This post is brought to you by Yacademy For young architects finding the right key to unlock their future as professionals, may seem an overwhelming task. Yacademy is a place where to take one's first steps or sharpen one's skills in the world of architecture by entering a charming and dynamic context, full of opportunities and rich in encounters. Here, the world's best-known architects participate as lecturers sharing their knowledge and expertise, while students have the opportunity to build meaningful relationships that will likely be decisive and permanent in their professional career. With an educational program ranging from theory to practice, the selected young architects that join Yacademy are invited to live a full-immersive and all-round experience. Here is a sneak peak of what happens during Yacademy’s courses and what unveils afterwards. Meeting the best architects Yacademy boasts 15 Pritzker laureates in its panel of lecturers as well as collaborations with the most inf...

html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd" Chaos has released Anima 6.0, the latest version of its crowd animation software.The update – the first since Chaos acquired Anima in 2023 – adds a complete new traffic simulation system, and introduces a new higher-performance viewport renderer. Integration plugins are available for 3ds Max, Cinema 4D and Unreal Engine 5, although there’s no longer any mention of Maya in the online documentation. An intuitive tool for less demanding crowd animation jobs Originally developed by AXYZ Design and acquired by Chaos in 2023, Anima is a crowd tool intended for architectural visualisation and less demanding animation work.It enables users to add animated characters to a scene without the complexity of a traditional AI- or particle-driven crowd simulation system. Users draw paths for crowd characters directly in the viewport, and place scene objects like furniture and traffic lights, along with areas for animated characters to avoid. Integration plugins are available for 3ds Max, Cinema 4D and Unreal Engine, and animated scenes can also be exported in FBX, OpenCollada or V-Ray’s .vrscene format. Anima 6.0: complete new traffic simulation system Anima 6.0 is the first update to the software in over two years, and it’s a pretty big one, adding Vroom: a complete new traffic simulation system.As with the crowd simulation tools, it’s intended to provide an intuitive way to achieve visually plausible results, without the complexity of more detailed simulations. According to Chaos, it can simulate “hundreds” of animated vehicles to populate city environments in visualizations, but has “limited scope” for traffic engineering studies. Simulate animated vehicles obeying international traffic rules Vroom uses a straightforward step-by-step workflow to simulate traffic.The Road tool lets you draw road networks in a 3D scene, then adjust their width and the number of lanes, the direction of traffic flow, and traffic rules. Vehicles can then be placed manually on the roads, or generated automatically, with options to control their density, the frequency of individual vehicle types, and driver behavior. Vroom then simulates the motion of the vehicles, including wheel movement and steering behavior, with built-in physics for vehicle inertia and response to bumps in the road. New, more modern interface and viewport render engine There are also some major changes under the hood in Anima 6.0, including an overhauled user interface, and a new 3D viewport engine.It is described as a “modern multi-target renderer” with support for DirectX 11, DirectX 12 and Vulkan – the OpenGL subsystem has been removed – improving performance and memory use. The library of stock 3D assets available with Anima subscriptions has also been expanded, increasing the cultural diversity of the character models, and adding over 40 animated vehicles. Is Anima still available for Maya? However, it isn’t clear whether the Maya plugin has been discontinued: Maya is still listed as a host app in the online FAQs, but there is no mention of Maya in the system requirements.We’ve contacted Chaos to ask if Maya is still supported, and will update if we hear back. Pricing and availability Anima 6.0 is available for 64-bit Windows 7+. The integration plugins are available for 3ds Max 2023+, Cinema 4D R26+ and Unreal Engine 5.3+.The software is now available rental-only, Chaos having discontinued perpetual licenses last year. Subscriptions cost $121.80/month or $717.60/year. There is also a free edition, Anima Lite, although rendering is very limited. Read an overview of the new features in Anima 6.0 on the product website Read a full list of new features in Anima 6.0 in the online release notes Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we don’t post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.

