Beneath the Surface Blog

Have you ever gotten back from a well-deserved trip, and after all the traveling, felt like you needed a vacation from your vacation? With all the rushing, the waiting, the droves of travelers, and the cramped personal space, getting from point A to point B can seem more like cruel and unusual punishment than a plane ride. If you have ever experienced this feeling, or plan on doing some extensive sightseeing in the near future, the travel gods have answered your prayers. Meet your new travel buddy - the Sleepbox.

Understanding that travel time can be exhausting, Russian designers at Arch Group developed the Sleepbox to give travelers a safe and peaceful resting place amongst the hustle and bustle. Standing at 6.5 feet wide x 4.5 feet deep x 7.5 feet tall (a total of 219 cubic feet), the Sleepbox can be easily located inside airports, train stations, and convention centers where masses of commuters and travelers congregate. Large enough for one person and his or her luggage (or 2 people in the larger model), these small pods act like mini-hotel rooms in the middle of these bustling traveling hubs.

Once inside the Sleepbox, a weary traveler can find the essentials needed to get a few minutes of rest and relaxation. There is a bed, a folding table, an HD TV, and Wi-Fi internet, allowing travelers to work, watch a movie, or simply rest. And if getting a few minutes of peace and quiet isn’t enough of a reason for you to rent one of these, the added piece of mind is another benefit. Much safer than resting unguarded in airport terminal chair, in the Sleepbox, you and your luggage are privately tucked away. No more trying to hoard all of your luggage on an empty seat or under your legs while you nap. You can safely stow your belongings and stretch out comfortably, without leaving yourself a vulnerable target for pickpockets and thieves.

Along with the physical amenities and piece of mind that make staying in a Sleepbox a more enjoyable and relaxing alternative, this little pod also has some other unique elements that make it technologically savvy. Each Sleepbox is equipped with its own ventilation system to circulate clean, fresh air. There is also an automatic system that changes the bed linens as soon as a client leaves, and it also has automatic sound alerts, electrical outlets, and interior lighting further enhancing the experience.

--> But probably most importantly, the Sleepbox addresses the flexibility and convenience issues that hotel rooms fail to recognize. With traditional hotel rooms, clients must spend time finding a hotel, booking a room, and then traveling to that location. Not so with the Sleepbox. With this option, clients don’t even have to leave their current venue to waste time searching for lodging. If they desire a more private area to rest, it’s only a few steps away to the nearest Sleepbox. Furthermore, the Sleepbox can be rented anywhere from 15 minutes to a few hours, making it easy to tailor your stay to your degree of exhaustion or your budget. No need to book a hotel room for an entire day just to get in a 30 minute catnap. The Sleepbox allows you to choose your stay time, making it a very convenient choice for busy travelers.

Though the Sleepbox was invented almost two years ago, these little pods are just now starting to catch on. They are already available in several major airports throughout Europe, and are even scheduled to head to New York sometime in 2011. So the next time you’re planning on doing some extensive traveling, keep your eyes peeled for the Sleepbox. You just might catch us resting our eyes in one soon!

Image credits: Arch-Group.Org

We’ve all been there…You’re stuck in a seminar, class, or meeting, and all there is to sit on is a cold, hard, aluminum folding chair. Just the sight of one of these assembly seating staples is enough to conjure feelings of numb appendages and boredom. You know its going to be a long day.

While often only marginally better than sitting on the floor, these unassuming chairs were once a symbol of authority and status. In antiquity, rulers, commanding officers, and other respected figures were the only ones fortunate enough to use them. Because of this association, the folding chair was considered a prized possession and the most important furnishing in a space. However, in more recent times, there seems to have been a substantial shift in that hierarchy. Today, folding metal chairs are more often that not, regarded as a tacky seating solution at best, or an extreme wrestling weapon at worst. A far cry from the regal pieces of furniture they once were.

A new company, however, is working to change this negative perception of the folding chair. Inspired by paper sculptures, designers Douwe Jacobs and Tom Schouten of Flux, used innovative folding and artful play of angles to create a chair with a clean, and visually appealing silhouette. The sleek and slightly geometric style gives a much needed update to the overall appearance, bringing this seat from antiquity into current times. Furthermore, the arches and angles create a sense of movement and fluidity, much different than its rigid and static predecessor. Standing alone, the chair could be confused for a piece of art, rather than a portable seating device.

