The History of Hashima, the Island in Bond Film “Skyfall” – transcript of PRI spot on the Japanese island, devoted solely to coal-mining, that was “recognized as the most densely populated place on earth…ever” until 1974 when it was abandoned. Includes a 15-min video documentary.
Modernists At Play – the children of mid-20th century architects and designers talk about their childhoods. From this Metropolis post: Michael Gotkin, a landscape architect who is currently writing a book on modernist play environments, says the concept of children’s play was radically reinvented by artists, architects, landscape architects, …
Check out the free Collective Action Toolkit (CAT) from frog design or read this post from Co.Design. The Collective Action Toolkit (CAT) is a package of resources and activities that enable groups of people anywhere to organize, build trust, and collaboratively create solutions for problems impacting their community. … …
The Architectural Spectacle That Is Munich’s Metro – interview with Nick Frank, an art director who’s taken striking photos of Munich’s subway stations. He says the best time to find them without people is early Sunday mornings. We caught up with Frank to discuss the architecture of his architectural shots.
The Art of Color Coordination – infographic with nicely presented color wheel and color harmony advice, helpful especially for web designers. From 20 Must See Infographics For Web Designers, Via Lauren Moss’s visual data ScoopIt page. Image source link: http://<a href=”http://bit.ly/1yAv3Dg”>Source</a>
Blueprint to the new energy era – great infographic from the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) contrasting America’s energy sources and usage today and in 2050. Click the ‘Reinventing Fire’ tab on the menu bar and you’ll see details for Transportation, Buildings, Industry, Electricity. See also a 27-min TED talk by …
Local Transportation Funding Measures Voted on Across the U.S. – post includes a table of results of recent votes in 11 U.S. states on a variety of issues touching on transportation. The data is from the Center for Transportation Excellence. Between 2000 and mid-2012, there have been approximately 350 municipal, county, …
Federal R&D Award Trending – comparing a number of sources the author examines trends in federal R&D awards and spending. … even though spending appears to have gone down in 2012, the number of contracts saw a slight increase, implying that there was a smaller average dollar amount per …
A healthy grant to support healthy buildings | Official Google Blog – Google recently gave $3 million to the USGBC to support research into green building materials, especially in the workplace. Read more about it on BuildingGreen: In one of the biggest announcements to come out of Greenbuild 2012 in …
Bill Doyle: Treating cancer with electric fields – excellent 15-min TEDmed talk about a newly approved method for treating cancer by disrupting normal cell division. This method takes time, but it’s without side effects. A person can live their normal life while being treated.
The new issue of ArchitypeReview is out, Airports + Transportation. Go here to see all of the 16 projects on one page. Click through to a project and you get a gallery of images and description. This digital magazine always has a good selection of quality projects from around the …
Just discovered Talkitect | architecture, art, & design, a blog covering contemporary architecture and design. The posts aren’t that frequent but they’re pretty interesting. Some examples: Bambooline Berlin by Peter Ruge Architekten – “Bambooline Berlin explores the city’s urban development and proposes a new approach for the temporary, interim use of sustainable …
Beautiful Chaos at Kolkata’s Durga Puja – The Atlantic Cities – with photos of structures created for festival celebrations in the Indian city of Kolkata. Image credit: Michael Snyder Over the course of two hot, humid months at the tail end of the monsoon season, 20,000 new structures come …
These Are the Cities That Can Show Us How to Create Jobs – The Atlantic Cities – A recent analysis of competitiveness and job growth across U.S. metros conducted by Economic Modeling Specialists could not be more timely. It provides a detailed assessment of the metros that have generated the most robust job growth based on …
The Secret Life of Plants: Plant Communication – scientists may discover the physiology behind the old adage that talking to your plants makes them grow better. This article gives a brief overview of the different ways plants communicate – autosignaling (within themselves), plant-insect, and plant-plant communication. Though plants do not …
Nature’s Disco: See the Northern Lights – the 4:26-min video clip in this post is definitely worth a look, especially for those of us who’ve never seen the this amazing phenomenon in real life. Photo Credit: Moyan_Brenn/flickr Scientists predict this winter to be the best in 50 years to experience …
Safer Self-Healing Coating for Aerospace Aluminium – don’t know if this applies to building materials, but it sounds like a hugely welcome development in what has been a very hazardous process for workers.
The Top 10 Smartest European Cities – first of two posts from Co.Exist written by Boyd Cohen. The next one will be The Top 10 North American Cities, out next month. In an attempt to improve the rankings, I developed a metric called the Smart Cities Wheel, which contains six …