Dr. Orr revealed that Denver won the bid to host this biennial event, in which student teams compete to design, build, and operate cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive solar-powered houses. [...]
The competition is planned to be staged near a new development close to Denver International Airport. The area around the 61st and Peña Commuter Rail Station is positioned to become a national model for sustainable, transit-oriented, greenfield development [...].
— solardecathlon.gov
Archinect coverage of previous Solar Decathlons:2015 Solar Decathlon winner Stevens Institute of Technology addresses post-Sandy resiliency with the SURE HOUSEStudents endure the final home stretch at the U.S. Solar Decathlon 2015Archinect Field Trip: Solar Decathlon 2013, Basking in Arrays of... View full entry
This post is brought to you by PPI. As an aspiring architect, you are required to pass the ARE for initial licensure in all U.S. jurisdictions.The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) have just released new information regarding their upcoming release of ARE version... View full entry
Glue is the future of architecture. At least that’s how architect Greg Lynn sees it. And he’s not alone. “Mechanical assembly is already waning in many industries,” Lynn says. “An airplane now is glued together. A car now is glued together. Even a lot of appliances are being glued together.” So why not skyscrapers? — New Scientist
Related stories in the Archinect news:Love Letter to Plywood. By Tom SachsMIT researchers have created a new material that stores and releases solar energyUCL researchers present a new kind of self-cleaning nano-engineered window View full entry
This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice. Physical paper may have given way to PDFs. Ink pens may have been replaced by stylus pens. What architecture firms don’t have to worry about being replaced or disappearing, however, are documents. From initial engagement contracts to drawings... View full entry
Mostly it is about how propaganda multiplies within that upload/download architecture; an architecture in which both fact and fiction can exist side by side and even overlap — It’s Nice That
Billie Muraben investigates 'The Sprawl', a multi-channel video installation, by design studio Metahaven. View full entry
In a joint statement yesterday the Playa Vista, California-based Hyperloop Transport Technologies (HTT) and the Slovak Republic’s economy minister held out the future vision of the Hyperloop whisking passengers at 760 mph between Vienna in Austria, Budapest in Hungary and the Slovakian capital of Bratislava. A Bratislava-to-Vienna route would take just 8 minutes at full speed, while a Bratislava-to-Budapest route would take 10 minutes. — globalconstructionreview.com
Hyperloop previously in the Archinect news:MIT and TU Delft emerge victorious at Hyperloop competition; Elon Musk drops hint about "electric jets"Hyperloop, brought to you by AecomUnpacking the Hyperloop's lofty promises View full entry
The complexities of designing at the scale of a city could take years to enumerate, but with Block'hood, a game where players design neighborhoods in various modes of complexity with over 80 pre-set blocks, it takes only minutes to start encountering these challenges first hand. Developed and... View full entry
Last week the city council in Mountain View, California, took a significant step toward addressing Silicon Valley's housing affordability crisis. The city approved a new planning document for its North Bayshore district that envisions the creation of up to 10,250 units of high-density housing. Mountain View only has about 32,000 households total, so that would be a substantial 32 percent increase
[...]
— Vox
"The big question is whether this represents an isolated victory for housing advocates or whether it's the start of a trend toward denser development in Silicon Valley more broadly."For more on the housing woes of the world's tech capital, check out these links:Can Silicon Valley save the Bay... View full entry
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have demonstrated a method by which a 3D design could be reverse-engineered by analysing the vibrations picked up from a common 3D printer. [...]
a basic recording made with a smartphone could capture enough information to recreate a given object.
Data including where the nozzle is, how it moves and for how long it is expelling plastic can be picked up, and recreate designs with 90 percent accuracy.
— wired.co.uk
Can you encrypt live sound?More on 3D printing:Another study warns that 3D-printers pose potential health risks for users3D printing will recreate destroyed Palmyra archMIT presents 3D printer that can print 10 materials simultaneously without breaking the bankAmsterdam could get a new 3D-printed... View full entry
The British company developing the uses of a super black, light absorbent material called Vantablack S-VIS is working with leading architects as well as the British artist Anish Kapoor.
The founder and chief technology officer of Surrey NanoSystems, Ben Jensen, says that the company is working with “some large and well respected global architects,” and that the coating is already available for “suitable applications”. He declined to name the architects involved “due to prior agreements”.
— theartnewspaper.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:UCL researchers present a new kind of self-cleaning nano-engineered windowThis Nano Membrane Toilet could solve the world's sanitation crisis – and charge our phonesRejoice aesthetes! New incandescent bulbs are now more efficient than LED View full entry
As cranes have grown in height and girth, the controls to operate them have intensified in number and complexity...the crane units in use these days have libraries of intricate manuals, packed with details...some operators may not have time to fully understand or read completely. Same goes for the maintenance team. When something does go wrong with such large machines...the 'mess and carnage' gets magnified. — Popular Mechanics
Crane safety experts give their thoughts on the leading causes of crane collapses, and why safety regulation is more complex than it seems.Previous news about collapses:Crane collapses in Manhattan, one dead and two seriously injuredMore than 50 dead after crane collapses on Mecca's Grand Mosque... View full entry
When production begins, SolarCity, already the leading installer of residential solar panels in the [U.S.] will become a vertically integrated manufacturer and provider...At a time when conventional silicon-based solar panels from China have never been cheaper, investing in a new type of solar technology is a risky undertaking. However, the potential benefits are huge. The new factory...could transform both SolarCity’s business...and the economics of residential solar power. — MIT Technology Review
The MIT Technology Review profiles the upcoming Buffalo-based SolarCity factory and their ambitious plans that could potentially make solar power technology more widely available to consumers.More news about alternative energy:Cloud-harvesting skyscraper: renderings of proposed new sustainable... View full entry
With over half of the world's population currently living in cities, and seventy percent of it predicted to be urban by 2050, Nissan and Foster + Partners have undertaken the design problem of creating a refuelling network that, among other things, allows electric cars to recharge wirelessly while... View full entry
Google said on Monday it bears "some responsibility" after one of its self-driving cars struck a municipal bus in a minor crash earlier this month.
The crash may be the first case of one of its autonomous cars hitting another vehicle and the fault of the self-driving car. [...]
Google said in the filing the autonomous vehicle was traveling at less than 2 miles per hour, while the bus was moving at about 15 miles per hour.
— reuters.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:U.S. says computers qualify as drivers in Google's autonomous vehicles; won't even have to go to the DMVThe U.S. just got $4 billion to spend on self-driving carsAdapting self-driving cars to the world of humansDawn of the self-driving car: testing out Tesla's... View full entry
The inaugural Conscious Cities Conference is a little over one week away. Happening at Arup's London office on March 1, the one-day conference is the UK's first event of its kind and is part of the year-long Health, Wellbeing and Architecture programming from the Museum of... View full entry
