Common Edge
Zoning, Preservation, Climate Change: Connecting the Dots
What can the law teach architecture, and vice-versa? Sara Bronin, head of the U.S. Advisory Council...
a year ago
What can the law teach architecture, and vice-versa? Sara Bronin, head of the U.S. Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, knows.
A Weekly Dose of...
Changing Ideals in Architectural Criticism
On the Duty and Power of Architectural Criticism edited by Wilfried Wang, published by Park Books...
a year ago
On the Duty and Power of Architectural Criticism edited by Wilfried Wang, published by Park Books and University of Texas at Austin, 2022 (Amazon / Bookshop)
Who Is the City For?: Architecture, Equity, and the Public Realm in Chicago by Blair Kamin with photographs by Lee Bey,...
Archinect - Features
UK Architectural Licensure Had Not Changed in 50 Years. Until Now.
Having previously examined architecture licensure systems in the United States and across mainland...
4 months ago
Having previously examined architecture licensure systems in the United States and across mainland Europe, this edition of the Archinect In-Depth: Licensure series profiles changes underway in the United Kingdom's licensing system, which is currently undergoing a “fundamental...
The Modern House
Oscar Piccolo on the intriguing objects in his home in Hackney Wick
a year ago
Contemporist...
This Small Apartment Has A Yoga Wall And A Coffee Bar
LITTLEMORE INTERIOR DESIGN has shared photos of a small 380-square-foot (35 sqm) apartment in Hong...
a year ago
LITTLEMORE INTERIOR DESIGN has shared photos of a small 380-square-foot (35 sqm) apartment in Hong Kong, that includes both a custom yoga wall and a coffee bar.
Archinect - Features
How to Understand Architecture Business Conditions Using the AIA's Architecture Billings...
Since 1995, the American Institute of Architects has conducted a monthly index detailing trends in...
7 months ago
Since 1995, the American Institute of Architects has conducted a monthly index detailing trends in billings by architecture firms in the United States. Over time, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) has become a valuable metric for charting the economic health of the...
Old Structures...
How Far Is Far?
I was up on a rooftop in the mid-Bronx (Belmont, to be somewhat more exact) last week and saw a...
11 months ago
I was up on a rooftop in the mid-Bronx (Belmont, to be somewhat more exact) last week and saw a familiar profile: That’s Billionaire’s Row, on the order of eight and a half miles away. It’s no surpise that you can see a big building from a distance – that’s the essence of all...
devonzuegel.com
OWD #1: Tea time in Yemen
I'm starting a podcast with my friends, Marie-Agnes and Alain Bertaud, who also happen to be the...
over a year ago
I'm starting a podcast with my friends, Marie-Agnes and Alain Bertaud, who also happen to be the most interesting couple I know. Over the course of this first conversation, we traveled all around the globe for a whirlwind tour of the adventurous life they've led together.
Audio ·...
The Modern House
Glenn Adamson: the curator on why a New York ‘love shack’ stole his heart
As a curator, perhaps there’s no space that better encapsulates Glenn Adamson than his own...
a year ago
As a curator, perhaps there’s no space that better encapsulates Glenn Adamson than his own rainbow-hued house, which looks more like something you’d find in Wonderland than Upstate New York. And, as our podcast host, Matt Gibberd, discovered when he met Glenn for this episode […]
The Modern House
Architect Laura Dewe Mathews shares the secret ingredients of her 'gingerbread house'
5 months ago
devonzuegel.com
Urban sprawl is a tragedy of the commons
We tend to choose larger homes than we want our neighbors to choose. The result: sprawling...
over a year ago
We tend to choose larger homes than we want our neighbors to choose. The result: sprawling development that doesn't match what people actually want from their communities.
People aim to maximize access and space when deciding where to live.
All things equal, most people like...
The Modern House
A look inside Issue No.6 of our magazine
The new issue of our print magazine has just landed in our shop – and it’s filled with stories that...
a year ago
The new issue of our print magazine has just landed in our shop – and it’s filled with stories that look at the journeys we go on with our homes, from the emotional paths they take us on, to the very real process of renovating […]
Old Structures...
That Looks Old
I was on my way to a site in Greenwich Village and came across this group at 12th Street and Hudson...
10 months ago
I was on my way to a site in Greenwich Village and came across this group at 12th Street and Hudson Street: This is in the Greenwich Village Historic District, so I knew I could find a capsule history of the buildings with minimal effort, but I took a look at the usual fire maps....
Old Structures...
An Exotic Foreign Land
From the New York Public Library scrapbooks, what appears to be a page of illustrations from a...
2 weeks ago
From the New York Public Library scrapbooks, what appears to be a page of illustrations from a European tourist guide to New York: Let’s start with the non-controversial item in the lower left: That is a decent engraving of Das Stadhaus / The City Hall / La maison de Ville as...
Common Edge
Our Cities Aren’t Dead Yet!
Forget the “doom loops,” there are plenty of indicators that urban centers are recovering.
a year ago
Forget the “doom loops,” there are plenty of indicators that urban centers are recovering.
Common Edge
NYC’s ‘City of Yes’ Proposal Is a Free Pass for Big Real Estate
It won’t create affordable housing, but instead lead to continued gentrification and displacement.
3 months ago
It won’t create affordable housing, but instead lead to continued gentrification and displacement.
Archinect - Features
When California Tried to Abolish Architectural Licensure
Throughout the 20th century, every state and territory across the U.S. passed laws establishing a...
4 months ago
Throughout the 20th century, every state and territory across the U.S. passed laws establishing a requirement to license architects. Since then, no jurisdiction has successfully repealed such a requirement. In the late 1970s, however, California almost became a notable...
CONTEMPORIST
A New Home Designed As Three Cascading Glass Boxes
Efficiency Lab for Architecture has designed a modern home nestled into the steep hillside of the...
9 months ago
Efficiency Lab for Architecture has designed a modern home nestled into the steep hillside of the Telluride Box Canyon in Colorado. The plan for the home focused on the architectural expression of three cantilevered glass boxes. Each glass box is positioned in a moment of...
Cartogrammar
A guide to not being a sidewalk jerk
Hello friends. It has become apparent that you are all terrible at being pedestrians. I feel...
over a year ago
Hello friends. It has become apparent that you are all terrible at being pedestrians. I feel confident saying that despite some good eggs and battle-tested walkers such as New Yorkers, most Americans are obliviously selfish, inconsiderate users of sidewalk space. It’s true even...
devonzuegel.com
Urban sprawl is a tragedy of the commons
We tend to choose larger homes than we want our neighbors to choose. The result: sprawling...
over a year ago
We tend to choose larger homes than we want our neighbors to choose. The result: sprawling development that doesn't match what people actually want from their communities.
People aim to maximize access and space when deciding where to live.
All things equal, most people like...
Construction Physics
Could we stop Yellowstone from erupting with a giant geothermal power plant?
It’s become fairly common knowledge that Yellowstone National Park, in addition to being incredibly...
a year ago
It’s become fairly common knowledge that Yellowstone National Park, in addition to being incredibly beautiful, is sitting on top of an enormous supervolcano that catastrophically erupts every few hundred thousand years. Unlike normal volcanoes, which tend to produce large...
CONTEMPORIST
A Circular Sunken Firepit Is Nestled Into The Desert Landscape Of This Home
Architecture firm The Ranch Mine has sent us photos of a new home they completed in Paradise Valley,...
10 months ago
Architecture firm The Ranch Mine has sent us photos of a new home they completed in Paradise Valley, Arizona, that breaks down the barriers between indoor and outdoor living. As you approach the house, the first thing that captures the eye is the striking interplay of metal fins...
The Solarchitecture...
7 key principles of solar passive design - Part 2.
Balance it all with local climate and a holistic energy calculation.
over a year ago
Balance it all with local climate and a holistic energy calculation.
Old Structures...
One Way It Began
It’s hard to over-emphasize how rail-centric New York City was before, say, 1920. In addition to the...
3 months ago
It’s hard to over-emphasize how rail-centric New York City was before, say, 1920. In addition to the subway, there were the commuter railroads, which had many more stations within the city then than they do now, and a vast street-car network. The streetcars are entirely gone,...
Benny Kuriakose
Courtyard – The Beauty and Functionality
Courtyards are an ancient building technique used throughout the ages in Indian houses of all eras....
a year ago
Courtyards are an ancient building technique used throughout the ages in Indian houses of all eras. With the rise in modernity, the use...
Old Structures...
The Shapes Arise
Nearly every day, I walk past the construction of the South Battery Park City Resiliency Project,...
5 months ago
Nearly every day, I walk past the construction of the South Battery Park City Resiliency Project, part of protecting lower Manhattan from the kind of flooding that occurred during Hurricane Sandy. Much of it is relatively straightforward: there’s a big berm being added to the...
CONTEMPORIST
A Living Room That Floats Above The Forest Floor Is A Remarkable Feature Of This Home
DeForest Architects has shared photos of a home they designed that follows the topography of the...
9 months ago
DeForest Architects has shared photos of a home they designed that follows the topography of the site, with some rooms tucked into the land and others floating above it. Located in a waterfront neighborhood just south of Seattle, the one-acre wooded site sits atop a bluff...
devonzuegel.com
Buenos Aires recommendations
I wrote a Buenos Aires guide with recommendations and tips for a group of friends I was traveling...
over a year ago
I wrote a Buenos Aires guide with recommendations and tips for a group of friends I was traveling with in December 2021, and I figured it might be useful to other people too. I adore Buenos Aires and spend about a month each year there, so I'm always thrilled to hear when friends...
The Modern House
A Modern Way to Live: our co-founder Matt Gibberd on nature
With the arrival of April, its showers and – hopefully – some flowers, comes a new theme for the...
8 months ago
With the arrival of April, its showers and – hopefully – some flowers, comes a new theme for the Journal’s content. As we did with space in January, light in February and materials in March, for the coming weeks we’ll be looking at all the […]
The Modern House
How Mabel Law and Andrew Tam transformed a modest flat into a space-maximising maisonette in...
a year ago
devonzuegel.com
Edge Esmeralda: A recap of June's popup village
This summer, I co-organized a month-long 1,300-person "popup village" in Healdsburg, CA called Edge...
3 months ago
This summer, I co-organized a month-long 1,300-person "popup village" in Healdsburg, CA called Edge Esmeralda. This gathering was incredibly fun and rewarding, and it was also a huge accelerant to the creation of the permanent village we are building, Esmeralda.
Edge Esmeralda...
The Modern House
A mix of materials results in fun, family-friendly flexibility in a Hove warehouse conversion
8 months ago
Old Structures...
Small Trusses
For the last nine years, the high point, for me, of the annual APTI conference has been the student...
a month ago
For the last nine years, the high point, for me, of the annual APTI conference has been the student competition run by the Preservation Engineering Technical Committee. This year, In Montreal, was no exception. This year, I had no role in the competition, which frees me to say...
CONTEMPORIST
A Plaid-Inspired Wood Kitchen Is A Unique Design Feature Inside This Office
BHDM Design has recently completed a workplace in New York for private equity consulting firm...
a year ago
BHDM Design has recently completed a workplace in New York for private equity consulting firm Accordion, whose interior was inspired by motifs of menswear fabrics. An interesting design element in the workplace is the kitchen, which includes a unique plaid design. The plaid...
Old Structures...
New And Improved Graphics!
Seven years ago [!] I spent some time looking at the Pearl Street overpass portion of the Manhattan...
2 months ago
Seven years ago [!] I spent some time looking at the Pearl Street overpass portion of the Manhattan approach of the Brooklyn Bridge. The short version is that it’s an 1880s steel truss reinforced in the mid-1900s with a steel arch below. The long discussion is: here and here and...
CONTEMPORIST
LED Lighting Is Hidden Throughout This Home To Create A Soft Warm Glow
Interior design studio, Pure AW’s Designers Ltd, has shared a modern apartment they completed in...
a year ago
Interior design studio, Pure AW’s Designers Ltd, has shared a modern apartment they completed in Kowloon, Hong Kong, that combines warm woods and soft lighting. Designed for a couple with two children, the apartment’s interior is influenced by traditional Nordic aesthetics and...
Archinect - Features
Design, Computation, and Humans: Exploring the Intersection with Onur Yüce Gün
For Onur Yüce Gün, the study of computation is the study of the human condition itself. A mission to...
a year ago
For Onur Yüce Gün, the study of computation is the study of the human condition itself. A mission to anchor humans at the center of AI and computational design brought Gün on an educational journey from Middle East Technical University in his native Turkey to the MIT Design and...
