Tag Archives: city

This modular shelf unit inspired by the architecture of Bangkok’s storefronts features scissor gates and accordion doors for prime storage!

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Tenement H is a modular cubby storage system inspired by the multifaceted facades of Bangkok shophouses, Tenement H features customizable barriers that range from scissor gates to accordion doors, shutters, and railings.

Tiny living is no easy feat for city dwellers. A lot of planning and organization goes into ensuring that you’re making the most out of the small space in your studio apartment. Many look to modular organizers to bring just the right amount of customization and storage capacity to their small city spaces. San Design, a design group based in Bangkok, created Tenement H, a modular organizer inspired by Thailand’s architecture, for 2021’s Bangkok Design Week’s Design Plant Exhibition.

Tenement H is a modular cubby storage system that reflects the exhibition’s ‘domestic’ theme. Inspired by the multifaceted facades of Bangkok shophouses, Tenement H features customizable barriers that range from scissor gates to accordion doors, shutters, and railings. Constructed from aluminum, Tenement H is modular and versatile by design, allowing access to the storage units from all sides and multifunctional as a semi-partition for your room as well. Coated in glossy optic white, scarlet red, and light blue, the modules of Tenement H mimic the color scheme of Bangkok’s city storefronts. Each unit can be configured according to what your space allows–for smaller spaces, Tenement H can be built up vertically while larger spaces would allow for a wider base.

Small city spaces require lots of primary planning and organization. As life goes on, our living spaces clutter with all of the things we pick up day-to-day. Modular organizers make for ideal vertical storage systems that take up a small amount of space while decluttering the rest of the room. Tenement H is a multifunctional storage unit that implements aspects of and reflects Bangkok’s cityscape in an ode to small city living.

Designer: San Design

Tenement H is built on an easy stacking system that allows for endless configurations and storage. 

Tenement H’s color scheme reflects the vibrancy of Bangkok’s storefronts and city centers. 

Each module comes with a different closing mechanism, ranging from scissor gates to accordion doors and shutters.

Scissor gates are a familiar sight for most storefronts and have a secure feel that makes storing items feel more secure.

This Garden City shaped like a crescent moon will bring sustainable living to the suburbs of Paris

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Titled the ‘Garden City of the Crescent Moon’, this eco-urban project by architecture studio Rescubika locates itself on the eastern fringes of Paris within the Bois de Vincennes, the city’s largest public park. Although conceptual for now, the hypothetical project explores how new health, ecological, energy, climate, and sociological challenges will help redefine architecture and urban environments.

The self-sustaining mini-city is built around the Lac des Minimes, a naturally occurring lake, following its crescent shape and embracing the surrounding islands. Rescubika’s lead architect Benoit Patterlini describes the city as addressing two main themes: Proximity and Instantaneity.

The theme of proximity focuses on self-reliance by putting all aspects needed for sustenance within the boundaries of the city. This meant embracing urban agriculture on a massive scale. “First of all, urban agriculture allows us to produce food within the city”, says Benoit. “Whether it is yards, roofs, or even public spaces, they can be used to produce basic commodities such as corn, beans as well as herbs and spices, etc., and make cattle breeding directly in town, such as dairy production activities.” This would then foster the rise of local shops and markets, bringing citizens closer to their local markets and communities, and allowing all necessary resources to be within ‘proximal distance’ of the residents. On a side note, urban agriculture would also help improve soil quality and reduce air pollution, promoting healthier living.

The idea of instantaneity is ‘purely related to being able to enjoy urban facilities’. A direct result of the proximity built into the city’s design, Rescubika hopes the Garden City’s dwellers will rediscover the notion of time, given that all of the city’s hallmarks, from its offices to houses, recreational spaces, sports complexes, and cultural facilities, are just a heartbeat away from each other.

The fact that the Garden City was envisioned on the outskirts of Paris is very telling. It isn’t just about creating a model city where there’s ample space for construction, it’s also emblematic of a revival, a redefinition of the city as we know it… designed to exist outside of the ‘old city’ area of Paris, both literally and figuratively.

