Blog

How cohousing can make us happier (and live longer)

Loneliness doesn’t always stem from being alone. For architect Grace Kim, loneliness is a function of how socially connected we feel to the people around us — and it’s often the result of the homes we live in. She shares an age-old antidote to isolation: cohousing, a way of living where people choose to share space with their neighbors, get to know them, and look after them. Rethink your home and how you live in it with this eye-opening talk.

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Home of the Future

For The Verge and Curbed’s home of the future, renewable energy generation is directly integrated into the design of the house. Grant Imahara experiences how the home of the future can both generate its own power and reduce how much energy it needs.

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Mirvac forms Build-to-Rent club

Mirvac has announced the formation of the Australian Build-to-Rent “club”.

Mirvac’s first purpose-built build-to-rent asset in Australia, will be Indigo at Mirvac’s Pavilions project at Sydney Olympic Park.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation has secured a 30 per cent interest ($50 million) in Mirvac’s first institutional build-to-rent investment platform as a cornerstone investor. The CEFC investment will enhance the project design using clean energy and energy efficiency technologies with the potential to cut carbon emissions by as much as 40 per cent.

Mirvac will act as development, investment and property manager on the 258-apartment project that is set to be completed in 2021.

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UBERAIR Skyport

The reality of urban air transportation is closer than you think. In fact, UBER Elevate has already started exploring the barriers we’ll need to overcome to make vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) a reality and bringing uberAIR to Dallas and Los Angeles by 2020. Watch the video to see what an end-to-end flight in an uberAIR VTOL will look like. UBER is excited to partner with some of the world’s top manufacturers, real estate developers, agencies, and cities to make this vision a reality.

Why VTOL?
With VTOL aircrafts, passengers can enjoy quicker daily commutes, while our cities experience less traffic congestion and cleaner air.

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The world’s first solar freeway is here

The 2-kilometer stretch of road is located in Jinan, China. It opened to traffic on December 28. The road is paved with “transparent concrete”.  As sunlight passes through, photovoltaic panels underneath convert it to energy. Developers say it can generate enough electricity in a year to power 800 homes. The developer’s next goal for this road is to turn it into a wireless charger  powering the electric vehicles driving above it. China is already leading the world in solar power production.

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Newly built mall collapses due to structural failures

A newly opened shopping mall on Mexico City’s south side partly collapsed due to structural problems. A video captures the moment the cantilevered, multi-story section of the mall collapses in a cloud of dust, smashed glass and twisted metal.

The Artz Pedregal mall opened in March, though parts remain under construction. It had drawn the ire of neighbors worried about the loss of open space, congestion and other issues. Built on the edge of the city’s main expressway, the mall had suffered previous subsoil slides.

The city also has notoriously bad subsoil conditions, and developers often build on unstable land.

In 2016, while foundation work was still being done on the mall, a retaining wall next to the expressway partly collapsed.

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First family to move into a 3D-printed house

The Ramdanis have become the first family in the world to move into a 3D-printed house.  The four-bedroom property is a prototype for bigger projects aiming to make housebuilding quicker and cheaper.

This new prototype of a 3D printed home have digital controls for the convenience of disabled individuals and the curved-wall designs that substantially alleviate the effects of humidity on the house.

The 95m (1022ft) square house – built for a family of five with four bedrooms and a big central space in Nantes – is a collaboration between the city council, a housing association and University of Nantes.

The construction of the entire house cost around £176,000. This means that the cost of construction done by 3D printing is 20% cheaper than using conventional construction techniques.

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Sky Habitat in Singapore

The Sky Habitat in Singapore combines residential architecture with nature. The 39-storey structure is linked by three landscape sky bridges. There’s a swimming pool on top of the highest bridge. The staircase shape allows natural ventilation and daylight to pour deep into the structure. Each of the 509 apartments has its own balcony and garden. Residents have access to the gardens, tennis court and walking paths. The Sky Habitat was designed by Safdie Architects. It opened in April 2015.

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Project video: 125-129 Arthur Street Parramatta

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Project video: 433-439 Princess Highway Rockdale

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