The Modern House
Five things to do and see this September
September might spell the end of summer but, as this edition of The TMH Edit proves, there are...
a year ago
September might spell the end of summer but, as this edition of The TMH Edit proves, there are plenty of happenings to keep spirits high – even if the days are slowly getting shorter. Read on for our top tips for the month ahead, including […]
99% Invisible
Trail Mix [EPISODE]
A good trail is one that is easy to follow and well maintained. Each trail is designed, constructed...
a year ago
A good trail is one that is easy to follow and well maintained. Each trail is designed, constructed and maintained to meet specific standards. These standards relate to the recreational experience the trail is intended to provide. But trails are something many of us take for...
Archinect - Features
Let's Talk About Architectural Licensure
Welcome to Archinect In-Depth: Licensure. Over the coming weeks, Archinect will explore the journey...
7 months ago
Welcome to Archinect In-Depth: Licensure. Over the coming weeks, Archinect will explore the journey undertaken by those in the United States seeking to practice as a licensed architect, including reflections on the history of licensure, comparisons to other countries, the cost...
Old Structures...
Yet Another Blue-Sky Proposal
From a magazine I can’t readily find (the February 28, 1891 edition of Architecture and Building),...
3 months ago
From a magazine I can’t readily find (the February 28, 1891 edition of Architecture and Building), via a scrapbook at the New York Public Library: a very involved railroad and boulevard system that I doubt anyone wanted and had zero chance of being built: This proposal is along...
The Modern House
Claudia Donaldson: in residence with the pioneering editor and creative director
Claudia Donaldson was the photography director at Wallpaper magazine, before becoming...
7 months ago
Claudia Donaldson was the photography director at Wallpaper magazine, before becoming editor-in-chief of Nowness, the video platform that revolutionised the way we consume arts and culture. Under her stewardship, it is now considered a go-to source of inspiration and influence,...
Old Structures...
Got Very Big, Very Fast
Yesterday, I mentioned two department stores in New York, the 1846 A. T. Stewart Store at Broadway...
2 months ago
Yesterday, I mentioned two department stores in New York, the 1846 A. T. Stewart Store at Broadway and Chambers Street that was the first real department store in the US, and the 1896 Siegel-Cooper Store at Sixth Avenue and 18th Street that was for a time the largest store in the...
Contemporist...
A Round Design And Open Arches Give This Concrete Home A Unique Look
Architecture firm Estudio Carroll has shared photos of a new concrete home they completed in Puerto...
5 months ago
Architecture firm Estudio Carroll has shared photos of a new concrete home they completed in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, that has a unique shape.
Old Structures...
Faking It
A pet peeve of more than one of us at Old Structures is seeing buildings that are “faking” something...
a month ago
A pet peeve of more than one of us at Old Structures is seeing buildings that are “faking” something that makes no sense. Examples abound, like weep holes in solid masonry walls. I noticed this building while on the train recently, with the star anchors that one often sees on...
The Modern House
Skye’s the limit at this home in a serene settlement in the Scottish Highlands
a year ago
99% Invisible
Cooking with Gas [EPISODE]
Back in January, Bloomberg News published a story quoting an obscure government official named...
a year ago
Back in January, Bloomberg News published a story quoting an obscure government official named Richard Trumka Jr. He works with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which regulates stuff like furniture and electronics and household appliances. Basically, the agency is supposed...
Old Structures...
So Very Random
Hidden among the vast holdings of the New York Public Library is a set of 52 images of playing cards...
a year ago
Hidden among the vast holdings of the New York Public Library is a set of 52 images of playing cards donated by William Barclay Parsons, arguably most famous for being the chief engineer of the Interborough Rapid Transit system, New York’s oldest subway. Each card has an...
Coffee with an...
Design explained using venn diagrams
Design is hard. If only the process could be explained using simple venn diagrams. Unfortunately,...
8 months ago
Design is hard. If only the process could be explained using simple venn diagrams. Unfortunately, this isn’t that: More Design in charts – HERE, and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE
The Modern House
How an architect couple transformed an old shop in Walthamstow into a restful wooden home
a year ago
CONTEMPORIST
Stone Covers The Exterior And Interior Of This Harbourfront Hideaway
SAOTA, TKD Architects, and interior architects ARRCC have shared photos of a new home they completed...
7 months ago
SAOTA, TKD Architects, and interior architects ARRCC have shared photos of a new home they completed that fronts Sydney Harbour in Australia. Partially hidden from view from the street, the home, which is located in a historical suburb, sits behind a row of plants and a fence...
A Weekly Dose of...
From the Mouths of Architects
I'm not sure when it happened, but at some point I went from disliking interviews — preferring texts...
a year ago
I'm not sure when it happened, but at some point I went from disliking interviews — preferring texts written by architects, much of it in the vein of theory — to gravitating to them. Now I find myself opting to read interviews, be they online or in printed matter, over other...
Old Structures...
The Back Side
I’ve discussed the old Croton Distributing Reservoir several times before. It was the southernmost...
9 months ago
I’ve discussed the old Croton Distributing Reservoir several times before. It was the southernmost visible part of New York’s first really good water system, and occupied the same spot that the New York Public Library does today: 40th to 42nd Street, from Fifth Avenue to a little...
The Modern House
Why a nomadic design dealer is finally putting down roots at this family home in east London
a year ago
The Modern House
Shine Bright: five light-filled homes currently for sale
“The sun never knew how wonderful it was until it fell on the wall of a building.” So said the great...
10 months ago
“The sun never knew how wonderful it was until it fell on the wall of a building.” So said the great American modernist architect Louis Kahn. And what wise words they are, for a home with good natural light is a special one. Light can […]
Old Structures...
Too Perfect
Yet another view of lower Broadway, this time from 1908. It’s low resolution and artificially...
9 months ago
Yet another view of lower Broadway, this time from 1908. It’s low resolution and artificially colored, so it’s really more of an illustration than a photo, but good enough for a postcard. This picture bothers me and it took me a while to realize why. The issue exists for a lot of...
Contemporist...
A New Building In Shanghai Inspired By A Forest Of Trees
Koichi Takada Architects has designed a retail building in Shanghai, China, that's described as an...
10 months ago
Koichi Takada Architects has designed a retail building in Shanghai, China, that's described as an 'architectural forest' of 32 trees.
Old Structures...
Expertise
In the course of doing research on old buildings, I’ve looked at some non-traditional sources. For...
11 months ago
In the course of doing research on old buildings, I’ve looked at some non-traditional sources. For example, in trying to find original images of demolished and non-famous buildings, I’ve had some success with magazine ads from tenants. It used to be popular to put a picture of...
99% Invisible
How the World Ran Out of Everything
There’s an image that’s stuck with many of us from the early pandemic: dozens of cargo ships...
a month ago
There’s an image that’s stuck with many of us from the early pandemic: dozens of cargo ships anchored off the coasts of US ports, stacked high with hundreds of thousands of containers filled with goods, just sitting there in a traffic jam. At the same time, grocery store shelves...
99% Invisible
Model Village [EPISODE]
For decades, society has dealt with people with dementia and other forms of cognitive decline by...
a year ago
For decades, society has dealt with people with dementia and other forms of cognitive decline by storing them away in unstimulating, medicalized environments. But around the world, a new architectural movement is starting to challenge that old paradigm. Designing environments...
Old Structures...
Now The Good Side
A few years ago, I wrote a fairly snarky and negative piece on the Park Avenue Hotel. The building...
10 months ago
A few years ago, I wrote a fairly snarky and negative piece on the Park Avenue Hotel. The building is physically of interest to me because it was a rare example of a residential building with cast-iron facades and a good example of the common approach (in the mid-nineteenth...
99% Invisible
Roman Mars Describes Athens GA As It Is [EPISODE]
This is the third and final episode in a three-part series of Roman Mars recording on-location...
8 months ago
This is the third and final episode in a three-part series of Roman Mars recording on-location guides to the design features and interesting spots in cities he loves. Roman moved to Athens, Georgia, to pursue a PhD in plant genetics, but dropped out and got into the local music...
The Modern House
A Modern Way to Live: our co-founder Matt Gibberd on materials
When it was first published in 2021, we ran some excerpts from our co-founder Matt Gibberd’s book, A...
9 months ago
When it was first published in 2021, we ran some excerpts from our co-founder Matt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, which looked at the five principles that best-designed homes tend to pay attention to and which make for happier, healthier living environments: space, […]
A Weekly Dose of...
A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books is on Substack
I'm breaking my blogging silence to do two things:
Alert readers to the fact I am still writing...
2 months ago
I'm breaking my blogging silence to do two things:
Alert readers to the fact I am still writing reviews of architecture books under the title A Weekly Dose of Architecture Books, but over at Substack, not Blogger.
Put a new post at the top of this blog so I don't have to look...
The Wandering...
Constructing Bourgoin’s Figure 171 – Part 1
Just veering off into geometry here…. In November I was watching Eric Broug, an Islamic geometric...
over a year ago
Just veering off into geometry here…. In November I was watching Eric Broug, an Islamic geometric design guru, give a talk online at an Islamic art conference, and I noticed that behind him they were projecting an interesting pattern on the scrim. I froze the video and grabbed a...
CONTEMPORIST
These A-Frame Cabins Were Built To Create An Eco-Hotel In Italy
Atelier LAVIT has sent us images of their latest project LILELO / Little Leisure Lodge, which is an...
a year ago
Atelier LAVIT has sent us images of their latest project LILELO / Little Leisure Lodge, which is an eco-hotel made up of four independent cabins. Three of the cabins are dedicated to housing suites, with the fourth cabin acting as a common area with a generous outdoor space and a...
CONTEMPORIST
A Bed That Can Slide To Be Outside
Okno Modhomes has shared photos of a small and modern cabin they completed that was designed as a...
5 months ago
Okno Modhomes has shared photos of a small and modern cabin they completed that was designed as a space where humans and nature coexist in perfect harmony. Nestled within a lush canopy of existing and newly planted trees in India, the cabin features a mirrored glass exterior that...
Archinect - Features
You, Me, and DALL-E: On the Relationship Between Architecture, Data, and Artificial...
Thirty years after the thaw of the last 'AI Winter,' the landscape of artificial intelligence is one...
a year ago
Thirty years after the thaw of the last 'AI Winter,' the landscape of artificial intelligence is one of a forest in full bloom. On a weekly basis throughout 2023, new tools have been released taking advantage of the latest advances in machine learning algorithms, while existing...
Old Structures...
Minor Errors
From a New York Public Library scrapbook, an 1880 view of Union Square. The title on the web page...
2 months ago
From a New York Public Library scrapbook, an 1880 view of Union Square. The title on the web page says “South side Union Square B’way” except that this is definitely (see below) the north side of the Square, AKA East 17th Street. Is the first word written in pencil “South”? If I...
Old Structures...
It Looked Familiar: Fancy Digs
Hawkeye chases some bad guys in New York: Looking north up Central Park West from a bit below 71st...
3 months ago
Hawkeye chases some bad guys in New York: Looking north up Central Park West from a bit below 71st Street: The relatively-low brown building two blocks up is the Dakota Apartments, but the drawing in the comic isn’t accurate enough to recognize it. The building at the first...
Construction Physics
How did solar power get cheap? Part I
Solar photovoltaics (PV) have become one of the cheapest sources of electricity. Lazard’s estimate...
a year ago
Solar photovoltaics (PV) have become one of the cheapest sources of electricity. Lazard’s estimate of unsubsidized levelized cost of energy (LCOE)
CONTEMPORIST
This Coastal-Inspired Interior Is Soft And Calming
Melling Studio has shared photos of an interior they designed for a duplex in Vancouver, turning it...
4 months ago
Melling Studio has shared photos of an interior they designed for a duplex in Vancouver, turning it into a warm and effortlessly coastal home for a young, active family. The home was completed in January 2023 and truly embodies the considered yet breezy essence of Kitsilano...
Old Structures...
The Big Time
We’re working on the Gothic Bridge in Central Park, seen above. Tim went to the night-before prep...
a year ago
We’re working on the Gothic Bridge in Central Park, seen above. Tim went to the night-before prep for the Thanksgiving parade and found this float: And then he watched the parade on TV and found it again, second from the end:
Old Structures...
A Thomas Nast Holiday – 2 of 3
Santa looks a bit like Horace Greeley in this one.
12 months ago
Santa looks a bit like Horace Greeley in this one.
The Modern House
Modest living meets modernist design in the Isokon Building in Hampstead
a year ago
CONTEMPORIST
Before & After – A Kitchen And Dining Area Remodel To Open Up The Space And Create More Seating
Floisand Studio Architects has shared photos of a kitchen and dining area renovation they completed...
a year ago
Floisand Studio Architects has shared photos of a kitchen and dining area renovation they completed for a home in Seattle, Washington. The homeowners, both small business owners in Seattle, worked with Floisand Studio for over a decade designing a number of popular cafes and a...
Common Edge
Can We Create a Secular and Spiritual Architecture?
It’s not spirituality that’s in retreat, but face to face rituals and customs.
9 months ago
It’s not spirituality that’s in retreat, but face to face rituals and customs.
