Archinect - News

Get Lectured: Boston Architectural College, Spring '22

2022-03-22T20:48:00-04:00

As the final weeks of March approach, architecture schools continue with their Spring 2022 lecture event programming. Boston Architectural College, a winner by popular vote of Archinect's 2021 Get Lectured Poster competition, provides another series of lecture events to watch.

The School's Just Design Spring 2022 lecture series welcomed presentations from David Rifkind and Dawit Benti in January, who discussed contemporary Ethiopian architecture, followed by Khushnu Panthaki Hoof (Studio Sangath), who spoke on perceptions of lightness in February. For March, Chuan Hao (Alex) Chen discussed Race, Nation, and Biocontainment Architecture, and Sierra Bainbridge spoke on her work with MASS Design Group in Rwanda.

Coming this April the school welcomes a presentation from Dr. Kwesi Daniels on April 7. Dr. Daniels is the Head of the Architecture Department at Tuskegee University and will present his lecture, "An unexpected journey: Citizen Professor." On April 16 Dr. M. Lee Pelton will pres...

What happens in Neom, stays in Neom

2019-07-27T12:18:00-04:00

“This should be an automated city where we can watch everything,” Neom’s Mohammed bin Salman-led founding board said, according to the documents—a city “where a computer can notify crimes without having to report them or where all citizens can be tracked.”

The Wall Street Journal digs into some of the documentation underpinning Saudi Arabia's forthcoming desert tech city, Neom. The Massachusetts-sized city-state, a pet project of the country's omnipresent crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is being planned as part of an effort to turn the country into a producer of information technologies and other technological and industrial innovations.

Plans obtained by The Wall Street Journal envision a $500 billion technological wonderland populated by robotic maids, a Jurassic Park-style robot dinosaur theme park, and an artificial "moon" projection screen that live-streams images from outer space.

“Neom is all about things that are necessarily future-oriented and visionary,” Neom's chief executive officer, Nadhmi al Nasr, told The Wall Street Journal, adding, “So we are talking about technology that is cutting edge and beyond—and in some cases still in development and maybe theoretical.”

Lexus offers a glimpse of a functional hoverboard prototype

2015-06-25T18:18:00-04:00

Watch out, world. Toyota is heading back to the future. The automaker has hinted it’s looking into flying cars. Now its Lexus luxury brand has actually built a working model of a hoverboard.

Social media lit up last night after Lexus revealed a tantalizing promo video for a "functional hoverboard" prototype. Smoke can be seen curling up from the skateboard-like design, which features a bamboo deck and "the iconic Lexus spindle grille." The prototype uses liquid nitrogen-cooled superconductors and magnets, a technology already implemented in Japan's high-speed rail lines to eliminate friction. While the video appears to show the board hovering on a regular surface, reports indicate that there is a metal track beneath the custom-designed skate park, which was built in a town outside of Barcelona.

If the video makes you nostalgic for Back to the Future, it's no coincidence. A more detailed release is slated for Oct. 21, the day that Marty McFly traversed back to the future.

Actually, this isn't actually the world's first overboard prototype. Hendo Hoverboard is a crowd-sourced technology designed by Greg Henderson, an architect by training. Henderson joined Archinect Sessio...