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Old Structures...
Uncluttered From 1946, a view from 501 Madison Avenue looking southwest past St. Patrick’s Cathedral to...
4 months ago
27
4 months ago
From 1946, a view from 501 Madison Avenue looking southwest past St. Patrick’s Cathedral to Rockefeller Center. The International Building on the right partially blocks the view of the taller RCA Building, with the (old) Time-Life building off to the left. The construction site...
The Modern House
Our Guide to Oxford: cinnamon buns, honey-hued domes and small plates in the 'city of dreaming...
7 months ago
Archinect - Features
Archinect's 2023 Summer Reading List Summer is here, and whether you're on vacation or preparing for one or looking to lay low at home, a...
a year ago
8
a year ago
Summer is here, and whether you're on vacation or preparing for one or looking to lay low at home, a summer must is a good book. The Archinect team has curated a list of reading essentials to explore.  Below is a collection of books organized into five categories – New Releases,...
Common Edge
Does Spirituality Have a Role in Educating Architects? What might appear to some as an “off-limits” realm might actually be at its heart.
a year ago
There are two types...
Take Back The City On a recent episode of Billions, the New York Attorney General stands on the roof a car in the...
over a year ago
18
over a year ago
On a recent episode of Billions, the New York Attorney General stands on the roof a car in the middle of a New York City street with a bullhorn. Why? Vecause he’s positioned himself near a meeting on the Highline … Continue reading → The post Take Back The City appeared first on...
Old Structures...
Lucy Moses Award: 486 Liberty Avenue You can read about the building in the awards program: here. The short version: this was a very...
8 months ago
68
8 months ago
You can read about the building in the awards program: here. The short version: this was a very ornate police precinct house constructed in 1892, when Brooklyn was still an inexpedient city, and abandoned for quite some time. Here’s what the interior looked like the first time we...
The Modern House
Cover Stories: five new architecture, art and design books for your shelf Inspiration may come in many forms but it’s flighty and hard to find. That said, one place you can...
9 months ago
18
9 months ago
Inspiration may come in many forms but it’s flighty and hard to find. That said, one place you can be quite sure to pin it down it is on a bookshelf. And while those at TMH HQ are already groaning, we can’t resist the allure […]
Old Structures...
An Avatar Of Steel Another short trip: I was in Philadelphia last week, and I walked the not-quite two miles from my...
4 days ago
7
4 days ago
Another short trip: I was in Philadelphia last week, and I walked the not-quite two miles from my meeting to the train station on my way home. I took the two unimpressive pictures below on the way: That’s the rear, Arch Street side, of the Reading Terminal Market, which is, as...
The Modern House
How architect Charlie Luxton built a hidden home into a hillside in Oxfordfordshire
a year ago
Old Structures...
Best Commute Ever The conference I am currently attending is at ETH, the famous engineering school in Zurich. My hotel...
5 months ago
31
5 months ago
The conference I am currently attending is at ETH, the famous engineering school in Zurich. My hotel is not far away in a two-dimensional sense. I picked it some months ago by looking at a map and thinking that it was a short walk from campus. It’s a short flight to campus if...
Common Edge
The Deceptive Grandeur of City Skylines Empty office towers are likely to remain that way for years.
4 months ago
99% Invisible
As Slow As Possible [EPISODE] In February, everyone who went to a concert in the old medieval town of Halberstadt, Germany, showed...
5 months ago
41
5 months ago
In February, everyone who went to a concert in the old medieval town of Halberstadt, Germany, showed up 23 years late. This is also concert from which everyone walks out early. The performance is of a piece called ORGAN2/ASLSP. ASLSP stands for “as slow as possible,” which is how...
The Modern House
My Modern House: Tom Morris’ Brutalist flat on the Barbican Estate This week, we’re taking a trip down memory lane – and to the Barbican apartment of Tom Morris,...
a year ago
7
a year ago
This week, we’re taking a trip down memory lane – and to the Barbican apartment of Tom Morris, multihyphenate writer turned interior designer and founder of Morrisstudio, the outfit known for its considered craft-led approach to creating homes. However, when we first visited Tom,...
SOCKS
Database, Network, Interface : The Architecture of Information. An exhibition at Archizoom (EPFL),... We are pleased to announce that we are curating an exhibition that will open in September at the...
over a year ago
12
over a year ago
We are pleased to announce that we are curating an exhibition that will open in September at the Archizoom Gallery (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland.  In an age characterised by the increasing dematerialisation of cultural production and transmission, Database, Network, Interface...
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
20
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...
Old Structures...
Repetition Back to my travelogue of the tour of Swiss and German bridges. This is an overall view of the rail...
5 months ago
30
5 months ago
Back to my travelogue of the tour of Swiss and German bridges. This is an overall view of the rail viaduct across the Thun River valley at Ossingen, Switzerland. It was completed in 1874, and is still in use, carrying trains over the valley. Most of the sources I found are very...
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
28
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...
Benny Kuriakose
Designing Student Amenities That Encourage Creative Growth Providing spaces in schools that promote extracurricular activities in children and grow interests,...
a year ago
3
a year ago
Providing spaces in schools that promote extracurricular activities in children and grow interests, hobbies, and talents is highly...
devonzuegel.com
Topographic theory of flaking Natan Gesher sent me the following email after reading my post about why flaking is so widespread in...
over a year ago
8
over a year ago
Natan Gesher sent me the following email after reading my post about why flaking is so widespread in San Francisco, and I thought you all might find it interesting too: I saw your blog posts about flaking and wanted to share something I've observed from moving around a bit (four...
CONTEMPORIST
Hidden Lighting Creates A Warm Glow Throughout This Apartment Interior Cuaik | CDS has shared photos of an apartment interior they designed in Ciudad De México, Mexico,...