The Last of Us season 2 premiere ratings grow by 10% 5.3 million viewers watched episode 1 of the new season Image credit: HBO News by Samuel Roberts Editorial Director Published on April 15, 2025 The TV adaptation of The Last of Us kicked off its second season with 5.3 million viewers in the US for its opening episode, representing 13% growth over season 1's premiere in early 2023. By comparison, the first episode of season 1 grabbed 4.7 million overnight viewers. While the ratings are strong, the larger success of shows on cable network HBO and the Max streaming service is accumulative. The Last of Us season 1 amassed around 32 million viewers per episode in the US after 90 days. According to Deadline, viewing for season 1 spiked 150% over the past week, suggesting viewers have been catching up with the show ahead of this new season. Season 2 introduces the character of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), and explores the fallout of a key decision made by Joel (Pedro Pascal) made at the end of the first season. The adaptation of Naughty Dog's PlayStation series has already been renewed for a third season, which will continue the story from The Last of Us Part II. The Last of Us season 2 will run for 7 episodes, shorter than season 1's 9 episodes. It's expected that the show will run for four seasons in total. The series releases every Sunday on Max in the US, and every Monday on NOW in the UK.

Ubisoft has open-sourced its internal color blindness simulation tool, Chroma, to allow developers to meet the accessibility needs of people with the condition.Chroma works by overlaying filters on gameplay without hindering performance to simulate three major types of colour blindness: Protanopia, Deuteranopia and Tritanopia.Ubisoft said the tool is capable of simulating live gameplay up to 60fps and isn't dependent on a specific engine. The company began developing Chroma in 2021 to enable its internal teams to better address the accessibility needs of players.Ubisoft director of accessibility, David Tisserand, said Chroma has become a "highly efficient tool" after several years of internal use and development."It has allowed us to assess the accessibility of our games for color blind players much faster and more comprehensively than ever before," added Tisserand in a blog post."Because we believe accessibility is a journey, not a race, we're thrilled to share Chroma with the entire industry. We invite everyone to benefit from it, provide feedback, and contribute to its future development."Ubisoft worked closely with accessibility experts to develop ChromaQC product manager Jawad Shakil explained Ubisoft faced "significant challenges" when developing the technology but worked in tandem with accessibility experts to refine Chroma before releasing it for public use via GitHub.Related:"Chroma was created with a clear purpose—making color blindness accessibility a natural part of the creative and testing process," said Shakil. "The team faced and overcame significant challenges while building it, but through close collaboration with accessibility experts and by refining the tool based on feedback, they created a solution that eliminated lag and inaccuracies, making accessibility testing efficient and smooth."Chroma is a testament to the team's innovation and dedication; their work is already making a difference in how we design games with accessibility in mind. Open-sourcing Chroma is a proud step forward, allowing everyone to benefit from this innovation."A number of major studios have expanded their accessibility efforts in recent years. Microsoft established an entire division to create accessible hardware for Xbox, while Sony continues to bake robust accessibility options into its hardware and software.More recently, Nintendo, Microsoft, EA, and others united at GDC 2025 to launch the Accessible Games Initiative to improve the accessibility messaging on their products. Related:

