Archinect - News

A 'crypto-city for tech bros and tastemakers'

2023-12-18T20:27:00-05:00

Our mission is to accelerate technological progress to create a more vital future for humanity. To this end, we are developing cities designed to support those solving the world’s hardest problems.The Steel Visa is your entry point to the Praxis Community. It will evolve into an official Visa within the broader immigration framework of our host-country.

Joseph Bernstein writes about Dryden Brown and his plans for Praxis. Bruce Sterling was surprised (?) "People can still somehow raise money with an offshored islands-in-the-net racket".

Why does the metaverse look so ordinary, UCL researchers ask

2022-04-04T10:32:00-04:00

Last week, our editorial team had some fun with the metaverse. While light-hearted in nature, our April Fools article was nonetheless inspired by the serious interest shown by our community, the architecture world, and society at-large in the metaverse and how architecture and design intersect with virtual space.

Now, a new article by UCL researchers Luke Pearson and Sandra Youkhana puts forward the thesis that the metaverse doesn’t appear as disruptive or radical as the underlying technologies it is often associated with, be it blockchains, cryptocurrencies, or NFTs.

Instead, the team argue that the architecture and urbanism of the metaverse appears to follow real-world principles of design and construction, despite the freedom given by virtual space to transcend these principles.

“People have always imagined cyberspace to look like a version of real urban space,” say Pearson and Youkhana. Th...

Now Central Park has a (temporary) solid gold cube installation courtesy of a German artist

2022-02-02T17:30:00-05:00

This morning, joggers in New York’s Central Park may have come across a curious, rather illustrious sight. A cube composed of 186 kilograms of pure 24-karat gold, conceived by the German artist Niclas Castello who has billed it as a conceptual “socle du monde” (base of the world) sculpture for our time, was wheeled out to the Naumburg Bandshell this morning at around 5:00am.

The one-day installation has its own security detail and will sit aptly in the Gilded Age landmark designed by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted before a turn as the guest of honor at a special celebrity-laden private dinner being held later this evening on Wall Street. A special kiln had to be created in order to pour the tremendous volume of 2,012° F melted gold ore required for the 410-pound piece. The dimensions of the cube are about the size of a typical footstool, although its weight means it is worth over $11.7 million according to Wednesday’s market prices.

Photo: Sandra Mika/HoGA Capital AG

The installation coincides with the launch of a new NFT and not-at-all gimmicky cryptocurrency that the artist calls The Costello Coin. The project is meant to “be seen as a sort of communiqué between an emerging 21st-century cultural ecosystem based on crypto and the ancient world where gold reigned supreme.” Some might view its viral social media reaction as a preview of the splas...

India is taxing cryptocurrencies to finance its push for new infrastructure

2022-02-01T19:12:00-05:00

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has included hefty spending on infrastructure projects in its annual budget, looking to spur growth and improve its popularity just ahead of key state elections. The budget also includes a proposed 30% tax on income from cryptocurrencies.

India also introduced a new digital rupee (after previously attempting a ban on cryptocurrencies) and plans to declare data centers and large energy storage systems as infrastructure in an effort to increase access to institutional funding. Hopes are that the investment in building projects will create employment opportunities which will thus pour money back into the economy. Current forecasts have India’s GDP growing at an 8% rate for the fiscal year.

The country’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the package includes $2.68 billion in allocations for highway expansions and funding for 400 new trains that will be manufactured in the next three years. The money constitutes a major shift as about $4 billion less is being spent on healthcare delivery than was included in last year’s budget. Prime Minister Modi has said very publicly that he feels it is his responsibility to make infrastructure development a top priority for the world’s second-most populous country.

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Decentraland is playing host to six-figure deals as architects begin to embrace the metaverse

2021-12-13T18:55:00-05:00

As part of the design community’s incorporation of talent into the nascent, ever-growing world of blockchain technology and digital architecture, more spaces are cropping up that have the potential to do outsized business opportunities with ramifications in the metaverse and beyond.

One of those spaces is the relatively new Decentraland, a 22-month-old 3D platform that currently plays host to over 90,000 parcels of land subdivided into individual 9-square-mile plots which can command prices as high as $2.43 million as the cost of digital land has boomed in unison with the rise of NFTs.

Metapurse HQ. Image courtesy Voxel Architects.

Thus far, Decentraland has featured some headline-grabbing projects, including a functional digital twin of the auction house Sotheby’s London headquarters. The display of NFT art has become one of the most predominant forms of building in the metaverse, followed by gaming, retail, and other forms of entertainment like blockchain casinos that have users li...

The Staples Center has been renamed to Crypto.com Arena

2021-11-18T16:04:00-05:00

Staples Center is getting a new name for Christmas: Crypto.com Arena. The downtown Los Angeles venue — home of the Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Sparks — will wear the new name for 20 years under a deal between the Singapore cryptocurrency exchange and AEG, the owner and operator of the arena, both parties announced Tuesday. Crypto.com paid more than $700 million for the naming rights, according to sources familiar with the terms, making it one of the biggest naming deals in sports history.

The arena’s new logo will debut on December 25th, and all of the Staples Center signage will be replaced by June 2022. The partnership between AEG and Crypto.com may see the integration of cryptocurrency and online payment into the arena. A 3,300-square-foot section at the entrance of the arena will become a dedicated Crypto.com “activation space” that will feature crypto-centric interactive experiences.

