Dive into the archives.
- The Spectatorium, 1893
[Steele MacKaye's Spectatorium was intended to re-create the landing of Christopher Columbus, complete with mini-ocean, waves, and an island.]
With seating for 10,000, an eight foot deep concrete tank under the entire stage complete with wave machine and wind machines, railroad ties to aid in the shifting of three dimensional scenery behind a "light curtain," the [...]
- Energies and Boundaries
[AD: Energies: New Material Boundaries.]
A new issue of AD was recently published titled ENERGIES: New Material Boundaries, edited by Sean Lally of WEATHERS. This edition focuses on the rich, yet overlooked, territory of design that foregrounds the effects of material energies on boundaries of environments. Boundaries are taken to mean atmospheric thresholds that are the [...]
- Weatherizing
[Jumeriah Beach, Dubai. via: wiki commons]
You have no doubt heard that even the luxury goods industry is smarting from the economic woes that surfaced prominently in 2008. And the development equivalent of this, the luxury urbanism across the Middle East, has now also decided to shelve a few projects. How odd in fact that a [...]
- Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS)
[A researcher deploys an Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structure, or ARMS, in Lizard Island, Australia.]
As the Census of Marine Life works towards its first comprehensive report in 2010, already a whopping 150 new species have been tallied. In a recent report, research along the Great Barrier Reef, and more specifically 3 islands, have resulted in the [...]
- Thawing Continent(s) and Moving Islands
[The thawing but unresolved politics of the Arctic have been fueled by the resource black-goldmine of the area partially entombed in sea ice. (click to view large and make text readable.)]
As the arctic continues its seemingly unstoppable liquification, at InfrraNet Lab we continue tracking the results of this thawing geography and the new potential urbanisms [...]
- Vortices, Heaps, and Enzymes
[The streets of Naples have been inundated with garbage since last summer.]
Or, Three States of Waste…
We have been following the Naples "trash crisis" for almost a year now. Unbeknownst to us, as of a few days ago, the problem has apparently been declared “resolved” by Berlusconi.
It began more than 14 years ago, but flared up [...]
- Green Bloom
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A massive algae outbreak has seized the city of Qingdao. Algae are now blooming over more than 12,900 square kilometers, or 5,000 square miles, of sea water. State media reported that 100,000 tons of the algae had already been taken out of the water. Much of it was being transported to farms as feed for [...]
- Bowling for Shade
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The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) dropped 400,000 HDPE recyclable black plastic balls into Ivanhoe Reservoir. The DWP drop was designed to stop sunlight from mixing with the bromide and chlorine in the 10-acre, 58-million-gallon Ivanhoe Reservoir. The 102-year-old facility serves about 600,000 customers downtown and in South Los Angeles.
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- From Sea to Salted Land
[The Aral Sea, a large saltwater lake, is losing more than half of its surface area in 40 years.]
Uzbekistan, a land-locked country that was once part of the Soviet Union, is home to one of the biggest man-made disasters in history. For decades its rivers were diverted to grow cotton on arid land, causing the [...]
