Awesome. Easy to transport and relatively cheap to produce. I can imagine spending a lot fewer nights staying awake cut-pasting mountboard sheets to create sub-standard models that professors would hardly glance at.
Category Archives: Technology
Augmented City 3D
The architecture of the contemporary city is no longer simply about the physical space of buildings and landscape, more and more it is about the synthetic spaces created by the digital information that we collect, consume and organise; an immersive interface may become as much part of the world we inhabit as the buildings around us.
Get your 3D glasses out for this one.
[Source: Augmented City 3D]
George Kovacs Lighting Design
I’ll be reviewing one of Kovacs-designed lamps soon. So some background on him before I do:
One of the most recognizable names in the lighting industry, George Kovacs wore many hats throughout his forty-plus year career. Part lighting designer, part lighting manufacturer, part lighting importer – Kovacs’ design aesthetic stood out above the rest and helped to define modern lighting as we know it today.
Biggest Little Cities
Model cities aren’t just for show; they can have real utility. In 1957 the US Army Corps of Engineers created the Bay Model, a replica of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta meant to simulate the impact of public works projects and disasters—natural and man-made—on currents and tides.
Terence Russell at Wired Magazine tells us how scale models of cities are increasingly used for urban planning and design applications.
Public Transit Layer on Google Maps
If you want to book a hotel or make a restaurant reservation you can switch on the Transit Layer and look for the public transport line nearest to the location. If you want to travel from A to B you can quickly familiarize yourself with the public transport network and find out which lines to use and where to change.
Google Maps has added a public transit layer for more than 50 cities around the world to help citizens and tourists obtain information on getting around quicker. I see more European cities than U.S ones. It doesn’t take a genius to tell you what that means.
Evidence-Based Approach to Planning Using Technology
Noah Radford, US Director for Space Syntax and PhD candidate at MIT presents an evidence-based approach to the planning and design of buildings and cities using computer modeling technologies.
His talk as part of a series on technology, people, place, and space covers documenting the sense of place in today’s cities. I’m sure Google’s StreetView layers has added rich information not just with use of technology but also by harnessing its reach as a primary information provider of real-time mapping solutions. I was particularly impressed with use of innovative visualization techniques to depict spatial relationships in our activities (e.g.cell phone usage). This graphic of population concentrations in America in Time Magazine is one such example.
Rent or Buy?
The NY Times Rent or Buy Calculator compares the cost of renting versus buying a home. Enter your monthly rent, projected price of buying a house, mortgage rate, and property tax and the calculator will spit out the number of years after which buying is better than renting.
An extremely useful tool especially in today’s sliding housing market where some homeowners are experiencing negative equity. But as with any online tool, don’t replace it with the experience of a human. Trust but verify.
Floating Villa in Sweden
Couple of colleagues in a Sustainable Urbanism class had proposed floating homes as a potential solution for homes in New Orleans. This floating villa designed by Swedish architect, Staffan Strindberg, currently situated in the town of Kalmar on the east coast of Sweden may be a tad fancy for residents of New Orleans especially for those whose houses got washed away. But definitely a technology worth exploring, right?
Solar and Wind Leaf Photovoltaic Shingles
GROW, a project that develops innovative solutions on green technologies draws inspiration from ivy growing on the side of a building – resulting in a hybrid energy delivery device of leafy, fluttering solar shingles that provide power via both sun and wind. I would love a day when roof shingles that use solar power are just as cheap as regular shingles.
Zero Emission Tower in Dubai
Dubai is home not only to most construction cranes building skyscapers but also to the world’s first zero emissions 322 meter tall structure. The Burj Al-Taqa Energy Tower will “use sun, wind, and water to create all of its own energy.”