Car rental giant Hertz is alerting customers that personal information including credit card details and Social Security numbers may have been stolen in a data breach that impacted one of the firm’s vendors. In a notice posted to its website, Hertz says that company data “was acquired by an unauthorized third-party” during a cyberattack exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities within the Cleo Communications file transfer platform between October 2024 and December 2024.The data theft was confirmed by Hertz on February 10th, with further analysis on April 2nd concluding that customers’ names, contact information, dates of birth, credit card information, driver’s license details, and information related to workers’ compensation claims may have been exposed by the breach. Hertz also says that “a very small number of individuals” had their Social Security numbers taken in the breach, along with passport numbers and other government-issued identification data.Hertz says that the incident is being reported to law enforcement and relevant regulators, and that Cleo has since addressed “the identified vulnerabilities.”The website notice is viewable across multiple regions, including the US, Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Hertz has not revealed how many of its customers have been impacted by the breach but says it is “not aware of any misuse of personal information for fraudulent purposes in connection with the event.” We have asked Hertz to clarify how many customers are affected.The group or individual responsible for the cyberattack has not been identified. Cleo, which is used by a wide range of global organizations, was notably targeted by a mass-hacking campaign in October last year. The Russia-affiliated Clop ransomware gang later claimed responsibility for those attacks, leaking Cleo company data on its extortion site and listing 59 organizations it claimed to have breached via vulnerabilities in Cleo’s platform.See More:

Extracting and analyzing stock data is key to informed decision-making in the financial landscape. This tutorial offers a comprehensive guide to building an integrated financial analysis and reporting tool in Python. We will learn to pull historical market data from Yahoo Finance and compute essential technical indicators such as Simple Moving Averages, Bollinger Bands, MACD, and RSI. The guide walks you through generating insightful visualizations and compiling them into custom multi-page PDF reports. Whether you are a data enthusiast, financial analyst, or Python developer looking to expand your toolkit, this tutorial will equip you with skills that help turn raw market data into actionable insights. import yfinance as yf import pandas as pd import matplotlib.pyplot as plt import numpy as np from matplotlib.backends.backend_pdf import PdfPages We import essential Python libraries for financial data analysis and visualization. Here, yfinance is used for fetching stock market data, pandas for data manipulation, matplotlib and numpy for creating and handling numerical plots, and PdfPages for compiling multiple plots into a single PDF report. def compute_indicators(df): """ Computes technical indicators for the DataFrame: - 20-day and 50-day Simple Moving Averages (SMA) - Bollinger Bands (using 20-day SMA ±2 standard deviations) - MACD (12-day EMA minus 26-day EMA) and its 9-day Signal Line - RSI (Relative Strength Index) over a 14-day lookback period """ df['SMA20'] = df['Close'].rolling(window=20).mean() df['SMA50'] = df['Close'].rolling(window=50).mean() df['STD20'] = df['Close'].rolling(window=20).std() df['UpperBand'] = df['SMA20'] + 2 * df['STD20'] df['LowerBand'] = df['SMA20'] - 2 * df['STD20'] df['EMA12'] = df['Close'].ewm(span=12, adjust=False).mean() df['EMA26'] = df['Close'].ewm(span=26, adjust=False).mean() df['MACD'] = df['EMA12'] - df['EMA26'] df['Signal'] = df['MACD'].ewm(span=9, adjust=False).mean() delta = df['Close'].diff() gain = delta.copy() loss = delta.copy() gain[gain < 0] = 0 loss[loss > 0] = 0 loss = loss.abs() avg_gain = gain.rolling(window=14).mean() avg_loss = loss.rolling(window=14).mean() rs = avg_gain / avg_loss df['RSI'] = 100 - (100 / (1 + rs)) return df This function computes key technical indicators—including SMAs, Bollinger Bands, MACD, and RSI—for stock price data contained in the input DataFrame. It updates the DataFrame with additional columns for each indicator, enabling in-depth technical analysis of historical stock performance. def create_cover_page(pdf): """ Creates and saves a cover page into the PDF report. """ fig = plt.figure(figsize=(11.69, 8.27)) plt.axis('off') plt.text(0.5, 0.7, "Financial Analysis Report", fontsize=24, ha='center') plt.text(0.5, 0.62, "Analysis of 5 Stocks from Yahoo Finance", fontsize=16, ha='center') plt.text(0.5, 