Architect Adolf Loos believed that truly modern architecture should have furniture integrated with its walls. In several of his buildings, bare benches, cushioned seating areas and sets of drawers emerge seamlessly from the interior architecture. In blurring the line between walls and furniture, Loos opened up his buildings for free interpretation, allowing walls and objects to take on double meanings and function in manifold ways.

With this in mind, it seems as if the architects at Interval Architects had intended to make a truly modern public space. The result: Rollercoaster, a continuously folding and unfolding structure that is both a monumental sculpture and a functional gathering space set in the central square of one of Beijing’s best vocational schools. Click through for more.

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Last week, Japanese earthquake victims began settling into a neighborhood of new temporary housing complexes in Miyagi. The clean, compact yet spacious modular homes made from shipping containers proclaim the virtues of prefabrication and adaptive reuse and demonstrate, once again, architect Shigeru Ban’s ability to synthesize contemporary sustainable building practices with a historically rooted Japanese sensibility.

Meanwhile, in flood-ravaged Bangkok, a similar story emerges from the waterlogged streets of Pathum Thani. CNN recently released a video that captures Thai communities taking refuge in prefabricated concrete shells used to construct Bangkok’s elevated skyway. Within these tiered cement structures, dozens of recently homeless residents have moved in with their most prized personal belongings, from pampered purse-sized dogs to massive flat-screen televisions and refrigerators. More after the break.

[Images via CNN]

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[Photo via Der Spiegel International]

Many will agree that we need to think smaller these days: smaller carbon footprint, smaller living spaces, smaller cars. Well, how about really small, like one-molecule small? According to NewScientist, the Dutch have recently taken the smallest car in the world for a spin, and by smallest car in the world, we mean one-billionth of a meter long, and too small to find an actual photo to show you. So you’ll have to believe us when we say it’s a single-molecule white Fiat piloted by an atomic Jennifer Lopez.

In all seriousness, the working nanometer-sized vehicle is a breakthrough in nanotechnology. Composed out of a single molecule, the “car” has four wheel-like paddles that rotate when zapped with a beam of electrons. The nanocar is able to move autonomously, converting energy into movement entirely on its own, thereby allowing it to transport atomic loads of cargo and also help scientists study the curious benefits of small motors over large ones. So although we probably won’t be thinking that small anytime soon, there are hopes that the nanocar will lead to the development of more efficient large-scale motors.

[via Der Spiegel and NewScientist]

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The issue of bike lanes in New York City has sparked numerous debates, sending right-leaning journalists on a crusade against DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and pitting Williamsburg hipsters against their Hasidic Jew neighbors. While those with a more Dutch-minded vision for the city view bike lanes as a step towards shared public space, planners in London have taken quite the opposite route towards the same goal.

According to The Guardian, after 18 months of renovation, London’s Exhibition Road has been overhauled from a traditional sidewalk-and-road arrangement into a continuous smooth surface to be shared by pedestrians, bikers and drivers alike. Gone are the crosswalks, lane markings, sidewalks and railings, leaving only a uniform expanse of crosshatched black-and-white granite running from South Kensington station to Hyde Park. So what is the rationale behind this madness?

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Fourth-grader Serina Hamada stands on the balcony of Shigeru Ban’s three-story temporary housing complex in Miyagi. Photo via The Japan Times.

Last month we explored the work of architect Shigeru Ban, whose work ranges from installing paper tube and curtain partitions in Japan’s gymnasiums, creating personal space for earthquake evacuees, to building an iconic new bastion of fine art for the Centre Pompidou in far out Metz, France. Renowned for his dedication to elegant sustainable design and his championing of the “permanence of impermanence,” Ban has come to the fore not only as a successful architect but also as a pioneering humanitarian. Earlier this week, Ban’s two- and three-story quakeproof freight container settlements were completed in Miyagi, one of the three Tohoku region prefectures hit the hardest by the earthquake and tsunami in March. More after the break.