5 months ago
40
5 months ago
Cuaik | CDS has shared photos of an apartment interior they designed in Ciudad De México, Mexico, that uses hidden lighting to create a warm atmosphere. Working together with Grupo Cuarit, the designers infused the space with bespoke wood carpentry and thoughtful illumination. In...
Old Structures...
Misleading Words In 1941, Robert Moses demolished the New York Aquarium, located in Castle Clinton in Battery Park,...
7 months ago
23
7 months ago
In 1941, Robert Moses demolished the New York Aquarium, located in Castle Clinton in Battery Park, in a fit of pique over losing his fight to build a bridge from the Battery to Brooklyn. (That project became the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel.) The aquarium was a three-story building on...
Common Edge
What Happened to New York City Public Housing, and How Can We Fix It? The former chief architect for NYCHA on what ails the the system.
8 months ago
The Modern House
MRTN Architects’ garden studios in Melbourne are a place to work – or to not work
8 months ago
Common Edge
The Next New Thing In architecture, the gulf between the traditional and the modern seems wider than ever before.
5 months ago
Common Edge
Awesome and Affordable: Making the Case for Great Housing A new project in Los Angeles highlights the challenges—and the opportunities.
10 months ago
Old Structures...
Winding This 1952 photo by Angelo Rizzuto is titled “Bdwy winding all thru T-Sq.” and it definitely shows...
8 months ago
61
8 months ago
This 1952 photo by Angelo Rizzuto is titled “Bdwy winding all thru T-Sq.” and it definitely shows Broadway and Times Square, although I have some quibbles about “winding.” This view is looking north and a little bit west, probably taken from a window on a high floor of 1450...
99% Invisible
The Power Broker #05: Brandy Zadrozny [EPISODE] This is the fifth official episode of our ongoing series breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize...
7 months ago
59
7 months ago
This is the fifth official episode of our ongoing series breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. This week, Roman and Elliott also sit down with Brandy Zadrozny, a senior reporter for NBC News who covers misinformation,...
CONTEMPORIST
A Calming Interior Was Designed For This Home In Spain Susanna Cots Interior Design has shared a project they recently completed in Spain, that includes a...
a year ago
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a year ago
Susanna Cots Interior Design has shared a project they recently completed in Spain, that includes a calm material palette. Large windows were integrated into the homes’ design so that the surrounding nature and the gardens could be seen from within the home. In the garden,...
Old Structures...
Happy Thanksgiving And the menu above provides a goal for dinner.
a year ago
The Modern House
A mid-century gem among the treetops on the Dulwich Estate in Crystal Palace
a year ago
Blog - Guerrilla...
Migration Away From Flooded Land in Seattle How did you decide on your map subject for the Migration atlas?  Deciding what to map was the...
over a year ago
20
over a year ago
How did you decide on your map subject for the Migration atlas?  Deciding what to map was the hardest part of the Atlas in a Day experience. The first night, we developed a number of interesting concepts but nothing felt quite right. Were data available? What interesting story...
Construction Physics
Which Construction Tasks Have Gotten Cheaper? We spend a lot of time around here looking at construction costs, and whenever we do the same story...
a year ago
9
a year ago
We spend a lot of time around here looking at construction costs, and whenever we do the same story emerges: construction never gets cheaper. Construction costs tend to rise at or above the level of overall inflation. A square foot of building costs as much or more to build today...
Old Structures...
For The Common Folk The return of a heat wave has me writing about the beach. (Not going to the beach, which sounds...
5 months ago
46
5 months ago
The return of a heat wave has me writing about the beach. (Not going to the beach, which sounds unbearably hot right now, but thinking and writing about it.) So, here’s the Brighton Beach Bathing Pavilion in 1879, one year after it opened: The three big hotels nearby, including...
Old Structures...
A Thomas Nast Holiday – 3 of 3 In my opinion, this is genius.
12 months ago
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
37
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...
Old Structures...
Imagine Standing There Every so often, I mention New York’s industrial past. Compared to a truly industrial city like...
9 months ago
19
9 months ago
Every so often, I mention New York’s industrial past. Compared to a truly industrial city like Philadelphia or Chicago, it’s small-scale stuff, but compared to the present it’s astonishing. Looking at one of the parts of the city devoted to industry before 1920, it’s hard to...
Old Structures...
It Looked Familiar: Artistic From a stand-alone comic about the Penguin, a museum in Gotham City: From the Look Around feature in...
7 months ago
34
7 months ago
From a stand-alone comic about the Penguin, a museum in Gotham City: From the Look Around feature in Apple Maps, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Fifth Avenue facade: From 1900, when the main facade of the center block was complete, but the wings not yet constructed: The rough...
Construction Physics
How the Gas Turbine Conquered the Electric Power Industry A prophecy expressed frequently in engineering circles at the present day is that turbines actuated...
a year ago
23
a year ago
A prophecy expressed frequently in engineering circles at the present day is that turbines actuated by hot gases, other than steam, will eventually come to the front as prime movers. — A Scientific Investigation Into the Possibilities of Gas-Turbines,
Archinect - Features
USC Students Try a ‘Bottom-Up’ Approach To Sustainable Housing Delivery in the School of... Our latest Archinect Studio Pin-Ups takes a look at three studios at Archinect Partner School USC...
2 days ago
5
2 days ago
Our latest Archinect Studio Pin-Ups takes a look at three studios at Archinect Partner School USC School of Architecture, offered as part of their one-year Master of Advanced Architectural Research Studies (M.AARS) postgraduate program. Led by instructors Julia Sulzer and Sascha...
