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Tech News
This Playground Is Designed To Challenge Kids As They Grow
Visitors to Volkswagen’s Autostadt, the museum adjacent to its Wolfsburg factory in Germany, will now find themselves confronted with these grey, blobby forms in the lobby. Is it a sculpture? An ode to Fahrvergnügen? Nope, it’s a playground. For kids. German architect J. Mayer H. has created this “interactive playscape” in collaboration with Renate Zimmer, … Continued
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Tech News
The Unlikely Fate of NYC’s Last Floating Church
A sailor’s life in the early 1800s wasn’t easy. If you weren’t getting blown to smithereens or developing scurvy, you were probably drinking grog to dull the boredom of life at sea. Coming into New York harbor to find a wooden church floating in the East River probably felt like actual salvation—or at least a … Continued
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Tech News
This $100+ Million Penthouse Will Be NYC’s Priciest Apartment Ever
$100 million apartments aren’t the norm in NYC, but with “vertical mansions” bubbling up all over, it’s only a matter of time. This triplex, which the Wall Street Journal describes as “the city’s most expensive apartment,” is the latest contender. The three-level penthouse will sit at the crown of a luxury tower on Park Avenue … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
You Can Spend the Night in This Television Antenna Above Prague
In the 1980s, a Communist-era television tower was erected in Prague, ruining its picturesque skyline. Now you can stay at a hotel with a view that’s guaranteed not to include the tower, because it’s located inside the tower itself, perched 230 feet over the city. The imaginatively named One Room Hotel is located inside what … Continued
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Tech News
9 Paper Buildings By the Winner of Architecture’s Top Prize
Last night, Shigeru Ban became the 37th winner of the “Nobel for architecture,” also known as the Pritzker Prize. Ban is the most exciting winner in recent memory—here’s why. https://gizmodo.com/shigeru-ban-wins-the-pritzker-prize-architectures-hig-1550596664 The 56-year-old architect is far from a star. Rather, he seems like a fairly normal guy, apart from his unique ideas about architecture. Michael Kimmelman … Continued
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Tech News
Watch Two Crazy People BASE Jump From One World Trade Center
Brace yourselves. This newly-uploaded video shows two people walking to the edge of the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere—One World Trade—and jumping off. And here we were, thinking that a 16-year-old was all that for sneaking past a guard or two. https://gizmodo.com/teen-climbs-to-the-top-of-1-wtc-after-sneaking-past-sle-1547968068 Though the jump took place on September 30, 2013, it was just … Continued
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Tech News
Climb into a sinkhole of bureaucracy in Pennsylvania (no, really, it’s a cave), explore San Francisco’s most storied structure (not the Golden Gate bridge), and jet off to to Myanmar (or is it Burma?). Plus, SCARY CLOWNS! In this week’s Urban Reads. “The employees here pass thousands of case files from cavern to cavern and … Continued
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Tech News
Undulating through the air, the winning design for China’s pavilion at Expo Milan 2015 resembles a field of wind-swept wheat. The wave-like roof of bamboo panels is both a play on the expo’s theme, “Feeding the Planet – Energy for Life,” and a reimagining of China’s traditional shingled roofs. [Studio Link-Arc viaMy Modern Met]
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsDesign
Shigeru Ban Wins the Pritzker Prize, Architecture’s Highest Honor
The Pritzker Prize is a little bit like the Oscars of architecture: It usually ends up being a chance for everyone to air their complaints about the industry. But every so often, there’s a real cause for celebration—such is the case today, when the jury announced that Japanese architect Shigeru Ban would become 2014’s recipient. … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Tiny New Building Inspired By The Textures Of Flowers
The architects at London-based Buchanan Partnership have just built this tiny little flower stall for a shop in Ladbroke Grove, its CNC-milled exterior inspired by the rippling textures of electron scanning microscope images of plants. As architect Kyle Buchanan explains, such photos “reveal tiny three-dimensional ridge patterns across the petal surface. These ridges intensify the … Continued
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SciencePhysics & Chemistry
Why Roller Coaster Loops Are Never Circular
Many extreme roller coaster these days have vertical loops. Have you noticed that these loops are never circular? Why is this? They all, also, seem to have the same similar ‘inverted teardrop’ appearance. Why is this? Clearly there is the same physics and mathematics involved in their designs. Let’s take a look and see if … Continued
Nick Berry - Data Genetics -
Tech News
13 Stunning Shopping Malls From the Dawn of Consumerism
Nowadays, shopping malls are seldom considered masterpieces. But that was completely different at the turn of the 19th century—a time when the department store was a pinnacle of high style and technology. The following images will show you the dawn of consumer society, when malls were more like palaces and temples than mere stores. The … Continued
By Attila Nagy -
Tech News
The House of Tomorrow (1933)
Illustrated postcard of the House of Tomorrow, designed by architect George Fred Keck in conjunction with the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. You knew it was the house of tomorrow because it had ten sides. Anything less is downright unfuturistic. [Historical Images of Porter County]
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsDesign
This Super Energy-Efficient House Is Made of Plastic
Tearing down old things to make room for new things is an American tradition. It makes sense in some ways. After all, better building materials mean better buildings, right? Not if you like beautiful old buildings. There is, however, a compromise. Case in point: This futuristic-looking house in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Despite the space age exterior, … Continued
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Tech News
Why the White House Is Spending Millions to Promote Wood Skyscrapers
The Department of Agriculture doesn’t usually meddle in architecture, but this week at an event at the White House, it announced an unusual project: A $1 million competition for high-rise buildings built out of wood—and another million that will go to educating architects about it. You might remember that President Obama signed a new $956 … Continued
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Tech NewsApple
Just Tap Your Phone On Every Wall and This App Will Draw a Floorplan
It’s not a bad idea to measure a room before you go out and buy a bunch of new furniture. And if you’ve got an iPhone, that becomes less of an ordeal because you can trade your tape measure for this slick app called RoomScan. It automatically generates floorplans by simply tapping your phone on … Continued
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Tech News
14 Radical Skyscrapers That Are More Than Just Buildings
These days, we think of tall buildings as profitable, if predictable, tools of real estate. But at one time, skyscrapers were as technologically exciting as the Space Race. The eVolo Skyscraper Competition, now in its ninth year, aims to recapture some of that excitement. The annual competition asks designers to imagine new ways in which … Continued
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Tech News
Continuing our inadvertent Snøhetta theme today, the Norwegian architecture firm has also proposed this fuselage-like metro station for downtown Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The outer skin of the building—a long tube enclosing a station on the city’s Metro-C line—would be surfaced with ceramic tiles “developed in cooperation with local artists.” This joins other large-scale rail projects … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
A Gigantic Walking City That Farms the Desert As It Moves
Living in the desert is no piece of cake. So to imagine a glittering city in the desert is to imagine something awesome and fantastical—and maybe a touch of crazy. Like architect Stephane Malka’s, “The Green Machine,” a mobile city on caterpillar treads that farms the desert as it walks. A Walking City is not … Continued
By Sarah Zhang