1. The right kind of back support You will hear the term “adjustable lumbar support” used a lot with gaming chairs, but what does that actually mean? To decode the term, it means ideally you want a chair that has a lot of mid-to-lower support in the back rest. The back rest should also be adjustable (both vertically and horizontally) to support the curve and depth of your spine, rather than being just a generic fit. Proper lumbar support is important because it prevents the ligaments in your spine from lengthening and causing a condition known as creep, which can lead to bad back pain. Back rests can be mesh, or upholstered. I recommend the upholstered kind, which is far more comfortable for long gaming stints. Also consider the kind of stability the frame will give you. Aluminum frames are preferable to plastic ones that can sometimes wobble and lead to fatigue as your body is forced to find its center. Chairs also come with different weight-bearing capacities (typically between 264 lbs. and 397 lbs.), and their heights differ too, so be sure to find one that supports your weight and is tall enough so that you can rest your head easily on the headrest. Your gaming chair should be tall enough that you can easily fit your head on the headrest. Razer 2. Padding that feels comfortable Gaming chairs come with different kinds of padding. You’ll find chairs with soft, cushiony padding and others with firmer cold-cure foam. You can also find gaming chairs that combine support and soft padding to offer the best of both worlds, like the Secretlab Titan Evo NanoGen Edition. The experts will tell you that the firmer kind is better for your posture because it offers more support, but my advice is to go with one that has both; you want a cold-cure foam that’s supportive but you want it to still be soft enough that it won’t cause body aches if you’ve been in it a while. As a general rule, a gaming chair with a padding density of between 50 kg/m³ and 70 kg/m³ will provide a mix of support and comfort. If you can’t find this information in the product specifications, be sure to contact the company and ask for it. 3. Covering materials: What do you need? Another thing to consider is the type of material in the chair, how it feels and how breathable it is. Mesh fabric is the most breathable and effective at keeping you from getting too hot and sweaty, but it can be a little scratchy on your skin at times. If you live in a warmer climate, however — say, Florida or Arizona — cool mesh could be a real asset on hot days. Leather or leatherette covering material is less breathable and can cause heat buildup and excess sweat, but inversely it feels very luxurious. It can also be warm and cozy when the temperature drops — so if you know your house is always cold, it should provide a nice boost to your comfort levels. The CoolerMaster Caliber X2 is a good example of a gaming chair with material that can stave off overheating. It has a dense foam body but breathable PU leather material on top. Some gaming chairs go a step further actively cooling players via their inbuilt fans. The Thermaltake’s X Comfort Air is just such a chair to consider if you think even a cool mesh or breathable PU leather won’t be enough for you. Thermaltake’s X Comfort Air gaming chair.  Thermaltake Some chairs come with extra features like RGB lighting, speakers, Bluetooth functionality, and control panels that provide a little extra functionality. You can expect to pay a premium price for these features. When choosing a gaming chair with speakers you should read reviews that say the speakers have a high-fidelity audio with good-quality sound through the mids, bass, and treble tones. A minimum of 5.1 channels in the speakers will give you a surround sound experience that will be really immersive in your gaming. Bluetooth functionality is a great addition that allows you to hook up other devices to your chair’s speakers, like your phone, or your TV’s stereo system – so that you can listen to music or watch a movie. You just want to make sure Bluetooth connects easily to other devices. When looking for RGB be sure to choose a chair with accents in the positions you want them. They can be just about anywhere – in the headrest, armrests, and even the wheels. Programmability is also critical if you intend on syncing your gaming chair’s RGB with your other RGB gear. 5. Ergonomically sculpted seat The way the chair’s seat is sculpted can be important in determining how comfortable you will ultimately find it. Two features I look for in a seat are contoured side wings and gently sloping edges – like you’ll find in the Razer Iskur V2 X. The former guides your body to the middle of the seat so that it encounters a larger contact area, which in turn provides a lower, more uniform pressure distribution. That prevents pressure from building up in any one point and causing soreness. Sloping edges, on the other hand, allow you to assume different postures and still feel the kind of comfort you’d expect from a very expensive chair. Razer 6. A decent degree of recline After tense rounds of Counterstrike: Go, I’ll often just lay back in my chair and relax before I need to refocus again. For this, I need a gaming chair that has a decent reline that will easily hold my weight and that won’t go all jerky when I need to come back up to vertical. Gaming chairs have either partial or full reclines. For me, I like a full recline, so an angle of between 160 to 165 degrees, which allows me to get almost horizontal with my legs well off the ground but still feel in control. If the chair has a headrest, all the better for my comfort too. I hope that gives you a few pointers about selecting the right kind of gaming chair. There’s still a lot more to know, so be sure to read a few reviews before you buy.