CONTEMPORIST
A House Designed Like Two Barns Beside Each Other
Exterio Studio has shared photos of a modern home they designed in the Kujawy region of Poland, that...
a year ago
Exterio Studio has shared photos of a modern home they designed in the Kujawy region of Poland, that has a layout similar to two barns positioned side-by-side. The home has been designed to take advantage of the long and narrow lot, with the layout divided into two interconnected...
The Modern House
MRTN Architects’ garden studios in Melbourne are a place to work – or to not work
8 months ago
Old Structures...
Amusing Until It’s Not
This story turns ugly rather quickly. From the New York Public Library scrapbook, The Hippotheatron...
4 months ago
This story turns ugly rather quickly. From the New York Public Library scrapbook, The Hippotheatron and New York Cirque: That’s 14th Street between Irving Place and Third Avenue, with an out-chapel of Grace Church next door. As the name suggests, that weird building was a theater...
There are two types...
DONALD TRUMP & EVIL – A Post-Halloween / Election-Eve Story
Almost forty years ago, I owned a small house in the Greenwich “backcountry” just a few miles from...
a month ago
Almost forty years ago, I owned a small house in the Greenwich “backcountry” just a few miles from the Westchester County Airport. One morning, I was talking on the phone with a friend whom I would see later in the … Continue reading →
The post DONALD TRUMP & EVIL – A...
Old Structures...
Time Is Relative
From 1949, “Manhattan from a Hudson River ferry.” The piers in the foreground are where the Battery...
5 months ago
From 1949, “Manhattan from a Hudson River ferry.” The piers in the foreground are where the Battery Park City landfill would be made circa 1970. From the left, the peaks are the New York Telephone building at 140 West Street, the Woolworth Building, 225 Broadway, AT&T at 195...
devonzuegel.com
Remote work will break the US monopoly on global talent
Remote work is creating a new economic niche, and countries that put in the work to fill it will...
over a year ago
Remote work is creating a new economic niche, and countries that put in the work to fill it will finally be able to compete with the US to attract talent. This is the once-in-a-generation opportunity for small, stable countries to grow, diversify, and up-skill their...
Old Structures...
A Thomas Nast Holiday – 1 of 3
Nast is best known as a political cartoonist, but he largely created the popular US version of Santa...
12 months ago
Nast is best known as a political cartoonist, but he largely created the popular US version of Santa Claus from his childhood memories of Christmas in Germany. For the next three days, examples of his work. Today 1863, with references to the Civil War in Santa’s costume.
The Modern House
From Liverpool terrace to Barbican penthouse: editor Tony Chambers on success from humble beginnings...
Tony Chambers, best known for being the longest-serving editor-in-chief of Wallpaper*, is the latest...
a year ago
Tony Chambers, best known for being the longest-serving editor-in-chief of Wallpaper*, is the latest guest to feature on our podcast, Homing In. Having worked at the design magazine for more than 15 years, Tony has spent a great deal of time reporting on some of […]
CONTEMPORIST
This Barn-Inspired Home Hides A Playroom With Climbing Wall Under Its Gable Roof
Tomas Beranek and Arthur Nuss of Global Architects collaborated with client and builder Bram van de...
a year ago
Tomas Beranek and Arthur Nuss of Global Architects collaborated with client and builder Bram van de Wal to design and complete a barn-inspired modern home in The Netherlands. The barn house has a natural look and the modern simplicity of timber frame construction. The exterior...
99% Invisible
The 15 Minute City
In February 2023, over two thousand people took to the streets in Oxford, England to protest their...
2 weeks ago
In February 2023, over two thousand people took to the streets in Oxford, England to protest their local government. They were wearing yellow vests and chanting slogans about the municipality’s new traffic policies. But most notably, many of them were vocally angry about a new...
Common Edge
Picturing an Exhibition: Closing the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale
Much in the architecture world, and the world at large, has changed since the exhibition opened.
a year ago
Much in the architecture world, and the world at large, has changed since the exhibition opened.
CONTEMPORIST
Curved Green Roofs Cover This Creekside Cabin
MAP Architecture has shared photos of a contemporary cabin they completed in Suffolk, England,...
a year ago
MAP Architecture has shared photos of a contemporary cabin they completed in Suffolk, England, that’s located adjacent to the creek and reedbeds within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). The ‘Creek Cabin’, with early...
Archinect - Features
Architect: Whose Title Is It Anyway?
When is an architect not an ‘architect?’ In the fourth part of Archinect In-Depth: Licensure, we...
6 months ago
When is an architect not an ‘architect?’ In the fourth part of Archinect In-Depth: Licensure, we explore the proliferation of the title 'architect' in cases beyond the built environment, most notably in the technology sector through terms such as 'software architect' or 'IT...
Construction Physics
Airport Reading List
The major sources I found helpful for learning about airports and their construction are listed...
9 months ago
The major sources I found helpful for learning about airports and their construction are listed below. As usual, these are listed roughly in order of how useful I found them. And because “useful” isn’t the same as “actually interesting to read” I’ve marked the books that are...
99% Invisible
The Wilderness Tool [EPISODE]
Imagine one of those old-timey lumberjack photos. The kind where two men in plaid are working away...
a year ago
Imagine one of those old-timey lumberjack photos. The kind where two men in plaid are working away at a tree, holding opposite ends of a huge, human-length saw. That is a vintage crosscut saw. Some avid crosscut seekers spend hours mining websites like eBay and Craigslist. But...
Old Structures...
Just Because I Like It
A view of 99 Prince Street: It’s a little hard to believe it today, but this was built simply an...
a month ago
A view of 99 Prince Street: It’s a little hard to believe it today, but this was built simply an ordinary commercial building with retail and office space. It was completed in 1888 by architect William Schickel working for “J. J. Astor.” That was either John Jacob Astor III near...
CONTEMPORIST
Hempcrete Walls Are On Display Inside This Home’s New Extension
Architecture studio Cairn, has shared photos of a house renovation and extension they completed for...
3 months ago
Architecture studio Cairn, has shared photos of a house renovation and extension they completed for a home in London, England, that uses a new low-carbon concrete. The ‘House made by many hands’ is the first building structure in the UK to specify a low-carbon limestone calcined...
Old Structures...
Buildings Are Meant To Be Used
With the partial exception of industrial buildings, you can always distinguish buildings constructed...
3 weeks ago
With the partial exception of industrial buildings, you can always distinguish buildings constructed before the 1950s from their later counterparts by looking for light courts. If your lights are, at best, incandescent bulbs, and your ventilation is mostly or entirely though...
The Modern House
Claire Ptak, founder of Violet bakery, on seasonal cakes and the community spirit of Hackney
a year ago
Old Structures...
An Obvious Issue
“The Battle for the Streets of New York” by Dodai Stewart and illustrated by Leon Edler, in Monday’s...
7 months ago
“The Battle for the Streets of New York” by Dodai Stewart and illustrated by Leon Edler, in Monday’s New York Times, is a reasonable discussion of congestion on Manhattan’s streets. Not just car congestion – delivery truck, bus, bicycle, and pedestrian congestion are discussed as...
Contemporist...
This Australian Terrace House Was Modernized For Today's Living
Chan Architecture has shared photos of a project they recently completed in Clifton Hill, Australia,...
a year ago
Chan Architecture has shared photos of a project they recently completed in Clifton Hill, Australia, that included transforming the interior of a terrace house into a modern home.
The Modern House
Daniel Baer and Jassim Ahmad on minimal living at their courtyard house in East Dulwich
a year ago
Old Structures...
An Alternate Timeline
Gustav Lindenthal really wanted to bridge the Hudson River. He was one of the most successful bridge...
11 months ago
Gustav Lindenthal really wanted to bridge the Hudson River. He was one of the most successful bridge engineers in the US – he’s best represented in New York by the Queensboro and Hell Gate Bridges – but nothing compares with his effort to building a suspension bridge across the...
99% Invisible
Nuts and Bolts [EPISODE]
In her new book Nuts and Bolts Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way),...
a year ago
In her new book Nuts and Bolts Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way), structural engineer Roma Agrawal identifies and examines the seven of most basic building blocks of engineering that have shaped the modern world: the nail, the wheel, the spring, the...
Blog - Guerrilla...
How Guerrilla Cartography’s Atlases Promote Diverse Perspectives
Guerrilla Cartography aims to promote the understanding that there are many views of the world, that...
a year ago
Guerrilla Cartography aims to promote the understanding that there are many views of the world, that how we understand space and place can vary, and that we should think critically about the maps and the graphics we make and consume. Our organization has designed processes for...
Old Structures...
It Looked Familiar: A Project
Jessica Drew, in her Spider-Woman gear, visits Belvedere Castle. It’s reasonably clear that in the...
9 months ago
Jessica Drew, in her Spider-Woman gear, visits Belvedere Castle. It’s reasonably clear that in the frame on the right she’s standing in the pavillion looking across to the main tower.
CONTEMPORIST
A Concrete Ceiling Floats Above This Round Hotel Bar
Portuguese architecture office Openbook has designed the Ritz Pool Bar as part of an overall project...
5 months ago
Portuguese architecture office Openbook has designed the Ritz Pool Bar as part of an overall project to renovate the terrace and galleries of the Ritz Four Seasons Hotel Lisbon. The bar has an organic design and total openness to the terrace, with walls of glass allowing the...
CONTEMPORIST
Red-Pigmented Concrete Screens Surround This New Home In Cape Town
Architecture firm SAOTA, together with interior design firm ARRCC, has recently completed a modern...
a year ago
Architecture firm SAOTA, together with interior design firm ARRCC, has recently completed a modern house in Cape Town, South Africa. The home was designed by Philip Olmesdahl, principal of SAOTA, for himself and his family, with him sharing, “When architects design their own...
A Weekly Dose of...
From Web to Print
Recently I was watching a news program, most likely PBS Newshour or an MSNBC show, and was struck by...
a year ago
Recently I was watching a news program, most likely PBS Newshour or an MSNBC show, and was struck by one of the talking heads speaking via Skype or Zoom being described as "a writer working on turning her blog into a book." I don't remember her name or even the subject, as the...
99% Invisible
Backfired: The Vaping Wars [EPISODE]
For decades, people have been trying to figure out how to create a cigarette without many of the...
5 months ago
For decades, people have been trying to figure out how to create a cigarette without many of the downsides. Cigarettes sans the things that make smoking the biggest cause of preventable death in America like tar, carcinogens, etc. Cigarette companies tried to create “safe,”...
Old Structures...
The Story Can Be Oversimplified
The title of this blog post is true of a lot of narrative history. Simple stories are more effective...
11 months ago
The title of this blog post is true of a lot of narrative history. Simple stories are more effective on an emotional level, and are easier to tell. So we often tell them. For example, Wikipedia (my go-to source for oversimplified explanations) states that the 1916 New York zoning...
SOCKS
Claude Bragdon: Drawings of the Fourth Dimension (1913-1915)
American architect Claude Fayette Bragdon (1866-1946) was also an artist, writer and stage designer....
over a year ago
American architect Claude Fayette Bragdon (1866-1946) was also an artist, writer and stage designer. He was based in Rochester, NY where he built his masterpiece, the New York Central Railroad Station in 1909. His design work and philosophy were influenced mainly by theosophy, a...
Old Structures...
So It Begins
LEGO Notre Dame de Paris, 4383 pieces. Fortunately, I have a 13-year-old assistant mason brick-layer...
6 months ago
LEGO Notre Dame de Paris, 4383 pieces. Fortunately, I have a 13-year-old assistant mason brick-layer helper. I approve of the reinforced seams in the flat-plane base: Building the stone-tile floor before we’ve completed the base. Very edgy. Clever foundation for the apse. LEGO...
The Modern House
It’s all love at Matthew Scott and Charlie Carr’s new restaurant, Papi
a year ago
Blog - Guerrilla...
Maps Without Words; Words Without Maps
During the early period of my self-isolation in Arizona, USA, Guerrilla Cartography put out a call...
over a year ago
During the early period of my self-isolation in Arizona, USA, Guerrilla Cartography put out a call for maps that represented “Community,” to be completed in 24 hours. Along with the call for maps, GC offered and organized free online talks, which included various and interesting...
CONTEMPORIST
A Home Interior That Blends Japandi And Australian Design Inspiration
NAKO Design has designed a home in Edmonton, Canada, that’s influenced by both Japandi and...
a year ago
NAKO Design has designed a home in Edmonton, Canada, that’s influenced by both Japandi and Australian design styles. With a modern palette of black and white warmed with soft silver elm wood accents and texture, the home shows sophistication with a continuity of texture and tone...
Benny Kuriakose
Importance of Landscape in School Design
Landscape plays a major role in the learning experience of a child. A school campus not only...
a year ago
Landscape plays a major role in the learning experience of a child. A school campus not only comprises of the buildings in a school,...
Archinect - Features
'Starting a Successful Woman-Owned Business in a Heavily Male-Dominated Industry Is No Joke':...
