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These Old Bridges Will Become Inverted High-Rise Communities, Complete With Gorgeous View

Posted date: 9:19 PM / comment : 0

Apartments, stores, and even a school are planned as a way to reuse a set of dramatic concrete viaducts in southern Italy. From the entrance on top of the bridge, you hit the down button to descend.

At the tip of southern Italy, along an old highway that winds through the mountains, a series of huge concrete bridges will eventually be turned into vertically stacked neighborhoods--as long as the government can come up with the cash to build the project.
Four years ago, the local government decided to take a section of the highway out of use and build a new main road. They held a design competition to find a way to reuse the old infrastructure, especially the dramatic concrete viaducts that run between hills. The winning idea: A design that adds new housing, offices, and stores directly into each bridge.


“The government was asking for a sustainable way to preserve the bridges,” says Manal Rachdi of Oxo Architecture, who worked on the design with Samuel Nageotte, Philippe Rizzotti, and Tanguy Vermet. “The bridges were so beautiful, and their position was so strategic, that we wanted to turn them into housing.”
Each apartment or office will be set into a space between the existing bridge structure, so from a distance, the form of the bridge will look the same. On top, one part of the bridge will be turned into a pedestrian promenade, while another part will still be used for local traffic so residents can drive home.
“I call it an inverted high-rise,” says Rachdi. “In a high rise you come from downstairs and go up. In this, you have your car waiting for you upstairs, and you go maybe 150 feet down to get to your apartment.”


Because of the dramatic shape of the surrounding land, every part of the "vertical village" has an incredible view of the sea or nearby farms and forests. The architects envision it as a way to bring new residents to the area--likely retirees from Northern Europe who want to enjoy Calabria's balmy climate--and help build the local economy in a way that's as environmentally sustainable as possible.
All of the power will come from geothermal energy, thanks to the fact that a volcano is nearby. Since offices and perhaps even schools will be built into the bridge, most people should be able to walk to take care of basic needs. "The idea is to turn it into something like a city within the bridge," says Rachdi. None of the surrounding land will be impacted, since the structures will be wrapped into the existing bridges.
But the challenge is finding the money to build the project. Other construction projects on the same highway have been a huge source of controversy: The EU discovered that grants for repairs and new roads were spent fraudulently, and a couple of years ago, required the Italian government to repay hundreds of millions of dollars. The local economy is struggling as well. It's unclear when, or if, the vertical villages will actually be funded.
If they are, the architects are ready to go. "We’re waiting for Italy to get back on track so we can start again," says Rachdi.

International Team Develops Real-time Structural Sensors

Posted date: 9:29 PM / comment : 0 ,

International Team Develops Real-time Structural Sensors
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Cracks in critical steel and concrete structural members
Cracks in critical steel and concrete structural members could be detected far earlier using nanotechnology-based, real-time sensors that are being developed and tested in Iowa and Italy. Wikimedia Commons/Achim Hering
Teams in Iowa and Italy collaborate to develop two different sensor technologies that will enable real time monitoring of large, complex structures.

April 1, 2014—Researchers in Ames, Iowa, and Perugia, Italy, are working collaboratively on separate nanocomposite materials technologies to measure the performance of large structures in real time and alert authorities to changes brought on by strain. The technology has the potential to provide alerts about such critical structural changes as cracks months or even years before they might have been discovered by visual inspections.

At Iowa State University, a team led by Simon Laflamme, Ph.D., A.M.ASCE, an assistant professor of civil, construction, and environmental engineering, is developing a soft elastomeric capacitor (SEC) system—a surface covering that mimics human skin’s sensing capability.

At the University of Perugia, a team led by assistant professor Filippo Ubertini, Ph.D., is developing a carbon nanotube, cement-based sensor (CNTCS). The carbon nanotubes are embedded in cement paste, either during casting or later by mortar application. Ubertini is currently focused on adding nanotubes to historical structures to monitor any changes following such extreme events as earthquakes.

“In both cases, they are similar in a sense that strain would provoke a change in geometry in the material,” Laflamme explains. “For the CNTCS, it’s a strain in the cement paste itself. Strain provokes a change in geometry, and a change in geometry provokes a change in [the] conductivity of the material.” The system can be likened to a resistor; the electrical resistance of the cement paste changes based on the geometry of the strain.

