You may remember our coverage on the Flight Assembled Architecture exhibit by Gramazio & Kohler and Raffaello D’Andrea, in collaboration with ETH Zurich, that featured a team of flying drones constructing an architectural structure at the scale of a 600m high “vertical village” out of foam blocks. Well, check this out! Roboticists at the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP Lab, along with developer Kmel Robotics, have created these autonomous Nano Quadrotors capable of flying in formation and flawlessly performing complex maneuvers. Imagine the possibilities!

Reference: Wired, GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania

Here at ArchDaily, we are desperate to get our hands on the newly launched, second edition of The Modern Architecture Game. In 1999, NEXT Architects created the board game as the first project collaboration involving their four partners. Now, this revised version includes questions that “range across the breadth of modern world history”, allowing a broad and international group of architecture enthusiasts to test their knowledge of the greatest architects, their famous buildings and legendary quotes.

Single copies of the game may be picked up at the NEXT Architects office in Amsterdam, however please call in advance. UnBeige also reported seeing the board game for sale at Architectura & Natura Booksellers in the Netherlands. You may also purchase it online here.

Its time to plan an office game night, I call the Koolhaas’ CCTV Headquarters!

Reference: NEXT Architects, mediabistro UnBeige

© Grant Snider, 2012

Curbed lead us to Colorado-based webcomic Grant Snider and his clever blog Incidental Comics. Snider uses the classic “glass houses” proverb in his own unique depiction of midcentury “Iconic Houses”, highlighting The Glass House by Philip Johnson, Farnsworth House by Mies Van der Rohe, Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier and Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Curious about the red beavers gnawing at the Farnsworth House? Snider clears up the confusion stating, “In an earlier draft of this comic, it appeared the Farnsworth house was being gnawed by ordinary beavers. My architect brother informed me that Mies van der Rohe was known for his innovations in steel and glass, not wood. So just to clarify: those are MUTANT beavers.”

© Interface Studio Architects

Interface Studio Architects shared with us their proposal for the Hong Kong Car Parc competition, which aims at romanticizing the car as an active urban object while simultaneously implementing sustainable strategies. In addition to including parking spaces in the rotational design, shopping, food and landscaping aspects are also included in the program. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Cover - Issue #4

HORIZONTE, a journal for architectural discourse just announced its latest Call for Papers for their 5th issue dealing with the topic “Fetish”. The journal is an interdisciplinary and collaborative effort of students from the School of Architecture, the School of Design and the School of Media Studies and is an independent student organization at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany. For more information, please visit their website here.

© www.wikimedia.org / Tysto

The psychology behind what we consider or value to be our homes presents some interesting concepts. While it is easy to answer the question “Where are you from?” when someone is asked “Where is home for you?” the resulting answer may be influenced by a variety of perceptions of what home really is. A recent article entitled The Psychology of Home: Why Where You Live Means So Much discusses such implications. Read more after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Rice University School of Architecture

From unforeseen endings come dramatic beginnings. Plat 3.0, an independent architectural journal published by students at Rice School of Architecture, invites projects, images, essays, and manifestos, which explore the discursive opportunities that emerge in the wake of collective disruption. In a time characterized by rapidly shifting conditions and perpetual crises, contingencies and opportunities to innovate emerge.

Such moments lay the ground for radical change. Free from the constraints of the established doctrine, architectural and urban practice find new frontiers where experimentation is not only allowed, but demanded—where temporary breakdown establishes new, lasting thresholds for design and research. More information after the break. read more »

Courtesy of SmartPlayhouse

The SmartPlayhouse children`s houses are authentic pieces of design work inspired by contemporary architecture. A modern and comfortable space that provides the children with their own private and safe place to play, developing their creativity and ability to share. Built with the highest quality materials and very resistant to rough weather conditions, they give children their own place to play, organize themselves and invite friends over. It`s a place where they can socialize, share with others, express their creativity, mature and have great experiences. It makes a great gift for the holiday season! Check them out here. More images of playhouses can be seen after the break. read more »

Melissa Godoy Nieto transforms this interior space with a series of city skylines installations made from hand-dyed yarn. This first installation represents the New York City skyline. Melissa Godoy Nieto is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. She has a BA in Industrial Design from Pratt Institued and is co-founder of The Poetry Club Art Space.

Courtesy of MASS Design Group

MASS Design Group is encourage everyone to help, in any way, in their efforts to design, build, and advocate for buildings that improve health and strengthen communities. Architects have a unique ability to affect change by producing Well-Built Environments, those that are efficient, effective, and empowering. By applying architectural thinking to the full project delivery process we can engender social and political affects that help fight social inequity. For more information and to find out ways you can help, please visit their website here.

