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Posts Tagged ‘construction’

Rainbow Nests: What Wasps Build with Colored Construction Paper

14 Apr

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

colored wasp nests

Worker wasps build with the materials available in their environment, including different hues and shades of paper, which can lead to radical rainbow homes when properly apportioned.

colored paper creations

Biology student Mattia Menchetti began giving a group of European paper wasps a variety of colored papers in a specific sequence in order to facilitate their creation of colorful nests.

colored wast colony

The effect is quite compelling, but wasps are not the only creatures that can take on colors from their surroundings and incorporate them – bees and ants have been known to as well.

bee honey france mandm

In one instance, an M&M production plant in France was found to be responsible for changing the color of honey created by a local bee hive. Apparently, the honey tasted fine, but of course, putting such oddly colorful honey on the market is a tough sell.

colored ant drink

In another instance, we can see the effects of giving colored sugary water to translucent ants, whose bodies then take on the spectrum of looks found in their drinks.

colored ant colony

In this case, a scientist named Mohamed Babu from Mysore, India shot a series of photos of the colony consuming this liquid sugar water (via Colossal).

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Shanghai Tower Timelapse Film Captures 4 Years of Construction

24 Mar

[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

Screen Shot 2016-03-23 at 5.52.16 PM

The second-tallest building in the world seems to appear out of nowhere, shooting into the sky as if of its own accord, in this stunning time-lapse video of the skyline in Lujiazui, China taken over a four-year period by filmmaker Joe Nafis. The 2,073-foot Shanghai Tower is surpassed only by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and features a double-decker elevator offering the longest single elevator journey in the world at an amazing 1900 feet in under a minute. Its construction has made the skyline even more iconic, dwarfing all of the other buildings in the city.

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Every single shot taken by Nafis is a work of art – razor sharp, beautifully composed, dynamic – and seeing them all put together in the final video is breathtaking. The filmmaker spent 1,000 work hours taking and editing 350,000 photos to capture the process as each of the 128 floors is built.

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“Construction had already begun when I arrived in the city in 2009,” says Nafis. “The site was a large hole in the ground with construction crews milling around pouring concrete for the base. I began exploring the city looking for views and locations that would serve as groundwork for this video. In 2011, I secured a location with unobstructed views of Lujiazui where I could just glimpse the tower peeking behind the 185m (607 feet) Aurora Plaza.”

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“I maintained a camera there for the next 4 years until the tower was completed. In the meantime I took hundreds of thousands of photos from various viewpoints around the city filling up around 8TB in the process. In all, over 1000 hours were dedicated to this project in exploring, shooting and post-processing.”

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[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

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Collaborative Construction: Aerial Drone-Built Architecture

10 Apr

[ By WebUrbanist in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

weaving architecture in air

Unmanned aerial vehicles can do more than just take pictures, pick up and drop off objects – they can also work together to create solid structures, built brick by brick or even woven in midair.

drone architectural construction structure

drone finished wall project

In this first example, titled Flight Assembled Architecture, roboticist Raffaello D’Andrea Swiss architecture firm Gramazio Kohler Architects to create a complex 3D wall from lightweight blocks. Far from an end product, the idea was simply to show what drones could be programmed to do. While this remains an impressive feat, the next and more recently-executed demo (below) is even more so.

woven structure drones

With help from ETH Zurich’s Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control, these autonomous flying vehicles are coordinated by computers to wrap, weave and intertwine support cables to create various tensile structures.

wweaving drone space

A simple set of vertical supports provides the framework with which the cable-deploying drones interact, first wrapping these columns then beginning to form ever more complex structures in the air.

drone building flight assembled

drone flying block design

drone building block wall

The possible future applications for such techniques range from rapid prototyping and structural integrity tests in physical space, replacing computer models, but drones could also become construction tools, able to safely weave in and out of buildings at higher altitudes to deliver materials or even deploy them in place.

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3,200 megapixel LSST camera gets construction approval

03 Feb

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, more commonly referred to as the LSST, will take ultra-high-resolution images of the universe around us in the relatively near future thanks to recent construction approval from the US Department of Energy. This will pave the way for the telescope’s completion for its anticipated 2022 launch date. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Under Construction: World’s First Concrete-Printing Robot

30 Nov

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

3d printed concrete wall

A prominent architectural firm has teamed up with an established concrete manufacturer and a university to develop a commercially-viable robotic concrete printer capable of precisely producing complex three-dimensional forms. The group aims to bridge the gap between what can be modeled via 3D rendering software and what can be manufactured in reality.

3d printed form example

(Norman) Foster + Partners are working with Skanska and Loughborough University as well as various industry contractors on this 3D-printing project. Their primary joint goal is reduce the time (from weeks to hours) and increase the options available for the on-site deployment of concrete, creating new possibilities for one of planet’s most ubiquitously-used building materials.

3d printed curved cement

Essentially, a computer-controlled robotic arm lays down layers of concrete, each building on the previous according to a programmed sequence. A highly-controlled extrusion of cement-based mortar, precisely positioned according to computer data and obviating the need for solid material inputs.

