Design
A small town in Iceland created a “levitating” crosswalk to slow traffic
Instead of installing speed bumps to get drivers to slow down, a city in Iceland recently painted a “floating” pedestrian crossing on the street. The eye-popping optical illusion makes it seem as if the crosswalk is levitating a few inches off the ground. When they get nearer and nearer to this Read More...
Elon Musk shares first photo of Boring Company’s underground LA tunnel
Elon Musk on Saturday shared the very first image of the Boring Company’s underground Los Angeles tunnel that is actively under construction. We’ve known for months now that Musk’s cleverly named tunnel-digging venture has been testing equipment and technology beneath SpaceX’s Read More...
Ride out climate change and rising waters on this beautiful floating home
While the city of Miami is in denial about the threat of climate change, a design firm within the city is getting prepared for the future. They have created an environmentally-friendly yacht that runs on solar energy and can go completely off the grid. For a better look at this beautiful, buoyant Read More...
Google wants to build the neighborhood of the future
Google has a vision for the “21st-century urban neighborhood” and it’s actually planning to build it. The tech-giant announced recently that it wants to build a town called Quayside on Toronto’s Eastern Waterfront that will feature buildings that can be completely reconfigured at speed. Read More...
World’s most sustainable office space opens in London
The new European headquarters of Bloomberg isis being lauded as the greenest office space in the world. For starters, the office building utilizes traditional sustainability solutions, such as a grey water collection system on the roof and vacuum-drainage toilets—just like the ones found on Read More...
Designing suburbs to cut car use closes gaps in health and wealth
Large health inequalities exist in Australia. Car ownership and its costs add to the health inequalities between low-income and high-income households. The physical characteristics of neighborhoods influence our transport use and, in turn, make health inequalities better or Read More...
Octopus-inspired robots: Silicone skin can change texture for "3-D camouflage"
In a flash, an octopus can make like ragged-edged seaweed or coral by changing the color and texture of its skin, thus becoming nearly invisible in its environment. And in the future, robots may be able to pull off this seemingly magical camouflage trick as Read More...
The European cities leading the way in car-free living
The Mayor of London has come under increased pressure in recent weeks to bolster his plans to slash pollution after data revealed all Londoners are exposed to dangerous levels of toxic air. Sadiq Khan has outlined plans to introduce an Ultra-Low Emissions Zone in parts of the city, Read More...
Swedish energy innovation can make any building net zero
Constructing a net zero building from scratch is one thing. Turning existing buildings into net zero structures is a different challenge. A Swedish innovation is using active elements systems, heat pumps, chillers, and solar panels to bring existing buildings to net zero energy consumption. The Read More...
Eco-friendly concrete that protects old buildings from earthquakes
On its own, the cement industry produces close to seven percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. That’s why researchers have created a type of material that replaces much of the cement with an industrial byproduct called fly ash. By replacing nearly 70 percent of cement with this material, the Read More...