Archinect - News

Cambridge researchers develop AI model to help retrofit and decarbonize housing

2023-11-02T11:45:00-04:00

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have unveiled a “first-of-its-kind AI model” that can help policymakers identify and prioritize houses for retrofitting and other decarbonizing measures. The deep learning model, trained by researchers from the university’s Department of Architecture, promises “to make it far easier, faster, and cheaper to identify these high-priority problem properties and develop strategies to improve their green credentials,” the team says.

The model and wider research centers on ‘hard-to-decarbonize’ (HtD) houses that, while responsible for a quarter of all direct housing emissions, are rarely identified or targeted for improvement. According to the team, the age, structure, location, availability of data, and socioeconomic context can all lead to a house being classified as HtD.

In response, a team including urban researcher and data scientist Maoran Sun and the university’s Sustainable Design group lead, Dr. Ronita Bardhan, has developed their AI mo...

As the cities change, Google Street View records

2017-05-26T15:27:00-04:00

It’s been a decade since Google Street View launched, giving folks all the tools they need to virtually travel to far-flung places without leaving the comfort of their couch. But the tool is also useful for those who are curious about the evolution of places over time—and few places have experienced as drastic a change to their landscape in the past decade as New York City.

Consider how much NYC has transformed in the past ten years. It is hard to even imagine the city's appearance in 2007 — prior to 20 skyscrapers' rising above the southern side of Central Park, before projects like Hudson Yards, the High Line, Pacific Park even begun their construction, and back when Williamsburg and Long Island City were not nearly as dense as today.

To see it for yourself, head over to Google Street View for some time-traveling. The feature can be activated by pressing the clock icon below your location.

View of 339 11th St in 2009 vs 2016

You can now explore the Guggenheim rotunda galleries online via Google Street View

2016-01-22T18:28:00-05:00

Online visitors from around the world can now explore the interior of the iconic Frank Lloyd Wright–designed Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum through Google Street View technology. Additionally, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, in collaboration with the Google Cultural Institute, has made available over 120 artworks from its collection for online viewing. [...] The Guggenheim’s architecture presented unique challenges for Google’s engineers and Street View team.

Ready to immerse yourself? Click here to start your stroll down the rotunda.

All images courtesy of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Google Street View captures beautiful public space transformations

2015-09-02T20:02:00-04:00

A Brazilian urban planning collective called Urb-i...scoured Google Street View images to find the most stunning public space transformations from around the world. The results give us hope that our cities are becoming more beautiful places to live.

Cheer up: not everything is getting worse, at least not if you check out these comparison shots of real places from around the globe captured on Google Street View. Compiled by Urb-i, these 41 intersections and urban streets are studies in pedestrian-friendliness; as the years melt by, many of the municipalities and cities strip away traffic lanes and replace them with sidewalk planters, pavers, and other traffic-calming elements. In some cases, cars are removed entirely, letting people (and greenery) retake the streets. Here's a view of Hungary:

A street in Detroit:

Also in Montreal:

Hardcore Architecture: the homes that produced ’80s punk bands

2015-05-13T19:24:00-04:00

Of all the variants of punk rock, hardcore always gave the impression of having the most blue collar flavor to its anti-authoritarian vibes. Pulled from the 1982-1989 issues of the infamous punk fanzine Maximum Rocknroll, Hardcore Architecture examines how true that impression is. Cross-referencing the addresses of mostly long-extinct hardcore and punk bands with modern Google Street View [...] snapshot of the homes, neighborhoods, and early apartments of these struggling bands.

Google is letting you visit museums around the world using Street View and Youtube

2014-12-11T14:05:00-05:00

Google announced today it’s making a platform available to museums that enables them to build mobile applications that take advantage of Google technology, including Street View and YouTube, to bring their exhibits to anyone with a smartphone. Through partnerships between museums worldwide and the Google Cultural Institute, there are now 11 museums and cultural institutions that have participated in this pilot project to date; their apps are live now on Google Play.

