Archinect - News

France is cooling their streets with pavers made with shellfish waste

2018-12-05T17:27:00-05:00

In the main axis of the new multimodal hub in the French city of Nice, for the first time in Europe, a large expanse of urban cooling paving is being installed.

It corresponds to the areas of most intense pedestrian presence (bus stops, pavements, etc.) and represents an attempt to improve the thermal conditions of the urban space in a hot climate such as that of Nice.

It consists of an underground irrigation system controlled by exterior sensors that cool special breathable pavers, manufactured experimentally using mollusc shells.

Via

Forbes Releases Baffling "Coolest Cities" List

2014-08-06T14:46:00-04:00

Flooded with politicos and political junkies, Washington, D.C. often comes off as a city steeped in raw ambition. But the nation’s capital deserves to be known for something else: coolness. While “cool” might not be the first word that comes to mind when contemplating the latest standoff in Congress, D.C. nonetheless has a lot to offer those who call it home.

Today, Forbes released its most recent ranking of American cities, this time based on the vague, unscientific, and seemingly ridiculous category of "coolness." What, you may ask, are the determining factors of coolness?

Pay attention high school students:

Entertainment options
Bars and restaurants per capita
"Foodie culture" ie. farmer's markets
Breweries per capita
Cultural/ethnic diversity
Youth population

Wait, what? Personally, these criteria signal "yuppy" more than "cool" to me, but I guess it's all relative. Washington DC topped the list, followed by Seattle, Austin, Houston, San Francisco, San Diego, Denver, Riverside (yes, Riverside is much much cooler than L.A.), Boston, Dallas.

Call me crazy but it seems odd that New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago (or even New Orleans or Detroit!) don't make the top ten. I guess Forbes is rebelling against norms, which itself is a classic (albeit unlisted) signifier of coolness.

What are your thoughts? Can coolness be quantified? What are America...

Editor's Picks #299

2013-01-21T20:32:00-05:00

The New York Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 announced CODA (Caroline O’Donnell of Ithaca, New York) as the winner of the annual Young Architects Program (YAP) in New York...Donna Sink shared "That PS1 installation just looks dull to me" to which Steven Ward responded "i must like dull. actually, i know i do. i'm thinking i'll like its texture and shadow. form".

Orhan Ayyüce kicks off 2013 with Fishing for Architecture with John Lurie the first feature of the New Year. Orhan recently had an opportunity to talk with Mr. Lurie about architecture and this conversation resulted over a few days of messaging in cyber space. John initially noted "Man, I really know nothing about architecture" but to Orhan that was perfect, as he explained "All the better.. We have dime a dozen architects who are experts but say very little. This is not what you know about it but how you feel in it. It can get technical but that is not I am talking about...Everybody knows or senses something about architecture. Especially a highly visual person like you".

gozion commented "i share his opinions on the buildings here. (i used to work as a draftsman, back in the days of sitting at a drawing board using pencils, or ink & a rapidograph,,,paper or mylar, not linen, not that far back. i letter really well. i was also really fast. u architects can be murder on yr draf...

Your One-Stop Shop for Hidden Stairways and Secret Crypts

2011-05-04T17:28:22-04:00

If you want to lace your house with cool hidden passages, you can’t simply add hinges to a bookcase and shout, “To the Batmobile!” You have to account for shelf sag, and you have to build something sturdy enough to work hundreds of thousands of times. “My history in robotics helps,” says Steve Humble, founder of Creative Home Engineering—the only company dedicated to making hidden rooms and secret doors.