In this episode of our Studio Snapshot series, Archinect connected with Allison Bryan, Founding...
2 months ago
In this episode of our Studio Snapshot series, Archinect connected with Allison Bryan, Founding Principal of multi-disciplinary design practice Open Studio Collective, based in Bozeman, Montana, and Ojai, California.
Trained in both graphic design and architecture, Bryan talks...
CONTEMPORIST
A Dramatic Upward-Sloping Roof Covers This Rural Home
Prentiss + Balance + Wickline Architects has shared photos of a contemporary home they have designed...
7 months ago
Prentiss + Balance + Wickline Architects has shared photos of a contemporary home they have designed in Winthrop, Washington, perched atop a steep river bank. The home’s design includes an upward-sloping roof form that motions toward the river and shelters an outdoor room....
Archinect - Features
Many Architecture Firms Don’t Know How To Pursue International Work; We Spoke With Some That...
Over the past year, the number of U.S. architecture firms working on international projects has...
3 months ago
Over the past year, the number of U.S. architecture firms working on international projects has gently increased. However, a recent AIA survey found that many firms do not know how to pursue international work. In search of insights and advice on the topic, we spoke with three...
Archinect - Features
Echoes and Requiems: Reflecting on the Legacy of Woodbury University School of Architecture...
In the summer of 2006, I received a call from my friend and colleague Catherine Herbst, who had...
6 months ago
In the summer of 2006, I received a call from my friend and colleague Catherine Herbst, who had recently become the head of Woodbury University School of Architecture in San Diego (WUSD) following the departure of the previous chair, Geraldine Forbes, to New Mexico. During our...
CONTEMPORIST
A Pair Of Wellness Cabins Perched Among The Trees
Thirtyone Design + Management has shared photos of a pair of green wellness cabins that they have...
a year ago
Thirtyone Design + Management has shared photos of a pair of green wellness cabins that they have completed for the Grand Hotel Timeo in Taormina, Italy. Designed as part of the hotel’s celebration of the iconic property’s 150-year anniversary, the cabins unveil a partnership...
Old Structures...
Steel And Hemp
From the 1880s, a view of South Street and the East River with the brand-new Brooklyn Bridge in the...
2 months ago
From the 1880s, a view of South Street and the East River with the brand-new Brooklyn Bridge in the background. The bridge was the first suspension bridge with steel wires in its main cables. Steel rope had been used in ships for some time, but these sailing ships were mostly...
Archinect - Features
How Architectural Licensure Helps and Hurts the Profession
Our Archinect In-Depth: Licensure series concludes with a look back on a four-month journey through...
3 months ago
Our Archinect In-Depth: Licensure series concludes with a look back on a four-month journey through the U.S. architectural licensure system. Reflecting on the challenges and opportunities in the current system highlighted by readers and commentators, we offer final thoughts on...
Old Structures...
You Are There
Early on in the movie Bull Durham, a character going to a baseball game walks from the dark...
2 months ago
Early on in the movie Bull Durham, a character going to a baseball game walks from the dark underside of the stadium – where the stairs, bathrooms, and food concessions are – through one of the tunnels to the seats. The camera follows and, if you’ve ever been to stadium, the...
CONTEMPORIST
Before & After – A 1960s Split-Level Turned Three-Story Home In Seattle
Floisand Studio Architects has sent us photos of a remodel project they completed in Seattle,...
a year ago
Floisand Studio Architects has sent us photos of a remodel project they completed in Seattle, Washington, that transformed a 1960s split-level home into an updated design for a family of five. The project’s goals were to modernize the space, add a third floor, relocate the...
Common Edge
Four Decades in a House of Your Own Design
Reflections on the project that launched a career.
3 months ago
Reflections on the project that launched a career.
CONTEMPORIST
How A 1940s House Was Renovated Into A Modern Home
Architecture firm Wittman Estes has transformed an original house built in the 1940s, located on the...
11 months ago
Architecture firm Wittman Estes has transformed an original house built in the 1940s, located on the eastern shore of Hood Canal near the Bangor submarine base in Washington State. Due to the complex constraints of the shoreline exemption, the architects kept to the existing...
Contemporist...
An Undulating Wood Ceiling Inspired By Ocean Waves And Nearby Mountains
ARRCC has shared photos of a remodel they recently completed for a home in Cape Town, South Africa,...
a month ago
ARRCC has shared photos of a remodel they recently completed for a home in Cape Town, South Africa, that retained the original footprint, and received a contemporary update with a new undulating cast in-place concrete roof lined with wood on the inside.
Construction Physics
How did solar power get cheap part II
(note: all quotes are from Nemet’s How Solar Energy Became Cheap unless otherwise noted.) Welcome to...
a year ago
(note: all quotes are from Nemet’s How Solar Energy Became Cheap unless otherwise noted.) Welcome to Part II of “How did Solar Power Get Cheap?” To recap Part I, the modern solar photovoltaic (PV) cell was invented at Bell Labs in 1954. Early markets were almost entirely...
devonzuegel.com
OWD #4: Supersonic planes, levitating trains, & electric automobiles
Mobility is central to living in every city. In this episode, we discussed how different communities...
over a year ago
Mobility is central to living in every city. In this episode, we discussed how different communities tackle the question of transportation, and how culture shapes how different transport technologies get adopted.
RSS · Apple Podcasts · Spotify · Overcast
Mobility is central to...
Contemporist...
An Elevated Room Surrounded By Trees In The Jungle
Mestizo Estudio Arquitectura has shared photos of a room they designed and built in the jungle in...
2 months ago
Mestizo Estudio Arquitectura has shared photos of a room they designed and built in the jungle in Ecuador, that features a sleeping area and bathroom.
Old Structures...
Not So Picturesque
From 1849, “New York from the steeple of St. Paul’s Church, looking east, south and west.” In other...
9 months ago
From 1849, “New York from the steeple of St. Paul’s Church, looking east, south and west.” In other words, looking into the heart of the downtown commercial district from its northern edge. My first thought in looking at this picture was that in 1849, before industrial technology...
Archinect - Features
Applying to architecture school? Don't miss these info sessions and open houses this...
Deadlines for 2025 architecture academic programs are coming up soon! To learn more about exciting...
a month ago
Deadlines for 2025 architecture academic programs are coming up soon! To learn more about exciting undergraduate and graduate degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning, take a look below at Archinect's latest highlight of upcoming information sessions...
devonzuegel.com
Book review: Against the Grain, by James C. Scott
The book that etched the deepest grooves in my mind last year was Against the Grain by James C....
over a year ago
The book that etched the deepest grooves in my mind last year was Against the Grain by James C. Scott. It explores how the unique characteristics of grain-based agriculture shaped the early history of states.
While I did learn many interesting historical facts and trends from...
Archinect - Features
Architects and Clients Downbeat About Economy: Archinect's Business Survey Results...
Throughout May and June 2024, we invited our community to offer us insights and feedback on how you...
5 months ago
Throughout May and June 2024, we invited our community to offer us insights and feedback on how you were feeling about the economic outlook of your firm and sector. As we explained at the time, this project was motivated by several observations from economists within and beyond...
Construction Physics
Building Fast and Slow Part III: Design of the World Trade Center
This is Part III in a series comparing the construction of the Empire State Building and the World...
over a year ago
This is Part III in a series comparing the construction of the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center. Part I covers the design and construction of the Empire State Building, and Part II covers the initial development of the World Trade Center
Old Structures...
Fireworks
The various amusement parks at Coney Island used to have spectacles as well as rides and ordinary...
5 months ago
The various amusement parks at Coney Island used to have spectacles as well as rides and ordinary shows. From 1885, a fireworks show at Manhattan beach called The Last Days of Pompeii: Happy Independence Day.
Archinect - Features
Beaux-Arts to Bauhaus: How Two Schools Shaped Architectural Visualization
Architecture schools have long held a significant role in shaping the field of architectural...
a month ago
Architecture schools have long held a significant role in shaping the field of architectural visualization. Through fostering particular artistic philosophies, drawing techniques, and design ideologies, such institutions shape not only the architects themselves but also the way...
Common Edge
Urban Farming: A Sustainable Pathway Out of Nigeria’s Unfolding Food Crisis
Havana, Tokyo, and Paris offer successful examples of how it might work.
5 months ago
Havana, Tokyo, and Paris offer successful examples of how it might work.
A Weekly Dose of...
Book Briefs #47: Three Altrim Titles
Here is the next installment of "Book Briefs," the series of occasional posts featuring short...
over a year ago
Here is the next installment of "Book Briefs," the series of occasional posts featuring short first-hand descriptions of some of the numerous books that publishers send to me for consideration on this blog. Obviously, these briefs are not full-blown reviews, but they are a way to...
The Modern House
Inside two carbon-negative zero-waste homes in Walthamstow
a year ago
The Modern House
Tiny homes: six pocket-sized pads that prove good things come in small packages
A stamp-sized floorplan demands hardworking design – and a finite footprint is a license to get...
6 months ago
A stamp-sized floorplan demands hardworking design – and a finite footprint is a license to get creative with space saving ideas, ingenious storage solutions and volume-accentuating trickery. Here, we’ve collated a selection of some of our punchiest petite offerings, all...
Archinect - Features
How Computing Transformed Architectural Visualization
Over the past seven decades, the invention and evolution of computing technology have had a profound...
a week ago
Over the past seven decades, the invention and evolution of computing technology have had a profound and transformative impact on the field of architectural visualization. From early computer-aided design (CAD) software to today's photorealistic 3D rendering, virtual reality, and...
SOCKS
Michelangelo Caetani’s Six Topographic Maps of the Divine Comedy
As a follow up to the latest post on Norman Bel Geddes’s stage set design for Dante Alighieri’s...
over a year ago
As a follow up to the latest post on Norman Bel Geddes’s stage set design for Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, here we feature the six maps drawn by Michelangelo Caetani in a book titled La materia della Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri dichiarata in VI tavole, Roma (1855). A...
99% Invisible
You Ain’t Nothin But a Postmark [EPISODE]
Over a decade after Elvis Presley’s death, the king of rock & roll took over headlines once again as...
a year ago
Over a decade after Elvis Presley’s death, the king of rock & roll took over headlines once again as Americans weighed in on which portrait of Elvis would be forever immortalized on a 29 cent US postage stamp. It was put to a popular vote: should the stamp feature an image of...
Contemporist...
This Park Design Was Inspired By A Volcano And Its Lava Flow
100 Architects has shared photos of one of their latest projects, a stimulating urban park in a...
a year ago
100 Architects has shared photos of one of their latest projects, a stimulating urban park in a newly built commercial and residential area in the port city of Ningbo, the second-most populous city in Zhejiang Province, China.
Old Structures...
Twelve Years Undemolished
This photo from 1954 was taken from the top level of the Queensboro Plaza Station, looking west to...
4 months ago
This photo from 1954 was taken from the top level of the Queensboro Plaza Station, looking west to Manhattan. That’s the Queensboro Bridge on the right. If you take the 7 train to Flushing, as I used to, the odds are not bad that you’ll change trains at this station, as it’s...
McMansion Hell
In my latest column for The Nation, I take on the specter of AI and the idea that it is coming...
No, AI Is Not “Disrupting” Architecture
In my latest column for The Nation, I take on the specter of...
a year ago
No, AI Is Not “Disrupting” Architecture
In my latest column for The Nation, I take on the specter of AI and the idea that it is coming for architects’ jobs.
CONTEMPORIST
Painted Drop Shadows Around The Windows Create An Interesting Effect On This Building
Dubbeldam Architecture + Design has unveiled its own new office that’s located within a century-old,...
a year ago
Dubbeldam Architecture + Design has unveiled its own new office that’s located within a century-old, three-storey brick building in Toronto’s Corso Italia neighborhood. A unique design feature not often seen on the exterior of a building, are the painted drop shadows surrounding...
99% Invisible
Mini-Stories: Volume 17 [EPISODE]
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. It’s mini-stories season! Gather the kids around the fire...
a year ago
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. It’s mini-stories season! Gather the kids around the fire because We have a year-end mix of short stories about a rogue architect, spooky kitchens, a hundred year old music streaming service, and the crazy way the French tried to make...
Contemporist...
A' Design Awards & Competition - Early Call for Entries
A’ Design Award & Competition is the world’s leading design accolade reaching design enthusiasts...
a year ago
A’ Design Award & Competition is the world’s leading design accolade reaching design enthusiasts around the world, and showcasing 1844 winners in 139 different design disciplines.
Common Edge
Architecture With Empathy In An Age of Division and Discord
Buildings can be designed to antagonize communities, or serve as welcoming presences.
a week ago
Buildings can be designed to antagonize communities, or serve as welcoming presences.
Common Edge
Is Mass Timber the Key Element in a Low Carbon Future?
A new book highlights the promise—and lingering challenges—of this important material.
