Are there too many condos in Toronto? Real estate wiz Brian Persaud takes on this contentious issue
We're feeling like nobility just looking at these new renderings from The Royal Collection
If all systems work as they’re supposed to, the 50,000-square-foot Bullitt Center in Seattle will draw all of its power from sunlight, all of its water from rainfall and all of its heat and cooling from pumps that will mine the energy 400 feet below the surface. Read more
Universe Architecture, a Dutch architecture studio, is planning to build a house with a 3D printer for the first time.
“Landscape House” – pictured above – will be printed in sections measuring 6 x 9 meters using a massive 3D printer called D-Shape. Read more
A new collaborative report by Google and the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has uncovered some interesting trends and insights into the ways digital media is used in the home buying process.
One of the most eye-catching statistics included in the report is that 90 percent of American homebuyers used online resources while searching for a new home.
The data, collected by Google and the NAR through a variety of surveys conducted during 2011 and 2012, also pointed to some intriguing trends related to the digital realm’s effect on the homebuying experience. Check out some highlights from the report below… Read more
Have trouble remembering your keys when you leave work? Live in a condo or apartment where hiding a spare key isn’t feasible? Then this is for you:
“A house key app under development for smartphones lets users wave their phones at doors to unlock them,” explains a post on Mashable. “The app, called ShareKey, also will allow its owners to electronically share keys with a houseguest, a plumber scheduled to come in for a fix, or anyone else they like – and to attach certain limits to that access.” Read more
At “full”-size it’s already smaller than a Smart car, but once it does its shrinking act, it’s only 59 inches long (about 150 centimetres) – so three Hirikos can fit in a standard parking spot. Read more
Waiting for a walk signal to light up at an intersection is a tedious task for any pedestrian. But two German interaction design students are turning the waiting game into, well, a game. Read more
Talk about gaming the system (in a good way) — MIT researchers have been using the motion-detecting Xbox Kinect to study how crowds move, in hopes of harnessing that data to design more effective public spaces.
The Kinect, introduced by Microsoft two years ago as an Xbox add-on, lets players navigate video games through movement and spoken commands, all without touching a game controller. Read more
What started out as a concept for a home security system, turned into a sort of electronic family bulletin board.
Danny Robinson developed Perch with his Vancouver-based start-up. Essentially what Perch does is use old devices like iPods and converts them into security cameras, which then captures moments in video vignettes and notifies everyone in the family via their iPhones, iPod Touches or iPads .
“My daughter came home and she showed me her report card by holding it up to the camera,” Robinson told the Vancouver Sun.
“I saw on my phone that a message was left for me from the security camera and I immediately realized – in the four months since this thing had been installed in my house I saw no bad guys, but every single day I watched my family walking around home,” he said. Read more
Going up?
Unless you’re a marathon stair-climber with rocket-powered calves, a high-rise is only as accessible as its elevator system.
Otis Elevator Co., the world’s largest manufacturer of elevators, escalators and moving walkways, has got the art of people-moving down to a science. Read more