Designer: Benoit Patterlini, Rescubika

This autonomous shuttle bus reimagines last-mile commute with informative graphics and a minimal, transparent design

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Modern architecture constantly reimagines what cities might look like in the future, but public transportation still lives in an era of antiquated buses and faulty subway trains. Weaving between smart office buildings and shiny skyscrapers in a packed bus from the ‘90s proves that public transportation could use some reimagining of its own. Designing Campus Shuttle as a mobility concept to connect busy drop-off/pick-up areas, student designers Kilian Wiesmann and Nils Achenbach aimed to rethink public transportation through a transparent and autonomous public bus.

The designers prioritized versatility and accessibility with Campus Shuttle to ensure a smooth ride for everyone. From the outside, wheelchair access is made available via a retractable ramp that bridges the edge of the curb with the shuttle entrance. Curated animations and LED signal lights communicate with other vehicles on the road through autonomous programming. Built from curved glass panels and an aluminum framework, Campus Shuttle is a fully transparent, four-wheeled vehicle.

Getting inside the Campus Shuttle is also as easy as unlocking your smartphone. Using proximity sensors located in the shuttle’s sliding doors, commuters are granted access to the shuttle by scanning their ticket’s barcode or by paying for a ticket through Google or Apple Pay. Retractable seats line the perimeter of Campus Shuttle’s interior space, offering flexibility and creating more space when necessary. Situated in the center of the vehicle, an interactive information hub helps commuters become familiar with the shuttle route and surrounding city.

Campus Shuttle is designed to carry commuters between high-traffic pick-up/drop-off areas throughout major cities, such as airports, campus and office buildings, and public markets. The designers explain,” Our trend research phase has shown a remarkable inefficiency of transport in big cities. Individual traffic takes up a lot of space. In addition, the number of passenger cars in Germany has grown relatively steadily by half a million vehicles annually over the past two decades, from 450 cars per 1,000 inhabitants in 1998 to 560 cars per 1,000 inhabitants in 2018.” Designed to bring public transportation out of the ’50s, Campus Shuttle boasts a futuristic, sleek profile.

In cooperation with Brose Mechatronics, Wiesmann and Achenbach conceptualized Campus Shuttle to be a city staple for the public transportation industry. Designed with five curved glass panels that surround aluminum beams, Campus Shuttle maintains a minimal look. When in motion, Campus Shuttle almost appears to hover above the ground, linking a vision of futuristic public transportation with contemporary architectural landscapes. Personally, I see it as a nightrider in the dark, hovering above the street in sleek lighting. Campus Shuttle’s low-rise build makes it appear to hover above the ground when in motion.

Campus Shuttle was built to be versatile and accessible, so the designers implemented the most cutting-edge smart technology into the shuttle’s autonomous design. Pre-programmed signal lights and wheelchair access ramps add Campus Shuttle’s overall safety factor. These design elements specifically focus on the local users, “The university consists of several remote buildings that can be challenging to reach by foot, especially for students and staff with disabilities. This is exactly the challenge we took on with our concept vehicle: Linking extensive areas like universities, company facilities, airports, and trade fairs.”

With a traditional interior bus design, Campus Shuttle is familiar enough for commuters to intuitively understand and the modernization of the design makes it more accessible, giving a win-win situation that is sure to be appreciated by all users!

Designers: Kilian Wiesmann & Nils Achenbach

This botanical garden’s petal-inspired, hexagonal-laced glass roof brings biodiversity to the city!

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Botanical gardens in big cities always seem to help take us out of the monotonous droll of city living, weaving us through walks of native plant life and educational tours that teach us about plant cultivation and preservation. Bringing a touch of green to Magok, South Korea, Seoul Botanic Garden was designed and built to create an educational and public space that harbors flora and cultural insight from twelve tropic and Mediterranean cities across the globe.

Positioned on the southwestern side of the Han River in the Magok neighborhood of Seoul, the new botanic garden’s location was chosen partly due to the region’s pastoral history. Blossoming a safe distance away from the surrounding marshlands, Seoul Botanic Garden’s rippled, concave roof emulates the formation of a flower’s petals, particularly mimicking the shape of a Rose of Sharon’s petal bed. The 100-m wide concave dish acts as the structure’s roof, shelters the park’s guests, and by resembling the structure of a plant’s petal bed, offers a visually enhanced experience alongside the blooming plant life indoors.

Typically, the roof of a greenhouse takes the form of a convex dome, the roof’s pitch being the highest point inside the structure. However, the delicate rim of Seoul Botanic Garden’s hexagon-laced glass roof remains higher than its indented central point. Inside the greenhouse, plant life from 12 major cities across the globe, including Athens, Greece, and São Paulo, Brazil burst from every sunspot inside the disc-shaped indoor garden. Celebrated as South Korea’s first botanic park built inside a city, Seoul Botanic Garden traverses 500,000 square meters of land, comprising a greenhouse, forest, lake, and wetland.

