Cool Hunting

Urban Cactus
On the harbour in Vuurplaat, Rotterdam, a proposed Urban Cactus rises from the usually boxy Dutch architectural landscape. Responding to the natural setting of being on the harbour, UCX Architects envisage a housing project that is green with stacked undulating floor plates, giving large outdoor terraces to each apartment and allowing for light penetration. Details of eco-attributes have yet to be released but a cactus...

Russian Architecture
Wondering what the latest architecture being built in the new Russia is like? One of the major trendsetters that led to today's architectural modernism, Russia is having a real spurt of building. The construction above is example of a proposed hotel in New Holland, St Petersburg. The hotel features a large courtyard with a waterway, once used for ship building. The central building is...

The Pharos Project
by Russ Lowe Addressing inconsistencies and other challenges in eco-friendly construction, a revolutionary group of like-minded (and large-minded) scientists, architects, engineers, humanitarians and optimists from the U.S. Green Building Council's robust Northwest Chapter, Cascadia, have developed Pharos, a project that might just reshape the Green movement.Its namesake, the island lighthouse of Alexandria, references the guiding beacon that led travelers through unmarked waters in ancient...

Elkus Manfredi Neiman Marcus Store
Inspired by a silk dress, the wrapping for a new Neiman Marcus store in Boston undulates and folds around the building. Neiman's philosophy is that every store should look completely different from every other of their stores. In line with this, the wrap to this outlet in Boston is made from patches of stainless steel knitted together and is 40 feet high and the...

Mithun Urban Farms
As myopic urban planners and developers pave over rich topsoil to create giant-box stores and auto malls in their pursuit of easy tax revenue and profits, a partnership of forward-looking architects have hatched a scheme to comingle agriculture with urban development Mithun, a consortium of cutting-edge architects in Seattle, recognize that when real estate and resources become scant, the solution is to build up. Their...

Super-K
The Super-Kamiokande, or Super-K as it's known, is not the latest nightclub VIP booth but is a neutrino observatory designed to search for proton decay, study solar and atmospheric neutrinos and keep watch for supernovas in the Milky Way. Located 1,000 meters underground in the Mozumi Mine in Hida City, Gifu, Japan, it consists of 50,000 tons of pure water surrounded by about 11,200...