The Known Universe by AMNH
The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.
For more information visit http://www.amnh.org
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via youtube (Thanks Josh!)
Solar Tubes by Solyndra
There are hundreds of solar companies developing new materials, new business models, new installation techniques and new manufacturing processes in an effort to bring down the cost and up the efficiency of solar panels. But there’s only one company that has made progress in 2009 with uniquely-designed solar tube-shaped panels: Solyndra.
Only founded in 2005, and starting its first shipping in mid-2008, Solyndra has designed its solar panels into a series of skinny tubes that can absorb sun light from all directions, and can be installed flat on a roof (in contrast to traditional panels that need to be nailed down at an angle). That means the panels can be installed more easily and can in theory be cheaper.
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via inhabitat
GEOSPATIAL HOLOGRAMS by Zebra Imaging
A firm called Zebra Imaging tells us about “geospatial holograms“—including the awesome handheld flashlight-sized projector.
Heavily pitching this as a military technology, citing its usefulness in “battle-space visualization” and “line-of-site analysis for sniper activity,” Zebra seems to under-appreciate the intense levels of interest this thing might generate in the civilian sphere. Hook one of these up to a projector phone and shine 3D holograms of urban space all around you. 3D narrative films of the future!
- Geospatial holograms used in commercial and government applications typically enhance conventional 2D maps, aerial photos, and 3D physical scale models. Complex environments can be well understood using geospatial holograms much faster than with conventional 2D media.
But imagine the gaming possibilities with this thing, let alone the architectural applications: you step up to the front of the class and shine a hologram of your final thesis project onto the blank tabletop before you… Architectural lightsabers.
I don’t at all doubt the usefulness of portable holograms when it comes to invading enemy cities, but I have to wonder what a few games design students in New York or San Francisco could do with this.
Replace all the streetlights on 5th Avenue next year with Zebra Imaging technology and, instead of Christmas decorations, baroque mansions shine in holographic 3D… a new one every half-block for more than a mile, outlined against winter snow.
Or fly black airships over Rome and shine holograms of missing buildings down onto the city below you, ancient walls reappearing in a Batman-like flicker of urban unreality, people looking out their windows, stunned, at this laser archaeology from the sky.
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via BLDGBLOG
pAlice by SOFTlab
SOFTlab participated in Random Number’s SYSTEM:SYSTEM exhibition with their site specific installation, pAlice. The piece connects all of the openings in the room with a singular surface, turning it inside-out and giving viewers reference to the exterior of the room without physical access to it. Viewers can also look inside the surface from the outside of the room and see a space that is the surface average of these openings without actually seeing the interior space of the room. pAlice is made of over 2400 laser cut triangles and over 3600 custom connections. All of the tooling and labeling was automated using a custom written MEL script.
The name of the piece is a reference to the idea of an Alice Universe:
An Alice universe can be considered to allow at least two topologically-distinct routes between any two points (it is doubly connected), and if one connection (or “handle”) is declared to be a “conventional” spatial connection, at least one other must be deemed to be a non-orientable wormhole connection.
Also references Lewis’s Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass. The piece approximates a highly precise piece of geometry, but is covered in mirrored panels that camouflage the form by reflecting the interior of the room, covering the piece with the same texture as the interior of the room, completing the formal surface as an inversion of the room.
Designed and Produced By SOFTlab for the exhibition system:system
Curtated by Adam Henry and Christina Vassallo
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via CORE.FORM-ULA
Instant House by H3AR
Hugon Kowalski of Polish firm H3AR architecture and design recently created ’instant house’ for an international student competition in Milan. The theme was that of a temporary residential mini unit, linked to the presence of young people with high
levels of territorial mobility connected to particular metropolitan events.
The concept includes concrete cylinders, made from styrofoam concrete (which increases the acoustics and insulation and is twelve times lighter than normal concrete). This concrete contains TI02, which will reduce air pollution. in 2014 it will be possible to produce concrete from rice husks which reduce carbon dioxide emissions during the making process.
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via designboom
Hermès by Tokujin Yoshioka
Tokujin Yoshioka was asked by Maison Hermès Japan to design a window display, featuring its famous scarfs. It’s actually a new version of a display he did for the brand back in 2004. But it is still amazing in its simplicity.
