Internet of Things: The Latest Architecture and News

As the world witnesses an unprecedented exodus from rural to urban areas, cities face a monumental challenge: how to accommodate a constantly growing population? This phenomenon, characterized by rapid population growth and increasing density, puts pressure on resources, infrastructure, and urban services. As significant problems demand even larger solutions, it becomes necessary, more than ever, to rethink the tools at our disposal. In this challenging context, the rise of emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), data analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) presents itself as a light at the end of the tunnel. These technologies, initially conceived to simplify everyday tasks and facilitate communication, are potential instruments that enable an effective response to contemporary urban challenges.

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“Can you help me design my residential tower? It's 30 stories and located in Brooklyn, New York.” ChatGPT’s response may be surprising. Given that the bot has no architectural experience, and is certainly not a licensed architect, it was quick to rattle off a list of considerations for my building. Zoning codes, floor plan functionality, building codes, materiality, structural design, amenity spaces, and sustainable measures were just a few of the topics ChatGPT shared information about.

The iPhone 7 is here. Announced at Apple’s September Launch event today, the new device and its sibling, the iPhone 7 plus, have arrived after months of rumors, leaks and anticipation. The phones are loaded with a bevy of new components, including a new pressure-sensitive home button and bluetooth headphones, marking another step in the journey toward our wireless future.

Of course, in spite of the hype that the new iPhone will inevitably get—as it always does—it’s not the only smartphone on the market. Many will point to the fact that its expected RAM capabilities (2GB for the iPhone 7 and 3GB for the 7 Plus) still lag behind some competitors (for comparison the Samsung Galaxy S7 has 3GB and the S7 Edge 4GB), while the upgraded 32GB storage and newly-found water-resistance are no more than catching up with Apple’s competition. Nonetheless, Apple’s iPhone 7 also features a number of features that could make it a phone perfectly suited to architects. Read on to find out exactly why.

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With the rise of the internet, old-fashioned brick-and-mortar stores have struggled, as online ordering services have increasingly made it unnecessary to actually go to a store. The answer for the physical stores of the future? Make spaces not for purchasing the things people need, but experiencing the things people want, as explored in this article by Matt Alderton originally published on Autodesk's Redshift publication as "How Technology and Big Data in Retail Are Shaping Store Designs of the Future." Alderton looks at how forward-looking stores are being designed to appeal to customers, finding that the same technology revolution that threatened to make stores obsolete might also play a key role in saving them, too.

Shopping used to be stimulating. Although its end was sales, its means was a mix of status and spectacle. It was social commerce in which partakers transacted not just cash, but also cachet.

Nowhere was this more evident than in the earliest department stores, whose architects designed them to be destinations. In London, for instance, Harrods boasts the motto “Omnia, Omnibus, Ubique”—Latin for “All Things for All People, Everywhere.” Established in 1849, it has seven floors, comprising more than 1 million square feet across more than 330 departments. The store installed one of the world’s first escalators in 1898, opened a world-famous food hall in 1902, and sold exotic pets such as lion cubs until the 1970s.

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Tap a button on your phone and hop into the shower; walk downstairs 15 minutes later, and you have a fresh pot of coffee waiting for you. That’s a ritual that is no longer just a fantasy for many people. The rise of the internet of things has allowed us to control remote appliances with just a tap of the touchscreen. Until now, the scale of these processes has largely been limited to personal devices: anything from brewing a pot of coffee to warming up your car on a frosty morning. But what if we could grow food for thousands of people, with that same tap of a button? That is the goal of Forward Thinking Architecture’s “Smart Floating Farms” project.

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