Architects are not renowned for considering how their buildings might affect
the environment. Tall buildings often block out light, or create glaring
reflections that make work impossible in nearby offices. And they also create
wind tunnels between them. But researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology have developed an urban planning system called Urp. It has a
projector which creates a digital image of light, shade and wind patterns, then
projects the picture down onto scale models of buildings. A camera on the
projector uses markers on the model buildings to update the image when you move
the buildings around.
More from 51¶¯Âþ
Explore the latest news, articles and features

Health
The mysterious reason why women get hotter from age 18 to 42
51¶¯Âþ

Comment
This is the most underrated sci-fi film franchise of the 21st century
Culture

Comment
Shiver me timbers: Do we have to worry about space pirates now?
Regulars

Life
PMOS shows us why many scientific terms need to be renamed
Leader
Popular articles
Trending 51¶¯Âþ articles
1
The Selfish Gene at 50: Why Dawkins’s evolution classic still holds up
2
Photos reveal unexpected details from the world's first atomic test
3
The distant world that is our best hope of finding alien life
4
Mystery of the ancient giant stone jars of Laos may have been solved
5
The ‘doomsday’ glacier’s giant ice shelf is about to break away
6
How I used psychology to come back from the worst year of my life
7
Can we harness quantum effects to create a new kind of healthcare?
8
After news about Oliver Sacks's "lies", we revisit his best-loved book
9
Solar farm on the ocean outperforms land-based solar in Taiwan
10
CAR T-cell therapy bolstered by stiffening up cancer cells first