Meet Strati, the world's first 3-D printed electric car (with time lapse video) About - Synthetic Aesthetics. What is Synthetic Aesthetics?
Synthetic Aesthetics is an experimental, international research project between synthetic biology, art, design and social science, funded by the NSF and EPSRC. Run by the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Stanford University, California, the project team comprises bioengineers Drew Endy (Stanford) and Alistair Elfick (Edinburgh), and social scientists Jane Calvert (Edinburgh) and Pablo Schyfter (Edinburgh), and designer/artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg. The project is explored in our book published by The MIT Press in 2014.
Studio Roosegaarde archives. Raas Design Hotels. Design Hotels™ adds another unique venue to its prestigious portfolio.
Its name is Raas, a boutique hotel situated within the walls of the oldest city in Rajasthan, India. At the foot of Fort Meherangarh, in the heart of the walled city of Jodhpur and just a stone's throw from the clock Tower, RAAS is a hotel which weaves together antiquity with technology and sustainability. 39 18th Century rooms renovated and built with the local red sandstone, with the addition of four new buildings designed by Delhi architects Ambrish Arora and Rajiv Majumdar. An impressive passage through the rocks grants visitors access to the peace and quiet of the internal Mughal-style courtyard, the terraced gardens and swimming pools, surrounded by cosy open air lounges, restaurants and café bars. Bathrooms supplied with solar energy and hand-laid floors. Insects and Humans Harmonize in a Symphony of Architectural Sound in this Roman Installation. Within the walls of OFL Architecture‘s open-air wooden pavilion, the term “built environment” truly earns its keep.
Museum of Contemporary Art presents: Lee Boroson: Plastic Fantastic in our Building 5 on On view through September 2015. On view through September 2015 Building 5 Opening Reception Saturday, October 11, 5-6:30pm Free to members / $7 for not-yet-members Reservations for the opening reception can be made by phoning 413.664.4481 x8157 or rwehry@massmoca.org.
Lee Boroson’s work begins with ideas of nature, which he mediates between the landscape as culture as opposed to notions of the outdoors as “wild” or “untamed.” To achieve this goal, Boroson creates large-scale immersive installations using inflatables, fabric, and light to create phenomenological experiences for his viewers, based on the elemental forces in nature, from air, fog, and smoke, to fire and the cosmos. Architects rejoice, your all-glass towers could become giant transparent solar cells. But perhaps there are better ways to squeeze a few amps out of your building skin.
Grid-tied solar power is really designed for the American dream: It works best at low suburban densities on top of nice big bungalows, preferably with no trees around to block the sun. No wonder real estate developers are now building it into the houses they sell. In the cities, with taller buildings, the amount of roof available per square foot of area goes way down.
Public charging station powers mobile devices with footsteps and solar panels. The ENGO charging station uses kinetic tiles and solar panels to charge up to 14 smartphones at a time, and provides free WiFi access and an emergency phone.
It's been interesting to watch the different approaches used by companies developing clean energy charging stations, especially those working on public mobile device chargers, as each business tries to figure out both the financial and the practical aspects of what's fast becoming an important part of our infrastructure - access to power for our gadgets.
A new contender has hit the streets (or sidewalks, as it were), with an installation of an ENGO Public Charging Station at Webster University in St. Louis, MO, which uses a combination of kinetic tiles (to harvest energy from footsteps) and solar panels to recharge up to 14 mobile devices at a time. The ENGO station, from Volta Group, includes 10 charging cables (to fit most models of phones and tablets), two USB charge ports, and two wireless charging pads for compatible devices. Forget about Apple's iOS 8, here comes Tesla's OS 6 for the Model S! Technology keeps progressing rapidly.
If you had told someone just a few years ago that they would have pocket computers (which we call "phones" mostly because of a historical accident -- for most people, talking on the phone is the thing they do least often on their cellphones) that are always connected to the internet, that would have sounded pretty sci-fi. But nobody bats an eye now when these pocket computers wirelessly update their operating systems and reboot with some brand new interface features and functionality. We're now entering the era of cars being able to do the same. The Tesla Model S is a pioneer when it comes to wireless connectivity and how much it basically acts like a giant computer on wheels.
This is what it looks like when 35,000 walrus can’t find enough sea ice. Thousands of walrus were spotted on a beach in northwest Alaska during a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) survey of arctic marine mammals.
Photographed by plane, an estimated 35,000 walrus were gathered on the shore, about 5 miles from the Inupiat village of Point Lay. The photos were taken on September 27. It’s normal for pods of walrus to rest on floating sea ice, but as sea ice continues to disappear, these mammals are forced to seek respite on land. Last month, arctic sea ice covered the sixth smallest area ever recorded. Photo: Kaleidoscope of colors reflected on a wet leaf. Slow Watch single-handedly reimagines your relationship with time. This twist on analog timekeeping promises to help us shift the way we see time, and to stop chasing every minute.