99% Invisible
Shade Redux [EPISODE] This past May, the city of Los Angeles rolled out a brand new, state-of-the art feature for bus...
a year ago
51
a year ago
This past May, the city of Los Angeles rolled out a brand new, state-of-the art feature for bus shelters. It’s called La Sombrita. La Sombrita is a metal screen that’s intended to provide shade for the thousands of people who ride the bus every day. The shade screen is about two...
Common Edge
Declaration of Independence From Sprawl Toward the New Urban Place and away from the Industrial Development Complex.
7 months ago
Old Structures...
The Personal Connection A 1958 or 59 view of 200 East 42nd Street under construction: It’s a fairly boring steel-frame,...
8 months ago
28
8 months ago
A 1958 or 59 view of 200 East 42nd Street under construction: It’s a fairly boring steel-frame, glass-facade office building, remarkable to me for the simple reason that I had my first more-or-less real engineering job there. Tippetts-Abbett-McCarthy-Stratton, later known as TAMS...
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
24
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...
99% Invisible
Trompe L’oeil [EPISODE] Today, we have three stories about designs meant to fool you. Camouflage meant to fool U-boats....
2 months ago
32
2 months ago
Today, we have three stories about designs meant to fool you. Camouflage meant to fool U-boats. Highways designed to fool your brain into going way faster than it should want to. And impeccably made fake signs meant to guide you to the right freeway. Three classic, favorite...
Archinect - Features
Meet NYIT School of Architecture & Design's New Faculty Members The School of Architecture and Design at New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), with campuses in...
a month ago
25
a month ago
The School of Architecture and Design at New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), with campuses in New York City and Old Westbury, Long Island, delivers a technology-driven, design-focused education across its Architecture, Interior Design, and Digital Art & Design programs.  As...
Common Edge
San Francisco’s Love Affair With the Ferry Building John King, urban design critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, talks about his new book, Portal.
a year ago
Contemporist...
A Charred Wood Exterior Was Given To This Modern Home In The Forest CLB Architects, together with HSH Interiors (Holly Hollenbeck), has designed a home in an aspen...
7 months ago
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
91
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...
Old Structures...
The Easy Route On Sunday, I mentioned in passing that Ridgewood and Glendale, which are in southwest Queens as much...
4 months ago
34
4 months ago
On Sunday, I mentioned in passing that Ridgewood and Glendale, which are in southwest Queens as much as there is a southwest Queens (that corner isn’t very big because most of where it might have been is Brooklyn) used to have service on the Long Island Railroad and now don’t. I...
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
16
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 Vaulted Ceiling Is A Dramatic Feature Inside This Modern Barn House BLA Design Group has sent us photos of a modern barn house they completed that features an atrium...
a year ago
34
a year ago
BLA Design Group has sent us photos of a modern barn house they completed that features an atrium space that encourages activity and connectivity for a young family in British Columbia, Canada. The home sits on an irregular site located at the end of a cul-de-sac, and is designed...
devonzuegel.com
My questions about Próspera, answered I recently visited Próspera, a Honduran startup city. I had a ton of questions and figured others...
over a year ago
5
over a year ago
I recently visited Próspera, a Honduran startup city. I had a ton of questions and figured others might too, so I wrote an FAQ to share what I learned: Próspera FAQ This FAQ is intended as a reference, covering the basic facts and current status of the project. My hope is that...
CONTEMPORIST
Black Accents Are Ever Present Throughout This Apartment Koshulynskyy & Mayer studio has sent us photos of an apartment interior they completed that includes...
6 months ago
38
6 months ago
Koshulynskyy & Mayer studio has sent us photos of an apartment interior they completed that includes matte black accents throughout its design. The apartment, designed for a family, includes a living room with a dark accent wall, and a large couch in front of a suspended cabinet...
Old Structures...
A Stylistic Joke As A Name There’s a large, somewhat ominous, vaguely art deco building in lower Manhattan commonly called the...
2 weeks ago
12
2 weeks ago
There’s a large, somewhat ominous, vaguely art deco building in lower Manhattan commonly called the Tombs. The main portion of it is a courthouse with a lot of court-related office space, the northern wing – see below – is a short-term prison, mostly used to hold people awaiting...
Construction Physics
Supersonic air travel recommended reading Aviation has a huge number of enthusiasts, which is why essentially every aircraft model ever...
9 months ago
33
9 months ago
Aviation has a huge number of enthusiasts, which is why essentially every aircraft model ever produced has a book written about it. Supersonic aircraft are no exception. There’s a large number of books written about the Concorde, the Tu-144, and the American SST project. Many of...
Old Structures...
Probably Not What The Artist Intended 75 Broad Street, diagonally across the street from our office, was built in 1928 and almost...
3 months ago
33
3 months ago
75 Broad Street, diagonally across the street from our office, was built in 1928 and almost immediately bought by the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation for use as the company headquarters. Like a lot of New York Telephone buildings of that era, the interior was a...
Old Structures...
An Engineer For Dinner The picture above is the front page of the menu and program from a dinner held in 1941, when...
11 months ago
8
11 months ago
The picture above is the front page of the menu and program from a dinner held in 1941, when “…engineers and patriots are needed!” I wrote about John Ericsson five years ago, and I still walk by his statue in Battery Park almost every day. I feel like the menu picture – which...
Blog - Guerrilla...
Vermont's Great Retreat To begin the process of creating this map, I asked questions. Devoured books. Consumed articles....
over a year ago
22
over a year ago
To begin the process of creating this map, I asked questions. Devoured books. Consumed articles. Talked to historians and librarians. And read maps. Lots of maps. As I did, I wondered if there was something in the landscape, the communities, the culture that made Vermont...
The Modern House
House Style with gallerist Oyinkansola Dada in Pimlico
a year ago
Contemporist...
