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(Orproject)You know pollution is bad in cities like Beijing when architects start proposing concepts like this—parks enclosed in bubbles that let city dwellers escape the nasty air. Called they're a vision of designers at Orproject, an architecture firm with offices in London, Beijing and New Delhi.These would be parks, or more precisely, botanical gardens, enclosed in specially designed transparent bubbles. Erecting flexible domes over large areas is not only expensive, but can be downright impractical. But Orproject says it has devised a lightweight structural system where the skin is modeled after the veins of leaves or butterfly wings.The parks would be open to the public. But here’s a twist—buildings around the park, which could house apartments, offices or stores, would have easy access to that refreshingly clean air.
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These projects set to be completed this year are geared toward strengthening communities that have been left out of the economic recovery. Three projects to be built in 2018 – a library in Brooklyn, a low-income housing project in Chicago and transitional housing for the homeless in Los Angeles – demonstrate architecture’s unique power to build, sustain and forge communities.