This is a type of housing specially designed for emergency accommodation. These are made of fiber glass and plastic that increases the durability and helps them last for a long time. These spheres consist of nineteen tents with an open space in the middle. The inner walls are made up of fine, air-permeable materials. These tents can be occupied by three persons generally though the detachable wall may allow bigger families. The open space permits all the families to gather together that allows them to communicate with each other which becomes very essential psychologically for those who have faced and survived disaster.
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The new Library and Learning Center at the University of Economics & Business in Vienna, Austria has been designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. The Library once completed shall be the centerpiece of the new University campus and will be a nice add-on to the services that shall be rendered at the University. The building shall be housing language laboratory, book shop, student center and administration offices etc. The building designed as a polygonal block which takes the form of the cube with straight lines both inclined and straight edges, thus in totality portraying itself as a learning and research center.
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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 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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Instead of taking your music player for an outing how would it be if you just need to take your ipod or MP3? Yes you can enjoy the same loud music through your ipod with the help of Yo stereo speakers by American designer Victor Vetterlein. YO is a portable MP3 player dock with removable speakers. Due to its compatibility it could be taken anywhere just as your ipod or MP3 player. It is fitted with rechargeable lithium ion batteries that can either be charged through power supply or simply by wind or solar energy. Removable rods mounted at the top provide an easy handling.
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