9 months ago
A new book highlights the promise—and lingering challenges—of this important material.
Old Structures...
The Grenfell Report
The “phase 2” report on the Grenfell has recently been published by the official inquiry panel:...
3 months ago
The “phase 2” report on the Grenfell has recently been published by the official inquiry panel: here. The New Civil Engineer has a good short summary here: “Grenfell disaster: ‘culmination of decades of failure by government and construction industry’” In one sense there are few...
99% Invisible
Category 6 [EPISODE]
On the campus of Florida International University, in Miami, there’s a place ominously named “The...
6 months ago
On the campus of Florida International University, in Miami, there’s a place ominously named “The Extreme Events Institute.” They map the risk of storm surge for the whole Caribbean, and study how the public perceives the threats from natural disasters. They’re also home to the...
Archinect - Features
Architects, How Is Work Feeling These Days?
We want to hear from our community: How are you feeling about the economic outlook of your firm and...
7 months ago
We want to hear from our community: How are you feeling about the economic outlook of your firm and sector? How easy or difficult are you finding it to secure projects? What is your employment outlook? What are you hearing from clients?
Fill out our anonymous survey below.
McMansion Hell
Hello everyone! The word is out – I am writing a book!
Hello everyone! The word is out – I am writing a book!
If you ever wanted to read a book about...
10 months ago
Hello everyone! The word is out – I am writing a book!
If you ever wanted to read a book about McMansions, 5-over-1s, the ignoble toil of architects, ridiculous baubles for rich people, hostile architecture, private equity, shopping (rip), offices (rip), loud restaurants, and...
Old Structures...
It Looked Familiar: A Somber Location
One of the less-well-known memorials in Manhattan is the African Burial Ground National Monument at...
4 months ago
One of the less-well-known memorials in Manhattan is the African Burial Ground National Monument at Duane and Elk Streets, where free Blacks excluded from New York’s general cemetery in the seventeenth cenutry buried their dead. Here’s a photo of the memorial, a stone circle...
The Modern House
An artist-curator couple on their surprising choice to leave the walls of their mid-century marvel...
10 months ago
SOCKS
A Building to Tell the Time: The Toghrol Tower in Rey, Iran (1063)
The Toghrol Tower is a 20 meters high tower located in the city of Rey in Iran made of bricks and...
over a year ago
The Toghrol Tower is a 20 meters high tower located in the city of Rey in Iran made of bricks and Sarooj, a water-resistant mortar. It was erected in 1063, and according to some sources, it was conceived as the tomb of Tuğrul Beg, the founder of the Seljuk dynasty. Other scholars...
Archinect - Features
The Longevity & Legacy of the 'Vanilla Architect': How a Monoculture Yields Cycles of...
This Op-Ed explores how unconscious bias of mentors, tokenism, and resultant patterns of system...
4 months ago
This Op-Ed explores how unconscious bias of mentors, tokenism, and resultant patterns of system justification reinforce a status quo that marginalizes women and people of color. These complex and long-lived dynamics are unpacked through personal anecdotes, historical analysis,...
Old Structures...
A Striking Row
I was in the Upper East Side a couple of weeks ago, and the row of houses on the left caught my eye....
11 months ago
I was in the Upper East Side a couple of weeks ago, and the row of houses on the left caught my eye. That’s 690 to 700 Madison Avenue, just north of 62nd Street. While there’s an obvious alteration – the facade of the first two floors of each house was replaced at some point […]
Common Edge
‘Not Having to Worry about Proportion, Harmony, and Beauty Is a Cop-Out’
A conversation with 2024 Driehaus Prize winner Peter Pennoyer.
9 months ago
A conversation with 2024 Driehaus Prize winner Peter Pennoyer.
Blog - Guerrilla...
Bangalore's Disappearing Lakes
In an area of pronounced water scarcity high on the Deccan plateau, at an altitude removed from...
over a year ago
In an area of pronounced water scarcity high on the Deccan plateau, at an altitude removed from river-water and of water extraction from the ground, despite being historically nourished by monsoons, Bangalore's current population faces deep inequities of access to water which are...
Old Structures...
It Looked Familiar: Nostalgia
A piece of a 1987 Daredevil comic, with some thugs attacking pieple on the subway. The route map (on...
11 months ago
A piece of a 1987 Daredevil comic, with some thugs attacking pieple on the subway. The route map (on the left, abive the man in a blue jacket, blue pants, and badly-outdated boots) is clearly the Vignelli Map, in use from 1972 to 1979. The cars with the big central cicular fans...
Common Edge
AI, Architecture, and the Uncanny Valley
Technology can design, but it can’t understand the “why” of buildings—yet.
3 months ago
Technology can design, but it can’t understand the “why” of buildings—yet.
The Modern House
New Wave: seven coastal homes for sale in Kent and Sussex
In the middle of the 19th century, well-meaning Victorian doctors would advise their patients to...
a year ago
In the middle of the 19th century, well-meaning Victorian doctors would advise their patients to take ‘the sea cure’. Dutifully, they would go to the coast – particularly in the south – bathe in the waters and draw in lungfuls of salty air. Smart promenades, […]
CONTEMPORIST
LED Lighting Illuminates Shelving Throughout This Home’s Interior
Estevez + Persson, a new architecture and design studio, founded by Fernando Estevez Barroso and...
a year ago
Estevez + Persson, a new architecture and design studio, founded by Fernando Estevez Barroso and Daniel Persson, has debuted a residential project called Casa Bosques de Olivos in Mexico City. The exterior of the house features concrete, wood, and metal, as well as landscaped...
Old Structures...
Pro Tip, As They Say
A slightly-redacted photo from a Brooklyn site visit, showing a diagram on the wall in a maintenance...
a month ago
A slightly-redacted photo from a Brooklyn site visit, showing a diagram on the wall in a maintenance room: No one I spoke to had floor plans of any kind for the building. I knew it had a steel frame but not where the interior columns were. And then, during a site visit, a handy...
Old Structures...
An IStructE Talk
I’m giving an in-person and online talk on March 7 for the UK Institution of Structural Engineers on...
10 months ago
I’m giving an in-person and online talk on March 7 for the UK Institution of Structural Engineers on the connections between the development of fire-resistant construction technology, New York social history, and the origins of skyscrapers. More information here: New York’s...
SOCKS
From Videogame Landscapes to Embrodery Canvas: La Sentinelle by Marine Beaufils (2022-24)
Marine Beaufils is a French embroidery artist whose meticulous work draws on the analogy between...
a month ago
Marine Beaufils is a French embroidery artist whose meticulous work draws on the analogy between pixels and needlepoints, as she translates scenes from her favorite video games, movies, or scientific imagery from screen to embroidery canvas. This process freezes a fragment of a...
Blog - Guerrilla...
Free Spirits
There are strange happenings in dusty, old, forgotten small towns on the border of nowhere....
over a year ago
There are strange happenings in dusty, old, forgotten small towns on the border of nowhere. Particularly when the end of October draws near. Sightings. Strange lights. Spirits. There are always spirits. I live in such a place. Me and my dog Jazz.
“Jazz,” I said, “it’s that time...
Old Structures...
The Same But Different
This is an 1884 photograph of Broadway looking north from just south of Houston Street. Broadway...
11 months ago
This is an 1884 photograph of Broadway looking north from just south of Houston Street. Broadway runs straight from here until the bend at 10th Street where Grace Church is, and the church is just barely visible at the end of the street. Unlike most photos of Manhattan from the...
Old Structures...
Close To Home
From Angelo Rizzuto in 1950, “Broad Street.” It doesn’t instantly look familiar because we’re all...
7 months ago
From Angelo Rizzuto in 1950, “Broad Street.” It doesn’t instantly look familiar because we’re all used to seeing the north end of Broad Street, where the Stock Exchange and Federal Hall are, or views looking up the street to the north. This is the sound end of Broad, as it runs...
Old Structures...
Travelog: A Building Type
Speaking only for myself, it’s easy to mentally categorize subways (i.e., electric mass transit,...
9 months ago
Speaking only for myself, it’s easy to mentally categorize subways (i.e., electric mass transit, mostly underground) as something different than railroads. Different lengths of routes, different spacing of stations, different rolling stock, and so on. The differences are often...
Old Structures...
Old Adventures In Photo-Bombing
Someone occasionally notices that most of Manhattan has little open space to create picturesque...
10 months ago
Someone occasionally notices that most of Manhattan has little open space to create picturesque vistas. Or to put it another way, it’s difficult to get decent pictures of a lot of buildings here because there’s so much stuff in the way. There’s also stuff in the background, which...
Benny Kuriakose
Sustainability in School Design
Sustainability is a practice that seeks to minimize the negative impact of buildings on the ...
a year ago
Sustainability is a practice that seeks to minimize the negative impact of buildings on the environment by efficient and moderate use of...
CONTEMPORIST
The Rugged Materials On This Home Reflect The Desert That Surrounds It
Imbue Design has completed a desert home where the owners could put up their feet and relax in the...
a year ago
Imbue Design has completed a desert home where the owners could put up their feet and relax in the natural desert landscape of Grand Staircase-Escalante, Utah. The home was designed in such a way as to disrupt the land as little as possible. With that in mind, the designers...
Construction Physics
What Happened to the US Machine Tool Industry?
Machine tools – machines that cut or form metal – are the heart of industrial civilization....
11 months ago
Machine tools – machines that cut or form metal – are the heart of industrial civilization. Sometimes called “mother machines” (because they’re machines that make other machines), machine tools are required to make almost everything. Nearly every manufactured good is made using...
Old Structures...
Smooth
Still in Montreal, the roof of a now enclosed, formerly (I think) open areaway in front of a high...
a month ago
Still in Montreal, the roof of a now enclosed, formerly (I think) open areaway in front of a high rise: In case that’s difficult to make out, it’s a glass slab roof supported on laminated glass beams. The hand belongs to Will Teron, who was standing on the same stair landing I...
CONTEMPORIST
Large Windows Give This Home A Lantern-Like Appearance At Night
Swatt | Miers Architects has shared photos of a house they designed in the town of Atherton,...
a year ago
Swatt | Miers Architects has shared photos of a house they designed in the town of Atherton, California, that replaces an earlier mid-century structure that the family had owned for many years. The home, with its white exterior, has an abundance of windows, allowing the home to...
Archinect - Features
‘In the Climate Context, Architects Need to Push a New Frontier’; A Conversation with Mario...
When TECLA was unveiled to the world at the beginning of 2021, it captured the attention of both the...
a year ago
When TECLA was unveiled to the world at the beginning of 2021, it captured the attention of both the architectural community and the imagination of the mainstream media. The world's first 3D-printed house made from raw earth, TECLA was one of 17 projects showcased at COP26 in an...
CONTEMPORIST
This Home Hidden In The Forest Appears Like A Stack Of Illuminated Boxes
William / Kaven Architecture has sent us photos of a home they completed in Portland, Oregon, that’s...
a year ago
William / Kaven Architecture has sent us photos of a home they completed in Portland, Oregon, that’s part of a collection of private residences perched on several steeply sloped sites within Forest Park, a 5,000-acre woodland. A simple material palette of dark steel, concrete,...
Old Structures...
Nothing New
For the end of the year, we’ve been doing some file reorganization – all digital, as our paper files...
3 days ago
For the end of the year, we’ve been doing some file reorganization – all digital, as our paper files are only a memory – and it’s worth remembering that issues of logisitics and organization are nothing new. One of the sources for our filing system is the 1917 file classification...
CONTEMPORIST
A Laneway House With A Rotated Brick Facade
Architecture firm Williamson Williamson has shared photos of a laneway home they completed in...
6 months ago
Architecture firm Williamson Williamson has shared photos of a laneway home they completed in Toronto, Canada, that features a distinct rotated brick facade. Usually, laneway houses are small, however, this one is a four-bedroom home, designed for a family of five, providing...
Coffee with an...
Remember your training
At times, a client may request a curve. Stay calm. Remember your training. Calmly explain that that...
9 months ago
At times, a client may request a curve. Stay calm. Remember your training. Calmly explain that that would conflict with the design vocabulary. Remind the client that rectilinear forms are a sign of strength, firmness, commodity, and yes, delight. Stay strong. At times, the client...
The Modern House
Listing of the Week: the best inter-war home in Britain?
a year ago
The Modern House
The Good Stuff: six materially focused homes with both substance and style
Decorating a home is a substantial matter – quite literally. The materials we choose to live...
9 months ago
Decorating a home is a substantial matter – quite literally. The materials we choose to live alongside inform our understanding and enjoyment of spaces, which is something we’re quite invested in. As such, we’ve got pretty good at seeing the wood from the trees. Here, […]
Contemporist...
A Kitchen And Bathroom Renovation Updates This Home With New Ideas
Australian-based Studio Minosa has shared photos of a kitchen and bathroom renovation they completed...
a year ago
Australian-based Studio Minosa has shared photos of a kitchen and bathroom renovation they completed for a Sydney suburban home owned by a design-conscious couple.
