The latest major character death may be different from the others.

As AI faces court challenges from Disney and Universal, legal battles are shaping the industry's future | Opinion Silicon advances and design innovations do still push us forward – but the future landscape of the industry is also being sculpted in courtrooms and parliaments Image credit: Disney / Epic Games Opinion by Rob Fahey Contributing Editor Published on June 13, 2025 In some regards, the past couple of weeks have felt rather reassuring. We've just seen a hugely successful launch for a new Nintendo console, replete with long queues for midnight sales events. Over the next few days, the various summer events and showcases that have sprouted amongst the scattered bones of E3 generated waves of interest and hype for a host of new games. It all feels like old times. It's enough to make you imagine that while change is the only constant, at least it's we're facing change that's fairly well understood, change in the form of faster, cheaper silicon, or bigger, more ambitious games. If only the winds that blow through this industry all came from such well-defined points on the compass. Nestled in amongst the week's headlines, though, was something that's likely to have profound but much harder to understand impacts on this industry and many others over the coming years – a lawsuit being brought by Disney and NBC Universal against Midjourney, operators of the eponymous generative AI image creation tool. In some regards, the lawsuit looks fairly straightforward; the arguments made and considered in reaching its outcome, though, may have a profound impact on both the ability of creatives and media companies (including game studios and publishers) to protect their IP rights from a very new kind of threat, and the ways in which a promising but highly controversial and risky new set of development and creative tools can be used commercially. A more likely tack on Midjourney's side will be the argument that they are not responsible for what their customers create with the tool I say the lawsuit looks straightforward from some angles, but honestly overall it looks fairly open and shut – the media giants accuse Midjourney of replicating their copyrighted characters and material, and of essentially building a machine for churning out limitless copyright violations. The evidence submitted includes screenshot after screenshot of Midjourney generating pages of images of famous copyrighted and trademarked characters ranging from Yoda to Homer Simpson, so "no we didn't" isn't going to be much of a defence strategy here. A more likely tack on Midjourney's side will be the argument that they are not responsible for what their customers create with the tool – you don't sue the manufacturers of oil paints or canvases when artists use them to paint something copyright-infringing, nor does Microsoft get sued when someone writes something libellous in Word, and Midjourney may try to argue that their software belongs in that tool category, with users alone being ultimately responsible for how they use them. If that argument prevails and survives appeals and challenges, it would be a major triumph for the nascent generative AI industry and a hugely damaging blow to IP holders and creatives, since it would seriously undermine their argument that AI companies shouldn't be able to include copyrighted material into training data sets without licensing or compensation. The reason Disney and NBCU are going after Midjourney specifically seems to be partially down to Midjourney being especially reticent to negotiate with them about licensing fees and prompt restrictions; other generative AI firms have started talking, at least, about paying for content licenses for training data, and have imposed various limitations on their software to prevent the most egregious and obvious forms of copyright violation (at least for famous characters belonging to rich companies; if you're an individual or a smaller company, it's entirely the Wild West out there as regards your IP rights). In the process, though, they're essentially risking a court showdown over a set of not-quite-clear legal questions at the heart of this dispute, and if Midjourney were to prevail in that argument, other AI companies would likely back off from engaging with IP holders on this topic. To be clear, though, it seems highly unlikely that Midjourney will win that argument, at least not in the medium to long term. Yet depending on how this case moves forward, losing the argument could have equally dramatic consequences – especially if the courts find themselves compelled to consider the question of how, exactly, a generative AI system reproduces a copyrighted character with such precision without storing copyright-infringing data in some manner. The 2020s are turning out to be the decade in which many key regulatory issues come to a head all at once AI advocates have been trying to handwave around this notion from the outset, but at some point a court is going to have to sit down and confront the fact that the precision with which these systems can replicate copyrighted characters, scenes, and