It’s this inevitable dichotomy between data and real life that will likely define [Google's] Sidewalk Labs...There’s a naivety to their worldview that might help to get things done inside a company but could prove a hurdle to progress in the public realm. Yes, the region does need more housing, but the politics of how, where, and when that housing is built are far more nuanced than Google can apparently handle. — psmag.com
The cloud of speculation surrounding Google as of late only grows bigger with the tech giant's recent launch of its independent start-up, Sidewalk Labs. Charging further into Google's real-world endeavors, the "urban innovation company" vies "to improve city life for everyone through the... View full entry
[...] the drought is a gusher for a growing number of tech startups in the emerging world of the Internet of Things, the buzzy term for the trend of connecting devices and data in the physical realm to the Internet. Getting more sensors into the environment will help thousands of farms, businesses and cities figure out where water is going and how it can be diverted for the most efficient use. Agriculture is the area most ripe for collecting more and higher-quality data. — forbes.com
Related news on Archinect:California Water Crisis? Now there's a board game for that!California Farmers Using Oil Wastewater during DroughtCalifornia Governor Mandates Water Restrictions View full entry
[London Mayor Boris] Johnson, who uses the city’s bike-share system to commute to work most days, told the Guardian that he would welcome the quieter, greener buses on his city’s streets, saying current buses are like “throbbing, belching machines that emit their fumes like wounded war-elephants”. — qz.com
Since 2008, London Mayor Boris Johnson has introduced over 1,300 hybrid buses onto city streets, and all-electric single-decker buses have been in use since 2013. It was previously thought that all-electric double-decker buses weren't feasible – their size makes them too difficult to efficiently... View full entry
Uber France CEO Thibaud Simphal and Uber Europe GM Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty were both taken into custody today in Paris [...]
The two executives were charged with two different allegations. First, according to them, Uber is running illegal taxi operations. Uber has been struggling with this charge in many countries, starting with the U.S. Second, the police said that Uber France is concealing digital documents...
— Tech Crunch
After protests last week turned violent, French authorities have detained two executives of the ride-sharing company Uber, although officials stated that they were brought into custody on charges unrelated to the protests. Uber is facing ferocious criticism in France, with taxi-drivers complaining... View full entry
This is where we encounter this strange animal, this monster, “ecomodernism”, that I am not sure we should learn to love, and that triggers in me, I have to confess, a deep antipathy. It sounds much like the news that an electronic cigarette is going to save a chain smoker from addiction. — ENTITLE Blog
Ecomodernism? Sounds good but majorly flawed according to Bruno Latour, who takes on its modernity, PR and philosophical tardiness."Wake up you ecomoderns, we are in the Anthropocene, not in the Holocene, nor are we to ever reside in the enchanted dream of futurism. Down to earth is the message... View full entry
French taxi drivers pulled out the throttle in an all-out confrontation with the ultra-cheap Uber car service Thursday, smashing livery cars, setting tires ablaze and blocking traffic during a nationwide strike that caught tourists and celebrities alike in the mayhem. — washingtonpost.com
Parisian taxi drivers have taken to the streets, smashing cars and burning tires to protest UberPop, a budget iteration of the car-sharing service akin to UberX in the States. Traffic came to a stop in the French capital, with reports of stranded travelers walking along the highway with luggage... View full entry
Watch out, world. Toyota is heading back to the future.
The automaker has hinted it’s looking into flying cars. Now its Lexus luxury brand has actually built a working model of a hoverboard.
— Bloomberg
Social media lit up last night after Lexus revealed a tantalizing promo video for a "functional hoverboard" prototype. Smoke can be seen curling up from the skateboard-like design, which features a bamboo deck and "the iconic Lexus spindle grille." The prototype uses liquid nitrogen-cooled... View full entry
A microdevice called Human Organs-on-Chips is engineered with the astounding ability to mimic the complex structures, functions, and mechanical motions of whole human organs. Fabricated by scientists Donald Ingber and Dan Dongeun Huh at Harvard University's Wyss Institute, Human Organs-on-Chips... View full entry
[Andrew] Tallon, 46, wasn't the first to realize that laser scanners could be used to deconstruct Gothic architecture. But he was the first to use the scans to get inside medieval builders' heads.
"Every building moves," he says. "It heaves itself out of shape when foundations move, when the sun heats up on one side." How the building moves reveals its original design and the choices that the master builder had to make when construction didn't go as planned...
— National Geographic
In true ephemeralizing fashion, Bucky's seminal work Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth has been published on iBooks by the Estate of Buckminster Fuller. First published in 1968, Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth gathers Bucky's ideas of global consciousness and actions – in short, "we... View full entry
MX3D, a research and development startup company, will use robots to 3D print a pedestrian bridge across one of Amsterdam’s canals. The versatile six-axis robotic arms will ‘draw’ steel structures in 3D, starting from one side of the canal and building across until it reaches the other end. The robot will also print its own support, which allows it to work autonomously. The location of the bridge will be announced soon and construction is set to commence in 2017. — iflscience.com
More on Archinect:New Googleplex will be built by robotsLiquid metal discovery paves way for shape-shifting robotsRobot gives a helping hand as Taubman College breaks ground on new school additionSelf-Folding Robot Based on OrigamiGensler LA wants to use drones to alleviate the scale limits of 3D... View full entry
"This is the toughest [hiring] market I've seen in at least 20 years." — Crains New York
Intermediate architects with five to seven years of experience who are versed in BIM and other architectural design software are the Hope Diamond to employers; rare, expensive, and highly sought after. According to an article in Crains New York, in London, Hong Kong, and New York City especially... View full entry
University students and engineers now have a chance to contribute to the ongoing development of Elon Musk's and SpaceX's high-speed ground transit system, the Hyperloop. As SpaceX works toward constructing a one-mile test track near their headquarters in Hawthorne, California, they launched a... View full entry
He has a vision of a future where his company makes a third of the world's buildings – all modular, all steel, and all green.
“The biggest problem we face in the world right now isn't terrorism or world war. It's climate change,” he says.
— bbc.co.uk
A fascinating profile of Zhang Yue, the man behind Mini Sky City, a 57-story tower built in 19 days. Yue's company, the Broad Sustainable Group, was able to construct at such speeds by assembling prefab parts at the rate of 3-storeys a day. Now, Yue's set his sights on on building the full-size... View full entry
Amid the seemingly endless barrage of new writings about the imminent arrival of the technologically mediated “smart city,” a slim volume published by the University of Minnesota Press suggests that so-called intelligent urbanism might not be so new after all. In Deep Mapping the Media City... View full entry
