Archinect - News

Minecraft's crowdsourced NYC design is insane

2022-03-11T13:03:00-05:00

Two years into the project, they construct the city in short and mobile sprints. “We circle around different districts,” explained Minefact. “We work one week in Chinatown, then one week in Tribeca, one week on Bowery and then come back to Chinatown. We always work on multiple districts at the same time to keep things interesting.”

The crowdsourced design-build was begun by a German user named MineFact who had attempted a similar project the year before for his hometown of Frankfurt using rendering software that incorporated data taken from Google Maps.

Incorporating a replacement for the obsolete Mercator projection maps they call Airocean, an impressive workforce of over 2,700 Minecraft users started at the 9/11 Memorial Site and has to date completed mostly exterior versions of different New York area landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, and Brooklyn Bridge.

Related on Archinect: An army of gamers is building a Minecraft version of New York's state capital. (Image via Reddit User GeoffHenderson.)

The New York City group is a spinoff of a larger consortium called Build the Earth, which has recently completed digital versions of other important sites across the Tri-State Area. Users don’t have an exact anticipated date of completion just yet (the city has approximately 1 million build...

NFTs will be at the (i)heart(blob) of the Tallinn Architecture Biennale

2021-12-17T11:49:00-05:00

The hot new trend sweeping the art and design communities will be at the center of next year’s Tallinn Architecture Biennale. The festival released its 2022 list of exhibitors on Thursday, which includes an installation program highlighted by a virtual metaverse space from the web-based studio iheartblob.

Touted as the world’s first-ever blockchain-funded pavilion, the installation "Fungible Non-Fungible Pavilion" has a specific focus on the concept of slowness similar to the overall theme of the biennial, which this year is “Edible; Or, the Architecture of Metabolism.”

Image courtesy iheartblob

The installation was named the de-facto winner of this year’s installation competition after another exhibitor, the fungi-inspired team called Simulaa (previously on Archinect), dropped out due to unforeseen circumstances. iheartblob nonetheless won for its crowdfunded and sourced entry that they say will empower local communities towards craftsmanship in specifically AI and NFT-based hybrid...

How patients would redesign the psychiatric ward

2016-07-25T21:04:00-04:00

[James] Leadbitter called it “a playful and exciting space for redesigning madness, a utopian attempt at what a mental health hospital could be like.” Each structure...is an abstract interpretation of the feedback from the workshops, designed to offer varying levels “of privacy and intimacy ranging from total isolation to complete togetherness.” “This is only a small glimpse of a project that has huge potential to influence the way we think about the design of mental health care environments,”

More than 300 patients, architects, and psychiatrists pitched their ideas on how they would redesign the psychiatric ward for “Madlove: A Designer Asylum”, a collaborative project conceived by artist and activist James Leadbitter, who has suffered from mental illness and has stayed at several psychiatric wards himself. Leadbitter wanted to address the direct negative effects that terribly designed wards have on patients.

To better predict sea level rise, scientists resort to crowdsourcing and ask drone owners to help create data

2016-01-19T14:24:00-05:00

Using drones for aerial photography has been a source of controversy for several years now. But amid increasing concerns over privacy and safety, some conservation scientists are hoping drone owners will help them to document sea level rise. With an expected increase in storm activity in the Pacific Ocean this winter, scientists believe they are getting a glimpse of the impacts of climate change on coastlines.

To see an interactive example of a DroneDeploy-stitched high-resolution map, click here.

Educational space for flourishing community garden, Huerta Del Valle, Ontario, California

2016-01-03T13:14:00-05:00

When three architecture students from Cal Poly Pomona, Kirill Volchinskiy, Hana Lemseffer and Necils Lopez invest their skills and resources with the community, the possibilities are endless.

We are a team of 3 architecture students who have worked for a year to make this project a reality and today we need the final push to materialize the desires and needs of a community.

Why crowdsource architecture?

Crowdsourcing building projects puts financial power back in the hands of the people. By focusing on one public space project at a time, communities can develop built public space with the help of other communities. With the internet and platforms like Kickstarter, public projects paid by people for communities in need become a feasible reality.

