Cliff Hanger Hotel is Part of HKS Inc.'s Design for Suspended Modular Hotels

Image: HKS Inc.

Designs for the Cliff Hanger Hotel by HKS Inc., a vertical hotel literally hanging off the side of a cliff of the Grand Canyon, were impressive enough to receive an Honorable Mention at the Radical Innovations in Hospitality Awards. The idea is to take the experience of being suspended in space and immersed in an environment to many sites across the world.

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Los Angeles' EMERGENT wins competition for Shenyang Civic Sports Center and 2013 National Games

Image: EMERGENT Tom Wiscombe LLCLos Angeles-based design office EMERGENT Tom Wiscombe LLC wins competition for the Shenyang Civic Sports Center and 2013 National Games in Northeast China. The two interconnected buildings form a multi-story complex in downtown Shenyang where people can engage in sports indoors year-round. Galleries and restaurants make the space a community center as well as a sports center.

The architectural design is based on crystal patterns found in nature. Large ETFE bubble windows pressurized with air make up the opaque skin of the building, featuring solar panels on the roof.

Solar Pavement: The Future of Sidewalks?

Onyx Solar recently teamed up with Butech to launch a new line of photovoltaic paving stones made from ceramic and glass. The streamlined solar stones are manufactured using a process that produces less CO2 and uses less energy than traditional pavement, making this energy-generating material even better for reducing the environmental impact of building projects. Onyx and Butech hope to release the tiles to market by the end of this year, making them the first PV pavement system available for purchase. Though the pavement is not suited for vehicular traffic, it is well suited for human traffic and can support furniture as well.

Who Says Temporary Classrooms Need to Be Inadequate? And Ugly?

Renovations of historic school buildings often displace students into temporary, mobile and sometimes inadequate learning spaces for years at a time. Kris Celtnieks, a recent University of Oregon architecture graduate, has a thoughtful solution to school renovations - build a temporary, modular school nearby for use in the interim as construction takes place. In Celtnieks' master thesis work, he designed a prefabricated school that could be easily assembled and disassembled in order to make the transition period a positive experience for both students and teachers.

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San Francisco's Townhouses as City's First LEED Platinum Certified Multi-Family Housing Units

The Belles Townhomes are San Francisco's first LEED Platinum-certified multi-family housing units, and they are the only newly constructed residential buildings in the city's historic Presidio district. LivingHomes collaborated with Kieran Timberlake to design the seven unit residential building, located right next to the Presidio Landmark on some of the most beautiful land in the city. The project is made up of seven three-story attached units overlooking a shared central green in front of a wooded area. Each three-bedroom, three-bathroom unit includes its own garage, patio and rooftop deck. 

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