Produce personalized presentation boards that distill complex concepts into simple visual representations with a few helpful tools and effects.

Put away the Neufert manual and pixelated Internet searches, because scaling people just got a whole lot easier. The Chicago-based design consultancy IA Collaborative has launched a Kickstarter campaign for the reissue of Humanscale – a set of ergonomic design templates that contain over 60,000 measurements adjusted to humans of all ages, sizes and, yes, even situations.

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In the past decade or so, smartphones and social media apps have revolutionized our culture's relationship to images. From Instagram to Facebook to Pinterest to Youtube, photographs and videos are now so ubiquitous that they have become literally disposable, with apps such as Snapchat trading on their promise to delete your images after a certain period of time. But while smartphones are a very visible driver of this change, what is often forgotten are the huge developments in image-editing software that have supported this revolution—from the HDR built into your smartphone's camera to the wide range of filters provided by Instagram.

Now, as reported by MIT News, Google and MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory may have created another cosmic leap forward: an algorithm that can provide automatic, professional-level image retouching so quickly that you can see a preview before even snapping the photograph.

A new project in central Copenhagen will see two Danish practices—Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and Dorte Mandrup Architects—create a new urban IKEA store, a budget hotel, and housing linked together by green space. Set to open in 2019, the area—which sits adjacent to Kalvebod Brygge, close to the railway lines that pass through the city core—will be master-planned by Dorte Mandrup while two striking high-rise residential towers, dubbed "Cacti", will be designed by BIG.

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Emerging international architecture office KOSMOS has unveiled 6 projects exploring potential collective spaces in the city of Basel, Switzerland. Unveiled during Art Basel, the speculative projects were featured in the Forum Basel exhibition curated alongside Museum Director Andreas Ruby and Stéphanie Savio, and emerging Chilean practice Plan Común. Held at the Swiss Architecture Museum (S AM), the architecture exhibition was held “in reaction to the increasing commodification of urban space today” and dedicated itself to investigating new possibilities for public space in Basel. Check out the projects, with descriptions from KOSMOS, below.

Responding to a competition brief for a new archaeological museum in Nicosia, the divided capital of Cyprus, a proposal submitted by Greek architects Alkiviadis Pyliotis and Evangelos Fokialis uses the traditional elements of the line, atrium and stoa to inform the composition of the envisioned landmark. Titled "Trigonica Simplicitas," the design of the museum is intended to form a new central hub, celebrating Cypriot history and culture through the synthesis of indoor and outdoor spaces on various levels to rethink the function of a museum.

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10 Design were announced as the winners of a competition to build an incubation center for start-up companies in the Jinwan Aviation District in Zhuhai, China. The Research & Development Center will accompany 10 Design’s other winning schemes for an International Commerce Center (twin tower with 127,000 square meters of office and hotel space) and Cultural Center (performance and exhibition space house in a 27,500 square meters building). The projects will be a part of Jinwan Aviation City, an ambitious development initiative to create a hub for major industry in Zhuhai, a city that is currently experiencing unprecedented growth.

Theoni Xanthi of XZA Architects has been selected as the winner in the competition to design the new archaeological museum in Cyprus. Composed of three layers corresponding to Memory, the City, and the River, Xanthi's proposal took first place in a competition that sought a new urban space to celebrate Nicosia’s history and archaeology. The project is situated in close proximity to the medieval city walls, enabling it to play a key role in altering and upgrading the existing urban and green spaces that surround it.

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Videos

A new challenger has stepped into the ring of home solar batteries, and it’s a name you may recognize: global furniture retailer IKEA.

A competitor to Tesla’s now-available Powerwall home battery and solar roof system, IKEA’s home battery will be first sold in the UK, where owners of solar-powered homes can typically only sell excess energy produced back to the national grid at a loss. The battery pack will instead allow that power to be stored for later use, helping homeowners reduce their electricity bills by as much as 70 percent.

David Chipperfield Architects has revealed the design of the newest home of the Centre Pompidou, the West Bund Art Museum in Shanghai. The Parisian institution revealed the details with the announcement of a 5-year deal with the West Bund Group to stage exhibitions in the museum beginning in 2019. Approximately 20 exhibitions – including a focus on contemporary Chinese art – will be included in the deal, described by the Centre Pompidou as "the most important long-term cultural exchange project” between France and China.

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One of the world’s tallest residential towers, Dubai’s Torch Tower, caught ablaze in the early hours of the morning, causing the evacuation of the building’s 676 units and leaving lasting damage to the building and its immediately vicinity

This is the second fire to affect the 79-story building in just two years, raising more questions about safety standards of materials used in highrise construction.

Two teams have been announced as the finalists of a competition to rebuild Norway’s government headquarters after it was bombed in 2011 during the country’s worst terrorist attack in modern history. The state building agency Statsbygg selected G8+, comprised of A-Lab and LPO Architects, and Team Urbis, which includes the firms Haptic and Nordic, out of a group of seven teams to create a safe, inviting hub of ministry buildings for central Oslo.