This is their story. educational space for flourishing community garden

Architecture for Humanity begins crowdsourced rebranding campaign

2015-09-04T15:33:00-04:00

Nine months after abruptly shutting down and filing for bankruptcy, Architecture for Humanity has begun a campaign in efforts to rebrand itself as a "collectively defined, collaboratively run, and inclusive" non-profit. Launched Tuesday, the AFH Chapter Network is gathering opinions and ideas worldwide in the form of video responses in a short survey until September 8. Participants will answer questions on how the new AFH should restructure its mission, value, and goals.

Once the responses are collected, the AFH Network will search for key findings alongside brand strategists at Skyrocket Digital and then work towards finding a new name for the organization.

The AFH Network posted their reasons for rebranding in a generalized list on WordPress:

A few reasons why we’re looking for a new name: We are a new organization: While the mission remains similar, we are focused on consensus building, professional development, and support for local groups to develop innovative business models w...

Kickstart this! Archinect's Kickstarter picks for July + August 2015

2015-08-17T14:16:00-04:00

Time for the next Kickstart this! list. Check out what sorts of crowdfunding projects made it onto the July and August round-up for Archinect's curated Kickstarter page.

BIG's STEAM RING GENERATOR FOR WORLD'S CLEANEST POWER PLANT

Bjarke Ingels and Jakob Lange set up a Kickstarter to build the final prototype of BIG's steam ring generator, as part of the upcoming power plant in Copenhagen that is slated for completion in 2017. Once built, the generator will puff out a steam ring for every ton of CO2 burned in the plant.

49 Cities: 3rd Edition deluxe reprint

Out of print since 2010, WorkAC principals Dan Wood and Amale Andraos are bringing back "49 Cities", a unique reference guide that "embrace[s] scale and common sense combined with delirious imagination as tools to reinvent the city." The new edition includes interviews between Amale Andraos, Da...

300-mile wall "proposed" for the Bay Area to exile Burning Man festivalgoers, forever

2015-08-07T18:26:00-04:00

Comedy troupe Cultivated Wit takes a humorous jab at megaprojects, outlandish crowdsourcing, and how much San Franciscans loathe Burning Man in a cheeky mock campaign that would support the construction of a 300-mile wall around the Bay Area to keep Burners out, forever. And all at a reasonable cost of $7 billion. Set up like a Kickstarter page, Cultivated Wit's MegaGoGo — "the funding platform for large-scale infrastructure"— is complete with those much-needed backer rewards and a satirical campaign video.

The host of the campaign video details the world-changing benefits of a Burner-wall: "We can make a whole new way of life, as long as we just adhere to a couple principles, like inclusion. If this project is anything, it's about bringing people together — together to lock people out...We've got to be mindful of the environment. That's why we can't leave a single trace, aside from the giant wall."

You can check out the entire video below.

h/t sfist.com

Kickstart this! Archinect's Kickstarter picks for June 2015

2015-06-30T20:48:00-04:00

Another month has flown by, so that means it's time for the latest Kickstart This! list. Check out what sorts of crowdfunding projects made it onto the June 2015 round-up for Archinect's curated Kickstarter page.

Build a BEACH in D.C.

The National Building Museum teamed up with Brooklyn-based practice Snarkitecture to bring a life-sized indoor "BEACH" installation — decked out in Snarkitecture's signature monochrome white — inside the NBM's Great Hall, set to open on July 4.

the studio residency at the land

Frankfurt-based architects Nikolaus Hirsch and Michel Müller are garnering support for the design of a table-top structure that will ultimately evolve into the permanent space for a communally engaged artist residency. The structure is being built for a northern Thailand initiative founded by artists Rirkrit Tiravanija and Kamin Lertchaiprasert.

The Lowline: New Solar Technology to Build an Underground Park

If NYC can get a High Line, why not a Lowline? As its name suggests, the Lowlin...

Make Music NY crowdfunds upcoming youth archi-music show "Concerto for Buildings"

2015-06-11T09:04:00-04:00

The architecturally and musically inclined can join in on Make Music New York festivities this year with a special orchestral performance called "Concerto for Buildings" on Sunday, June 21. Make Music New York is a one-day music fest on the first day of summer that boasts more than 1,000 free concerts, which all take place throughout NYC's five borroughs.

