Reference

Sky Heist
Flying isn’t fun, but it should at least be relaxing (if not, occasionally, transcendent). Achieving all three things is the lofty aim of Airbus’s cabin of the future, which shows us what we can expect from air travel decades from now (http://www.airbus.com/innovation/future-by-airbus/concept-planes/the-airbus-concept-cabin/). The three classes of service are done away with, replaced by activity zones that allow for work, play, socializing, and sleeping, as well as personal cabin space. It’s green, too: fully recyclable plant fibers are used for seats, and self-repairing, self-cleaning fabrics and materials mean an end to those shabby cushions and drab door handles. Most exciting for window-seat fans are structural components that morph and change, including opaque-to-transparent walls, which will allow us to watch the sunset or the stars twinkling in the night sky on a red-eye flight (sans claustrophobia).

Living on Shifting Sands
Late last year, architects and designers focused on the flooding and destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy (and a future where more of the same is expected). There was much talk of dune building, sawgrass, stilted houses, and smart drainage. But 2012 was also a record year for climate change–induced wildfires, caused by higher temperatures and drought conditions (http://inhabitat.com/nasa-image-shows-a-years-worth-of-record-breaking-wildfires/). Designing fire-safe homes involves reconsidering our relationship with the natural world: think heat protection and burn-resistant facades. Daly Genik Architects (http://www.sunset.com/home/architecture-design/fire-safe-house-00418000069237/) in Santa Monica designed a house (replacing one that burned) using metal shutters; strong laminated glass walls provide a modern look while letting in that sublime desert light. Fire-resistant concrete, stucco, flat roofs, ceramic roof tiles, intumescent paint, and minimal vegetation are other ways homes might better survive the wildfires of the future.