other materials requires that they must have stored that infringing material in some form. That it's stored as a scattered mesh of probabilities across the vertices of a high-dimensional vector array, rather than a straightforward, monolithic media file, is clearly important but may ultimately be considered moot. If the data is in the system and can be replicated on request, how that differs from Napster or The Pirate Bay is arguably just a matter of technical obfuscation. Not having to defend that technical argument in court thus far has been a huge boon to the generative AI field; if it is knocked over in that venue, it will have knock-on effects on every company in the sector and on every business that uses their products. Nobody can be quite sure which of the various rocks and pebbles being kicked on this slope is going to set off the landslide, but there seems to be an increasing consensus that a legal and regulatory reckoning is coming for generative AI. Consequently, a lot of what's happening in that market right now has the feel of companies desperately trying to establish products and lock in revenue streams before that happens, because it'll be harder to regulate a technology that's genuinely integrated into the world's economic systems than it is to impose limits on one that's currently only clocking up relatively paltry sales and revenues. Keeping an eye on this is crucial for any industry that's started experimenting with AI in its workflows – none more than a creative industry like video games, where various forms of AI usage have been posited, although the enthusiasm and buzz so far massively outweighs any tangible benefits from the technology. Regardless of what happens in legal and regulatory contexts, AI is already a double-edged sword for any creative industry. Used judiciously, it might help to speed up development processes and reduce overheads. Applied in a slapdash or thoughtless manner, it can and will end up wreaking havoc on development timelines, filling up storefronts with endless waves of vaguely-copyright-infringing slop, and potentially make creative firms, from the industry's biggest companies to its smallest indie developers, into victims of impossibly large-scale copyright infringement rather than beneficiaries of a new wave of technology-fuelled productivity. The legal threat now hanging over the sector isn't new, merely amplified. We've known for a long time that AI generated artwork, code, and text has significant problems from the perspective of intellectual property rights (you can infringe someone else's copyright with it, but generally can't impose your own copyright on its creations – opening careless companies up to a risk of having key assets in their game being technically public domain and impossible to protect). Even if you're not using AI yourself, however – even if you're vehemently opposed to it on moral and ethical grounds (which is entirely valid given the highly dubious land-grab these companies have done for their training data), the Midjourney judgement and its fallout may well impact the creative work you produce yourself and how it ends up being used and abused by these products in future. This all has huge ramifications for the games business and will shape everything from how games are created to how IP can be protected for many years to come – a wind of change that's very different and vastly more unpredictable than those we're accustomed to. It's a reminder of just how much of the industry's future is currently being shaped not in development studios and semiconductor labs, but rather in courtrooms and parliamentary committees. The ways in which generative AI can be used and how copyright can persist in the face of it will be fundamentally shaped in courts and parliaments, but it's far from the only crucially important topic being hashed out in those venues. The ongoing legal turmoil over the opening up of mobile app ecosystems, too, will have huge impacts on the games industry. Meanwhile, the debates over loot boxes, gambling, and various consumer protection aspects related to free-to-play models continue to rumble on in the background. Because the industry moves fast while governments move slow, it's easy to forget that that's still an active topic for as far as governments are concerned, and hammers may come down at any time. Regulation by governments, whether through the passage of new legislation or the interpretation of existing laws in the courts, has always loomed in the background of any major industry, especially one with strong cultural relevance. The games industry is no stranger to that being part of the background heartbeat of the business. The 2020s, however, are turning out to be the decade in which many key regulatory issues come to a head all at once, whether it's AI and copyright, app stores and walled gardens, or loot boxes and IAP-based business models. Rulings on those topics in various different global markets will create a complex new landscape that will shape the winds that blow through the business, and how things look in the 2030s and beyond will be fundamentally impacted by those decisions.