Emma Stone and Dave McCary are offloading their Texas compound for $26.5 million. The La La Land star and her writer-producer husband bought the property in Tarrytown, one of the oldest enclaves in the Lone Star state. The suburb is located minutes away from downtown Austin. After quietly tying the knot in 2020 and welcoming their first child the following year, the family of three moved from California to the historic West Austin estate, which holds the title of most expensive real estate purchase in their portfolio. The pair has decided to part ways with the abode after investing years into restoring the property.The home was completely updated by the award-winning architecture firm Cuppett Kilpatrick. For the project, the Austin-based firm took inspiration from “the gracious nature of the surrounding community,” per the official listing. The four-bedroom, three-and-a-half bathroom pad is tucked away on an oak-shaded street. The main house, constructed with Georgia-style masonry, spans 10,000 square feet. A detached garage is outfitted with a screening room and an entertainment space above. Elsewhere on the 1.24-acre plot is a two-bedroom guesthouse, a screened-in breezeway looking out onto the pool, and a garden reminiscent of a countryside retreat.A landscaped garden area in the yard of the home. Photo: Travis Wayne Baker/Twist ToursStone and McCary tapped local architects Koch McIntyre Construction to reimagine the interiors of the traditional-style house. Quaint features like herringbone oak, brick floors, and creamy marble used for fireplace surrounds and counters are incorporated in every room. The estate boasts five spacious living areas and two dining rooms flooded with natural light. Other amenities include arched doorways, leaded-glass windows, a sunlit solarium, a wood-paneled library, and a playroom. Construction on the property is not yet finished, though it is slated for completion in the summer. The listing is currently the most expensive in the city.

Gigantamax Machamp is making its Gigantamax debut in Pokémon Go, and given its a bit of a powerhouse, it’ll need some coordination to take down. It’s expected to hit hard, so you’ll want to bring out the tankiest of your tanks to help you out with this. Machamp will specifically appear as part of Gigantamax Machamp Max Battle Day on Sunday, May 25, from 2-5 p.m. in your local time, appearing at power spots every 30 minutes or so. (This also comes hot off the heels of a Machop Community Day event the day before, so make sure to stock up on Machop Candy!) Below we list Gigantamax Machamp’s best counters and weaknesses in Pokémon Go, as well as general battle tips for the big guy. Gigantamax Machamp weakness Machamp has a few weaknesses, though there’s only a few we can really take advantage of: flying-, psychic-, and fairy-type moves. That being said, it’ll be resistant against rock-, bug-, and dark-type moves, so don’t use those unless they’re just fast moves to help charge the max meter. Gigantamax Machamp best counters Try to bring at least one of these attackers: Dynamax Metagross with Zen Headbutt (Max Mindstorm) Dynamax Moltres with Wing Slash (Max Airstream) Dynamax Unfezant with Air Slash (Max Airstream) Dynamax Charizard with Air Slash (Max Airstream) Yep, you read that right — Dynamax Charizard, not Gigantamax. Gigantamax Charizard will always have G-Max Wildfire as its attack, regardless of what its fast move is set to, and in this case, you want a flying-type max move. That said, you can still bring a powered-up Gigantamax Charizard if that’s what you’ve got! Bring anything that can bring the damage; the list above is just the best stuff to bring. As of this writing, there’s a Timed Research set that will reward you with a Dynamax Beldum, alongside Beldum Candy to help you prepare for this tough fight, so you should invest in that if you can. For defenders/tanks, bring one or two of the following: Dynamax Blissey with Pound Dynamax/Gigantamax Gengar with Lick Dynamax/Gigantamax Venusaur with Vine Whip Dynamax/Gigantamax Blastoise with Water Gun These guys’ job is just to soak up the damage from Machamp while generating as much energy as possible with their fast attacks. Note that your mileage may vary here — if Machamp knows Close Combat, your Blissey may have a harder time. If Machamp knows Payback, then your Gengar might be in trouble. If possible, bringing one of each and then swapping depending on Machamp’s moveset is going to be the to-go strategy here when it comes to tanking. Consider just bringing the strongest Dynamax or Gigantamax Pokémon you have. If you have a maxed out Gigantamax Toxtricity and your Dynamax Metagross isn’t leveled (and you don’t have the means to power it up), just bring your Toxtricity. General Gigantamax Machamp tips If you’ve been struggling in Max Battles, here’s some general tips to survive — and make sure you’re an asset to your team. Gigantamax battles involve way more strategy than the usual rampant tapping that you do in raids, so make sure to know what you’re doing before jumping in. Make sure you have enough players. High-efficiency groups with maxed out investments can take down the Machamp with fewer people, but practically, if you don’t have hundreds of spare candy and even more Stardust laying around, this isn’t going to be an option for you. Make sure you have as many people as possible to ensure that you get your beefy muscle man. Don’t sleep on Max Spirit and Max Guard. Teams work best when there’s a variety of moves, not just maxed-out attacks. Each player should bring Pokémon with the defensive and healing moves unlocked as well. Max Guard will focus single-target damage towards you and reduce the damage taken; Max Spirit will heal the whole party. These moves are