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonasrasmussen/3320246001/
(my one is fake and I made it in max 😛)

Love it.
I am still unsure if it is real or not.
Posted by Jonas Rasmussen  on  Sun Mar 01, 2009  at  06:19 PM
I couldn't believe that this picture came up when I was searching images for a lesson. Not because it is odd looking, but because I recognize it from my travels to Ukraine. I don't know if the picture we are looking at in enhanced or not. But the Barn is real, I've been there, I've seen it and in fact I took a picture of it myself because I thought it was so odd looking. This is just coming from some one who has driven by the thing 10 times while traveling in Ukraine
Posted by NH  on  Sun Mar 22, 2009  at  01:41 PM
Hello NH
Nice to know that it is infact real 😛
Can you post your picture or link to it please?

- Jonas
Posted by Jonas Rasmussen  on  Sun Mar 22, 2009  at  03:10 PM
It's actually my house and I'd appreciate if everyone would stop making fun of it and spying on me. I built it off the ground because I got tired of solicitors.
Posted by Chris Lord  on  Tue Mar 31, 2009  at  12:49 AM
HAHA great one, try add some windows 😛
Posted by Jonas Rasmussen  on  Thu Apr 02, 2009  at  04:48 AM
It is a potato sorting station. It is not barn and it is not big. Look at bricks in the basement.Height of the electic post is 6m so - about 5m aboveground. The soviet asbest plate roof has 9 wawes per meter. 😊
Posted by Raivo  on  Thu Apr 02, 2009  at  08:41 AM
fuck this shit
Posted by dan  on  Tue Jan 19, 2010  at  07:43 AM
Cant figure out why someone would build this thing on only one pillar.
I guess someone removed parts of it and left it like this - if not done in Photoshop to make us all wonder 😊
Posted by Jesper  on  Tue Dec 14, 2010  at  04:57 AM
1) It looks like CGI, and not even good one. The lighting model is horrible, the sky gradient is too smooth, so are the textures.

2) There is no way in hell that structure would hold, unless it would be minuscule and not a real barn. You would need an extremely rigid framework both along the top and the bottom. The metal base alone

3) It doesn't even make sense.

Why would someone design something like this when you could easily make it safer? It would be trivial to add a second concrete base to the 2nd or third inverted cone thingies.

Structurally, you don't want things to be hanging from a thread. The conic shape that ties it to the concrete is stupid. It should follow the "strength lines" - projecting from the concrete forwards, to look more like an arch. Also, you should have a compression-absorbing beam between the tips of the inverted cones so as to prevent it from bending at that joint.

Even if you wanted to build something this way, the weight distribution is all wrong. You should lay as much weight as possible next to the concrete base, and you could even make it lean backwards a bit to balance gravity's pull at the tip, which makes the structure tend to rotate around its fixation point.

Again, this would need strong beams or, even better, suspension cables like you have in bridges, to absorb the stretching.

Sorry for my bad English :(
Posted by Jorge Lima  on  Thu Jan 06, 2011  at  12:33 AM
It either exists or is doesn't. Discussion is a moot point for delegational speculative humanoids.
Posted by Spock  on  Fri Apr 01, 2011  at  09:57 PM
Well to tell you the truth ...it looks pretty cool

But my opinion is that it probably was used as one of those silos that used to load seeds/salt/grain/sand into railroad cars or 18 wheel trucks since there is a worn path at the bottom and the structure does have the conical form to do that .....

But then again ...I might be wrong
Posted by Brenda Karla Portugal  on  Tue Mar 06, 2012  at  01:02 PM
It's a bit of a shame it's been done (either on photoshop or for real) because I could see something like this being a fantastic art piece and tourist attraction, an artist could convince a local artist to allow it to be put up on some visible part of their land, looking a lot like the sort of building that belongs there, in its surroundings,except floating.

Of course a lot of structural work would have to go on to make the building look implausible, but plausible at the same time, but I'm sure it's possible, stranger things have happened, and we might be looking at a real life example in these pictures. Maybe I should pitch this to the Scotish tourist board, could make a floating croft in the Western Isles or something? Could put in a hydraulic lift for the animals to come in for shearing etc!
Posted by Craig McArthur  on  Thu Mar 22, 2012  at  04:50 PM
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