What Twitter Really Looks Like – about Tweetping, a visualization of Twitter activity in real time. Tweetping is a visual reminder of the distribution of Twitter, the flow of it, the scale of it. It tracks straight-from-the-API info like total tweets (and words, and characters) per …
Earthen Architecture: A Technique of the Past Helping Us Toward a Greener Future – UNESCO and Building Green Futures are working together to build a women’s center in Palestine made out of earth, or mudbrick, an ancient tradition that’s excellent at conserving energy. … over one third of the world’s population lives …
Instructional Video of the Day: How to Build Skyscrapers Over Moving Trains – 2:46 min video shows method of construction to be used by ‘mega-developer’ Brookfield in Manhattan West. The company intends to develop two 60-story towers without interrupting train traffic, though a dozen tracks connecting Penn Station to …
Downtown Chicago projected in a new light – Time for a break? Watch this 3:48 min clip by Chris Pritchard of bustling Chicago in all kinds of light and shadow, from all kinds of vantage points, from on and off the water.
Building Research Information Knowledgebase (BRIK) – a great free resource for both finding and sharing research on the built environment. A collaborative effort of the American Institute of Architects and the National Institute of Building Sciences, the Building Research Information Knowledgebase (BRIK) is an interactive portal offering online access to peer-reviewed …
Chart Focus: How to compete in emerging markets – from McKinsey Quarterly’s Chart Focus newsletter, a recommendation for international companies to group cities in an emerging market by shared characteristics as a way to more efficiently expand into that region. …in China, to give just one example, …
Why architects should use their ears more – June 2012 TED talk by sound expert Julian Treasure on the physiological, social, psychological, and behavioral effects of sound. In this short talk, Treasure demonstrates how statistics reflect the sound qualities of space. The louder the spaces, such as hospitals, …
For an all-around design magazine, Wallpaper is among the best. To see their Design Awards 2013 you’ll have to find a February print issue, but visit the website and look around. Two sections to start with are Architecture and Travel where you’ll find a lot on hotels.
The One Conversational Tool That Will Make You Better At Absolutely Everything | Fast Company – a journalist offers great advice on the art of asking questions. It’s part of a series called Creative Conversations. Good questions can move your business, organization, or career forward. They squeeze incremental value from …
Take a peek at the next 150 years – post on Urban Times about predictions of our future. One of the featured infographics is from BBC Future called Tomorrow’s World, looking at computing and robotics, politics and business, science and nature, society, and technology it puts them all on a …
$160K Table By Zaha Hadid Looks Like Rippling Water – architect Zaha Hadid’s 4-part acrylic resin dining table is one of the finalists in the London Design Museum’s Design of the Year 2013 awards. Also noticed, from Wallpaper: “Six Tables on Water’, designed by Gaetano Pesce
Technology Ranks World’s Most Trusted Industry in 2013 – according to the 2013 annual Edelman Trust Barometer. The 13th annual Edelman Trust Barometer is our largest exploration of trust, to date, and the largest survey of its kind. For 2013, we surveyed …
This is another shout-out for the website Designers & Books. Every Tuesday on their blog they post a list from a selected designer of books that have played a significant role in that designer’s thinking (see my previous post about this aspect of the site). It gets better. Take …
A Timeless View From the Cloisters Faces a Modern Intrusion – the view across the Hudson from the Cloisters a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art that makes you feel you’re in medieval Europe, is being threatened by a 143 foot tall headquarters building for LG Electronics that’s being …
Learn more about Bjarke Ingels (B.I.G) – Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, of Bjarke Ingels Gruppe, talks about his work in this collection of 8 videos. A couple of TED talks, one on sustainability, on the design process, the Escher Tower. They’ve got a nice website, too.
IRENA – Global Atlas for Solar & Wind – from the International Renewable Agency, an atlas showing potential for renewable energy around the world with supporting data. Image shown here is Concentrated Solar (DNI), Multiple countries 40 km by NREL. Via CleanTechnia Delivering On Renewable Energy Around The World: How …
Two from Data Center Knowledge: The Evolution of Facebook’s Data Center Cooling (Dec 4, 2012) – Facebook is making changes in a phase of its fresh air cooling system that manages humidity and heat removal. In the first building of its data center campus in North Carolina, Facebook used …
Fireflies Inspire Brighter LEDs – using the jagged scales on a firefly’s abdomen as a guide, researchers from Belgium, France, and Canada have developed an overlay for LED’s that increases light output by 55%. Via ThomasNet’s Industry Market Trends. … the jagged-scale modification can be made post-production on conventional LEDs. …