Researchers from the American Chemical Society have developed solar panels that can take on a range of colors without sacrificing their efficiency, improving their attractiveness and, thus, their marketability. As the popularity of solar panels has grown, their application isn’t... View full entry
This post is brought to you by Microsol Resources With the passing of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), expectations about the infrastructure sector in the U.S. have heightened. That legislation will be both a boon to the sector, but it also has the potential to exacerbate the... View full entry
Researchers from Flinders University’s Chalker Research Lab have developed a more sustainable alternative to making bricks by using waste products. The team used low-cost feedstocks to make lightweight but durable polymer building blocks, which can be bonded together with an... View full entry
Researchers at MIT have developed a type of 3D printed material that can sense how it is moving and interacting with its surrounding environment. The 3D printed lattice materials contain networks of air-filled channels, allowing engineers to detect when bending, squeezing, or stretching of the... View full entry
A team of Washington State University (WSU) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers has discovered a method to create stronger cement by putting nanoparticles from shrimp shells into cement paste. The innovation could lead to reduced seafood waste and lower carbon emissions from... View full entry
Fresh off the firm’s debut public housing effort in Beijing, MAD Architects has unveiled project renders for a commercial complex at the edge of Milan’s Innovation District called MoLo (short for Mobility and Logistics Hub). According to the firm, the new hub will serve as a “monumental... View full entry
In our 2021 feature titled Meet the Architects Designing Software to Fight Climate Change, we explored the intersection between architecture and web development by speaking to four firms who have internally developed software to support their design process. Among the firms we spoke to was... View full entry
The cadre of high-design firms creating on-demand virtual architecture in the metaverse has grown recently with the announcement of PLP’s upcoming 5,000-piece NFT skyscraper collection, which they debuted earlier last month with help from VerseProp, a virtual property platform... View full entry
A clearer picture of Saudi Arabia’s mind-blowing NEOM megaproject is coming together after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s office unveiled plans for an elevated 170-kilometer (105 miles) long linear city called The Line that he says will eventually house more than 9 million people... View full entry
Foster + Partners’ design for the Brompton Road Apple store in London is ready for its debut tomorrow, showcasing the company’s renewed focus on AR and other consumer technologies in what is the latest in a long string of retail commissions between the British architect and the ... View full entry
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has unveiled its design for Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s new 75,000-square-meter (807,209-square-foot) campus expansion in Shanghai. The building is designed to recall a cloud in reference to the computing technology that has propelled its 23-year ascension... View full entry
After conquering the X Games and video games, Tony Hawk has set his sights on his next frontier: the metaverse. The legendary skateboarder this week announced plans to partner up with The Sandbox — an online game built on the ethereum blockchain where players can spend cryptocurrency to buy virtual land — to build the “largest virtual skatepark ever made,” the company said in a Wednesday press release. — CNBC
Called Tony Hawk LAND, the virtual space is being developed through a partnership between Tony Hawk Inc. and The Sandbox. NFT production company Autograph will design purchasable avatars based on Hawk, along with his most iconic skateboards, equipment, and apparel, including a digital replica of... View full entry
While most of these buildings are constructed out of more traditional materials like cement, brick, drywall, and plywood, forward-thinking architects and members of the construction industry have increasingly been turning to natural materials as an alternative for the future. Due to its ability to sequester carbon, hemp has landed itself at the forefront of the conversation about natural building. — Topic A
Hemp’s high tensile strength, pliability, and strength-to-weight ratio are increasingly valuable in the manufacture and design of products like fiberboard and even a new concrete alternative. The recent COP26 conference in Glasgow featured the speculative 'Urban Sequoia' design from SOM... View full entry
A quartet of undergraduate engineering students at the American University in Cairo has developed self-luminescent concrete they say is a possible offset to the material’s poor environmental performance. Working under the stewardship of Professor Mohamed Nagib AbouZeid, the students were able to... View full entry
Seven decades after it was razed to do away with what the federal government deemed “urban blight,” the University of Southern California’s Ahmanson Lab, working with the Bunker Hill Refrain Collaboratory, has created an interactive 3D reconstruction of Downtown Los Angeles’ Bunker Hill... View full entry
