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Tech NewsThis May Be the Most Surreal Building Ever Created
Why is this forest floating 1000 feet above Taiwan’s skyline, apparently sitting on a blue glow of anti-gravity beams? It’s the Taiwan Tower, a giant steel superstructure that may become the most surreal piece of engineering I’ve ever seen. The renderings give you an idea of how weird and wonderful this thing will be. It … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech News
Disaster Prevention Building Is a Disaster Itself
Turkey wants to build a Disaster Prevention and Education Center in Istanbul. This is the project proposal by ODA Architecture. It looks like the scene of a disaster itself which, you know, it’s exactly what the designers wanted. [T]his formal arrangement suffers the effect of a natural disaster—earthquake—and falls down until achieving its structural stability … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
io9Watch a fleet of flying robots assemble a 20-foot indoor tower
On December 2 in Orléans, France, a crew of four quadrocopters assembled a six-meter-tall tower using 1,500 foam blocks as part of the FRAC Centre’s “Flight Assembled Architecture” exhibit. The project was a collaboration was helmed by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, whose researchers had previously taught these flying machines to juggle … Continued
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io9In an alternate reality, this pyramid is the Lincoln Memorial
The ziggurat you’re looking at is John Russell Pope’s 1912 design for the Lincoln Memorial. This design and plans for other kooky alternate history monuments are currently on display at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. Check out parallel universe versions of the Capitol, the White House, and other never-was monuments, like the Washington … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Designer Sheds Make For Less Depressing Cubicles
Working in a shed doesn’t sound like an upgrade from a depressing cubicle. But the spired roof of this Tetra-Shed will make it feel like you work in a private alpine lodge, even without a fireplace or comfy bearskin rug. The angular and stealthy looking Tetra-Shed was created by David Ajasa-Adekunle, an architect who runs … Continued
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io9
10 Mega-Construction Projects That Could Save the Environment — and the Economy
We humans are builders. One of the ways we leave a mark on the universe is by creating massive structures that show that some opposable digits have been here. So when things get tough, like due to an economic meltdown or a cascading environmental crisis, what can we do but build? Here are 10 massive … Continued
Charlie Jane Anders and Gordon Jackson -
Tech News
Moscow Hopes To Boost Tourism With a Giant Spokeless Ferris Wheel
The London Eye has become a major tourist attraction for the city, so Moscow is hoping a similar structure will attract more visitors to the Russian capital. Except that theirs will be the world’s tallest, with a unique spokeless design. Standing over 722 feet tall, the tentatively named Moscow View ferris wheel will top the … Continued
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Tech News
This Twisted Bridge Isn’t a Failure At All
At first glance it looks like this bridge in the Netherlands was an engineering failure, not unlike the infamous Tacoma Narrows that collapsed. But this is how the architects designed and built it to look, and it works just fine. It’s a 138 foot pedestrian and bicycle bridge that connects the Holy-Zuid district with the … Continued
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Tech News
UK Man Builds Man-Sized Hobbit House for £3,000
Simon Dale was fed up. He’d had enough of what he calls “mass produced box design” homes so he did something about it—he moved his family to the Welsh countryside and hand-built a “Hobbit house” even Peter Jackson would envy. Dale is neither an architect nor a contractor. He obtained the plot of land free … Continued
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Tech NewsThe Polymorphic Bench at Gizmodo Gallery
With all the cool events going on at Gizmodo Gallery this year, we wanted to make sure your had a place to plop your butt down and rest your barking dogs. Enter the Polymorphic Bench. https://gizmodo.com/a-bench-thats-part-see-saw-part-slinky-5845291 The Polymorphic Bench is the creation of a group of architecture students at Columbia University, and they’ve been toiling … Continued
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io9
20 Ridiculously Nifty Zombie Safe House Designs
Remember last year’s Zombie Safe House Competition? For 2011, the contest’s popularity absolutely exploded, and competition holders Architects Southwest received dozens of zany anti-undead fortresses, ranging from silos to stilted houses to the Eiffel Tower to the Acropolis. https://gizmodo.com/a-fanciful-zombie-safe-house-on-the-mississippi-river-5686985 Not all of the designers are credited on the contest’s main page (where you can find … Continued
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Tech News
Hitler’s Secret Argentine Sanctuary Is for Sale, Say Conspiracy Theorists
This is the house were Hitler spent the last years of his life, a remote mansion similar to the infamous Berghof located in the Nahuel Huapi Lake, in Patagonia, Argentina, a remote mountainous paradise full of Nazi refugees. https://gizmodo.com/the-letter-a-soldier-wrote-to-his-son-on-hitlers-statio-5855339 That’s what the conspiracy theorist say, anyway. The mansion—called residencia Inalco—is now for sale after going … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech NewsDesign
Putting a 10,000 Square-Foot Forest in the Middle of an Old European City Is Easier than You Think
Milan has terrible air quality. Some of the worst in all of Italy. So architect and developer Stefano Boeli dreamed up away to combat that issue in a practical manner: He’s turning two residential towers into vertical forests. Dubbed Bosco Verticale, The Creators Project says the structures will provide a home to more than 900 … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Flooded Thais Seek Refuge in Prefab Concrete Infrastructure
Architizer is a blog dedicated to the past, present and future of architectural design. They scour the internet finding the best/coolest/weirdest structures people crawl around in. Today they look at the makeshift homes of Thailand flood victims. Last week, Japanese earthquake victims began settling into a neighborhood of new temporary housing complexes in Miyagi. The … Continued
Kelly Chan - Architizer.com -
io9
Sleep No More = LARP + Shakespeare + Absinthe + Orgy Masks
Since March, Punchdrunk theater company’s immersive Shakespeare adaptation Sleep No More has converted an entire Manhattan loft building into a 100-room abandoned hotel from the 1940s. During this almost three-hour performance, audience members must wander through six floors of bugfuck creepiness wearing Venetian masks and following dancers who wordlessly reenact scenes from Macbeth, which star … Continued
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io9A walking tour of Wonderland, China’s eerie abandoned Disneyland rip-off
We’ve seen how gorgeous the dilapidated Wonderland amusement park in China can be when spruced up with good photography, but what does it look like when you’re actually trekking out there? Turns out it’s overrun with cornfields, children scampering in the shadows, and stray dogs. The folks over at Stuck In Customs made a video … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Sunken Pedestrian Bridge Parts The Waters Without a Miracle
Designed for tourists visiting a fort in the Netherlands, instead of being a means for the ancient Israelites to escape the Egyptians, this Moses Bridge sits below the water line of a moat so it visually disappears. Recreating what the fort and surrounding area would have looked like back in the 17th century, Originally built … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Buckminster Fuller’s Largest Dome Is Now a National Historic Place
Buckminster Fuller only designed about a dozen of domed structures to begin with, and many have either been torn down in lieu of new construction or simply left to rot. But not the dome at Materials Park in Ohio, it just received a $7 million facelift and is now listed on the National Register of … Continued
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Tech News
This House Is Like Your Very Own Blade Runner’s LA
I like this house by Bernard Khoury Architects. Built on steep terrain in Kfardebian, Mount Lebanon, from this perspective it reminds me of the zigurat buildings in Blade Runner’s Los Angeles. That bikini android must be Sean Young. [ArchDaily]
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech News
French Built “Replica Paris” to Foil German Bombers in WWI
French newspaper Le Figaro has unearthed an incredible development from the first world war, revealing that French authorities built a life-size replica of Paris to the north of the city to trick German bombers. According to Le Figaro, this pretend Paris featured streets with electric lighting and dummy buildings, a recreation of the famous Gare … Continued