The Modern House
Time-honoured materials and 21st-century sensibilities meet in a bothy on Mull
9 months ago
The Modern House
A Day Well Spent with Rahel Stephanie
a year ago
Old Structures...
Dry-Goods Palace
This is a newspaper ad circa 1883, advertising that the store Wechsler & Abraham had moved about two...
3 months ago
This is a newspaper ad circa 1883, advertising that the store Wechsler & Abraham had moved about two blocks down Fulton Street to a new building that was something like five times the size of its old home. That name doesn’t mean much today, but in 1893, a change in ownership...
A Weekly Dose of...
Adjaye: Works 2007-2015
Adjaye: Works 2007-2015: Houses, Pavilions, Installations, Buildings
Edited by Peter Allison
Thames...
over a year ago
Adjaye: Works 2007-2015: Houses, Pavilions, Installations, Buildings
Edited by Peter Allison
Thames & Hudson, October 2022
Hardcover | 10-1/2 x 10-1/2 inches | 300 pages | 500 illustrations | English | ISBN: 9780500343807 | $90
PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:
Following Adjaye: Works...
CONTEMPORIST
A Curved Green Roof Allows This Winery To Blend Into The Landscape
Architecture studio Aleš Fiala has recently completed the design of Gurdau Winery in the Czech...
a year ago
Architecture studio Aleš Fiala has recently completed the design of Gurdau Winery in the Czech Republic, which includes a unique curved green roof. The building’s location in the open countryside naturally brought with it high demands for architectural and landscape integration....
Common Edge
Warlords in Our Midst
Why Elon Musk is worse than science fiction.
4 months ago
Why Elon Musk is worse than science fiction.
Common Edge
Design for Global Survival: The 2030 Palette
Strategies for architects, planners, and policymakers as we adapt to a changing world.
a month ago
Strategies for architects, planners, and policymakers as we adapt to a changing world.
CONTEMPORIST
Before + After – An Apartment Transformed With A New Interior
FCstudio has shared photos of an apartment renovation they completed in Sao Paulo, Brazil, that...
3 months ago
FCstudio has shared photos of an apartment renovation they completed in Sao Paulo, Brazil, that transformed the space into a contemporary and open interior. The design plan included removing walls and creating integrated spaces, like in the living room, which was once a smaller...
A Weekly Dose of...
Architectural Exhibitions and Their Books
Preparing for this post I counted roughly one hundred books in my library that are related to...
a year ago
Preparing for this post I counted roughly one hundred books in my library that are related to exhibitions. Surprisingly, given that I tend to buy catalogs and other companion books to exhibitions I visit, only a quarter of those hundred are exhibitions I have seen in person....
The Modern House
How a love of Japan and the 1970s shaped Sherrill Smith’s Hackney home
a year ago
Old Structures...
Specialization
From 2018, a photo by Carol Highsmith taken from the Empire State Building and showing the variety...
6 months ago
From 2018, a photo by Carol Highsmith taken from the Empire State Building and showing the variety of buildings on the east side of midtown south. I think most people will agree that this is a very New Yorky view of New York. The discussion at the “Office To Residential Summit”...
The Modern House
With the rolling South Downs on its doorstep, the award-winning Black Timber House by HAPA...
8 months ago
Common Edge
Architecture and the God Problem
Defining divinity and higher powers, in the context of design, is often fraught.
a year ago
Defining divinity and higher powers, in the context of design, is often fraught.
Construction Physics
The Long, Sad History of American Attempts to Build High-Speed Rail, Part I
California has received its fair share of criticism for the trajectory of its high-speed rail...
a year ago
California has received its fair share of criticism for the trajectory of its high-speed rail project. When voters first approved the $10 billion dollar bond issue for the project in 2008, it was projected to be completed by 2020 at a cost of $33 billion. Instead, its costs have
The Beauty of...
A Sense of Place (White Hart Lane Station, London, UK)
You will remember that my knowledge of football can be transcribed onto the reverse of a postage...
over a year ago
You will remember that my knowledge of football can be transcribed onto the reverse of a postage stamp, possibly with room left over, and that what knowledge I do possess is thanks to my other half’s family being Portsmouth FC supporters; an emotional rollercoaster, it has to be...
Old Structures...
It Looked Familiar: A Busy Intersection
Daredevil battles Stiltman – possibly the most ridiculous villain Marvel has invented – at the...
3 months ago
Daredevil battles Stiltman – possibly the most ridiculous villain Marvel has invented – at the corner of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, with the Chrysler Building on the left and the Socony-Mobil Building on the right. Also, per the Landmarks Preservation Commission:
Old Structures...
It Looked Familiar: Newsy
A dying world from a horror comic called “Epitaphs from the Abyss”: What’s that on the right? The...
3 weeks ago
A dying world from a horror comic called “Epitaphs from the Abyss”: What’s that on the right? The New York Times Building as seen from Times Square (from the north) in 1908:
Blog - Guerrilla...
From Our Southern Border to a Cottonwood Tree
I am an artist and not a trained cartographer. Because my work or message is often about the...
over a year ago
I am an artist and not a trained cartographer. Because my work or message is often about the environment, geopolitical issues, water, animal and human rights, I look for how I might highlight particular issues, and then draw a word picture to go with the visual message of the...
Contemporist...
Brick Is The Material Of Choice For This New Home
Architecture and interiors firm Enter Projects Asia, has shared photos of a home they completed in...
3 months ago
Architecture and interiors firm Enter Projects Asia, has shared photos of a home they completed in Phuket, Thailand, that blends design and traditional artisanal craftsmanship.
The Modern House
Rosh Mahtani: the Alighieri founder’s inspiring journey from school outcast to acclaimed...
Journal readers will know the name Rosh Mahtani – partly because we’ve visited her in the past, but...
a year ago
Journal readers will know the name Rosh Mahtani – partly because we’ve visited her in the past, but partly because she’s very, very good at what she does. Despite the joy it brings, Rosh started her cult jewellery brand, Alighieri, when she was in an […]
CONTEMPORIST
A Mid-Century Modern Inspired Extension For An 1890s Sandstone Cottage
Glasshouse Projects, an architecture, interior design, and building firm, has shared photos of a...
9 months ago
Glasshouse Projects, an architecture, interior design, and building firm, has shared photos of a mid-century modern inspired extension and renovation they completed for an original 1890 sandstone cottage in Prospect, South Australia. The extension can be accessed through the...
Old Structures...
Ins And Outs Of Development
In 1891, Corydon Purdy published a four-piece article in the Engineering News on “The Steel Skeleton...
a year ago
In 1891, Corydon Purdy published a four-piece article in the Engineering News on “The Steel Skeleton Type of High Buildings.” Skeleton framing, as we understand it today, was about a year old; using some of the older and looser definitions floating around in the 1880s and 90s, it...
The Wandering...
Mapping Francis Younghusband in the Gobi Desert, 1887, Part 4: from the Ya-hu oasis to Hami.
[Back to Part 3: from the Hun-kua-ling sandhills to the Ya-hu oasis] From Ya-Hu to Hami, we can see...
over a year ago
[Back to Part 3: from the Hun-kua-ling sandhills to the Ya-hu oasis] From Ya-Hu to Hami, we can see that Younghusband now has to turn south, as his own map shows. The journey takes from June 23rd to July 4th, or twelve days. His mapmaker places Ula Khutun almost halfway from...
A Weekly Dose of...
Favorite Books of 2022
For this last post of 2022 I looked back at the dozens of books I reviewed or featured as "Book...
over a year ago
For this last post of 2022 I looked back at the dozens of books I reviewed or featured as "Book Briefs" on this blog, and the ones I reviewed on World-Architects. From those books I gathered just over a dozen favorites, grouping them into some common themes that happened to come...
Construction Physics
Is Land-Use Regulation Holding Back Construction Productivity?
Ed Glaeser is perhaps the pre-eminent urban economist working today, and I’ve cited his work...
4 months ago
Ed Glaeser is perhaps the pre-eminent urban economist working today, and I’ve cited his work repeatedly when looking at land-use restrictions and burdens on new development.
CONTEMPORIST
Fluted Concrete Walls Cut By Continuous Window Openings Define This Villa
NOMO STUDIO has shared photos of a modern home they’ve designed in Menorca, Spain, that features a...
a year ago
NOMO STUDIO has shared photos of a modern home they’ve designed in Menorca, Spain, that features a textured facade of fluted concrete walls. The fluted concrete walls are sliced by continuous window openings creating a combination of horizontal stripes that alternate between...
devonzuegel.com
Digital vs analog error correction
The purpose of this writeup was to summarize something interesting I learned recently, to make sure...
over a year ago
The purpose of this writeup was to summarize something interesting I learned recently, to make sure I understood it. I figured others might find it interesting, too.
~ ~ ~
Digital signal processing corrects for errors better than its analog counterpart. This is one of the...
CONTEMPORIST
A Dark Exterior Helps To Hide This Modern Home In The Forest
Robert Young Architects has shared photos of a modern home they designed in Virginia, that’s...
a year ago
Robert Young Architects has shared photos of a modern home they designed in Virginia, that’s surrounded by a forest and features a dark exterior. The multi-storey home was designed from the inside out, with the architects allowing the function of the house to determine its form....
CONTEMPORIST
A Sheet Metal Skin Of Oiled Steel Was Selected For The Siding Of This Mountain Home
James Merrell Architects together with interior design firm Ellen Hanson Designs, completed a modern...
2 months ago
James Merrell Architects together with interior design firm Ellen Hanson Designs, completed a modern mountain home in Sun Valley, Idaho, that features an exterior of oiled steel, concrete, and glass. The sheet metal skin of oiled steel was selected for the siding to bring in the...
Old Structures...
We Become Accustomed – Part 3
Having discussed the steel framing and the basic curtain wall of an incredibly-average 1926 office...
a year ago
Having discussed the steel framing and the basic curtain wall of an incredibly-average 1926 office building, I want to take a look at the end of the work. The picture above shows the building, just about on completion: a middle-of-the-road, mid-sized office building, with its...
A Weekly Dose of...
From Slow House to Blue Dream
Blue Dream is a house designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro for Julia "Julie" Reyes Taubman and her...
a year ago
Blue Dream is a house designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro for Julia "Julie" Reyes Taubman and her husband Robert "Bobby" Taubman. The house, located in East Hampton, on the South Fork of Long Island, was completed in 2017, nearly 30 years after the architects were commissioned...
The Modern House
An architect's dream: four architect-owned homes for sale
A busman’s holiday? A total breakdown of the work-life balance? It would be fair to assume that an...
2 months ago
A busman’s holiday? A total breakdown of the work-life balance? It would be fair to assume that an architect would find bringing their work home – in the most literal of senses – a bit of a drag. But as this collection of architect-owned homes […]
Benny Kuriakose
General Points on Photographing Historic Buildings - Part IV
The photographic recording should be done for posterity. Photographing a historic building must aim...
a year ago
The photographic recording should be done for posterity. Photographing a historic building must aim to convey information about it. It...
The Modern House
Architect Sophie Hicks on life in her hidden concrete haven in Kensington
a year ago
Contemporist...
The Black Exterior Of This Home Leads To A Pink Kitchen Inside
Paul Archer Design has shared photos of a home they completed in Wivenhoe, England, for an artist...
6 months ago
Paul Archer Design has shared photos of a home they completed in Wivenhoe, England, for an artist who wanted a light-filled interior with room to work and to entertain.
Archinect - Features
Five Big Factors Behind the Architecture Industry’s Economic Slowdown
Earlier this week, we released Part One of our findings from the Archinect Business Survey, which...
5 months ago
Earlier this week, we released Part One of our findings from the Archinect Business Survey, which invited you to share how you were feeling about the economic outlook of your firm and sector. Our analysis found that across the United States, architects have seen business...
Old Structures...
Familiar Yet Not
I’ve been playing around with 1940s.nyc. That site is a really nice front-end interface for the...
5 months ago
I’ve been playing around with 1940s.nyc. That site is a really nice front-end interface for the 1940s tax photos of every building in the city that can be found with a much less nice interface at the city archive website. My way of testing a site like this is to look at locations...
The Modern House
Four at the Fore: London’s most innovative creatives on pushing things forward
a year ago
99% Invisible
Planet Money: Zombie 2nd Mortgages [EPISODE]
Karen MacDonough had paid her mortgage for years, raised her family, and lived a quiet life in her...
3 months ago
Karen MacDonough had paid her mortgage for years, raised her family, and lived a quiet life in her Quincy, Massachusetts home—until one day, a group of strangers appeared on her lawn, claiming her house was up for foreclosure. What followed was a surreal discovery of “zombie...