NFT artwork inspired by Calvino’s “Invisible Cities” explores visions of urbanism; real and imagined

2021-04-15T10:53:00-04:00

Recently, we took a closer look at how architecture and design may be affected by the rise of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), and the underlying blockchain technology supporting them. In the latest intriguing development on the subject, the digital art marketplace SuperRare has announced the launch of Invisible Cities; a ground-breaking digital exhibition showcasing a range of real and imagined cityscapes, inspired by Italo Calvino’s seminal book of the same name.

Mari.k, Emiris, 2021, Unique Non- Fungible Token

The exhibition, on display from April 2-30, 2021, features the work of 10 artists who have used Calvino’s Invisible Cities as the basis for an exploration into the relationship between real and imagined cities, and the visible and invisible entities that allow them to operate. The captivating images are also available to purchase as NFTs throughout April, where interest in the subject has been spurred by Christie’s recent NFT sale of Beeple’s Everydays for $69 million.

Karisman...

Cryptocurrency mogul wants to turn Nevada into the next center of Blockchain Technology

2018-11-07T14:44:00-05:00

He imagines a sort of experimental community spread over about a hundred square miles, where houses, schools, commercial districts and production studios will be built. The centerpiece of this giant project will be the blockchain, a new kind of database that was introduced by Bitcoin.

Jeffrey Berns, who owns the cryptocurrency company Blockchains L.L.C., has bought 68,000 acres of land in Nevada that he hopes to transform into a community based around blockchain technology. His utopian vision, which would be the first 'smart city' based on the technology, involves the creation of a new town along the Truckee river, with homes, apartments, schools, and a drone delivery system.

The first step will be constructing an 1,000 acre campus that will host startups and companies working on applications such as AI and 3D printing to help bring about the high-tech city. LA firms Tom Wiscombe Architecture and Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects have been hired to assist in this vision, designing the architecture and masterplan for the future city.

Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects + Tom Wiscombe Architecture.

Called Innovation Park, the designers contend the city will be 'human-centric,' while also planned around autonomous, electric vehicles. Housing types will range fro...

Bitcoin's opportunities and challenges in real estate

2018-03-21T18:31:00-04:00

Today, listings from one coast to another tout Bitcoin as a way to make a property transaction. A new collection of haute residences in Hollywood with Los Angeles skyline views go for $1.21 million or its Bitcoin equivalent; in Washington, D.C., two-bedroom condos are on the market for between 36 and 84 Bitcoins. In Austin, the seller of one ranch is offering a “signficant discount” if the buyer pays with Bitcoin.

Great longform piece by Andrew Zaleski for Curbed on how Bitcoin, blockchain technology, and other cryptocurrencies have changed—or not changed—the real estate industry. "While there are laws in Arizona and Vermont that allow blockchain technology to play key parts in property sales and proving property ownership, in most states, aspects of the process still involve traditional financial institutions—and Bitcoin as a currency isn’t necessarily a safe enough bet for the relatively risk-averse world of real estate."

Heating your home with...bitcoin mining?

2017-11-06T15:24:00-05:00

Two entrepreneurs have figured out how to heat their homes for free: bitcoin mining. Bitcoin transactions require a lot of processing power, which creates a lot of heat. So Ilya Frolov and Dmitry Tolmachyov built a wooden cottage in the Russian Siberian town of Irkutsk, and they’re heating it with two bitcoin mines. The men pocket about $430 a month from bitcoin transactions, while keeping the 20 square meter space warm.

Virtual money still requires real architecture

2017-10-18T13:06:00-04:00

A bitcoin vault doesn’t store actual bitcoin units. Technically, what’s being stored are private, cryptographic keys. It’s odd to think of a virtual currency needing physical storage, but just like your most precious photos, even a cryptocurrency needs some kind of material container.

The company Xapo is using a decommissioned military bunker to safeguard its customers bitcoins. In this article from Quartz, Joon lan Wong describes his way into the vault storing millions of dollars worth of bitcoins and the numerous portals and gates he had to cross.

The rise of the blockchain beyond cryptocurrencies

2016-06-09T12:58:00-04:00

The growing interest in blockchain has morphed its concept into something new. Before, the blockchain was simply the spine of the bitcoin network, but today the technology is being used on a burgeoning list of distributed ledgers with varying degrees of openness, security and complexity. [...] Ethereum, a public blockchain platform created by Russo-Canadian programmer Vitalik Buterin...proposes to do away with middlemen everywhere, not just in finance.

"Ethereum is a blockchain on steroids designed for more than trading cryptocurrency units or ‘coloured’ assets: developers can use it to build programs that interact with the world based on public rules enshrined in so-called smart contracts."

Some architects are already working on utilizing the blockchain to transform just about every aspect of how the profession operates – from the organization of a studio to the way projects are funded. Last fall, I talked with FOAM about some of the potentials of blockchain and Ethereum, in particular.

"Architectural transactions could evolve in a number of ways with blockchain technology," states FOAM. "For example, from the point of view of the business model, architecture could move away from client-designer relations that rely solely on fixed design and hourly fees. Instead they could exchange equity in the built environment in the form of smart contracts that distribute cryptographic tokens that represent share or equity in the agreement."

Che...