The Tumo Center for Creative Technologies aims to make available creative technology trainings for as many young people in Armenia as possible, so that anyone who is fond of learning can attend the nearest Tumo center. Very soon some new centers will open in Koghb, Masis and Gyumri. Head of Tumo Communication Division Lilit Tovmasyan reveals the main requirements that Tumo staff presents to the architects cooperating with the company, «It is very important for us, that the area reflects all 4 components of the Tumo educational model: transparency, selectiveness, flexibility, availability. The building should have very large corridors and halls, high ceilings. The classrooms in Tumo centers are mostly glazed, so that the young people while learning could see what their friends are doing in another classroom. And if they are still self-studying, they will see that other young people taking part in the training, and they will become motivated. » The famous Lebanese architect Bernard Khoury is the one who best understands Tumo's requirements and mission. He is well-known for his modernistic projects and the rich experience in reconstruction of historic buildings. He designed the interior of the very first building of Tumo Yerevan in 2011. And now the centers in Koghb, Masis and Gyumri are being built. As Bernard Khoury said in one of his interviews, «We do not follow the recognizable aesthetic. Tumo is first of all an idea, a spirit that should be kept wherever we move, regardless of building or location. » Tumo center in village Koghb in Tavush province is for 600-1000 people. The young people will be able to attend the center from Koghb, Noyemberyan, Berdavan and other nearby settlements. The center will have hi-tech classrooms, training stations, recording studio, cinema and a large stadium. The Tumo center in Masis is designed for 1000 people. It will be located near the North-South highway for convenience of teenagers arriving from Armavir province. The third building that is being built (or better to say, reconstructed) by Bernard Khoury’s design, is the building of the first theater in Gyumri. This exceptional building-monument included in «Kumayri» historical and cultural reserve is in emergency state and needs serious reconstruction. Tumo in Gyumri now functions in Technopark, but as soon as the building is ready, it will move to new location. The construction of engineering and applied sciences complex in collaboration with European Union and Tumo will start in spring 2020 and is planned to complete the next 2-3 years. 15.000 m2 area adjacent to Tumo was allocated for the new building in Yerevan, and there it is planned to build a 25,000 square meter complex (total). An international tender has been announced for the architectural design of the future complex. The jury is led by Hashim Sarkis, the Dean of the Architecture and Design Department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Coordinator of the Venice Biennale in 2020. Three giants of architecture have already been selected: RCR Arquitectes, BIG and MVRDV. One of them will be selected in September and will design the EU Tumo complex.

Snøhetta has unveiled its design for "Svart," a hotel for sustainable tourism company Arctic Adventure of Norway. Located within the Arctic Circle, on the edge of Norway's Holandsfjorden fjord at the base of the Svartisen glacier, the building is designed to the "Powerhouse" building standard, a system developed by Snøhetta and a group of collaborators for creating energy-positive sustainable buildings. Designed in a distinctive ring shape that allows visitors to feel in touch with the surroundings, the structure of the building was inspired by traditional Norwegian fishing structures: the “fiskehjell,” an A-shaped wooden structure for drying fish, and the “rorbue,” a type of seasonal house used by fishermen. These two references contributed to the building's supporting structure of poles that support the building above the water while making minimal contact with the ecosystem. These supports also enable a walkway around the ring of the hotel that visitors will be able to enjoy in the summer. The Powerhouse standard used for the design was developed by Snøhetta alongside Entra, Skanska, the ZERO Emission Resource Organization and Asplan Viak. The standard outlines a requirement for the building to not only be energy-positive, but to generate more renewable energy over a 60-year period than the total amount of energy that would be required to both sustain daily operations and to build, produce materials, and demolish the building. In order to achieve this level of sustainability on the design of Svart, Snøhetta conducted an extensive survey of the solar conditions at the site throughout the year, eventually settling on the ring shape in order to place rooms, restaurants, and terraces in locations that make the most of the available solar energy. Meanwhile solar panels on the roof while harvest energy, producing more energy than buildings slightly further south due to the 24-hour daylight conditions over the summer, and geothermal wells will harness the energy from the ground below for heating purposes.

Amazon has finally opened its stunning new downtown Seattle office, and it’s unlike any workspace we’ve seen before, reported The Bloomberg. The Amazon Spheres are three glass geodesic domes that provide office and greenhouse space. Designed by NBBJ, the US$ 4 billion “mini-rainforest” campus will house over 800 Amazon employees in addition to more than 40,000 plants in an ecosystem built to emulate a verdant cloud forest. Amazon’s giant geodesic domes are made with a steel frame holding 2,643 laminated glass panels made up of four-layered low-iron glass to minimize heat loss. The largest of the three domes measures 27 meters tall and 40 meters in diameter with five floors (and a four-story-tall living plant wall that grows 200 plant species). Retail space occupies the ground floor and part of the first floor. Over 400 species of plants from more than 30 countries are represented in the domes and are cared for by a full-time horticulturalist. Nearly all of the plants were grown in a suburban greenhouse for the Spheres project. The flora centerpiece is a 17 meters-tall Ficus tree (nicknamed Rubi) that weighs almost 16.300 kilograms and was craned into the space through the roof. The plantings are mostly organized in either the Old World garden that features African and Asian plants, or in the New World garden with a focus on the Americas. An architectural highlight is undoubtedly the “bird’s nest,” a timber tree house suspended 9 meters in the air that serves as an intimate meeting space. The interior temperature will be stabilized at 69 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit with 60 percent humidity, and the climate will vary throughout the space. Recycled heat from the nearby data center is used to heat the Spheres. The project is on track for LEED Gold certification. The public is welcome to take a free tour of the facilities but must first book with Spheres Discovery at Understory.

A 100-meter-tall experimental air purifier has been built in Xi’an, the capital of China’s central Shaanxi province, reported The Inhabitat. The tower, which is being tested by researchers from the Institute of Earth Environment at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has noticeably cleaner air over an area of 10 square kilometers since being turned on last year, according to the South China Morning Post. The tower sucks in polluted air and funnels it into greenhouses at the base of the structure. The smog is heated in the greenhouse by solar energy, then rises through the tower, passing through several layers of cleaning filters. The expelled air contains 15 percent less particulate matter than it did before being scrubbed. The greenhouses are powered by solar energy and are able to run in winter as well as summer. Cao Junji, head of research, said, “It barely requires any power input throughout daylight hours. The idea has worked very well in the test run.” Cao and his team are now planning a 500-meter-tall and 200-meter-wide tower, with greenhouses covering 30 square kilometers that would be able to purify air for a small city. Air purifiers have been installed in China before, but only in a symbolic way. Last year a 4-meter-high filter called “CityTree” was tried out in Berlin.

A Dutch company has developed technology for 3D printing floors in an endless variety of colors and patterns. Company named «Aectual» uses huge robotic 3D printers to create the framework for its sustainable floors. As a result, these floors can be customized to fit spaces of any shape and size, and can be created in all kinds of designs – from traditional patterns to custom motifs. The process involves printing out the desired pattern using a robot with six degrees of freedom – meaning it can move forwards and backwards, up and down, and left and right, as well as freely between these X, Y and Z axes through rotation. The material they use for printing is a bio plastic made from plants, which is fully recyclable. Once the printing is complete, the framework is transported to its final destination. This mould, which measures just a few centimeters high, is then in filled with a terrazzo made from recycled granite or marble chips, and a bio-based binding agent. After the mixture has set, the final step is to polish it. According to Aectual, the resulting floors are high quality and wear-resistant. Also, thanks to the use of recycled and environmentally friendly materials, the floors are intended to create little or no waste.