really important to make sure your damage-dealers can keep dishing. Remember to swap to super effective moves when it’s time to Dynamax. For Dynamax Pokémon, their max moves are determined by whatever type their fast move is. This means if you have a Darmanitan with Fire Fang, it will know Max Flare. A Gengar with Lick will know Max Phantasm. Take advantage of this and make sure to swap to a Pokémon that will deal super effective damage to your target before Dynamaxing, if you can. Focus on your fast moves. You want to spam your fast moves to build up that Dynamax meter and often times, using your charge move is actually a DPS loss when compared to the damage you could be doing with your max move will be. Spam those attacks! Level up a few ‘mons, but you don’t have to go too hard. Depending on your group size, you absolutely do not need to max out all your Dynamax Pokémon to level 40-50. While this will make it easier on the rest of your group, if this isn’t an investment you can make, you don’t have to stress about it. Power things up as high as you can afford to, but don’t fret if you don’t have a maxed out Pokémon. All of that said, make sure to come as prepared as you can be. This is a team effort and there’s a chance that a full group of four can still fail. Do not just bring your unleveled Dynamax Wooloo expecting a free ride to a powerful Pokémon. (After all, if everyone does that, then you certainly won’t clear the battle.) Again, you don’t have to completely max out your Pokémon, but it will be better for everyone involved if you bring something helpful to the table. Keep your eye out for a shiny Machamp! If you clear the raid, there is a chance that the Machamp you catch will be shiny — which also means it’ll be a guaranteed catch. Use a Pinap Berry to score extra candy if you get lucky enough to find a sparkly Machamp.

Soul Trader Following the breakout success of Metaphor Refantazio, Atlus’ only action-RPG gets a second lease of life on Switch 2 (and it’s pretty good, too) Nearly 20 years later, Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army proves that there’s a bit of life left in the peculiar spin-off series yet. Image credit: Atlus Article by Dom Peppiatt Editor-in-chief Published on May 21, 2025 By now, you should know what to expect from an Atlus game. Whether you’re wading into the Boschian fever dream of Metaphor Refantazio or winding your way down the seven circles of hell in Shin Megami Tensei, Atlus likes it dark. Dark and weird. Unconstrained by the trappings of normalcy. A bit edgy and a bit juvenile, but all provocative and goth. Raidou Kuzonha vs. The Soulless Army is no exception. The curious PS2 game (which enjoyed a 2006 release in Japan and North America, and 2007 in PAL regions) carries on Atlus’ fascination with the occult and the Satanic, but with one major variation from all the developer’s other titles: this one is an action-RPG. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Now, you need to immediately get your brain away from the idea it’s a Soulslike, or anything similar. It’s more of a hack-and-slash, peppered with the need for strategic flourish. Unlike previous MegaTen games (and their use of the phenomenal Press Turn system), your protagonist, Raidou Kuzunoha, can attack with either his close range sword or his long range gun. But this wouldn’t be a MegaTen game without demons, so of course Kuzunoha can also summon two demons at a time to help in battle. At launch, this game was fine. I’m a MegaTen sicko, so of course I played this as soon as it hit the PAL market (I also played the sequel, later, which is better in almost every way). It wasn’t anything to write home about, really, and the combat was grating more than it was inventive. But, oh my, how all that has changed now - nearly two decades later. Coming to the Switch 2 at launch, Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army Remastered is a bit of a misnomer. What we’re getting here is more of an enhanced version, and one that actually feels like a natural and intentional growth of the original game. And do you know why that is? Because, somehow, many of the same developers that worked on Raidou and its sequel during the PS2 era are still at the studio. This is Tsuchigumo, and I don't think he likes you very much. | Image credit: Atlus Yeah, I know, right? What’s effectively happened here is that Atlus has been able to say to its staff: “hey, remember that game you very nearly got right at launch in 2006? Have another swing at it. Load it with all those cool combat ideas you wanted, improve the systems, take what we’ve learned in the last 19 years and go wild”. And the result is an enhanced piece of niche role-playing history that plays better than ever. First up, Atlus has remade the game’s pre-rendered backgrounds into actual 3D. Everything looked fine before, but now there’s more interactivity, more impetus to get off the beaten path (and, potentially, more to actually do - negating some criticism of the game’s short length from its release). Atlus has crammed more demons into the roster, too, meaning you’ve got more freedom in how you approach battles, as well as more options for summoning and fusing. Again, this feels like a direct reply to criticisms of the game’s small offering at launch in 2006. If you’re a MegaTen sicko, you’ll appreciate the additions of demons like Idun, Hayataro, and more from SMT:5. The combat upgrades themselves - more status effects, a more streamlined menu, more movement for Raidou in battle, more control over your demons - all seem to have been retroactively added into the game from the second in the series. No complaints, here; Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon improved upon the first game in nearly every way. It