Designer: Samoo Architects & Engineers

Garbed with a concave roof that mimics a flower’s petal bed, Seoul Botanic Garden uses the roof’s resemblance with nature to evoke a 3D experience for the garden’s guests.

A diamond-dotted skirt wraps the sides of Seoul Botanic Garden to reference the traditional facades found on greenhouses.

Inside, plant life busts at the greenhouse’s seams, covering flora from twelve major cities across the globe, primarily taken from tropical and Mediterranean climates.

Pools of water punctuate the floors of Seoul Botanic Garden, expanding the center’s overall biodiversity.

Inside, sinuous interior design harkens back to the structure of plants.

From an aerial perspective, Seoul Botanic Garden holds an impressive, closed roof that echos the shape of hibiscus flowers native to the country.

Toyota Goes EPCOT with Its Own Prototype City of the Future

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Not too long ago, I visited with Toyota in Tokyo to learn about their plans to transform from an automotive company into a mobility company – concerning themselves with all of the different ways that people need to get around, and not just cars and trucks anymore. As part of this massive initiative, Toyota now plans on building out an entire prototype city of the future.

The company has announced it will create its Woven City at the foot of Japan’s iconic Mt. Fuji, on a 175-acre parcel of land. The plan is to build the small city in such a way that it can be used as a testbed for all kinds of new technologies, including autonomy, robotics, personal mobility, smart homes, alternative energy, and artificial intelligence.

The city is being designed by Danish architect, Bjarke Ingels pf Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), whose team also worked on 2 World Trade Center, the LEGO House, and Google’s headquarters. Sustainability will be a key component of its design, from its construction materials and techniques, to its energy and food supplies.

At this point, Toyota hasn’t shared too many specifics, but the city will act as what the company calls a “living laboratory,” which will also test things like a hydrogen-powered infrastructure, and high-tech construction and manufacturing technologies.

In many ways, this prototype community is what Walt Disney originally envisioned for EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow), though we all know that project ended up turning into a World’s Fair style theme park, rather than a living and working city. Toyota’s project looks to be much more of a true research community, initially starting with 2000 residents, and then growing from there.

Of course, with a project this ambitious, Toyota will partner up with other companies who want to test out their technologies as well, and to that end they are accepting inquiries from potential partners on the Woven City website.

Toyota hasn’t given any indication yet as to how long it might take to build Woven City, but the groundbreaking is set for 2021. I’m really excited to see this come together, and what kind of innovation comes out of the city of the future.

Uber and Lyft admit they’re making city traffic worse

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Uber and Lyft may be competitors but as the two major ridesharing companies, they also have a lot in common -- including the challenges they face. To better understand their role in city traffic patterns, the companies jointly sponsored a study to de...

Oakland bans city use of facial recognition software

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Oakland, Calif. is now the third US city to ban the use of facial recognition technology. The city passed an ordinance yesterday that prohibits the use of the technology on the grounds that it is often inaccurate, potentially invasive and lacks stand...

A ransomware attack is holding Baltimore’s networks hostage

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A ransomware attack brought Baltimore city government's computers to a halt yesterday. The hackers are reportedly holding the city's files hostage, demanding up to 13 Bitcoins (about $76,280) to free the city's systems. As of this afternoon, the city...

LEGO Pro Builds Manhattan in Bricks

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LEGO Certified Professional Ryan “The Brickman” McNaught has created something awe-inspiring. It’s a complete representation of Lower Manhattan made entirely out of LEGO Bricks. The entire city was built using with 210,000 white bricks.

The 1/600-scale city’s layout is said to be incredibly accurate. Ryan and his team built the city using an overhead projector that tossed satellite imagery onto their build space. The goal was to ensure that each building in the LEGO replica aligned with its real-world counterpart.

All the real city streets are there as well. The design and build of the city took 572 hours. Another 200 hours was spent by the team at Projection Teknik to map the entire LEGO Manhattan in 3D and created an intricate projection that can throw lights onto the buildings.

You can check out more of Ryan’s incredible LEGO work on his Flickr photostream.

[via Brothers Brick]

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