Link About It: This Week’s Picks

Controlling lightning with lasers, transforming dumps into parks, mapping subterranean passageways and more

The First 3D-Printed Two-Story Home in the US New York design firm Hannah, Germany-based company Peri 3D Construction, and Texas engineering and construction firm Cive have partnered to create the first 3D-printed two-story home in the US—currently being built in Houston. The 4,000-square-foot, three-bedroom property will serve as a case study on how to best streamline 3D-printed construction, test the capabilities of the machine and …

Transforming a Dumping Ground Into a Floating Forest in China

Fish Tail Park is a new 126-acre floating forest in Nanchang, China that helps regulate floods, restore wildlife habitation and create a recreational area for the city. Transforming what was once a dumping ground, Beijing-based landscape architecture firm Turenscape built numerous islets, created by recycling coal ash found on location and mixing it with dirt. The islets house recreational areas like beaches, fountains and playgrounds …

Blockchain Chicken Farm

From chickens with QR codes to AI systems that farm pigs, the essay collection Blockchain Chicken Farm explains and interrogates how technology and agriculture intertwine in rural China. On the surface, coder and writer Xiaowei Wang’s fascinating compilation charts how rural locations—contrary to stereotypes—have become sites of rapid technological innovation. More broadly, Wang dissects the ideologies behind tech companies that are shaping the world today, the …