A new experimental office on the 12th floor of The Shard in London offers a breath of fresh air … literally. Wrapped in bamboo surfaces and punctuated by living plants, facilities management company Mitie’s headquarters in London was created by local practice DaeWha Kang Design. The biophilic project — dubbed the Living Lab at The Shard — mimics nature from […]
Biophillic Design For Healthier, Happier Workplace
How to Create an Offer Your Potential Client Cannot Turn Down
Being successful in business requires having the ability to close the deal. It involves getting potential clients to say yes, even if they initially respond with a no. Though this seems like it should be relatively easy, especially since you have confidence in your products and services, the reality is that no business has a 100 percent close rate. But […]
First Solared Power Airport
More than 1,000 flights depart out of Cochin International Airport each week. The travel hub is the seventh busiest airport in India, handling more than 10 million passengers every year. Located in the southwestern coastal state of Kerala, it hosts 27 airlines and some three dozen shops and restaurants — and the whole thing runs on solar energy. Cochin International […]
Abandoned Miami Lot Turned Into Beautiful Park
When Meg Daly broke both her arms in an accident four years ago, she put her car keys away and started using the Miami Metrorail. She quickly noticed how much space was not being utilized under the elevated train tracks and from there an idea was born. Daly founded Friends of The Underline with the goal to reinvent the 10-mile […]
Calgary Snowflake Library
Calgary’s new Central Library has just opened its doors to the public — and it’s a thing of elegant, energy-efficient beauty. International architecture firm Snøhetta teamed up with North America-based multidisciplinary design firm DIALOG to create the new main branch of the Calgary Public Library, one of the largest library systems on the continent. Wrapped in a dynamic, triple-glazed facade […]
Conceptual Living On Mars
During a recent Beijing event focused on the future of housing, Open Architecture, in collaboration with Chinese electronics firm Xiaomi, unveiled a tiny shelter for Mars. It’s very conceptual and there’s no suggestion the dwelling will actually be installed on the Red Planet, but it’s interesting to see architects tackle the idea. The Mars Case prototype is inspired by Henry […]
Can Coffee Finally Be Good?
For years, scientists have suspected that drinking coffee helps lessen the chances of getting Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. A new study indicates that this may indeed be the case, and that the darker the roast, the better it works. Led by Dr. Donald Weaver, scientists at Canada’s Krembil Brain Institute compared three types of Starbucks 100-percent Arabica instant coffee – […]
Measuring Blood Oxygen Levels
Currently, if you want to measure someone’s blood oxygen levels, you have to use one of those oximeters that clips onto their finger. An experimental new system, however, is able to check those levels anywhere on the body – and that could mean big things for the field of medicine. Traditional oximeters use LEDs to shine red and near-infrared light […]
Pulped Paper For 3D Printing
With a few notable exceptions, the majority of objects removed from a 3D printer bed are fashioned using plastic. But plastic has a nasty habit of ruining our environment at the end of its useful life. Designer Beer Holthuis looked for a more sustainable alternative, and built a 3D printer that extrudes paper pulp to build three-dimensional objects. Holthuis has […]
Hybrid Airship
It was just last year that we heard about the Plimp, a sort of plane/blimp/helicopter hybrid drone manufactured by Egan Airships. As was hinted at then, the Seattle-based company has now officially announced that it’s working on a passenger-carrying variant known as the Model J. First of all, just how does the original Plimp drone work? Well, it’s basically a […]