This post is brought to you by Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). If you know architecture, or think you know architecture, you know SCI-Arc. You know SCI-Arc is a place for leaders – the leaders of change, the leaders of a new vision, the leaders of new technologies, the... View full entry
The first permanent publicly-viewable artwork by Refik Anadol, a media artist known for his immersive, site-specific light installations, was recently unveiled in San Francisco. Virtual Depictions: San Francisco, a series of "data sculptures" based on a publicly-available dataset, occupies a... View full entry
According to leaked documents France's Ministry of Interior is considering two new proposals: a ban on free and shared Wi-Fi connections during a state of emergency, and measures to block Tor being used inside France.
The documents were seen by the French newspaper Le Monde. According to the paper, new bills could be presented to parliament as soon as January 2016. These proposals are presumably in response to the attacks in Paris last month where 130 people were murdered.
— Ars Technica
According to the report published by Le Monde, the French Ministry of Interior has developed two frightening new security proposals that may be presented to parliament early next years.The first, as reported by Ars Technica, would block free, public WiFi during a state of emergency. On November... View full entry
The short history of autonomous vehicles has already shown us that in a closed environmement, cars that drive themselves are pretty great...the problems only begin when you introduce them to real world, non-autonomous environments [...]
So Google's new patent makes sense: it contains some new idea on how the cars can communicate with pedestrians on the road as a kind of replacement for all the hand-waving and other non-mechanical signals used by drivers in road situations.
— City Metric
In theory, driving mainly consists of looking through glass, turning a wheel, and putting pressure on one of two pedals. But, as everyone knows, in practice, driving means swerving to avoid tires on freeways, slamming on brakes to escape collisions, waving with your hand to signal to the driver at... View full entry
NBBJ calls the concept No-Shadow Tower, though it would be more accurate to call it the Smaller-Shadow-From-One-of-Two-Towers, since it depends on a pair of buildings separated by an open space. For that reason, the technique is an awkward fit for New York — NY Magazine
A weeklong series of ideas for improving urban life, ranging from an examination of how Next-Generation Drones Will Save New York City’s Infrastructure, to how new building designs will usher in the Age of Shadowless Skyscrapers. View full entry
Thanks to Big Data, it is now next to impossible to reside anonymously in a modern city.
Why?
Because data anonymization itself is almost impossible without using advanced cryptography. Our every transaction leaves a digital marker that can be mined by anyone with the right tools or enough determination.
— Cities of the Future
Being a fresh graduate in the lamentably real world is perhaps one of the steepest transitions an architect ever faces, which is part of the inspiration behind Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation's newly launched Incubator program. Billing itself as a... View full entry
Waze sometimes sends drivers through little-used side streets such as Cody Road [in Sherman Oaks, Calif]...Some people try to beat Waze at its own game by sending misinformation about traffic jams and accidents so it will steer commuters elsewhere. Others log in and leave their devices in their cars, hoping Waze will interpret that as a traffic standstill and suggest alternate routes. — The Wall Street Journal
More about Waze on Archinect:Throwback Throughway: when GPS fails, these gorgeous "mental maps" help you navigateWaze takes on the ride-sharing market with new carpooling appArnold Schwarzenegger voices Waze appWaze and its new uneasy bedfellows View full entry
between population gains and the popularity of fully self-driving mobility services, we’ll see the total number of vehicle miles grow by 1 trillion. (Half of the 1 trillion it attributes to population growth.) For perspective, U.S. residents drove 3.1 trillion miles in 2014.
KPMG expects this growth to come from trips taken by the very young and very old, who can be immobile only due to their inability to drive. By having access to a self-driving shuttle, a world of opportunity would open up.
— washingtonpost.com
We discuss the implications of autonomous vehicles in the built environment with Geoff Manaugh on our latest podcast episode, "In LiDAR We Trust".For more on self-driving vehicles:Tokyo's 2020 Olympics won't have Zaha, but it's looking like there will be "Robot Taxi"Milton Keynes invests in... View full entry
Long-time Archinector and BLDGBLOG-runner Geoff Manaugh joins us on the podcast this week to discuss his piece on "The Dream Life of Driverless Cars" for the New York Times Magazine. Referencing work like that of London-based design studio, ScanLAB Projects, who use LiDAR (light + radar)... View full entry
Musk had warned me that the scale of the place would be overwhelming. "It will blow your mind. You see it in person and then realize, Fuck, this is big."
He was right. It was impossible not to feel awestruck by the sprawling, 71-foot-tall structure stretched out, miragelike, before me as I drove into a shallow canyon. [...] When the Gigafactory is finished, it will be only slightly smaller than Boeing’s Everett, Washington, plant, which is the world’s largest building by volume.
— fastcompany.com
Related news on Archinect:Tesla Announces Plans to Build $5 Billion Battery 'Gigafactory'Dawn of the self-driving car: testing out Tesla's autopilot functionDid Tesla almost go bankrupt without anyone noticing? View full entry
This is The Oppidum, a massive 323,000 square foot property with plans for a spectacular estate. What lies hidden beneath, carved deep in the mountain is the largest residential doomsday shelter in the world. [...]
The planned luxurious underground compound on two levels includes a total space of 77,500 sf with 13 foot high ceilings. The layout features one large 6,750 sf apartment and six 1,720 sf apartments.
Construction on the secret facility began in 1984, at the height of the Cold War.
— forbes.com
Related on Archinect:It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel luxurious): high-end apocalypse sheltersA top-secret Czech bunker used by the Soviet army opens to the publicSubculture of Americans prepares for civilization's collapse View full entry
Throughout its history, Kitchener has often imagined big plans for its urban development, but since the 1960s most of these grand plans for downtown Kitchener only ever found form in the Market Square Shopping Centre. Market Square is the most complete and concrete repository of Kitchener’s attempts at re-imagining itself in the postwar period. — Numéro Cinq
Nathan Storring, a writer, artist, designer, and assistant curator of the Urbanspace Gallery in Toronto, writes a thorough critique of the redevelopment, destruction, and rebirth of the downtown core in Kitchener, Ontario. The issues and concerns, raised in his essay in microcosm, can be applied... View full entry
There were great ideological battles in the past about work-life balance, but that was before ubiquitous streaming. I think happiness matters more than bitcredit, care dollars and the million other point schemes you could choose. Anyway, while I’m on holiday, as long as the geo-climactic conditions and my exertion levels show positive alignment, I get professional development credit and a dopamine rush! Everyone’s happy! — the guardian
Sounds all sad.. Oh.., scratch that. Sounds bleak. View full entry
That’s why a team from the Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA) is turning to the next best option—using technology to protect cultural heritage.
Founded in 2012 by Roger Michel, IDA is a joint effort between Harvard University and Oxford University to create an open-source database of high-resolution images and three-dimensional graphics of things like paper and papyrus documents, epigraphs and small artifacts.
Work on what IDA has named the Million Image Database began in early 2015.
— newsweek.com
The photo shows the Baal Shamin temple prior to its destruction. Volunteers of the Institute for Digital Archaeology were able to digitally archive the 2,000-year-old structure for the Million Image Database project just in time before ISIS fighters seized control of Palmyra's historic... View full entry