With the Box Office right next to the train tracks, passing trains help set the rhythm of the day. Fortunately, the exceptional insulation of the units keeps them nice and quiet inside. Yesterday, however, I looked out the window, and saw a real mechanical marvel: a Track-Relaying Train. The train was about 200 yards long, most of which was devoted to storing new ties. A gantry system ran above the cars, depositing ties back to the business-car. The train lifts the rails, munches up the old ties, and deposits fresh ones in their place.
This is the business section of the TRT, which is moving to the right. Note the ties going in and coming out.
The flatbed cars full of ties, as seen from Stack's roof deck.
In other Box Office news, Google maps found our pile of containers. This looks like it was taken sometime in the spring. Interestingly, Street View has not yet updated; it still shows the building that formerly occupied the site.
Google Maps view of the Box Office under construction.
The island of Lindisfarne, off the coast of England, upcycles their old herring boats into sheds. A cool twist on the Viking funeral:
And finally, a neat film about crane operators. We have previously featured crane operators in Dubai who chose to live in their crane-cabs because of the time and distance involved to descend each day.
The Box Office hosted the mixer to kick off the 2010 A Better World by Design Conference. About 400 people showed up to enjoy craft beer, socializing with Providence’s design community, and to participate in the Box Office’s grand opening
The Box Office will be hosting the kickoff mixer for the annual “A Better World By Design 2010″ Conference this Friday, October 1st from 8:30 to 10:30. This fantastic social event will be teeming with designers, hipsters, and environmentally responsive movers and shakers. Please visit http://www.abetterworldbydesign.com/content/events/ to learn more about A Better World by Design and event details!
The charge for non-students is $20 and includes wine & beer. Not only will you be able to eat & drink & schmooze with the hip-happenin’ ABWxD crowd, but you can do it in style at the coolest pile of recycled steel in Providence.
NPR stations WRNI and WGBH featured the Box Office this morning.
The story isn’t embeddable, but here’s a link to to the audio and text versions of the story, which also featured another Stack container project, the Containers to Clinics prototype clinic, currently serving women and children in Haiti.
From England, a lovingly restored midcentury “Mobile Cinema.” At one point, there were 15 of these tooling around the countryside, but only one remains. The 1967 truck is a great combination of midcentury concerns: streamlined mobility, new forms of entertainment, and democratizing access to technology. (BLDG Blog)
Fauxcrete Jungle, anyone?
If your house is too fancy to have real unfinished concrete walls, or just want to have the look without the grit, then a Norwegian company will sell you silkscreened faux-concrete wallpaper. (Website)
The tiny vehicles below were obliterated a split-second after this photo was taken.
The New York Times features the filmmakers who captured the atomic bomb tests of the ’40s and ’50s. The photos are fascinating, documenting a time of a naive faith in technology and progress, even after the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the specter of the Cold War.
An information desk, made of information.
This information desk at the University of Delft makes for an interesting commentary on the function of libraries and the future of the book. At least it looks cool! (BoingBoing)
The name might sound like a boxer from the ’50s, but Hurricane Earl is churning its way up the Atlantic seaboard. Winds are gusting up to 165 mph in the Category 4 storm, which reminds us why architects and builders take the long view when doing their work. The effects of the Hurricane of 1938 –which inspired the modern tracking and naming system–can still be seen across New England, if you know where to look.
Casa Areia, Portugal
The Portuguese architecture firm Aires Mateus has built an incredible beachside retreat. While the sand floors might not be wholly practical, the buildings respond superbly to their site and purpose.
From the “Classes I Wish I’d Taken” Department: Undergrads Crash NASA Satellite Into the Ocean. Students at the University of Colorado got to decommission a satellite for credit. I say that any class that lets you interact directly with outer space is pretty cool.
Modern Birdhouses in London
And finally, some cosmopolitan birds get modern digs in London. The title of the project is “Spontaneous City in the Tree of Heaven,” after the common name for the tree species (which, incidentally, is increasingly being seen as invasive)
The twisting concrete form connects the buildings elegantly
From Studio Bellecour, a green office building in Toulouse, France
Things being destroyed, very slowly. The sound effects are a bit much, but still, awesome.
Flickr user theclosedloop, via the Industrial Designers’ Society of America, reminds us that “there is no away”
Google Earth gets even more real
Google has added real-time weather monitoring to Google Earth. Representing environmental data is a complex design challenge–it often requires splitting up information between different views — but Google appears to be taking the comprehensive approach. This will be fun to follow in the next few years as it gets even more sophisticated. (Treehugger)
HVAC "Magic Box" for super-efficient spaces
At the Box Office, Stack installed efficient heat pumps and energy recovery ventilators, allowing for a tight envelope with excellent indoor air quality. These are two separate units. Equipment developed for the Passivhaus standard combines these two functions into one “Magic Box” that performs heating, cooling, and conditioned ventilation, all in one unit, saving energy and space.
Circulus at the disused Seeley G. Mudd Library at Pomona College
Art student Sam Starr built a small velodrome in a disused library at Pomona College. The project riffs off the idea of circulation — of bicycles, of books, of bloodflow in exercise — and simultaneously touches on the relationship between old and new media. Regardless, its a beautiful structure.
A boat!
Workers restoring the World Trade Center site found an 18th century ship buried in the muck. BLDG Blog explores what it means to find ships and wharves suspended beneath the foundations of our cities.
Plastiki lands in Australia
A few months ago, a group of sailors departed from San Francisco on a trip to cross the Pacific Ocean, with a stop at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, to raise awareness about plastic and waste. Their vessel? A catamaran made entirely of recycled soda bottles. Last week, they arrived in Australia. A staggering feat of seamanship, resourcefulness, and commitment to the environment.
While good news from the Gulf appeared on the horizon this week with the successful capping of the Deepwater Horizon well, the above simulation underscores how serious the situation still is. The simulation follows the release of 8 million particles into the currents of the Gulf and Eastern Atlantic.
