An experimental tower over 100 metres (328 feet) high in northern China – dubbed the world’s biggest air purifier by its operators – has brought a noticeable improvement in air quality, according to the scientist leading the project, as authorities seek ways to tackle the nation’s chronic smog problem. [...]
The head of the research, Cao Junji, said improvements in air quality had been observed over an area of 10 square kilometres (3.86 square miles) in the city over the past few months [...].
— South China Morning Post
Now that the experimental smog-eating tower is up and running in the city of Xian, authorities are hoping to build much bigger, scaled-up versions in other Chinese cities soon: "A full-sized tower would reach 500 metres (1,640 feet) high with a diameter of 200 metres (656 feet)," the South China... View full entry
Virtual reality, a technology that most associate with gaming, entertainment and dystopic warnings from sci-fi writers including Ray Bradbury and Neal Stephenson, has moved into the real estate world in a big way. — The Guardian
With increasing frustration of penthouse shoppers reaching an immeasurable high, a novel application of new technology has been making a splash in the real estate market. Virtual reality has become the go-to tool for allowing real estate investors the opportunity to see precisely what they are... View full entry
Volkan Alkanoglu has a prolific history of producing provocative interventions that playfully embrace the audience while researching and experimenting with the limits of color, geometry, depth and the representational techniques which use them. From his Cloudscape playground in Florida to his... View full entry
Unlike traditional buildings, amphibious structures are not static; they respond to floods like ships to a rising tide, floating on the water’s surface. [...] Amphibiation may be an unconventional strategy, but it reflects a growing consensus that, at a time of climatic volatility, people can’t simply fight against water; they have to learn to live with it. — The New Yorker
The New Yorker features Elizabeth English, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Waterloo and founder of the Buoyant Foundation Project which seeks to promote the benefits of amphibious architecture for homes in flood-prone areas and communities that will experience the... View full entry
Yet what has drawn the most concern and curiosity with regards to Quayside is a uniquely 21st-century feature: a data-harvesting, wifi-beaming “digital layer” that would underpin each proposed facet of Quayside life. According to Sidewalk Labs, this would provide “a single unified source of information about what is going on”—to an astonishing level of detail—as well as a centralized platform for efficiently managing it all. — City Lab
While tech companies struggle to discover the new way to get a glimpse into our daily habits—attempting to discover how and where we spend our time and money—Alphabet might have just brought the ‘Truman Show’ approach to marketing. With Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Alphabet, announcing... View full entry
Announced on Wednesday, the two-level glass-walled pavilion was unveiled with a promise from Apple that the planned project "increases public space and provides a daily program of activity to inspire and educate the community."
But it's this element of public space that has people a little concerned.
— Mashable
Residents of Melbourne are angered by Apple's plans to locate its new flagship store at Federation Square, a public center commonly used to house gatherings, protests, sports screening, concerts and Council-organized events. The site is also home to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, the... View full entry
New virtual reality tours are giving Muscovites the chance to see the Russian capital as the socialist utopia envisioned by the city’s Soviet architects.
The new project, The Moscow That Never Was, lets visitors glimpse shelved Soviet landmarks as they should have appeared on Moscow’s streets using VR goggles.
— Calvert Journal
The 2-hour virtual/augmented reality tours through central Moscow feature utopian architectural projects that never quite saw the light of day, including the infamous Palace of the Soviets (imagined as the world's tallest building, crowned with a 300-ft Lenin statue), an alternate Lenin... View full entry
Photographer Gerco de Ruijter is widely known for his work focusing on grids and other signs of human-imposed geometry on the landscape. His latest work explores instances in the North American landscape where the Jeffersonian road grid is forced to go awry due to the curvature of the Earth. His... View full entry
Britain’s homes could be lit and powered by windfarms surrounding an artificial island deep out in the North Sea, under advanced plans by a Dutch energy network.
The radical proposal envisages an island being built to act as a hub for vast offshore windfarms that would eclipse today’s facilities in scale. Dogger Bank, 125km (78 miles) off the East Yorkshire coast, has been identified as a potentially windy and shallow site.
— The Guardian
Plans by TenneT, the Dutch power grid, aim to build a power hub potentially at Dogger Bank, a site in the North Sea, at a scale that far surpasses current offshore sites. A long-distance cable would send energy to the UK and Netherlands, with other countries possibly added later. Early studies... View full entry
A new study put out by Chaos Group reveals how recent trends are affecting the architecture industry and offers insight into some of the potential changes we can expect for 2018. Based on feedback from 5,769 industry professionals, the study found, overall, the biggest change in architecture in... View full entry
The following examples show how gamespace can become the stage for a social, political and ethical critique: from a nondescript city under the effect of gentrification, to a barren luxury estate and a set of playful and absurd buildings for London. These examples suggest that, rather than allowing architects to indulge Piranesi’s power-hungry ideal, games could work as a means of showing how dysfunctional reality really is. — Failed Architecture
In her essay Gamespace Urbanism: City-Building Games and Radical Simulations for Failed Architecture, Federica Buzzi looks at a new crop of indie city-planning computer games that promise fresh potential for simulation and exploration of radical urban scenarios — and subsequent social... View full entry
This week, for our last show of the year, Donna, Ken and Paul share highlights from their favorite episodes. It wasn't an easy task, as the year was filled with some brilliant guests and engaging conversations. Let us know, in the comments, what your favorite moments were from this year. We're... View full entry
From job auditions and activism to artificial intelligence and life beyond architecture, 2017 brought upon a very eclectic collection of top features of the year. Looking back, we collected the the most relished and savored; which one did you love?The Architecture of Artificial Intelligence What... View full entry
Justin O'Beirne lays out years worth of research on mapping technologies in his essay Google Map's Moat. O'Beirne reveals,"Over the past year, we’ve been comparing Google Maps and Apple Maps [...] The biggest difference is the building footprints: Google seems to have them all, while Apple... View full entry
An 800-foot-tall centerpiece is coming to Detroit's resurgent downtown as the city continues to build momentum about three years after exiting the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. — Chicago Tribune
Detroit continues its steep climb back to normalcy and growth. As one of America's hardest-hit areas by the Great Recession, Detroit unemployment was running nearly three times as high as the national average in 2009 at a staggering 28 percent — and the city was bleeding population, losing... View full entry
