Year in Ideas

The 4th Annual Year in Ideas, in today's New York Times Magazine, features a couple ideas of architectural note.

Concrete You Can See Through

The latest material innovation that's creating quite a stir, concrete laced with fiber-optic cables isn't exactly see through but gives that impression. Light is transmitted via the fiber-optics, so light hitting one side of the concrete appears on the other, in effect like a reproduced image. It's something that has many "that would be cool" applications, though practical uses like post-911 security (bunker-like rooms with light coming through the walls!) may help speed up the material's use. But right now, it's too expensive for widespread application.

The Wandering Museum

A museum designed by Shigeru Ban to display photographs by Gregory Colbert will travel from one city to another via boat. But if you're reminded of Aldo Rossi's floating theater in Venice, you might be a bit disappointed, because it sounds like this large structure - made up of shipping containers and cardboard tubes - would be broken down and reassembled in each city it visits. So unfortunately archi-tourists won't have the chance to snap photos of a museum moving across the water.