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Tech NewsDesign
Designers Will Knit a Neon Rope Canopy Over MoMA’s Concrete Courtyard This Summer
Each summer the Museum of Modern Art’s Queens outpost, PS1, chooses an up-and-coming designer to create a temporary installation in its courtyard. These have ranged from a fortress of used skateboards to towers of bricks grown from fungus. This year, it’s a colorful crocheted net. Mexico City-based Escobedo Solíz Studio have been selected as the … Continued
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Tech News
China’s Enormous Derelict Shopping Mall Does Not Bode Well For Humanity’s Future
China is known for building ambitious infrastructure projects, and finding humans to populate them after the fact. Sometimes, it doesn’t go according to plan. This is one of those times. Meet the Pentagonal Mart, a gargantuan, $200 million shopping complex inspired by the US Pentagon, which has the dubious honor of being the largest vacant … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
This Plan to Turn Stockholm Into a City Full of Sky Ways Looks Incredible
We know that cities will need to get taller and denser in the next few decades. Yet it’s not easy to convince residents to build skyscrapers. This Swedish proposal for Stockholm’s downtown incorporates light, greenery, and public space into its tall buildings. It makes density look beautiful. The plan named Klarastaden, “clear city” in Swedish, … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Architecture’s Top Prize Went to an Incredible Chilean Architect You Probably Haven’t Heard Of
The Pritzker Prize was announced this morning, an award many consider the highest honor for design. This year’s prize went to Alejandro Aravena, a Chilean architect you may not know—but definitely should. The Santiago-based architect is young as far as Pritzker laureates go (48), and he might not have a famous fire-igniting skyscraper to his … Continued
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Tech News
When Will Dubai Fix Its Burning Skyscraper Problem?
Watching a 63-story Dubai hotel explode into flames on New Year’s Eve and smolder well into New Year’s Day, you might’ve been wondering the same thing I was: Why do so many of Dubai’s skyscrapers catch fire? And how terrifying is it that this city can’t seem to stop this from happening? A horrific time-lapse … Continued
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Tech News
The Future of Architecture Is Already Happening in Portland
Framework sounds like a futuristic, Frakenstein-like treehouse. But as one of two winners of a contest for high-rise buildings built out of wood, it’s a actually a glimpse into the future of urban architecture. The 12-story design will be one of the tallest wooden buildings in the United States once it’s completed—and many hope it … Continued
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Tech News
Can These Micro-Units Fix New York City’s Housing Problems?
Micro-unit developments—new apartments that are 400 square feet or smaller—are sprouting up all over the country as cities try to cram more housing into their neighborhoods. New York City’s first micro-unit development opened this month and it’s controversial—even in a city where people already pay top dollar to live in tiny apartments. We recently took … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Zaha Hadid’s New Skyscraper Looks Like a Big Huge Earplug
You might’ve seen Zaha Hadid’s name in the news recently. After Japan’s Sports Council announced a design to her replace her widely loathed and alien-like Olympic stadium in Tokyo. But the real update comes in the form of a new skyscraper in Melbourne. It looks a little bit like… an earplug? In partnership with Plus … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
This Will Be Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic Stadium
Japan’s Sport Council has had a turbulent few years deciding on a design for its Olympics stadium, but it’s finally chosen one. This sympathetic structure will be the focal point of the 2020 Summer Olympics. Just last week, the country’s Sport Council released two new proposals for the stadium, which were designed to be smaller … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
A Totally Feasible Plan to Turn Manhattan’s Busiest Street Into a 40-Block Park
New York City has plenty of parks that revamp aging transit infrastructure: The High Line transforms a decrepit elevated rail route, the Lowline reclaims forgotten tunnels. But neither of those is as ambitious as the Green Line, a concept that would turn a major street into a linear park. The Green Line is an idea … Continued
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Tech News
Japan’s Olympic Stadium Debacle May Change the Way Cities Build Sports Venues
After years of controversy, Japan’s Sport Council has chosen a new design for an Olympic stadium in Tokyo. It will be be smaller, more sensitive to its surroundings, and (relatively) inexpensive—and it could be a model for other host cities. It’s been more than two years since Japan’s architects first revolted against the New National … Continued
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Tech News
The Ancient Material That’s Being Used To Develop Earthquake-Proof Skyscrapers? Wood.
Some of the fastest-growing cities in the world sit in high-risk earthquake zones. That’s why researchers are trying to figure out how to build tall buildings using a material that’s not only plentiful and renewable, but even more resistant to earthquakes than conventional building materials. What 7th Century Japanese Builders Knew The perfect example of … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
This NYC Skyscraper Design Is Like the Chrysler Building Went to Burning Man and I Love It
The crop of new skyscrapers going up on 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan are very tall, whisper thin, and—yawn—rather boring. This idea for a supertall on the same street is a throbbing EDM antidote to the architectural elevator music that’s taking over New York City. The proposal that takes design audacity to new heights is … Continued
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Tech News
What the Computer Chip of the Future Shares With Skyscrapers of 100 Years Ago
Tall buildings were the vanguards of the modern world. They completely changed how cities functioned, bringing forth totally new social and urban systems. The reasons they changed cities are surprisingly similar to the reasons they may change the way computer memory is built. Imagine a skyscraper. Each floor might contain a different company or program–one … Continued
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io9Movies
The Fascinating History of the NYC Fire Station That Starred in Ghostbusters
Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters! But where ya gonna call them? At their iconic firehouse headquarters, of course. In the film, the spook chasers’ firehouse is as much of an iconic piece of the action as the Ecto-1 car or their homemade proton packs. It appears in Ghostbusters video games and even has its own … Continued
Eric Grundhauser - Atlas Obscura -
Tech News
Natural Ice Rinks Would Turn London’s Thames Into a Winter Wonderland
As we head towards the holidays, inner-city ice rinks spring up for young and old alike to fall over on. But this concept by architecture firm NBJJ envisions fold-away natural rinks that could turn London’s River Thames itself into a temporary place to skate. The concept, called Frost Flowers, uses foldaway structures that could be … Continued
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Tech News
LA’s Revamped Automotive Museum Is The Ideal Place for Cars to Go to Die
Perhaps in your daily internet wanderings you’ve stumbled across photos of this building and wondered, what the hell is that thing? Well, it’s a museum for cars, and I assure you: It’s perfect. The overhauled Petersen Automotive Museum, which opened yesterday in Los Angeles, has become LA’s most contentious piece of urban design. It’s already … Continued
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Tech News
East Literally Meets West in This Hybrid Building
Have you ever tried to imagine what a building built from one half US Capitol, and one half Beijing’s Temple of Heaven would look like? Somebody in China has, and you can see the result in the image above. This is not a Photoshopped image. The three-to-four-story building is a real duplitecture gem, currently under … Continued
By Attila Nagy -
Tech NewsDesign
City of London’s Tallest Building Will Be a Simple Work of Engineering
The architect Eric Parry has unveiled his plans for what will be the tallest building in the City of London. Measuring 309.6 meters in height, the building is a surprisingly simple structure, which wears its engineering design on its sleeve. The building will be about the same height as The Shard, just across the Thames—which … Continued
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Tech News
The Building Industry Could Cut Our Global Emissions By One Third–So Why Hasn’t It?
The building and construction industry is a massive source of global CO2 emissions—but it could easily reduce its impact with existing technology. At today’s climate talks in Paris, 18 countries and 60 organizations formed a new alliance aimed at doing just that. Just how widely does the construction and building industry affect emissions? The numbers … Continued