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Construction

AERO GIZMO

Solar blimp: Projet Sol'r to take on the English Channel

By Paul Ridden

17:02 August 6, 2009 PDT

The Néphélios, the world's first solar powered airship

A group of French students are getting ready to fly across the English Channel in the world's first solar powered airship. One hundred years after Louis Blériot won the coveted Daily Mail prize of £1000 by being the first to traverse the watery expanse in his 3-cylinder, 25 horse-power XI monoplane, the Projet Sol'r team will take to the skies in Néphélios, a 22 meter long airship capable of cruising at 30-35kph. Gizmag recently talked to one of the project's founders, Arnaud Vaillant. Read More

ECOGIZMO

Vertical Landscapes: The only way is up for green cities

By Darren Quick

06:24 July 28, 2009 PDT

Artists impression of a VES in New York

Demand for office and housing space in ever diminishing land space has led to taller and taller buildings reaching for the skies in cities around the world. This shortage of land in many cities has unfortunately also led to a scarcity of natural vegetation in urban settings. We’ve looked at several vertical-farming concepts - dedicated buildings that provide space to grow crops in city centers - but a new architectural system from Vertical Landscapes (VL) seeks to invite nature back into our cities on a broader scale. The architectural system transforms buildings into columns of vegetation to add a much needed touch of green, help clean the city air and possibly even produce small scale crops, all while retaining the building’s usual use for office or housing space. Read More

ECOGIZMO

Ancient building technique may help future designs to be more eco-friendly

By Darren Quick

23:24 June 4, 2009 PDT

Walls made from rammed earth may hold the key to more eco-friendly housing design in the f...

Every child learns early on that moist sand is the key to building a sturdy sandcastle. Now researchers at Durham University have studied this principle so it can be better applied to an ancient eco-friendly building technique of using rammed earth. Read More

URBAN TRANSPORT

Bamboo bicycle range released

By Mike Hanlon

06:01 May 18, 2009 PDT

A new range of bamboo bicycles is being released in Denmark by Brazilian industrial design...

As the industries of the world search for sustainable construction materials, it's not surprising that many keep coming back to bamboo, one of man's oldest building materials. Bamboo can be at the same time, light, strong, durable, and very hard and has the additional benefit of being the fastest-growing plant on Earth. In recent times we've seen bamboo used in computers, surfboards, scooters, and Mitsubishi's “green plastic” is derived from bamboo. Bamboo's strength and flexibility also makes it ideal for use in bicycle frames, leading to a raft of projects using the ecologically sound material. Today, a new range of bamboo bicycles is being released in Denmark by Brazilian industrial designer, Flavio Deslandes. Read More

ECOGIZMO

Pixel building aims to be world's first carbon neutral office development

By Paul Best

23:57 May 3, 2009 PDT

Australian developer Grocon plans to build the country’s first carbon neutral office...

Australian developer Grocon plans to build the country’s first carbon neutral office building on a former brewery site in the city of Melbourne – and possibly the first of its kind in the world. According to the developer, the $6 million, four-storey building has been designed to generate more energy on the site than it uses, offsetting the carbon emissions produced to operate it – and, in time, the greenhouse gases generated in making and installing the construction materials. Read More

MOTORCYCLES

Ducati Desmosedici GP9 carbon fibre frame

By Mike Hanlon

17:24 April 13, 2009 PDT

Ducati Desmosedici GP9 carbon fibre frame

Ever since designer John Barnard built the 1981 F1 McLaren MP4-1 chassis from carbon fibre, the world has become increasingly aware of this novel composite material that is very stiff, three times stronger and more than four times lighter than steel! Within a year or two, carbon fibre became the construction material of choice for F1 designers. Strangely, it has taken nearly three decades for a carbon fibre-framed motorcycle to take a race win at the highest level. The World MotoGP Championship kicked off this evening in Qatar, with Casey Stoner taking the first win on the carbon fibre-framed Ducati Desmosedici GP9. His emphatic win indicates yet another competitive-edge Ducati technology to back up its landmark desmodromic valve-train and traction control technologies. Read More

PERSONAL COMPUTING

New software promises 25% productivity increase for estimators

By Mike Hanlon

20:49 February 23, 2009 PST

The On Center Digital Takeoff Table - estimators currently using On Center's software are ...

Construction software specialist On Center recently unveiled its Digital Takeoff Table solution at the World of Concrete industry tradeshow in Las Vegas. The Digital Takeoff Table integrates the company's On-Screen Takeoff® program with a Wacom tablet to enable estimators to draw digital “takeoffs” directly onto the screen with Wacom's cordless, battery-free pen. Estimators currently using the company's software are forecasting an additional productivity increase of 25 percent with the new system. Read More

ECOGIZMO

The Vitruvian Building System: green, cost-efficient and fast

By David Greig

17:51 February 15, 2009 PST

Less waste = reduced construction costs

When we think green house emissions, fume spewing factories and highways choked with gas guzzling vehicles are usually the first images that spring to mind, but it may surprise some readers to learn that buildings represent a sizeable chunk of our collective carbon footprint. In America, it's estimated that buildings contribute to 36% of energy consumption and 30% of green house gas emissions and it's an area that's ripe for improvement. Innovative American building company Vitruvian is doing just that by offering a full service green building system that utilizes pre-engineered modular construction consisting of inter lockable panels to form a complete, weather tight building shell. As well as delivering extremely low energy bills, Vitruvian has calculated that if its process was used for all building replacement and construction in America between now and the year 2030, its environmental impact would be the equivalent of removing more than 80 million cars from the road. Read More