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Penda, collaborating with wood consultants from CLT-brand Tmber, has unveiled the design of ‘Tree Tower Toronto,’ an 18-story timber-framed mixed-use residential skyscraper for Canada’s largest city. Drawing inspiration from the distinctly Canadian traditional modular construction, including Moshe Safdie’s iconic Habitat 67, the tower is envisioned as a new model of sustainable high-rise architecture that can establish a reconnect urban areas to nature and natural materials.

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Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter, in collaboration with Places Studio, has won a competition for a new cultural center celebrating the rich food and farming culture of Denmark’s Jutland region. Located on the site of an existing farm and bakery in the town of Hjørring, the design of the Kornets Hus (Danish for Grain House) draws inspiration from the culture, architecture and landscape of Jutland, resulting in a contemporary reinterpretation of the traditional baker’s kiln.

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Los Angeles' Department of City Planning has released an initial study for a potential future skyscraper that could break ground in 2020. The 66-story Figueroa Centre is proposed for construction on a current parking lot adjacent to the Hotel Figueroa in South Park. Designed by CallisonRTKL, upon completion, the building would become Downtown LA’s third tallest building, surpassed only by Wilshire Grand and the US Bank Tower, both at 73 stories.

HASSELL has unveiled the design of a striking new building to be located along Sydney’s Darling Harbour. Known as The Ribbon, the $700 million mixed-use development will rise between two elevated highways, connecting visitors between the city and the waterfront and becoming the new gateway to the western end of Sydney’s central business district.

The world’s first operational Hyperloop system, Hyperloop One, continues to push forward, testing their prototype pod in the test track environment for the first time. Travelling nearly the full length of the 500-meter-long (1640-foot-long) test track 500 meters at 310 kilometers per hour (192 mph), the successful run marks significant progress from Phase 1 testing completed in early July.

"This is the beginning, and the dawn of a new era of transportation," said Shervin Pishevar, Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Hyperloop One. "We've reached historic speeds of 310 km an hour, and we're excited to finally show the world the XP-1 going into the Hyperloop One tube. When you hear the sound of the Hyperloop One, you hear the sound of the future."

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The work of artist Alex Chinneck is grounded in architecture. From melting buildings to a slumping facade to a structure ripped in half and hovering, Chinneck’s work plays with the expectation of materials and tectonics, resulting in captivating mind-bending illusions. His latest work (and first permanent sculpture), Six Pins and Half a Dozen Needles, continues this exploration, taking the form of a large brick wall ripped down the center.

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Developed in 2008, "ARCHIPORN" is a world architecture guide by architects Marcio Novaes Coelho Jr and Silvio Sguizzardi created with the aim of identifying, gathering and sharing information about architectural works around the world by renowned professionals to emerging talents in the field.

The online guide is composed of a world map punctuated by the works, which are divided by historical periods ranging from before the industrial revolution to the present decade. The map also highlights architecture-oriented institutions including the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal and the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam as well as bookstores such as Livraria Vilanova Artigas and William Stout Architectural Books (San Francisco, USA). 

The world’s longest pedestrian suspension bridge has opened to the public in Switzerland, offering adrenaline seekers unprecedented views of Europe’s most famous mountain, the Matterhorn. Spanning 494 meters (1620 feet), the Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge cuts the 2-day travel distance between the towns of Zermatt and Grächen by nearly 3 hours. The bridge spans the country’s “deepest cut valley,” reaching a height of 85 meters (279 feet) above the ground at its highest point.

Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium has released a new video showing the structure’s unique aperture-style retractable roof closing for the very first time. Designed by 360 Architecture (now a part of HOK), the eight ETFE-clad roof “petals” slide along tracks on the stadium roof to come together at a central point, much like how a camera operates. When fully operational, the roof will be able to open and close in less than eight minutes.

The team led by US-based architects wHY has been selected as the winner of the Ross Pavilion International Design Competition, beating out proposals from Adjaye Associates, BIG, Flanagan Lawrence, Page\Park Architects, Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter and William Matthews Associates + Sou Fujimoto Architects.

Featuring an international collaboration of architects, engineers and creative agencies – including Edinburgh-based design studio GRAS, Groves-Raines Architects, Arup, Studio Yann Kersalé, O Street, Stuco, Creative Concern, Noel Kingsbury, Atelier Ten and Lawrence Barth – the team envisioned a rolling terrain for the West Princes Street Gardens site that the jury lauded as both exciting and respectful of its historic setting.

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Miami’s growing art district of Wynwood is set for further development in the form of two projects designed by renowned local architect Kobi Karp – Wynwood 25 and Gateway at Wynwood. The first is a $100 million unique mixed-use residential opportunity in the neighborhood, co-developed by the Related Group in Miami and the New York based East End Capital, and interiors by Meshberg Group, while the second is an upcoming 12-story tower responding to the increasing demand for office rental space.

“Wynwood’s artistic spirit and modern vibe are elements that inspired our designs for Wynwood 25 and Gateway at Wynwood,” explained Kobi Karp, Founder, and Principal of Kobi Karp Architecture and Interior Design, Inc. “This forward-thinking, vibrant area is gaining so much momentum and we wanted this to translate into our designs. It’s an exciting time to be a part of Wynwood’s growth and we aim to create unique designs that merge seamlessly with the area’s culture and unique energy.”

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