CONTEMPORIST
This Kindergarten Design Features Vibrant Colored Glass Inside And Out
SAKO Architects has sent us photos of a kindergarten they designed in Tianshui, China, that features...
a year ago
SAKO Architects has sent us photos of a kindergarten they designed in Tianshui, China, that features a white exterior with a kaleidoscope of colors. The kindergarten, built in a small provincial town, features white exterior walls with windows in the shape of local yao-tung...
The Modern House
Hot Stuff: the extraordinary story of the Cobdown sauna
9 months ago
CONTEMPORIST
A Design Award Announces Their Annual World Design Rankings
This article has been brought to you by A’Design Awards. A’Design Award and Competition have...
11 months ago
This article has been brought to you by A’Design Awards. A’Design Award and Competition have released their World Design Rankings (WDR) in Arts, Architecture and Design, with China taking first place, followed by the USA, and Japan. The World Design Rankings ranks all the...
99% Invisible
Imitation Nation [EPISODE]
29 Palms, California, is home to the world’s largest Marine Corps Training Base. It’s an elaborately...
11 months ago
29 Palms, California, is home to the world’s largest Marine Corps Training Base. It’s an elaborately built facility with lego-like buildings, a bazaar, a mosque, and people role-playing as civilians, spies, or enemies, complete with costumes and props. It’s all part of an effort...
The Modern House
Explore Simon Allford’s ‘family home in the sky’ in our new film series
10 months ago
The Modern House
The Green Series #3: how to make your home airtight
Passivhaus buildings are designed to be almost completely airtight, with no unsealed gaps in the...
3 weeks ago
Passivhaus buildings are designed to be almost completely airtight, with no unsealed gaps in the exterior of the building. While a typical home might struggle to achieve that, there are ways to reduce unwanted draughts and heat loss. Continuing our series of Passivhaus hacks,...
SOCKS
“One Can No Longer Distinguish the Sun’s Outline”: Atlas of Clouds and of States of the Sky (1930)
A cloud atlas is a visual depiction of various types of clouds accompanied by their classification...
9 months ago
A cloud atlas is a visual depiction of various types of clouds accompanied by their classification and nomenclature. Cloud atlases were primarily developed starting in the 19th century and utilised for training weather forecasters and meteorologists. The 1930’s International...
Common Edge
Architects Must Address the Issue of Toxic Building Materials
Ending the cycle of pollution within our buildings benefits worker health, community health, and...
a year ago
Ending the cycle of pollution within our buildings benefits worker health, community health, and planetary health.
Archinect - Features
AI, Climate, and Advice for the Next Generation: Watch Our Roundtable with SCI-Arc Program...
In November 2024, Archinect brought together four program chairs from the Southern California...
a week ago
In November 2024, Archinect brought together four program chairs from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) for a wide-ranging roundtable conversation.
The questions up for debate and discussion were among the most pressing facing the architectural...
Old Structures...
A Working Drawing
Above, an 1870 drawing by Washington Roebling showing the masonry of the Brooklyn tower of the...
a year ago
Above, an 1870 drawing by Washington Roebling showing the masonry of the Brooklyn tower of the Brooklyn Bridge. I guess it doesn’t quite qualify as art, although I’d certainly hang it on a wall. The lettering at the top and the 3D-effect frame around the image suggest that this...
A Weekly Dose of...
On Case Studies
"What is a case study?" you might be asking, or maybe, "Is it different than a monograph?" Although...
a year ago
"What is a case study?" you might be asking, or maybe, "Is it different than a monograph?" Although the word monograph literally applies to any book devoted to any individual subject — be it a person, a place, a thing, or even an idea — in the realm of architecture books that...
Old Structures...
Reflections
That’s 21 (left) and 20 West Street, with 17 Battery Place off to the right. This was taken early in...
6 months ago
That’s 21 (left) and 20 West Street, with 17 Battery Place off to the right. This was taken early in the morning and the facades facing me are the west facades of the buildings. Across West Street, to my right, is a modern apartment house with a mostly-glass facade. It doesn’t...
CONTEMPORIST
A 1970s Four Bedroom Home Renovated For A Couple That Loves To Entertain
Architecture firm Side Angle Side, has shared photos of a 1970s ranch home they renovated in Austin,...
2 months ago
Architecture firm Side Angle Side, has shared photos of a 1970s ranch home they renovated in Austin, Texas, for their clients that wanted a home for entertaining. The transformation involved converting a four-bedroom floor plan into a spacious, open, one bedroom home. A long...
Common Edge
Designing for Disaster in an Increasingly Dangerous World
What does it take to protect homes against tornados, hurricanes, flooding, fire, and erosion?
6 months ago
What does it take to protect homes against tornados, hurricanes, flooding, fire, and erosion?
The Modern House
Pure 1970s glamour at an iconic modernist house, from sunken sofas to an indoor pool
a year ago
Old Structures...
It Looked Familiar: One Accurate, One Not
First, from a 1940s Sunday newspaper strip of Miss Fury, a realistic view down the facade of a fancy...
4 months ago
First, from a 1940s Sunday newspaper strip of Miss Fury, a realistic view down the facade of a fancy New York apartment house to the street: Second, from a modern Captain America comic, “the City of Manhattan”. Where’s that, Kansas? It’s been “New York” since 1664, “Nieuw...
The Wandering...
Cartographic palettes and colour harmonies
This story begins one day when I was assembling a map of the city of Edmonton, Alberta from...
over a year ago
This story begins one day when I was assembling a map of the city of Edmonton, Alberta from OpenStreetMap data. It was going to be a big map, a 42″ (106 cm) wide poster for a wall. The data was good, but the standard OSM colours were not. They would work fine for a street …...
CONTEMPORIST
This Home Renovation Made More Use Of The Basement And Outdoor Space
Best Practice Architecture has shared photos of a contemporary home renovation they completed in...
a year ago
Best Practice Architecture has shared photos of a contemporary home renovation they completed in Seattle, Washington. Before – The Exterior The single-story, mid-century home had two doors at the front of the home, with steps leading to each one. After – The Exterior The updated...
Archinect - Features
LEED? BREEAM? WELL? Six Major Green Building Labels Explained
When embarking on a mission to deliver a building to a high environmental and ecological standard,...
4 months ago
When embarking on a mission to deliver a building to a high environmental and ecological standard, architects are presented with a range of accreditation systems to both guide the design process and reward the results.
While some systems, such as LEED and BREEAM, emphasize...
CONTEMPORIST
3D Printed Sculptural Walls Surround The Interior Of This New Retail Store
Barcelona-based architecture firm External Reference, led by Italian architect Carmelo Zappulla, has...
5 months ago
Barcelona-based architecture firm External Reference, led by Italian architect Carmelo Zappulla, has shared photos of a retail store design they completed for fashion brand PINKO, which includes an interior lined with 3D printed design elements. Based on the history of the...
Old Structures...
Reuse, Recycle
When it was created in 1968, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority inherited from the New York...
4 months ago
When it was created in 1968, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority inherited from the New York City Transit Authority, from when it was created in 1953, the subway system as created by two private companies (the IRT and BMT) and the city-owned IND. All three parts of the...
Blog - Guerrilla...
Blocking Sediment Migration
Blocking Sediment Migration from Colorado River Basin to Gulf of California
I didn’t intend to map...
over a year ago
Blocking Sediment Migration from Colorado River Basin to Gulf of California
I didn’t intend to map human migration for the Atlas in a Day project. My plans for a map of the migration of sediment in rivers raised some eyebrows at home, mostly wondering how the subject would fit in...
99% Invisible
Roman, Elliott, and Robert Caro: Live in Conversation
For 50 years, The Power Broker has remained a landmark biography, transforming how people see former...
a month ago
For 50 years, The Power Broker has remained a landmark biography, transforming how people see former New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses. If you’ve been listening to 99% Invisible’sPower Broker Breakdown, you’re familiar with the story. The 99% Invisible Breakdown: The...
The Modern House
A contemporary flint house on the Kent coast, with lateral living spaces and an outdoor bath
a year ago
Archinect - Features
The Industry Reacts to Interest Rate Cuts: Archinect’s State of AEC September 2024
Welcome to the fourth installment of Archinect's new series, State of AEC. At the end of each month,...
2 months ago
Welcome to the fourth installment of Archinect's new series, State of AEC. At the end of each month, we will guide you through the latest analyses, indexes, and trends on how the architecture and construction industries are performing economically.
Since our last edition, the...
CONTEMPORIST
Plants Were Integrated Into This Home’s Design To Give It The Feeling Of A Tropical Resort
Wallflower Architecture + Design has shared photos of a home they recently completed in Novena,...
a year ago
Wallflower Architecture + Design has shared photos of a home they recently completed in Novena, Singapore, that integrates plants into its design. Located in a residential area in the middle of the city, the house sits on a fan-shaped property and has been designed to reflect the...
Cartogrammar
Seasonal relief
Just a map for fun, made without writing any code, which is a nice change of pace. I finally spent a...
over a year ago
Just a map for fun, made without writing any code, which is a nice change of pace. I finally spent a bit of time catching up with the great Daniel Huffman’s excellent tutorial on creating shaded relief maps with Blender. Do try it out if you haven’t; he’s written it up thoroughly...
Blog - Guerrilla...
Myopia: Observing Communities in Chiang Mai, Thailand
The genesis for “My Parallel Communities of Chiang Mai (ชุมขนคู่ขนานที่เชียงใหม่)” likely began on a...
over a year ago
The genesis for “My Parallel Communities of Chiang Mai (ชุมขนคู่ขนานที่เชียงใหม่)” likely began on a calm, wet-season night after the rains had subsided at One Nimman, my group of friends — portrait artists from Chiang Mai University — shooting the breeze and hustling what money...
The Solarchitecture...
The effectiveness of solar passive principles
Improving health, freedom one house at a time.
over a year ago
Improving health, freedom one house at a time.
Common Edge
A Model for a Healthier, Adaptive Approach to Community Development
The Smiling Gecko project in Cambodia addresses a more complex and systemic view of community life.
11 months ago
The Smiling Gecko project in Cambodia addresses a more complex and systemic view of community life.
CONTEMPORIST
A Green Exterior Helps This Cabin Blend Into The Forest
Scalar Architecture has completed a modern cabin in Connecticut that has a minimal ecological...
a year ago
Scalar Architecture has completed a modern cabin in Connecticut that has a minimal ecological footprint. Designed as a 1200-square-foot retreat for a family of writers and producers, the cabin is only accessible via foot or light utility vehicle. The cabin is located in a hilly...
CONTEMPORIST
A Rusty Exterior For A Home In A Rustic Setting
CLB Architects has shared photos of the ‘Paintbrush Residence’, a modern home they designed in...
a year ago
CLB Architects has shared photos of the ‘Paintbrush Residence’, a modern home they designed in Jackson, Wyoming, that has a weathered steel exterior. Located in a dappled Aspen grove, the home incorporates slow-weathering materials such as oxidized steel and cedar, allowing it to...
99% Invisible
Courtroom Sketch [EPISODE]
Earlier this year, the city of New York closed off several blocks around the Manhattan Criminal...
a year ago
Earlier this year, the city of New York closed off several blocks around the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse. Instead of early morning commuters, the sidewalks around the building were flooded with reporters, photographers, and camera people. They were there to capture the...
Archinect - Features
When Form Follows Meanings: AI’s Semantic Turn in Architecture
In the wake of artificial intelligence’s recently popularized presence in the architectural field...
a year ago
In the wake of artificial intelligence’s recently popularized presence in the architectural field and beyond, many are pondering what changes may be on the horizon in the discipline, if any. For Stanislas Chaillou, AI’s dissemination in architecture may refocus the profession’s...
99% Invisible
Trail Mix: Track Two [EPISODE]
Welcome to our second episode of short stories all about what may be the original designed object:...
a year ago
Welcome to our second episode of short stories all about what may be the original designed object: the trail. If you haven’t heard the first episode yet you should totally go back and listen. It’s a lot of fun. Trail Mix We’re going to kick this second episode once again starting...
The Modern House
‘I go to bed thinking about it’: why Tate Modern director Frances Morris returns to her childhood...
Where does our spirit go when we die? Frances Morris has this question figured out: she will return...
a year ago
Where does our spirit go when we die? Frances Morris has this question figured out: she will return to the home in which she was born, a Georgian house abreast the Meridian Line in Greenwich. Listen to this deeply personal conversation on our podcast, Homing […]
CONTEMPORIST
Yellow Granite Is On Display Throughout This Contemporary Home In Sardinia
Photography ©Marco Cappelletti Architecture firm Alvisi Kirimoto has shared photos of a villa they...
9 months ago
Photography ©Marco Cappelletti Architecture firm Alvisi Kirimoto has shared photos of a villa they completed in Porto Rotondo, Sardinia, that showcases local granite throughout its design. Drone photography ©Mattia Caprara and Flavio Pescatori San Giacomo yellow granite winds...
