This post is brought to you by UCLA Architecture and Urban Design: JumpStartFund-backed Hyperloop will conduct research with UCLA SUPRASTUDIO UCLA Architecture and Urban Design (A.UD) has announced it will partner with Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc., which is backed by JumpStartFund... View full entry
DataAppeal’s newest release allows our 3D data-maps to be imported into other 3D modeling and vector-based software programs including AutoCAD, Sketch Up and 3ds Max. — DataAppeal
A vast improvement from histograms and scatter plots, data analytics and visualization company DataAppeal now enables its users to export their data into other modeling softwares. DataAppeal's Nadia Amoroso (featured in Archinect's Working out of the Box back in April) told... View full entry
In the latest edition of the Working out of the Box series Archinect interviewed Steven Fleming an architectural-theorist of cycling... Slightly was inspired "For me, this type of work is more inspirational than the glossy renderings I see that is all too common in architecture work these days! Seriously, bike friendly movement needs to be in the forefront of cities around the world!"...
In the latest edition of the Working out of the Box series Archinect interviewed Steven Fleming an architectural-theorist of cycling. For those wondering what does that mean, he explains his latest project is an exhibition "inspired by General Motors' Futurama exhibition at the 1939 World's Fair... View full entry
At its core, Context encourages hyper-efficient iteration by allowing designers to see their work three-dimensionally as they’re in the creation process. The goal is to radically reduce the time and effort it takes to realize a fully-developed design, which in turn will let designers spend more time on brainstorming great ideas and less time on the mechanics of bringing them to life. — Wired
Context, an app for Mac from former Apple and IDEO designer Joshua Distler, allows anyone to apply their designs to a real-world setting in a simple, reactive way. The app works in sync with Adobe Illustrator to essentially map a design (for a book cover, bottle label, cake decoration, etc.) onto... View full entry
The mystery surrounding a large structure built on a barge docked in San Francisco bay is deepening. Is it a floating Google data center? A floating Google Glass store? Or something else altogether? — news.cnet.com
Meanwhile, (not-so-secret) construction boom at Google's fellow bay area competitors: Cupertino council clears huge Apple 'spaceship' campus for liftoff City Planners Approve Frank Gehry-Designed Facebook Campus in Menlo Park UPDATE: Google's barge explanation: Bilge? View full entry
"what is unprecedented here is the capacity...people are going to have to wait...there is going to be contractor backlog" - Sammy Chu — NPR
Charles Lane of WSHU in Long Island reports the rush to lift houses has regulators scurrying to catch up. View full entry
If you haven’t quite wrapped your head around the concept of 3-D printing, or haven’t yet had a digital scanner wrap itself around you, now you can do both in “Out of Hand: Materializing the Postdigital,” at the Museum of Arts and Design. [...]
And while visionary design shows like that of MoMA are entrancing, there’s something to be said for a more down-to-earth, production-focused exhibition.
— nytimes.com
Architecture is stuck between past and future -- years of anticipatory planning designs a structure that, once constructed, is stuck referring to all that came before. A building can't actually predict the future, although it seems like the best ones always run the risk of trying. Jonathan... View full entry
Non-profit organization CyArk and its partners are on an ambitious mission against time to digitally preserve 500 cultural heritage sites around the world before they are destroyed by natural disasters, human aggression, climate change, urban sprawl, and other threats. The "CyArk 500 Challenge"... View full entry
In the past few weeks, the Buckminster Fuller Institute has been introducing numerous finalist entries for the sixth annual Buckminster Fuller Challenge [...].
Today now, the BFI announced the overall challenge winner: Ecovative, a Green Island, NY-based materials science company that has developed a new class of home-compostable bio-plastics based on living organisms, mushroom mycelia — a high-performing, environmentally responsible alternative to traditional plastic materials.
— bustler.net
The 'mushroom material' inventors, Eben Bayer, Gavin McIntyre, and the Ecovative Team, will be awarded the $100,000 cash prize at a ceremony at Cooper Union in New York City on November 18, 2013. Previously: Announcing the 2013 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Finalists View full entry
Superpedestrian, a start-up in Boston, announced on Monday that it has received $2.1 million in financing to help build a wheel that transforms some standard bicycles into hybrid e-bikes.
The product, the Copenhagen Wheel, is a design from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology SENSEable City Laboratory. The original goal of the wheel was to entice more people to more bicycles in large cities in lieu of cars by giving them help from a motor.
— New York Times
Initially presented at the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change in 2009, SENSEeable City Lab's Copenhagen Wheel will soon be produced through Boston start-up Superpedestrian. Rather than buying a whole new bike or installing a cumbersome motor, the Copenhagen Wheel can be... View full entry
Michael Abrahamson currently a doctoral student in Architecture History and Theory at the University of Michigan provided a review of "Air Rights" – an exhibition by the Drone Research Lab (DRL) at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning...Responding either to the author or to projects found in the exhibition (perhaps both?), Darkman criticized "The BLDGBLOG type inquiry walks a fine line between futurism and self-indulgance"
For the latest edition of the In Focus series, dedicated to profiling the photographers who help make the work of architects look that much better, Archinect spoke with Stockholm-based English photographer Robin Hayes. Plus, Michael Abrahamson currently a doctoral student in... View full entry
We typically see photovoltaic panels up on roofs, as they're broad, open surfaces that receive a lot of sunlight. You know what else spends a lot of time in the scorching sun, though? Sidewalks. With that in mind, a team at Washington DC's The George Washington University has created what is claimed to be "the first walkable solar-paneled pathway in the world." — Gizmag
But can my car drive on it? Built by Studio39 Landscape Architecture, the solar-sidewalk is installed on GWU's Virginia Science and Technology Campus. View full entry
After winning first prize in a 2009 international competition, Henning Larsen Architects' Kolding Campus building for the University of Southern Denmark is full of sustainable features. One in particular is the recent construction of its facade, which is built with a solar shading system that maintains climate control throughout the day — and plus, the triangular shape of the solar shutters add a nifty-looking pattern for the structure. — bustler.net
Choosing the areas to monitor within a building can be “an art,” said Paul Gottsegen, the president of the Halstead Management Company. “You want information that is important to the security of the building"... — NYT
Joanne Kaufman digs into the growth of New York residences with surveillance cameras. Whether it be the newest luxury condominium looking to attract celebrity clients, a building beginning renovations (with subsequent rise in nonresidents coming into the building) or because of changes in the... View full entry
