Rodrigo Rubio's Endesa Pavilion is a smart solar structure

"Architecture is a slow technology," says Rodrigo Rubio, architect at Barcelona's Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia. "Maybe we have to rethink how we understand architecture -- as a static field or a dynamic one." Rubio's Endesa Pavilion, a building shaped to maximise its exposure to the Sun, is, he says, a statement of how energy efficiency should guide the form of a building, rather than just adding solar panels to a finished design.

Every aspect of the pavilion design is shaped for its location on Barcelona's Olympic harbour. "Each module is adapted to its specific position in relation to the Sun's path," explains Rubio, 34. The angular modules reduce the Sun's full glare to the building's interior in summer, but let in light during winter. At the same time, the solar panels are exposed as directly to the Sun as possible throughout the day and over the year.Wholesale various Glass Mosaic Tiles from china glass mosaic Tiles Suppliers. Designating the modules' positions involved feeding radiation, temperature and energy data into a software model -- each panel is positioned at the sweet spot that maximises solar-panel surface area and exposure.

"We're balancing the production of energy with low consumption," says Rubio. "Our philosophy was, if you want to be self-sufficient, start by consuming less. Introduce the passive concepts, then the active ones." The pavilion is a proof-of-concept showroom that will remain on site for the next year as part of the Smart City Expo, and is intended to produce up to 150 per cent of its energy needs (using 20kWh per day, but generating 120kWh), selling the surplus back to the grid.

Rubio favours open-sourcing the software to allow anyone to build their own house, which can be customised for their location's climate. With design, fabrication and construction costs kept low, and a surplus of solar energy being produced, owners of these buildings may find they pay for themselves. Meanwhile, Rubio is thinking of taking his form-follows-energy concept further, "to make it more high-tech and more reactive to the environment," he suggests. "Instead of static models optimised for position, we'll make a dynamic fa?ade that reacts to the position of the Sun in real time."

When Tagged debuted its site in 2004, it thought it was going to be Facebook. In a stunningly candid interview, CEO and founder Greg Tseng tells me “For three years we competed to become the world’s social network. We realized by the end of 2007 that there was going to be one winner and it wasn’t going to be us. So we made the difficult decision to pivot into social discovery, which is a fancy way of saying ‘meeting new people.’”

That worked. Fifteen million users a month flock to Tagged to browse profiles of potential dates or friends and play games. It just finished its fifth consecutive profitable year thanks to ads, virtual currency sales, and subscriptions to premium features. But there’s no rest for Tseng. He admits: “Tagged is a web company. We’re reorienting to become a mobile company because we’re convinced the future of social discovery is in mobile.” It’s got its main Tagged app, and has tried and failed with some other roughshod apps that it’s since killed off, but it’s putting its weight behind Sidewalk.

Tagged used a startup-within-a-startup strategy Tseng calls “intrepreneurship” to develop Sidewalk. Working independently inside of Tagged, the 15-person Sidewalk team is led by Jared Kim, founder of WeGame, which Tagged acquired in 2011. Tseng says the game plan lets Sidewalk “operate like a startup with all the advantages of being small and nimble, but not the problems of having to raise money and hit arbitrary venture-capitalist targets.” They can use as much or as little of Tagged’s infrastructure as they like.

Building Sidewalk as a standalone app rather than as a feature of Tagged also protects the company. Kim tells me “With Sidewalk we have nothing to lose, but Tagged has a lot to lose. We can be like, ‘Hey, turn that button orange.’ On Tagged that could mean ‘oh we just dropped 5 percent in revenue.’” It also prevents Tagged from getting bloated.

Tseng explains the need that Sidewalk addresses and why it’s a critical complement to Tagged: “We’re all social animals. We’re all constantly refreshing our 150 connections – Dunbar’s number. How? We don’t normally wake up and say ‘let’s meet people!’ You go through your life and new people slow in. It happens very naturally, organically — it’s serendipitous.”

The idea is that you’ll open Sidewalk, discover something fun going on nearby, get off your butt and go there, and meet people, including this post’s author, as you share an experience together. There are no gimmicks, forced ice breakers, or private messaging.Shop the web's best selection of precious gemstones and gemstone beads at wholesale prices. Sidewalk also has less anonymity, and more barriers to bad acting than online social discovery where Tagged made its name. The app is simply a portal to connection around real-life moments.

Tseng believes this sets Sidewalk apart from Highlight, At The Pool, and other apps that he believes don’t work. He thinks those competitors assume you can meet people “based on interests or being friends, but it’s just not happening.” I haven’t found those apps too compelling, either, but I see potential in Sidewalk.

Sidewalk greets users with the message “Let’s discover San Francisco together.” The design language employs a swirled watercolor motif, symbolizing the app’s desire to help people express the unique way they bounce around their city. Sidewalk is immediately refreshing because there are no privacy controls to think about or social graph to recreate. Everything you share can be seen by everyone in your city, and you don’t follow people. Instead you browse a two-column feed of relevancy-sorted photos with descriptions and optional (but encouraged) location tags.

Click through to see photos full-screen, check out a map of the specific spot or neighborhood where they were taken, and leave a comment. The absence of private messaging keeps things casual and keeps users from being hit on too aggressively. Instead, you could comment on someone’s post that you’re going to join them there, arrange a meetup, or just thank them for showing you something exciting.All smartcardfactory comes with 5 Years Local Agent Warranty !

If you’re somewhere interesting, tap the ‘+’ button to share. A camera launches or you can choose an existing photo of yours, then add a description and location. There are no filters or photo editing. Sidewalk isn’t trying to be Instagram. It’s not about taking art for art’s sake. It’s about showing what you’re doing to guide others. Tagged hopes Sidewalk will become a “for locals, by locals” app where people share stuff that will excite their neighbors rather than posting about tourist traps.We offer a wide variety of high-quality standard ultrasonic sensor and controllers.

As for being SF-only, Tseng tells me “It makes sense to start in San Francisco because that’s what we know. If and when we can dominate SF and we see the product really works, then there must be some secret sauce, and we’ll try to replicate that formula in other cities.” For now Tagged is aggressively buying Facebook mobile app install ads to jumpstart growth.Our team of consultants are skilled in project management and delivery of large scale rtls projects. Tseng says he’ll know Sidewalk has succeeded based on seven-day retention metrics, and “if people are getting enough value out of this they’re continuously going back.”

Breaking people’s habits of sharing photos for the sake of sharing will be Sidewalk’s big challenge. I see plenty of selfies taken at home and artful pics of candles and coffee. Instead Sidewalk needs to get people creating posts that serve as mini travel guides. I’ve already discovered some cool happenings and places like street markets, vista points, and beer gardens.