The NOMA Convention is Near! Lecture Highlight: "Design & Technology - MoBE" - October 4th
*Update: The date of thie event has changed to October 4th (October 3rd was reported in the post last week) The NOMA {National Organization of Minority Architects} annual convention is in Philadelphia this year, and there will be lots to do and see. One event we would like to highlight is a presentation by Architect, Pascale Sablan, AIA, NOMA, LEED of FXFOWLE in New York. The lecture hosted Sablan titled, Design & Technology, will focus on the design process and technologies
Top 5 New Apps for Designers and Urban Planners...You want it? There's an App for That.
Who doesn’t love a good app? Well, Urban Planners and Designers today is your day with the arrival of 5 new APPS. Check out the brief descriptions below:
1. StreetMix Giving you the ability to redesign a street instantly without the hassle of political channels, community meetings or extensive planning and devising hunched over maps. Don’t fret yet, it’s not an actual data-driven planning tool.
2. WideNoise Allows users the ability to track noise pollution across an entire
Art is Blood, Sweat, and Tears...Literally
This story is not for the faint of heart. Brooklyn-based artist, Ted Lawson has taken a new meaning to art being a part of the artist by painting a self portrait using his own blood. This is how he did it.
By using an automated self-filling brush and ink Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC)
machine, he created a vector-based artwork all from bitmap images... and a little of himself.The entire process took hours to complete but Ted kept his energy and blood sugar levels up
Cars Underground? Guanajuato: One of the Most Walkable Cities
In the 1960s, many cities were expanding roads for cars, buses, and different modes of transporation. Despite this trend around the world, there was one city who was doing the exact opposite: The Mexican city of Guanajuato. This unique city has all but one of its main traffic arteries running underground. Above ground lies the most walkable city in North America. So, where do all of the cars go? They travel underground in a network of roads beneath the city. But another quest
You’ve Heard of Pop-Up Restaurants? Well, Let’s Welcome the Pop-Up Park
Welcome to Philadelphia’s Spruce Street Harbor Park. A spot that is turning into more than just a temporary, recreational haven. It's a preview of what a city’s vision of an industrial waterfront can be. Created by Groundswell Design Group, the 5,500 SF park has turned into a success on the banks of the Delaware River. The team created a boardwalk along the river, repurposed three floating barges as a waterside refuge with beer garden and restaurant, and planted 30 trees to c
A Design Festival: London Style
Mark Your Calendar: London Design Festival
For all my Brits and non-Brits alike, get out your pen and add something to your calendars. The London Design Festival is back and running from September 13 – 21. Started in 2003, the festival has become one of the world’s most important annual designn events. This year you get more than 300 events and exhibitions from designers all over the world.
Just a small tasting of the events scheduled... The Global Design Forum: Debating
Breaking the Surface: An Interactive Ceiling
Scandinavian Design Group, one of Norway’s oldest graphic design studios, has just created an interactive installation for Norway’s branch of Lundin Petroleum, Sweden’s largest oil company. The installation went live at a Scandinavian energy conference. But when Lundin asked Scandinavian Design Group for a proposal for their booth, they proposed something that actually isn’t a booth at all: An undulating ceiling of honey-colored tubes that would rhythmically move in response
Welcome to “Frackpool”
Jason Lamb is the name. A recent graduate of the Bartlett School of Architecture in London asked the important question that framed his thesis, “Is there a way that you could implement fracking with long term benefit to the community?” This being a thesis, of course it is speculative, but uses Blackpool as a testing ground for this type of self-sustained urban planning since Blackpool sits on a bed of shale rock. His design has 35 fracking stations in a town that uses pressur
Thatch-Roofed Pavilion Wins in Northern Ireland
This is what happens when an artist and architect join forces, and Jeffry’s House is created. This thatch-roofed retreat was built overlooking a forest, sandy beaches and sea in Northern Ireland. Constructed by Emily Mannion and Thomas O’Brien in the Ards Forest Park, the raised timber structure stands on stilts reducing its environmental impact. The name comes from the nearby lake with the same name: Jeffry’s Lough. It was built after Thomas O’Brien won a competition through
Step Aside Trees, We Have A New Leaf
A graduate from the Royal College of Art has claimed to have developed a silk leaf that could create oxygen for space travel and make the air better here on Earth. Julian Melchiorri, along with the silk lab from Tufts University, is responsible for this new idea. The leaf is created from a mix of protein extracted from silk and chloroplasts and when exposed to light and water, the leaf supposedly acts just like our friends already on the trees and produces oxygen. Currently,
