<![CDATA[io9: building]]> http://tags.lifehacker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png <![CDATA[io9: building]]> http://io9.com/tag/building http://io9.com/tag/building <![CDATA[Temporary Hotel Made of Self-Contained Sleep Pods Built in London]]> This hotel is one of several temporary structures that Travelodge is building out of stackable, prefab sleep pods. The company rolled out the pods as a stunt last year, suggesting people could use them for outdoor festivals like Burning Man. Each pod is ready for Martian landfall, containing a bed, bathroom, a TV/DVD player, air conditioning, and a coffee pot. Perfect for the terraforming crew! What do they look like when unstacked and left in the open air?

Here's one of the pods:
travelpod.jpg Travelodge imagines they'll build more temporary pop-up hotels out of the pods whenever the need arises. A rep from the company said:

It could facilitate the creation of hotels on a temporary basis at times of peak demand in certain locations — such as festivals or sporting events
Like I said: Mars seriously needs these. How else will we keep the Martian Land Rovers company?

Travelodge Building Pop-Up Prefab Hotels [Treehugger]

]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=342598&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Translucent Concrete Lets The Light Shine In]]> Get ready for windows that never break with translucent concrete. A German design firm has created load-bearing concrete containing optical fibers, allowing light and color to pass through to the other side (the shadowy hand is what you can see through the concrete in direct light). The result is that you can live inside a sunlit dome and still be protected when the space invaders come and drop those dangerous light thingies on your head. Click through for more transluscent concrete, and some transparent aluminum too.



TransparentAluminum.jpgHa! It's Scotty's formula for transparent aluminum from Star Trek. Amazing what those Mac Classics could do.

What's particularly impressive about translucent concrete is that the optical fibers only make up 4% of the mixture, which is what allows (they claim) the concrete to retain the same "technical data" as normal concrete. In layman's terms we're assuming this means "Pretty light shine through, house not fall down." Based on the photos of the concrete in action, and if this load-bearing claim holds up (get it?) then we imagine that this would get put to immediate use in the construction of formerly boring government buildings everywhere.

In fact, now is a good time to think about rebuilding the io9 bunker entirely out of this stuff. We can't wait on Star Trek tech anymore, unless someone from the future traveled back in time and told someone at this firm how to make this stuff. Then the whole time-travel paradox of Star Trek IV will open up like a can of worms and consume us as we sit in our see-through outbuildings.
stages-of-translucency.jpg


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