Melbourne Taxi 2020 is a vehicular and systematic TAXI design concept which is proposed for Melbourne city for the year of 2020. The concept utilizes an electric TAXI vehicle and supported infrastructure with recharging booths placed at vital points around the city. The design of the vehicle is mainly focused on safety of the driver and passengers, reliability, ease of use, iconic design and minimal environmental footprint. The highlighted features of the vehicle are GPS and mapping system for passengers and driver, Smart card system, passenger info and entertainment hub, hydrogen fuel cell, solar panel system including recharging hubs and battery generators.
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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 FC Sport fuel based car from Honda was recently displayed at the LA Auto Show is one traffic stopper. The designers have taken into their advantage the flexibility which is extended by the fuel cell powertrain as it is placed on the back of the driver. It’s a 3-seater with the styling of sports car major McLaren F1 vehicle, where in the driver is in the middle with passenger seats on side and back. The concept car is right now under study and testing to understand the full utility of the product. Though there may be a possibility of Honda releasing a full fledged version for commercial use.
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Treepac eco friendly packaging concept has won a Silver International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) in EcoDesign category. With its structure made entirely of sustainable materials, a great effort towards greener earth, I think they do deserve the award. Read their press release after the jump to get clear understanding about their design.
Treepac story after the jump …
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