Archinect - News

Stonehenge's secret strength is revealed thanks to a repatriated core sample in the UK

2021-08-16T14:23:00-04:00

A team of scientists from the University of Bristol in the UK has gotten closer to solving an ancient mystery central to the country’s most famous archaeological site thanks to a “Holy Grail” core sample that has waited nearly 60 years to reveal its crystalline clues.

Led by Professor David Nash, the researchers were able to analyze two pieces of slab with help from the British Geological Survey, London’s Natural History Museum, the Salisbury Museum, and English Heritage.

One sample was returned by the family of a man named Robert Phillips who had removed it while working on the site as a stonecutter in the late 1950s.

“Getting access to the core drilled from Stone 58 was very much the Holy Grail for our research,” Nash said in a statement. “It is extremely rare as a scientist that you get the chance to work on samples of such national and international importance.”

Previously on Archinect: A judge has blocked impending highway construction around Stonehenge…for now

The analysis of...

Snøhetta completes Swarovski's luminous crystal manufacturing facility in Austria

2019-01-30T20:49:00-05:00

Snøhetta's new Swarovski Manufaktur in Wattens, Austria brings creative design, rapid prototyping, and technical production under one porous roof.

To enter the Manufaktur, visitors first walk through a bridge from Campus 311, a new office location in an old factory building that has an interior with a dark color palette. Visitors then walk into the brighter interior of the Manufaktur, which features white walls and light birch wood panels that cover the floor and a sculptural platform on the second floor.

Photo © David Schreyer.

In designing the building, Snøhetta drew inspiration from the ephemeral elements of a crystal, like incorporating natural daylight. “Crystals only come to life with light, so for us it is the intense presence of that daylight that is the most important aesthetic aspect of this building,” said Patrick Lüth, Managing Director of Snøhetta’s Studio in Innsbruck.

The self-supporting, white steel ceiling consists of a r...

Jimenez Lai, Marjan Van Aubel and TAKT PROJECT unveil their crystalline innovations

2017-06-20T17:39:00-04:00

Design Miami took place last week in Basel, wrapping up over the weekend. One of the installations on display showcased work by Swarovski's Designers of the Future. The crystal empire commissioned three designers to craft a new prototype or design statement, highlighting the crystal and using Swarovski's diverse resources at hand. Established in 2006, the award encourages collaboration with young designers and acknowledges technological and conceptual innovations that work across disciplines. This years recipients were Jimenez Lai, Marjan Van Aubel and TAKT PROJECT.

Jimenez Lai created a terrazzo that re-uses and up-cycles 'second quality' crystals that do not meet Swarovski's quality control. With this material, Lai also created Terrazzo Palazzo. Formed by freestanding structures, his deconstructed palazzo served as the architectural environment housing the installation.

The Dutch designer Marjan van Aubel utilized solar technology to design Cyanometer. Working with the Energy Re...

What ‘urban physics’ could tell us about how cities work

2014-07-28T14:40:00-04:00

What does a city look like? If you’re walking down the street, perhaps it looks like people and storefronts. Viewed from higher up, patterns begin to emerge: A three-dimensional grid of buildings divided by alleys, streets, and sidewalks, nearly flat in some places and scraping the sky in others. Pull back far enough, and the city starts to look like something else entirely: a cluster of molecules. At least, that’s what it looks like to Franz-Josef Ulm, an engineering professor [...].