First your mom told you not to stare at the sun, now she's going to remind you not to stare too long at this hypnotic building. Planned for Portland, Oregon, this storage facility is designed to house all the crap you've been collecting over the years, but instead of being an unsightly blight on the landscape, the designer will cover the 100,000 square foot building with solar panels.

Not only does this building save on valuable real estate by going up instead of out, it could soon be the largest solar facility in the Northwest if it gets off the drawing board and into reality. In addition to having ramps and mechanical arms that can move cars and boats into storage, the solar-collecting building will have a roof that retracts to recycle rainwater. And that's a good thing considering Portland has on average 155 days of rainy weather each year. — Stephen Schleicher

Tree Hugger, via MetaEfficient