Facades using the product, called Solar Squared, will be able to generate electricity while allowing greater amounts of daylight. The blocks also provide improved thermal insulation, developers say.
Solar Squared’s design consists of an array of optical elements that focus sunlight on small-sized solar cells. These are incorporated within the glass bricks during manufacture and they collect diffuse components of sunlight, making it useful for capturing solar energy in urban areas.
— Global Construction Review
Academics from the Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Science department of England's University of Exter have developed a solar power technology that fits into glass bricks. Its modular design is scalable, allowing for flexible structural integration. We now have the capability to build... View full entry
Building within the 2.3 square-mile Dubai Creek Harbour complex, Emaar is looking to eclipse its most famous creation the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest structure since 2010. To do so has required laying 236ft deep foundation piles—a world record—set to be capped with 1.59 million cubic feet of concrete. When completed, the 3,045ft tower will best the Burj by a massive 322ft. — CNN
The Emaar Properties and Dubai Holdings joint venture is inspired by the lily flower and mosque minarets, say its developers, and will feature a 68-mile array of supporting cables. Swiss-Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava has designed a 360-degree observation deck and a capacious Hanging Gardens... View full entry
Essey is an engineer at Uber and an early adopter of the Internet of things. He can control his lights with his Amazon Echo or an array of touchpad sensors he has installed throughout the home. Sensors tell him when there's water in the basement or a leak under the sink.
While Essey's setup might sound a little like science fiction, it's a prototype of the future. Some critics are worried these devices won't be secure and that companies will use them to spy on us to make money.
— NPR
As the Internet of things becomes more ingrained in our daily lives, some people are turning ordinary homes into smart homes. One way of doing that is by integrating smart appliances (dishwasher, fridges, microwaves, toasters, etc). That strategy, however, can be expensive and not very... View full entry
In its scale, this faintly quaint, eloquently designed contraption aspires to conjure up the spirit of those 19th-century exemplars of elegant engineering like the Brooklyn Bridge or the Eiffel Tower: industrial-era monuments of structural form, both necessary and sufficient, ingenious but not space age, encapsulating the aspirations of a city. — NY Times
While the Shed, an art and performance space designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Rockwell Group will be in construction for at least another year, the structure is already capable of conducting its five minute moving act along the High Line. Weighing in at 8 million... View full entry
Autonomous aerial vehicles have a host of applications, researchers say. Large ones can be used for commercial transport and national security. Small drones could survey disaster sites, inspect infrastructures like bridges and wind turbines, gather environmental and atmospheric data, and deliver packages, for example. Package delivery goes beyond Amazon orders. — The Michigan Engineer News Center
University of Michigan’s College of Engineering is adding an outdoor fly lab for testing autonomous aerial vehicles to the university’s spate of advanced robotics facilities. Designed by Harley Ellis Deveraux, M-Air will be a netted, four-story complex situated next to the site where the Ford... View full entry
In March, Tesla cut the ribbon on this groundbreaking grid-scale battery installation, a key test of the viability of energy storage in making renewable energy a more reliable part of the grid. With 50,000 solar panels and 272 batteries, the combined solar-and-storage plant provides enough energy to power 4,500 homes for four hours.
If Tesla can help keep Kauai solar-powered around the clock with its batteries, then it can apply what it has learned elsewhere in the country, and around the world
— grist.org
In her Longreads/Grist piece, author Amelia Urry explains the changing nature of solar power challenges that off-grid dwellers as well as smaller, geographically isolated microgrids face now that battery storage on an industrial scale is becoming more lucrative. The article tells the story of a... View full entry
Tesla revealed today that it created what it calls the ‘Tesla Tiny House’ to feature its energy products, like solar panels and Powerwall.
The company is bringing the house on tour using a Model X “to educate the public on how to generate, store and use renewable energy for their home.”
The tiny house contains a Tesla mobile design studio and configurator to help home owners configure a solar plus energy storage system for their home.
