Apr 20
A new water-repellant concrete impregnated with tiny superstrong fibers promises to leave roads and bridges free of major cracks for up to 120 years.
Apr 08
Concrete pipes never looked so inviting. At the Prahran Hotel, a pub in Australia, stacks of pre-cast concrete tubes have been turned into cozy, wood-paneled booths for sharing a pint or two. From the outside, they look like kegs (get it?) or portholes—in any case, nothing remotely as dystopian as the phrase "concrete pipes" might evoke.
Apr 01
Gundam Tombstone: A Proper Burial
Posted in: Today's ChiliIf you love giant robots in life, celebrate your love of giant robots in death with a Gundam tombstone. It will be a lasting monument to your life that stands out and makes others take notice.
This huge Gundam tombstone is on display with more traditional tombstones at a Japanese monument shop in Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture. With this big guy watching over you, your afterlife will be safe. Your dirt nap restful. In the future, maybe we will all have cool tombstones like this one.
It beats having some weeping angels standing over your grave. Plus weeping angels move around a lot, so they wouldn’t even stay by your resting place for long.
[Rocket News via Neatorama]
Feb 23
A crucial step towards building the next tallest building on Earth is underway: Engineers on the Kingdom Tower, a proposed 3,280 foot tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, are beginning tests to figure out how to pump wet concrete more than half a mile into the sky.
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Feb 16
What an amazing building this turned out to be, the new Abedian School of Architecture at Bond University in Queensland, Australia. Designed by London’s CRAB studio—led by Gavin Robotham and Sir Peter Cook, whose work you might know from Archigram—the 27,000 square-foot structure has just been completed and now faces the hard test of everyday use.
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Dec 06
Gizmodo’s 3D Printing Week, a collaborative project with GE that comes to a close this evening, would only be partially complete without a look at the use of animals as living 3D printers. They are sentient printheads, we might say: biological sources of material, whether it’s silk and honey or plastic and even, as we’ll see below, concrete.
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Sep 20
I’ve seen lamps made of many different materials, but this is the first concrete lamp I’ve come across. It looks quite interesting, but it’s not going to be a very lightweight lamp.
Light ‘0’ was created by the South Korean studio 220plus. Their solution is simple, and the structure mixes both warm and cold materials. The most striking feature is the lampshade that’s made from concrete, with an exposed cable. The designers say that it’s been made to enhance the mobility and functionality of the lamp, allowing for different positions to manage your lighting solution.
The Light ‘0’ lamp will be available for purchase in October 2013, and it will come in both table and floor lamp variants.
[via The Mag]
Aug 27
Make a Pinhole Camera from Concrete
Posted in: Today's ChiliWhile one could definitely argue that the lo-fi images you can capture with a pinhole camera are an acquired taste, it’s still pretty cool that you can capture images on film with such a simple mechanism. Now, thanks to one creative Instructables contributor, you can make your own pinhole camera from an unconventional material – concrete.
Photography enthusiast Amuu has devised a plan to create a camera using a block of concrete, with a hole cut in it and a wooden shutter. The process requires the creation of a mold using laminated foam boards, then pouring concrete into it to cast the body of the camera.
The inside of the concrete box is then painted black to minimize light reflections. The pinhole itself is made by punching a hole in a soda can and gluing it into an opening in the concrete (though it would be cool if you could drill a tiny pinhole through the concrete itself). A couple of small wood knobs are used to wind the film, and a plywood flap is used to open the shutter and let light through to the film.
Check out the image gallery below for a few examples of images that Ammu captured with her concrete pinhole camera:
Yes, they’re definitely fuzzy, distorted and gritty, but that’s what you want out of a pinhole camera, isn’t it?
Want to make your own concrete camera? Head on over to Instructables for the complete build guide.
[via TAXI]
Jul 16
Who Wants a Concrete iPhone Skin?
Posted in: Today's Chili
You can get all manner of weird and wonderful iPhone cases
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Jul 15
Imagine if we had robots that could not only tear a building down, but also recycle it. Large building projects would go much faster and they would likely be cheaper and safer too. This new concept in robotics may just improve the efficiency of building demolition and recycling. It comes from Swedish student designer Omer Haciomeroglu who says that ERO is a smart recycling robot like Wall-E.
He states that ERO would “efficiently disassemble concrete structures without any waste, dust or separation and enable reclaimed building materials to be reused for new prefabricated concrete buildings.” In other words it could be a dream come true for the construction sector.
It uses high-powered water jets to crack the concrete. The cement and water is then sucked up and separated. The water is recycled back into the system, while clean aggregate is packed and sent to concrete precast stations for reuse. The rebar can then be cleaned and cut on the spot for reuse as well.
A fleet of ERO robots working together would be able to scan the area and plan their demolition/recycling. The robots could “literally erase a building”. It is a great idea, and I hope it sees action one day.
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