The most impressive engineering feats of 2018

They’re the

By Popular Science Team

Updated on Jun 23, 2021 8:22 AM EDT

Morpheus Hotel by Zaha Hadid Architects in Macau, China
Inside-out support
Built atop an abandoned rectangular foundation in Macau, China, the 42-floor Morpheus hotel is a study in openness. Between the building's two towers, visitors enter a 131-foot-tall atrium. Their view upward and sideways is unencumbered by support columns thanks to a freeform steel mesh exoskeleton—the world's first in a high-rise. The complex exterior helps hold the building up and completely supports the atrium's façade. All the better to admire the artful, irregular holes punched between the towers. Ivan Dupont
Engineering
Included on this year’s list: A high-rise without support columns. Zaha Hadid Architects

Looking for this year’s list? 2019’s Best of What’s New winners, this way. >>

It’s an elegant way to avoid urban flooding: Lay down paving tiles that soak up rain and divert it from sewers to greenery. But that innovation, the Climate Tile, is just one of the problem-solving projects we’ve named the best engineering breakthroughs of 2018. There’s also a 3D printer slated to build affordable homes in impoverished areas, and a sea life sampler that lets biologists gather marine specimens without damaging their squishy bodies. Other “bests” are a bit more whimsical: a banana that grows in the cold, vegan scrambled eggs, and robots that turn backflips 60 feet in the air.

Climate Tile Sidewalk by Tredje Natur (Third Nature)
Rotary Actuated Dodecahedron (RAD) an origami-inspired grasper by Harvard University
cold-weather Mongee banana by D&T Farm on a plate
People standing on the world's first revolving glass floor the Loupe on the Space Needle
Guardian GT robot by Sarcos preforming a task
3-D Vulcan printed housing by ICON and New Story in nature
Stuntronics flying humanoid robot by Disney Imagineering in the air
Amazon Go convenience store by Amazon
Steel Vengeance steel roller coaster at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio by Rocky Mountain Corporation
Just Egg vegan egg sandwich

See the entire list: The 100 greatest innovations of 2018

Spot robotic dog by Boston Dynamics