Street view: a virtual tour across Russia by remote camera

2014-11-21T14:53:00-05:00

The idea for Yandex. Street Photographer came to Daniill Maksyokov on a Friday night, while he was surfing the internet [...] “In Yandex.Maps there’s an analogue of Google Street View called Panoramas but it only has views of Russian cities and some former-Soviet countries [...]” say Maksyokov. “What’s more, faces, labels, registration numbers of vehicles and other personal data are not blurred … As a result you have a complete sense of presence and can see everything from a fresh perspective.”

Alvar Aalto gets a close look from Google's Cultural Institute

2014-08-28T15:53:00-04:00

Google's satellite imaging allows us to virtually tour remote or inaccessible locales the world over, and with recently improved resolutions and initiatives from the Google Cultural Institute, our gaze can go farther and more intimately into places we may never physically visit. Google's interest in maintaining this visual resource has implications as far-reaching as its imagery, but it's also a boon for architecture education, where access to imagery and certain spaces can be highly exclusive, and retaining a global (and historical) perspective is exceedingly important.

To this end, Google's Cultural Institute has partnered with the Alvar Aalto Foundation in order to make the famous Finnish architect's spaces (and of course his famous stool no. 60) available online in 360-degree panoramas, detailing every surface. The partnership's collection focuses on eight sites, including Aalto's studio, Säynätsalo Town Hall, and the House Kantola, as well as an exhibition at the Aalto Museum in...

Martha Stewart in the age of drone photography

2014-08-05T13:18:00-04:00

In just a few minutes I was hooked. . . The photos and video were stunning. By assuming unusual vantage points, the drone allowed me to “see” so much more of my surroundings than usual. [The view] would have otherwise been impossible without the use of a private plane, helicopter, or balloon. With any of those vehicles, I would have needed a telephoto lens, and all of them would have made an unacceptable commotion on the beach. What’s more, I would not have been in the photos!

Purveyor of all things "Good", Martha Stewart has added her two color-coded cents to the debate on drones in a nearly gleeful op-ed for TIME magazine. Titled "Why I Love My Drone", Stewart gushes about her new "useful tool" and marvels at how large-scale planning projects like Chateau de Versailles and the Great Wall of China were accomplished without such imaging technology. Seeing aerial views of her private farm, she's tickled by its resemblance to her Peter Rabbit-themed Easter cakes.

Stewart's approach to drone photography is craftily optimistic, and while she recognizes the grave implications of militarized drone technology, she's not going to wrinkle her dinner napkin wringing her hands over it. But Stewart's adoption of the drone is a strong sign of the technology's mainstream commercial appeal. Professional photographers, filmmakers, real estate developers and architects have embraced the drone's utility for affording new, choreographed views (even if the law hasn't). The dr...

Google Adds Graffiti to Its Art Portfolio

2014-06-20T14:10:00-04:00

Using images provided by cultural organizations worldwide, some of which were captured with Google’s Street View camera technology, [the Google Cultural Institute's Street Art Project] includes street art from around the globe, including work that no longer exists [...] Google is the latest organization to wade into debates about how or whether to institutionalize, let alone commercialize, art that is ephemeral and often willfully created subversively.

How We Picture a City: Venice and Google Maps

2014-03-03T15:41:00-05:00

In 2013, we picture cities a little differently, with demography and photography. Cities live in Instagram, in patterns of light from space, in blueprints and visualizations and—most like Canaletto’s civic landscapes—on Google Street View. Now, an artist in London has done some creative, comparative history, pairing Canaletto’s Venice and London with contemporary depictions, as glimpsed by the Google van.

Google brings Street View inside more than 65 airports and train stations, calls it a 'first effort'

2013-11-26T13:16:00-05:00

Google today launched an interactive map featuring Street Views of over 65 mass-transit hubs. The map features some locations you may have already explored, like Emirates' A380 or London's Gatwick Airport, alongside some new sites across Europe, South America, and Asia.

Click here to view the interactive map.