Skyscrapers often darken adjacent neighborhoods with their shadow. Here's an innovative approach that uses reflection off one tall building to fill in the shadow cast by another. In the example given, the shadow from the first building typically falls over water so it doesn't affect a neighborhood. There is an animated gif in the article at weburbanist to illustrate the technique.
With downtown densification usually comes a lack of light in surrounding spaces, leading one architecture firm to develop the world’s first algorithm-driven strategy to allow a tower to fully shed its shadow. Architects of NBBJ developed this set of adjacent skyscrapers that work in tandem to eliminate shade year-round in the spaces between them, proposing the pair for a prominent site in central London.
This building design technology might go a long way to preventing a catastrophe, as happened in another article on which weburbanist reported.
(Score: 2, Informative) by wonkey_monkey on Sunday April 05 2015, @08:46PM
This building design technology might go a long way to preventing a catastrophe, as happened in another article on which weburbanist reported.
I'm not sure a partially melted car, a few carpet fires and some paintwork damage count as a catastrophe. Potentially catastrophic, sure, but no-one died or was even injured.
Secondly, it didn't "happen in another article on which weburbanist reported." It happened in London, and was an event which weburbanist wrote an article on.
Captain Pedant, away!
(he always disappears with a poof)
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Monday April 06 2015, @12:41AM
It's certainly a liability catastrophe for the designers and owners. I seriously wonder how none of them foresaw this issue considering the building is a massive dish shaped mirror. I'm surprised nobody thought of solar ovens or ants and magnifying glasses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 06 2015, @12:49AM
Well, I for one appreciate the editor's effort to find the older article about the melted car.
Just call me not pedantic (at least not this time!)
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday April 06 2015, @06:15AM
Me too.
But, then, that what Google is really good at. [google.com]
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]