Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have announced a new breakthrough in the architectural applications of 3D printing, with the design of a system that can produce the basic structure of an entire building. MIT’s Mediated Matter Group – which focuses on “nature-inspired design and design-inspired nature” – claim the machine they have invented will eventually produce buildings faster and less expensively than traditional construction methods allow. What’s

Design competition organiser Blank Space has partnered with government authorities in New York to seek a feasible long-term strategy for the city’s response to driverless cars. “Entrepreneurs, innovators, designers, engineers, architects and futurists” are invited to enter The Driverless Future Challenge and pitch concrete design solutions for the cities of the future, which “will be populated with robotic cars chauffeuring their dozing or web-surfing occupants around town.” “The challenge seeks

Architects Höweler + Yoon have proposed an interactive ‘Living Lab’ for the Dubai 2020 Expo, which would creatively explore human empathy. The Empathy Pavilion, designed like a giant elevated cave, would house a 300-person capacity exhibition gallery on the ground floor, several workshop spaces on the second floor and a black box theatre on the top floor. The architects have partnered with the MIT Media Lab’s Opera of the Future

Transport officials in New York are considering expanding the city’s historic Brooklyn Bridge due to the congestion caused by swathes of pedestrians, tourists, vendors and cyclists. Global engineering consultancy AECOM have been commissioned to begin a seven-month engineering study assessing how much weight the 133-year old bridge can carry and considering options for expansion. Mooted suggestions include widening the promenade. The bridge contains a crossing for cars at a lower