Pitched Roofs Cover This Dark And Moody Farmhouse Atlas Architects has shared photos of a modern house on the Mornington Peninsula, Australia, that...
a year ago
46
a year ago
Atlas Architects has shared photos of a modern house on the Mornington Peninsula, Australia, that was once a brown-brick, pitched-roof farmhouse built in the 1980s.
A Weekly Dose of...
The Past and Future of Architecture Books The recent receipt of two review books got me thinking about the past and the future of architecture...
a year ago
21
a year ago
The recent receipt of two review books got me thinking about the past and the future of architecture books. The first one is This is Architecture: Writing on Buildings, a collection of excerpted texts about buildings, spanning from the mid-1800s to the 2010s.  This is...
A Weekly Dose of...
G. E. Kidder Smith Builds G. E. Kidder Smith Builds: The Travel of Architectural Photography AR+D Publishing, August...
over a year ago
24
over a year ago
G. E. Kidder Smith Builds: The Travel of Architectural Photography AR+D Publishing, August 2022 Hardcover | 8 x 11 inches | 272 pages | English | ISBN: 9781954081536 | $60.00 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION: George Everard Kidder Smith (1913–1997) was a multidimensional figure within...
Common Edge
I’m A New Yorker, Not a NIMBY Most New Yorkers care deeply about their great city and believe development shouldn’t be top-down...
2 months ago
33
2 months ago
Most New Yorkers care deeply about their great city and believe development shouldn’t be top-down and hidden from public scrutiny.
Common Edge
Developers Are Dangerously in Control of New York City Urbanist Roberta Brandes Gratz’s remarks on receiving the Preservation Leadership Award.
8 months ago
Common Edge
Explaining NYC’s Arcane, and Possibly Unconstitutional, Planning and Approval Process It’s the “City of Yes”—even if you say “NO”!
6 months ago
The Modern House
Our guide to Forest Gate: community spirit and small businesses in east London
a year ago
Old Structures...
Sic Transit This photo by Angelo Rizzuto, from October 1952, is listed at the Library of Congress as “Bird’s eye...
8 months ago
16
8 months ago
This photo by Angelo Rizzuto, from October 1952, is listed at the Library of Congress as “Bird’s eye view of a building in New York City.” It’s the old Metropolitan Opera House at 40th Street and Broadway, the one that the Met left in 1966 to move to Lincoln Center. The Met had...
The Modern House
Architect Ben Ridley on life in his low-energy house in Muswell Hill
a year ago
Common Edge
Is This Ugly or Heroic? An Eyesore or Gem? What Is ‘Ugly’? Truth is, aesthetic inclinations are an expanding multiverse.
9 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
12
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,...
Old Structures...
It Looked Familiar: An Impossible View Above, Iron Man flies past the Chrysler Building. I was trying to figure out if the buildings in the...
a year ago
6
a year ago
Above, Iron Man flies past the Chrysler Building. I was trying to figure out if the buildings in the background were realistic, and got part of the way there. The gray building on the right looks like a simplified version of the Socony-Mobil Building at the southeast corner of...
CONTEMPORIST
A New Extension Adds A Home Office And Bedroom To This Miami Bungalow Upstairs Studio Architecture has shared photos of a 900 sqft addition in South Miami, Florida, for...
4 months ago
33
4 months ago
Upstairs Studio Architecture has shared photos of a 900 sqft addition in South Miami, Florida, for owners who were looking for a little extra room in their traditional home, that was open to the outdoors, and allowed for a private primary bedroom and studio apart from the main...
Common Edge
“What Would Jane Jacobs Do?” Is the Wrong Question Proponents of City of Yes are misapplying her ideas (again).
3 months ago
The Modern House
A hotel with staying power overlooking the Atlantic in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland
a year ago
CONTEMPORIST
Before & After – An Extension Adds New Living Space For This Home In London Bradley Van Der Straeten Architects has designed the contemporary renovation and addition for a...
a year ago
47
a year ago
Bradley Van Der Straeten Architects has designed the contemporary renovation and addition for a Grade II listed terrace home in the London borough of Islington. The original house, which is spread over three floors, was in poor condition and had lost its charm and original...
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
14
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...
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
14
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 […]
The Modern House
TV presenter Will Best's space-smart Hackney home for three
6 months ago
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
30
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...
McMansion Hell
texas gothic revival Sometimes I just want to get on my hobbyhorse, which for about a year now has been the middle ages...
6 months ago
15
6 months ago
Sometimes I just want to get on my hobbyhorse, which for about a year now has been the middle ages but surely will soon be something else. (Please hyperfixation gods, make it financial literacy.) Anyway, I meandered around the nation (online) in search of another opportunity to...
Common Edge
Building Emissions Are Falling, Now the Real Work Begins There has been a significant drop this year. The path toward net-zero intensifies.
a year ago
devonzuegel.com
Traveling neighborhoods: a different kind of group trip I've discovered a group trip format that I really love, and I wanted to share it with others because...
8 months ago
23
8 months ago
I've discovered a group trip format that I really love, and I wanted to share it with others because (a) you might find it fun to host or join something like this in the future and (b) selfishly, I would like more people to organize trips like this so that I can join them! The...
Old Structures...
Adelaide House, Part 4 – The Context Part 1, General: here. Part 2, Structure: here. Part 3, Facades: here. Skyscrapers only make sense...
8 months ago
31
8 months ago
Part 1, General: here. Part 2, Structure: here. Part 3, Facades: here. Skyscrapers only make sense as an urban phenomenon. (Keep in mind that a lot of inner-ring US suburbs are at urban density.) Putting aside the obvious economic argument that land is cheap in rural areas so...
