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Tech News
An Ultra-Modern Airport In Shenzhen Makes Flying Feel Futuristic
All airports are absolutely, positively not created equal. Case in point: the brand new Terminal 3 at Shenzhen’s Bao’an International hub, which will be inaugurated next month after five years in the making. This place is a certifiable beaut that befits the awesome act of flying that we take for granted all the dang time. … Continued
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Tech NewsSploid
Earth’s first city of the future is coming in 2017 and it looks awesome
In 2017, the capital of Kazakhstan will look like the set of an utopian sci-fi movie, which seems appropriate considering this is the place from where the Soviet Union conquered space. A titanic new capital will rise by the old city, powered by sun and wind. Move over Dubai. Your cliché New York-wannabe skyline is … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech NewsDesign
What Does a City of the “Third Industrial Revolution” Look Like?
This, apparently. After several months of debate, officials in Kazakhstan’s capital city of Astana have chosen a final design for the massive site that will host the World EXPO 2017. The sprawling, wind- and sun-powered neighborhood was designed by Chicago architects Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the designers of Kingdom Tower—the forthcoming world’s tallest … Continued
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Tech News
14 Awesome Dollhouses Built By Today’s Top Architects
Architecture-with-a-capital-A isn’t always regarded as one of the more playful creative fields, but give the pros a good cause and they just might surprise you. London-based developers Cathedral Group enlisted the star-studded talents of 20 top UK architects and firms to make a custom dollhouse for an upcoming auction benefiting Kids, a charity dedicated to … Continued
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io9
The World’s Strangest and Most Magnificent Gardens
Landscape architects can be just as weird as building architects when it comes to their creations. Which is why these gardens are the living, growing embodiments of some pretty twisted imaginations. Lowarth Helygen (The Lost Gardens of Heligan), near Mevagissey in Cornwall, UK, with two mud sculptures, a small “jungle”, the last remaining pineapple pit … Continued
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Tech News
The Original Penn Station Was Demolished 50 Years Ago Today
Penn Station now? Gross, ew, there’s a Sbarro, and everything is ugly. But the original Penn Station was a marvelous piece of Beaux Arts design. Its story is also one of the most tragic tales in architecture—50 years ago today, it was torn down to make way for Madison Square Garden. The original Pennsylvania station—named … Continued
By Leslie Horn -
io9
Pod-shaped treehouses for living like one of Tolkien’s elves
If you’ve dreamed of living like the elves of Lothlórien, in houses high among the trees, with outdoor decks that really let you enjoy the view, you’ll want to take a peek at Anthony Gibbon’s Roost Treehouse designs. The idea behind Roost Treehouse is to use shapes found in nature to create a treehouse dwelling … Continued
By Lauren Davis -
Tech NewsDesign
Most Beautiful Items: October 19 – 26, 2013
A new week brings new questions. Like, how would one recreate the iOS 7 homescreen in Microsoft Word? Or should spires count toward a building’s total height? If you’ve found yourself pondering these things, you can find your answers within the most beautiful items of the week. This Lexus Paints Your Portrait Based On How … Continued
By Leslie Horn -
Tech NewsDesign
Tokyo Is Rethinking Its Gargantuan Olympic Stadium
A coalition of Japanese architects have said what everyone else was too polite to say: That Zaha Hadid-designed stadium is just too big, too expensive, and too impractical. Japanese officials have announced plans to scale back the design, which would cost $3.1 billion to build according to a recent budget update. For reference, that’s more … Continued
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Tech News
NYC’s Gas Stations and Warehouses Are Being Replaced By “Palaces”
An anything-goes approach to development is a time-honored tradition in New York (see: this plan to fill in the East River). But developers may be reaching a breaking point in Manhattan, where warehouses are being bought to build $100 million single-family homes. https://gizmodo.com/6-radical-infrastructure-schemes-that-almost-changed-ny-636053287 A handful of real estate stories this week question whether NYC is … Continued
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Tech News
12 Postcards From When NYC Was the Skyscraper Capital of the World