Stranger Things fans are worried about the ultimate fate of main character Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown, and even some think the teen might not make it out alive at the end of the series.Eleven has been an integral part of the Duffer Brothers’ smash hit Netflix series since it first hit streaming in the summer of 2016.Viewers immediately gravitated toward the show for its spooky atmosphere and mystery-centered plot, nostalgic ’80s vibes and lovable cast of Goonies-esque teen characters.Fans have loved Eleven ever since she made her first appearance in Season 1, Episode 1, “The Vanishing of Will Byers,” and they've watched the unsure, traumatized and quiet young girl transform into a confident, spunky teen with powerful telekinetic abilities over the course of four seasons.Now though, with the series’ fifth and final season set to air later this year, longtime fans are worried about what the end of the show might spell for Eleven, now also known as Jane Hopper.Does Eleven Die in Stranger Things?Nothing about the fate of the core Stranger Things characters is known for sure at this time. However, that hasn’t stopped viewers from theorizing and speculating.During an appearance on U.K. talk show The Jonathan Ross Show in March 2024, Millie Bobby Brown may have inadvertently hinted that her character dies at the end of the show thanks to some questionable phrasing.While discussing the final season, the actress hinted, “I know how she ...” before catching herself and correcting, “I know what happens to my character.”The initial wording of “I know how she” sparked fans’ ears, many of whom thought the actress almost blurted out, “I know how she dies.”Brown also worried fans during a 2024 interview with Capital Radio, when she admitted she discovered her character’s fate after “kind of [forcing] myself into the writers’ room.”“I saw my ending and thought, ‘Oh,’ and then I walked away very slowly,” she cryptically teased.For years fans have speculated about the ending of Stranger Things, particularly about which of the core group might not make it out alive.Some fan theories suggest that Eleven is ultimately doomed, and might be forced to lock herself in the Upside Down forever to close the gate between the Upside Down and the real world, or will die heroically closing the gate and saving her friends and loved ones.Others believe Will Byers, who was the first to venture into the Upside Down and appears to still be connected to it as well as the series’ villain Vecna, will ultimately die in the finale.Of course, these are just fan theories. Hopefully, all the kids end up just fine and there's a big, happy ending!Stranger Things Season 5 will pick up after the epic events of Season 4, in which the kids learned about the evil Vecna, who ended the season by opening a hellish portal between the town of Hawkins and the Upside Down.The fifth season will be released in three parts: The first four episodes will hit Netflix on Nov. 26, three episodes will begin streaming on Dec. 25 and the series finale will air on Dec. 31.Sitcom Moments That Were Surprisingly DarkSitcoms such as The Simpsons and The Golden Girls are often seen as light-hearted comedies, but these darker TV moments offer a different, deeper perspective.Gallery Credit: Ryan ReichardGet our free mobile appREAD MORE: TV Shows Everyone Loves That Are Actually BadChild Stars Who Quit ActingStacker compiled this list of 25 child actors who quit show business, pulling from historical news coverage to include everyone from Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen to Carrie Henn, who played the little girl in Aliens.Gallery Credit: Sophia June

June 3: Martyrs Day in Uganda Silhouette of Jack Jouett 1781 – American Revolutionary War: Jack Jouett (pictured) rode 40 miles (64 km) to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature of British cavalry who had been sent to capture them. 1892 – Liverpool F.C., one of England's most successful football clubs, was founded. 1937 – Half a year after abdicating the British throne, Edward, Duke of Windsor, married American socialite Wallis Simpson in a private ceremony in France. 1969 – During a SEATO exercise in the South China Sea, a collision between HMAS Melbourne and USS Frank E. Evans resulted in the latter vessel being cut in two and the deaths of 74 personnel. 1982 – A failed assassination attempt was made on Shlomo Argov, the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, triggering an Israeli decision to invade Lebanon three days later. Garret Hobart (b. 1844)Eric A. Havelock (b. 1903)Franz Kafka (d. 1924)Pierre Poilievre (b. 1979) More anniversaries: June 2 June 3 June 4 Archive By email List of days of the year About