The Modern House
Opportunity Knocks: seven homes with earning potential We know not everyone coming to our site is in search of a new place to live – or at least not all...
a year ago
22
a year ago
We know not everyone coming to our site is in search of a new place to live – or at least not all the time. And catering to your desires – always with good design at the front of our minds – is what we’re […]
CONTEMPORIST
Elevated Elegance: A Unique Home In The Forest With A Trio Of Tile-Clad Gables Exterio Architectural Studio, together with interior design firm Hola Design, has shared photos of a...
8 months ago
55
8 months ago
Exterio Architectural Studio, together with interior design firm Hola Design, has shared photos of a contemporary home they have completed near Warsaw, Poland, that’s surrounded by a pine forest. The home is designed to bring a large family together, with the form taking shape...
Common Edge
Does Brooklyn’s New Brooding Monolith Deserve Kudos? Closer in, SHoP’s Brooklyn Tower reveals texture, color, and personality, but for many it’s a bleak...
a year ago
6
a year ago
Closer in, SHoP’s Brooklyn Tower reveals texture, color, and personality, but for many it’s a bleak middle finger on the skyline.
Archinect - Features
Discussing Paid Research Opportunities for M.Arch Students at UW-Milwaukee SARUP In November 2022, we connected with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Architecture &...
a year ago
18
a year ago
In November 2022, we connected with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Architecture & Urban Planning (SARUP) to unpack its Mellows Graduate Research Positions (formerly called the Mellowes Master’s Research Assistantships).  For the 2024-2025 school year, SARUP is...
devonzuegel.com
A Big Little Idea Called Legibility July 26, 2010 By Venkatesh Rao James C. Scott’s fascinating and seminal book, Seeing Like a...
over a year ago
8
over a year ago
July 26, 2010 By Venkatesh Rao James C. Scott’s fascinating and seminal book, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, examines how, across dozens of domains, ranging from agriculture and forestry, to urban planning and...
99% Invisible
The Power Broker #08: Shiloh Frederick [EPISODE] This is the eighth official episode of our ongoing series breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize...
4 months ago
41
4 months ago
This is the eighth official episode of our ongoing series breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. This week, Roman and Elliott also sit down with Shiloh Frederick. Born and raised in New York City, Shiloh is a writer and...
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
7
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
How to be more mindful when working from home
a year ago
Old Structures...
Waste Not, Something Something I was passing through Tribeca last week and came across this little building. Very, very little....
9 months ago
21
9 months ago
I was passing through Tribeca last week and came across this little building. Very, very little. Three stories tall, maybe 40 feet wide, and about four feet deep on the left and maybe a luxurious ten or fifteen feet deep on the right. You know you’re in a city where real estate...
The Modern House
Field Work: A guided architectural tour of the Thames – 'a pukka example' of a team away day Earlier this month, The Modern House team had the pleasure of Benedict O’Looney’s company. For a...
6 months ago
30
6 months ago
Earlier this month, The Modern House team had the pleasure of Benedict O’Looney’s company. For a full three hours, the architect, historian and former punk musician stood at the prow of a riverboat in the Thames and narrated the rich, complex history of the buildings […]
Benny Kuriakose
A Guide to Interior Photography of Historic Buildings - Part III Interior views add valuable information to the documentation of a historic building. To capture the...
a year ago
3
a year ago
Interior views add valuable information to the documentation of a historic building. To capture the true essence of the building, the...
Old Structures...
Pareidolia He’s a happy little gas-powered guy.
5 months ago
CONTEMPORIST
A Large Double Height Ceiling Allows The Social Areas Of This Home To Open Completely To The Outside Padovani Arquitetos has sent us photos of a project they designed in Campinas, Brazil, that takes...
a year ago
25
a year ago
Padovani Arquitetos has sent us photos of a project they designed in Campinas, Brazil, that takes advantage of the topography to create a modern home with a horizontal design and lower garage. The home has been designed in such a way that the interior is hidden from the street....
Contemporist...
The client asked for "a hotel-like bedroom and bathroom in their home, so they could feel as if they... Studio Kloek has shared images of a bedroom and bathroom suite they designed for their client who...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Studio Kloek has shared images of a bedroom and bathroom suite they designed for their client who desired "a hotel-like bedroom and bathroom in their home, so they could feel as if they were on vacation every day."
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
37
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
It’s Time to Blur the Boundaries Between Town and Gown University campus planning should look outward to the surrounding city.
6 months ago
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
22
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...
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
20
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...
Old Structures...
The Black Tower For all you Lord of the Rings fans, remember: Brooklyn is not Mordor. No matter what similarities...
8 months ago
27
8 months ago
For all you Lord of the Rings fans, remember: Brooklyn is not Mordor. No matter what similarities may exist.
Old Structures...
Coincidence I couldn’t remember if I’ve written about Manhattanhenge before – we’re up over 3000 blog posts, so...
6 months ago
39
6 months ago
I couldn’t remember if I’ve written about Manhattanhenge before – we’re up over 3000 blog posts, so who knows what I’ve written about at this point – but it turns out I did, twice, five years ago and six years ago. Everything I said then is still true: I find people lining up to...
99% Invisible
Meet Me at Riis There’s a particular slice of beach along the New York City shoreline, that, for the past 80 years,...
a month ago
26
a month ago
There’s a particular slice of beach along the New York City shoreline, that, for the past 80 years, has been a pivotal site for queer liberation. It’s called the People’s Beach at Jacob Riis Park, also known, simply, as Riis. This history is deeply connected to an abandoned,...
Common Edge
What’s to Become of the Mess That Is Penn Station? A talk with architecture critic Justin Davidson about the thorny knot of issues involved at New...
a year ago
95
a year ago
A talk with architecture critic Justin Davidson about the thorny knot of issues involved at New York’s most conflicted transportation-entertainment site.
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
27
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 […]
Old Structures...
