Tag Archives: Science

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Comments on Engineering atomic interfaces for new electronics

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Engineering atomic interfaces for new electronics – Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been exploring the special behavior of electrons at the interface between two different materials. The oxide interfaces that they have been studying have electrons gases that behave more like liquids of vary viscosity depending on the materials used.

It seems to me, that this is fertile ground for an architectural concept. The very idea of treating architectural space as a material continuum rather than the more typical outlook of form that frames space. This is not an argument for the sleek forms of parametric thinking, though it doesn’t exclude them. Rather, I argue that a material thinking is more about exploring contextual relationships, both continuous and discrete, in a way that favors the field rather than any individual piece.

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Comments on Invisibility cloak could hide buildings from quakes – New Scientist

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Invisibility cloak could hide buildings from quakes – New Scientist – The physics behind optical invisibility cloaks that have been gaining so much attention have other possibilities. Scientists at the Fresnel Institute have worked out a potential technology for cloaking buildings from surface waves caused by Earthquakes and Tsunami. The technology uses tuned rings that might end up being installed in the foundations of a building to propagate a wave around the building, leaving the wave virtually untouched. Such a technique might also work for vibration isolators for equipment. The physics can be applied to all sorts of wave phenomenon and are filled with possibilities.

Yet what might this hold for the design of Architecture. Surely the practical implications are big enough but the conceptual ones are interesting too. Too often Architecture is thought to be an expression of some conceptual intent, but what might a building that cloaks intentions, expressions and movement be like. What can the idea of an architecture of the invisible teach us.