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. The Trump administration has shut down more than 100 climate studies The Trump administration has terminated National Science Foundation grants for more than 100 research projects related to climate change, according to an MIT Technology Review analysis of a database that tracks such cuts. The move will cut off what’s likely to amount to tens of millions of dollars for studies that were previously approved and, in most cases, already in the works. Many believe the administration’s broader motivation is to undermine the power of the university system and prevent research findings that cut against its politics. Read the full story. —James Temple This architect wants to build cities out of lava Arnhildur Pálmadóttir is an architect with an extraordinary mission: to harness molten lava and build cities out of it.Pálmadóttir 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 that could change how future homes are designed and built from repurposed lava. Read the full story.—Elissaveta M. Brandon This story is from the most recent edition of our print magazine, which is all about how technology is changing creativity. Subscribe now to read it and to receive future print copies once they land. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 America is failing to win the tech race against ChinaIn fields as diverse as drones and energy. (WSJ $)+ Humanoid robots is an area of particular interest. (Bloomberg $)+ China has accused the US of violating the pair’s trade truce. (FT $) 2 Who is really in charge of DOGE?According to a fired staffer, it wasn’t Elon Musk. (Wired $)+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review) 3 Brazilians will soon be able to sell their digital dataIt’s the first time citizens will be able to monetize their digital footprint. (Rest of World) 4 The Trump administration’s anti-vaccine stance is stoking fear among scientistsIt’s slashing funding for mRNA trials, and experts are afraid to speak out. (The Atlantic $)+ This annual shot might protect against HIV infections. (MIT Technology Review) 5 Tech companies want us to spend longer talking to chatbotsThose conversations can easily veer into dangerous territory. (WP $)+ How we use AI in the future is up to us. (New Yorker $)+ This benchmark used Reddit’s AITA to test how much AI models suck up to us. (MIT Technology Review) 6 Tiktok’s mental health videos are rife with misinformationA lot of the advice is useless at best, and harmful at worst. (The Guardian) 7 Lawyers are hooked on ChatGPTEven though it’s inherently unreliable. (The Verge)+ Yet another lawyer has been found referencing nonexistent citations. (The Guardian)+ How AI is introducing errors into courtrooms. (MIT Technology Review) 8 How chefs are using generative AI They’re starting to experiment with using it to create innovative new dishes. (NYT $)+ Watch this robot cook shrimp and clean autonomously. (MIT Technology Review) 9 The influencer suing her rival has dropped her lawsuitThe legal fight over ownership of a basic aesthetic has come to an end. (NBC News) 10 Roblox’s new game has sparked a digital fruit underground marketAnd players are already spending millions of dollars every week. (Bloomberg $) Quote of the day “We can’t substitute complex thinking with machines. AI can’t replace our curiosity, creativity or emotional intelligence.” —Mateusz Demski, a journalist in Poland, tells the Guardian about how his radio station employer laid him off, only to later launch shows fronted by AI-generated presenters. One more thing ​​Adventures in the genetic time machineAn ancient-DNA revolution is turning the high-speed equipment used to study the DNA of living things on to specimens from the past.The technology is being used to create genetic maps of saber-toothed cats, cave bears, and thousands of ancient humans, including Vikings, Polynesian navigators, and numerous Neanderthals. The total number of ancient humans studied is more than 10,000 and rising fast.The old genes have already revealed remarkable stories of human migrations around the globe.But researchers are hoping ancient DNA will be more than a telescope on the past—they hope it will have concrete practical use in the present. Read the full story.  —Antonio Regalado We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.) + The ancient Persians managed to keep cool using an innovative breeze-catching technique that could still be useful today.+ Knowledge is power—here’s a helpful list of hoaxes to be aware of.+ How said it: Homer Simpson or Pete Hegseth?+ I had no idea London has so many cat statues.

