Today with lot of environmental developments happening world over like global warming, energy crisis, lifestyle changes, it’s become even more difficult to design houses meeting all these requirements. More and more architectural designs are using digital technologies with respect to modeling, simulation, evaluation and fabrication resulting in complex shaped buildings which incorporates the above challenges. One such project is coming up in Tel Aviv whose primary resources are sun, wind, and land and these are fairly distributed amongst these complex structures thus making an optimum utilization of all. It’s of course high quality housing complete with latest gadgets but run on the natural resources. Architect Yiftach Ben Meir, the designer, is a recent graduate from The Faculty Of Architecture and Town Planning at Technion, Israel Institute of Technology (IIT). His final project SeaO2 was conceived under the framework of Tecnion Computer Oriented Design Studio, T_Code with the instruction of dr. Yasha j. Grobman.


Text from Yiftach :
SeaO2 is an experimental ecological housing project. The project poses an alternative to current plans for Tel Aviv North West coastal district. SeaO2 demonstrates vast use of cutting edge computer software, some being used in the aerospace industry, in order to improve building performance and to ensure the existence of a sustainable urban environment with a minimal ecological footprint. The project final form is a consequence of a scientific approach that calculates numerous of elements: the sun orbit, wind conditions, maximum open scenic views, very high density and more, all in a free-form organic manner.
Advanced Computer Simulations ensure the project’s credibility. The project’s unique morphology enables: optimized solar reception for heating at winter time, self-shadowing and solar reception for electricity generation at summer time, natural lighting, optimized natural ventilation, open looks to the natural coastal environment, public green spaces, rain collection and more. Various passive mechanical systems complement the basic morphology, enable better performance and create an energy efficient, environmentally friendly housing project
Designer : Yiftach Ben Meir
The new city center designed by Dutch architects MVRDV for Gwanggyo, a city coming up 35 kms from Seoul in South Korea seems to be something taken out of the sci fi movies. Expected to be completed by 2011, the city is sufficient enough to hold 77000 inhabitants and has a design envisioned with two centers which is a mix of housing, culture, office, retail, and leisure and education spaces. Various atriums are created in the towers catering to various categories, with box hedges being planted on the roofs and terraces which in turn improves ventilation and reduces usage of energy and water.


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In this daily clogging of road and parking space it’s always the space for parking that seems to be the main issue. In such a scenario, the new urban vehicle design by David Goncalves is something that’s what the doctor ordered. The design called as Scarab by the designer is not only a concept that is aimed at occupying least road space, but also it occupies very little parking space too. The vehicle is completely collapsible and the complete process ensures that the vehicle is parked on just two wheels. A very nice thought that surely will find many takers.


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The latest coffee maker design from the house of Saeco seems to be a winner, right from the word “go”. It is in continuation with the last revamping that was done for the entire line of coffee machines along with the design arm of the BMW group. It has been dubbed as Saeco Xsmall, and is the smallest of its model. Overall the product has design elements of its previous products i.e. Primea, Talea & Odea. The interface of the product is quite user friendly, with a centralized knob. Also the color combination that has been incorporated by the designers is quite contemporary and surely will find many takers.


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The new stylish yacht is simply a designer marvel as the design seems to have been inspired by sports car. The exterior design is aerodynamically strong as it is in all the sports cars, so one can say that it’s the designer among yacht. But it seems that the designers won’t leave any stone unturned as even the interior seems to be quite inspired to give that luxury feeling. The interiors are quite apt for contemporary living while the same has been added with a number of innovative gadgets which actually complete the overall look. It’s time to jet set go!


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