0.5, "Includes Technical Indicators: SMA, Bollinger Bands, MACD, RSI", fontsize=12, ha='center') plt.text(0.5, 0.4, "Generated with Python and matplotlib", fontsize=10, ha='center') pdf.savefig(fig) plt.close(fig) This function creates a visually appealing cover page using matplotlib and adds it as the first page of the PDF report via the provided PdfPages object. It then closes the figure to free up resources. def plot_price_chart(ticker, df): """ Generates a price chart with SMA and Bollinger Bands for a given ticker. """ fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(14, 7)) ax.plot(df.index, df['Close'], label='Close Price', linewidth=1.5) ax.plot(df.index, df['SMA20'], label='SMA (20)', linewidth=1.2) ax.plot(df.index, df['SMA50'], label='SMA (50)', linewidth=1.2) ax.plot(df.index, df['UpperBand'], label='Upper Bollinger Band', linestyle='--') ax.plot(df.index, df['LowerBand'], label='Lower Bollinger Band', linestyle='--') ax.fill_between(df.index, df['LowerBand'], df['UpperBand'], color='lightgray', alpha=0.3) ax.set_title(f'{ticker}: Price & Moving Averages with Bollinger Bands') ax.set_xlabel('Date') ax.set_ylabel('Price') ax.legend() ax.grid(True) return fig This function generates a comprehensive stock price chart for a given ticker that includes the close price, 20-day and 50-day SMAs, and the Bollinger Bands. It returns a matplotlib figure that can be saved or further processed in a PDF report. def plot_macd_chart(ticker, df): """ Generates a MACD plot for the given ticker. """ fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(14, 5)) ax.plot(df.index, df['MACD'], label='MACD', linewidth=1.5) ax.plot(df.index, df['Signal'], label='Signal Line', linewidth=1.5) ax.set_title(f'{ticker}: MACD') ax.set_xlabel('Date') ax.set_ylabel('MACD') ax.legend() ax.grid(True) return fig This function generates a MACD chart for a specified ticker by plotting the MACD and its Signal Line over time. It returns a matplotlib figure that can be incorporated into a larger PDF report or displayed independently. def plot_rsi_chart(ticker, df): """ Generates an RSI plot for the given ticker. """ fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(14, 5)) ax.plot(df.index, df['RSI'], label='RSI', linewidth=1.5) ax.axhline(70, color='red', linestyle='--', linewidth=1, label='Overbought (70)') ax.axhline(30, color='green', linestyle='--', linewidth=1, label='Oversold (30)') ax.set_title(f'{ticker}: RSI') ax.set_xlabel('Date') ax.set_ylabel('RSI') ax.legend() ax.grid(True) return fig This function generates an RSI chart for a given stock ticker, plotting the RSI values along with horizontal reference lines at the overbought (70) and oversold (30) levels. It returns a matplotlib figure that can be incorporated into the final financial analysis report. def main(): tickers = [] for i in range(5): ticker = input(f"Enter ticker #{i+1}: ").upper().strip() tickers.append(ticker) pdf_filename = "financial_report.pdf" with PdfPages(pdf_filename) as pdf: create_cover_page(pdf) for ticker in tickers: print(f"Downloading data for {ticker} from Yahoo Finance...") df = yf.download(ticker, period='1y') if df.empty: print(f"No data found for {ticker}. Skipping to the next ticker.") continue df = compute_indicators(df) fig_price = plot_price_chart(ticker, df) pdf.savefig(fig_price) plt.close(fig_price) fig_macd = plot_macd_chart(ticker, df) pdf.savefig(fig_macd) plt.close(fig_macd) fig_rsi = plot_rsi_chart(ticker, df) pdf.savefig(fig_rsi) plt.close(fig_rsi) print(f"PDF report generated and saved as '{pdf_filename}'.") Here, this main function prompts the user to input five stock tickers, downloads one year of data for each from Yahoo Finance, computes key technical indicators, and generates corresponding price, MACD, and RSI charts. It then compiles all the charts into a multi‐page PDF report named “financial_report.pdf” and prints a confirmation message once the report is saved. if __name__ == "__main__": main() Finally, this block checks whether the script is executed directly rather than imported as a module. If so, it calls the main() function. In conclusion, we have demonstrated a method for automating financial analysis using Python. You have learned how to extract valuable data, calculate key technical indicators, and generate comprehensive visual reports in a multi-page PDF format. This integrated approach