Tech Tats use conductive inks to create a circuit board right on your skin, providing a passive and unobtrusive alternative to standard wearables. Smartwatches and fitness trackers tend to stand out (worn on wrists or around necks) and need to be taken off and put back on daily, whereas these tats (while temporary) can be applied indefinitely.

The wearable can be used to monitor body temperature, blood pressure, stress levels and heart rate, then transmit data wirelessly to a mobile app or computer.

Lying effectively flat against the surface of your skin, these complete circuits are easy to conceal or reveal depending on whether or not you want to show off your ink.

The DIY-friendly design uses LED lights, a microcontroller and conductive ink – for now, the result is intentionally temporary, but permanently-inked versions could work as well.

The applications are numerous, starting with medical but expanding to financial as well as other identification-oriented use cases. A wearable wallet could be tied to your banking information, for example, or you could apply a Tech Tat to your child during an outing to a busy place, providing an easy way to track them in case you get separated. Chaotic Moon is currently developing both the wearable circuitry tech as well as related applications.

Designed for empty warehouses or buildings under construction, these material-light shelters provide functionality for liminal interiors either past their prime not yet in use. Places like the infamous Tower of David, a restarted project previously inhabited by skyscraper squatters, would be an ideal candidate for this sort of system.

A polyethylene-coated metal grid frames these modest shelters, serving as walls and doors and supporting interior shelves and an exterior fabric facade. A plastic-laminated plywood floor floats above concrete or whatever raw surface is found in a target structure. Nylon nets provide a degree of privacy while letting in light and can be covered by opaque cloth as well.

Each dwelling can be completed with just $1200 and while no heating or cooling is included the system is intended to work well in tropical or other climates supporting open-air living. Since a stable roof and floor are provided, the main task is simply filling in gaps for habitation.

All(zone) drew inspiration for their Light House from traditional architecture of Thailand, often designed to be collapsed and moved as needed.

The light and flat-packable materials make it easy to ship these systems in conventional containers or other forms of transit, making them suitable possibilities for emergency shelters as well.

The designers tested their prototype by deploying it in a parking garage and staying within their mockup module for a few nights.

Reinventing one of the world’s most ubiquitous building materials, this concrete alternative developed at MIT can be 3D-printed then disassembled without wasting unnecessary energy or creating useless debris. Imagine the possibilities temporary concrete architecture that is easy to deconstruct with zero material loss.

Rock Print effectively shoves rocks into position, binding them with computer-controlled string. The result in this demonstration at the Chicago Architecture Biennial is a rigid 13-foot column that can be cleanly unraveled into its constituent parts.

A product of the Self-Assembly Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this approach suggests a new way to think about concrete, a material that is typically cheap and easy to use in construction but expensive and wasteful when it comes to demolition.

As Skylar Tibbits explains, “We are using a similar technique to powder-based printing. There is a container, material is deposited layer by layer and a ‘binder (in this case the string) is applied to each layer in the specific pattern of the slice.”

Effectively any shape is possible thanks to the 3D printing process, while the results are strong and durable, relying on the physics of jamming and collective strength of composited stones. The reversibility of the process makes this a far more eco-friendly way to build rigid structures from durable materials that still dismantle on demand.

Creating a one-of-a-kind opportunity for urban designers and aspiring planners, Black Rock City is soliciting fresh layouts from anyone who wishes to contribute. Winners selected by the BRC Ministry of Urban Planning will be featured in an upcoming publication but will also influence the future shape of this surreal metropolis.

As the home of the Burning Man Festival, BRC is unique not only due to its intermittent existence, rising from the desert for just one week every year, but also because of its density and size, with 75,000+ annual residents making their home in less than 2 square miles.

The fact that the place is rebuilt anew with each iteration means lessons learned one year can be applied the next, while the absolutely flat desert landscape makes for effectively endless possible layouts. Likewise, the architecture that populates the place is highly varied and ever-evolving, reflecting the radical changes in temperature from day to night and the ever-present threat of rain and dust storms.

While critics and ‘citizens’ alike have strong feelings and differing views about other aspects of the gathering, once attendees have arrived they effectively become residents of a grand urban experiment. Reliant on streets and other public infrastructure, everyone fills into the grid, from individual campsites (often on the fringes) to large theme camps (arrayed primarily around a central circular Esplanade) and core communal functions (generally near the entrance).

These designs, past through present, reflect the need for clear navigation within the city as well as the desire to foster density and (through that) community interactions, all while maintaining critical services at key places or appropriate intervals.

While leeway is given for creative variation, submitters to the contest are similarly encouraged to reinforce density and interactivity, through fractal patterns or other applicable configurations and shapes. Far-fetched, implausible or even physically impossible entries will still be considered, however, even if they cannot be incorporated in a near-future plan.