makes for a far better experience than the original game, and one that actually stands up pretty well in 2025. It’s not exactly going to blow newcomers away, but it’s novel - and a perfect ‘on the go’ kinda game to show off on the Switch 2’s fancy hardware. I'll defeat you with the power of friendship and this gun I found. | Image credit: Atlus Another small quality-of-life thing that’s worth mentioning is the encounter rate. It’s been fixed. No more random encounters. Instead, demons are visible on-screen and you (sort of) get to choose when to engage. To make things even more engaging, we’ve got English voice acting, too… And you know what? It’s pretty good! And that may be what makes this re-release so appealing to me, actually. The original Raidou games contain some of the most enjoyable, and memorable, narrative moments from any title Atlus has ever made. Yes, that includes Persona. There is a humour to these games that really works - and the interactions between Raidou himself and his familiar cat Gouto is a great example of good games writing: tutorializing whilst delivering story. Your demons have all those powers outside battle (so you can reveal the hidden thoughts of NPCs - often vulgar, always funny - or roleplay as a detective to see more in a given scene). The weird, occult-leaning setting of 1920s Japan is fairly unique, and Atlus does well to dive into how curious it is, understanding that it’s a time of change, a time of anxiety, but also of excitement and growth. Having this coloured in with competent and fun voice-acting is something I didn’t know I needed. Batles are a bit complicated, but once you nail the rhythm, they work well. | Image credit: Atlus This is a far better product than I was expecting, honestly. The Shin Megami Tensei 3 remaster was fairly basic and barebones, but this… this is a shining example of how you can re-release a game some 19 years later and have it actually offer something new, and fix things that the original version lacked. After a brief preview, this has gone from ‘hm, that’s interesting’ to ‘oh, well I’m going to buy that, then.’ Your mileage may vary, of course, but I think this is a fascinating example of what Atlus can cook up with its legacy titles. Now, where’s my Digital Devil Saga 1 + 2 HD Remaster, ey?

Perks: Hot tub, mountain view, swimmable pondThe Catskill Mountains are known for having a plethora of intimate, rustic lodgings, and the Willow Treehouse doesn’t disappoint. The modern build of the tree house was designed by Antony Gibbon and built by William Johnson. The huge floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room and bedroom overlook the woods and the swimmable pond. Plus there’s a full kitchen with a modern aesthetic, if your travel crew likes to prep at home. Don’t forget to soak in the wood-burning hot tub. From $456 per night.BOOK NOWCozy TreehouseLocation: Sanbornton, New HampshirePerks: Shared beach access, snowmobile trails, grillThe Cozy Treehouse, planted 12 feet in the air inside New Hampshire’s Lakes Region, is made from a mixture of reclaimed materials, and features plumbing, heating, a full bathroom, and a kitchenette with a medium-size fridge. Get back to nature by firing up the outdoor grill while relaxing in some Adirondack chairs. Plus, if the outside world beckons during your getaway, there’s Wi-Fi available in this unique tree house. From $418 per night.BOOK NOWRyders TreehouseLocation: Baird, TexasPerks: Screened-in porch, waterfront location, fireplaceIf you’re looking for a vacation rental in the Lone Star state, consider a trip to Baird, where the Ryders Treehouse instantly captivates with an outdoor spiral staircase that leads up to a plush bedroom and well-stocked screened kitchen. The outdoor offerings are just as cozy in this two-story tree house: Relax in the hammock or on the porch swing that hangs from the sturdy branch of one of the many live oak trees that surround the property. From $474 per night.BOOK NOWTreefLoft at Base CampLocation: Perryville, MissouriPerks: Deck, rain shower, bathtubFor a design-focused treehouse experience, consider TreeLoft at BaseCamp. A skylight just above the king-size bed allows for nocturnal sky gazing with a remote solar shade to keep you sleeping in the wee morning hours. There’s a rain shower for two in the walk-through bathroom, a relaxing soaking tub, and plush robes for your comfort. The kitchen offers an indoor-outdoor coffee bar and tiny appliances for all your cooking needs. Outside you’ll find a hot tub placed next to towering, eastern, red cedar trees with a privacy fence, a separate deck for grilling or nesting in the trees, and a firepit below with ambient lighting for s’mores or storytelling to make this a one-of-a-kind experience. From $587 per night.BOOK NOWHeartland TreehouseLocation: Langlois, OregonPerks: Outdoor tubs, sauna, outdoor kitchenIf your idea of relaxation is spending time in the great outdoors soaking in a tub, then the Heartland Treehouse, in Oregon, is your spot. The wooden deck is outfitted with white side-by-side tubs with an elegant candelabra in the middle. The outside is just as cozy as the inside, as the treehouse has built-in benches and a firepit in the middle for ultimate woodsy vibes. From $228 per night.BOOK NOWLuxury Treehouse with Views of the SierrasLocation: Visalia, CaliforniaPerks: Mountain view, shared outdoor pool, barbequeFor a modern, design-forward tree house experience, look no further than this luxury treehouse with views of the Sierra, resting just steps away from a 300-acre almond farm. The treehouse bedroom has a beautiful wooden bed frame with a Casper mattress and a cozy fireplace for cool evenings. Take nature walks around the area that could lead to chance encounters with opossums, red-tailed hawks, owls, and red foxes. From $268 per night.BOOK NOWThe Sanctuary TreehouseLocation: Cobb, Califonia