“The SEC is similar, except a change in geometry on the skin will provoke a change in the capacitance,” Laflamme says. “We have two different pieces of electronics here. One is a resistor, the other is a capacitor.”

Both research teams are focusing on deploying their technology on a large scale. Laflamme notes that currently available technologies are either not economically feasible for large-scale applications or provide a data stream that is too complex to quickly analyze and distill into actionable information.

“We want to be able to deploy our technology on very large surfaces. Think of any civil infrastructure, or even mechanical systems,” says Laflamme, who is currently working with both the wind turbine industry and the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) to develop specific applications of his SEC.

“With our technology, we are trying to develop sensing solutions around an application,” Laflamme says. “An example of that is the project we have funded by the Iowa DOT. They would like to deploy the skin on key areas of a steel bridge. A skin would be able to detect and localize fatigue cracks. Fatigue cracks are very important to any DOT.” The SEC would also be able to provide the location and size of any cracks detected.

“It really beats visual inspections,” Laflamme notes, because visual inspections are conducted only a specific schedule, and fatigue cracks can appear any time—even soon after an inspection—and grow worse over time.

In the summer of 2013, researchers from the two schools met in Italy for a test of the two technologies utilizing a concrete beam. The tests revealed that both technological approaches work well in what Laflamme terms a basic test. Perhaps more importantly, the collaboration allowed each team to combine their strengths in different areas to advance the work of both.

“Our experience was quite complementary,” Laflamme says. “We were both able to advance our solutions to the next level by discussing and giving feedback on what is happening with each other’s technologies. It was phenomenal. When you do these exchanges, you have the opportunity to really focus for the time you are there. We were there for a full week of brainstorming, discussions, tests, and data analysis.”

The team recently published the paper “Novel Nanocomposite Technologies for Dynamic Monitoring of Structures: a Comparison between Cement-Based Embeddable and Soft Elastomeric Surface Sensors” in the journal Smart Materials and Structures. Other papers are being developed, and the two teams plan to continue their collaboration. The next steps in the development of the technologies are to test for the ability to localize damages, develop a large-scale test project, and formulate a method to quantify the cost savings that the technology might offer to infrastructure stakeholders.

“How do your prove that a sensing technology will make you save money by increasing the lifecycle of the structure? To me it’s intuitive. [But] if someone asks for data, we don’t have much,” Laflamme says. “So there is some work to be done in demonstrating that there is an important rate of return on investment for sensing solutions.”

