The most densely populated rural area in the world, East Africa's Lake Victoria basin is home to 35 million people. Many in hard-to-reach, rural locations, these communities often lack necessary infrastructure, separating them from vital services as well as from markets where they can sell their... View full entry
Everyone can relate to daily commutes. Whether it's fifteen minutes or an hour, infrastructures in various cities dictate how transportation affects our daily lives. Through the use of data visualization, Craig Taylor, Data Visualization Design Manager at ITO World uses color and form to portray... View full entry
For a place to be shared on Instagram is no longer a chance by-product of a photogenic design, but a primary concern that drives the ambitions of clients and designers. The idea of “doing it for the ’gram” has moved from the preserve of Like-hungry teens to board meeting discussions and multimillion pound budgets. — The Guardian
Let's face it, what wouldn't people do for a like? The 800 million user and counting social media platform Instagram has taken "photographic moments" to a whole new level. Insta-fame doesn't only affect people, but places as well. Deemed an influential force, Instagram is not only changing the way... View full entry
For one, there is no such thing as a 3D printer that doesn’t emit concerning microparticles into the air. Even industrial models that appear sealed, complete with fans and filters, put out measurable particulates. — Fast Company
Ask any architecture student, 3D printing can be one of the best and worst things about the design studio. Architectural drawings and renderings are necessary, but in order for the concept to really come to life 3D scale models have acted as catalysts for translating the vision. Physical scale... View full entry
Elon Musk has filed permits with the city of Los Angeles to launch his Boring Company offshoot, The Brick Store LLC, which would produce interlocking bricks made from dirt collected by his tunnel-digging company's operations. As the Boring Company's LA test tunnel nears completion—an opening... View full entry
North London video game developer, Shedworks, have developed a specially commissioned film for our exhibition Disappear Here: On perspective and other kinds of space, in collaboration with Sam Jacob Studio. We spoke to Greg Kythreotis, co-founder of Shedworks, to find out more about how the video came about and the processes behind it. — RIBA
RIBA interviews Greg Kythreotis, co-founder of video game studio Shedworks; talking about his involvement in the current Disappear Here: On perspective and other kinds of space exhibition at the RIBA Architecture Gallery in London, the collaboration with Sam Jacob Studio, and potential overlaps... View full entry
The London-based architectural practice ecoLogicStudio, which specializes in bio-digital design, has developed a large-scale installation which stores and filters CO2 to help fight global climate change. Their 'urban curtain'—dubbed Photo.Synth.Etica—was unveiled this week in Dublin during... View full entry
He imagines a sort of experimental community spread over about a hundred square miles, where houses, schools, commercial districts and production studios will be built. The centerpiece of this giant project will be the blockchain, a new kind of database that was introduced by Bitcoin. — The New York Times
Jeffrey Berns, who owns the cryptocurrency company Blockchains L.L.C., has bought 68,000 acres of land in Nevada that he hopes to transform into a community based around blockchain technology. His utopian vision, which would be the first 'smart city' based on the technology, involves the creation... View full entry
After conducting a yearlong search for a second home, Amazon has switched gears and is now finalizing plans to have a total of 50,000 employees in two locations, according to people familiar with the decision-making process.
The company is nearing a deal to move to the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens [...]. Amazon is also close to a deal to move to the Crystal City area of Arlington, Va., a Washington suburb, one of the people said.
— The New York Times
It looks like Jeff Bezos may have finally found that second home for his online empire—or make that second and third. After narrowing down the list of cities that could be potential new hosts of Amazon's HQ2 in January, the company has been tight-lipped about its final decision. Until yesterday... View full entry
It might sound like a plot cooked up by a cartoon villain, but a city in southwestern China is aiming to launch into space an artificial moon that could replace streetlights by bathing the ground in a “dusk-like glow.”
[...] the satellite’s mirror-like exterior would reflect sunlight down to Earth, creating a glow about eight times brighter than the moon. The artificial moon, which he said would orbit about 500 kilometers above Earth, could save $174 million in electricity from streetlights.
— NBC News
The capital of China's Sichuan province, Chengdu, could have its own illumination satellite 'moon' up in the skies by 2020, according to the People's Daily. Light pollution, and its documented health effects on humans and nocturnal wildlife, doesn't seem to be much of a concern to the officials... View full entry
Students at the University of Cape Town have developed a bio-brick that mixes sand, bacteria and human urine. Unsurprisingly, it is the world's first building material to be made from the liquid waste high in nitrogen and phosphorous. The brick is created through a process called microbial... View full entry
A privacy expert tasked with protecting personal data within a Google-backed smart city project has resigned as her pro-privacy guidelines would largely be ignored by participants.
“I imagined us creating a Smart City of Privacy, as opposed to a Smart City of Surveillance,” Ann Cavoukian, the former privacy commissioner of Ontario, wrote in a resignation letter to Google sister company Sidewalk Labs.
— Planet Free Will
Smart phones, smart cars, smart cities, but smart for who? View full entry
Five years ago we reported on a device invented by a group of students at MIT. This device, originally called "Wristify", was a small bracelet designed to heat or cool the wearer to achieve customized comfort, regardless of the surrounding environment. Today, after a few years of R&D, and with... View full entry
Out of the 1,171 architectural designs that Frank Lloyd Wright created in his lifetime, around 660 of them remained unbuilt. Using advanced visualization techniques, architect David Romero brings Wright's unbuilt designs one step closer to reality in a series of striking, computer-generated... View full entry
Polish based design studio Superhelix creates a green roof masterpiece that not only highlights the home's ecological design, but showcases what happens to buildings when they change over time. Located in Krakow, Poland the 189 square meter home's slanted roof was not built for aesthetics, but... View full entry
