San Diego may be known as "America's Finest City," but — at least this week — it's also the epicenter of the desalination and water reuse movement. [...]
The area had one of the first desalination plants — opened in Point Loma in 1961 — and will soon see a $1-billion facility open in Carlsbad. [...]
a sustainable water future depends on two things: "political leadership and public engagement, whether it's desalination or reuse."
— latimes.com
Desalination is just one large-scale technology for treating potable water, but it's attracted recent attention in places like Santa Barbara and San Diego as the California cities ramp up their water-conservation efforts and learn how to market the large upfront costs of desalination as long-term... View full entry
With real estate prices soaring so high and so quickly, a lot of us are questioning if we even want to live in New York anymore—not to mention if we can. According to NeighborhoodX‘s latest map the price paid for a Bed-Stuy or Harlem apartment could get you a pretty sweet pad in the South of France or even trendy Paris. — 6sqft.com
architects at Tsoi/Kobus & Associates in Cambridge have started using the processing system that powers virtual reality games to put clients inside development projects before they are built.
Using a cloud-based system called Revizto, architects can create a digital hospital down to the last brick, and then invite a client to “walk” through the space to see if the ceilings are high enough or the windows provide enough light.
— betaboston.com
Firms like Tsoi/Kobus are beginning to experiment with multiple immersive, interactive media for clients to tour buildings, often in advance of making any physical models. Clients can be virtually transported into the design's space by wearing an Oculus VR headset, or by being inside a specially... View full entry
...From seemingly out of nowhere, a large quad-rotor drone drops out the cloudless sky over Dubai Internet City, hovering insect-like just above the heads of the men, watching them with camera-eyes.
Before they can even notice, a squad of policemen – wearing helmets, body armour, and carrying assault rifles – rush them...
Welcome to Dubai, and to one of the more awkward moments of an already odd competition called Drones For Good. We’re here to watch teams compete for a million-dollar prize...
— the BBC
Apple has announced a range of new products, including a new larger iPad, two new smartphones and a long-awaited update to Apple TV.
In a now traditional September event, this time held at San Francisco’s 7,000 seater Bill Graham civic auditorium, 2,000 engineers, advertisers, executives and journalists saw Apple’s marketing chief Phil Schiller reveal a new 12.9-inch screen iPad that the company hopes will appeal to both professional creatives and committed tablet users.
— The Guardian
With a $799 price-tag, the new iPad Pro could offer a more affordable option for creatives than a MacBook Pro or a desktop. The tablet will have a 10-hour battery life and a faster, more efficient A9X processor, as well as a 12.9-inch Retina display. In addition, the iPad was introduced alongside... View full entry
The Republic, a computer model of a future urban floor plan for an administrative and institutional area has commenced and aims to be unparalleled in size and complexity. Its initial aim is to produce a series of audiovisual dialogues exploring the urban architecture. Longer term objectives are... View full entry
A Brazilian urban planning collective called Urb-i...scoured Google Street View images to find the most stunning public space transformations from around the world. The results give us hope that our cities are becoming more beautiful places to live. — Business Insider
Cheer up: not everything is getting worse, at least not if you check out these comparison shots of real places from around the globe captured on Google Street View. Compiled by Urb-i, these 41 intersections and urban streets are studies in pedestrian-friendliness; as the years melt by, many of the... View full entry
Architect-founded technology firm Arx Pax, who brought you the Hendo Hoverboard, and NASA, who recently brought you photos of Pluto, announced today that they've teamed up in a Space Act Agreement to create micro-satellite capture devices that create magnetic tethers between satellites.The... View full entry
The management at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum has defended the installation of sprinkler showers at its entrance, after a visitor complained that the new facilities were a painful reminder of the gas chambers used to murder prisoners. — The Independent
Is Auschwitz now a theme park? View full entry
As 3D printing advances from its plastic roots, we’re seeing more and more materials passing through its nozzles. Metal, glass, random gunk—each new filament opens the door to new manufacturing applications.
Now researchers have made a printer they claim can use up to ten different materials at once. The “MultiFab,” made by MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL), could offer a relatively low-cost option for the multimaterial 3D printing market.
— motherboard.vice.com
Click here to read the full paper, MultiFab: A Machine Vision Assisted Platform for Multi-material 3D Printing.Related on Archinect:Amsterdam could get a new 3D-printed bridge built by robotsUC Berkeley team unveils "Bloom" 3D-printed cement structureThe future of 3D printing will... View full entry
To promote the new Mad Max video game coming out at the start of September, Uber teamed up with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment this weekend to give fans in Seattle real rides in real Fury Road vehicles.
Through Monday (we know — not enough time, life isn't fair, etc.), those going to and from the city's PAX Prime gaming convention will have the chance to nab a varied set of postapocalyptic chariots that seat either one, three, or four other riders.
— Vulture
The rules are simple:Trips must begin and stay within downtown Seattle. The Wasteland is vast and gas is precious — the Warboys must remain near their Stronghold.Your dollars are worthless in the Wasteland. Payment shall not be required.Here's a look at some of the cars helping to bring new... View full entry
Cheryl Smith planned to move "off the grid" and into a small house near Clark's Harbour, N.S., a year ago.
But thanks to Canadian building regulations, the four-by-six metre structure remains half-built and empty. [...]
Canadian laws require living spaces to have access to power to run smoke detectors and air exchange systems.
But Smith said the point of moving into her tiny home was to disconnect from the power grid.
— ctvnews.ca
More from the tiny home world:Seattle high schoolers push to provide moveable, minimalist shelters for the homelessThe problem with tiny homes - they can get stolenSwedish architects design for un-permited small-space livingThe Tiny House Lover's Guide to RomanceTeenager builds tiny home to avoid... View full entry
Of course, San Francisco has much to offer. The clothing stores, the cable cars, the botanical gardens. My neighbor the conveyor operator, Alan. The libraries, the sports bars, the bus stations. Sigh. — Leaving Everywhere
"Leaving Everywhere" is a piece of net art that spits out "break-up" letters with cities by citing randomly-selected data from the US Census Bureau. Made by Darius Kazemi, the letters are all essentially Mad Libs for arguing about cities, where Kazemi's algorithm fills in the blanks.The letters... View full entry
“I was a little disappointed in the fire service,” said Belles, standing on the charred hillside next to the dome in his semi-rural neighbourhood on the edge of town. — theguardian.com
Wildfires currently blazing in Okanogan County, Washington, have just broken the record for the biggest in the state’s history. With fire season just getting underway and September looking hot and dry, the so-called Okanogan Complex fires will likely persist for months.In Omak, a small town in... View full entry
While wind may be one of the most economical power sources out there, photovoltaic solar energy has a big advantage: it can go small.
While wind gets cheaper as turbines grow larger, the PV hardware scales down to fit wherever we have infrastructure. In fact, simply throwing solar on our existing building stock could generate a very large amount of carbon-free electricity.
— Ars Technica
But, as many homeowners already know, installing solar panels can be quite cost-prohibitive. New research might just have solved that problem by incorporating solar hardware into the most basic light filter used in architecture: the window.According to a study, solar windows could filter out a... View full entry