The Krusty Burger is a health inspector's nightmare, responsible for spawning the Krusty Burger, the Ribwich, The Clogger, and the Steamed Ham (per Principal Skinner). It comes with seven minifigures, including Krusty the Clown, Sideshow Bob, Homer Simpson, and Officer Lou. You can purchase it for $209.99 on June 4, although LEGO Insiders can order the set via Early Access beginning on June 1. You can sign up for free here.LEGO The Simpsons: Krusty BurgerOut June 1 for LEGO Insiders, and June 4 for everyone else.$209.99 at LEGO StoreTo learn more about the set and its creation, we interviewed its designer. Ann Healy is a 39-year-old Senior Model Designer who's worked with the LEGO Group for the past six years. Here, lightly edited for clarity, are her thoughts on creating LEGO The Simpsons: Krusty Burger, the first new LEGO Simpsons set in nearly a decade. What other LEGO sets have you had a hand in designing over the past six years? Healy: I worked for three years on the LEGO Friends line. A few years ago, I got the opportunity to work on a Disney favorite of mine: The Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage set from Hocus Pocus. That project took years in the making to come to market, and I’m quite proud of it. More recently, I have been working on the LEGO Icons team. From last year’s products, I designed the McLaren MP4/4 & Ayrton Senna set and the Poinsettia LEGO Botanicals set.What drove the decision to revive the Simpsons brand after such a long hiatus? Healy: We saw that even after a 10-year stretch since a new Simpsons set, there was still a lot of love for The Simpsons amongst LEGO fans. Our market research showed that there is huge brand loyalty for The Simpsons, appealing to people globally. Designing the Krusty Burger in LEGO brick form serves as a natural continuation of our Simpsons line and gives us the opportunity to make new, never-before-seen LEGO minifigures.LEGO designers often build in their free time, working towards builds that they hope will one day become sets.“Coincidentally, the original Simpsons House and Kwik-E-Mart LEGO sets were some of the last sets I purchased before I knew I would be coming to work at The LEGO Group. In my first week working here, I found an early prototype of the Krusty Burger set on a shelf in our office. For context, LEGO designers often build in their free time, working towards builds that they hope will one day become sets. It gave me hope that someday, I might get the chance to work on something like that. Five years later, to my surprise, our Head of Marketing pulled that same prototype off the shelf and said it was time to revisit The Simpsons! I volunteered right away as a lifelong fan of the Simpsons. I couldn’t believe my luck!Describe the process of designing and building this set as best you can. How many times did you have to build the entire model in the course of finalizing it?Healy: I started with refining and updating the old prototype, figuring out the general layout and developing a building-instruction flow. I worked digitally first, then built the model physically. From there, I would go back and forth between digital and physical, seeing if the model would work with real bricks. We have design team check-ins where I showed progress on the model and got suggestions from our Creative Lead and the other model designers. I had several check-ins with the IP partner, where I would show them the latest updates and they could give feedback on the model and mini figures. I also had internal review meetings with our Model Governance and Building Experience teams, where we build the model, review every construction step, evaluate the play experience and test the strength of the model.I did not keep track of every time I rebuilt the model, but I would estimate at least 20 times. The last time I built the Krusty Burger set was when the first production boxes arrived from the factory. I built it one last time for quality assurance!Krusty Burger isn't a fully realized location in the show in the same way that Moe's Tavern is, or the Kwik-E Mart is, or the Simpsons’ house is. Which TV episodes did you use to map out the Krusty Burger and determine how it's set up? Healy: Disney was a great partner in sending us reference images and layouts when available. Also, I watched as many episodes of The Simpsons as possible, so I could translate the TV animation into a real, physical, toy playset. Season 20, Episode 21, “Coming to Homerica,” is the episode we used the most in reference, because it features the Mother Nature Burger that we reference several times in this LEGO set. The “Ribwich” from Season 14, Episode 12, “I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can,” is also featured. Other referenced episodes of note include: Season 6, Episode 15, “Homie the Clown” – Homer performs at a Krusty Burger Season 12, Episode 13, “Day of the Jackanapes” – Bart and Sideshow Bob go to the Krusty Burger. Season 10, Episode 1, Lard of the Dance” – Homer