Not A Skyscaper The picture above – courtesy of Irfan Haider of the Central Park Conservancy – shows the realization...
a year ago
9
a year ago
The picture above – courtesy of Irfan Haider of the Central Park Conservancy – shows the realization of another of our designs for small rustic structures in the park. Again, Shaquana Lovell took the lead for OSE. In this case, the design of the log structure was not the main...
Old Structures...
It Looked Familiar: Edward Hopper From the comic “Powers”, Christian Walker sits by himself in a diner: Hopper’s 1942 painting...
3 weeks ago
13
3 weeks ago
From the comic “Powers”, Christian Walker sits by himself in a diner: Hopper’s 1942 painting “Nighthawks”: I’m a fan of Hopper, but this is his most famous work, so it’s not like it was all that difficult to place the reference. In his words, it’s a simplified version of reality...
Common Edge
Should NYC’s Housing Authority Demolish Public Housing in Manhattan? Plans for a phased demolition and rebuilding of the Fulton and Chelsea-Elliott Houses should be...
a month ago
CONTEMPORIST
Before & After – A 1970s Home Received A Contemporary Renovation Floisand Studio Architects has shared photos of a contemporary renovation project they did for a...
a year ago
29
a year ago
Floisand Studio Architects has shared photos of a contemporary renovation project they did for a home in Seattle, Washington. The original 1970s Seattle rambler had a typical boxy layout, while the exterior featured brick with blue and red accents. The new exterior includes new...
CONTEMPORIST
This Alley Between Buildings Was Transformed With A Series Of Arches Photography by Robin Hill Daniel Toole Architecture in collaboration with SB Architects, has...
7 months ago
55
7 months ago
Photography by Robin Hill Daniel Toole Architecture in collaboration with SB Architects, has transformed a nondescript alley in Miami, Florida, with a series of concrete arches. Photography by Heywood Chan This alley was originally surrounded by trash rooms, dumpsters, mechanical...
Common Edge
What Would Jane Jacobs Do? Toward a New Model for Houses of Worship Cities need to prepare for a wave of declining churches.
a year ago
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
38
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...
Construction Physics
How to Build 300,000 Airplanes in Five Years It’s no secret that the Allies won World War II on the back of the U.S.’s enormous industrial...
7 months ago
67
7 months ago
It’s no secret that the Allies won World War II on the back of the U.S.’s enormous industrial output. Even before the U.S. entered the war, the Americans provided hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of equipment to the Allies, and between 1938 and 1943 U.S. manufacturing...
Old Structures...
Fun With Framing From a recent trip to Staten Island, a view looking north across the harbor to Manhattan and...
a month ago
14
a month ago
From a recent trip to Staten Island, a view looking north across the harbor to Manhattan and Brooklyn: New York looks, unfortunately, much like a chain-link fence. The catenaries that we see are some nearby power lines, not far-off suspension bridges. Cropping helps but not...
Construction Physics
Building Apollo A review of Angle of Attack: Harrison Storms and the Race to the Moon
a year ago
Contemporist...
This Library Is Almost Entirely Built Into The Land Around It Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP has recently completed a new library in Kisarazu, Japan, that has been built...
a year ago
The Modern House
A mid-century renovation project overlooking the water in south Cornwall
a year ago
McMansion Hell
Hi everyone: I’ve written a long deep-dive on the present state of the McMansion, from... The McMansion as Harbinger of the American Apocalypse Hi everyone: I’ve written a long deep-dive on...
a year ago
5
a year ago
The McMansion as Harbinger of the American Apocalypse Hi everyone: I’ve written a long deep-dive on the present state of the McMansion, from farmhouse chic to imminent environmental collapse. If you’ve been seeing an inordinate number of big ugly houses pop up in your...
The Wandering...
53° 30′ N So, there I am, driving along in Edmonton, Alberta. I come to a stop light on Fort Road, look to my...
over a year ago
18
over a year ago
So, there I am, driving along in Edmonton, Alberta. I come to a stop light on Fort Road, look to my right and I see this: Is that a building with longitudes written on the roof?!?! And what are these longitudes? 9° 49’ W—that’s nowhere near Edmonton! Nor is 123°30’ E. What’s …...
Common Edge
In Marseille’s Cours Julien, Street Art Creates Dynamic Context Submitting to this area’s urban rhythm reveals the power of public art to define a place.
a month ago
CONTEMPORIST
Chairs For Sitting On Stairs ARTA Architects has designed the Tai Kwun Chairs for The Hong Kong Jockey Club, allowing a more...
2 weeks ago
20
2 weeks ago
ARTA Architects has designed the Tai Kwun Chairs for The Hong Kong Jockey Club, allowing a more comfortable and modular seating solution for these stairs. The chairs complement the distinctive design languages of the Tai Kwun arts and cultural centre’s ancient and contemporary...
The Modern House
Musicians Csilla Pogány and Alastair Blayden on fine-tuning their school conversion in Kentish Town
a year ago
Old Structures...
Some Same, Some Different In the same vein as yesterday’s post, here’s an 1865 photo of Leonard Street: We’ve got a bunch of...
11 months ago
12
11 months ago
In the same vein as yesterday’s post, here’s an 1865 photo of Leonard Street: We’ve got a bunch of loft buildings with the employees of Van Volkenburgh Brothers and Ladewig & Haydter (the nearer building), Wright & Ketchum and S. E. Halle (the middle building), and two firms...
Old Structures...
A Metaphor When I was maybe ten years old, visiting the observation deck of the Empire State Building, I heard...
7 months ago
32
7 months ago
When I was maybe ten years old, visiting the observation deck of the Empire State Building, I heard someone describe the view as being like the buildings were a beard and Central Park a shaved strip. In 1952, there were far fewer high-rises on the Upper East and Upper West Sides,...
Old Structures...
