Mindblowing: Here's a Dustmite-Sized Model of St. Stephen's Cathedral

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, March 15, 2012, by Sarah Firshein

Photo via Architizer

Thanks to a bunch of smartypants at the Vienna University of Technology, some of the world's most impressive architectural achievements have been shrunken to the size of a grain of sand. According to Geek.com, researchers created "a system whereby a laser is directed by a series of mirrors through a liquid resin which then hits a surface and leaves behind a polymerized line of solid polymer. The thickness of that line is just a few hundred nanometers." Translation: an ultra-precise, ultra-fast 3D printer makes nanoscale models, like the Lilliputian version of Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral above. And that's no small feat.

· Watch a nanoscale race car get 3D printed with a laser [Geek.com via Architizer]

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Globe Trotting: Shigeru Ban Tapped to Design Massive Cardboard Cathedral

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, August 30, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Cardboard and earthquake-relief master Shigeru Ban has taken a break from selling off $11.5M NYC penthouses and is in the process of designing and building a temporary replacement for an 1864 Anglican cathedral that was demolished in the massive earthquake that struck New Zealand in February. The modernist architect plans to use 86 heavy-duty cardboard tubes, each weighing 1,100 pounds, to construct the roof; other components include a stained-glass window and a foundation made from shipping containers. When all is said and done, the 80-foot-tall church, aptly located in the town of Christchurch, will hold 700 people and cost $3.5M to build. However, Ban's doing the project pro bono; as he told The Telegraph, "a cardboard structure will stay in the minds of people forever—it is loved by them."

· Hermes Booth in Milan Uses Starchitect-Approved Cardboard [Curbed National]
· A Look at Shigeru Ban's Minimalist Shelter for Earthquake Victims [Curbed National]
· Shigeru Ban's Metal Shutter House Penthouse Finally Sells for $11.455M [Curbed NY]
· New Christchurch cathedral to be built out of cardboard [The Telegraph via Gizmodo]

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Globe Trotting: Architects Decide to Build Russian Cathedral Next to Eiffel Tower

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Monday, March 21, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

Renderings: Ameller & Dubois via Architizer

In a completely baffling move, officials from France—including French President Nicolas Sarkozy himseld—have decided let Russia bring a little Moscow to the City of Light by approving plans for a new structure that hints—but only a teeny, tiny bit—at Russia. Happening right now: the development of a new Russian Orthodox cathedral and cultural center that claimed an open plot of land beside the Eiffel Tower in an international design competition. The complex, from SADE-Arch Group, has to convince the city that it "fits into its surroundings and is built to last" in order for it to actually come to fruition. Which may be tough, considering it has five onion domes reaching higher than 88 feet. And remember, Parisians are hostile even against Gehry.

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