04.12.2010
Capsule Hotel – 9 Hours
The 9 Hours is the brand new capsule hotel unveiled in December 2009 by Tokyo-based Cubic Corp. Designed in a collaboration with designer Fumie Shibata of Design Studio S, it looks nothing like its predecessors and represents a revolution in the capsule concept. Monocle’s video journalist Gabriel Leigh visits the hotel to see what’s different. See full video at : http://monocle.com/sections/design/Web-Articles/9-hours/
03.24.2010
http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/03/23/elastic-iron-alloy-could-be-used-to-make-earthquake-proof-buildings
In light of the world’s recent earthquakes, finding a quake-proof building material is a top priority. A group of Japanese researchers are answering the call. They’ve developed a super elastic iron alloy that maintains its original shape even after serious stretching. Once optimized, scientists think the material can be used in everything from medical stents to braces to buildings.
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03.17.2010
by Sarah Parsons, 03/17/10
Imagine a 3-d printer so large that it can spit out entire buildings made from stone. Sounds science fiction-y, right? But that’s exactly what designer Enrico Dini created with his prototype D-Shape printer. Dini hopes to use the printer to create buildings made of stone and eventually, moon dust.
The printing process starts with a thin layer of sand. The printer then sprays the sand with magnesium-based glue from hundreds of nozzles, which binds the sand into rock. That rock is then built up layer by layer, eventually taking shape of whatever object it is destined to become, be it a curvy sculpture or an entire cathedral. Dini has even been talking with La Scuola Normale Superiore, Alta Space and Norman Foster to design a printer that would work with moon dust, essentially creating a machine that can make an almost-instant moonbase!
We’re not sure that anyone will really bring D-Shape to the moon, but it is totally amazing to think about the implications a printer like this could have on construction here on Earth. Dini claims the printer is four times faster than conventional building, costs one-third to one-half the price of Portland cement and creates very little waste, so it’s better for the environment. Color us seriously impressed.
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03.12.2010
Detroit is a city in terminal decline. When film director Julien Temple arrived in town, he was shocked by what he found – but he also uncovered reasons for hope
Vegetation engulfs an abandoned car wash in Detroit. Photograph: Films of Record
When the film- maker Roger Graef approached me last year to make a film about the rise and fall of Detroit I had very few preconceptions about the place. Like everyone else, I knew it as the Motor City, one of the great epicentres of 20th-century music, and home of the American automobile. Only when I arrived in the city itself did the full-frontal cultural car crash that is 21st-century Detroit became blindingly apparent.
Read Full article at : http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/mar/10/detroit-motor-city-urban-decline
02.25.2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010, by Adrian Glick Kudler
[Images via atelier V]
Glendale is chugging along in its efforts to turn Central Avenue into a more lively place. This six story condo project, developed by Legendary Developments and designed by atelier V: architecture, is planned for the corner of Central and California, just down the street from the Americana at Brand. Plan are for 71 one-, two-, and three-bedrooms and nine live/work units with a two-level subterranean garage. Glendale’s Downtown Specific Plan has a new requirement that developments include public art “valued at 1% of the cost of any project with a price tag of at least $500,000,” according to the Glendale News-Press, and the city’s Arts & Culture Commission has just signed off on a light sculpture by mixed-media artist Michael Hayden that will hang in a glass-enclosed public space on the ground floor.
The secrets behind the undulating lights.>>>
Here’s the technical wonks’ description of the installation from atelier V’s blog: “Michael Hayden’s proposal uses 66 – 36 inch long polycarbonate tubes filled with RGB light Emitting Diodes (LED) suspended within the 1,350 SF public space anywhere from 11′ to 22′ above ground plane…Every light-tube will have a minimum of 36 RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) LEDs; which will be addressed in 6 clusters of 6 LEDs or 12 clusters of 3 LEDs. This will allow for interplay of 2,400 colors in variant symphonies of light and music and interactivity. This lumetric installation will be physically attractive as the 3′ light sticks appear to undulate as their distribution arithmetically expands (first 1, then 2 in the next row, 3 in the third etc), and as they travel across the aerial space above the audiences’ heads.”
According to the News-Press, a vacant one-story commercial building, a 20 unit residential building, and an abandoned gas station at the development site have already been demolished. Atelier V’s blog says construction is scheduled to start this summer.
· Tower gets agency approval [Glendale News-Press]
· Legendary Tower Glendale [Legendary Developments]
· Light sculpture advances [Glendale News-Press]
· Dance of Lights : atelier V collaborates with Michael Hayden on 300 N. Central [Vews]