streamlines the analysis process and provides a powerful way to visualize market trends and monitor stock performance. As you further customize and expand upon this framework, you can continue to enhance your analytical capabilities and make more informed financial decisions. Here is the Colab Notebook. Also, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and join our Telegram Channel and LinkedIn Group. Don’t Forget to join our 85k+ ML SubReddit. Sana HassanSana Hassan, a consulting intern at Marktechpost and dual-degree student at IIT Madras, is passionate about applying technology and AI to address real-world challenges. With a keen interest in solving practical problems, he brings a fresh perspective to the intersection of AI and real-life solutions.Sana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/Traditional RAG Frameworks Fall Short: Megagon Labs Introduces ‘Insight-RAG’, a Novel AI Method Enhancing Retrieval-Augmented Generation through Intermediate Insight ExtractionSana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/Google AI Introduce the Articulate Medical Intelligence Explorer (AMIE): A Large Language Model Optimized for Diagnostic Reasoning, and Evaluate its Ability to Generate a Differential DiagnosisSana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/Moonsight AI Released Kimi-VL: A Compact and Powerful Vision-Language Model Series Redefining Multimodal Reasoning, Long-Context Understanding, and High-Resolution Visual ProcessingSana Hassanhttps://www.marktechpost.com/author/sana-hassan/Balancing Accuracy and Efficiency in Language Models: A Two-Phase RL Post-Training Approach for Concise Reasoning

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is one of the biggest RPGs out there. While there are many iconic items and locations in the game, perhaps none comes close to the Dragonborn Helmet worn by your character. For a limited time at IGN Store, you can pre-order this brand new Dragonborn Helmet Replica from Fanattik. If you're a huge fan of Skyrim or just looking for a new item for your gaming collection, the Dragonborn Helmet is the perfect choice!Pre-Order The Elder Scrolls V: Skryrim Dragonborn Helmet Today at IGN StoreThe Elder Scrolls Skyrim - Dragonborn Helmet - Replica$119.99 at IGN StoreFanattikIGN Store. This Dragonborn Helmet Replica is a limited edition product, with only 5,000 units available worldwide. With The Elder Scrolls as big as it is, it's likely that this item will sell out quickly. For many Skyrim fans, this Dragonborn Helmet should be quite familiar, as it is used by the protagonist of the game.Thanks to the hand-painted work, there are a ton of details all over the helmet, so you can expect even details like rust to appear on this premium product. There's a built-in stand included in the box, so you won't have to worry about finding a way to display the helmet.Currently, this Skyrim Dragonborn Helmet Replica is set to ship out in September 2025. Don't miss your chance to take home this limited edition collector's item!About IGN StoreIGN Store sells high-quality merch, collectibles, and shirts for everything you're into. It's a shop built with fans in mind: for all the geek culture and fandom you love most. Whether you're into comics, movies, anime, games, retro gaming or just want some cute plushies (who doesn't?), this store is for you!

Warning: contains spoilers for The Handmaid’s Tale season six episode three “Promotion”.  Thank heavens for final seasons; they come in like Oprah handing out gifts. Moira, Luke, Rita, look under your seats. YOU get a plot, YOU get a plot. Everybody gets a plot!  Not just a plot, but in Moira’s case also some righteous dialogue that felt like her character had blinked awake after seasons spent locked under an enchantment. Moira speaking the words: “I cannot live your life anymore” to June was the incantation that broke the spell. After episodes spent in the background worrying about June, looking out for June and caring for June’s infant daughter, Moira asserted herself as a survivor of Gilead in her own right. Samira Wiley did that with her beautifully underplayed performance in the scene in which Moira volunteered for the Jezebels mission. Unlike the cocky belligerence of the Mayday leader’s speech, Moira spoke simply and decisively. There was no stridency in her words, just the truth, tinged with sensible fear. As a former Jezebel, this mission was hers. Until it was June’s.  