Tag Archives: Icon

BIG & ICON teamed up to create this desert-inspired campground hotel in Texas

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Danish studio BIG and 3D-construction firm ICON collaborated to create a design campground and housing project called El Cosmico. The project was constructed for hotelier Liz Lambert in Marfa, Texas. The project will occupy almost 60 acres and will include not all the hotel, but some permanent housing as well. The structures will be heavily inspired by the desert landscape, and the work BIG did with NASA for moon-based structures.

Designer: BIG x ICON

“We’d spent some time doing research on what construction on Mars and the moon would look like and it was quite clear that additive manufacturing like 3D printing was probably the only viable option. We also already sort of created some visuals where you could see the tectonics of 3D printing combined, in the case of Mars, with the red tones of Martain regoliths, you ended up with something that felt like a kind of vernacular architecture. The cementitious material of 3D printing created this texture that reminded me of some of the handcrafted teeth details you find on traditional adobe houses,” said BIG founder Bjarke Ingels.

The El Cosmico will feature structures that mimic parabolic huts and will be 3D-printed using a concrete mix that matches the color of the desert. The structures will give a rather natural and smooth appearance to the entire project. “Because of 3D printing and robotic approaches to construction, these kinds of living architectures, organic forms, have a much more human aesthetic. So even though it’s made by a robot, it has a much more human aesthetic,” continued Ingels.

Besides the hotel accommodation, the property will also include a series of homes that are constructed using tube-like shapes grouped together to create clusters that will function as a series of rooms. This circular theme will also be executed at the pool, where a series of 3D-printed cabanas will be positioned. “We are a little bit at the dawn of 3D printing at the scale of buildings, there’s still a great opportunity to explore what architecture languages can sprout from this new possibility. I think that the whole family of structures that we’ve created for El Cosmico at Marfa is like a first exploration of that emerging vernacular,” Ingels concluded.

The post BIG & ICON teamed up to create this desert-inspired campground hotel in Texas first appeared on Yanko Design.

These gaming controller’s buttons transform your smartphone using suction to stick buttons to your screen!

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Controllers aren’t called controllers for nothin’– they not only control the game, but they provide the tool necessary to even play the game in the first place. Everything from the texture to the placement of buttons affects the game and it’s not a one-size-fits-all sort of deal either. Different games feel better to play when certain controllers are used. To build a new, adaptable gaming experience and to help declutter our controller cabinet, Juan Lee conceptualized Icon, a new customizable controller.

Icon consists of two handheld motion controllers capable of registering any one of the six provided control modules that prompt any given movement within a video game. Through magnetic linkage, the control modules, which are made from micro-suction rubber, can easily be attached and detached from the motion controllers. For example, when playing Super Smash Bros. Melee, a user can integrate the directional module into one of the motion controllers so that their character can easily change direction, jump up and down, and attack Luigi. The motion controllers come equipped with Bluetooth to connect to either your smartphone or smart television, also allowing for wireless gameplay.

Further incorporating the use of smartphones by means of an accompanying app, Lee designed Icon so that the control modules can also be attached to your smartphone’s touchscreen and registered as a controller when playing any given video game. Icon’s handheld carrying case doubles as a charging case so whenever you’re not playing Super Smash Bros. Melee, Icon can charge up and be ready for Luigi’s demise in Mushroom Kingdom whenever you’re ready.

Designer: Juan Lee

NASA + BIG are working on a sustainable 3D printed moon habitat using moon dust to reduce waste!

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While Mars missions are getting all the media and sci-fi attention, a trusty celestial friend is making a comeback as an option for hosting human colonies outside Earth – it is our moon! Bjarke Ingle’s BIG and 3D-printed building company ICON are working on Project Olympus – a mission to develop robotic construction for the moon.

Bjarke Ingles is the Elon Musk of the architectural world, he loves to explore the impossible and has a penchant for designs that can help save mankind right from his environmentally friendly buildings to Project Olympus. Project Olympus is about finding a way to create a 3D-printed infrastructure for living on the moon using materials found on its surface. Why do we need a habitat on the moon? So that we can launch sustained lunar exploration missions where the astronauts will be able to stay comfortably and carry out their research for extended time periods. The project has also enlisted SEArch+ (Space Exploration Architecture) after it received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) government contract boosted with funding from NASA.

