architecture
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Eat the suburbs
The cicadas rev up as the summer sun bakes the carefully tended lawns of suburban Dublin, Ohio. Houses sit exposed like cattle in the heat, the trees too small to offer a shaded window or cool spot on the driveway so everything is shut tight. The only ones outside for any length of time are the folks cutting grass, fixing awnings, installing cable. The one man walking in the sun is the father… Read More
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UpCodes makes researching building regulations less exhausting for architects
For architects, complying with building codes means navigating labyrinthine layers of regulations that vary between municipalities. Sorting through different codes and keeping track of updates is a daunting task and, in a worst-case scenario, a mistake can cost thousands or even millions of dollars to tear out and fix. Firms that can afford it hire building code consultants, but a startup… Read More
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Aurora is a set of connectable, color-changing LED wall panels
Looking for a piece of wall art that doubles as lighting for your home? You’re in luck. Aurora, launched by Canadian smart-lighting startup Nanoleaf, is a set of smart LED panels designed to go on your wall. The panels are triangular (about 9″ on each side), and can be connected to basically make any shape or design you want. Nine come in a set, and you can buy packs of three more… Read More
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IrisVR raises $8M to bring virtual reality to architecture and design
New York City startup IrisVR is announcing that it has raised $8 million in Series A funding. The company has built virtual reality tools for the architecture and design industries. Iris Prospect allows customers to take their 3D plans and blueprints and turn them into VR experiences viewable on devices like Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, GearVR and Cardboard. Iris Scope, meanwhile, converts… Read More
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DIRTT’s ICEreality puts VR to use for interior, office design
A manufacturer of custom prefabricated elements to be built into offices and other work spaces, DIRTT Environmental Solutions is the latest corporation to adopt virtual reality for the enterprise, rather than entertainment. The company unveiled their ICEreality software this week at an annual construction industry trade show, NeoCon 2016, in Chicago. (Yes, tech news had the audacity… Read More
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Gilt Groupe Founder Kevin Ryan Unveils His Latest Startup With Kontor, A Houzz For Office Design
Serial entrepreneur Kevin Ryan has founded a number of businesses, including Gilt Groupe, Business Insider, database firm MongoDB, and wedding registry startup Zola. That experience has given him more insight than the average CEO as to what goes into designing and setting up a new office space. And today, that insider knowledge is being translated into Ryan’s latest company: a visual… Read More
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Flux Emerges From Google X And Nabs $8M To Help Build Eco-Friendly Buildings
Flux, a platform that lets the building industry design eco-friendly homes by drawing on big data to do a lot of the hard work, is coming out of stealth with $8 million in funding from a pretty stellar group of investors. Led by DFJ, others include Borrealis, Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures and Ev Williams (who knows a thing or two about building platforms that remove some of the… Read More
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Rotating Solar House Generates Five Times The Energy It Consumes
What’s cooler than a rotating house? One whose solar panels produce five times the energy the house uses. That’s pretty incredible, considering that even zero-energy structures are rare. German architect Rolf Disch built the home, called Heliotrope, to follow the sun throughout the day. The structure features triple panes of thermally insulated glass to strike a balance between… Read More
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Inverted, ocean-bound "seascrapers": aqua-communes for the future?
You guys, I’m freaking out about how cool these things could be. A recent skyscraper concept competition yielded some really interesting designs, among them this utterly amazing concept, which they inexplicably call a “water-scraper” instead of the decidedly more euphonious “seascraper,” as I have dubbed it. Think of it: a partially self-contained structure… Read More
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Someone needs to stop playing Shadowrun: New Orleans Arcology Habitat
I remember dreaming about living in an arcology while I read William Gibson’s Count Zero. I planned out elaborate arcology floor plans for various aborted Shadowrun campaigns. All the while, I knew these megastructures were things of science fiction — like the flying car I always wanted — that I could dream about but never enjoy in my lifetime. I couldn’t help but… Read More
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Ultimate staircase features built-in slide
Some people are dreamers while others are doers. London architect Alex Michaelis is a doer. He built his dream house recently and says, “Everyone in the family was involved in the design and got to say what he or she wanted.” His kids, of course, wanted a slide next to the staircase. Read More
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35-story indoor ski resort planned for Long Island
The official car of Long Island The Great Indoors? Developers out on Long Island, the fashion capital of the world, plan to build a $2 billion resort, whose crown jewel will be a 35-story ski mountain. The resort, at Riverhead, which is 75 miles east of New York City (about an 18-hour drive on the LIE), isn’t expected to be open until 2013. Naturally, environmentalists oppose the… Read More -
15 real world Blade Runner buildings
Blade Runner, the just-OK movie we’ve been led to believe is amazing, is set in a terribly oppressive Los Angeles (redundant?), where it’s always raining and it’s always nighttime. The city’s skyscrapers, on the other hand, are brightly colored pieces of flair, whose lights illuminate the abyss around them. But enough of that fruity movie review talk. Object has… Read More
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