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Eliel and Eero Saarinen’s Cranbrook Art Museum is finally reopening this Friday after two years of renovation. Along with the much needed restoration of the Saarinen-designed main vaults and galleries, the museum has added a new 20,000 sq ft Collections Wing, which aims to reinvent the museum’s relationship with the public through a sprawling open storage display. Read on.

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A map revealing decoy Parisian railways, streets and train stations. Image via The Daily Mail.

The myth of the fake city, the decoy town of hollow facades and empty streets, has come up repeatedly throughout history. Rumor has it in the 18^th century Russian minister Grigory Potemkin erected a fake settlement to impress the visiting Empress Catherine II during her visit to Crimea. Fast forward to the 1950’s, when North Korea built Kijŏng-dong, a propagandistic faux town within direct line of sight from the Korean DMZ. Even today, American cities are trying to pump life into their blighted neighborhoods by building plywood doors and windows over vacant homes, hoping to deter vandals with the semblance of occupancy.

With historical examples set aside, we turn to Mel Brooks’ 1974 film Blazing Saddles, in which a heroic sheriff builds a perfect replica of his constituent town to save it from an assortment of mercenary bandits. It turns out this story is more than the stuff of cinematic satire.

According to Le Figaro newspaper, newly unearthed archives reveal that in 1918, the planners at France’s air defense group erected a life-sized replica of Paris just north of the city to fool German bombers during World War I. This second Paris was strategically located by the Seine and equipped with electric lights, fake streets and dummy monuments, including a replica Gare du Nord and Arc de Triomphe. The planners even included illusory urban sprawl, building out the outer industrial areas of Paris in their decoy city and adding fake train tracks that were illuminated to give the illusion of a passing train. Fortunately, neither Paris nor its double were bombed, and the decoy was disassembled shortly after its construction.

The camouflage railway that lit up to give the illusion of a passing train. Image via The Daily Mail.

[via The Daily Mail]

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Photographer Edward Burtynsky captures the vibrant, seemingly extraterrestrial topographies of a remote region in northeastern Spain in new series of photographs entitled Dryland Farming. From a 2,000 foot aerial view, these landscapes read like abstract maps, as if Kandinsky had taken a stab at cartography. More after the break.

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Architecture has come a long way since 1885, when William Le Baron Jenney built what is widely considered the world’s first skyscraper. His eight-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago was designed with metal columns and beams instead of heavy masonry, leading the way for even taller constructions to come. In January 2010, SOM’s Burj Khalifa smashed the world record for tallest skyscraper in the world. The smooth steel stalagmite towers half a mile above Dubai, with its very tip often obscured by clouds.

These days, the claim of being the tallest building in the world is never held for too long. With skyscrapers going up at seemingly breakneck speeds, one would think that things have changed dramatically since Jenney’s architectural revolution in Chicago, and there is no doubt that they have. But Kate Ascher exposes the inner workings of these modern marvels in her new book The Heights: Anatomy of a Skyscraper, and it turns out that contemporary design solutions are sometimes more primitive than one would think. She sat down with Fresh Air host Terry Gross to answer a few questions, for instance, what happens when you flush a toilet on the top of the tallest building in the world? Click to learn more.

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[Photo via Santa Monica Property Blog]

As of last Thursday, Google has officially touched down in Los Angeles, and the search engine/internet/everything giant has brought along its penchant for unconventional office environments. While we have no word on how many lava lamps, climbing walls, slides and plastic hand chairs will be present on the new 100,000 sq ft campus, we do know that the L.A. operation will occupy three adjacent buildings, including Frank Gehry’s Binoculars Building, famed for its iconic parking garage entrance designed by artist Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. According to David Sarno of the L.A. Times, the binocular sculpture is fitting iconography for the company’s focus on Web search. This could be Google’s first “duck” after a series of extremely decorated sheds.

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