The shape of the city has changed significantly over time, but certain elements like the centrality of The Man have remained largely the same. Tall relative to its surroundings and aligned with axes of the city, it serves to help orient people (particularly at night) while also providing a central locus around which activity revolves. While it was initially arrayed closely around it, the city pushed back from The Man over the years, creating a broken circle with views to and beyond this center figure.

As the city grew in size, its location also shifted, pushing it deeper into the wide-open desert. However, since 1999, major changes have been fewer and farther between – a fact that may change with the right submission to this competition.

More on the origins of the competition: “We founded the Black Rock City Ministry of Urban Planning with the goal of enabling people to share and discuss ideas for the spatial and geometric possibilities for Black Rock City and regional events, and to give architects and urban designers a platform to participate more directly in this process. Design competitions such as this are a familiar format in these trades, and as such, are an efficient way to get lots of ideas on the table for consideration.”

Types of and evaluation criteria for submissions: “(1) Individual design elements : boulevards, roundabouts, street lights, all of the things that are part of a cityscape that can be incorporated into larger scale plans. Have an idea for a park, or a winding boulevard? Submit this as a design element. (2) Conforming city plans : these are large scale city plans that make adaptations to the existing time + named street coordinate system without altering the fundamental character of the plan. The objective with this type of plan is to make aesthetic or practical improvements to what’s already in place, for example by adding pedestrian boulevards (think Las Ramblas in Barcelona). (3) Non-conforming city plans : here we explore BRC, or a regional event city, as an imagined or science fictional space, and invite people to submit radically new configurations for the city.” (Images via Burning Man, Duncan Rawlinson and Jonathan LaLiberty).

Each year, architects around the world design and construct temporary structures for events like the Milan Expo, showing off their skills in a setting that enables them to be more bold and experimental than they can be with more traditional architecture. Often interpreting a set theme, these pavilions use unexpected materials, play with spatial relationships and incorporate multimedia for an immersive experience.

Korea Pavilion: The Ways of Folding Space & Flying

“An archaeological quest into human civilization,” this pavilion entitled ‘The Ways of Folding Space & Flying’ enchanted visitors to the 56th International Art Exhibition. Representing Korea, the pavilion by Moon Kyungwon & Jeon Joonho is part architecture, part film installation juxtaposing the past, present and future and can be experienced from both outside and in.

Serpentine Pavilion by Selgascano

This year’s Serpentine Pavilion by Spanish studio Selgascano looks a bit like a stretched-out glow worm, glimmering in iridescent pastel shades. The polygonal frame is covered in panels of translucent florins-based polymer. “We sought a way to allow the public toe experience architecture through simple elements: structure, light, transparency, shadow, lightness, form, sensitivity, change, surprise, color and materials,” say the designers. “The spatial qualities of the pavilion only unfold when accessing the structure and being immersed within it. Each entrance allows for a specific journey through the space, characterized by color, light and irregular shapes with surprising volumes. This is accomplished by creating a double-layered shell, made of opaque and translucent fluorine-based plastic (ETFE) in a variety of colors.”

Vanke Pavilion by Daniel Libeskind

Representing China at Milan’s Expo 2015, the Vanke pavilion by renowned architect Daniel Libeskind explores the theme ‘feeding the planet, energy for life’ through the lens of Chinese culture. The design is influenced by the shi-tang, a traditional Chinese dining hall, as well as natural landscapes and the dragon, which is associated with farming. The pavilion is covered in over 4,000 red scale-like tiles with air purification properties, and inside, 200 screens are mounted to bamboo scaffolding, displaying video of city life contrasted with the slow-motion of a meal being prepared and consumed.

UK Pavilion at Expo Milan 2015

On display in Milan though October 31st, 2015, this pavilion representing the United Kingdom at Expo 2015 reflects the theme ‘Grown in Britain and Northern Ireland’ through a spiraling mesh of metal lattice. As visitors pass through it they experience five different settings inspired by orchards, meadows, terraces, the architectural program and the ‘hive.’ The whole thing buzzes, pulses and glows thanks to accelerometers and other audio-visual devices embedded in the structure, taking live signals from a real beehive.

The Orangery in Northern Denmark

Translucent white fabric stretched across a wooden frame puts the silhouettes of a bunch of potted citrus plants on display once the interior is illuminated after dark at ‘The Orangery’ by Lenschow & Pihlmann and Mikael Streström. Taking inspiration from the floor plan of Rome’s San Carlo Alle Quattro Fontane Church, the interior is appropriately cathedral-like with its circle of suspended plants.

Next Page - Click Below to Read More:
Picturesque Pavilions 12 Experimental Temporary Structures