Elisabeth Moss also played the hell out of her scenes, in which an increasingly unhinged June ran around that Mayday outpost like she was John Rambo instead of a heavily traumatised former literary editor. Her ‘I demand to speak to the manager’ mania was a bravely unflattering look for a lead character, but a necessary one. It led Luke and Moira to call her on her bullshit and claim their own stories: Luke as a bereaved parent struggling with the guilt of not having been able to protect Hannah; Moira as a rape survivor whose sexuality makes her a “gender traitor” punishable by mutilation in the eyes of Gilead; and both of them as BIPOC characters with every reason to go to war against that racist regime.  Also brought off the bench in “Promotion” was Rita, who, like June and her mother in “Train“, had something flat-out good happen to her. Years of watching this show and its cruel, hope-dashing twists has turned fans into shivering, timid strays who shrink away from outstretched hands in the flinching expectation of pain, but it’s starting to look as though we can finally trust again. Not everything is going to hit us; sometimes, a warm bed and a belly rub is really what’s on offer. That’s what we got with Rita, who blew past Serena and into her sister’s arms to give us the second of this season’s emotional family reunions.  Not only that, but it was thanks to Rita (and screenwriters Jacey Heldrich and Bruce Miller) that we had a rare and useful insight into the character of Nick Blaine. Nick’s “Safest place to be/Safest thing to be” answers about his New Bethlehem commander status were water in the desert to those of us still wondering who this character really is. With Rita’s help and that pithy dialogue, it makes sense that Nick was just a lost kid when all this started, and his every move since then, aside from the foolhardy risks he took for June, have all been about sheltering from the Gilead storm. Nick certainly isn’t in the commander game for the same frat boy reasons as newcomer Commander Bell, who arrived on screen this week in the unimprovable form of Timothy Simons (Jonah from Veep, playing Jonah from Veep but with hideous power). If this show was going to invent a character just so we could watch them – please please please – get blown to high hell by the Mayday plan, it couldn’t have done better than Bell. In just two short scenes, he was quickly established as the ur-commander: a misogynist sadist who derives his power not from virility, but from debasing and abusing women.  Commander Wharton continues to prove himself a different prospect. He’s… nice? A home cook who loves his daughter, is kind to his son-in-law, supports women’s political influence, and doesn’t frequent Jezebels? What is this man doing as a high commander? His status in Gilead though, means that despite every word he says, it still feels as though with every step she takes toward him Serena is walking into the open jaws of a crocodile. If Wharton does turn out to have a heart, then he’s not the only high commander with one now. Lawrence’s scenes with little Angela and the one with her mother Janine were a reminder of his character’s complicated decency, even as one of the decorated snakes in Gilead’s writhing pit. His continuing love for Eleanor (“my real wife”), distaste for Naomi, (“a real cunt”) and his promise to Angela that one day she would be able to read A Little Princess for herself showed Lawrence’s best side – just as those tender scenes showed off Bradley Whitford’s enviable range beyond his usual glib comedic delivery. The closing credits storytelling once again showed us the man who, instead of turning in the 86 children being smuggled out of Gilead via his house in season three, gathered them around him to read Treasure Island. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! In summary: “Promotion” gave everybody something good, and none was better than that final, beautifully acted scene between Luke and June. Now that June’s dropped her desperate, condescending yet understandable attempts to protect everybody, they’re all going to fight, together. Am I stupid to be feeling hopeful about their chances? The Handmaid’s Tale season six streams on Hulu in the US on Tuesdays. It will air on Channel 4 in the UK at a later date.

