Swedish furniture company IKEA, top chef David Chang of Momofuku Group, Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and more big names and companies have invested a combined $40 million into AeroFarms, a vertical farm producer based in Newark, N.J. The company, which recently completed the world's largest indoor vertical farm in the city, "will use the latest round of funds for continued investment in leading R&D and technology and additional farm expansion around the world," according to the company's press release. Aerofarms uses a closed-loop aeroponics system (the process of growing plants in a mist environment rather than in soil) that the company says uses 95 percent less water than field farming. [AeroFarms]
ICYMI: Highlights from this year's Autodesk University, which drew 10,000 tech-savvy designers to Las Vegas to hear the software developer's take on automating the AEC industry. [ARCHITECT]
Vantablack, the world's blackest black created by humans and, in this case, by Surrey NanoSystems, will be the central focus of London-based architect Asif Khan's installation for the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. "It will be like you're looking into the depths of space itself," Khan says in a CNN interview. "As you approach the building that star field will grow to fill your entire field of view, and then you'll enter as though you're being absorbed into a cloud of blackness." Vantablack absorbs 99.96 percent of light. [CNN]
Canadian timber engineering and construction company StructureCraft, which is now the first dowel-laminated timber (DLT) producer in North America, has completed a new, demountable 50,000-square-foot facility in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Constructed from prefabricated wall and roof panels that are made mainly from DLT, laminated strand lumber, nail-laminated timber, and glulam products, the facility showcases the possibilities of manufacturing wood products for use in architecture. [StructureCraft]
The International Energy Agency has released a report predicting that the rapid push for solar photovoltaics in energy markets such as China and India will help make renewable energy reach 40 percent of global power generation by 2040. [IEA]
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has created an interactive data visualization and simulation tool that policymakers and scientists can utilize to envision the impact of rising sea levels on coastal cities around the globe. Researchers studied 293 coastal cities in order to collect data that would help calculate local sea level rise and determine the cause for each. [NASA]
ICYMI: Check out how LMN Architects, Neumann Monson Architects, and Jaffe Holden used parametric design and CNC manufacture to create a custom acoustical reflector for the University of Iowa's Voxman School of Music. Nearly 900 unique panels came together to create the perforated, undulating shield. [ARCHITECT]
The Georgia Dome in Atlanta, a stadium that hosted the 1996 Summer Olympics and two Super Bowls, was imploded on Nov. 20 due to structural issues that led to the construction of a newer Mercedes-Benz Stadium right next door. The demolition of the venue drew a crowd of onlookers and media outlets eager to capture the moment of collapse. The video below, provided by the Weather Channel, shows the unfortunate moment a city bus decided to cut into the shot of the channel's live stream of the event. It is now an internet meme. [The Washington Post]
TFW you stream the #GAdome being demolished for 40 minutes and a bus stops in front of the camera at the exact moment it implodes 😂 nooooo pic.twitter.com/lUL9tqyCST
— James Crugnale (@jamescrugnale) November 20, 2017