For its ninth year, MMNY set up an Indiegogo campaign with a flexible goal of $7,000 to reel in further support for Concerto for Buildings. The musical showcase stars two NYC youth orchestra ensembles, Face The Music and Mantra Youth Percussion, and four composers: Paula Matthusen (winner of the 2014-2015 Rome Prize), Scott Wollshleger, Daniel Goode, and Face the Music student-composer Elijah Valongo. Surrounded by SoHo's historic cast-iron buildings, the performers will play their hearts out as they take advantage of the structures' percussive qualities, thus transforming them into a complementary musical backdrop.

Funds from the In...

Italian architecture establishment tries to snuff out crowdsourcing architectural design site, CoContest

2015-06-01T18:40:00-04:00

CoContest allows customers wanting to refurbish an existing space to put their project out to architects and designers, who in turn submit their design proposals [...] Nine lawmakers – eight of them architects – have issued a parliamentary proposal urging the Economic Development and Justice Ministries to crack down on the crowdsourcing website, which they said was carrying out an illegal intermediation activity and denigrating professional architects in its publicity

Any business that's praised for being "disruptive" is bound to cause controversy – or else that establishment probably wasn't worth disrupting. CoContest, an Italian startup that aims to connect homeowners to a competitively-priced international roster of architects and designers, has received praise for "its ability to disrupt the traditional workflow of architectural design services, transforming it from a local to an international service; from a time consuming activity to a fast and efficient process, and from an expensive service to an affordable one." Mountain View based incubator 500 Startups invited CoContest to join its ranks this year. But the atmosphere in Italy recently became far less encouraging.

Inspiration for CoContest came from a bloated population of Italian architects and interior designers – according to a 2014 infographic, Italy has an architect for every 414 people (the US has one for every 1,300). CoContest creators Filippo (an architect) and Federico Schiano...

Kickstart this! Archinect's Kickstarter picks for March 2015

2015-03-27T20:12:00-04:00

Time for the latest Kickstarter picks for Archinect's curated Kickstarter page. Check out what sorts of crowdfunding projects made it onto this month's list...

Organic Growth. Summer Pavilion on Governors Island 2015

Izaskun Chinchilla Architects was chosen as one of the winners in the 2015 ‘City of Dreams’ Pavilion competition to have their proposal "Organic Growth" constructed on Governors Island, NY. Dubbed by the firm as "NY's biggest bike bouquet", the proposed 95 sq.m. canopy puts space-filling waste materials to crafty use.

Billion Oyster Pavilion

Another winning City of Dreams Pavilion design by BanG Studios. All the materials in the Billion Oyster Pavilion would be used by the New York Harbor School to rebuild oyster habitats in NY's waterways.

2015 CGarchitect Visualization Conference

CGarchitect.com/CGSchool's Jeff Mottle and CGSchool business partner Brian Zajac teamed up to create the first annual CGarchitect 3D Architectural Visualization Conference. Out of an ambitious fund...

Kickstart this! Archinect's Kickstarter picks for September + October 2014

2014-10-26T13:28:00-04:00

We have our latest selection of crowdfunding campaigns from Kickstarter that piqued our interest. In our September and October 2014 picks for Archinect's curated Kickstarter page, you'll find floating objects, more 3D-printing gadgets, sea-plastic furniture, and some stylish everyday products.

Floating Sauna

It was smooth sailing for Seattle-based goCstudio's "wa_sauna" campaign, which aims to bring their wood-fired floating sauna project to life by next summer. Right now, the studio is working to have the first wa_sauna be built and is searching for the best locations for its 2015 launch.

Carvey: The 3D carving machine for the maker in all of us

Created by the Inventables, Carvey is a 3D-carving machine that let you make quality objects out of wood, metal, plastic and other materials in three steps: create your design on Easel (Carvey's software program), pick your material, and click carve. At this point, the Kickstarter has raised over $500K -- and it still has about three weeks left...

Kickstart this! Archinect's Kickstarter picks for July 2014

2014-07-31T17:14:00-04:00

Time for this month's Kickstarter picks! Potato salad-making aside, check out our latest selection of crowdsourced fundraisers right below for Archinect's curated Kickstarter page that are surely worth a look.

ClassAct: Active School

actLAB NYC's ClassAct: Active School is on a mission to rebuild low-cost classrooms in the rural Filipino communities still struggling to recover from Super Typhoon Haiyan and the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that devastated the region in October 2013. actLAB is looking to crowdsource funding to have their classroom prototypes built for the students to use.

