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Thesis project develops drone architecture for adaptable public spaces

2018-09-07T14:49:00-04:00

A recent thesis project from three students explores adaptable architecture using drones and "smart" materials. The project, Cyber Physical Macro Material, uses lightweight carbon fiber building blocks with integrated sensing communication to create dynamic public spaces.

Cyber Physical Macro Material thesis project by Miguel Aflalo, Behrooz Tahanzadeh, and Jingcheng Chen. Image: University of Stuttgart.

The user can program drones to reconfigure the canopy according to the sun's position, providing occupants with optimum shade thorughout the day. The architecture system can also actively rebuild itself to influence the occupants or retreat completely to nearby rooftops.

Cyber Physical Macro Material thesis project by Miguel Aflalo, Behrooz Tahanzadeh, and Jingcheng Chen. Image: University of Stuttgart.

The project was developed by students Miguel Aflalo, Behrooz Tahanzadeh, and Jingcheng Chen within the Integrative Technologies and Architectural Design Research (ITECH) Master Progr...

Airbus to build interchangeable sleeping compartments in cargo hold

2018-04-16T15:49:00-04:00

European plane-maker Airbus has announced it is to develop lower-deck passenger modules that sit inside the cargo hold. In a press release Tuesday, the firm said it was partnering with Zodiac Aerospace to build the compartments, complete with sleeping berths for passengers. Airbus said the intention is to receive formal approval from aviation bodies by 2020 with the first installation to be made on an A330 aircraft.

Airbus and Zodiac Aerospace are creating sleeping modules that would be interchangeable with regular cargo containers. This would give airlines the flexibility to reconfigure their cargo on layovers or turnarounds. Their first mock-up was reportedly well received by airlines.

Take a look in their sleeping module mock-up:

The enclosure to dismantle Chernobyl's nuclear reactor is complete

2016-04-07T13:07:00-04:00

This month marks the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. On April 26, 1986, technicians conducting a test inadvertently caused reactor number four to explode... Reuters reports that a huge recently-completed enclosure called the New Safe Confinement—the world's largest land-based moving structure—will be “pulled slowly over the site later this year to create a steel-clad casement to block radiation and allow the remains of the reactor to be dismantled safely.”

Although it sounds like an early aughts indie band name, the New Safe Confinement structure over Chernobyl's reactor number four is finally complete, constructed at an estimated cost of €1.5 billion. Meanwhile, neighboring city and officially uninhabitable Pripyat has become a hauntingly photogenic ghost town, as captured in these photos:

For what else is going on in Chernobyl:

HOTELLO. Somnia et Labora. A Portable Office

2013-03-22T19:08:00-04:00

Hotello is a portable space, packed into a trunk. Hotello contains all the necessary elements needed to work and rest. It consists of a metal structure that supports a translucent and sound absorbant curtain. Hotello can be combined and aggregated in different configurations.