Background

What if we could save money, radically reduce our environmental impact, and have a freer, less complicated life?

Treehugger founder Graham Hill has part of the answer: we need to have less stuff and live in smaller spaces, like the 420sf (~39 m2) apartment he will renovate in 2011. With some design and technology magic, we think 420 square feet can allow for working at home, space for 2 guests to stay over, a sit-down dinner for 12, lounge space for 8, and maybe even a steam room.

So we’re asking you to redesign a small space thinking about these core ideas:

• transforming space - use one space for work, play, sleep, guests
• digitize everything - photos, books, music
• from ownership to access - think Netflix, Zipcar, Airbnb, etc.
• only the essentials - cut down on extraneous stuff, leaving only what’s really necessary

The winning concept will be used in a renovation of a 420sf apartment in New York City in mid 2011. Ideas will remain online as reference, to inspire and encourage others to rethink how they buy, rent, renovate and furnish their future properties.

But does it float levererar.

Auroville was founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa and designed by Roger Anger (wikipedia).

Wish I were here.

See more on Synaptic Stimuli.

Yesterday night the first installation to be built by flying machines opened its doors to the public. An hour or so after the Opening, after most of the crowd had gone to drink champagne in the building next door, I snuck upstairs and recorded a few short clips of the quadrocopters.

The installation, called “Flight Assembled Architecture”, was conceived and built by teams led by my colleagues Fabio Gramazio & Matthias Kohler as well as Raffaello D’Andrea at the ETH Zurich. It illustrates a radically new way of thinking about materializing architecture: Use a multitude of mobile flying agents working in parallel and acting together as a scalable production means. As you can see in the video, the quadrocopters are programmed to interact, lift, transport and assemble small modules in order to erect a building.

The tower is actually a 1:100 model of a “vertical village” with a height of 600 meters and housing 30’000 inhabitants. To learn more about the technology (control architecture, collision avoidance and freeway based flight, prick placement, safety systems, etc.) and architectural aspects (geographic location, transit times, access plans, structural and wind tunnel analysis, etc.), have a look at http://www.idsc.ethz.ch/Research_DAndrea/fmec

Tipstack till Oskar!

House NA

Sou Fujimoto Architects

(Source: todayandtomorrow.net)

Wear your love for architecture on your finger with platinum or gold diamond rings shaped like buildings. Parisian jeweler Philippe Tournaire recreates structures from around the world including his home city, Moscow, New York and more, and has even made replicas of entire city blocks.

Marc fornes & Theverymany har många fina former att visa upp. Rhino + Python.

Metropol Parasol // The World’s Largest Wooden Structure

Rendering av snart färdigbyggda

Headquarters of the Ruling Board for Guarantee of Origin, “Ribera del Duero”

i Roa Spanien. Via ArchDaily där finner du också mer info och fler bilder (+ ritningar).

Urbanized är en dokumentär om stadsplanering av Gary Hustwit. Mer info på kickstarter.

A new bridge concept incorporates wind and solar energy into its design, generating 40 million kilowatt-hours per year — and looking pretty slick to boot.

The Solar Wind concept would use the space between an existing viaduct in southern Italy to install 26 wind turbines, which designers Francesco Colarossi, Giovanna Saracino and Luisa Saracino say could provide 36 million kilowatt hours of electricity every year.

Härligt koncept.

un:

Parametric Design research..

Component transformation, from facet to curved surfaces…Generated by rhino Scripting. (By archi_deCode)

(Source: farm4.static.flickr.com)

Myourenji House, 「妙蓮寺の家」 av A.L.X

one+ modular homes

Från addaroom.

iidabashi station av makoto sei watanabe architects