7 Days of News – Week 43

Cooper Carry recently secured a Radical innovation Award (2019) for their modular hotel design. This deploys modular construction techniques to build ‘pop up’ hotels in interstitial spaces between buildings and allow them to ‘collapse’ once completed – unlocking new opportunities in crowded urban areas.  

The UK-based Additive Manufacturing Technologies (AMT) have raised $5.2m to commercialize their post-processing technology. This carries the potential for the delivery of end-to-end solutions for materials and manufacturing throughout a range of sectors, eliminating the need for external intervention to post-process printed parts and increase print volume. 

The recent “Bridge to Circularity” report gives a first-of-its-kind roadmap to improve recycling throughout the US. Developed by The Recycling Partnership in collaboration with over 400 businesses, the report identifies key drivers for the issue and the $500m USD cost required to enact ‘Recycling 2.0’ by 2025 and to build momentum across the industry with a new approach to materials handling. 

FloodFrame is poised to move into at-risk flooding areas throughout the UK. The Danish company has partnered with Acclear to investigate the role it can play with flood prevention in the UK, helping it provide a flexible, cost-effective solution for many homes throughout the country. 

SignalAI has raised $25m of funding is set to expand into new markets. The platform uses publicly available data to identify forthcoming trends and deploys machine learning to help understanding and predict changing regulatory environments, business intelligence, and analytics – helping companies ‘see round the corner’ and remain reactive to change. 

Serverless Architecture is set to see a growth rare of 27.3% CAGR by 2025 according to a recent market report. Third party hosting helps eliminate the need for infrastructure and hardware management, allowing increased flexibility and capacity to scale – settling to a possible predicted market size of $18.04bn by 2024. 

Chicago’s forthcoming IT strategic plan has identified equity and co-ordination as priorities for forthcoming smart city initiatives. The plan focuses on providing ‘meaningful experiences’ for citizens and supporting the Pitch and Pilot program that invites businesses to solve municipal and housing problems. 

Accenture has launched a new X.0 Studio in Chicago to drive the development of ‘smart connected’ products and services for a range of industries. The ‘forge’ studio allows for the company to access continuous innovation for their clients driving progress in design, engineering, manufacturing and to provide new support to supply chain management and logistics;  

GreenBiz is set to commence the ninth annual VERGE conference. Running from the 22nd – 24th of October,  the event covers the ‘Tsunami of solutions’ available to businesses and forthcoming changes to building design, management, corporate finance and more. 

This week saw the launch of The Digital Construction Works (DCW) programme. Stretching from planning, construction and operations – the initiative aims to create a ‘digital thread’ to help lower life-cycle costs and optimize asset performance. 

Fastbrick Australia saw the release of the Hadrian X unit, a cab mounted robot that is set to offer “Wall-as-a-service” functionality. Developed as a joint venture between Fastbrick Robotics (FBR) and Brickworks, the system delivers builds with high speed, accuracy, and minimal wastage. 

Haptics are set to play a prominent role in modern architectural design, according to Blaine Brownell. Writing for Architecture Magazine, Brownell highlights how tactility is vital in an increasing abstract, virtual world, and an provide novel solutions to commonplace problems.