Residential Conversion and a Mirror Office-to-residential conversion is a hot topic lately, the result of a tight housing market and the...
a year ago
5
a year ago
Office-to-residential conversion is a hot topic lately, the result of a tight housing market and the remote-work depression in commercial office space. The following is, at best, anecdata but gives a minor sense of that process for older buildings. I recently stayed in the Rand...
Archinect - Features
Narrative, Media, and AI in Architectural Academia; A Conversation with Natasha... Archinect last spoke with Natasha Sandmeier on the themes of visual media and narrative storytelling...
a year ago
48
a year ago
Archinect last spoke with Natasha Sandmeier on the themes of visual media and narrative storytelling in 2019. Back then, few could have imagined the seismic impact that generative AI would have on such fields. In her leading role at UCLA AUD's Entertainment Studio, Sandmeier sits...
Old Structures...
The User Interface A piece of technology that many people comment on after a trip to Japan is the combination...
a year ago
7
a year ago
A piece of technology that many people comment on after a trip to Japan is the combination toilet/bidet, and I guess I’m no different. The photo above shows the control panel at my hotel: the silver button the right is the flush valve and all the other buttons refer to the bidet...
The Modern House
Hover craft: a time-bending treehouse designed by architects Sarah Featherstone and Jeremy Young
2 months ago
CONTEMPORIST
A Home Renovation Where The Walls Were Removed So The Interior Connects With the Exterior Paul Archer Design has shared photos of a home they renovated in London, that included opening up...
a year ago
7
a year ago
Paul Archer Design has shared photos of a home they renovated in London, that included opening up the walls to connect the interior spaces with the garden. The designers removed the whole ground floor, including the external walls to the rear, the stairs, most of the interior,...
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
23
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...
Old Structures...
Not Quite Changing First, “Facade, 317 Broadway” from Berenice Abbott’s “Changing New York Project”, taken in 1936....
10 months ago
17
10 months ago
First, “Facade, 317 Broadway” from Berenice Abbott’s “Changing New York Project”, taken in 1936. Second, a street view photo of 319 Broadway, today. 317 Broadway is at the southwest corner of Thomas Street and Broadway; 319 at the northwest corner. So unless this building moved...
CONTEMPORIST
A Large Sliding Window Offers A Look Inside This Nature-Inspired Store Design Architecture and interiors firm MRDK have designed a modern retail store in Montreal, Canada, for...
a year ago
24
a year ago
Architecture and interiors firm MRDK have designed a modern retail store in Montreal, Canada, for Attitude, a company that specializes in plastic-free beauty products. The design of the space reflects their commitment to sustainability and a connection to nature, which is visible...
CONTEMPORIST
Exterior Lighting Shows Off The Post And Beam Structure Of This Home Ward + Blake Architects has shared photos of a modern post and beam home they completed in Wyoming,...
a year ago
8
a year ago
Ward + Blake Architects has shared photos of a modern post and beam home they completed in Wyoming, that’s been placed on a hillside, just above a farmable portion of the site to preserve the ongoing agricultural use of the property. The home has generous roof overhangs that...
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
17
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...
Old Structures...
Gotcha! There are times I feel sorry for the people who run the huge online archives that we use for...
a year ago
30
a year ago
There are times I feel sorry for the people who run the huge online archives that we use for research. They have to deal with thousands (or tens of thousands, or more) resources – usually individual files in multiple formats – on hundreds or thousands of topics. And if they make...
CONTEMPORIST
A House That Blends Into The Color Palette Of The Surrounding Desert Design and development office Industry of All Nations has recently completed ‘The Landing House’, a...
a year ago
9
a year ago
Design and development office Industry of All Nations has recently completed ‘The Landing House’, a new modern home that’s integrated into the rugged natural landscape of the Mojave Desert, With a backdrop of California’s Joshua Tree National Park, the home has been designed as a...
CONTEMPORIST
The Design Of This Shingle-Clad Hotel Lobby Was Inspired By A Coconut Architecture firm Onion, has shared photos of a hotel lobby they completed for Holiday Inn Samui in...
a year ago
10
a year ago
Architecture firm Onion, has shared photos of a hotel lobby they completed for Holiday Inn Samui in Thailand, whose design is inspired by the coconut shell after its meat has been grated to make Thai dessert. The curved building exterior is clad with wooden shingles, with...
The Modern House
A flexible family home with flair in Clapton
a year ago
CONTEMPORIST
A Monochrome Interior Design For This Home In Singapore Studio Metanoia has shared photos of a modern home interior they recently completed in Singapore,...
a year ago
22
a year ago
Studio Metanoia has shared photos of a modern home interior they recently completed in Singapore, that has a very strong monochromatic aesthetic. The interior strikes a balance of light and dark, which is evident throughout, like in the living room, where a white couch with a...
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
20
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.
The Wandering...
Constructing the Pattern on the Sala de la Barca Ceiling I was flipping through Owen Jones’s Grammar of Ornament a couple months ago, and my eye was caught...
8 months ago
56
8 months ago
I was flipping through Owen Jones’s Grammar of Ornament a couple months ago, and my eye was caught by this handsome pattern I had not noticed before. This is Jones’s Plate XLII, in the chapter on designs from the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. He calls it, “Part of the ceiling of...
Old Structures...
6:52 AM, November 27 Half an hour after dawn, and the setting full moon is just to the right and below the ONE WAY sign....
a year ago
7
a year ago
Half an hour after dawn, and the setting full moon is just to the right and below the ONE WAY sign. The construction on the left is poart of the Battery Resliency program to prtocet lower Manahttan against sea level rise.
The Modern House
Surman Weston’s light-led creation of a family home in south London
9 months ago
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
9
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...
The Solarchitecture...
