The black Hadron Lamp is so electrifying that a jellyfish looking for a date might easily be fooled. The brainchild of designer Joe Doucet, the floor lamp is a translucent membrane filled with thin electroluminescent wire. The young NYC-based designer, who currently holds more than 40 patents for his designs and inventions, presented the Hadron during New York Design Week.
With only seven months before he makes his final departure from his post as mayor, there is speculation that Mayor Bloomberg wants to end his term by building barriers along they NYC waterfront to protect against future storms. A number of sources say that the mayor will propose the installation of several removable steel panels in key flood-prone areas, including a permanent barricade at Newtown Creek, a toxic waterway that sits between Brooklyn and Queens. The verdict is still out about whether the mayor’s possible plans will actually be effective and worth the price tag to prevent major damage to the city during hurricanes to come.
British design company Mineheart, indulges Inhabitat’s love of all things tiny with their King Edison XII chandelier. Designed by Young & Battaglia, the King Edison glitters inside of a protective glass orb pendant. The teenier than tiny Baroque chandelier made its debut at ICFF in New York, and it will be available for mini-mansions in July.
A huge two-mile-wide tornado touched down south of Oklahoma City Monday afternoon, devastating a community of 41,000 and killing as many as 51 people. The tornado hit wind speeds of 200mph and scored a preliminary rating of four out of five on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, and eyewitnesses report that its 20 mile journey tossed around cars, crushed homes and ripped apart buildings – including two schools. The tornado is the worst to hit the suburb of Moore since 1999, and officials from the National Weather Service warn that more could be on their way. Local organizations have already set up a range of ways to provide aid to victims of this terrible disaster – hit the jump to find out what you can do to help!
Work on the world’s largest hydropower plant is expected to start in October, 2015 following commitments from the World Bank and other development agencies to finance its construction. South Africa has also agreed to buy more than half of the energy that would be generated at the 4800 MW Inga 3 plant at Inga Falls on the Congo River. Preliminary reports show that a series of dams on this section of the river would have a relatively small environmental and social impact, but International Rivers and other non governmental organizations warn that virtually none of this power would improve the lives of local residents in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
If you live in New York City, you’ve probably encountered aptsandlofts.com, a go-to resource when searching for prime New York City real estate. We recently had a chance to pick the brain of aptandlofts.com founder and Brooklyn native David Maundrell about his elegant new Cobble Hill storefront, the demand for green homes in New York City and the Brooklyn Brownstone boom. Read on for his thoughts and to see photos of the space’s double-height, brick-walled interior.
Freeman Thomas won his first drawing competition in the first grade—it was a fire truck. Today, Thomas is credited with delivering some of the hottest designs in the automotive industry. A pioneer in his field, he has designed everything from the New Beetle to the Audi TT, and he’s been steering Ford’s Strategic Design department as Director since 2005. In anticipation of our ‘Design with a Conscience’ webcast—a thought-provoking event, which brought together visionary California architects and automotive designers eager to talk about the intersection of car and building design—we asked Mr. Thomas to answer few questions for us about the future of car design, as well as some of the things that inspire his work. Read on to hear what he had to say, and then find out what was discussed in the webcast here.
MS Tûranor PlanetSolar, the world’s largest solar boat, set a new record for the fastest transatlantic crossing by a vessel powered entirely by solar energy, smashing its own 2010 record by four days. The 115-foot Swiss catamaran traveled 2,867 miles (5,310 kilometers) across the Atlantic Ocean in 22 days, conducting experiments along the Gulf Stream as part of the PlanetSolar DeepWater expedition.
A soaring zero-gravity space hotel set atop a man-made island might sound like the latest project proposed for Dubai, but Mobilona and designer Erik Morvan plan to construct just such a resort off the coast of Barcelona. Barcelona Island would bring Europe’s tallest hotel to the Catalan city – complete with a zero gravity spa, a vertical wind tunnel, and a totally spacey theme. Already met with disdain by local officials, the space island would cost a whopping $1.93 billion, and it has been submitted to the Barcelona City Hall for approval.
