Architecture
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Background: One of the most common complaints about nearby construction is the potential for new structures to block the views of existing residents. The issue: Existing residents in a neighborhood occasionally attempt to block nearby construction (often coming up with extremely implausible reasons as a smokescreen), when the real reason is that they just don’t…
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Background: Almost everything in the world is designed for people of average adult size. As a result, most everyday objects (furniture, stairs, door handles, etc.) are a totally inconvenient size for children or the extremely short. This is somewhat surprising, since everyone spent many years facing these problems as a small child. But it was…
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Background: In order to support technological progress, many people are willing to endure great hardships. The issue: For example, most Americans are willing to drive for 30–60 minutes every day on their commute, just so that they can help create a market for new types of transportation [*]. One might imagine that a person in…
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Background: It’s difficult to move heavy furniture around, so furniture is usually positioned for general use, even if there are specific setups that would be better for rare situations. For example, your home might have a room that would be best configured in one way for watching movies, but a different way for a Thanksgiving…
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Background: People generally enjoy having a good view from their home or office windows. However, some locations have a bad view (e.g. a dark alley or cement wall) or cannot accommodate windows at all (e.g. interior offices or basements). Proposal: Modern flatscreen displays can be as large as office windows (and some types consume very…
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Background: Looking out to sea from most coastal locations results in the same view: a featureless horizon of sky and sea. But we can fix that with modern construction techniques! Proposal: Let’s improve those boring ocean views by adding silhouettes of distant cities and monuments (Figure 1). This way, when you look out into the…
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Background: People occasionally forget to lock the door before leaving the house, or leave a stove on by accident, or any number of other things. “Internet of Things” aficionados often suggest that you could, say, turn on and off your stove from your phone, but now someone on the Internet thousands of miles away can…
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Background: Something that is difficult to obtain tends to be appreciated more than something that is easy to obtain. For example, people rate the same wine more highly when it has an expensive price tag. We can use this information to design a new style of art museum that will be a huge hit with all…
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Background: Although people usually prefer it to be sunny rather than rainy, there are locations in the world where it hardly ever rains. Plus, there are some people who prefer an occasional rainy day even when the weather is sunny and cheerful. Besides, sometimes a sunny day doesn’t match the tone of the actual events…
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Background: Modern cities face a number of issues due to old buildings. For example: Housing that isn’t up to code Abandoned buildings Absentee owners who don’t maintain their property Urban decay Proposal: Fortunately, with an amazing new idea, we can revitalize urban development and create guaranteed construction jobs. Specifically, the proposal is as follows: Build…
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