New York City was a different place in the 1940s. It was a time before video billboards and LED lights, and skyscrapers were still a source of city-wide awe and pride. Everyone who lived in this glamorous city (and everyone who visited) wanted to show those architectural marvels off—and postcards were a perfect medium. https://gizmodo.com/nyc-is-replacing-its-250-000-street-lights-with-leds-1451637125 … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
The Birthplace of the Cellphone Is Being Turned Into a Mall
Think Apple’s forthcoming Cupertino headquarters is the first corporate space ship to touch down in America? Not so: In 1962 the legendary R&D hub, Bell Labs, opened a glittering, 500-acre headquarters in semi-rural New Jersey. Today, it’s the focus of an ambitious reuse scheme that could turn it into a commercial hub, complete with a … Continued
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Tech NewsAmazon
Amazon’s Gigantic Biodomes Have Been Endorsed By Seattle
Amazon has somehow gained initial approval to build a huge series of greenhouses slap-bang in the middle of Seattle so it’s employees need never leave work. https://gizmodo.com/amazon-is-planning-a-massive-biodome-hq-so-no-one-ever-509289653 The 65,000 square-foot, 95-feet tall, five-floor biodome structure—set to contain offices, dining areas, and retail stores—will be nestled within the company’s giant new campus, which will also include … Continued
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Tech News
10 Secrets About L.A.’s Disney Hall on Its 10th Anniversary
Happy birthday, you old crumpled wave of steel, you! L.A.’s signature building opened to the public 10 years ago today, giving the city’s downtown a much-needed civic boost and cementing architect Frank Gehry’s status as a metal god. I wrote a story for this month’s Los Angeles Magazine about the building’s anniversary, and, in the … Continued
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Tech News
Should a Skyscraper’s Spire Count Towards Its Total Height?
It’s a hotly contested issue amongst architects and designers. Does a building’s height stop at the highest usable floor, or should the spire above it count, too? What’s the difference between a spire and an antenna? Does it really matter? Well, it does to the developer of the 1,776-foot-tall Freedom Tower. Next month, the nonprofit … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Inside the NYC Super-Factory Building America’s Tallest Prefab Tower
In a corner of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, on a factory floor that resembles an oversized assembly line, workers are building entire apartments in days. Most New Yorkers might not realize it, but the tallest prefab building in the country—and maybe the world—is currently taking shape not far from where they live. Gizmodo recently got … Continued
Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan and Nick Stango -
io9
Behold the incredible, gorgeous future of energy production
You’re looking at an astonishingly huge and gorgeous solar energy plant that’s being built by Brightsource Energy, an American firm, in the Negev desert. It looks like something out of Star Trek, but it’s actually from Earth’s near future. According to Inhabitat: The Ashalim power plant will be located in the Negev desert near Kibbutz … Continued
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Tech News
A Photographic Tour of Russia’s Disappearing Soviet-Era Cinemas
The phenomenon of the multiplex cinema goes back decades in America, but in Russia, the verdict is still out. Some residents aren’t happy about watching the grand—though often decaying—movie theaters of their youth traded for bland 32-screen mega theaters. Moscow-based photographer Sergey Novikov is among them. Novikov is a professional photographer who spent years documenting … Continued
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io9
A tree grows inside this cylindrical transparent house
The inhabitants of this architectural concept by Masov Aibek might have to sacrifice a great deal of privacy in this towering windowed house, but they’d get to commune with both the nature outside and the tree growing through the middle of their home. Although the four-story transparent tree house is only a concept right now, … Continued
By Lauren Davis -
Tech NewsDesign
Most Beautiful Items: October 12 – 18, 2013
How can a thousand photos turn into a single timelapse? And what’s it like inside an artificial cave 200 feet below Manhattan? The answer to both of these questions and more lie in the most beautiful items of the week. Watch an Artist Turn Thousands of Photos Into a Single Imaginary Moment Boston-based artist Pelle … Continued
By Leslie Horn