Site Size, Zoning Influence Tower Design

Posted date: 9:33 PM / comment : 0



A new 748 ft tall twisting tower accommodates two hotels—one on top of another—in New York City’s crowded theater district.
March 11, 2014—In late 2013, two new hotels opened in New York City’s theater district in Manhattan. The hotels are located on the same site and are stacked one on top of the other—resulting in a 748 ft tall tower. Twisting as it ascends skyward, the tower’s design was specifically crafted to fit within the small size of the site while meeting city zoning code restrictions.
The skyscraper houses two Marriott properties—a 261-room Residence Inn by Marriott and a 378-room Courtyard by Marriott—in its 68 above-grade and two below-grade floors. The first through third floors are public areas for the Residence Inn, the fourth floor is a public area for the Courtyard, and the fifth floor houses a bar and lounge for both hotels. Above that, the 6th through 33rd floors are designated to the Courtyard, while the 37th through 68th floors accommodate the Residence Inn. A shared health club is located on the floors between the two hotels, while the building’s two below-ground levels house a conference center and support facilities, also for both hotels.
G Holdings LLC, a privately held New York City-based development and property management firm led by chief executive officer and chairman Harry Gross, owns the tower. The firm held an informal design competition and as a result of that process, selected Nobutaka Ashihara Architect, PC, headquartered in New York City, to design the project. The architects were challenged with designing an approximately 400,000 sq ft building on a site that occupies just 10,000 sq ft. Achieving the desired square footage required a tall tower. “It is a very small site, but they wanted to build a building with enough area for a more than 600-room hotel,” says Nobutaka Ashihara, AIA, the president of Nobutaka Ashihara Architect. “To achieve that, the building is [nearly] 40 times the site area.”
The tower is located at 1717 Broadway, overlooking Times Square. At the corner of Broadway and 54th Street, the site is part of a city zoning area known as the Special Midtown District, which limits how much of the sky a building is permitted to block from ground-level view and the amount of shadow it is allowed to cast. The tower’s twisted form is designed to meet those restrictions. “The first component of our building is the first floor to fifth floor, then above that is one hotel, above that is another hotel, and above that is a five- to six-story high cube,” Ashihara explains. “Each element is not lining up with the other; it’s almost rotating or twisting. That gives you a very unique architectural expression and reduces the amount of the shadow, as required by the zoning requirement.” 
The tower’s twisting shape and glass facade limit the amount of shadow the building casts on the streets below
The tower’s twisting shape and glass facade limit the amount of
shadow the building casts on the streets below, a requirement of
the city’s zoning codes. Nobutaka Ashihara Architect, PC
Most buildings in New York City occupy just 10 to 15 times their footprint area, so constructing one that is 37 times its land area is quite unusual, Ashihara says. Despite zoning restrictions, the team was able to provide so much floor area by relying on a part of the New York City building code that allows developers to purchase and transfer development rights from low-rise buildings to high-rise projects. “We used a technique called an ‘air-rights transfer,’ meaning that if there is leftover space next door, you can actually buy that and then that area can be applied to our site,” Ashihara explains. “At this particular location …there are lots of one-story tall Broadway theaters, so there is leftover building area above them. And within this particular zoning district, you can actually transfer the remaining air right space from faraway places, not just next door. That’s how we achieved the huge area.”
Although the designers weren’t striving to obtain the title, the tower is the tallest hotel-only building in the North America. Because of its height and relative thinness, a wind tunnel test revealed that the tower initially swayed significantly under wind loads. A large water tank was incorporated into the cube at the top of the tower to reduce the swaying. “By putting this huge water tank on top of the building, if the building sways toward the right, the water is going to go left, so they compensate for each other,” Ashihara explains. The other benefit of the water tower is that if the building ever catches fire, the water can be used to help put out the flames. “Many projects don’t use water to stabilize a building, but the reason we are interested in the water is, God forbid, if somebody set fire to something, we can just dump all of the water from the top,” Ashihara notes.
The tower is framed in reinforced concrete. To increase its structural stability, the tower’s columns, shear walls, and central core are connected by outriggers, which are located at the top of each of the two hotel towers. Each outrigger is approximately one floor high, so the building’s mechanical systems are situated at those locations. Ashihara says, “This building is very tall and slender, but by tying the structural elements together, you increase the strength and stability of the building.” The New York-based structural office of WSP Global, Inc., an international engineering firm headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, served as the structural engineer on the project.
The tower is clad in energy-efficient, double-glazed glass and each hotel room has a floor-to-ceiling window. The glass affords views to Times Square and nearby Central Park, and helps reduce the amount of shadow the building casts on the surrounding streets. But despite the tower’s glass facade and prominent location, it is designed to be private enough to provide respite from the bustling city streets, Ashihara says. “We were challenged with designing an extremely private space in the middle of an extremely public area,” he says. “For our hotel, the transition from the public to the private is carefully coordinated so people will feel very comfortable.”
The $319-million tower officially opened at the end of December 2013. Ashihara says he hopes people who visit the hotels find them safe, secure, and serene and enjoy their central location in the heart of New York City’s theater district. “If people will actually enjoy the private space, that is the basic goal of our design,” he says.

17,000-Ton Swing Bridge Built Above Railway in China

Posted date: 9:26 PM / comment : 0 ,

The mammoth overpass section was first built separately by Chinese engineers at a site adjacent to the high speed railway line, before being hoisted onto a 15-metre high axis at right angles to the rest of the elevated motorway.
The section was then deftly swivelled into its correct alignment by engineers, covering 106 degrees in the space of just 90 minutes.
Swing bridges are essentially movable bridges that are held in place by a vertical locating pin and a support ring, which enables the structures to swivel around horizontally.
The construction of the overpass marks the first occasion that this sophisticated engineering technique has been employed in modern China.
china swing bridge
Because the primary structural support bears aloft the bridge section either at or close to its centre of gravity, no counterweights are required to facilitate movement, which makes swing bridges significantly lighter than other moveable bridges structures.
Swing bridges are most commonly used to support roads or rail lines that pass over rivers or canals at right angles, enabling trains or automobiles to traverse the water feature as well as boats go past the bridge by alternating the alignment of its span.
In the case of the Wuhan overpass section, however, the swing bridge has been employed as a one-off construction technique  in order to avoid disrupting the high speed railway line which is situated beneath the elevated motorway and which was deemed too critical a transportation route to be temporarily closed.
The Chinese debut of this ingenious building method certainly provided passengers travelling on the high speed line with a stunning spectacle. One photo captured the moment that a high-speed train passed almost directly beneath the overpass as it was meticulously rotated into place by engineers.