ROBOTICS

Snake-like robots to assist construction work

By Kyle Sherer

16:21 December 13, 2008 PST

RoMeLa's climbing HyDRAS robot

Researchers at the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia Tech have designed a series of autonomous serpentine robots that are able to climb poles and inspect structures too dangerous or inaccessible for humans. The robots coil themselves around a beam and roll upward using an oscillating joint motion, gathering important structural data with cameras and sensors. Read More

AROUND THE HOME

Treehouse escapes: re-live your childhood in style

By Noel McKeegan

19:38 November 20, 2008 PST

baumraum treehouses

Treehouses have the ability to fire the imagination and transport you back to the long care-free afternoons of your childhood like almost nothing else. These days, the professionally crafted designs available far outstrip the rudimentary structures we would slap together during summer holidays and they are being used not just as magical playrooms for the kids but as spare guest bedrooms, entertainment areas, hotel escapes and even conference suites. The latest examples to cross our desk are these striking arboreal dwellings from Andreas Wenning of German architecture firm baumraum. Read More

HOLIDAY DESTINATIONS

One kilometer high Nakheel Tower to become world's tallest building

By Darren Quick

01:03 October 8, 2008 PDT

Artists impression of the view from the 1 kilometer high tower
 Image: Nakheel

It looks like Dubai is running out of countries to compete with in the architectural stakes, so they’ve started outdoing themselves. State-owned builder Nakheel has unveiled plans to build what would be the world’s tallest building before the Gulf city state’s previous claimant to the title, the Burj Dubai Tower, has even finished construction. Nakheel plans to build a tower measuring over 1 kilometer (0.62 miles), high in an area between two of the city’s artificial palm shaped islands which the company also created. Nakheel has not revealed the exact height or cost of the tower but said it would have “more than 200 floors” and be part of “a multi-billion pound development”, which includes a man made inland harbor and 40 additional towers ranging from 20 to 90 floors high. Read More

ECOGIZMO

Solar brick provides integrated outdoor lighting solution

By Emily Clark

19:27 September 22, 2008 PDT

Sunrise Solar Solar Bric

Sunrise Solar Corp has unveiled a new building brick that integrates solar technologies into traditional construction materials. The Solar Light "Bric" is able to capture the sun’s rays and convert them to energy to power an embedded light without the need to connect to the electrical grid or flick a switch. Read More

URBAN TRANSPORT

Kawasaki to build Japan's fastest train

By Noel McKeegan

20:47 September 21, 2008 PDT

Kawasaki to build Japan's fastest train

Plans announced by Kawasaki Heavy Industries could see a new record set for high-speed train travel in Japan. The design for the rail vehicle dubbed the “Environmentally Friendly Super Express Train” (efSET) is expected to be completed by the end of 2009 and its promised operating speed has been pitched around the 217mph (350 kmh) mark, quicker than the fastest trains currently operating on the country's high-speed Shinkansen network which clock around 188mph (300kmh). Read More

MILITARY

Northrop Grumman to build first new aircraft carrier class in 40 years

By Kyle Sherer

20:16 September 16, 2008 PDT

The Gerald R Ford class carriers will have a larger flight deck, improved weapons handling...

The Gerald R. Ford CVN 78 is the first ship in the first new aircraft carrier class in over 40 years and Northrop Grumman has received a $5.1 billion, seven-year contract for its construction, which is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in 2015. Read More

ROBOTICS

FANUC debuts world's largest, strongest six-axis robot

By Kyle Sherer

17:45 September 10, 2008 PDT

“The M-2000iA is the world’s largest and strongest six-axis robot,” said...

FANUC Robotics has introduced the heavy-duty M-2000iA line of robots, designed for handling truck, tractor and car parts. The model which was demonstrated during the IMTS 2008, sets new records for size, reach and wrist strength, claiming the title of world’s largest and strongest six-axis robot. Read More

AERO GIZMO

Fraunhofer develops technology for the bonded aircraft

By Jack Martin

05:44 September 9, 2008 PDT

Fraunhofer develops technology for the bonded aircraft

An aircraft is held together by hundreds of thousands of rivets. Fully automatic machines install rivet holes and rivets with precision in numerous materials. A new hybrid technology combines this mechanical joining technique with adhesive bonding. The lighter an aircraft is, the less fuel it consumes. Given the need to cut carbon dioxide emissions, this is a key aspect of materials research. Aircraft manufacturers are therefore pinning their hopes on particularly lightweight construction materials. These include not only lightweight metals, but also fiber composite plastics, particularly carbon-fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs). Whenever two CFRP components have to be joined together, this has so far been accomplished primarily by riveting. Read More

GOOD THINKING

The first Kitahaus relocatable living and office pods

By Jack Martin

02:41 September 6, 2008 PDT

The first Kitahaus relocatable living and office pods

September 6, 2006 As technology evolves, our ability to create remarkable, sustainable temporary living and working environments has grown considerably, as can be evidenced by Gizmag stories on relocatable structures such as the off-the-grid home, the Sphere House, the Nackros Villa, the Free Spirit Sphere, the LoftCube and the first mobile hotel room. Two years ago we wrote about the KitaHaus Pod which is designed as a stand-alone accommodation or temporary office and can also be interlinked to create unique temporary or permanent living and working environments. The KitaHaus legs are adjustable so it can be situated in almost any site including normally unusable sloped and wooded areas. The first built Kitahaus pods are currently going into Elleray Prep School in Windermere, UK as three classrooms and the designer is now seeking JV partners wishing to create eco-tourism resorts. Read More

 
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