The Flux chair is not only beautiful in form, but also beautiful in function. Made of weather-proof polypropylene that can be used indoors or out, the Flux chair assembles in 10 seconds with just a few flips and folds. Weighing only 10.6 lbs, the chair is easily portable and can support over 33 times its weight – a whopping 352 lbs. And while this revamped folding chair boasts a fresh silhouette and inherent strength, another of its best attributes is its slim storage profile. Folding to a just over half an inch in depth when dismantled, 21 chairs are able to fit in a 1 foot space making it quite easy to store in tight areas. And with today’s ever increasing need for space in a continually shrinking world, this is an attractive attribute for anyone wanting to conserve on wasted space.

With already one award under their belt (UK’s Grand Design Product of the Year Award), Flux seems to have caught onto something important. And while the concept of a folding chair isn’t quite original, the way in which they approached and achieved the result, certainly is. Not only by reinventing the folding chair, but reinventing the negative stigma attached. Can’t wait to see what Flux will tackle next!

Image credits: brtpropshop via Flickr Creative Commons, y-living.com

We exist as a society overwhelmed with trash. California alone spends $25 million to send plastic shopping bag to landfills and another $8.5 million just to clean them off the streets. Americans throw away an estimated seven billion pounds of plastic per year, with only about one percent of that being recycled. Start-up company PK Clean seeks to put the remaining ninety-nine percent to good use with their proprietary technology that uses discarded PVCs and converts them into petroleum and "natural" gas.

Led by MIT grad Priyanka Bakaya, PK Clean has received recognition from a wide variety of business and energy contests such as the winning the Clean Non-Renewable Track of MIT's 2011 Clean Energy Prize and the Women's Entrepreneur and Best Energy Business Plan sections of Rice University's 2011 Business Plan Competition.

The brilliance of their solution comes from a catalytic depolymerization process. This grounds up plastic and then heats it in a reaction chamber to 150°C. A specially designed catalyst amplifies the process and allows it to take place at such a low temperature, saving energy. The products of this process include 70-80% oil and 5-10% industrial-grade ash. The remaining 10% takes the form of gas which is in turn used to heat the reaction chamber. With about 90-95% of the catalyst recovered and a low release of emissions, this process pollutes very little while removing plastic blight. Using start-up funds and competition award money, PK Clean has begun operating a pilot plant in Pune, India that processes twenty tons of plastic a day. The resulting oil, eighty barrels worth, sells for about $25-30/barrel. Bayaka plans to upscale the process to one-hundred tons and day and sees a future potential of $7 billion for the industry.

While most agree that our dependence on oil as an energy source needs to diminish due to its polluting factors and the amazing, yet wasted, potential of hydrocarbons for materials and medicines, the way we have massively integrated petroleum into our society means that, barring any incredible technological breakthrough, internal combustion engines and gas-fired power plants will remain viable for decades to come. We create prodigious amounts of plastic waste, choking whole forest in Mexico and forming garbage patches in oceans twice the size of America. The innovative and profitable methods PK Clean has developed will hopefully encourage others to make better use of that which we discard.

Freeways crisscross much of a modern society's landscape, connecting distant cities by allowing people the ability to travel hundreds of miles in a single day. Unfortunately, they also cleave, destroy, and pollute neighborhoods while existing as a visual blight on the landscape. Communities and citizens will often resist their construction even when the economic benefits are made clear. The architects of Denmark-based BIG, always with a talent for the grandiose, have developed the winning concept for a highway interchange in Stockholm that delivers all the benefits of freeways without many of the "necessary" evils.

Called Energy Valley, this concept seeks to actually connect neighborhoods with their natural surroundings and each other. Where most multi-highways junctions create an insurmountable vehicular barricade and vast areas of unusable grass, BIG's idea links divergent natural parks with an incorporated planned park and encourages an increased sense of community. Elevated roadways and a central traffic loop combined with meandering bicycle and pedestrian paths allow wildlife and long-separated neighborhoods the opportunity to grow together.

Builders will take excavated soil and use it to elevate the land that circles the interchange, creating the "valley" part of Energy Valley. Combined with the vegetation of this "parkway" interchange, the surrounding raised land has the benefits of removing the interchange from the view of surrounding communities, vastly reducing the noise pollution usually inherent with such features, and further increasing the park-like feel for the motorist, bicyclists, and pedestrians using the freeways and pathways to travel.

