Design, Science and Technology

Margot Krasojevic's latest proposal, a mesh shelter that takes the concept of snow caves and applies it to an artificial structure, is built for an eminently practical purpose: a built emergency shelter for climbers and others caught in extreme conditions.

The elaborate, high tech and naturally contoured structure is as much a thought experiment as it is a serious architectural proposal, with the carbon fibre mesh acting as a snow-catcher, forming a frame for a large snow drift. The captured snow works as both building material and insulation, allowing for the creation of a shelter of several rooms. Inside sits a wooden frame suspended from the mesh and attached to the landscape by climbing ropes, which avoid freezing by swaying. This frame can have canvases attached to it, and contains cell-like modules that would act as sleeping areas...

Via Lauren Moss

Architects Anton Pramstrahler and Alex Niederkofler have unveiled their proposal for a wooden viewing tower near Bruneck, northern Italy, with a twisted body shaped like a tree trunk .

The structure's spiralling form is intended to look like a tree that spreads out at its base and canopy – the result of a hexagonal section that rotates gradually as the tower ascends.

Via Lauren Moss