Materials That Make Construction Details Protagonists: Photos of the Week

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We love construction details! That's why this week's photos highlight the art of the synthesis of materials and the varied photographic products we can obtain by looking closer. Photographers like Joel Filipe, Marie-Françoise Plissart and Adria Goula, give us precise and beautiful exposure to wooden joints, steel structures, concrete details, curtain walls and more.

IKEA Launches Home Solar Battery to Take on Tesla

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

This Cantilevered Wooden Staircase is Constructed Without the Use of Fixings

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Designed by architect Rafael Iglesia for the home of the Del Grande family in Rosario, Argentina, this staircase is the result of a system of counteracting forces. The structure's wooden elements are held in place only by the friction and pressure that is produced between the pieces of wood that make up the system.

This Smart Glass Can Change From Opaque to Transparent in Just Seconds

A relative newcomer to the material world, smart glass (also known as switch glass or electrochromic glass) has the ability to change its properties and appearance, allowing the environmental conditions of a space to be optimized according to the use and needs of its users. 

This Wood Pavilion is Supported Entirely Through Origami Folds

As part of Concéntrico 03, architects Manuel Bouzas Cavada, Manuel Bouzas Barcala and Clara Álvarez Garcí designed a temporary exhibition pavilion in the Escuelas Trevijano Plaza, with the objective of “making the unclear, transparent, and the heavy, light."

10 Projects That Feature Striking Steel Trusses

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Understanding the structural aspects of architecture is an inherent task of the architect; sufficient structural knowledge allows designers to propose ideas such as large structural elements which offer an interesting response to a project's needs.

Japanese Craftsmanship Gets an Update in These OLED Patterned Tiles

Michiru Tanaka Designs Patterned OLED Tiles inspired by Japanese Craftmanship.

How Earthbags and Glass Bottles Can 'Build' a Community

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A design by C-re-a.i.d. for a Maasai village in northern Tanzania, is a morphological response to the imposed need to settle, using sustainable, local and accessible materials to redefine its construction culture.

How to Build A Tiki Bar in 18 Easy-to-Follow Steps

How to build a Tiki Bar in your backyard with instructions and images.

Workshop in Italy Constructs Rammed Earth Structures to Rescue Constructive Traditions

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In a 12-day workshop, Building Trust International and Terraepaglia joined the Ciuffelli Agricultural Technical Institute in Todi, Italy, with the aim of exploring a series of construction techniques with raw soil. In addition to producing earth bricks and rammed earth structures -in collaboration with experts such as Eliana Baglioni and Pouya Khazaeli-, a curved wall was erected with a wooden structure and a cane framework, on which a massive layer of earth and straw was spread.

This Low-Cost System Creates Sleek Shelving from Simple Plasterboard Profiles

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The premise for this design was to create an iconic space, with a concept adaptable to any property and versatile when exposing the product. It should also be a design that could be quickly built and at a moderate cost.

How the World's Largest Building Materials Manufacturer Used Its Own Products to Create a World-Class Headquarters for Its Employees

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Saint-Gobain’s new corporate headquarters campus in Malvern, PA—the North American home to the world’s largest building materials company—is not a typical corporate campus. As the company approached its 350th anniversary, they set out to build a headquarters that would offer a dynamic showcase for its products.

Oskar Zieta Inflates Steel Arches With Air to Create This Lightweight Pavillion

How Oskar Zieta uses FIDU process to inflate steel for pavilion.

See How This Lightweight, Collapsible Aluminum Structure is Built

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The geometric design of the 'Protostar Pavilion' for the launch of the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class is a morphological response associated with the iconic brand logo: a three-pointed star.

Scientists Uncover the Chemical Secret Behind Roman Self-Healing Underwater Concrete

More than 2000 years ago, the Roman Empire invented a unique marine concrete that allowed for the construction of enormous, durable structures – even underwater. Incredibly, the exact chemical properties of this concrete mixture have eluded scientists to this day – but now, researchers from the University of Utah believe they may have finally cracked the code.

This Robotic Arm Can Cut Marble Into Unique Freeform Shapes

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This video is part of a conference held every two years by the Rob|Arch Conference series, developed by the Association for Robots in Architecture and related to robotic fabrication in architecture, art, and design.

From Foundations to Roofs: 10 Detailed Wood Construction Solutions in 3D and 2D

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Developed by the POLOMADERA Program at the University of Concepción, the 3D Building Construction Solutions Catalog is a free tool that helps users design construction details for lightweight wooden structural systems.

Though created with the intention of meeting new standards soon to be implemented nationally in Chile (and therefore in Spanish), the catalog was developed jointly with international experts from the Wood Construction Institute at the Holzbau Institut in Germany, and thus incorporates best practices that are applicable around the world.

Black Concrete: How Attilio Panzeri Creates Contrast with a Specialized Recipe

Materials: How Attilio Panzeri Architects make black concrete.