“With ICON we are pioneering new frontiers – both materially, technologically and environmentally. To explain the power of architecture, ‘formgiving’ is the Danish word for design, which literally means to give form to that which has not yet been given form. This becomes fundamentally clear when we venture beyond Earth and begin to imagine how we are going to build and live on entirely new worlds,” said Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG.

Making a habitat base on the moon is no ordinary construction project. There are many factors at play – it is an inhospitable environment with only a fifth of Earth’s gravity and none of its atmosphere, plus it will have to be created almost entirely from locally available materials i.e. moon dust which will be sustainable and reduce waste! Working with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the team will use a simulant of moon soil to experiment with 3D-printable construction.

“3D printing with indigenous materials is a sustainable and versatile solution to off-world construction that will prove to be vital to our future here on Earth and in Outer Space. The habitat will be designed with the inherent redundancy required for extraterrestrial buildings, while also using groundbreaking robotic construction that uses only in-site resources with zero-waste left behind,” SEArch+ added. A by-product of all the developmental research and experiments being conducted for Project Olympus is that it will also reveal new ways to build more sustainably on Earth while reducing the construction industry’s carbon footprint.

BIG is a perfect fit for this project as they have previously designed a simulation of Mars called Mars Science City in Dubai. ICON too was a finalist in NASA’s 3D printed habitat challenge with many innovative projects under its belt and SEArch+ is an architecture firm that has worked with NASA for a long time on human-centered designs for space exploration making this a complete dream team. *Plays Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me to the Moon*

Designers: BIG, ICON, and SEArch+

Windows 10 icons are getting an overdue redesign

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Microsoft refreshed Office's icons last year, and now it's Windows 10's turn. The software giant is rolling out updates to the icons for Windows 10's core apps over the months ahead, starting with the Calendar and Mail apps in a new Release Preview...

Pass Tinder’s catfish test and you’ll get verified

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In an attempt to deter catfishing, or that awkward moment when you show up for a date and the other person looks nothing like their photos, Tinder is introducing a new Photo Verification feature. The tool will compare a series of real-time posed self...

The world’s first 3D printed community designed by fuseproject is unveiled!

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Nonprofit New Story, tech company ICON and design studio fuseproject collaborated to bring an end to global homelessness…or to at least kickstart the beginning of its end. How did they do so? They recently unveiled the world’s first 3D-printed neighborhood in Tabasco, Southern Mexico.

Yves Béhar and his studio fuseproject designed the homes by directly collaborating and working with the families they were being built for. “As we spoke to the community members, we realized that a single house design doesn’t respond to the needs and expectations,” said Béhar. “This led us to design a system that allows for different programs, climate factors, and growth for families and spaces.” The community members were included in the selection of the land and throughout the planning process, to ensure their housing requirements were met. The end result will be a lively 3D-printed neighborhood of fifty 500-square-foot, single-storey houses for the poorest communities who are always the last to benefit from innovation and technology.

ICON issued its Vulcan II printer for the purpose at hand. In 24 hours a base cement home with walls is built, with roofs, doors, and windows added later on. Vulcan II’s functionality is foolproof against rainfall, power shortages and most dilemmas in rural areas. The quaint homes consist of two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. Textured walls, subtle colors, and slanted roofs mark the exteriors of the homes. The slanted roof provides protection against intense rainfall. And the strong base and walls will support the structure against seismic activity. Made from ICON’s Lavacrete material and concrete, the homes are guaranteed to be sturdy and strong.

A cute little patio and a sheltered front porch provide spaces for interaction between the family and community members. Béhar designed the interiors to facilitate open ventilation. Each home has been equipped with electrical and water supply, and at 400 Mexican pesos a month for seven years, with zero interest and profit mortgage, the community members have a safe haven that will extend for generations. By next year, all fifty homes should be standing tall, creating a safe space for the poorer communities, and taking us one step closer to ending global homelessness. Kudos to the efforts of New Story, ICON and fuseproject!

Designer: Yves Béhar of fuseproject, New Story and ICON

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