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here The era of ray-tracing is here. After years of tiptoeing around the modern lighting feature, some games are now requiring ray-tracing hardware to run such as Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, Star Wars Outlaws and the new DOOM: The Dark Ages. In an interview with Digital Foundry, Id Software’s director of engine technology Billy Khan explained that ray-tracing isn’t just a fancy lighting solution, but it’s a tool that helps to speed up the process of making games. Without the need to pre-bake lighting solutions, game’s can not only take up less space on a PC or console, but developers can iterate faster than every before. DOOM would’ve taken longer without ray-tracing Speaking to the tech analyst team, Khan explained that making DOOM: The Dark Ages “without ray-tracing” while keeping the same larger environments and complex cinematics “would have had to elongate the time [of development] by a magnitude of years”. For decades now, developers have been forced to pre-bake lighting with lightmaps and shadowmaps that take ages to calculate. As soon as something is changed in an environment such as a light fixture moving place or a piece of the environment changing location, those pre-baked calculations need to be ran all over again. Unlike ray-tracing, these pre-baked maps also take up storage space. “Without ray tracing and with the same design goals, we would have had to elongate the time by a magnitude of years.”DOOM: THE DARK AGES DIRECTOR OF ENGINE TECHNOLOGY BILLY KHAN “The more you can quickly iterate on it, the more polished and diverse the gameplay encounters can become,” Khan told the outlet. “Ray tracing allows us to do WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), replacing the approximate representation used by artists and designers with exactly what it’s going to look like on PC or console, without bakes that take hours upon hours. You can imagine what kind of speed improvement that is. It’s a 10x if not 100x improvement in iteration time. A lighter can now move a light in the middle of a meeting if we want a spot to be darker, for example.” Khan explained that making DOOM: The Dark Ages with ray-tracing requirements wasn’t just a technique to make the game look “really great”, but to overall make “a better game”. With the power of real-time ray-tracing instead of generated pre-bakes, there’s a lot more time allotted to experimentation that the team otherwise couldn’t afford. “Without ray tracing and with the same design goals, we would have had to elongate the time by a magnitude of years, because we wouldn’t have the ability to create the same type of content,” he explained. “If you have a baked lighting solution, some of those things can feel out of place, especially when you’re in a mech smashing into buildings and tearing chunks off. You can’t bake for these dynamic objects, so the ambient lighting would look off without RT; with RT, all of that stuff looks homogeneous and more real.” Khan also explained that it’s lucky that “all the platforms have ray-tracing”. While a Nintendo Switch 2 port hasn’t been announced, even that system supports ray-tracing in some form, although we’ve only seen one instance of it running on the hardware and that doesn’t look great. With this in mind, there wasn’t a need to spend an extreme amount of time working to support older hardware, even if gamers with older GPUs now need to upgrade to play. (Remember, we all upgraded for DOOM 3.) So-called “forced ray-tracing” is only going to become more common as the industry continues to evolve. With games now taking much longer to make, ray-traced lighting and reflections are a key component in shortening that development time. While we could have waited another three years fro DOOM: The Dark Ages, Id Software might not have been able to. DOOM: The Dark Ages Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X Genre(s): Action, First-Person Shooter Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share

Fenix Art Museum / MAD ArchitectsSave this picture!© Iwan BaanMuseum, Refurbishment•Rotterdam, The Netherlands Architects: MAD Architects Area Area of this architecture project Area:  8000 m² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2025 Photographs Photographs: Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers:  Goppion Project Contractors: Products translation missing: en-US.post.svg.material_description More SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. Fenix is a major new museum that explores migration through the lens of art, opening on a landmark site in Rotterdam's City Harbor, developed by internationally acclaimed architects MAD. With a rapidly expanding collection of historic and contemporary objects, Fenix tells the story of migration through a series of encounters with art, architecture, photography, food, and history. Located in what was once part of the world's largest transshipment warehouse, on a peninsula in Rotterdam's historic port district, Fenix overlooks the docks where millions of migrant journeys began and ended. The monumental 16,000 square meter warehouse has been transformed to become Fenix by MAD Architects with restoration consultation by Bureau Polderman. This is MAD Architects' first commission for a public cultural building in Europe, as well as the first museum to be built by a Chinese firm in Europe. The project was initiated by the Droom en Daad Foundation, founded in 2016. The Foundation is helping redefine Rotterdam for the 21st century - developing new kinds of arts and culture institutions and fostering new creative talent that reflects