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A team comprising iart, AMDL CIRCLE, and Michele De Lucchi has created a ‘zero-energy media façade’ for the Novartis Pavilion in Basel, Switzerland. Combining PV panels and LEDs, the façade is described by the team as “illustrating the potential of organic photovoltaics in architecture.”... View full entry
UEFA has rejected a call from activists to convert the Allianz Arena in Munich into a rainbow-covered light scheme in unison with protests ahead of Germany’s final European Championship group game with Hungary that it is slated to host on Wednesday. The city council’s proposal was rejected by... View full entry
Enter the Illuminator, a New York-based art activist collective, whose shifting membership has mastered the legal grey zone that regulates projection in public.
[...] the Illuminator takes the normally stationary technology out of the classroom and onto the streets, affixing a high-powered, 12,000-lumens projector atop a van — or, when special nimbleness is required, a trolley — to ignite urban façades with political statements that are as bold as they are temporary.
— Urban Omnibus
Image: The Illuminator Collective.For this recent Urban Omnibus feature, digital media scholar Eli Horwatt interviews art-activist collective The Illuminator. Since capturing the public attention with their Occupy-inspired 99% Bat Signal projection in 2011, the collective has been, quite... View full entry
It might sound like a plot cooked up by a cartoon villain, but a city in southwestern China is aiming to launch into space an artificial moon that could replace streetlights by bathing the ground in a “dusk-like glow.”
[...] the satellite’s mirror-like exterior would reflect sunlight down to Earth, creating a glow about eight times brighter than the moon. The artificial moon, which he said would orbit about 500 kilometers above Earth, could save $174 million in electricity from streetlights.
— NBC News
The capital of China's Sichuan province, Chengdu, could have its own illumination satellite 'moon' up in the skies by 2020, according to the People's Daily. Light pollution, and its documented health effects on humans and nocturnal wildlife, doesn't seem to be much of a concern to the officials... View full entry
Choi + Shine Architects, who envisioned the beautiful Land of Giants in 2010, developed a new lighting system called the BIT Light™. BIT's name is primarily derived from the Korean word for light (빛) which is somewhat pronounced like "bit" in English. It also stands for Bulb with Integrated... View full entry
Chicago would be turned into a Midwest version of Paris — La Ville Lumiere, the City of Light — under a mayoral plan showcased Wednesday to boost tourism by spotlighting the city’s architectural wonders. [...]
It will start with an “international design competition” that invites teams of artists, architects, engineers and designers to envision ways to light up Chicago’s “buildings, parks, roads and open spaces.”
— suntimes.com
The project IlluminAction by UrbanoActivo, an open design collective from Puerto Rico, has been selected to represent the island in the 13th International Venice Architecture Biennale in Italy this fall (August 29 – November 25). The selection was narrowed from 450 project submissions nationwide and will be presented as part of the Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good exhibition by The Institute for Urban Design. — bustler.net
This exhibit will be part of an archive of actionable strategies around U.S. cities to improve the public urban realm. Click here to see more Archinect News posts related to the 13th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. View full entry