switzerland

All Sorts of Buildings Could Be Made with This Brick-Laying Robot

Construction can be back-breaking work, but some engineers in Switzerland have ginned up a brick-laying workbot that can help humans build buildings. Reuters reports that scientists at Zurich’s Swiss National Center of Competence in Research have created a smart construction robot called In-situ Fabricator. It uses its big arm to lay bricks in preprogrammed patterns,…

Mad Scientists in Switzerland Built a Drone That Flies and Walks

Meet DALER. That’s short for Deployable Air-Land Exploration Robot, and it’s designed for rescuing victims in dangerous places after a natural disaster. How does a robot do that? Well, it requires flying into a dangerous place and then walks around that dangerous place. DALER does both. DALER was built by a team of scientists at…

This Is Not A Photo Of A Rock

Who needs a hotel? Roadtrippers highlights this singular Swiss Alps cabin, which is tucked into a sculpture garden and looks for all the world like a giant boulder. If you’re driving by and really squint, you might just notice a strange square window carved out of the rock. Hidden inside is a fully functioning cabin…

This Fake Boulder In the Alps Is Actually a Tiny, Perfect Cabin

The Alps are littered with hidden buildings, from World War II-era bunkers to mansions built below ground to skirt building regulations. But here’s an entirely new addition: A “rock” installed on a boulder-strewn slope that’s hiding a cozy one-person cabin. You’d almost certainly miss it if you were driving by. If you were hiking, maybe…

This Robotic Bridge Inspector Was Originally a Disney Camera-Bot

De-icing slippery winter roads is a vital public safety measures in cold-weather climates. However, the annual cycle of salting streets only to have the mineral seep into the blacktop and rot it from the inside wreaks havoc on transportation infrastructure throughout the U.S. and around the world. This little bot helps fix that. The problem…

This Chlorine-Free Pool Is Biofiltered and Freaking Beautiful

‘Tis the season for stripping down and getting wet in the great outdoors. Unfortunately, the chlorine and chemicals used to keep man-made, al fresco watering holes clean can do a number on sensitive skin, which makes this Swiss pool all the more appealing; Herzog & de Meuron designed this beautiful lagoon with biofilters. Au naturel,…

The World’s Biggest Picnic Blanket Is Growing in the Swiss Countryside

An art installation that plans to be the world’s largest picnic blanket is currently checkerboarding its way through the green rolling hills of Switzerland. This summer, about 1,500 picnickers have ventured to the site, which is adorably named BIGNIK. And it’s only going to get bigger. The blanket is the vision of brothers Frank and…

This Cozy Log Cabin in the Swiss Alps Is Completely Made of Concrete

If you didn’t know know better, you’d think the Refugi Liepthaus in the Alps was just another quaint log cabin from afar. But if you get close, you’ll realize that those ridges on the walls are not logs but a beautiful brutalist exterior. It’s awesome. Refugi Liepthaus is an award-winning house designed by Nickisch Sano…

Audemars Piguet’s New Watch Museum Looks Like Frozen Clockwork

In way, the 149-year-old Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet already has its own museum: The town of Le Brassus, where it’s located, is full of historic watchmaking workshops. But the iconic company is building its own dedicated museum anyways, and unsurprisingly, it looks just like the intricate movements inside its super-expensive timepieces. Bjarke Ingels Group, the…

The Swiss Alpine Club built its first shed on this Alpine peak back in 1929 to serve as a refuge for climbers. But Savioz Fabrizzi Architects recently replaced the aging shack to offer more modern comforts—like solar energy. Since the site is 9,768 feet above the ground, each piece of the building was dropped off…

Why the Swiss Evacuate Their Cows by Helicopter

At first, it’s kind of charming. Look how well the Swiss treat their cows! A helicopter is dispatched just to carry an injured bovine stuck in the mountains! It’s not an uncommon sight in the Alps, either: in Switzerland, insurance that covers helicopter evacuation for your family also includes your cows. But this is not…

Soar Through the Alps With This Interactive Video of a Wingsuit Flight

Taking flight with a wingsuit is probably the scariest thing I can think of doing. And that’s part of the reason why this interactive video of German crazy person Beni Kälin jumping off a Swiss mountaintop is so cool. It feels like you’re flying—except without the risk of dying part. The peak in question is…

Switzerland Is Preparing for a French Invasion

Switzerland’s got a lot going on. There are the mountains, the lakes, the delicious chocolate, the less-delicious cheese. Oh, and the money, the warehouses full of money. No wonder they’re worried about someone crashing through the borders and taking it all. Specifically, a bankrupt France. The Swiss aren’t just worried about an invading force coming…

Try To Resist the Urge to Set This 2000-Log Pyre Ablaze

Building a tower out of Lincoln Logs is one thing. Building a real life, 30-foot high funeral pyre out of actual firewood is a little bit more complicated. With a bit of finesse and a lot of patience, artist Tadashi Kawamata managed to pull off the latter. No smoking in the vicinity, please. Built as…

$1.2 Million Vanishes In Swiss Flight To U.S. Federal Reserve Bank

A Swiss Air flight carrying $93 million in U.S. cash arrived in New York with more than a million dollars missing. One of the sealed crates was found with a big hole—”large enough to put your arm in.” And that’s how the money presumably got out. http://gawker.com/swiss-air-and-the-fed-lose-1-2-million-to-bold-heist-o-574979236 [Photo via Getty Images.]

These Swiss Wrist Watches Are Contemporary, Classic, and Utterly Crave-able

Orolog is a newly established Swiss-made watch company, a collaborative effort between Jaime Hayon and Ian Lowe. Crafted using exquisitely-colored Hermes leather, Ronda quartz movements, matte stainless steel and pvd case finishes, matching/contrasting matte black pvd buckles, crowns & pushers—these elegant time pieces strike the perfect balance between classic and contemporary. This first collection comprises…

How Switzerland camouflaged its ready-to-explode architecture during the Cold War

I finally had a chance to read John McPhee’s book La Place de la Concorde Suisse, his somewhat off-puttingly titled 1984 look at the Swiss military and its elaborately engineered landscape defenses. To make a long story short, McPhee describes two things: how Switzerland requires military service from every able-bodied male Swiss citizen — a…

Become a Tron snowboarder with this full-body LED snowsuit

In the -25C° pitch-black cold of the French Alps, filmmaker Jacob Sutton captured William Hughes shredding through the night like some radioactive snowboarder. This otherworldly glow was achieved using a full-body LED suit designed by John Spatcher. Explains Sutton of this project: I was really drawn to the idea of a lone character made of…

Watch a fleet of flying robots assemble a 20-foot indoor tower

On December 2 in Orléans, France, a crew of four quadrocopters assembled a six-meter-tall tower using 1,500 foam blocks as part of the FRAC Centre’s “Flight Assembled Architecture” exhibit. The project was a collaboration was helmed by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, whose researchers had previously taught these flying machines to juggle…

Google Maps discovers mysterious sky creatures in Switzerland

Along a lonely stretch of road in Quarten, Switzerland, two strange figures and/or camera smudges survey the terrain, planning nefarious and/or blurry machinations. The figures follow the camera as it travels down the road. Some commenters on Reddit are claiming this is a gateway to Valhalla, but I’m of the mind that Galactus and the…