the city's diversity, its spirit, and its historySave this picture!Restoration of the 172-meter-long façade of the former shipping and storage warehouse began in 2018, led by Bureau Polderman, and took a year and a half to complete. Some architectural details date back to 1923 when the warehouse opened, while others were part of the 1948-1950 reconstruction plan. In the past 60 years, many additions were made and the building's function changed many 4mes. The façade lacked uniformity. Fronts and frames were rusty. All elements along the façade have now been restored, refurnished, or rebuilt. The characteristic windows were restored to reflect the style of 1923. The 2,200 sqm expanse of the south façade was blast-cleaned and cement stucco was reapplied. The characteristic sliding doors at street level have been restored to their original post-war state, with doors and frames repainted in their original green color. A serene rhythm of columns, windows, and fronts has emerged that emphasizes the horizontal quality of the building.Save this picture!Save this picture!A defining new feature of the building is the Tornado - a double helix staircase evocative of rising air that climbs from the ground floor and flows up and out of the rooftop onto an outdoor platform offering spectacular panoramic views across Rotterdam and the Maas River, 24 meters above ground level. The dynamic structure is cladded in 297 polished stainless-steel panels, made in Groningen, Netherlands. The canopy that sits at the top of the structure is 17m in length and was transported by boat from Groningen to Rotterdam in pieces before being assembled and lifted into place. Inside the Tornado is a 550m long double-helix wooden staircase which emerges onto the platform, which can also be accessed via a central shaft.Save this picture!Inside the building are a series of vast gallery spaces spread over two floors, housing Fenix's growing art and historical collection, as well as a series of commissions by emerging artists from across the world. The ground floor contains exhibition and programming spaces, while the upstairs galleries are dedicated to the Fenix Collection. The museum is accessed via entrances in the centre of the north façade on the riverfront and the south façade. On arrival, visitors are immediately drawn to the base of the Tornado, whose dynamic, twisting form is lit by the glass roof above the central atrium that allows natural light to filter into the lobby. The entrance atrium features a welcome desk, museum shop, and café. At 2,275 sqm, Plein is a vast, flexible space for events and performances and will host a constantly changing programme of activity curated for and with Rotterdam's communities. Located on the ground floor on the Eastern side of the building, it features doors on three sides which can be opened out to create a welcoming covered public space. Fenix offers a number of dining options located throughout the building where visitors can encounter food cultures that have travelled the world.Save this picture!The top of the warehouse features a 6,750 sqm 'green roof', featuring sedum plants arranged in a concentric pattern, in line with the shape of the Tornado. As well as supporting biodiversity, green roofs provide insulation and store rainwater in the plants and substrate, releasing it back into the atmosphere through evaporation. This significantly reduces the burden on the sewerage system, reducing the risk of flooding and the burden on water treatment. The building uses a Thermal Energy System (TES), which stores excess heat from the building in the soil. A heat pump is connected to the TES to produce the correct temperature for the building. The aquifer serves as the source for the heat pump. By using the heat pump and passive cooling, it is possible to save up to 60 percent in heating energy and 80 percent in cooling energy. The staircase of the Tornado is made from sustainable Norwegian wood called Kebony, a leading modified wood brand established in Oslo, Norway, that uses a proven, innovative, patented technology to enhance traditional 4mber. Biobased modified wood is a sustainable building material with a significantly lower environmental impact than other building materials. Fenix repurposes a 100-year-old warehouse, restored as much as possible to its original state in the 1950s, with interventions in line with the original architecture from 1923.Save this picture!Save this picture!The building has been designed in consultation with VGR, an association specializing in making buildings as accessible and welcoming as possible. Plein and the Atrium will be publicly accessible spaces that are free to enter.Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less Project locationAddress:Rotterdam, The NetherlandsLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeMAD ArchitectsOffice••• MaterialsSteelConcreteMaterials and TagsPublished on May 21, 2025Cite: "Fenix Art Museum / MAD Architects" 21 May 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1030328/fenix-art-museum-mad-architects&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Thousands of people have preregistered and now it’s finally here: Our biggest e-book yet, User interface design and implementation in Unity, is available to download. Get ready to dive into over 130 pages of advanced instruction in UI design.Your game’s user interface is perhaps the most direct way you can communicate with and guide your players – like a folded map you hand to them that reveals clues, key details, and directions as they progress. Whether you’re using more traditional elements like health bars and pop-up messages, or elements completely embedded in the game world, such as showing stats on the back of a player’s survival suit, the UI is