Developing New Worlds

This past spring, between 69th Street and 72nd Street on Second Avenue, cages descended every eight hours, five days a week, lowering roughly 50 men in neon vests and hard hats into a deep hole. Overhead, fluorescent bulbs provided a noonish light and yellow ventilation tubes undulated. A cool, roaring wind filled the void and carried the intense aroma of Emulex explosives, an ammonialike, Fourth of July smell. Men with tripods surveyed; men with blowtorches welded; men guiding hoses poured concrete (men outnumber women 100 to 1). They took brief lunch breaks and relieved themselves hastily where and when they could.

Everything in the Openarch house is connected and can be used to communicate. Through the internet connection, any device such as a mobile phone or tablet can access, control, and monitor data, temperature, appliances, lighting, power usage, and social media. With an emphasis on flexibility, Kinect-based gestural interfaces and video mapped projections can also control the same elements as well as moveable walls and a customizable wallpaper projection.