Apple @ Work is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates in a single professional-grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage & protect Apple devices at work. Over 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work-ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple. In this episode of Apple @ Work, I talk with David Stout, CEO at webAI, about their new partnership with MacStadium. more…

Arnhildur Pálmadóttir was around three years old when she saw a red sky from her living room window. A volcano was erupting about 25 miles away from where she lived on the northeastern coast of Iceland. Though it posed no immediate threat, its ominous presence seeped into her subconscious, populating her dreams with streaks of light in the night sky. Fifty years later, these “gloomy, strange dreams,” as Pálmadóttir now describes them, have led to a career as an architect with an extraordinary mission: to harness molten lava and build cities out of it. Pálmadóttir today lives in Reykjavik, where she runs her own architecture studio, S.AP Arkitektar, and the Icelandic branch of the Danish architecture company Lendager, which specializes in reusing building materials. The architect believes the lava that flows from a single eruption could yield enough building material to lay the foundations of an entire city. She has been researching this possibility for more than five years as part of a project she calls Lavaforming. Together with her son and colleague Arnar Skarphéðinsson, she has identified three potential techniques: drill straight into magma pockets and extract the lava; channel molten lava into pre-dug trenches that could form a city’s foundations; or 3D-print bricks from molten lava in a technique similar to the way objects can be printed out of molten glass. Pálmadóttir and Skarphéðinsson first presented the concept during a talk at Reykjavik’s DesignMarch festival in 2022. This year they are producing a speculative film set in 2150, in an imaginary city called Eldborg. Their film, titled Lavaforming, follows the lives of Eldborg’s residents and looks back on how they learned to use molten lava as a building material. It will be presented at the Venice Biennale, a leading architecture festival, in May.  Set in 2150, her speculative film Lavaforming presents a fictional city built from molten lava.COURTESY OF S.AP ARKITEKTAR Buildings and construction materials like concrete and steel currently contribute a staggering 37% of the world’s annual carbon dioxide emissions. Many architects are advocating for the use of natural or preexisting materials, but mixing earth and water into a mold is one thing; tinkering with 2,000 °F lava is another.  Still, Pálmadóttir is piggybacking on research already being done in Iceland, which has 30 active volcanoes. Since 2021, eruptions have intensified in the Reykjanes Peninsula, which is close to the capital and to tourist hot spots like the Blue Lagoon. In 2024 alone, there were six volcanic eruptions in that area. This frequency has given volcanologists opportunities to study how lava behaves after a volcano erupts. “We try to follow this beast,” says Gro Birkefeldt M. Pedersen, a volcanologist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO), who has consulted with Pálmadóttir on a few occasions. “There is so much going on, and we’re just trying to catch up and be prepared.” Pálmadóttir’s concept assumes that many years from now, volcanologists will be able to forecast lava flow accurately enough for cities to plan on using it in building. They will know when and where to dig trenches so that when a volcano erupts, the lava will flow into them and solidify into either walls or foundations. Today, forecasting lava flows is a complex science that requires remote sensing technology and tremendous amounts of computational power to run simulations on supercomputers. The IMO typically runs two simulations for every new eruption—one based on data from previous eruptions, and another based on additional data acquired shortly after the eruption (from various sources like specially outfitted planes). With every event, the team accumulates more data, which makes the simulations of lava flow more accurate. Pedersen says there is much research yet to be done, but she expects “a lot of advancement” in the next 10 years or so.  To design the speculative city of Eldborg for their film, Pálmadóttir and Skarphéðinsson used 3D-modeling software similar to what Pedersen uses for her simulations. The city is primarily built on a network of trenches that were filled with lava over the course of several eruptions, while buildings are constructed out of lava bricks. “We’re going to let nature design the buildings that will pop up,” says Pálmadóttir.  The aesthetic of the city they envision will be less modernist and more fantastical—a bit “like [Gaudi’s] Sagrada Familia,” says Pálmadóttir. But the aesthetic output is not really the point; the architects’ goal is to galvanize architects today and spark an urgent discussion about the impact of climate change on our cities. She stresses the value of what can only be described as moonshot thinking. “I think it is important for architects not to be only in the present,” she told me. “Because if we are only in the present, working inside the system, we won’t change anything.” Pálmadóttir was born in 1972 in Húsavik, a town known as the whale-watching capital of Iceland. But she was more interested in space and technology and spent a lot of time flying with her father, a construction engineer who owned a small plane. She credits his job for the curiosity she developed about science and “how things were put together”—an inclination that proved useful later, when she started researching volcanoes. So was the fact that Icelanders “learn to live with volcanoes from birth.” At 21, she moved to Norway, where she spent seven years working in 3D visualization before returning to Reykjavik and enrolling in an architecture program at the Iceland University of the Arts. But things didn’t click until she moved to Barcelona for a master’s degree at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia. “I remember being there and feeling, finally, like I was in the exact right place,” she says.  