This Is What Parks Could Look Like in 2034

Posted date: 7:24 PM / comment : 0 ,

City planners from Seattle to Seoul are dreaming up some remarkable designs for future parks. It seems after years of neglect, we are finally recognizing how critical green spaces are to the economic, environmental and social lifeblood of cities.
In New York City alone, the Bloomberg administration made $5 billion in capital investments in the city's parks over his tenure. It's part of a growing philosophy that every urbanite should have access to green space.
“Just having one big park somewhere in the city is no indicator of anything really," said Jonathan Woetzel, a director at McKinsey and sustainable cities expert. "What matters is being able to have some green in your life every day.”
So what will a day in the park look like in 20 years?
Here’s a glimpse at some of the biggest trends shaping the parks of the future around the world:
Parks Will Get Built Underground:
Lowline - New York City
When crowded cities like New York run out of space, sometimes the answer lies beneath our feet. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the LowLine's creators are working with the MTA and the city to convert an abandoned, underground trolley station into a state-of-the-art, solar-panel-illuminated, $55 million park. 
lowline after
Popdown - London
Similar to the Lowline, Pop Down would repurpose an abandoned network of tunnels under London to create a park and mushroom farm.
popdown
Ghost Metro Stations - Paris
Paris already uses some of its abandoned metro stations for homeless shelters and movie sets, but now a new Paris mayoral candidate has proposed a bold reuse of some subterranean spaces. Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet has an idea to leverage some of the city's "ghost" stations to create Paris' next tourist attractions -- from pools to art galleries to nightclubs. Oui, s'il vous plaît.
ghost pool

Parks Will Be More Synchronized With Nature
Northerly Island - Chicago
Northerly Island sits right off the coast of Chicago's downtown Loop area. Over the next 20-30 years, Northerly is being rebuilt to accommodate big crowds while minimizing ecological impact. The island's power will come from wave and geothermal power, and the space will feature wetlands and reefs, providing a new sanctuary for birds and fish.
northerly island
Gardens By The Bay - Singapore
The spectacular "Gardens By The Bay" have become a marquis feature of Singapore. This massive, waterside park features a range of groves, forests, conservatories and event spaces. The park helped transform Singapore from the "Garden City" to its new status of "City In A Garden."
gardens by the bay
+ Pool - New York City
This floating pool in the East River aspires to be "a giant strainer dropped in the river." Its walls would filter out bacteria and allow the river water to flow through the pool.
plus pool

Previously Abandoned Spaces Will Be Reimagined:
Berlin Tempelhof Airport - Berlin
This airport played a key role in WWII and during the pivotal Berlin Airlift of the Cold War. However, after Germany decided to consolidate its air transit to one main airport in 2008, Tempelhof was converted into a public park nearly as big as Central Park.
tempelhof park
HighLink - San Francisco
Highlink is a proposed walkway that repurposes an abandoned stretch of Interstate 280 in San Francisco as a park with panoramic views of the city.
highlink
Kulturpark - Berlin
Kulturpark was a Cold War-era theme park on the outskirts of Berlin. It was since abandoned, and the forest has grown among the decaying rides. Now, a group of German artists are attempting to refurbish the space for creative projects and public use.
kulturpark

The Lines Between Public Parks And Private Spaces Will Blur
Seoul Commune 2026 - Seoul
A proposed project in South Korea hopes to merge private residences with a grand public park. By constructing gardens all over the tops, sides, and bottoms of the towers, Seoul Commune would blend ecology with efficiency.
seoul commune
Cascade - Hong Kong
You won't need a lot of space to create a cool park in 2034. Consider how the Edge Design Institute repurposed what would have been a mundane stairway to make a vibrant public feature with benches, plants, and lights. 
cascade

Parks Will Become More Mobile
Parkcycle - Baku (Azerbaijan)
A park on wheels? Yes, it's a real thing in Azerbaijan, where the Rebar Group, a design group, recently debuted their "parkcycles." The "lawns" can accommodate two riders and provide much-needed green space in congested concrete jungles.
parkcycle

