Category Archives: Engineering

Antarctica, industry and the legacy of High Tech.

All Your Base Are Built By Us: High tech and high value manufacturing The new Halley VI research station is the sixth to be built on the floating Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica – a region that has established itself … Continue reading

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Taste And The Tower

I want to say something about the history of the relationship between towers and the Olympic Games, leading to a few comments on the outpourings of disgust around the ArcelorMittal Orbit. It is often forgotten that this began with the … Continue reading

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Interview: Cecil Balmond

Cecil Balmond is a Sri Lankan born, British designer, engineer, artist, architect, and writer. Known for his close collaborations with architects, such as Toyo Ito on the Serpentine Pavilion and Rem Koolhaas on the Casa da Musica in Porto and … Continue reading

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Interview: Yona Friedman

What are your views on planning? I am very much against planning. We are now in a worldwide crisis due to overplanning. I am against overplanning. Planning means that you consider every event possible. Except an event which is unexpected … Continue reading

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The World’s First Printed Building

In a small shed on an industrial park near Pisa is a machine that can print buildings. The machine itself looks like a prototype for the automotive industry. Four columns independently support a frame with a single armature on it. … Continue reading

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Open Source Design

London’s design scene has been dominated by designers working with craft techniques such as knitting. This has led to a kind of fetishisation of the handmade, a strange pre-reccession moment when the market for one-off handmade design bizarrely fed into a … Continue reading

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The Pompidou Centre Inside Battersea Power Station

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A Ballardian Shard?

This is a great documentary by the film-maker Simona Piantieri, which I contributed to. I think she gets a great range of voices who actually provide an insight into the building. I think I’ve modified my views on it as … Continue reading

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Portal placements

As the Be Open Sound Portal passes into the hands of two of London’s most dynamic creative schools, the very limitations of the experience it offers – an unparalleled, immersive sound experience normally only experienced by a privileged few for … Continue reading

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A Cathedral Dedicated to Excrement

As London’s sewer system accepts into its gaping maw a huge autumnal deluge, it is worth sparing a thought for those who created it. The Metropolitan Board of Works was created in 1855 to improve the cities infrastructure ‘under the … Continue reading

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