Candela Electric Hydrofoils Set to Start Stockholm Routes Next Year

Well beyond a cool-sounding concept, the Candela P-12 Shuttle will become a real commuting option in the Stockholm area by next year. Capable of carrying 30 passengers at a time, this 40-foot flying electric boat relies on hydrofoils that lift it out of the water so can zoom along at up to 30 knots (34 mph or 55 km/h). It uses the equivalent of a mere 0.1 kWh of electricity per passenger kilometer, gets a range of 50 nautical miles at typical service speed, and recharges in under an hour using DC fast charging.

Those impressive speeds make the P-12 the fastest electric ship in the world, according to Candela. It’ll also be among the greenest watercraft ever produced, reducing energy usage per passenger kilometer by 95 percent compared to commercial diesel-powered ferries that are currently in use.

“Our shuttles use 80 percent less energy than conventional ships and have the ability to travel far and fast on pure electricity,” Candela states on its website. “This means a 100-percent reduction in local emissions, particulate matter, and NOx. Moreover, there is no need for oil changes and thus no risk of oil leakages. Given the reduced energy consumption, low maintenance needs, and possibility to increase passenger volumes, we estimate that operational costs [in Stockholm] will be reduced by at least 40 percent.”

The P-12 Shuttle will slash commute times between the Stockholm city center and the suburb of Ekerö from 55 minutes by subway, bus, standard ferry, or car down to just 25 minutes. Part of that time savings stems from the fact that the P-12’s hydrofoils produce virtually no wake at all, allowing it to cruise within Stockholm’s no-wake zones, which usually require conventional boats to slow down to 12 knots or less. If Candela’s nine-month trial period with the city is successful, the company will likely make additional ferries available to help free up traffic from Stockholm highways. It could also pave the way for expansion into cities like New York and San Francisco.

The Candela P-12 shuttle features a carbon fiber keel and computer-controlled hydrofoils that make up to 100 micro-adjustments per second for the smoothest possible ride, increasing comfort for passengers. It has a 180 kWh battery and is small enough to easily jet around on the water. Candela also offers a consumer version called the C-8, if you’re interested in buying one of your own (starting at €290,000).

Seagliders Slash Channel Crossings Between England and France

Another interesting idea takes the “flying ferry” name a bit more literally. Brittany Ferries says its battery-powered craft “foils like a hydrofoil, hovers like a hovercraft, and flies like a plane… with the comfort and convenience of a ferry.” This concept glider can carry 150 passengers at a time and travel at speeds of up to 180 mph (290 km/h), quite a bit larger and faster than the P-12 and a whopping six times faster than conventional ferries. Brittany Ferries says it’ll get a battery range of 180 miles (290 km).

This flying ferry works by rising on foils as it departs from a port, taking off and riding a cushion of air just a few meters above the surface of the water until it reaches its destination. The company aims to test the concept by crossing the English Channel between Portsmouth, England and Cherbourg, France in just 40 minutes, a journey that currently takes 5 hours by conventional ship.

Since it’s rising considerably higher above the water than Candela’s hydrofoil ferry, the Brittany Ferries watercraft will face additional technical and regulatory challenges, but the company says it could be operational as soon as 2025. Brittany Ferries brings its proven expertise earned through development of its high-speed catamaran Normandie Express to assist US-based startup Regent Craft with the process.

“We are particularly pleased to contribute now because it means we can bring real-world challenges and potential applications into the company’s early thinking,” says Brittany Ferries’ Ports and Operations Director Frédéric Pouget. “We hope this may help bring commercial success in the years that follow. Who knows, this could well be the birth of ferries that fly across the Channel.”

The post “Flying” Electric Hydrofoil Ferries Could Slash Commutes in Coastal Cities first appeared on Dornob.

Funded by a grant from the Creative Europe Initiative, LINA will offer the expertise of 28 European and Mediterranean organizations from 23 countries, including several European biennials, triennials, festivals, museums, publishing houses, universities, research networks, and laboratories.

“The LINA platform is designed as a widely diversified international network of artistic, educational, and professional institutions,” says Matevz Celik, LINA Platform Director. “It opens up insight and the possibility for young professionals as well as senior students to participate in the most current and fresh architectural production in the wider European area.”

The idea is that LINA can help facilitate a New European Bauhaus, a period of creativity and innovation based on collaboration and mentorship between established professionals and the emerging generation, who will bear the brunt of advanced climate change and environmental crises in the near future.

Over the next three years, LINA will organize conferences celebrating innovative ideas and support young architects, engineers, and designers as they research new environmentally responsible strategies and develop working prototypes. The general public will also benefit, as LINA will hold exhibitions and events to show off all the work that’s generated through the program. That will be a great way for young architects to gain wider recognition — and to drum up public support for the solutions developed through the program.

Intergenerational collaboration is key to the platform’s potential. As a student or brand new professional, it’s not always easy to get your ideas out into the world, taken seriously, or refined by people and organizations that have more experience. If we’re going to survive as a species and reduce suffering as climate change advances, we need wild and crazy innovation, but those ideas also have to be realistically achievable. Wouldn’t it be nice to see something like this developed in Asia and North America, too?

“The central philosophy of the platform will be to increase the environmental orientation of architectural activity through young professionals’ projects,” says Celik. “The project offers a new working model in architecture where young professionals will be able to participate in education, research, production, and dissemination of their ideas to adapt architecture to the circular economy and environmental challenges.”

This year’s LINA conference, kicking off the launch of the platform, will take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia in the fall. Then, in 2023, LINA will participate in the World Capital of Architecture program with a conference in Copenhagen. In 2024, LINA will contribute to the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the transformation of the city for the Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo. If the platform is successful, it will be renewed until 2029.