Before, architecture had seemed like a commodity and architects like “slaves to investment companies,” she says. Now, it felt like a path with potential.  COURTESY OF S.AP ARKITEKTAR COURTESY OF S.AP ARKITEKTAR COURTESY OF S.AP ARKITEKTAR COURTESY OF S.AP ARKITEKTAR Lava has proved to be a strong, durable building material, at least in its solid state. To explore its potential, Pálmadóttir and Skarphéðinsson envision a city built on a network of trenches that have filled with lava over the course of several eruptions, while buildings are constructed with lava bricks. She returned to Reykjavik in 2009 and worked as an architect until she founded S.AP (for “studio Arnhildur Pálmadóttir”) Arkitektar in 2018; her son started working with her in 2019 and officially joined her as an architect this year, after graduating from the Southern California Institute of Architecture.  In 2021, the pair witnessed their first eruption up close, near the Fagradalsfjall volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula. It was there that Pálmadóttir became aware of the sheer quantity of material coursing through the planet’s veins, and the potential to divert it into channels.  Lava has already proved to be a strong, long-lasting building material—at least in its solid state. When it cools, it solidifies into volcanic rock like basalt or rhyolite. The type of rock depends on the composition of the lava, but basaltic lava—like the kind found in Iceland and Hawaii—forms one of the hardest rocks on Earth, which means that structures built from this type of lava would be durable and resilient.  For years, architects in Mexico, Iceland, and Hawaii (where lava is widely available) have built structures out of volcanic rock. But quarrying that rock is an energy-intensive process that requires heavy machines to extract, cut, and haul it, often across long distances, leaving a big carbon footprint. Harnessing lava in its molten state, however, could unlock new methods for sustainable construction. Jeffrey Karson, a professor emeritus at Syracuse University who specializes in volcanic activity and who cofounded the Syracuse University Lava Project, agrees that lava is abundant enough to warrant interest as a building material. To understand how it behaves, Karson has spent the past 15 years performing over a thousand controlled lava pours from giant furnaces. If we figure out how to build up its strength as it cools, he says, “that stuff has a lot of potential.”  In his research, Karson found that inserting metal rods into the lava flow helps reduce the kind of uneven cooling that would lead to thermal cracking—and therefore makes the material stronger (a bit like rebar in concrete). Like glass and other molten materials, lava behaves differently depending on how fast it cools. When glass or lava cools slowly, crystals start forming, strengthening the material. Replicating this process—perhaps in a kiln—could slow down the rate of cooling and let the lava become stronger. This kind of controlled cooling is “easy to do on small things like bricks,” says Karson, so “it’s not impossible to make a wall.”  Pálmadóttir is clear-eyed about the challenges before her. She knows the techniques she and Skarphéðinsson are exploring may not lead to anything tangible in their lifetimes, but they still believe that the ripple effect the projects could create in the architecture community is worth pursuing. Both Karson and Pedersen caution that more experiments are necessary to study this material’s potential. For Skarphéðinsson, that potential transcends the building industry. More than 12 years ago, Icelanders voted that the island’s natural resources, like its volcanoes and fishing waters, should be declared national property. That means any city built from lava flowing out of these volcanoes would be controlled not by deep-pocketed individuals or companies, but by the nation itself. (The referendum was considered illegal almost as soon as it was approved by voters and has since stalled.)  For Skarphéðinsson, the Lavaforming project is less about the material than about the “political implications that get brought to the surface with this material.” “That is the change I want to see in the world,” he says. “It could force us to make radical changes and be a catalyst for something”—perhaps a social megalopolis where citizens have more say in how resources are used and profits are shared more evenly. Cynics might dismiss the idea of harnessing lava as pure folly. But the more I spoke with Pálmadóttir, the more convinced I became. It wouldn’t be the first time in modern history that a seemingly dangerous idea (for example, drilling into scalding pockets of underground hot springs) proved revolutionary. Once entirely dependent on oil, Iceland today obtains 85% of its electricity and heat from renewable sources. “[My friends] probably think I’m pretty crazy, but they think maybe we could be clever geniuses,” she told me with a laugh. Maybe she is a little bit of both. Elissaveta M. Brandon is a regular contributor to Fast Company and Wired.