Architecture Lobby presents San Precario Exhibition

Based in the repurposed Weigh Station venue in Callicoon, NY, North School Studio and The Architecture Lobby set a stretch goal to improve the San Precario exhibition's design and content. The exhibition is dedicated to San Precario, a faux "patron saint" figure created in Italy in 2004 to raise awareness of precarious worker issues and unstable architectur...

Will “Blexting” Help With Detroit Blight?

2014-07-29T15:12:00-04:00

A Motor City Mapping app will make it possible for users to snap photos of properties and text them to the public database. (They are trying to brand a new word to describe this process — the awful-sounding “blexting.”) These will be quality-checked before going onto the database, and the hope is that users will participate in training sessions before pointing, clicking and sending. Several “blexting bootcamps,” will be held in coming weeks.

Previously: Despite Successes, Blight Still Threatens Detroit’s Future

An App to Crowd-Source Urban Disruptions

2014-06-11T17:06:00-04:00

Maa2too3a, or ‘Happin’ in English, is a free app that uses news and crowd-sourced information to geo-tag disruptive events in the city as they occur, allowing users to mitigate risks or simply save time by avoiding them. Launched in May 2013, the app now has over 100,000 users, according to the developer, Mohammed Taha. “It’s a tool to keep people safe,” he says. And on calmer days, it can be used to simply avoid traffic jams or other routine problems.

Google Street View gets (even more) personal

2013-12-10T14:44:00-05:00

Google's Street View is slowly covering more and more of the world's surface, but it still has holes. Now though, you can help fill them—and all you need is an Android phone or DSLR. Google has just launched a new Street View feature which allows any user to recreate the usual Street View experience by stringing together photo spheres along paths which they define.

My Ideal City: Crowd-Sourcing Bogotá

2013-08-19T21:14:00-04:00

[My Ideal City] is an instrument where all people in Bogota help to create their city by interacting in proposals made for their Downtown in crowd sourcing, thus impacting design through real time interaction and direct feedback. Once the different initiatives are defined, the process is completed by the population crowd funding its own initiatives.

Winka Dubbeldam (Archi-Tectonics) and Rodrigo Nino (Prodigy Network) have developed Downtown Bogotá // My Ideal City, an online platform for the citizens of Bogotá to influence their local city-planning proposals. Recognizing that middle-class population growth across Latin America often outpaces the speed of urban development, My Ideal City responds to the demand for bottom-up planning measures. If successful, the online-platform could be implemented across the globe.

Visit the My Ideal City platform.

The exhibition showcasing My Ideal City will be on display at Architekturforum Aedes in Berlin, Germany, through August 29, 2013.

Mµ Thermal Imager attachment for the iPhone will detect thermal vulnerabilities in a building

2013-03-02T11:22:00-05:00

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.

Mµ Optics is currently seeking financial support on crowsourced-funding website Indiegogo. The iPhone attachment may offer steep competition to the existing thermal imaging cameras that range in prices from $2,000 to $22,000, according to Mµ Optics. The Mµ Thermal Imager is currently offered for $125 and $150 to early adopters, with a final price goal of less than $200 if they are able to stock the product in the big box stores.

Crowdfunding Startups Let You Be Your City's Urban Planner

2012-10-14T15:46:00-04:00

These two concepts — crowdfunding and urban improvement — have been married by several recently launched startups, both in the U.S. and abroad. These civic crowdfunding startups tap local communities and businesses to raise money for community centers and urban beautification, giving citizens a sense of ownership and a stake in the future of their cities.

Real Estate Developer Uses Facebook As A Crowdsourcing Platform

2011-06-22T11:43:15-04:00

Brazilian real estate developer Gafisa decided to ask people directly, what they want in their new apartments? Launched last week, the Edifício Colaborativo (Collaborative Building) initiative transformed the company’s fan page on Facebook in a crowdsourcing platform, intended to harvest innovative ideas for a new building.

Click here to visit the Facebook page.

By the City/For the City - Urban Design Week 2011

2011-04-26T12:48:10-04:00

From April 11-30, we're gathering up your ideas: from improving local parks and streets all the way up to rethinking whole systems, like transit and trash disposal. You can explore, discuss, and debate everyone's ideas right here.

Brendan Crain of the Institute for Urban Design says: "We're going to use the public's suggestions as the basis for an international design competition this May, and would love to gather ideas from some of the folks who may participate in that next phase.... Final push for site nominations this week!"