World’s First 360-Degree Infinity Pool Proposed For London Skyline
Compass Pools has unveiled a concept for a four-sided infinity pool atop a London skyscraper, accessed via a submarine-style door. Called Infinity London, the project is described by the swimming pool manufacturer as “only building in the world to incorporate a 360-degree infinity pool”.
Teenage Engineering’s 3D Printables Transform IKEA Speakers Into Something Cool
IKEA’s spirited Frekvens collection designed in cooperation with Stockholm-based audio geeks Teenage Engineering was already unlike anything out there in the consumer audio category. Teenage Engineering are now offering 13 additional customization accessories to 3D print gratis, adding an extra level of the practical and occasionally wonderfully weird to the IKEA line.
How To Create A Playable City
Technology may be reshaping how we engage with urban spaces, but does it risk sucking the life out of them in the process? We explore some of the creative projects that are making our cities more playful.
Francois Prost Returns, Photographing Venice And Its Worldwide Doppelgängers
As a follow-up to his successful series Paris Syndrome, Francois Prost is yet again photographing architectural replica cities, creating almost identical compositions. Venice is compared to a Chinese replica but also to the Las Vegas replica.
Why China Is Building The World’s Biggest City
China plans to integrate all the cities in the Pearl River Delta (Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou) into one Greater Bay Area – a megacity 58% bigger than the entire Tokyo Metropolitan Area. It hopes to rival both Silicon Valley and Wall Street – at the same time, with an economy already the size of South Korea or Russia.
MIT’s Color-Changing Ink Lets You Jazz Up Your Art, Clothes, Car Every Day
If you’ve ever purchased two articles of the same clothing because you couldn’t decide on a color, here’s a game-changer: color-changing ink. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a “reprogrammable ink” that lets you change the color of objects whenever you wish by exposing them to light of various wavelengths.
Dubai: Expectation vs Reality
Dubai – perhaps the best-known city of the United Arab Emirates, with a reputation for attracting the glamorous and the wealthy. Less than 5% of its GDP comes from oil, but it essentially has made its success through diversifying into property real estate, aviation, trade, banking and finance. But what’s going on beneath the surface?
The Food Deserts Of Memphis: Inside America’s Hunger Capital
In the ‘food deserts’ of Memphis, Tennessee, dominated by fast food outlets and convenience stores, locals lack what seems a basic human right in the richer half of the city: a supermarket. With a big gap in life expectancy, are these Americans doomed to die younger than their neighbours – or can they fight for their right to nutrition?
‘The Countryside Is Where The Radical Changes Are’: Rem Koolhaas Goes Rural
“There has been no architecture of a similar vigour in the last 100 years. It is based strictly on codes, algorithms, technologies, engineering and performance, not intention. Its boredom is hypnotic, its banality breathtaking.” For Koolhaas, the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center embodies a new kind of sublime.
L’Oréal’s Clip-on Sensor Tracks Your Exposure To UV Rays
The future of wearable skincare technology is roughly the size of an M&M. L’Oréal’s La Roche-Posay My Skin Track UV sensor clips onto clothing and measures the wearer’s exposure to UV radiation, a form of radiation that is known to damage skin and, in large amounts, cause skin cancer.
The Floating Utopia Of Salesforce Park
Salesforce Park, in downtown San Francisco, sits atop the Salesforce Transit Center. It is a lush, five-and-a-half-acre rooftop arcadia of rolling meadows and meticulously landscaped, climatically harmonious, drought-tolerant flora. San Francisco’s newest public space reflects Big Tech’s influence—and a city’s anxieties.
Smart Frames For Growing Plants In The City
French company, Urban Canopee, has developed lightweight, adaptable and flexible frames, which serve as support for climbing plants — both in isolation or in groups — and to create a verdant canopy. The company hopes the easy-to-use frames will be used to grow plants on the roofs of buildings and other public spaces.
The Expat English Teachers’ Murderous Triangle
His ease with people, his natural charisma — these things made him a vital piece of the underground foreigner scene in Taipei, a key component of the drug culture. But it was a dangerous game that Sanjay Ryan Ramgahan played, a game that can turn even the safest of places into the deadliest of traps. Once he fell into it, there was no charming his way out.
Adidas Futurecraft Loop: A Running Shoe That Is Recyclable
The Futurecraft.Loop project ushered in a running shoe that has been designed from scratch to be recycled. Adidas’ thinking is not to take pre-existing products and make them more sustainable, but rather to create sustainable products from square one.
The ‘Ocean Community’ Responds To Rising Sea Levels With Luxury Houseboats
RCA intelligent mobility graduate Wojciech Morsztyn envisions ‘Ocean Community’, a series of inter-linked luxury houseboats as the solution to rising sea levels. Connected via walkways, the floating pods make for autonomous living, with the ability to store and filter water, channel airflow for cooling and harvest energy from the sun and wind.
The Art Of Eviction
In Brooklyn, the median rent has gone up about 10 percent in the six years since Quick Evic was founded, allowing the company to expand aggressively. In 2014 it brought in $20,000 in revenue, which ballooned to more than $300,000 by 2017. How one company helps landlords exploit a loophole in New York’s tenant laws.
Will The Skyscrapers Of The Future Be Made Out Of Wood?
Wood products that are nearly as strong as steel are going into more high-rises, locking up carbon. But can we grow enough trees to keep pace? A paradigm threatened by the very climate crisis that makes carbon-sucking buildings seem appealing.
Herzog & De Meuron Unveils Switzerland’s First Motorway Chapel
Herzog & de Meuron has completed the design for Switzerland’s first motorway chapel. A concept well known in neighboring Germany, the motorway chapel is a modern-day interpretation of the medieval wayside chapel. The contemplative space offers travellers a place of rest, respite, silence and prayer.
Wedged Wondercars – Supercar Concepts From The 1960s And 70s
This series entitled Wedged Wonders by Docubyte, features some of the most thrilling and yes – wedge-shaped concept cars of the late 1960s and 70s. The expressiveness and boldly raked hoodlines make them stand out, even by today’s standards.
Dressing For The Surveillance Age
As cities become ever more packed with cameras that always see, public anonymity could disappear. Can stealth streetwear evade electronic eyes? Is there anything fashion can do to counter the erosion of public anonymity?
Cinematic Street Photography Of Japan By Jack Rangooni
Stunning street shots by Jack Rangooni, a talented self-taught photographer, and urban explorer from Auckland, New Zealand. He recently visited Japan and shared some amazing street scenes on his Instagram.