"Straddling" bus

This is quite possibly one of the most innovative designs ever...in my opinion! It's a bus/light-rail system designed in China that is shaped like a tunnel so it can pass over traffic, or traffic can pass under it when it's stopped at a station. They have thought of everything when designing it....if a car under it gets too near to the sides it sounds a warning, if a truck that is too high to fit under it approaches it warns the driver, if it's in an accident all the sides open up and form slides as escape routes, they've designed for it to be boarded and alighted from either the sides or from the top...the list goes on!

Check out the video here (it is in Chinese but there's a translation and it shows you all the ideas)

Things we may be using in 40 years!

The 2010 edition of the Electrolux Design Lab competition focuses on creative solutions for compact living. The 2010 brief asked industrial design students to consider how people will prepare and store food, wash clothes, and do dishes in the homes of 2050, when 74% of the global population are predicted to live in an urban environment. Here are eight concepts that provide a glimpse of the future.

Centenary Sculptures

Both Audi and Alfa Romeo had centenary scultures at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in Sussex at the weekend. Both follow the same theme of a loop joining an iconic car from their past and present.

Source: dezeen

Transformer apartment

BMW Gino

The shape-shifting lycra beemer

More pics here

Tidal Turbine - my new (forced) interest

This is one of many types of tidal turbines...this one is designed and manufactured by an Irish company, OpenHydro, based in Greenore, Co. Louth.

Pictures: http://www.nspower.ca/en/home/environment/renewableenergy/tidal/photos.aspx

"SixthSense" - I want one!

This is to the iPhone, as the iPhone is to the Nokia 3210!

Remember those days! Now imagine saying that in 10years time!

Source

How will you get around in 2088?!

"We must learn to adapt with the planet or get off"

Mobility 2088



dreams.honda.com

Fancy going to New York for the day?

Transatlantic Train

London to New York - under the sea - 5000km long - 8000kmph - 54minutes

It takes 18minutes to accelerate to top speed, a person would feel little effect.

The tunnel is a vacuum so there's no air resistance.

The train hovers and moves by electromagnetism so there's no friction.

It can carry 1000people at a time, will cost the world hundreds of billions of dollars to build and take almost 20 years!

Ooo!

Check it out in detail on the Discovery Channel website

(Picture taken by me from the Rockafeller Centre, Sept 07)

The Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid - Tokyo

This is a huge pyramid that the Japanese are planning to build in the bay in Tokyo. It's pretty ugly I think, but also pretty amazing! It's a whole city! It has skyscrapers, parks and a transport system that runs through all the trusses...trams for long journeys and moving walkways for journeys up to 1km!

It can house 750,000 people, without there being a single car! It's 55 times bigger than the Great Pyramid and the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas (the yellow triangle shown)...which is pretty big!

Helicopters can even fly through it! Ooo!

(Picture: http://rubria.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/shimizu.jpg)