Items by Andrew Blum
Wired: Top Stories
-
Intel Cash Register Knows Who You Are, What You Want
Posted: January 9th, 2009, 3:31pm EST by Andrew Blum
Tags: [edit]
Asking the question: "Do you know who I am?" is not likely to score you any points at the store, even in these trying economic times. But Intel wants to change that with a proof of concept cash register that knows not only who you are, but also what you want.
-
New Oslo Opera House Is Really a Stealth Skate Park
Posted: December 5th, 2008, 12:00am EST by andrew blum
Tags: [edit]
For years, architects have gone to great lengths to protect their buildings from marauding skaters. But as aesthetic trends move toward folded planes that transition seamlessly from wall to ceiling and back to wall, designers have been looking to their former adversaries for a lesson in flow.
"We have this fascination with buildings becoming topography," says Alejandro Zaera-Polo, a partner at London's Foreign Office Architects, "and skateboarders have that physical experience." So for a park in Barcelona, his firm extended paving stones up the sides of small hills—to shield vegetation from salty sea breezes. At least that's what it told city officials. But skaters got the message. The resulting quarter-pipe landed on the March 2006 cover of Transworld Skateboarding.
Architect Zaha Hadid shares the love. She wanted her Phaeno Science Center in Germany to be an all-inclusive venue for pedestrians and skateboarders alike. Liability issues prevented skate-park designation—though you'd never guess it from the YouTube videos of pro skaters "visiting" the museum. "We design spaces that are flowing and continuous, and—just by coincidence—skateboarders look for that kind of continuity," Dillon Lin, an architect (and skater) at Hadid's firm, says with a wink.
And though the new Oslo Opera House (shown here) was inspired by the image of two glaciers colliding, the architects at Snøhetta didn't call on glaciologists to help fine-tune the details. They enlisted real experts in twisted planes: skateboarders. "We spoke to them about surface textures and the areas they prefer," architect Simon Ewings says. His firm followed up the conversation with a statement in stone.
Snøhetta used different finishes of marble to guide skaters looking for rideable surfaces. Acoustically sensitive parts, like above the auditorium, got rough marble that's unpleasant to wheel over. But other areas silently beckon skaters. Surfaces rise up all over the place to become ledges, curbs, and benches—like the jagged facets of a glacier (or skate park). One particularly tempting spot is a 3-foot-wide railing of smooth stone. Snøhetta architect Peter Dang is, ahem, absolutely sure it's skatable. "Just make sure to fall toward the inside," he advises.
Tricked OutThe new Oslo Opera House is much more than a temple to the vocal arts. It's a palace of thrash, with as many gnarly facets as the best skate parks. Here are some key features and suggested moves.
.nContainer { float:left;margin-right:20px; } .headerDivOuter {width:176px;clear:both;float:left;margin-right:12px;} .headerDiv {padding:6px;color:#fff;background-color:#000} .headerSub {color:#007CA5;} .nImg {clear:left;display:block;float:left;margin-right:12px;margin-bottom:18px;} Stair Ledge =
50-50 Grind
Marble Bench =
Kick Flip
Sloped Plaza =
Bert Slide
Upper Level =
Acid Drop
Pedestrian Ramp =
Downhill Slalom
Walkway Balustrade =
Switch Crook
-
Q&A: Philippe Starck on Bioplastics, Virgin Galactic, and His Impossible Chair
Posted: August 28th, 2008, 12:00am EDT by Andrew Blum
Tags: [edit]
Philippe Starck's latest creation — a plastic chair — earned its name on the first sketch: Mr. Impossible. The French designer said it simply couldn't be made. The challenge? The weld. Polycarbonate chairs are typically formed using a single mold, but Starck's translucent design required two: one for the legs, one for the seat. Fusing the parts using existing methods would mean an unsightly seam, so the engineers at Italian furniture maker Kartell had to forge a new technique. The key was a very big laser. Trained at specially formulated polycarbonate, it left a seam smooth enough to create the illusion Starck had imagined: a chair that appears to levitate. We reached across the ether to elicit the designer's thoughts. Like Starck's design, our conversation seemed to float on air.
Wired: What was the inspiration for Mr. Impossible?
Starck: The speed of evolution of our civilization and the dematerialization that rules all our production. Take the computer: It was the size of a room, then a briefcase. Now it's a credit card. You cannot dematerialize a chair completely, because you must continue to sit on it. But you can make it invisible. That's why I made the Mr. Impossible with a double shell — it's basically made of air.
Wired: Recently, you have begun to look at the environmental impact of your designs. How does a plastic chair fit in?
Starck: The stupidity of the ecological movement is that people kill trees for wood. It's ridiculous. The best ecological strategy is to make products of a very high creative quality, so you can keep them for three generations. I prefer to make a very good chair in the best polycarbonate than make any shit in wood that will be in the trash one year later.
Wired: Why not use recycled plastic?
Starck: It's a little joke of a material. You can do almost nothing with it. And I also refuse bioplastic, which comes from something that people can eat. Scientists agree that we have a real food problem, a famine approaching. It's a crime against humanity to take something you can eat and make a chair — or use it as gas for your SUV.
Wired: How do you reconcile those principles with your position as creative director for Virgin Galactic?
Starck: Every project should fit the big image of evolution. You can consider Virgin Galactic as something only for rich people, but you can also analyze the incredible help that it will give us. The exploration of space is a vital part of our evolution. We don't have any future if we don't go into space. This world will explode in 4 billion years. We have time, but not so much.
-
Wanna Harvest Power from the Sea? You'll Have to Test It Here First
Posted: June 1st, 2008, 12:00am EDT by Andrew Blum
Tags: [edit]
Giant whirlpools, 100-knot winds, some of Europe's mightiest tides: The icy waters off Scotland's northern tip are no place for pleasure craft. But they're ideal for power-generation systems that harness the restless fury of the sea — which is why the European Marine Energy Centre has set up shop in the Orkney Islands.
Think of it as the Bonneville Salt Flats of hydrokinetics: EMEC offers companies a place to try out their clean tech. The center's remotely operated vehicles film underwater, and microphones will eventually monitor for noise pollution. First in was Dublin-based OpenHydro, which recently began trials on its second turbine (shown here raised for inspection).
Carbon-free hydrokinetic power could ultimately provide up to 20 percent of the UK's electricity needs. But environmental concerns may still sink the effort: Critics warn of industrialized coastlines and harm to sea life.
The US faces similar challenges — without a testing facility. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has okayed a pilot marine-power project for Makah Bay, off the Washington coast, but environmental approval is still pending. By the time the inevitable court battles are resolved, the waves may be lapping at our doorsteps.
-
Sure, a Jet's Wings Need Scrubbing, But Its Guts Need a Flush, Too
Posted: January 7th, 2008, 12:00am EST by Andrew Blum
Tags: [edit]
Pratt & Whitney's EcoPower Engine Wash bathes the compressor, turbine and fan of jet engines to improve fuel efficiency by 0.5 to 1.5 percent, an amount that if applied industry wide, could help airlines save more than 2 billion pounds of fuel each year.