Wall Dilation

The openings in this wall dilate depending on the intensity of the sunshine.




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Via Gizmodo

We Called Them Pillow Forts

The building material of choice for many budding architects...

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Via ACJIII

If the Rebellion Used Powerpoint

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The Car Swallowing Bus

Actually seems more like lightrail than a bus to me.



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Via Matt O.

Traffic Jam -> Settlement

A sixty mile long traffic jam in China has been at a standstill for 10 days, and is evolving into a long skinny city.

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Via Planetizen

Habihuts

Interesting emergency housing concept.


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Via Bob S.

Slo Mo Lightning

Add lightning to the list of things everyone should see in slow motion.

Laser Backpack

A laser equipped, picture taking, inertia sensing backpack that will enable you to instantly map rooms by walking into them.

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Via Gizmodo

Experimental Cities Part 2: Seasteading

Alex Tabarrock offered a good summary of this movement/vision over at Marginal Revolution a while back.  As he points out, it touches on many of the same governance-related themes as the Charter Cities idea. From a design perspective, these cities-at-sea could be paradise islands for anti-automobile planner-types (which would make for an interesting mix of residents, as many of the early supporters have been libertarian-leaning). Actually, The Seasteading Institute has already held an architectural design competition. Looks like the topic could provide some entertaining exercises for all of you Sketchup artists...

Experimental Cities Part 1b

Not exactly the same concept as Paul Romer's 'Charter City' (presented here a few posts back), but the example of the Kaesong Industrial Complex is worth studying in light of that discussion. The contrast between North and South Korean cities in general does a good job of illustrating the urban manifestations of major differences in political economy.

Via To Get Rich Is Glorious

Robots will flip our pancakes.

Video of a robot learning to flip a pancake. It's actually kinda funny.

A robot learning to flip pancakes from Sylvain Calinon on Vimeo.

Via Kottke

Global Map of California

Someone dug up this old map that Paramount Pictures created as a guide to where filmmakers could imitate different world geographies within California.

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Via Neatorama

American Migration Patterns

Cool interactive map at Forbes.com, allowing you to see the migration patterns of your county. Who's moving in and who's moving out.

I've always heard people in Colorado complaining about Texans and Californians moving to town. Looks like California (particularly SoCal) might be justified, but there are as many people moving to Texas as from Texas. Looks like we should be complaining about Floridians and Northeasterners, while folks in Oregon and Washington are probably whining about the Coloradization of their towns.

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Via BoingBoing

Clever Design for a Non-Stop Train

Via Kottke

Experimental Cities Part 1: Charter Cities

Here’s a grand urban concept that has generated plenty of recent policy debate. Economist/entrepreneur Paul Romer is advocating advancement in developing nations through the creation of city-scaled zones in which sponsor nations ensure improved “rules” (Romer’s favorite word) that allow host nation migrant populations to flourish. Think Hong Kong.

Check out Romer's TED talk below (there's even mention of military installations).



Some good points concerning feasibility, etc are raised here, here, and here, among other places.

Maps that Changed the World

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Via Planetizen

So real it's unreal...

This impressive short film on architecture is said to be entirely CGI. I was recently at Calatrava's Milwaukee Art Museum, which is one of the subjects illustrated in the video, and this captures it amazingly well. Though I don't recall any spontaneous indoor cloud formation during my visit.

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

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Via MNOL

Transformer Room

A Tiny Apartment Transforms into 24 Different Rooms @ Yahoo! Video

Via Matt Orsillo

LIDAR Mapping for Archaeology

Another LIDAR example, finding hidden insights about an ancient mayan city by looking through the tree cover. They can see roads, terraces, and buildings they never knew about before.

We were blown away,” Dr. Diane Chase said recently, recalling their first examination of the images. “We believe that lidar will help transform Maya archaeology much in the same way that radiocarbon dating did in the 1950s and interpretations of Maya hieroglyphs did in the 1980s and ’90s.

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LIDAR Mapping for Solar Access

Sanborn (a Colorado company!) is flying over New York City using LIDAR to create a hyper-accurate 3-D model of the city.

The data will be used, among other things, to create up-to-date maps of the areas most prone to flooding, the buildings best suited for the installation of solar power and the neighborhoods most in need of trees.

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Via Planetizen

A designer (Florian Pucher) has created rugs meant to evoke aerial views of different countries and continents. Above is Africa, below is the USA.


Via Boing Boing

PowerPoint and the Military

Thanks to Bob for passing along this interesting article about PowerPoint use in the military. There are many quotes that I could have pulled out, but the final sentences were the best:

Senior officers say the program does come in handy when the goal is not imparting information, as in briefings for reporters.

The news media sessions often last 25 minutes, with 5 minutes left at the end for questions from anyone still awake. Those types of PowerPoint presentations, Dr. Hammes said, are known as “hypnotizing chickens.”

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Via Bob Steimle

House of Cards

This architect had 44 days of free time to use 218,792 cards to build a giant house of cards.

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Via The Daily What

Formalizing the Homeless Camps

Someone wants to turn the derelict KOA campground down by Nevada and I-25 into temporary housing for the homeless.

He still has to line up financing, he said, but that isn’t his biggest hurdle.

“It’s the city,” he said.

The issue is over zoning. He and a proponent of the project, City Councilman Tom Gallagher, say the property at 1209 S. Nevada Ave. is already permitted for use as a campground. But Koscielski said city planners are treating it as a new development that would place cumbersome stipulations on the project.

Sounds like a good idea to me, but what keeps this temporary solution from becoming permanent?

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Glitter Competition

An architectural competition with these rules:

1. It's a drawing of architecture.
2. It uses glitter

Any takers?

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Via Kottke

Leonardo Da Vinci's Resume

At 30, he considered himself a "skilled contriver of instruments of war," and wrote a letter to the the Duke of Milan, looking for work. This is a great example of bold business development. The letter had 11 points.

6. I have means by secret and tortuous mines and ways, made without noise, to reach a designated spot, even if it were needed to pass under a trench or a river.

7. I will make covered chariots, safe and unattackable, which, entering among the enemy with their artillery, there is no body of men so great but they would break them. And behind these, infantry could follow quite unhurt and without any hindrance.

8. In case of need I will make big guns, mortars, and light ordnance of fine and useful forms, out of the common type.

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Via Kottke

Political Problems for US Base in Japan

The politics of our military bases abroad are complicated:

Apparently, Japan and the US worked out a deal to relocate a Marine Base on the island of Okinawa to the city of Nago. Now, a Nago has elected a new mayor who opposes the deal, and the Prime Minister of Japan may back out of the deal. That would mean the Marine base would have to move to Guam or another island, which President Obama is against.

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Via Planetizen