The post LINA Fosters Sustainable Architecture Solutions by Giving a Voice to Europe’s Youth first appeared on Dornob.

Among the most recent is GATHER, an immersive experience at the 2019 Sleep&Eat event in London. Providing a home for the VIPs of the show and for press meetings, the room is designed around a large-scale light installation surrounded by circular seating. A floral print designed expressly for the space covers nearly every surface, from the floor to the curtains. This design won an honorable mention in the iDesign Awards.

At SIXTY, one of the highest restaurants in Europe, a forest of birch trees stretches from the floor to the ceilings. Sitting atop the luxury Federation tower, the glass-and-metal restaurant on the 62nd floor boasts 360-degree views of Moscow and a transparent ceiling that’s nearly 40 feet high at its peak. Needless to say, it’s a unique environment made all the more dramatic by a mix of 1950s Japanese and 1960s European design influences.

At the Ritz Carlton Moscow, Megre brings the visuals of Italian tailoring to a conceptual gourmet restaurant called SARTORIA LAMBERTI. At the heart of the restaurant is a glass enclosure filled with sewing machines, bolts of fabric, and mannequins that are actually functional. Each guest receives a handkerchief with their monogram made on demand. Images of dress forms line the walls.

HUMANS is a seafood restaurant in Moscow with a billowing ceiling that aims to create the feeling of being underwater. “As you walk in the door your eyes are immediately drawn to the walls and ceiling with a dark-grey texture mesh that resembles waves,” says the designer. Moss and ferns are set into the walls, and a “river” of blue resin runs through the center of each table.

PPL is another Moscow restaurant located in a fashionable district. Megre explains that “as the designers we aspired to create an uncommon and trendy space that draws versatile people regardless of their occupation, lifestyle, or mindset. With the help of a unique interior full of air and energy, we managed to build up a lively and vibrant atmosphere of a club and restaurant without underrating the comfort and the kitchen.”

At SEIJI, a Japanese restaurant in Moscow run by chef Seiji Kusano, a cloud-like ceiling treatment paired with mirrors makes a small space feel expansive. “The decorative rice-paper ceiling acts like waves or clouds – their rhythm and design sets a new seascape aesthetic,” Megre says.

YUNOST (which means “youth” in Russian) offers high-end Georgian cuisine overlooking the city of St. Petersburg from the fifth and sixth floors of a shopping center. Austere lines and a neutral color scheme balance out eye-catching decorative elements like strands of beads hanging from the ceiling.

It’s impossible to get bored while hanging at out at DON’T TELL MAMA, a venue in Moscow that’s a restaurant by day, and a bar and club by night. Virtually every surface is adorned with quirky sculptural objects, flamboyant animal print textiles, and cloudy mercury glass. The bar alone is covered in 30,000 coins.

We’re certainly excited to see what mouthwatering designs the firm cooks up next.

The post When Restaurant Interiors are This Incredible, Who Cares About the Food? first appeared on Dornob.

The project is a collaboration between charities Good Chance, Choose Love, and the War Horse Handspring Puppet Company. The gigantic Little Amal “walks” with the aid of one volunteer inside on stilts, another two helpers to control her arms, and one more to stabilize her from the back. Her size helps draw attention, forcing observers to think about the plight of the hundreds of thousands of refugee children across the world right now.

“It is because the attention of the world is elsewhere right now that it is more important than ever to reignite the conversation about the refugee crisis and to change the narrative around it,” said Amir Nizar Zuabi, Artistic Director of the project Walk With Amal. “Yes, refugees need food and blankets, but they also need dignity and a voice. The purpose of The Walk is to highlight the potential of the refugee, not just their dire circumstances. Little Amal is 3.5 meters tall because we want the world to grow big enough to greet her. We want her to inspire us to think big and to act bigger.”

Along her way, Little Amal passed through nine different countries: Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and finally England. Many cities have welcomed her visit with celebrations and ceremonies. In Turkey, for instance, she was greeted by real-life refugee children who lit her path with hand-held lanterns. In Brussels, thousands of local kids wrote letters to her. Little Amal even got to shake hands with the Pope at the Vatican.

Unfortunately, not all interactions to her emigration have been so positive. In Greece, protestors pelted Little Amal with stones as she walked down the streets, and local officials banned her from traveling through a village of Orthodox monasteries. The mayor of Calais, France also voiced public objections to her visit.

“If I was to say to you, we had nothing but warmth and support along the 8,000 km journey, it would not be true,” said Project Producer David Lan. “But what Little Amal seems to do is take the experience of people who are quite brutally marginalized and put it in the center. This is about goodwill. It is an opportunity for people to be sympathetic and imagine what it would be like to be her.”

But overall, Zubai notes that the impact of the mobile artwork has been positive. Pointing out that Amal means “hope” in Arabic, she said, “We have seen a lot of generosity. We’re doing this project to celebrate our shared humanity. We have met people ready to open their hearts and cities and think differently about this issue. An easy way to approach it is to say, ‘Let’s build fences, seclude ourselves, get out of Europe.’ But we wanted people to think about how they can welcome these people…Our nine-year-old giant has brought great joy. After almost two years of COVID, people are flocking to see her – but also to be together, which has been very touching.”

Before her walk concluded in Manchester, England today, fans were able to track Amal’s journey on the project website with an online map. Those wishing to donate to the refugee cause can contribute on the project’s homepage through Choose Love, an organization that provides food, shelter, medical services, and academic and vocational training for displaced children around the world.

The post Walk with Amal: Giant Puppet Completes 5,000-Mile Journey for Refugee Awareness first appeared on Dornob.