MIT Provost Cynthia Barnhart announced four Professor Amar G. Bose Research Grants to support bold research projects across diverse areas of study, including a way to generate clean hydrogen from deep in the Earth, build an environmentally friendly house of basalt, design maternity clothing that monitors fetal health, and recruit sharks as ocean oxygen monitors. […]
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At the architect Philip Johnson’s former estate in New Canaan, Conn., there has long been a Glass House and a Brick House. Now there’s also a Paper House. The Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Shigeru Ban’s Paper Log House, to be exact. An exhibition of this simple, low-cost structure — designed in 1995 to house victims […]
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When Sandra Davis and Bruce Levine bought a garden-level duplex in a 1910 townhouse on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, they knew they’d have to accept its quirks, at least for a while. “We loved the large garden space, but the apartment itself felt cramped and dark,” said Mr. Levin, noting that the backyard […]
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An American institution sponsors an exhibition by a Chinese artist in collaboration with a Japanese architect at a centuries-old Venetian building. This is the kind of far-flung constellation that can only come together during the Venice Biennale, when the historic Italian lagoon city turns into contemporary art’s grandest stage. While the Biennale itself is famed […]
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Diptych, dyad, dialectic: The relationship between the first pair of buildings Philip Johnson designed for his estate in New Canaan, Conn., has taxed the metaphorical imaginations of critics and architectural historians since the structures were completed, just months apart, in 1949. On one side, the Glass House, transparent and entirely self-possessed, a work of modernist […]
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Henning Larsen has unveiled its latest architectural marvel, the World of Volvo exhibition and events center in Gothenburg, Sweden, boasting a distinctive “forest-like canopy” roof structure. The circular 22,000-square-meter structure, commissioned by Swedish automotive giants Volvo Cars and Volvo Group, is adorned with a roof inspired by the natural world. Crafted from glued laminated timber […]
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QS World University Rankings has placed MIT in the No. 1 spot in 11 subject areas for 2024, the organization announced today. The Institute received a No. 1 ranking in the following QS subject areas: Chemical Engineering; Civil and Structural Engineering; Computer Science and Information Systems; Data Science and Artificial Intelligence; Electrical and Electronic Engineering; […]
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When Cailey Heaps wants to get away from it all, one place comes to mind: the island of Newfoundland in Canada. Although she spends most of the year in Toronto, where she runs the real estate brokerage Heaps Estrin and raises her three children — 17-year-old Mimi and 13-year-old twins Declan and Pippa — the […]
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Encouraged by her family, Lavender Tessmer explored various creative pursuits from a young age, particularly textiles, including knitting and crocheting. When she came to MIT, she figured that working with textiles would remain just a hobby; she never expected them to become integral to her career path. However, when she interviewed for a research assistant […]
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Building construction accounts for a huge chunk of greenhouse gas emissions: About 36 percent of carbon dioxide emissions and 40 percent of energy consumption in Europe, for instance. That’s why the European Union has developed regulations about the reuse of building materials. Some cities are adding more material reuse into construction already. Amsterdam, for example, […]
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Design spans disciplines and schools at MIT as a versatile mode of inquiry. Whether software, furniture, robots, or consumer products, design classes at MIT guide students through the iterative process of ideation, planning, and prototyping. “Design is 80 percent problem-setting and 20 percent problem-solving,” says MIT Professor Larry Sass SM ’94, PhD ’00, designer and […]
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Hydrosocial displacement refers to the idea that resolving water conflict in one area can shift the conflict to a different area. The concept was coined by Scott Odell, a visiting researcher in MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI). As part of ESI’s Program on Mining and the Circular Economy, Odell researches the impacts of extractive industries […]
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