3d printing concrete architecture

Currently, a phase two prototype has already been built and the team is working on a newer and more-mobile version able to create high-complexity shapes on building sites.

The results so far are promising: structurally-robust forms that would be difficult if even possible to create via conventional concrete construction techniques of either cast-in-place or precast varieties.

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Hasselblad HV is restyled Sony SLT-A99 with ‘tough as nails’ construction

04 Feb

hv-front.jpg

Weeks after replacing its CEO and announcing a new 50MP CMOS-equipped medium format DSLR, Hasselblad has us scratching our heads yet again. The just-announced Hasselblad HV joins the Lunar and Stellar as a restyled Sony SLT-A99 that offers identical specifications but has a complete aesthetic overhaul and ‘tough as nails’ PVD-coated aluminum and titanium construction. And we thought those days were over…  Learn more

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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15-Year Photo Project: Construction of a 150-Year Bridge

27 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

joseph blum bridge photo

A photography project well over a decade in the making, these images by Joseph Blum show the human side and vast scale of construction behind the world’s largest self-anchored suspension bridge, slated to open this Labor Day Weekend in San Francisco and built to last for one hundred and fifty years.

blum bay bridge

Blum has a 25-year professional background in construction that informs his work but also gives him credibility with workers, enabling him to take close up and personal shots on site. He routinely braved dangerous heights with camera in hand, given remarkable behind-the-scenes access that in turn required extensive gear and safety precautions.

blum bridge above below

In the following interview with WebUrbanist, Joseph Blum goes into detail about his intentions, approach and what he learned about construction, photography and himself through this long and epic photographic journey.

blum bay construction workers

Notably, almost (if not every) image in the resulting series has a human element. “My intention on this job  and in all of my work is to document and honor the human labor involved in the project,” Blum explains. In this case, he “attempted to photograph the construction labor processes insofar as it was possible from the perspective of the workers actually doing the work” in order ” to show how they take the engineers’ plans and drawings and transform them into living structures of steel and concrete.”

blum san francisco series

Then there is the time frame of the project itself, spanning over a decade during which time there has been a massive shift from traditional film toward digital photography. Blum walks us through the timeline and his own transitions: “When I began this project I was shooting black and white film exclusively and did not believe that would ever change. During the course of the project digital photography burst on to the scene and became ever more sophisticated. I began shooting digital on the job as a supplement, but over time I began to rely upon it more and more.” Eventually, he started “to understand that in photography what is most important is the image and whether it is captured on black and white or color film or digitally is secondary.”

blum bridge construction detail

But the learning process also went beyond technical choices: “I also learned a great deal more about bridge construction and the work processes of the various trades.” Blum ended up “hanging out with the work groups for extended periods of time, forming relationships with the workers, getting to understand how they organized their work and their work relationships,” which in turn “increased my understanding of how this kind of labor is accomplished and also allowed me get images that no one else could.”

blum interview building detail

On a personal level, perhaps this photographer also found a secret to longevity in those high-flying spans overlooking the city: “Although the years went by and I got older, I felt that the project kept me young. photographing the bridge in the middle of the beautiful San Francisco bay required me to carry a substantial photo bag, to do a great deal of walking and climbing in all kinds of weather and i found that every single day that i went out to shoot was invigorating and energizing.” For more information about his work and exhibitions, as well as more images, click here to visit Joseph Blum’s website.

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Dubai Construction

10 Feb

Time Lapse of Dubai Construction Site and Sheikh Zayed Road
Video Rating: 3 / 5

 
 

DIY Civilization: 40-Part Post-Apocalypse Construction Kit

20 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

Worried about the end of the world? A group of engineers has created a series of do-it-yourself machines for building (or reconstructing) society anywhere with access to light, water and soil.

At eight times cheaper than their retail counterparts, these forty gadgets by Open Source Ecology are a globally-accessible alternative for disaster preppers and engineering geeks alike.

Think of them like large-scale LEGOs – the fewest necessary interchangeable parts required to construct essential wells for habitation, basic agricultural equipment for food production, steam engines for energy, 3D scanners and printers for industry and more.

“Open Source Ecology is accelerating the growth of the next economy – the Open Source Economy – an economy that optimizes both production and distribution – while promoting environmental regeneration and social justice. We are building the Global Village Construction Set. This is a high-performance, modular, do-it-yourself, low-cost platform – that allows for the easy fabrication of the 50 different industrial machines that it takes – to build a small, sustainable civilization with modern comforts.”


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Diggedy Dozer in “Treetop Troubles” HD Anaglyph 3D – Bulldozer Truck Construction Cartoon Kids

14 Sep

Join Diggedy Dozer and his Build Co. Construction crew once again as they try to make the right choices to help a little bird and its home, this time in anaglyph 3D! You’ll need the RED AND CYAN ANAGLPYH GLASSES to experience the 3D depth effects, and the video should be viewed in HD where possible FOR MAXIMUM DEPTH EFFECT. A special treat from Flypaper Creations. Happy Holidays everyone! Visit Diggedy Dozer at www.diggedydozer.com

Red-Cyan 3D glasses needed!
Video Rating: 5 / 5

 
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