integral to immersing players in your game’s story, realm, and artistic style.We’re thrilled to announce that our latest technical e-book, User interface design and implementation in Unity, is available to download for free. Thousands of people have already signed up for it, and just as many have downloaded its companion piece, the demo project, UI Toolkit sample – Dragon Crashers, to date. Now it’s your turn.The interest in this e-book is understandable. As it says in the introduction, “User interface is a critical part of any game… a solid graphical user interface (GUI) is an extension of a game’s visual identity… [and] modern audiences crave refined, intuitive GUIs that seamlessly integrate with your application.”The guide begins by covering UI design and art creation fundamentals, and then moves on to in-depth instructional sections on UI development in Unity. Written and reviewed by technical and UI artists – external and Unity professionals alike – the e-book unpacks both Unity UI, the default solution, and the newer UI Toolkit.The emphasis, however, is on the latter toolset, as UI Toolkit now provides many benefits for projects with complex, fullscreen interfaces. Think of projects that require a scalable and performant system for runtime UI. To help you choose the right solution for your project, please refer to this section of the Unity manual.The e-book is a treasure trove of information for professional UI designers, artists, and other Unity creators who want to deepen their knowledge of UI development. Here’s a snapshot of what’s inside.The first section aims to inspire with foundational tips for making effective UI. It looks at examples of diegetic UIs, where UI elements can be found right in the story, making parts of the game world function as a user interface. It explains how elements can either contribute to or break the immersion that a player experiences. We even turned this section into a blog post that you can read here.The guide then turns to the roles and responsibilities of a UI designer, and what tools and methods they employ such as UI wireframing, art creation through mockups, fonts, and grey-boxing. There’s also a chapter on asset preparation and exporting graphics from Digital Content Creation (DCC) tools. These earlier sections in the guide are helpful no matter what game engine and UI solution you’re using.An extensive chapter is devoted to Unity UI. Unity UI is our longtime system for creating in-game UIs, and currently the go-to solution for positioning UI in a 3D world or using GameObject-based Unity systems.This section outlines Unity UI fundamentals for prototyping and integrating assets in-Editor: the Canvas, prebuilt UI elements, TextMesh Pro, and Prefabs, among others. We recently updated an article on advanced optimization techniques for Unity UI, where you can find tips on related topics.UI Toolkit is made for maximum performance and reusability with workflows and authoring tools informed by standard web technologies. UI designers and artists will likely find it familiar, especially with prior experience designing web pages.Three major sections of the guide highlight instructions for developing runtime UI with UI Toolkit. There’s a thorough explanation of the parts that comprise UIs made with UI Toolkit, including the Unity Extensible Markup Language (UXML) and Unity Style Sheet (USS) using UI Builder.You’ll explore how UI Toolkit positions visual elements based on Yoga, an HTML/CSS Layout engine that implements a subset of Flexbox. Flexbox architecture provides advantages, such as responsive UI, enabling you to adapt your UI to different screen resolutions and sizes. Through both UXML and USS, you can decouple the styles applied to UI layouts (and switch those styles up as needed), while logic and functionality continue to live in code. Workflows for visual elements, the fundamental building blocks of each interface, are also discussed in great detail – from positioning, size, and alignment settings, to margins and padding.The chapter on styling shows you how to define reusable styling for visual elements with Selectors, override styles and define unique attributes with inline styles, and create animations and effects with USS animation and a Camera Render Texture. It also demonstrates how you can thematize UI elements for holidays and other special events.That’s when the e-book gets into UI Toolkit sample – Dragon Crashers, with different sections that depict how the UI was made; from the menus and custom controls like radial counters or tabbed views, to embedded UXML templates and more.Finally, the guide concludes with a mini profile of the studio Mechanistry’s UI migration to UI Toolkit for their new game, Timberborn. This brief study showcases how their lean team managed to scale and keep their game consistent across various menus and screens.At 137 pages, the UI e-book is not a light read. As with the other technical e-books released this past year, use it as a reference on an ongoing basis.Along with the e-book, check out a couple of recently released resources filled with useful tips for leveraging Unity UI and UI Toolkit:The Unite 2022 session, Extending the Unity Editor with custom tools using UI Toolkit, shows programmers how to use UI Builder to create a custom Inspector for real-time Play Mode debug data visualization.The webinar, Best practices for mobile UI design, gathers experts from Outfit7, Samsung, and Unity to share strategies for maximizing the creativity and flow of your mobile games.Bookmark one or both of these pages. They compile all of our technical e-books and advanced content:Unity best practicesAdvanced best practices – Unity ManualWe hope that you enjoy this latest e-book and look forward to your feedback in this forum.