Our friends at Inhabitat have shared with us this DIY tutorial on how to make the awesome, Gingerbread Geodesic Dome by Scout Regalia. The LA-based design firm has created templates and recipes for you to purchase, guaranteeing a structurally sound and tasty dome. You may use this video as inspiration for your own creative gingerbread house, or you can order the set for $25. Enjoy designing your edible holiday structures. Cheers!

Courtesy of Ruud Sies

De Rotterdam is a unique multifunctional building on the shores of the river Maas on the Wilhelminapier in Rotterdam designed by Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) of Rem Koolhaas. Its remarkable mix of functions makes this building a true vertical city.

By following the construction for 4 years (January 2010 – end of 2013), Ruud Sies presents a photographic report on a very special project in the development of Rotterdam, one that also forms a link to the Wilhelminapier as a historic spot. The full report can be viewed here. More images after the break. read more »

Issue #9: New Knowledge - New Practices?

What is the function of gossip in architecture? Let’s face it, architects don’t openly criticize or debate each other’s work in public; they prefer to gossip within their chosen networks, aiding social bonding through subtle passive aggression. Gossip has always been around in architecture as one of the oldest ways of sharing, maneuvering and convincing. But how does it manifest itself today within the instant culture of internet and social media?

These are the questions Conditions Magazine is hoping you will be able to answer through an abstract design for their new, upcoming issue. More information on the call for submissions after the break. read more »

Brusselssprout recently launched their new book, Dubai Graphic Encyclopedia Volumen 1. To consider compiling an encyclopedia (of any kind) in post-Wikipedia times is an exercise in emotional withdrawal. From a position of bewilderment and confusion, they choose to act by producing and employing another tool from the land of the naive and outdated, represented by encyclopedic work, devoid of all logic and meaning considering current cultural conditions and speed. What the first edition Dubai graphic and visual encyclopedia presents is a reality that acts as a counterpoint to all the excess of attempts to decipher and understand Dubai. Attempts that are mostly unable to uncover items that shed light on the question ‘What’s it all about’?

Ashoka is the world’s largest community of social entrepreneurs, and has supported thousands of groundbreaking social innovators over the last 30 years (read more at McKinsey).

Currently, Ashoka is looking for outstanding entrepreneurs that can improve our world by focusing on 20 challenges, some of which are very related to our profession:

Housing

• You want to meet the huge need for affordable, high quality homes – 25 million in India alone – by leveraging both business and social entrepreneurs.
• You are passionate about low income communities gaining access to market-based affordable housing and a dignified life.
• You want to create a complete ecosystem where housing is not just about four walls and a roof but about a place called home – where family, community life, business and sustainability originate.

Design

• You see the huge potential of design to shape a better world.
• You will lead a global network of designers and creatives who will transform the development of products, services, processes, and strategies for the good of society.
• With a designer’s toolkit, you will work at the intersection of social entrepreneurship and science, technology, sociology, philosophy, and engineering.

From the water towards the Pier

Giannikis SHOP won the honorary mention in the national architecture design competition for the Thessaloniki Water Transport Piers in Greece. Four Piers (Eleutheria Square, Megaro, Aretsou, Perea) are designed so that each Pier is composed of three elements: the floor, the pavilions and the inflated pneumatic structure. The main goals for this competition proposal were functionality, economy and innovation. More images and project description after the break. read more »

© Thomas Mayer

Authors: Heike Mutter + Ulrich Genth
Location: Duisburg, Germany
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: Thomas Mayer

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Floppy Disk by 92wardsenatorfe

If you were asked to store your most valuable data… What kind information would you keep in 130Kb? Your usernames and passwords, your delicious tabs, a PDF with all your tweets, a map as a biography? Do you think this data would be valuable if mapping the genomic code of knowledge at this moment? It would be useful for anyone but you?

With this challenging question we start a publishing project in the intersection of technology and seed banking. Learn more about it after the break. read more »

Masahiro Hoshida

Architects: Ryumei Fujiki
Location: Kobe city, Japan
Client: Kobe Biennial Committee
Project Team: Fujiki Studio, KOU::ARC, Kensuke Kawamura, Yoshiki Tachi, Shun Simoya, Kohaku Furihata, Yuki Sakurada, Toshihiko Hatori, Yoshito Fukaya, Yuji Uemura, Yuki Ishigami
Colaboration: Yukiko Sato (F.A.D.S)
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: Courtesy of Ryumei Fujiki, Masahiro Hoshida

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© Michal Seba

Architects: Edit! architects / Vitezslav Danda
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Concept: Michal Seba
Coop­er­a­tion: Ivan Boros, Matous Godik, Pedro Sousa San­tos
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: Michal Seba

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