MetaFilter posts tagged with engineering and architecture

Nature's Elegant Solutions

netbros — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:12:04 -0800

Imagine nature's most elegant ideas organized by design and engineering function, so you can enter "filter salt from water" and see how mangroves, penguins, and shorebirds desalinate without fossil fuels. That's the idea behind AskNature, the online inspiration source for the biomimicry community. The featured pages are a good starting point. Cross-pollinating biology with design. Biomimicry is the science and art of emulating Nature's best biological ideas to solve human problems. Non-toxic adhesives inspired by geckos, energy efficient buildings inspired by termite mounds, and resistance-free antibiotics inspired by red seaweed are examples of biomimicry happening today.

Termite Mounds

homunculus — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:11:34 -0800

Busy Bugs: Termite Mounds vs. the Burj Dubai Tower.

spanning the world: beautiful bridges

madamjujujive — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 09:55:00 -0800

18 stunning bridges from around the world. (via Mira y Calla) Two other "best of" nominations: the world's most breathtaking bridges and best bridges of the new millennium.

Interaction and the buildings of tomorrow

nthdegx — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:25:17 -0800

Two articles on how interaction may shape the buildings, work places and urban spaces of tomorrow: Design Week's Study takes sensory approach to improve office of the future [which mentions Duncan Wilson, who works with and blogs about this stuff]; and City of Sound's The Personal Well-Tempered Environment.

beautiful ways to span a gap or a river

nickyskye — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 10:01:34 -0800

Construction of the World's Highest Bridge, Millau Viaduct in France, which is slightly higher than the Eiffel Tower. It is now included in a list of Google Earth extremes. World's most interesting bridges. Gallery of beautiful world bridges. Le viaduc de Millau, in French. Previously. Images of pretty images of bridges from around the world (no captions). Types of bridge construction basics.

The Fifty-Nine-Story Crisis

smably — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 21:43:05 -0800

The Fifty-Nine-Story Crisis. In 1978, renowned structural engineer William LeMessurier discovered a mistake in his design for the Citicorp (now Citigroup) Center. With hurricane season approaching, the skyscraper was in imminent danger of collapse. His handling of the situation has been praised as a "stunning example of good ethics in action" – but some disagree.

De architectura - Vitruvius' The Ten Books of Architecture

nthdegx — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 08:25:12 -0800

De Architectura, known also as The Ten Books of Architecture, is an exposition on architecture by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio. Originally in Latin, here it is translated into English.

nthdegx — Wed, 16 Feb 2005 05:06:12 -0800

Resources for lighting designers and enthusiasts: The Lighting Wiki; [extensive] Glossary of Lighting Terminology (and another); Lighting Design Resources (inc. "Fun with Light"; and Professional Lighting Resources.

Industrial Art Galllery

arto — Tue, 20 Apr 2004 22:19:30 -0800

Draft machine parts, not people! The Industrial Art Gallery is a collection of vintage engineering drawings. Perfect cover art for all you emo/math rock types. [via mimi smartypants]

zerolucid — Thu, 27 Jun 2002 15:21:29 -0800

Fireproofing Faulted in Trade Center Collapse... Fireproofing failures -- rather the impact of the plane crashes -- probably caused the World Trade Center towers to quickly collapse, architects and engineers told a federal panel today.

"The insulation is going to turn out to be the root cause," said James G. Quintiere, a professor at University of Maryland's Fire Protection Engineering Department who analyzed the fireproofing in the two towers.

Also worth reading is NY Fire Chief Vincent Dunn's assessment, "Why the World Trade Center Buildings Collapsed".