And Even Companies Will Get In On The Park Bonanza
Amazon Biodome - Seattle
Check out the renderings for Amazon's new headquarters in downtown Seattle. These remarkable "biodomes" will incorporate a cycle track, dog park and retail stores into Amazon's buildings. The inside of these glass orbs will be a mixture of work space and many plants and trees.
amazon dome
Facebook's West Campus
Facebook, too, is getting in on the eco-campus movement. The tech giant contracted renowned architect Frank Gehry to design an expansion of its Menlo Park headquarters. They'll surely "like" the park on the roof.
fb west campus

Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

Posted date: 7:55 PM / comment : 0 , , ,



Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

The tower rises 300 meters tall (984 ft); when it was completed.The Eiffel Tower was built for the World Exhibition in 1889, held in celebration of the French Revolution in 1789.

The construction was only meant to last for the duration of the Exposition, but it still stands today, despite all protests from contemporary artists who feared the construction would be the advent of structures without 'individuality' and despite the many people who feared that this huge 'object' would not fit into the architecture of Paris. 

Today, there is no such aversion anymore among the Parisians, and one could not imagine Paris without the Eiffel Tower, in fact it has become the symbol of the City of Light.

The man behind the Eiffel Tower was Gustave Eiffel, known from his revolutionary bridge building techniques, as employed in the great viaduct at Garabit in 1884. These techniques would form the basis for the construction of the Eiffel Tower. He was also known for the construction of the Statue of Liberty's iron framework.

Shimao Wonderland Intercontinental: The lavish £345million five-star CAVE hotel being built in an abandoned Chinese quarry

Posted date: 10:13 AM / comment : 0 , ,


-Two of the hotel's 19 storeys will be built underwater and will feature an aquarium with glass walls -The other 17 storeys will be built inside a cave at the base of the Tianmenshan Mountain-The British design firm behind the plans claim the roof of the £345-million hotel will sit just 15 metres above ground.

Construction has begun on a luxury five-star hotel being built INSIDE a 100-metre deep, water-filled abandoned quarry in China at the base of the Tianmenshan Mountain.
The £345million cave hotel in the Songjiang District has been designed by British-based firm Atkins and will have 380 rooms over 19 storeys - two of which will be underwater. 
The rest of the InterContinental Shimao hotel will be built into the mountainous landscape and guests will be able to do watersports on the lake and use the nearby cliffs for rock-climbing and bungee jumping. 
It is expected to take around three years to build and guests could be staying in the resort by 2015 - with rooms likely to cost around £200 a night.
An artist's view of what the finished cave hotel will look like. The 5-star underground resort is being built inside a 100-foot deep, water-filled abandoned quarry in China at the base of the Tianmenshan Mountain in the Songjiang District
The two underwater floors will have an aquarium with glass walls that look out onto an underwater restaurant and guest rooms.
A swimming pool and a sports centre will also be built inside the hotel as well as several restaurants, a banqueting hall and conference rooms for business meetings.

Although the guest rooms will vary in size, they are expected to start from around £200 a night.
Atkins has designed the structure to blend in with the landscape using an eco-friendly green roof planted with various trees.

Li Xuyang, a senior manager for Shimao Group told Shortlist: 'Two stories will be built underwater, 17 will be within the cave and two more will be above ground.
'The roof of the hotel will only be 15 m above the cave.
'The idea was to take advantage of this unique land form and to create a garden growing in the air. 
People could view the hundred-meter high waterfall from their room window.
'The hotel is part of the larger project to build Shimao Shanghai Wonderland, a large-scale theme park.'
Construction vehicles begin work on converting the abandoned quarry into the five-star underground hotel. Li Xuyang, a senior manager for Shimao Group said the hotel is part of the larger project to build Shimao Shanghai Wonderland, a large-scale theme park

The World's Largest Solar Plant Started Creating Electricity Today

Posted date: 9:43 PM / comment : 0 , , ,


The World's Largest Solar Plant Started Creating Electricity Today


The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is now operational and delivering solar electricity to California customers. At full capacity, the facility's trio of 450-foot high towers produces a gross total of 392 megawatts (MW) of solar power, enough electricity to provide 140,000 California homes with clean energy and avoid 400,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, equal to removing 72,000 vehicles off the road.
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