Can Inflated Concrete Homes Help Solve the World's Housing Woes?

Remember the DIY days of covering balloons with lots of glue, scraps of paper and paint, and then popping said balloons to reveal a masterfully created bowl? Well, imagine doing paper maché on a larger scale — a much larger scale. The Binishell, an idea for inflated concrete domes dreamed up by Dr. Dante Bini in the 60s, is basically that same concept brought to life.

A large, heavy-duty balloon gets covered with flexible steel rods and concrete before the balloon is inflated while the concrete is still wet. Once it hardens, the balloon is removed. Basically, it starts off as a flat shape and then gets inflated to its desired size. The balloon can then be reused to fill another domed building. It’s a super quick way of building structures that can take just a few days and, because of its shape, it’s also much more energy efficient than the traditionally built house.

I swear I've seen this design somewhere before..... http://youtu.be/sAb-fqBrUsY?t=1m

Roadside Assistance for Cyclists? There's an app for that!

Broken bikes aren't meant to be moved around. So what can you do? There's the hassle of searching for a nearby bike shop that’s open, not knowing if it will be fixed in time, how much it will cost and whether it will get fixed properly.

Or there's FlatTire, a new iOS app that uses today’s technology to make the process quicker, cheaper and much more convenient than regular brick-and-mortar bike shops.

The FlatTire app allows users to access the mobile bike services of Amsterdam's Flattire.nl more easily than ever before.

How Do You Move an Entire City? Ask Sweden

Northern Sweden may be most readily associated with the residential domain of Christmas-time characters, but the region is now turning fantasy into the future of sustainable urban planning — by moving an entire city of 18,200 people two miles east of its current location. Kiruna, founded in 1900, is an iron ore company town and home to the iconic Icehotel, but is slowly cannibalizing upon itself. As the ground beneath the city’s western edge has been mined, deformation is encroaching on the city’s very bedrock.

White Arkitetker unveils masterplan for Swedish city Kiruna relocation from Dezeen on Vimeo.