Your assignment is to come up with an idea so revolutionary that it could be considered an important advance in industrial design.
Students at Rice University in Houston accomplished that with plans for a floating city that is being considered by one of the world's largest oil companies. Last year, the students won the inaugural Odebrecht Award for a radical design of man-made floating islands where as many as 25,000 oil workers and their families could live.
— npr.org
Previously featured in our Student Works and Screen/Print series, "The Petropolis of Tomorrow" proposes a new style of floating company towns to aid Brazil in offshore oil findings. NPR now reports that the project has surpassed its academic role to be considered by Petrobas, a Brazilian... View full entry
The long and varied history of waste and its removal in New York from the 18th century onwards is the subject of Elizabeth Royte’s 2005 book Garbage Land and of the Urban Omnibus City of Systems video she narrates. In the video, Royte describes how her research into where exactly her trash was going after she threw it out has led her to become a more ecological citizen, with “a systems view” of our interconnected processes of manufacturing, transportation, disposal and re-use. — Urban Omnibus
Amelia interviewed Jason Pomeroy an architect, academic and urban planner based in Singapore, about his new travel show City Time Traveller.His travels through Asia have convinced him "What transcends culture though is an indigenous civilisation’s understanding of basic environmental... View full entry
With strange weather patterns becoming the norm, who knows when or where the next natural disaster will strike and affect local neighborhoods. And architects are trying to work with nature to find effective and economic solutions in disaster rebuilding. Some of those architects include Ida D.K... View full entry
What have we learned so far about how cities function — and how they don’t? What is the role of that most symbolic of city features, the skyscraper? And is it possible to “break” a city? Five experts offered their perspectives on the use of data to solve urban problems, the ways in which the skyscraper is venerated and misused, and their best guesses on what the cities of the future might look like. — nytimes.com
For his NYT Science Times Podcast, Jeffery DelViscio sits down with SOM structural engineer William F. Baker; architect and IIT architecture dean Wiel Arets; University of Chicago associate professor Virginia Parks; Columbia University professor Saskia Sassen; and Council on Tall Buildings and... View full entry
In a new exhibition, Michael Pawlyn lays out his vision for architecture inspired by the natural world – including biorock buildings grown entirely underwater and whole office blocks being lit by learning from the blind sea star. [...]
“All my work is driven by a frustration with the word ‘sustainable’,” he says. “It suggests something that is just about good enough, but we need to be looking at truly restorative solutions.
— theguardian.com
Form per our fragmented cultures can follow the function of materials proved to work through our fragmented physics and building sciences. We rely highly on statistics in building sciences. In interpreting culture and evolution of culture, we have little to no consensus. — toskovic.com
I attempt to create a roster for building design of construction under plural sciences, plural cultures with the mission of completeness of expression from and to person, building, town, metropolis, the national arena, and larger hubs of human connection. View full entry
The latest addition to the Los Angeles skyline — the New Wilshire Grand, the tallest structure to be built west of the Mississippi — takes a major step forward Saturday when more than 2,000 truckloads of concrete are driven through downtown for what is being billed as the world's largest continuous concrete pour.
The slurry-fest begins at 5 p.m. and is expected to last nearly 20 hours.
— latimes.com
The Living was selected to re-design MoMA PS1's courtyard this summer. In response Fred Scharmen (who thinks it is a "a gorgeous piece") commented "My initial reaction to this scheme centers around that phrase ‘self assembling’ that shows up in the video around the 00:36 mark...This is slightly problematic".
For the latest edition of the In Focus series Archinect talked to California-based photographer Peter Wegner. The piece starts off provocatively with this quote from Mr Wegner,"More than that, I like the unbuilt environment – the place where the architecture leaves off. Is there way to... View full entry
Today’s technology is rooted in the work of Sir Isaac Newton. Contemporary physics’ paradox in resolving the difference between magnetism and electricity implies multiple truths and we wonder what drove Newton’s work and what drove Einstein’s? — toskovic.com
I discuss how paradox, uncertainty, and static historical context in physics justifying technology informs the form follows function of material mission of the modernists. How do alternate sciences and cultures inform the relationship between architecture, form, technology, and person? View full entry
If we want to know how to make a better city, the place to start is at ground level, using observation and measurement ... to build a psychologically grounded view of the relationship between the physical design of a city and what happens there. [...]
How do we develop an experimental science of urban design? In the research laboratory for immersive virtual environments (Relive) at the University of Waterloo, we have turned to simulation methods to help build such a science.
— theguardian.com
In his time as a passenger on what he called Spaceship Earth, Fuller realized that human progress need not separate the “natural” from the “unnatural”: “When people say something is natural,” he explains in the first lecture (embedded above as a YouTube video above), ”‘natural’ is the way they found it when they checked into the picture.” — Open Culture
In his time as a passenger on what he called Spaceship Earth, Fuller realized that human progress need not separate the “natural” from the “unnatural”: “When people say something is natural,” he explains in the first lecture (embedded above as a YouTube video above), ”‘natural’ is the way they found it when they checked into the picture.” — Open Culture
Canadian company Dirtt provides reusable building components and 3D design software, but is still convincing architects it's more sustainable than other options - and worth the price — The Guardian
My friend Bill wrote this article in the Guardian about a Canadian company called DIRTT, which claims to be reducing construction-related waste with its 3D modeling software and "made-to-order building materials that snap into place". It's being used by companies such as Google and... View full entry
San Francisco is practically the reductio ad absurdum of gentrification: It’s already land limited on three sides by water, and the massive rise of the tech industry over the last few decades has dramatically increased both the population of the area and its wealth. [...]
But the blame shouldn’t go to the tech companies or their employees moving to San Francisco, however despicable some might be. Blame San Francisco for being pleasant, and its policymakers for being foolish
— Quartz