BIG has also designed an incredibly unique feature that will, for the first time, make a highway interchange a destination spot. Reminiscent of an image from a Vernor Vinge novel, the plan involves floating a gigantic mirrored sphere over the central roadway loop, reflecting the interchange's surroundings. Besides stabilizing the sphere, thin rigid trusses using wave-power technology will combine with almost 31,000 square feet of solar cells on the surface to provide enough energy for keeping the air-filled feature aloft yet still delivering power to over two-hundred homes. The inconspicuous supports will ensure the sphere doesn’t contact the roadway in case of accidental deflation and also present an airy illusion of the sphere simply floating above the interchange.

Most roadways exist outside of communities, benefiting the people passing through instead of those who share its settings. BIG has turned a three-level highway interchange into a feature for the community. "The Energy Valley is a cross-over between urbanism, landscape, architecture, art and infrastructure into a new neighborhood of Stockholm. Harnessing the momentum of the massive investment in tunnels and highways and putting the excess excavation to use as a man-made valley, we create an interdisciplinary hybrid of logistic, economic, environmental and social infrastructure," states BIG Partner and Founder, Bjarke Ingels. They have truly flipped conventional thinking, drastically reducing the negative impacts of highways, improving the lives of the surrounding populace, and still maintaining the function of providing efficient transportation.

Image credits: DesignBuzz.com, Dezeen.com, PositiveMagazine.com, Dudye.com

We're so pleased with the progression of this backlit glass floor installation at the Dallas Convention Center Hotel, we wanted to share the on-site photos immediately! The project is another great testament to the importance of not only mock-ups, testing, and coordination from one source, but also to being flexible and ready on-site with an arsenal of lighting tricks.

Stay tuned for the full project story and completion photos.

UPDATE- download the case study to learn more about how the glass, custom structure, and LED backlighting were custom developed for this project:

Wind farms have begun to dominate off-shore sites and mountain ridges. In fact, wind power provided 26% of all new U.S. electric capacity last year. Wind turbines do have their drawbacks. Besides killing bats and birds by blade strikes and exploding their lungs with pressure differences, wind turbines can present significant engineering challenges and often mar the landscape. The New York-based design firm Atelier DNA has crafted a solution that avoids much of turbines' pitfalls and adds a pleasing organic aesthetic.

Called the "Windstalk" concept, this plan entails "planting" 180-foot high stalks that will flow and move with the wind much in the same manner as grasslands. Each carbon-fiber stalk sits in a concrete base and tapers from around twelve inches at the bottom to two inches at the top. Layers of piezoelectric ceramic alternate with layers of electrodes, generating electricity as the stalk bends and sways with the wind. The concrete bases in which the stalks sit also generate power with torque generators using shock absorbing cylinders.

These stalks have a much higher density rating than wind turbines. In fact, closely packed stalks actually help power generation. Wind turbines require a large minimum distance between each other because of turbulence that lowers efficiency and can wear out parts much faster. Windstalks benefit from turbulence because chaotic airflows cause more, and stronger, swaying.

A wind farm using these stalks has already been approved for Masdar City. This ultra-green community outside of Abu Dhabi will feature a 280,000 square foot area packed with Windstalks. Masdar City is home to one of GPI Design's backlit glass features in its innovative transport system and we eagerly anticipate this revolutionary farm help light it. Also lit will be the top of each individual Windstalk. LED lights on the very tips will vary in brightness depending on wind strength, illuminating the night with beautiful moving points of light.

Amazingly enough, the Windstalk concept also translates well to the aquatic environment. Called Wavestalk (obviously), these underwater electric generators will use waves and currents to power homes and businesses near the shore. Atelier DNA and its founding partner Darío Núñez-Ameni have truly achieved a synergy between human engineering and nature.

Image credits: News.Discovery.com, Gizmag.com

For the past two years, when residents of Sydney have gone down to the park, they have literally travelled "down". Wonderfully making use of an old water reservoir, the Australian firms TZC Architects and JMD Designs constructed Paddington Reservoir Gardens to make good use of a cave-in. The reservoir was originally constructed in the 1870s and provided some of the first water to Sydney residents before being closed down around 1900. Since then it has served as a garage and workshop for a municipal sewer agency, a service station, "open space" for the city council, and finally a commercial parking garage until a garden-covered section of roof on the western cistern collapsed in 1991.

