Want to wow your friends and family with a Thanksgiving centerpiece that isn't your typical snorenucopia, er, cornucopia? Then check out this incredibly intricate replica of the High Line, one of our favorite parks in NYC, that is made of recycled materials and, more importantly, vegetarian edibles like stuffing, mashed potatoes and yummy veggies. — Inhabitat
Researchers at the University of California Irvine have developed a material that is as strong as metal but 100 times lighter than Styrofoam. The material is constructed from a micro-lattice of nickel phosphorous tubes that is 99.9% air. — Inhabitat.com
Nextek Power Systems... has developed a system for delivering power via DC to lights and motion sensors through a building’s metal frame, instead of through wires.
Paul Savage, chief executive of Nextek... said the current was not enough to electrocute anyone.
“If you licked your fingers you might get a little bubbly feeling, like if you put a nine-volt battery on your tongue, but it is not noticeable if you’re in a non-wet environment,” he said.
— NYTimes
A 6 to 17% gain in transmission efficiency is pretty significant! Plus you eliminate the third wire. View full entry
The house was just $1. The catch? A delivery charge of nearly $22,000.
.....Moving a house is, in theory, relatively simple.
— New York Times
Households have evolved. But New York’s housing stock hasn’t. In essence, New Yorkers have increasingly had to adapt to the housing we’ve got, instead of designing and building the housing that suits who we have become. — New York Times
Mongolia is to launch one of the world's biggest ice-making experiments later this month in an attempt to combat the adverse affects of global warming and the urban heat island effect.
The geoengineering trial, that is being funded by the Ulan Bator government, aims to "store" freezing winter temperatures in a giant block of ice that will help to cool and water the city as it slowly melts during the summer.
— guardian.co.uk
Emily Lowery enrolled in an architecture course last May hoping to learn about different architecture and landscape design solutions.
She walked out as part of a team of students who would design the University of Minnesota’s first ever ecologically friendly bike pasture –– a combination of bike parking, social space and a garden.
— mndaily.com
Making higher-ed more sustainable (and social) one project at time, the Bike Pasture Project was conceived and planned entirely by students in the College of Design at the University of Minnesota as a real life design-build project. Now it's one step closer to being built, thanks to $15k in... View full entry
Richard.Rozewski, discusses a microtecture solution being developed by a friend Patrick of APOC. Stephanie however contends “ the idea that this will promote sustainable living is patently false...the construction, however small, of individual buildings for individual people, will always inherently mean the opposite of 'sustainable' ” To which holz.box responded “false false false. microtecture can be very sustainable”.
In Archinect’s latest In Focus feature we talk to British photo artist Simon Gardiner. Simon is a “street photographer who fuses the street with a cinematic feel”. Guy Horton, in part two of the What Should Architecture Occupy series, argues that what... View full entry
... the enthusiasm in Cape Town for architecture that excites and enlightens people about health is especially rewarding. “We've never seen anything like this anywhere,” Farrow says, about the notion of wellness being trumpeted so loudly through architecture. — theglobeandmail.com
Winners have recently been revealed in Aarhus, Denmark, for the new Brabrand Housing Association residential complex competition. The winning team consists of Danish architects ADEPT and LUPLAU & POULSEN, turn-key contractor Dansk Boligbyg and NIRAS Consulting Engineers. The team has designed a project [...] that consists of 238 public dwellings distributed between 83 apartments for families and +55 aged seniors, and 155 student-housing units. — bustler.net
The Development Association for Renewable Energies (DARE) – an NGO based in Nigeria – is almost finished with an incredible two-bedroom bungalow entirely out of plastic bottles. Although many in Kaduna were dubious when the project began construction in June this year, the nearly-complete home is bullet and fireproof, earthquake resistant, and maintains a comfortable interior temperature of 64 degrees fahrenheit year round. — Inhabitat
"In the same way that we have backup batteries for our cameras and computers, the Japanese government has recently unveiled plans to develop a whole new city that will act as a backup for Tokyo in the event of another crippling earthquake." — Inhabitat.com
The Green House concept is the most comprehensive effort to reinvent the nursing home ...— including the way medical care is delivered. In traditional nursing homes, employees typically have narrowly defined jobs ... based on efficiency that tends to ignore individuals’ preferences and needs. — New York Times
a floating dome, built with the spokes of dead umbrellas and carried over the waves by the invisible power of empty soda bottles.... was due to begin a monthlong exhibit on Friday in a finger of water in Inwood, at the northern end of Manhattan.
“We were floating it on pontoons to Inwood from the South Bronx.”
A pause.
“We shipwrecked,” she said. “On Rikers Island.”
If this is failure, it is of a type rooted in genius.
— New York Times
Permits issued by Catawba County show that the Cupertino, Calif., company has been approved to reshape the slope of some of the 171 acres of vacant land it owns on Startown Road, opposite the data center, in preparation of building a solar farm. — charlotteobserver.com
