Architectural Technology

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Gutenberg’s introduction of movable type six centuries ago was a true revolution. The development forever altered the way information was received and disseminated, democratizing knowledge. Printing’s recent move beyond two dimensions could be similarly transformative.

A diverse set of projects demonstrates that a building’s skin can be transformed into a solar power plant.

A group of recent projects demonstrates that true universal design goes beyond mere accessibility.

The advantages of using a tablet as a sketchbook are numerous, including its ability to share, post, or store digital sketches; incorporate images and photos; export to other formats or devices; and, of course, undo.

When complete, DUS Architects’ canal house will resemble a traditional Dutch home. The firm has encouraged the public’s involvement, inviting visitors to see the printer in action. The house is printed piece by piece. A chunk of one room features an intricate tessellation-like pattern. In the summer of 1908, Thomas Edison filed a patent for a contraption that could construct a house—bathtubs and all—with a single pour of concrete. 

Divining rods—really, just forked sticks—supposedly tremble when you hold them over any ground that conceals water below. Whether or not you subscribe to their seemingly magical, analog effectiveness, you might be thinking, isn't there an app for that? 

Nearly 100 yards lie between Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry and Lake Michigan. So when Goettsch Partners began the design of a subterranean hall to exhibit the museum’s German-made U-505 submarine, the architects found themselves in the unlikely—and ironic—position of fighting to keep the lake’s water from submerging the vessel. 

When commissioned to design the facade and interior of the Institute of Molecular Genetics for the Czech Academy of Science, the Prague-based firm Studio P-H-A decided to add some bling to biomedicine. Responding to the standard-issue rectilinear volume designed by fellow Czech firm Atelier Ypsilon, architects Jan Sesták and Marek Deyl appended a glittering steel staircase that takes the form of DNA’s double helix.