Vacancy! One of four room styles at treehotel, a new hotel complex composed entirely of outlandish tree houses, the “mirrorcube” is situated 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle in Sweden. Looking somewhat like a hunting blind for the creature in the Predator movies, the mirrorcube hangs around a single tree trunk, about 30 feet above the ground.
Bagel vs. baguette, subway vs. metro, un petit cafe vs. grande frappuccino. Graphic designer Vahram Muratyan, having recently moved from Paris to NYC, shares with us his realizations of the quaint little idiosyncratic iconography that most of us overlook, these cosmopolitan ambassadors of salt, pepper and tarragon.
“Paris versus New York: a tally of two cities” is Vahram’s blog, where you will find the rest of his minimalist depictions and contradictions.
Sixteen months after breaking ground in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the world’s first commercial spaceport “Spaceport America” celebrated this weekend with a launch party for the facility’s two-mile-long runway (watch the ceremony here). A partnership between the State of New Mexico and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, the spaceport has been providing commercial satellite launch services for the past few years, and will soon begin its much-anticipated space tourism flights, ferrying lucky (and wealthy) customers into suborbital space for a few minutes of weightlessness and a remarkable view of our planet.
Studio Gang made waves on the international architecture scene last year with their award-winning design for the new Aqua Tower in Chicago. Like many of the firm’s previous projects, the Aqua was designed to foster a strong connection to the outdoors and the surrounding environment. To this end, the building features outside terraces, integrated solar shading, and one of the largest green roofs in Chicago (btw, Chicago has more green roofs than any other major city on Earth). Building on their environmental roots, the Gang has also developed a radical plan to incorporate sustainable produce gardens into densely urban environments.
Friends, nerds, countrymen, lend me your ears. More portable than folding bicycles and more respectable than (most) mopeds, Focus Designs‘ new Self-balancing Unicycle (SBU), keeps you upright and cruising with a similar accelerometer/gyroscope stabilization set-up as the Segway, and an innovative in-hub motor.
Radical Cartography is the website of historian and cartographer, Bill Rankin. Currently working on a PhD at Harvard, Rankin has done considerable research on the changing technologies of cartography (map making) and navigation in the twentieth century. His mapping activity is focused on reimagining everyday urban and territorial geographies by pushing techniques of statistical information design and rethinking everyday cartographic conventions.
Rankin’s maps help us visualize racial divides in Chicago (as featured below), university campuses surrounding Boston, building heights in Manhattan, the spread of agriculture over the past 300 years, and the location of every nuclear explosion around the world since 1945.
Imagine if your local bus stop enabled you to check your e-mail, share community information on a digital message board or check the weather forecast? Even better, what if it could tell you the exact location and time of arrival of that bus that you’re waiting for?
Ever wonder how rappers come up with their stage names? We’ve chilled with the Ices: Ice-T, Ice Cube, Vanilla Ice. Have been graced by royalty: Queen Latifah, Sir Mix-a-lot, the Fresh Prince. And got a bit funky with the Lil’s: Lil’ Wayne, Lil’ Kim, Lil’ Romeo. Spend some time squinting at this new infographic from Brooklyn design shop Pop Chart Lab to see the connections between 266 nom de plumes (consider using your browser’s zoom for a better look).
While buzz around the rumored Facebook phone reaches a fever pitch, a smartphone concept called the Mozilla Seabird has surfaced and given us a glimpse into the possible future of mobile devices.
Well architects Studio Gang have designed an entire high rise building based on that optimum angle with solar access and shading as its core concept.
Matt Forcey
Watch. Read. Repeat. 