The good folks at SmartGeometry have sent us some impressive images and videos of the installation "Manta," the result of a workshop at the recent SmartGeometry 2012 conference in Troy, New York. — bustler.net
Find many more photos and videos of the fabrication process in the Bustler article. View full entry
Insiders call it the Mothership. It’s Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, and to Apple fans, it’s a place thought of with romance and wonder. Only the privileged elect have ever been deep within its most secretive recesses, but after an extensive search, I turned up more than 30 inside pictures that Apple probably doesn’t want you to see. — applegazette.com
Wow, for all the effort put into Apple's product design, I would expect a little more for their workplace. View full entry
Marcos Zotes has shared with us his winning light installation for the Reykjavik Winter Lights Festival 2012. Photo by Ragnar Th Sigurdsson Marcos Zotes, winner of the Reykjavik Winter Lights Festival 2012, and Chris Jordan presented Rafmögnuð Náttúra in Reykjavik, Iceland... View full entry
Google’s new $700 million data centers in Taiwan will make ice at night, when electricity is significantly cheaper, and use it to cool the buildings during the day, reports Rich Miller at Data Center Knowledge. It’s called thermal storage, and it’s basically a battery, but for air conditioning. — grist.org
Left: loading screen / Right: highlighted content with section filter bar at the top We're really excited to announce the launch of the official Archinect iPhone app! The iPhone is by far the most popular mobile device that Archinect readers own, according to our web analytics, so we developed... View full entry
Texas A&M University has recently awarded the winning commission for the new Memorial Student Center 12th Man Hall to Memory Cloud, a collaborative project by RE:Site (Norman Lee and Shane Allbritton, Artists) and METALAB (Andrew Vrana, Joe Meppelink and Michael Gonzales, Architecture + Fabrication). — bustler.net
To celebrate 126 years since the the father of modernism was born, Google is honoring Mies with a Google doodle tribute, referencing the classic IIT Crown Hall building. View full entry
The opening of the sprawling Zaha Hadid-designed Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, which will soon exhibit slices of L.A.-based billionaire Eli Broad’s extensive art collection, has been postponed from this spring to the fall for reasons only vaguely stated. But never fear; for those of you chomping at the bit to see it, or who are in a particularly remote part of the world in relation to East Lansing, Michigan, MSU has just opened the Virtual Broad Art Museum. — artinfo.com
OriginOil, a start-up based in Los Angeles, CA., has begun a pilot of its urban algae farm concept at the La Défense complex near Paris. Wastewater from buildings nourishes algae growth; algae is processed to make heat. The company is attempting to prove that integrating algae production into large building complexes will help bring them closer to net zero. — smartplanet.com
We've optimized the studio! Check out the new demo reel AND - introducing our sister company: Brooklyn United! View full entry
China, of course, is not new terrain for international architects. Many top American firms have run offices inside China for a decade or more. The new arrivals, though, come not by invitation or out of curiosity but because they need work. They are, as Michael Tunkey, head of the China office for the North American firm Cannon Design, says, “refugees from the economic crisis.” — New York Times
eVolo Magazine has announced the winners of the 2012 Skyscraper Competition. The annual contest—now in its sixth year—honors visionary ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the use of new technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations, along with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution. — bustler.net
The Self-Assembly Line is a large-scale version of a self-assembly virus capsid, demonstrated as an interactive and performative structure. A discrete set of modules are activated by stochastic rotation from a larger container/structure that forces the interaction between units. By changing the external conditions, the geometry of the unit, the attraction of the units and the number of units supplied, the desired global configuration can be programmed. — http://sjet.us
Skylar Tibbits and Arthur Olson, have presented a large-scale installation, The Self-Assembly Line, at the 2012 TED Conference in Long Beach, CA. The Self-Assembly Line is a large-scale version of a self-assembly virus module, demonstrated as an interactive and performative structure. A... View full entry
The way to find the sort of transcendence Coulter is looking for is to achieve "flow" [...]. Simplistically, flow is when someone becomes one with an experience, whether that be contained in a game or a building.
This type of flow is present in "Snake the Planet!", which merges interaction design and architecture.
— huffingtonpost.com
Gehry Technologies serves architects, engineers, builders and others with their design software and services, including 3D modeling and building information management. IDG News Service quizzed Chief Technology Officer Dennis Shelden on his priorities, challenges and insights. — pcworld.com