The Modern House
Five uplifting things to do this February
Well, we’ve made it through January. Spring is edging ever closer and the evenings are starting to...
a year ago
Well, we’ve made it through January. Spring is edging ever closer and the evenings are starting to get just that little bit lighter. If February’s Latin meaning – from the verb ‘to cleanse’ – is anything to go by, this is a month for nourishing […]
The Modern House
The Green Series #2: how to control heat and draught-proof your home
Triple glazing and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) systems come as standard in a...
3 weeks ago
Triple glazing and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) systems come as standard in a Passivhaus home, sealing the interior against the elements and radically reducing your reliance on conventional heating. For the second in our series of Passivhaus hacks, Kate Jacobs...
devonzuegel.com
The new city in California
A new city has been proposed in California, and the plan is going to a vote in Solano County’s...
10 months ago
A new city has been proposed in California, and the plan is going to a vote in Solano County’s November election. The proposed location is in Solano County, about halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento, and the group behind the proposal is named California Forever.
As a...
The Beauty of...
Tubular Belle (Køge Nord station, Køge, Denmark)
Stuck on the E20 motorway heading for Copenhagen? Køge Nord station very much hopes you are...
over a year ago
Stuck on the E20 motorway heading for Copenhagen? Køge Nord station very much hopes you are...
Construction Physics
How to Build a 50,000 Ton Forging Press
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a revolution took place in American military aircraft design.
4 months ago
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a revolution took place in American military aircraft design.
Old Structures...
Imitation
There’s a phenomenon that I think of as “life imitiates art imitates life imitates art…ad...
10 months ago
There’s a phenomenon that I think of as “life imitiates art imitates life imitates art…ad infinitium”. A work of art – a drawing, a painting, a movie – is base don reality and augments, making it look better than it does in real life, and then people change what they’re doing to...
devonzuegel.com
To rent or to sell, that is the question
As a real estate developer, one of the big decisions you need to make is whether you will rent or...
a year ago
As a real estate developer, one of the big decisions you need to make is whether you will rent or sell the buildings you've built.
Income from rentals flows in steadily over years, while income from sales hits all at once. This essential difference is simple but has many...
Construction Physics
Book Review: Healthy Buildings
Healthy Buildings, written by John Macomber and Joseph Allen is, as the title suggests, a book about...
a year ago
Healthy Buildings, written by John Macomber and Joseph Allen is, as the title suggests, a book about how buildings affect health. Allen is a former environmental consultant, professor of public health, and director of Harvard’s “Healthy Buildings” program. Macomber is a lecturer...
99% Invisible
The Power Broker #12: Robert Caro
This is the twelfth official episode of our ongoing series breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize...
2 days ago
This is the twelfth official episode of our ongoing series breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. We’ve waited until the evening to see how splendid the day has been, and for this final installment, there was only one guest...
Old Structures...
Another Moment of Transition
This a nice postcard of the north end of Union Square, using a hand-color photograph from 1910 as...
9 months ago
This a nice postcard of the north end of Union Square, using a hand-color photograph from 1910 as its basis. The centerpiece is the Metropolitan Life tower at Madison Square, seven blocks to the north of the foreground buildings on East 17th Street. Those buildings include the...
SOCKS
Carlos Morago. Across the Ordinary Interior
Contemporary Spanish painter Carlos Morago depicts realistic interior scenes that are mostly reduced...
a year ago
Contemporary Spanish painter Carlos Morago depicts realistic interior scenes that are mostly reduced to the bare minimum: light floors and walls and sporadical furniture. Empty corridors and rooms are framed through opened doors and walls while opening on uneventful exteriors...
CONTEMPORIST
This Cat Cafe In New York Was Designed With Whimsy And Playfulness
Architect Sonya Lee has shared photos of the new location of Meow Parlour, a cat cafe in New York...
4 months ago
Architect Sonya Lee has shared photos of the new location of Meow Parlour, a cat cafe in New York that had outgrown its previous space. The storefront has a 10’ wall of white oak shelves that spell out M E O W, which also function as signage, a playspace for the cats to snuggle...
The Modern House
Mia Castenskjold and Stefan Zschernitz’s self-built sanctuary in Hackney
a year ago
SOCKS
Madeleine de Boullogne and Louise-Magdeleine Hortemels, Abbey of Port-Royal-des-Champs: Paintings...
Madeleine de Boullogne, (1646-1710), was a baroque artist born and raised in a family of painters....
over a year ago
Madeleine de Boullogne, (1646-1710), was a baroque artist born and raised in a family of painters. Extremely pious, she remained unmarried and lived a semi-monastic life entirely dedicated to working and teaching. Among the most important commissions, she produced a set of four...
The Modern House
Food system researchers Alon Schwabe and Daniel Fernández Pascual on their explorative approach to a...
a year ago
McMansion Hell
in which i take on the argument that windowless bedrooms will somehow solve the housing crisis (lol)
We Cannot Countenance Windowless Bedrooms
in which i take on the argument that windowless bedrooms...
a year ago
We Cannot Countenance Windowless Bedrooms
in which i take on the argument that windowless bedrooms will somehow solve the housing crisis (lol)
Archinect - Features
2024 Summer Architecture Programs for Adults and High School Graduates
Archinect's 2024 highlight of summer architecture programs continues with Part 2, where we focus on...
9 months ago
Archinect's 2024 highlight of summer architecture programs continues with Part 2, where we focus on courses and workshops for adults, high school graduates, and current college students.
Take a look below at our curated selection of educational events at academic institutions and...
Archinect - Features
3D Printing, Artificial Intelligence, and Space Habitats: A Conversation with ICON’s Melodie...
As a ‘Space Architect’ working on the design and delivery of 3D printed habitats on the Moon and...
9 months ago
As a ‘Space Architect’ working on the design and delivery of 3D printed habitats on the Moon and Mars, Melodie Yashar is aware that, even in space, 3D printing does not exist in a vacuum. Like any construction methodology, it requires a confluence of design intent, delivery...
Cartogrammar
Beyond the Sea, flowing and exploding edition
Last year I took a whack at mapping what you’d “see” if you looked straight across the ocean from...
over a year ago
Last year I took a whack at mapping what you’d “see” if you looked straight across the ocean from coastlines around the world. Since then, an interactive version of that has been a back-burner idea. Well, finally, here we go. To recap, these arcs represent straight-line paths out...
Old Structures...
For The Encouragement Of Thrift
When you spend as much time looking at buildings as I do, it takes something out of the ordinary to...
a year ago
When you spend as much time looking at buildings as I do, it takes something out of the ordinary to stand out. In this case, I was on Sutphin Boulevard in Queens, on its northernmost leg. That’s the part of Sutphin that most people who have heard of it know: between its northern...
Old Structures...
Changes and Not
I almost missed this 1938 entry in Berenice Abbott’s “Changing New York” project, because it’s...
9 months ago
I almost missed this 1938 entry in Berenice Abbott’s “Changing New York” project, because it’s mislabelled at the New York Public Library web site as “Vista, Thomas Street”. We all make mistakes, and whomever confused Thames and Thomas hid the location of this photo by accident....
devonzuegel.com
OWD #3: Disney World & other underworlds
Every place has some dirty secrets, even Disney World. We all have to get rid of waste somehow! In...
over a year ago
Every place has some dirty secrets, even Disney World. We all have to get rid of waste somehow! In this episode, the Bertauds and I discuss methods of sanitation and waste management from around the world, and how these hidden systems shape our cities.
RSS · Apple Podcasts ·...
99% Invisible
Train Set: Track Three [EPISODE]
Happy National Train Day, everyone – for those of you who missed it: that was May 13th this year. A...
a year ago
Happy National Train Day, everyone – for those of you who missed it: that was May 13th this year. A year ago, we started down this path with Train Set: Track One, which gave way to Track Two …and now, here we are for the final part of our train-fecta. First Stop: Shining Time...
The Solarchitecture...
The Solar Manifesto - Part 1.
for even after the deepest night, the sun always rises.
over a year ago
for even after the deepest night, the sun always rises.
Old Structures...
Another Tool
Our inspections tend to be very close up – one of my first, in 1988, had me lying on the floor in an...
a year ago
Our inspections tend to be very close up – one of my first, in 1988, had me lying on the floor in an abandoned building with my arm, up to the shoulder, inside a hole in the wall, trying to get the sense of a beam-to-column connection by touch – but sometimes long-distance tools...
Construction Physics
On Yglesias on Manufactured Homes
A few weeks ago, Matt Yglesias wrote “How to Unleash a Trailer Home Boom," which outlines a strategy...
11 months ago
A few weeks ago, Matt Yglesias wrote “How to Unleash a Trailer Home Boom," which outlines a strategy for getting more manufactured homes built. Broadly, Yglesias proposes ending HUD code requirements that manufactured homes have a steel chassis, making it easier and less...
McMansion Hell
pre-recession, post-taste
Hello, everyone. I hope this blog can bring some well-needed laughs in really trying times. That’s...
a year ago
Hello, everyone. I hope this blog can bring some well-needed laughs in really trying times. That’s why I’ve gone back into the archives of that precipitous year 2007, a year where the McMansion was sleepwalking into being a symbol of the financial calamity to follow. We return to...
McMansion Hell
BONUS MCMANSION HELL: liminal edition
bonus mcmansion: liminal edition | Patreon
BONUS MCMANSION HELL: liminal edition
a year ago
bonus mcmansion: liminal edition | Patreon
BONUS MCMANSION HELL: liminal edition
Old Structures...
A Simple Drawing For A Difficult Structure – Part 2
The illustration above, from the May 1883 issue of Harper’s Magazine, courtesy of the New York...
a year ago
The illustration above, from the May 1883 issue of Harper’s Magazine, courtesy of the New York Public Library, gives a better sense of the Brooklyn Bridge caissons than yesterday’s working drawing (repeated below) even if it’s got less technical information. Note that May 1883...
There are two types...
“My Open Letter to NYC DOT Commissioner Rodriquez”
Dear Commissioner Rodriquez, I’m writing to you because I just signed up for a workshop to improve...
over a year ago
Dear Commissioner Rodriquez, I’m writing to you because I just signed up for a workshop to improve Canal Street that your department is running tonight. I met you when you were a Councilman. I know you care deeply about making … Continue reading →
The post “My Open Letter to NYC...
Archinect - Features
From the Editors: What We're Thankful for in 2023
In a year marked with highs and lows, the Archinect editorial team has spent another year watching,...
a year ago
In a year marked with highs and lows, the Archinect editorial team has spent another year watching, listening, and reporting on the events of 2023. With the holidays drawing near and the year coming to a close, we pause to extend our gratitude to our dedicated readership and...
CONTEMPORIST
One Thousand Plants Cover The Exterior Of The ‘Landmark by Lexus’ Pavilion
Koichi Takada Architects has sent us photos of ‘Landmark by Lexus’, a showroom/pavilion that was...
a year ago
Koichi Takada Architects has sent us photos of ‘Landmark by Lexus’, a showroom/pavilion that was presented to guests during the Melbourne Cup Carnival at the Flemington Racecourse in Australia. Drawing inspiration from the Australian landscape, Koichi Takada Architects designed a...
CONTEMPORIST
A Sheltered Space Beneath The Sloping Roof Of This Home Makes Space For A Hot Tub
Batay-Csorba Architects has designed a home in Toronto, Canada, that takes advantage of the small...
a year ago
Batay-Csorba Architects has designed a home in Toronto, Canada, that takes advantage of the small 65’x20’ pie-shaped corner lot, and includes a sheltered outdoor balcony. The sloping roof partially covers the balcony, with an opening above the Japanese soaking tub. The home’s...
The Solarchitecture...
Follow up to circadian rhythm post
Let's use the tools that Substack gave us!
over a year ago
Let's use the tools that Substack gave us!
The Architectural...
New academic dissertation questions architects’ taste
Many architects look down upon residential areas built with the small town as a model, with new...
8 months ago
Many architects look down upon residential areas built with the small town as a model, with new houses made in a traditional style. But this is exactly what the average person appreciates. “Why do many architects dislike the very thing that residents often enjoy?” asks architect...
Old Structures...
Recognizing Reality
A hundred years ago, jaywalking was a made-up offense. In 1926, a study of traffic included the...
a month ago
A hundred years ago, jaywalking was a made-up offense. In 1926, a study of traffic included the statement “all persons have an equal right in the highway, and that in exercising the right each shall take due care not to injure other users of the way.” Old pictures of even a...
Old Structures...
The Inspiration
The 14th Street station on the Eighth Avenue subway has an art installation by Tom Otterness called...
7 months ago
The 14th Street station on the Eighth Avenue subway has an art installation by Tom Otterness called “Life Underground” It consists of a series of brass figures, both human and animal, engaged in various pursuits. Everyone always focuses on the alligator climbing out of a sewer to...
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