Hasta La Ideas

Work has begun on the GEM Factory of the Future building in Maine designed by architecture studio Grimshaw and SMRT to integrate technological and robotic advancements with fabrication.

Located at the University of Maine, the Green Energy and Materials Factory of the Future (GEM building) is a research facility focused on providing space for students, professors and researchers to integrate developing AR, AI, machine learning and other technological advancements with bio-based manufacturing.

“Construction has officially commenced for the Green Energy and Materials Factory of the Future – an innovative research facility focused on revolutionizing manufacturing through AI-enabled, large-scale bio-based additive manufacturing,” said the team.

Grimshaw designed the building in partnership with architecture studio SMRT and engineers Thornton Tomasetti.

“[The GEM building] is designed to be a nexus for the University of Maine’s campus and a hub for bringing manufacturing back into the academic discourse,” said Grimshaw New York principal Mark Rhoads.

The two-storey building will be made with a mass-timber frame and clad in metallic panels. Renderings show a glazed primary entrance, with slim windows running along the height of the building intermittently.

The building’s interiors will hold laboratories and large open spaces for manufacturing. Images show mobile robots hovering over desks, as well as a large manufacturing bay where two robotic arms are assembling the hull of a ship.

According to the team, the building will contain two of these manufacturing bays, each with 40-foot (12-metre) clear heights and 120 feet long (37 metres). The spaces will provide room to fabricate components up to 60 by 100 feet (18 by 30 metres).

The facility will focus on bio-based additive manufacturing, such as 3D printing with wood polymers.

“This revolution in clean technology and advanced manufacturing demands a new generation of highly skilled, tech-savvy makers fluent in the latest innovations,” said Rhoads.

“Higher education must recalibrate its approach, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and creating learning environments that emphasize experiential learning and cutting-edge research to equip future engineers, architects, and technicians for this dynamic landscape.”

The building is slated for completion in summer 2026.

Recently, Grimshaw completed another research building at the University of Arizona, while teams of students and professors built a series of pavilions on the historic grounds of Woodstock that explored a semi-automatic approach to construction

The images are courtesy of Grimshaw 

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Honda has unveiled their new-age EVs under the Zero Series (paying homage to ASIMO robot) – one being a mid-sized SUV and the other a wedged Saloon, at CES 2025. These electric cars are heavily emphasized with the theme “thin, light, and wise.” To this accord the interior cabin space has been increased, the outside view unrestricted, and the seating flexibility position opening up many use-case scenarios. The cars will have Level 3 autonomy promising a laidback travel experience for riders.

Dubbed “0 SUV” based on the in-house Space Hub Concept and 0 Saloon based on the Saloon concept, both these vehicles caught a lot of attention at CES 2025. They are all set for release for the North American market in 2026 and will come with the latest Asimo operating system, pushing the Honda vehicles into the next generation. The 0 Series has a peculiar Aston Martin Lagonda Shooting Brake vibe which could indeed have some inspiration for the two concepts.

Designer: Honda

The concept prototypes showcased at the event looked more design-focused without being too impractical. 0 Saloon, the flagship model, was revealed first, and impressed with the sporty styling and low ride height. Compared to the Saloon concept it comes minus the gull-winged doors, having just the normal ones. Those headlights blink open much like the Lamborghini Countach which adds a nostalgic touch to the design. When the doors open, the yoke steering automatically rotates to one side so that the driver has no problem sliding in. The dash-sized screen on both cars is similar to the Afeela concept revealed earlier at the event.

0 SUV on the other hand looks more like a production-ready version and most probably will be the first one to roll off the production lines. The performance vehicle will rival Tesla’s big boy and it’ll be interesting to see how this market segment competes in the future. It’ll make use of the company’s inherent robotic technologies to enable dynamic riding tech to drive on any kind of road surface. On top of this, the vehicle will employ high-precision attitude estimation and stabilization control.

The post Honda reveals futuristic Zero series SUV and Saloon at CES 2025 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Mexican studio Colectivo C733 has helped preserve an 18th-century port customs building, constructing a cultural centre and museum around it using historical adobe and steel in Nayarit, México.

The municipality of San Blas hired Colectivo C733 to help preserve and recover what was left of an 18th-century customs building, consolidating the adobe remnants and preserving the historic masonry.

The Port of San Blas was established in Nueva Galicia in 1768 to protect the Pacific coast and serve as a gateway for shipping goods from Asia.

The first level old San Blas customs building is still standing. A corridor was used as an exhibition space and small workshops and remnants of the original structure constructed with handmade adobe bricks are scattered around the site.

Around the historic structure in the centre of the complex, the team constructed an industrial-style bridge and viewing platform with red steel, flanked by screens of terracotta tiles. This reaches up to the roof of the historic building and allows visitors to pass through it on an elevated walkway.