tries to sell grease from the restaurant.Season 7, Episode 15, “Bart the Fink” – Features the IRS Burger takeover.Season 19, Episode 1, “He Loves to Fly and He D'ohs” – Homer hides in the Krusty Zone ball pit. Season 15, Episode 10, “Diatribe of a Mad Housewife” – Shows the Krusty Burger drive thru sign. Season 21, Episode 4, "Treehouse of Horror XX" – Features the Krusty Burger in “Don't Have a Cow, Mankind.”What's your favorite deep cut Easter Egg in the build? Healy: Above the Krusty Burger drive-thru window, there is a kitchen display screen, showing that someone has placed an order for 700 burgers. This is a reference to the Season 5 episode “Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood,” in which Krusty has unwisely opened a Krusty Burger oil rig in the middle of the sea.What was the most challenging aspect of designing this build? How were you able to overcome it? Healy: The most rewarding challenge of designing this set was building the Krusty Burger Sign with LEGO bricks. The IP partner paid a lot of attention to the proportions of Krusty’s face within the sign, giving us reference material and tips on how to best capture his likeness. We even got hand-drawn doodles of the Krusty the Clown from them! One of my model-designer colleagues used to work as an illustrator and used his skills to capture Krusty’s features in brick-form even more accurately. In addition, it was challenging to get the heavy Krusty Burger sign to stand up and remain stable on a single axle. Our Element Lead on the design project suggested we use a new element she was developing, an axle sleeve, to increase the weight the rod could hold upright. This new element did the trick.The most rewarding challenge of designing this set was building the Krusty Burger Sign with LEGO bricks.“Is this a one-off revival of the Simpsons brand? Or is this the beginning of a longer partnership, where we can expect to see more LEGO Simpsons themed sets in the near future?Healy: I cannot speculate on future products, per the LEGO Group’s and our partners' policies. Nonetheless, as a huge Simpsons fan myself, I am hopeful that fans have a positive response to this set!LEGO The Simpsons: Krusty Burger, Set #10352, retails for $209.99, and it is composed of 1635 pieces. You can purchase it on June 4 for the general public, or starting on June 1 for LEGO Insiders. You can sign up for LEGO Insiders for free here. And stay tuned! We will be building, photographing, and reviewing LEGO Krusty Burger later this month,Kevin Wong is a contributing freelancer for IGN, specializing in LEGO. He's also been published in Complex, Engadget, Gamespot, Kotaku, and more. Follow him on Twitter at @kevinjameswong.

The tower takes shape as two sets of overlapping cylinders, clad with prefabricated panels intended to evoke clouds. PROJECT The Butterfly + First Baptist Church Complex ARCHITECT Revery Architecture PHOTOS Ema Peter When you fly into Vancouver, the most prominent structure in the city’s forest of glass skyscrapers is now a 57-storey edifice known as the Butterfly. Designed by Revery Architecture, the luxury residential tower is the latest in a string of high-rises that pop out of the city’s backdrop of generic window-wall façades.  The Butterfly’s striking form evolved over many years, beginning with studies dating back to 2012. Revery principal Venelin Kokalov imagined several options, most of them suggesting a distinct pair of architectural forms in dialogue. Renderings and models of the early concepts relay a wealth of imagination that is sorely missing from much of the city’s contemporary architecture, as land economics, zoning issues, and the profit motive often compel a default into generic glass-and-steel towers. The earliest concepts look starkly different—some evoke the Ginger and Fred building in Prague (Frank Gehry with Vlado Milunić, 1996); others the Absolute Towers in Mississauga (MAD with Burka Varacalli Architects, 2009). But one consistent theme runs through the design evolution: a sense of two Rilkean solitudes, touching.  On each floor, semi-private sky gardens offer an outdoor place for residents to socialize. Client feedback, engineering studies, and simple pragmatics led to the final form: two sets of overlapping cylinders linked by a common breezeway and flanked by a rental apartment on one side and a restored church doubling as a community centre on the other. The contours of the floorplan are visually organic: evocative of human cells dividing. The roundness of the main massing is complemented by curvilinear balustrades that smoothly transform into the outer walls of each unit. It’s an eye-catching counterpoint to the orthogonality of the city’s built landscape. The two adjacent buildings—built, restored, and expanded as part of a density bonus arrangement with the city—help integrate this gargantuan structure with the lower-rise neighbourhood around it.  