Universal Studios Japan plans to open its $580 million Nintendo attraction on Feb. 4, finally debuting a long-delayed effort to introduce Mario and other beloved characters to real-world theme park visitors.
Super Nintendo World, built on the existing Universal Studios Japan site, is envisioned as a life-sized replica of Nintendo Co.’s most popular games with rides, shops and walk-through activities.
— Bloomberg
Bloomberg reports that a Mario Kart ride inside a recreation of Bowser's Castle would be one of Super Nintendo World's first attractions. Image courtesy of Nintendo. The ambitious half-billion dollar theme park was originally scheduled to open last summer, but the global coronavirus outbreak... View full entry
Commercial interiors product manufacturers are struggling to understand the best way to reach their customers with the product information they need to make recommendations and execute on solutions that support the health, safety and welfare of employees returning to the office. Design practices... View full entry
Los Angeles announced last week it will pilot Google's new Tree Canopy Lab technology that combines AI and aerial images to assess the city's tree canopy, or tree cover density. The platform shows the tree canopy at the neighborhood level to identify gaps and determine where the city should make investments. — Smart Cities Dive
According to Smart Cities Dive, "Tree Canopy Lab is integrated into Google's existing Environmental Insights Explorer, which helps cities measure and track environmental data such as air quality and emissions from the building and transportation sectors. The data analyses allow cities to... View full entry
In its 9th iteration, the annual CTBUH International Student Tall Building Design Competition highlights the best student work that explores the future of sustainable vertical urbanism. The competition aims to invite students to submit their best project ideas as they explore a "new light on... View full entry
It has been a long time coming but a decision on whether east London will get a slice of Las Vegas in the form of a state-of-the art entertainment venue almost as tall as St Paul’s may be nigh. [...]
But the project, the brainchild of MSG’s chief executive, James Dolan [...] is proving divisive.
— The Guardian
The Guardian reports that the public consultation period for the enormous Madison Square Garden Sphere entertainment venue — officially filed for planning application in March 2019 — had to be extended for a third time until the beginning of December due to locals' concern over... View full entry
Mayor Eric Garcetti announced last week the city’s first Transportation Technology Innovation Zone, an area where innovators can test their transportation technology solutions. Located in the West San Fernando Valley, the zone is the result of a partnership between Mayor Garcetti and City... View full entry
Shohei Shigematsu of OMA announces the firm's upcoming project, the ReefLine, in collaboration with cultural placemaker Ximena Caminos. Leading the project's masterplan and structural design will be Shigematsu and his team, while Caminos will lead as its artistic director. Known for its... View full entry
Autodesk, Inc. today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Spacemaker for $240 million net of cash...
The acquisition of Spacemaker provides Autodesk with a powerful platform to drive modern, user-centric automation – powered by AI – and accelerate outcome-based design capabilities for architects.
— Autodesk
According to Autodesk, the Oslo, Norway-based Spacemaker "uses cloud-based, artificial intelligence (AI), and generative design to help architects, urban designers, and real estate developers make more informed early-stage design decisions faster and enables improved opportunities for... View full entry
Executives who sold combustible insulation for use on Grenfell Tower perpetrated a “fraud on the market” by rigging a fire test and making “misleading” claims about it, a public inquiry has heard.
Celotex, a subsidiary of the French construction materials company Saint-Gobain, behaved in a “completely unethical” way, admitted Jonathan Roper, a former assistant product manager.
— The Guardian
Digital twin provider Willow has announced a partnership with Hollywood Park to create a digital twin of a 300-acre sports and entertainment development, including SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. — Construction Dive
According to Construction Dive, Willow will create a virtual copy of the stadium by capturing data in and around the area that will be "used to provide analytics and insight into the experience of attending a game there. This data will help SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park facilities... View full entry
In a new paper published in Nature Materials, the researchers showed that the diagonally-reinforced square lattice-like skeletal structure of Euplectella aspergillum, a deep-water marine sponge, has a higher strength-to-weight ratio than the traditional lattice designs that have used for centuries in the construction of buildings and bridges. — Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS)
Matheus Fernandes, a graduate student at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences said in a statement: "We found that the sponge's diagonal reinforcement strategy achieves the highest buckling resistance for a given amount of material, which means that we can build... View full entry
If you're an Apple user, you've probably been prompted to update your operating system to version 11 the latest OS release, dubbed "Big Sur." As a mostly Apple-based team here at Archinect HQ, we were pleasantly surprised to see Archinect highlighted on the welcome screen after the update. As the... View full entry
The seventh iteration of the Modernism in America Awards program Docomomo US recognizes 18 projects that "highlight the best in preservation practice by today's architects, designers, preservation professionals, and grassroots advocates." For this year's awards program, winning projects were... View full entry
Foster + Partners has been exploring the use of Spot®, the robot 'dog' that can meander through construction sites to capture and monitor project progress. The architecture firm's involvement comes as part of Boston Dynamics' Early Adopter Program. Foster + Partners' Applied Research +... View full entry
Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) researcher Junyong Zhu in co-collaboration with colleagues from the University of Maryland and University of Colorado, have developed a transparent wood material that may be the window of tomorrow. Researchers found that transparent wood has the potential to outperform glass currently used in construction. — USDA Forest Service
The abstract of the researchers' paper A Clear, Strong, and Thermally Insulated Transparent Wood for Energy Efficient Windows points out that besides its energy-efficient qualities, transparent wood is a "sustainable material, with low carbon emissions and scaling capabilities due to its... View full entry
