Carl Bass, who’s helmed the $2 billion corporation since 2006, admits that the delineation between building virtual and physical products is eroding, and that has created opportunities for companies who have traditionally focused on developing and selling software.

“It used to be that it was this unwritten rule that software companies don’t do hardware, and vice versa,” he says, “but I think the rules are changing…. It totally would be fun. I personally would love it.” — wired.com

It's been almost one year since the collaboration of artists RE:Site and architects METALAB won the competition to design Texas A&M University's new Memorial Student Center 12th Man Hall [...]. The resulting lighting installation, Memory Cloud, has now been completed, and we have first photos and a video of the project. — bustler.net

Frank Tjepkema of Dutch design studio Tjep. has designed an ecologically friendly getaway home to be self-sufficient in remote areas.

Called Isolée, the small house embraces and uses technology to be as energy efficient as possible. — DesignBuild Source

In 2012, ​filmmaker Leon Gerskovic chronicled the journey of 16 design/buildLAB students as they conceived and realized the Masonic Amphitheatre. The project, a charitable undertaking, consisted of the complete redevelopment of a post-industrial brownfield into a public park and performance space. Reality Check is their inspirational story. — design/buildLAB

The City of New York invited students, urban planners, designers, technologists and creators to build physical and virtual prototypes imagining the payphone of the future. Judges selected the top six designs, now you get to decide which design will receive the Popular Choice Award. — NYC Gov Facebook

Rather than using cranes to take the building apart from the outside, they start from the inside, taking the structure apart floor by floor from the top down. A crane inside the building lowers materials harvested from each floor to ground level, generating electricity to power other equipment in the process. So with Tecorep, higher buildings are actually an advantage, since the crane can generate more electricity lowering materials over longer distances. — popsci.com

In construction or renovation of buildings you'll be able to identify poorly insulated areas and badly wired electrical outlets before you put the drywall up. You'll find places where water has penetrated the structure where it should not have. Identifying mold and moisture is a much easier task with the Mµ Thermal Imager. — indiegogo.com

Facebook recently got a big blue thumbs up from the Menlo Park Planning Commission to build its sprawling Frank Gehry-designed headquarters. Along with the requisite rezoning for the design, the commission approved the project’s environmental impact report, an official statement concluding that the new development would have more positive than negative effects on the area, and a cartographical change that will create a private road in front of the property called “Facebook Way.” — blogs.artinfo.com

A new partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration brings an out-of-this-world opportunity for Cal Poly Pomona architecture students. Over the past months, students have been constructing a massive 30 foot structure in the parking lot of the Interim Design Center. [...]

The scenario given by NASA was to build a vertical habitat facility for four astronauts that can go into deep space for 60 days. — thepolypost.com

The idea behind the 3Doodler is that it takes the core functionality of a 3D printer, essentially an extruder and a heat source, and jams it into a pen-shaped handheld device. Loaded with either ABS or PLA plastic, common feedstock for traditional 3D printers, the 3Doodler "prints" plastic objects by letting you draw them in freehand in three-dimensional space. — reviews.cnet.com

Technology being used in urban communities around the world hints at how we may live in the cities of the future — BBC News

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang today announced that his company has begun work on a new campus. The building, designed by renowned architecture firm Gensler, will be located "directly across the street" from Nvidia's current headquarters in Santa Clara, California. "The new NVIDIA building will capture the ambition and imagination of our people," says Huang. "It will be the symbol, the physical manifestation, of our vision for the company." — theverge.com

Billionaire businessman, James Packer has shortlisted four of the world’s best architects (Adrian Smith + Gill Architecture, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, Renzo Piano and Wilkinson Eyre Architects) to bid to design and build the urban masterpiece that will be Crown Sydney.
The proposed $1 billion six-star Crown Sydney resort will be a dramatic addition to Sydney’s skyline and be built across a giant 6,000 square metre site in Barangaroo. — DesignBuild Source