— electrek.co
Needless to add that the Tesla Tiny House itself gains all its electricity via a solar installation on the tiny roof. The exhibition tour is limited to four major Australian cities for now, but the economic gain could be far from tiny — as the world's leader in capita penetration of rooftop... View full entry
L.A. now boasts the tallest building west of Chicago—the Wilshire Grand Center in the Downtown district. “If you watch the opening sequence of Blade Runner from 1982 and look at how it imagines L.A.’s skyline in 2019, you can’t help sense life emulating art"
Meanwhile, the creators of the sumptuous new Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills traveled back in time for inspiration...“We studied everything from the decor of the movie sets to the style of leading Hollywood actresses”
— Architectural Digest
Back in the day, Hollywood movies used to draw their inspiration from the city of Angels as many of LA's most iconic buildings played starring roles in Tinseltown. Today, the tables have turned and the cities architecture has begun taking a note or two from Hollywood. Proving that the expression... View full entry
Stately, elegant, reflective: these adjectives have largely described the work of British architect David Chipperfield, whose structures tend to invite contemplation and pause before hot take Instagramming. His selection as the architect of the West Bund Art Museum in the new cultural center... View full entry
Longtime DTLA developer and landowner Joseph Hellen has released a revised design for a proposed 40-story, 420-foot tall apartment tower at 525 South Spring Street. — Urbanize.LA
What would downtown Los Angeles' historic core look like with a 40-story apartment building with a wavy white exterior? Probably a great deal like the rendering above, which was created by TSK Architects working with Steinberg Architects (who are carrying through to produce the design in an... View full entry
Ikea is now offering solar panels and home batteries to its customers in the UK. The Scandinavian furniture chain is partnering with solar firm Solarcentury for the venture, with prices for solar battery storage starting at £3,000 (about $3,970 USD).
The home batteries are designed to work with existing solar panels, or as part of a new combined home solar panel / battery storage system that Ikea is selling.
— theverge.com
The Swedish furniture retail giant first starting solar panels in the UK back in 2013 to grow on a (then) heavily subsidized green energy market but ceased sales in 2015 when the British government announced its plans of cutting solar subsidies by up to 90%. Just a few months later, IKEA returned... View full entry
Constructed by Swissrope/Lauber Seilbahnen AG, Frutigen, this suspension bridge in Switzerland is now the globe's longest (and arguably, most scenic, as it hovers above one of the deepest valleys in the country). The two-foot-wide bridge, which helps connect two mountain towns, has cut the time it... View full entry
After three years of planning and design, the College of Arts and Architecture has launched a public, searchable photo archive of images from within the college. The online photo archive, Arts and Architecture Resource Collaborative (AARC), is the product of a partnership among the College of Arts and Architecture Alumni and Communications Office, the Visual Resources Centre (VRC), and Arts and Architecture Information Technology (AAIT). — Penn State News
"AARC features images provided by multiple photographers with search criteria customized for the college, including department names, keywords, proper names and dates. Through a series of focus groups with key users and uploaders, the AARC team built a robust metadata structure, providing easy... View full entry
For architects, complying with building codes means navigating labyrinthine layers of regulations that vary between municipalities. Sorting through different codes and keeping track of updates is a daunting task and, in a worst-case scenario, a mistake can cost thousands or even millions of dollars to tear out and fix. Firms that can afford it hire building code consultants, but a startup called UpCodes wants to make code compliance easier for all builders. — Tech Crunch
Started by two brothers—one, an architect and the other, a software engineer—UpCodes provides an accessible platform for construction codes and works to consolidate building regulations into a single searchable database. Beyond making codes and regulations easier to navigate, the... View full entry
Citing the street as their favorite workplace and the whole world as their canvas, Valencia-based couple Anna Devis and Daniel Rueda inventively interact with architecture. When paired with their love of travel, this playful interest culminates in a quirky and creative collection of photos that'll make you look twice. — My Modern Met
For those of you who "curate" your Instagram feeds with your photogenic other, there's some artfully posed competition in town: illustrator Anna Devis and trained architect Daniel Rueda not only know their architecture, but they're determined to pose winningly in front of it, as this article in My... View full entry
