Architecture

Liz Stinson reports for Wired on a project by the Senseable City Lab that aims to reduce wasted energy by using localized beams of heat. The system uses a WiFi-enabled tracking system and can sense when a person is present.

Kerry Flynn of Forbes reports on a new system developed by the MIT Senseable City Lab that reduces wasted energy by creating local, personal climates throughout buildings. The system targets and tracks people in a building and synchronizes climate control by sending data to heat-radiating bulbs.

Bloomberg Businessweek features Skylar Tibbits’ research on self-assembling materials. By exposing specially engineered materials to heat, moisture or light, Tibbits demonstrates how they can assemble into useful components.

In a piece for Smithsonian, Randy Rieland writes about how Skylar Tibbits’ Self-Assembly Lab has developed a new technique that could print responsive objects that are able to adapt and transform to their surroundings independently. 

Jason Keyser of the Associated Press previews a speech by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, delivered at a forum hosted by MIT's Center for Advanced Urbanism, an interdisciplinary think tank that focuses on big-scale urban design problems.