In a time when our phones are fast becoming our clocks and watches, and displaying the exact time, down to the minute, is just a click away, we're more aware than ever before that time is ticking away. Coclico’s gorgeous shoes come with carbon offsets. The sleek, sculptural forms of Coclico shoes speak to a certain timelessness, so it’s not surprising that the company is dedicated to a slow fashion approach to footwear.
Wildlife officials ask pilots to steer clear of massive walrus pod. Solarbox converts old London phone boxes into free solar charging stations. Two geography students in London have come up with a way to give the city's old red phone boxes a new life. An iconic symbol of the English city, the phone boxes have fallen out of use as the majority of people now have cell phones. Many of the boxes have been discarded, but with the students' Solarbox project, many others will now be converted into free solar-powered charging stations for cell phones and other gadgets.
"I lived next to a phone box in my second year at uni and walked past it every day. Soon our cities will be full of plyscrapers. BRAND SACRIFICE. Pepsi preps Amazon ecommerce deal to launch ‘True’ lower-calorie brand. Pepsi is following rival Coke with the launch of a Stevia-filled cola it will sell exclusively on Amazon in an attempt to offer more variety to health-conscious fans of the brand. The new Pepsi True brand contains 30 per cent less sugar than regular Pepsi and no artificial sweeteners or high fructose corn syrup.
The drink will come in 7.5-ounce cans, each 60 calories when it goes on sale on Amazon later this month. PressDisplay.com. Kiriana leaf mix. Coming Soon: Cheap light rooftop solar you can install yourself. There's a lot to see at the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems in a rehabbed old building in Boston. Activist art wants YOU to join the People’s Climate March. The People’s Climate March will happen this coming Sunday, September 21 in New York City. Barack Obama Creates World’s Largest Marine Reserve. Today (September 25), Barack Obama created the largest marine reserve on the planet, west of Hawaii. The Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument has been expanded to six times its original size, now spanning almost 490,000 square miles of U.S. waters in the Pacific Ocean.
Awesome Packaging Design. Editorial> Something to Believe In. World falling behind 2020 plan for nature protection: U.N. report. International efforts to meet targets to stem the loss of wildlife and habitats are failing miserably, according to a United Nations report. The Global Biodiversity Outlook 4, published as nearly 200 countries meet on Monday in South Korea in a bid to tackle biodiversity loss, paints a damning picture of governments’ efforts to meet a set of targets agreed upon in 2010 to mitigate the destruction of species’ habitats, cut pollution and stop overfishing by the end of the decade. Are fashion and feminism compatible? BLDGBLOG. Aiken m&s. Strange Cloud Turns Out to Be Butterflies Migrating. Game-changing response required to tackle State of Nature crisis.
Movie: protocells used to make Shamees Ade's running shoes. Cereal. Bristol restaurant opts for ingredients plucked from supermarket skips. Tokujin Yoshioka's London flagship store for Issey Miyake opens. 3D-Printed Quake Column Draws On Ancient Incan Building Techniques to Withstand Earthquakes. Home Café by Penda, Beijing – China. Plants grow inside Maxim Scherbakov's marble Sputnik-5 table. Find and order healthy meals from local restaurants with HealthyOut.
World must adapt to unknown climate future, says IPCC - environment - 31 March 2014. Wonder stuff: Frozen smoke to clean the world - tech - 11 October 2014. The world is warming faster than we thought - environment - 05 October 2014. Iceland's Biggest Volcano, Bardarbunga, Has Erupted - Which Could Be Bad News For Holidaymakers.
Marine light by Nir Meiri. David Chipperfield installs tree trunks in Neue Nationalgalerie. Movie: swap streetlights with luminous trees - Daan Roosegaarde. Lancia TrendVisions - Trendwall. Why corporate activism should be welcomed (and feared too)
Travel and Transport. Politics and Social. Eco Active Design. Abyss Table by Christopher Duffy. Panasonic confirms big investments in Tesla's Nevada Gigafactory (tens of billions of yen) Technology & Science. Luciano Kruk Arquitectos complete concrete and glass cabin. Bio-Light concept light fixture by Philips. The Joan Maragall Library by BCQ, a garden of light and knowledge. Genetically engineered trees designed to SELF-DESTRUCT could provide cheaper paper and fuel. Agave shortage to hit cosmetics.
Nendo creates vertical layers in Beige fashion boutique. Repurposed shipping containers may be building blocks for modular vertical urban farms. Art and design.