The decay of Pod City: Eerie photos reveal abandoned flying saucer-style holiday homes built for US military officers in Taiwan
- Sanzhi Pod City in Taiwan was designed as a holiday resort for US officers
- Space age homes built in 1978 on top of a burial ground for Dutch soldiers
- Several deaths during construction including suicides and accidents
- Pods were abandoned and demolished to transform site into new resort
Desolate, shattered, warped and stained, this abandoned series of Smartie-coloured pod homes paints a bleak picture.
The flats, known as Sanzhi Pod City, were built in New Taipei City, Taiwan and designed to be part of a holiday resort.
They were built in 1978 as a vacation destination for US military officers deployed to the Far East and wealthy Taiwanese.
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Sanzhi Pod City was built in New Taipei City, Taiwan, in 1978 and designed to be a futuristic holiday resort
The buildings were abandoned in 1980 after investment losses by developers Hung Kuo Group
According to locals, a burial ground for Dutch soldiers lies beneath the startling designs.
History surrounding the sad structures is even stranger. The buildings were abandoned in 1980 after investment losses by developers Hung Kuo Group and a number of bizarre deaths, including several suicides and car accidents during construction.
According to locals a burial ground for Dutch soldiers lies underneath the buildings and the site is haunted
Taipei City in Taiwan where the site was built but later demolished to make way for a new water park
These shots were taken in 2008 by photographer Gem Urdaneta, 33, a couple of years before the pods were demolished by the Taipei government.
The site is said to be haunted but is in the process of being converted into a commercial seaside holiday resort and water park.
A number of bizarre deaths, including several suicides and car accidents occured during construction
A graffetti-ed and abandoned slide (left) and a small figure sits by a pod (right) in these 2008 photographs
Gem, a real estate administrator from the Philippines, said: 'As an avid documenter of man-made landscape, I found these pod houses very cool.
'The colours, the retro futuristic style, whoever designed and built these had a lot of balls.
'As to their demise, people give me different stories.
A real estate administrator from the Philippines says the prices were too high and they failed to sell
Apparently, these retro futuristic building styles were popular at that time, but the price was so high that they failed to sell most of the units.
I guess the developer went broke and that's why they lay in absolute ruin for years.
'Maybe the era was all wrong, the target market was all wrong, and the grand experiment failed, but they were still intriguing to look at.'
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Too bad, I think they're pretty cool looking. But ...
by guiltyspark 93