The Butterfly is a high-end, high-priced residential tower—one of the few typologies in which clients and communities are now willing to invest big money and resources in creative, visually astonishing architecture. That leads to a fundamental question: what is the public purpose of a luxury condo tower?  A public galleria joins the renovated First Baptist Church to the new building. Serving as a welcoming atrium, it allows for community access to the expanded church, including its daycare, full gymnasium, multi-purpose rooms, overnight emergency shelter, and community dining hall equipped with a commercial kitchen. Whatever one feels about the widening divide between the haves and have-nots in our big cities, this building—like its ilk—does serve several important public purposes. The most direct and quantifiable benefits are the two flanking buildings, also designed by Revery and part of the larger project. The seven-storey rental apartment provides a modest contribution to the city’s dearth of mid-priced housing. The superbly restored and seismically upgraded First Baptist Church has expanded into the area between the new tower and original church, and now offers the public a wider array of programming including a gymnasium, childcare facility, and areas for emergency shelter and counselling services for individuals in need.  The church’s Pinder Hall has been reimagined as a venue for church and community events including concerts, weddings, and cultural programming. The Butterfly’s character is largely defined by undulating precast concrete panels that wrap around the building. The architects describe the swooping lines as being inspired by clouds, but for this writer, the Butterfly evokes a 57-layer frosted cake towering above the city’s boxy skyline. Kokalov winces when he hears that impression, but it’s meant as a sincere compliment. Clouds are not universally welcome, but who doesn’t like cake?  Kokalov argues that its experiential quality is the building’s greatest distinction—most notably, the incorporation of an “outdoors”—not a balcony or deck, but an actual outdoor pathway—at all residential levels. For years the lead form-maker at Bing Thom Architects, Kokalov was responsible for much of the curvilinearity in the firm’s later works, including the 2019 Xiqu Centre opera house in Hong Kong. It’s easy to assume that his forte and focus would be pure aesthetic delight, but he avers that every sinuous curve has a practical rationale.  The breezeways provide residents with outdoor entries to their units—an unusual attribute for high-rise towers—and contribute to natural cooling, ventilation, and daylight in the suites. Defying the local tower-on-podium formula, the building’s façade falls almost straight to the ground. At street level, the building is indented with huge parabolic concavities. It’s an abrupt way to meet the street, but the fall is visually “broken” by a publicly accessible courtyard.   The tower’s layered, undulating volume is echoed in a soaring residential lobby, which includes developer Westbank’s signature—a bespoke Fazioli grand piano designed by the building’s architect. After passing through this courtyard, you enter the building via the usual indoor luxe foyer—complete with developer Westbank’s signature, an over-the-top hand-built grand piano designed by the architect. In this case, the piano’s baroquely sculpted legs are right in keeping with the architecture. But after taking the elevator up to the designated floor, you step out into what is technically “outdoors” and walk to your front door in a brief but bracing open-air transition.  The main entrance of every unit is accessed via a breezeway that runs from one side of the building to another. Unglazed and open to the outside, each breezeway is marked at one end with what the architects call (a little ambitiously) a “sky garden,” in most cases consisting of a sapling that will grow into a leafy tree in due course, God and strata maintenance willing. This incorporation of nature and fresh air transforms the condominium units into something akin to townhouses, albeit stacked exceptionally high.  The suites feature a custom counter with a sculptural folded form. Inside each unit, the space can be expanded and contracted and reconfigured visually—not literally—by the fact that the interior wall of the secondary bedroom is completely transparent, floor to ceiling. It’s unusual, and slightly unnerving, but undeniably exciting for any occupants who wish to maximize their views to the mountains and sea. The curved glass wall transforms the room into a private enclave by means of a curtain, futuristically activated by remote control. The visual delight of swooping curves is only tempered when it’s wholly impractical—the offender here being a massive built-in counter that serves to both anchor and divide the living-kitchen areas. It reads as a long, pliable slab that is “folded” into the middle in such a way that the counter itself transforms into its own horseshoe-shaped base, creating a narrow crevice in the middle of the countertop. I marvel at its beauty and uniqueness; I weep for whoever is assigned to clean out the crumbs and other culinary flotsam that will fall into that crevice.  