Not a city to suffer decrepit structures, the open air depression soon drew attention from civil planners as a way to bring shade and an interesting public space to the center of the city. The Gardens act as an area of repose with original brick, timber, and iron supporting a plethora of foliage and birds, even a fish pond, while the inner city above carries on with its hectic schedule. A surface-level park over the eastern basin covers an arched and lighted public meeting area beneath where the designers left dozens of interesting arches and artistic, decades-old graffiti. Taken together, the old cisterns with their plants and lighting bring to mind the way nature begins reclaiming ancient buildings like Roman aqueducts and ruins.

JMD Designs and TZC Architects brilliantly utilized a decrepit space and transformed it into a community center piece. A superb place to relax by picnicking with friends, hold community events and concerts, or quietly read a book, the way modern and old construction frames interesting plants and animals won the Gardens Australia's 2009 Award for Urban Design.

Image credits: IndesignLive.com, SydneyArchitecture.com, HHT.net.au

With our modern building techniques and technologies like computer design programs, tower cranes that lift over 100 tons, and underwater arc welding, we easily forget how human ingenuity allowed the ancients to erect amazing structures with innovative methods and results. From the Egyptian use of kites to lift massive, one-piece stone obelisks to the Roman development of water-proof concrete, these engineers originated designs that still marvel today. One of the most impressive, Chichén Itzá once held a central role in Mayan civilization and still displays incredible acoustic properties.

These Mesoamerican people built such large stone structures without the use of draft animals, metal implements, or even simple machines like the pulley. Astounding enough, the lack of these construction aids did little to deter Mayan engineers in accomplishing wonderful feats. The Great Ball Court allows conversations between people separated by hundreds of feet, the Temple of Kukulkan will actually "chirp" at visitors with the voice of a bird, and the Temple of the Warriors will "rattle" like a snake. Many of these effects draw their inspiration from the complex interplay between local religious beliefs and the Yucatán Peninsula's environment.

Above: The Great Ball Court

The Great Ball Court held games that held special religious significance. Measuring over five-hundred feet long by over one-hundred feet wide, this football field-sized playing area required teams to put a ball through a hoop without the use of their hands or it touching the ground, signifying the intricate balance possessed by all of creation. The end of the game involved human sacrifice but historians still argue whether it was the winning team or losing team put to death! The acoustics of the court's sloping walls form a one-thousand year old whispering gallery, allowing for opposite players on different ends to hear each other talk in normal conversational tones. Even with one-tenth of a mile between teams, whispered strategies were no secret and competitive trash talking carried well.

Above: Temple of Kukulkan

The Temple of Kukulkan derives its name from Kukulkan, the Mayan's chief deity and a major figure in other pre-Columbian Mexican societies such as the Aztecs who. Kukulkan assumed the form of a flying green dragon and was held responsible for earthquakes, rains, and victory in warfare. Now there just happens to be a green bird in the area called the "quetzal" whose name derives from the Aztec term for Kukulkan, "Quetzalcoatl". Carrying very long and thin tail feathers, it appears like a flying serpent. This avian also makes a chirp that distinctly echoes through the surrounding forest. The temple signified Kukulkan's interaction with his people and was also the site for human sacrifices.

Above: Temple of Warriors

The Temple of the Warriors obviously takes its name from the military might of the Mayans and their practice of sacrificing defeated enemies (do you see a trend?). One thousand columns stand in the vicinity and represent victorious soldiers. Enormous rattlesnake sculptures adorn the Temple in many places, bearing fangs and even supporting structural elements. The Mayans held rattlesnakes to be sacred because of their powerful bite and fear-inspiring rattle.

The builders of these two massive step pyramids used the acoustics of their shape to enhance religious ceremonies. Priests would stand at a particular spot and loudly clap their hands. First, the echo of their clap would return, then would come a "rattle" from the rattlesnakes on the Temple of the Warrior and its soldier columns followed closely by the "chirp" from Kukulkan's own temple. Computerized sound wave analysis has shown that the sonic shape of this "chirp" perfectly mirrors that of the quetzal bird.

The thought and persistence the builders utilized to display these effects astounds. Is it any wonder that a society that erected such "responsive" structures came to dominate an entire region and even managed to actively resist European conquest up to the eighteenth century? How do the acoustical impacts of your spatial designs shape behavior and reflect culture?

Image credits: Squidoo, SpudTravels, Pbase,LimboMusicProduction