Photographer Who Scales Buildings to Get the Perfect Shot Arrested at Opening Night of His First Solo Exhibition Isaac Wright was detained for climbing the Empire State Building’s spire in 2024. The photo he took during the climb was on display at the show in New York City Lillian Ali - Staff Contributor May 21, 2025 2:01 p.m. And When We Die It Will Feel Like This (2023), one of Wright's photographs on display at the exhibition Drift / Robert Mann Gallery At the opening for his first solo gallery exhibition, photographer Isaac Wright was speaking with the crowd when a woman tapped him on his shoulder. She revealed that she was a plainclothes officer and told him he was under arrest. “I really thought it was a joke,” Wright, who is known as Drift, tells the New York Times’ The incident occurred just after 8 p.m. on May 15, the opening of Wright’s show, titled “Coming Home,” at the Robert Mann Gallery in New York City. After the plainclothes officer informed him of his arrest, uniformed officers entered the exhibition and led Wright to the back of a squad car. Wright’s lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, tells the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Cameron Knight that the artist has been charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing. The charges are linked to a photograph on display at the exhibition, which Wright shot after climbing to the top of the spire of the Empire State Building in 2024. “Ansel Adams probably trespassed in his day to get a great photo; plenty of photographers did,” gallery owner Robert Mann, who has exhibited works by renowned photographers including Adams and William Eggleston, tells the Times. “But in all my years, I have never seen an artist taken out of an opening in cuffs.”Urban explorer Vitaliy Raskolov expressed a similar disbelief to Now Media’s Matt Medved, saying that over 16 years of scaling buildings and photographing his escapades, he had “never seen anything like this before.” Wright began climbing buildings in 2018 to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from his years of service in the Army. When he was stationed with a battalion in Louisiana, he started acting as an “ad hoc chaplain, filling in as needs dictated,” as the Cincinnati Enquirer reported in 2022. “Part of my job was helping our soldiers reintegrate into life at home after deployment,” Wright told the publication. “Without a chaplain in the unit, many soldiers came to me for counseling and to talk about their struggles with suicide.” At the end of his service, he was diagnosed with PTSD and depression. He decided to take up photography, and he found solace in the hobby. One day, he took the stairs to the roof of a skyscraper in Texas to get a more interesting shot. “[I] just ended up sitting there for two or three hours, all by myself, taking in the view,” he tells the Times. “And this wave of catharsis and peace came over me. I was so present and alive, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, I don’t know what this is, but I have to keep doing it.’” The recent gallery opening wasn’t the first time Wright’s art has led to encounters with police. In late 2020, the artist, who is from Ohio, sneaked onto the rooftop of the Great American Tower, the tallest building in Cincinnati.Weeks later, police shut down an interstate to arrest him in Arizona. They had been told that he was a veteran with specialized military training and PTSD, and that he might be armed. “Five to ten officers approached my vehicle with handguns and assault rifles pointed at me,” he told the Cincinnati Enquirer After a judge set his bond at $400,000, Wright spent months in jail. He ultimately accepted a plea deal, agreeing to pay $5,500 in restitution and enroll in a treatment program. At that time, the artist had around 13,000 followers on Instagram. Today, he has about 225,000. Wright regularly posts and sells photos taken from the tall buildings he scales. In 2022, he donated $500,000 from his art sales to the Bail Project, which helps low-income Americans pay bail. Wright was released last week and is scheduled to return to court on June 4. The artist explains that this encounter with the law has been less harrowing than his previous arrests. “I had always been treated as some sort of dangerous weapon for what I do, even though I had never hurt anyone,” he tells the Times. “This time, the cops were very respectful. In the cop car, they even told me they liked the art.” “Coming Home” is on view at the Robert Mann Gallery in New York City through June 28, 2025. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

The rodent was found near New Guinea's Mount Wilhelm. Credit: František Vejmělka Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. New Guinea’s subalpine woolly rat is the rodent of legends. Mallomys istapantap was first described in 1989, but even then the descriptions were only gleaned from examining historical museum material. The last recorded sighting of the fuzzy rodent 30 years ago failed to yield any photographic evidence, but after six months scouring the jungles of New Guinea, one researcher has finally documented one of the world’s most elusive mammals. The New Guinean woolly rat doesn’t make itself easy to find, but Czech Academy of Sciences doctoral candidate František Vejmělka recently managed to make history with the help of local guides. “If it weren’t for the indigenous hunters who accompanied me in the mountains and helped me locate the animals, I would never have been able to collect this data,” Vejmělka said in a statement. This image was captured using a trap camera set up near Mount Wilhelm in Papua New Guinea. Credit: František Vejmělka Vejmělka collaborated with multiple local tribes to survey the region around Papua New Guinea’s highest peak, Mount Wilhelm (14,793 ft). Along the way he documented and genetically identified 61 species of non-flying rodents and marsupials, but it was his firsthand encounters with the woolly rat that stood out from the rest. The murine rodent lives in the region’s remote, steep highlands at elevations around 12,000 feet. They only emerge at night to feed on plant matter and spend their days in underground burrows or high in the tree canopies. Vejmělka’s documentation published last month in the journal Mammalia notes the thick-furred woolly rats measure about 2.78-feet long including their tail, weigh around 4.4 lbs, and feature 3-inch paws. Despite their moderate size, the university announcement describes the animal as a “striking and formidable creature.” The video footage of the woolly rat was captured near this location in the Guinean rainforest. Credit: František Vejmělka While tropical biodiversity across Africa, the Americas, and Southeast Asia is well-studied, the Australasian regions remain largely unstudied. Collaborating with local indigenous communities to find and document animals such as the woolly rat is crucial to help strengthen biodiversity and conservation efforts, and what is needed to protect them from outside threats. “It’s astonishing that such a large and striking animal has remained so poorly studied,” said Vejmělka. “How much more is there to discover about the biodiversity of tropical mountains?”