Data centers, data centers, and more data centers (and sports facilities). Those are the industry's leading commercial projects, according to a CoStar.com analysis of the financial data included in the Architectural Record’s new accounting of the 300 top-performing firms globally. The agility of... View full entry
A team of researchers from Japan’s Tohoku University has developed a new mechanoluminescent construction material they say can be used in infrastructure to monitor daily use stress information in real-time in order to avert potential future catastrophes that may result from its aging stock of... View full entry
Engineers at Princeton University have developed a new cement composite, inspired by the material found within certain shells, that is 17 times more crack-resistant than standard cement and 19 times more able to stretch and deform without breaking. The research team was led by Reza Moini, an... View full entry
“There is a harm to having these 32-foot- tall futuristic towers, often with large video display terminals on them, in residential neighborhoods in historic districts” — The New York Times
The New York Times picks up on the growing “visual distraction” that the appearance of 5G towers has created, along with a debate about their existence vis-à-vis the historic street-level visual character of neighborhoods such as Greenwich Village. LinkNYC is planning to add up to 2,000 more... View full entry
Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill has announced a new partnership with the Swiss energy storage company Energy Vault Holdings that will produce a series of prototype designs for deployable structures and vertical energy storage units up to 1,000 meters (3,280 feet). Led by SOM Partners Adam... View full entry
This post is brought to you by TECH Perspectives New York The architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry is on the cusp of a technological revolution, driven by the advancements in artificial intelligence (AI). On June 20, 2024, Microsol Resources will host the TECH Perspectives... View full entry
Overall, across Europe and the US, stuff is still built in a pretty manual fashion - not very different to the way it would have been built 100 years ago [...] Construction is a bit of a digital laggard compared with many other industries. It's been slow to adopt digital in the widest sense — BBC
Consultant Sam O’Gorman and other experts speak to the BBC about the confounding gap between digital technology and the analog process for delivering residential architecture. Interesting projects mentioned are the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center’s attempts to... View full entry
Niall Patrick Walsh wrote the final (of 26 features) chapter of Archinect In-Depth: Artificial Intelligence. Therein “New contributions on the topic from Autodesk's Mike Haley and Superusers author Randy Deutsch are joined by earlier reflections from throughout the series by Richard Saul Wurman... View full entry
This month at New York's Guggenheim Museum, artist Jenny Holzer is having her landmark 1989 light projection restaged in the iconic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building’s rotunda. The installation celebrates her innovative text-based art alongside pieces from the early 70s to today that... View full entry
British multinational design and engineering company behind world-famous buildings such as the Sydney Opera House has confirmed that it was the target of a deepfake scam that led to one of its Hong Kong employees paying out $25 million to fraudsters.
A spokesperson for London-based Arup told CNN on Friday that it notified Hong Kong police in January about the fraud incident, and confirmed that fake voices and images were used.
— CNN
“Our financial stability and business operations were not affected and none of our internal systems were compromised,” an Arup spokesperson told CNN. The employee in question was apparently misled into believing they were in a video conference with senior finance staffers that were in reality... View full entry
Statistics revealed in the latest Deltek Clarity Architecture & Engineering Industry Study have indicated wide optimism about the use of AI technology, even as most firms struggle to determine where and how to apply emerging trends in the face of prevailing economic headwinds. According to... View full entry
Autodesk has just announced the development of a new experimental generative AI design tool called Project Bernini, the latest addition to its Autodesk AI inventory for industry professionals and design students in every field. Project Bernini can reportedly be used to generate complex and... View full entry
By making a series of cuts and folds in a sheet of paper, Baker found she could produce two planes connected by a complex set of thin strips. Without the need for any adhesive like glue or tape, this pattern created a surface that was thick but lightweight. Baker named her creation Spin-Valence. Structural tests later showed that an individual tile made this way, and rendered in steel, can bear more than a thousand times its own weight. — MIT Technology Review
MIT Technology Review highlights the digital fabrication work of Emily Baker, an architect and assistant professor at the University of Arkansas' Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. Baker began her research into lightweight and sturdy Spin-Valence structures as an architecture graduate... View full entry
Since 2021, 100 new curbside chargers have been added across all five boroughs. Jockeying for space alongside parking meters, LinkNYC kiosks, and bus shelters on public sidewalks, they are part of a pilot partnership between the Department of Transportation, Con Edison, and Flo, an EV charging system operator. In the outer-borough neighborhoods that lack the robust EV infrastructure of Manhattan’s Central Business District, these chargers are proving quite popular. — Urban Omnibus
In an interview with Urban Omnibus managing editor Kevin Ritter, New York City Department of Transportation officials Will Carry and Luis Gonzalez outlined the city's vision for creating a comprehensive electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The department has recently launched a curbside... View full entry
The new home for the recently established MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been completed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. What will be a research hub for AI and other disciplines in the computing... View full entry
