British multinational design and engineering company behind world-famous buildings such as the Sydney Opera House has confirmed that it was the target of a deepfake scam that led to one of its Hong Kong employees paying out $25 million to fraudsters.
A spokesperson for London-based Arup told CNN on Friday that it notified Hong Kong police in January about the fraud incident, and confirmed that fake voices and images were used.
— CNN
“Our financial stability and business operations were not affected and none of our internal systems were compromised,” an Arup spokesperson told CNN. The employee in question was apparently misled into believing they were in a video conference with senior finance staffers that were in reality... View full entry
Statistics revealed in the latest Deltek Clarity Architecture & Engineering Industry Study have indicated wide optimism about the use of AI technology, even as most firms struggle to determine where and how to apply emerging trends in the face of prevailing economic headwinds. According to... View full entry
Autodesk has just announced the development of a new experimental generative AI design tool called Project Bernini, the latest addition to its Autodesk AI inventory for industry professionals and design students in every field. Project Bernini can reportedly be used to generate complex and... View full entry
By making a series of cuts and folds in a sheet of paper, Baker found she could produce two planes connected by a complex set of thin strips. Without the need for any adhesive like glue or tape, this pattern created a surface that was thick but lightweight. Baker named her creation Spin-Valence. Structural tests later showed that an individual tile made this way, and rendered in steel, can bear more than a thousand times its own weight. — MIT Technology Review
MIT Technology Review highlights the digital fabrication work of Emily Baker, an architect and assistant professor at the University of Arkansas' Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. Baker began her research into lightweight and sturdy Spin-Valence structures as an architecture graduate... View full entry
Since 2021, 100 new curbside chargers have been added across all five boroughs. Jockeying for space alongside parking meters, LinkNYC kiosks, and bus shelters on public sidewalks, they are part of a pilot partnership between the Department of Transportation, Con Edison, and Flo, an EV charging system operator. In the outer-borough neighborhoods that lack the robust EV infrastructure of Manhattan’s Central Business District, these chargers are proving quite popular. — Urban Omnibus
In an interview with Urban Omnibus managing editor Kevin Ritter, New York City Department of Transportation officials Will Carry and Luis Gonzalez outlined the city's vision for creating a comprehensive electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The department has recently launched a curbside... View full entry
The new home for the recently established MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been completed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. What will be a research hub for AI and other disciplines in the computing... View full entry
Bjarke Ingels Group has designed an installation for the car brand Audi, installed at Milan Design Week. Titled ‘Reflaction,’ a play on the words “reflection” and “action,” the installation seeks to convey how “our actions in the world reflect the very essence of our existence,”... View full entry
The $12 billion high-speed rail infrastructure project that will connect Las Vegas with various hubs in the Southern California region is off and running. Brightline West’s 218-mile loop is now under construction with a $3 billion push from the Biden administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure... View full entry
San Francisco-based Cosmic has raised $1.5 million in funding for their micro-home product designs aimed at bringing “self-sustainable homes in California and beyond.” The company’s leading product, Cosmic ONE, is described as a “limited-edition high-quality micro-home” that... View full entry
SO – IL has completed a passage of 3D knit textiles as part of the 2024 Bruges Triennial in Belgium. Titled 'Common Thread,' the passage is inspired by the medieval city’s lace-making tradition, using an innovative woven fabric to create what the team calls an “intricate spatial... View full entry
Back in March, Niall Patrick Walsh published a chat with Melodie Yashar Vice President of Building Design & Performance at the construction technologies company ICON. At one point he quips "That’s a shame. Destructive testing would make for great TikTok content". Later Melodie reflects... View full entry
Autodesk has released a report on the state of digitization and technological adoption across creative industries. The 2024 State of Design & Make Report found that companies see artificial intelligence “as a current tool rather than a futuristic pipe dream.” The report’s findings were... View full entry
Autodesk has developed an embodied carbon analysis tool to be integrated into the software maker’s AI-driven Forma application. Powered by the C.Scale data model developed by U.S.-based architecture firm EHDD, the tool “enables designers to better understand the carbon impacts from... View full entry
Google has not publicly disclosed the reasons for the Wi-Fi problems, but workers say the 600,000-square-foot building’s swooping, wave-like rooftop swallows broadband like the Bermuda Triangle. [...]
But, a Google spokeswoman acknowledged, "we’ve had Wi-Fi connectivity issues in Bay View." She said Google "made several improvements to address the issue," and the company hoped to have a fix in coming weeks.
— Reuters
The roof of the BIG and Heatherwick Studio-designed Bay View headquarters, which opened in 2022, is a key component of the building’s circular design strategy and features 90,000 "dragonscale" solar panels. Some believe they could be causing the interference. Related on Archinect: Google's... View full entry
Henning Larsen has unveiled a new tool for designers that allows them access to a database of biogenic materials examples taken from around the world. The firm debuted its new Open Detail resource at the AEC Hackathon in Copenhagen. Together with collaborators Copenhagen School of Design and... View full entry