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A Parallel Image by Gebhard Sengmüller
“A Parallel Image” is an electronic camera obscura, made by Gebhard Sengmüller, in collaboration with Franz Büchinger. It is an interactive sculpture which can capture and display images. On one side is a camera made of 2500 photo senser which are mounted on a 1 by 1 meter board. On the other side there is the monitor with 2500 light bulbs to display to image. In between each sensor and light bulb there is a 3 meter long copper wire. The resolution of this sculpture is of course quite low, but the aesthetic of the device is very nice.
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Cleaning Windows & Curing Alzheimer’s : New nano-material could lead to self-washing windows and solar panels
While attempting to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease researchers have discovered a new nanomaterial that can repel dust and water and could provide a self-cleaning coating for windows or solar panels. Unlike similar dust-busting materials that take inspiration from the surface of the lotus leaf, the new material is actually made up of molecules of peptides that “grow” to resemble small forests of grass. The coating also acts as a super-capacitor, thereby having implications for electric cars in that it could provide an energy boost to batteries.
Using a variety of peptides – short polymers formed from the linking of amino acids – the researchers from Tel Aviv University (TAU) found a novel way to control the atoms and molecules of peptides so that they “grow” to resemble small forests of grass. The short peptides, which are simple and inexpensive to produce, were used to create self-assembling nano-tubules in a vacuum under high temperatures.
In the range of one-billionth of a meter in size, these nano-tubules can withstand extreme heat and are resistant to water, making them an ideal candidate for the creation of a coating that could be used to cover the sealed outer windows of skyscrapers so that they never need be washed by daredevil window-washers again.
Such a coating could also improve the operation of solar panels, which can become up to 30% less efficient due to dust accumulating on their surface. This would also save money on maintenance and cleaning, which is especially a problem in dusty deserts, where many solar farms are installed.
As a capacitor with unusually high energy density, the researchers say the nano-tech material could also give electric batteries a boost. One of the limitations of the electric car is thrust, and the team thinks the research could lead to a solution to this difficult problem and provide the extra oomph required in starting an electric car, going up a hill, or passing other vehicles on the highway.
“Our technology may lead to a storage material with a high density,” says TAU graduate student Lihi Adler-Abramovich. “This is important when you need to generate a lot of energy in a short period of time. It could also be incorporated into today’s lithium batteries.”
The TAU researchers have already been approached to develop the coating technology commercially, which could see self-cleaning windows and more efficient energy storage devices appearing in a few years, but they also plan to continue their work on short peptides for a treatment of Alzheimer’s disease – the original focus of the research.
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via gizmag
Kuggen / Chalmers University of Technology / Gothenburg / Sweden by Wingårdhs
Earlier this fall, the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona presented its awards to a number of international architecture projects that represented excellence according to this year’s theme “Less Does More”. One project that has been awarded with a high commendation in Barcelona is “Kuggen”, the low-energy office building project for Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden by Swedish firm Wingårdhs.
This is the second international acknowledgement for Kuggen. The sustainable qualities of this futuristic project have previously been awarded at Mipim. Kuggen is a low energy office project especially adapted to the local conditions. The triangular windows that bring maximum daylight to the core with a minimal waste energy are just one feature in the progressive design of Kuggen.
from the architects:
Green architecture can be red. The skin is made of six different shades of red and a one green. It is executed in glazed terracotta, a permanent skin (think Babylon bricks).
”Kuggen” is circular to minimize the ratio between skin and area. Every floor level adds two bays making the building grow in size for every added floor.
The center of each circle is shifted so the southern elevation gets the longest shadow. A movable sunscreen tracks the sun and adds to the shade to the two top floors. (Existent buildings cast their shadows on the lower levels).
The windows are triangular allowing daylight to follow the ceiling deep into the building while staying at a low ratio (30%) of the elevation surface. The result is a building aiming at an energy consumption of 60kW/y/sqm well below what is considered a green building, while providing state of the art comfort (temperature within individual offices range between 22-26 degrees Celsius). The building goes beyond state of the art solutions for ventilation, lighting, heating and cooling.
”Kuggen” is a building offering 192 bays. This translates into 192 conform office units surrounding open, flexible space. The users are scientist working within at Chalmers University of Technology setting up their start-up firms. The connecting bridges are into the academy and into the market exemplified by nearby offices used by ie Ericsson.
”Kuggen” is situated at Lindholmen in Gothenburg, a university campus, a research centre and numerous technological enterprises are established in an old wharf.
”Kuggen” is the energy efficient future.
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via Bustler
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