“The vertical walkway becomes a journey through time in the memory of one of the oldest buildings in this port,” the team said.

Then, the team constructed contemporary structures – the Centro Cultural Aduana de San Blas – made of local adobe elements to house the surrounding public spaces and workshops.

Visitors access the site through a public plaza on the southwest side of the complex where they can see the juxtaposition of the historic chimeneas –outdoor enclosed fireplaces – and the contemporary viewing platform.

The northwest side of the property houses a linear community building with a library, dance hall, classroom, and studio that are each oriented outwards through sliding glass doors shaded by awnings. A solid brick wall cuts the workshop building off from the rest of the courtyard, but the bridge brings it back into communication with the other structures by allowing visitors to access the roof.

“The building seeks to unfold activities to a second level with other opportunities for wind, views, and light, turning the same rooftops into box seat spaces for cultural activities,” said C733.

The northeast edge of the complex houses offices in a wedge-shaped structure set behind another terracotta screen. Between the offices and the chimeneas lies a forum based on Indigenous Mexican ceremoniay.

“An outdoor forum [is] shaped like a Sikuli, a Huichol structure that represents the composition of the universe and the connection between human beings, nature, and the universe,” the team said.

The southeast portion of the property holds the new museum building, a large rectangular structure surrounded on three sides by an arched colonnade with columns made of salvaged materials. The pristine white building contrasts the earth tones of the rest of the complex.

A lightweight metal and canvas awning sits on the roof of the museum providing a shaded rest area after visitors have passed through the chimeneas.

“The composition of four adobe planes allowed for a new relationship between the existing building and the new structures, between the past and the present, and between nature and the constructed structures,” the studio said.

Colectivo C733 includes architects Gabriela Carrillo, Carlos Facio, and Jose Amozurrutia, together with researchers Erik Valdez and Israel Espin. Last year, Carrillo spoke with Dezeen about how the collective is working with the Mexican government to create public architecture to ease the stresses of human migration.

Recently, WORKac and Ignacio Urquiza completed a project in Mexico City through its PILARES program, which helps to build public neighbourhood hubs.

Other brick and terracotta projects Colectivo C733 has completed recently include a music school with a soaring timber roof in Nacajuca and a market with a roof formed by inverted trapezoidal umbrellas in Matamoros.

The photography is by Rafael Gamo.

Project credits:

Architect: Colectivo C733, Gabriela Carrillo, Eric Valdez, Israel Espín, José Amozurrutia y Carlos Facio (TO)
Design Team: Sofía Pavón, Roberto Rosales, Abraham Espindola
Structures: LABG (Eric Valdez), GIEE
Electrical and mechanical engineering: Enrique Zenón
Landscape design: Taller de Paisaje Hugo Sánchez
Other consultants: Luz en arquitectura, Pedro Lechuga, TEMAS MX
Contractor: Constructora Gurría y Asociados
Client: Sedatu, Municipio de San Blas

The post Colectivo C733 installs museum inside 18th-century Mexican port building appeared first on Dezeen.

This eye-catching Nyala Chair is by Jomo Tariku, an Ethiopian industrial designer based in Virginia.

“Inspired by the shy and elusive mountain antelope from the Bale Mountains of East Africa, the hand-carved armrests and legs of this chair echo the Nyala’s distinctive soaring horns and sturdy hind legs,” Tariku writes. “Staying true to the non-territorial nature of the Nyala, the chair blends with the design pallet of modern living spaces while maintaining its individuality.”

The antelope is in danger of going extinct, as its population has declined from 25,000 down to “around a thousand” over the past several decades.

“To heighten awareness of this decline, we will limit lifetime production to 1,000 – One chair to represent each antelope on the Bale Mountain. A portion of sales will be donated to support research or conservation field work in Bale Mountains National Park.”

The Nyala Chair, one of which is part LACMA’s permanent collection, is carried by the Wexler Gallery.

This is a strange invention that demonstrates outside-of-the-box thinking. A startup called Swippitt has developed this Instant Power System, a way to fully charge your smartphone in just two seconds. The system requires you sheathe your phone in their Swippitt Link, a phone case with a built-in battery.

To recharge, you place your phone into the slot of their Swippitt Hub, which looks like the offspring of an Atari 2600 and a toaster.

After two seconds, you pull it out, and it’s fully charged.

What’s happening inside the Hub is that it’s swapping the case’s battery:

The Hub can store and charge up to five extra batteries.

I would think that this system would be aimed at businesses with employees that rely heavily on smartphones to do their work, but this appears aimed at the consumer sector. It’s also only compatible with iPhone models 14, 15 and 16. Whether people will pony up $120 per phone case and $450 for the Hub (plus whatever the extra batteries cost, they don’t say) remains to be seen.

The system is expected to launch in June, with Android compatibility to be added later.