Our XD team revealed a few projects they're working on at Adobe MAX 2013. The team has been exploring how new form factor displays, new interactions (like touch and gesture), cloud connections and even new hardware might change how you all create and in turn how it might impact what software we need to build. — youtube.com

We’re already building the metropolis of the future—green, wired, even helpful. Now critics are starting to ask whether we’ll really want to live there. — bostonglobe.com

Using advanced aeronautical design software, Mark Burry and other architects have been able to reverse engineer Gaudi's models from leftover shards. Today, Burry is among a group of architects leading construction on the church's central tower, which, when completed, will stand 566 feet above the ground, making it the tallest church on Earth.

But the fact that they had to use 21st century software to realize a 19th century vision stands as testament to Gaudi's avant garde design language. — theverge.com

Frank Tjepkema of Dutch design studio Tjep. has designed an ecologically friendly getaway home to be self-sufficient in remote areas.

Called Isolée, the small house embraces and uses technology to be as energy efficient as possible. — DesignBuild Source

A new partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration brings an out-of-this-world opportunity for Cal Poly Pomona architecture students. Over the past months, students have been constructing a massive 30 foot structure in the parking lot of the Interim Design Center. [...]

The scenario given by NASA was to build a vertical habitat facility for four astronauts that can go into deep space for 60 days. — thepolypost.com

The idea behind the 3Doodler is that it takes the core functionality of a 3D printer, essentially an extruder and a heat source, and jams it into a pen-shaped handheld device. Loaded with either ABS or PLA plastic, common feedstock for traditional 3D printers, the 3Doodler "prints" plastic objects by letting you draw them in freehand in three-dimensional space. — reviews.cnet.com

Researchers at the Stanford School of Engineering have succeeded in developing the world’s first peel-and-stick thin-film solar cells.

The idea will allow the cells to be applied to almost any surface, with successful tests having been conducted on paper, plastic and window glass. This opens up significant opportunities for alternative applications for solar technology, previously limited by traditional solar cells, which must be mounted on stiff, often heavy, fixed panels. — DesignBuild Source

Brell-Cokcan and Braumann are co-founders of the Association for Robots in Architecture and organizers of the Rob|Arch 2012 conference, being held in Vienna on Dec. 17 and 18. Over this past weekend they ran a series of workshops in Vienna, Graz, Zürich, Rotterdam, and Stuttgart to expose architects and designers to the possibilities of utilizing this technology. — wired.com

“The form was reinvented to an extent,” says Yanni Loukissas, a postdoc in MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS). And while the question of exactly which design changes should be credited to Utzon or Arup’s firm has been a matter of some dispute, the building, Louskissas says, stands as “an example where the engineer was instrumental in reshaping the project.” — web.mit.edu

After a series of acclaimed installations around the world, Munro will be bringing his Fields of Light back to the project’s birthplace at Ayers Rock (Uluru) in the heart of the Australian red desert in 2013. The installation will be his largest to date, and it will be powered entirely by solar energy. — Inhabitat

Stoll’s images capture vast and mind-meltingly valuable landscapes that are hidden in plain sight, housed in unassuming warehouses and suburban data centers all over the world. — fastcodesign.com

Gehry Technologies serves architects, engineers, builders and others with their design software and services, including 3D modeling and building information management. IDG News Service quizzed Chief Technology Officer Dennis Shelden on his priorities, challenges and insights. — pcworld.com

David Galbraith has embarked on a fascinating journey, exploring the notion that the flow of people and their interactions inside buildings, is similar in design to the flow of data and user interaction of Web apps.

Could best practices in Web app design be applied to architectural design? — zdnet.com