A structure made of high-performance modular precast concrete structural ribs arcs over a swimming pool that bridges between the building’s main amenity space and the podium roof. The building’s high-priced architecture may well bring more to the table than density-bonus amenities. On a broader scale, these luxe dwellings may be just what is needed to help lure the affluent from their mansions. As wealthy residents and investors continue to seek out land-hogging detached homes, the Butterfly offers an alternate concept that maintains the psychological benefit of a dedicated outside entrance and an outrageously flexible interior space. Further over-the-top amenities add to the appeal. Prominent among these is a supremely gorgeous residents-only swimming pool, housed within ribs of concrete columns that curve and dovetail into beams.   The ultimate public purpose for the architecturally spectacular condo tower: its role as public art in the city. The units in any of these buildings are the private side of architecture’s Janus face, but its presence in the skyline and on the street is highly public. By contributing a newly striking visual ballast, the Butterfly has served its purpose as one of the age-old Seven Arts: defining a location, a community, and an era. Adele Weder is a contributing editor to Canadian Architect. Screenshot CLIENT Westbank Corporation, First Baptist Church | ARCHITECT TEAM Venelin Kokalov (MRAIC), Bing Thom (FRAIC, deceased 2016), Amirali Javidan, Nicole Hu, Shinobu Homma MRAIC, Bibi Fehr, Culum Osborne, Dustin Yee, Cody Loeffen, Kailey O’Farrell, Mark Melnichuk, Andrea Flynn, Jennifer Zhang, Daniel Gasser, Zhuoli Yang, Lisa Potopsingh | STRUCTURAL Glotman Simpson | MECHANICAL Introba | ELECTRICAL Nemetz & Associates, Inc. | LANDSCAPE SWA Group (Design) w/ Cornelia Oberlander & G|ALA – Gauthier & Associates Landscape Architecture, Inc. (Landscape Architect of Record) | INTERIORS Revery Architecture | CONTRACTOR Icon West Construction (new construction); The Haebler Group (heritage) | LIGHTING ARUP (Design) & Nemetz (Engineer of Record) | SUSTAINABILITY & ENERGY MODELlING Introba | BUILDING ENVELOPE RDH Building Science, Inc. | HERITAGE CONSERVATION Donald Luxton & Associates, Inc.| ACOUSTICS BKL Consultants Ltd. | TRAFFIC Bunt & Associates, Inc. | POOL Rockingham Pool Consulting, Inc. | FOUNTAIN Vincent Helton & Associates | WIND Gradient Wind Engineering, Inc. | WASTE CONSULTANT Target Zero Waste Consulting, Inc. | AREA 56,206 M2 | BUDGET Withheld | COMPLETION Spring 2025 ENERGY USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 106 kWh/m2/year | WATER USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 0.72 m3/m2/year As appeared in the June 2025 issue of Canadian Architect magazine The post The Butterfly takes flight: The Butterfly, Vancouver, BC appeared first on Canadian Architect.

Unlike the rest of us mere mortals, animated characters need not age. Bart Simpson has been fourth grade for decades. Homer hasn’t gotten any balder in that time either. (Admittedly when you only have three hairs to begin with, there’s not many to lose.)So it’s always kind of interesting when the characters on an animated series do get older. That’s what’s happened on the new TV revival of King of the Hill for Hulu. Its central couple, Hank and Peggy Hill, are now retirement age, and their lovably little son Bobby ain’t so little anymore. He’s now in his 20s. That image above says it all.The series, created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, premiered on Fox in 1997 and endured for 13 seasons and over 250 episodes in its initial run, even though the show never quite attained the same level of cultural ubiquity as its longtime lead-in, The Simpsons. Both Judge and Daniels returned to work on the new version of the show as executive producers; Saladin Patterson serves as the new showrunner.First announced in 2023, this revival is going straight to streaming. Hulu just revealed the opening credits for the new season, which blazes through the years since King of the Hill went off the air to catch us up on the Hills lives in just 30 seconds. Watch the clip below:READ MORE: TV Shows Brought Back After They Got CanceledHere is the new season’s synopsis:After years working a propane job in Saudi Arabia to earn their retirement nest egg, Hank and Peggy Hill return to a changed Arlen, Texas to reconnect with old friends Dale, Boomhauer and Bill. Meanwhile, Bobby is living his dream as a chef in Dallas and enjoying his 20s with his former classmates Connie, Joseph and Chane.Hulu’s new season of King of the Hill premieres on August 4 on Hulu.Get our free mobile app10 TV Revivals That Were So Bad They Ruined Their Original ShowsFiled Under: Greg Daniels, Hulu, King of the Hill, Mike JudgeCategories: Trailers, TV News