Circadian rhythm and solar home design If our body is not tuned to our circadian rhythm, we can hardly be in flow with Life.
over a year ago
Common Edge
Why Time Is a Problem for Architects For many, it’s a lurch between copying the past or pretending that time doesn’t exist.
a year ago
Common Edge
The Brilliant, Unhinged Spectacle of Megalopolis A rare film that celebrates design and urban planning, Coppola’s latest epic is a mishmash of...
2 months ago
38
2 months ago
A rare film that celebrates design and urban planning, Coppola’s latest epic is a mishmash of architectural, cinematic, and literary history.
The Modern House
The delightful details of an Art Deco apartment in Shepherd’s Bush, west London
a year ago
Archinect - Features
'AI Could Be Seen as a Culture of Death in Its Darkest Sense'; A Conversation with Genevieve... Genevieve Goffman does not create art about artificial intelligence; at least, not yet. The New...
a year ago
10
a year ago
Genevieve Goffman does not create art about artificial intelligence; at least, not yet. The New York-based artist has instead grounded her acclaimed work in fantasy and narrative world-building, often through the medium of evocative and ornate 3D printed sculptures derived from...
Archinect - Features
NYIT School of Architecture & Design's M.Arch Graduate Studio Explores 'Designing... Continuing with our Archinect Studio Pin-Ups series, we connect with Archinect Partner School New...
a year ago
7
a year ago
Continuing with our Archinect Studio Pin-Ups series, we connect with Archinect Partner School New York Institute of Technology to learn more about its Fall/Spring semester M.Arch studio led by Marcella Del Signore, the school's Associate Professor and Director of the Master of...
Common Edge
Hope and Squalor: Venezuelan Refugees at Chicago Police Stations Nearly 3000 people are living in tents and inside police facilities.
a year ago
Contemporist...
A Contemporary Home Inspired By The Fachwerk-Style Houses Of Germany Interior designer Tamara Strugova, together with her husband, has completed a contemporary home...
7 months ago
35
7 months ago
Interior designer Tamara Strugova, together with her husband, has completed a contemporary home whose design was inspired by the Fachwerk-style houses found in Hamburg, Germany, with their prominently exposed posts and beams.
Old Structures...
Specialization From 2018, a photo by Carol Highsmith taken from the Empire State Building and showing the variety...
6 months ago
25
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”...
Old Structures...
Reality Is Better Looking Above, another hotel appointment card, this time from the Gilsey House. The hotel was completed in...
a year ago
7
a year ago
Above, another hotel appointment card, this time from the Gilsey House. The hotel was completed in 1871, with that incredible cast-iron facade constructed by Daniel Badger. It’s still there, over 150 years later, now apartments. The engraving on the card really doesn’t do the...
Archinect - Features
Meet Tulane School of Architecture's New Faculty Hires Tulane School of Architecture (TuSA), one of Archinect’s School Partners, welcomes nine full-time...
a year ago
7
a year ago
Tulane School of Architecture (TuSA), one of Archinect’s School Partners, welcomes nine full-time incoming faculty members who will hold permanent positions at the school starting in the 2023/24 school year. TuSA Dean Iñaki Alday shared that the aim for this new round of faculty...
Common Edge
Consuming Provence: The Gentler Footprint of French Sprawl An expat goes shopping in the European burbs.
4 months ago
The Modern House
Scene Stealers: seven rural homes with spectacular surroundings We’ve all found ourselves daydreaming of life in the country – growing your own fruit and veg, wild...
a year ago
54
a year ago
We’ve all found ourselves daydreaming of life in the country – growing your own fruit and veg, wild swimming, enjoying a glass of red by a cosy log fire… But if that’s never been quite enough to inspire you to take the plunge, the homes […]
McMansion Hell
new jersey “19th century” “eclecticism” It’s always funny to me when new wealth tries to imitate old wealth, but in a very specific way: by...
3 weeks ago
15
3 weeks ago
It’s always funny to me when new wealth tries to imitate old wealth, but in a very specific way: by trying to reproduce old ways of building that are no longer viable via mass produced building materials and contractors who are better than average but still not quite in the...
Old Structures...
A Variety Pack I haven’t done one of these for a while and it’s too hot to think, so here goes: the view east on...
5 months ago
37
5 months ago
I haven’t done one of these for a while and it’s too hot to think, so here goes: the view east on Bridge Street from Whitehall Street gives a nice selection of lower Manhattan building types. A: One Whitehall Street. 1962, 23-story office building with a glass and metal-panel...
Old Structures...
Old-Fashioned Spelling From 1907, an article called “New Sky-scrapers for New York” in the Metropolitan magazine gives us...
10 months ago
11
10 months ago
From 1907, an article called “New Sky-scrapers for New York” in the Metropolitan magazine gives us “The Willams [sic] Street Cañon”. The drawing seems pretty accurate. Here’s a similar view in a photo from 1928: I am a little suspicious of an article that misspells a street name...
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
36
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.
Old Structures...
Not Much Of A Mystery There floors of apartments over two floors of commercial space: If you’ve spent enough time in...
5 months ago
25
5 months ago
There floors of apartments over two floors of commercial space: If you’ve spent enough time in Manhattan, the immediate thought is that this was a house with a stoop, and the extension to the front lot line is an alteration that removed the stoop and raised the basement to street...
CONTEMPORIST
Metal Cladding Wraps Around The Large Gable Roof Of This House BLA Design Group has shared photos of their latest project, a unique modern home that marries the...
a year ago
53
a year ago
BLA Design Group has shared photos of their latest project, a unique modern home that marries the West and the East, linking a Chinese-Canadian family’s present lifestyle to their past memories. Located in Vancouver, Canada, the home has a prominent gable form that floats atop...
McMansion Hell
In my latest column for The Nation, I defend single stair buildings against their detractors -... Single-Stair Layouts Are Not Going to Fix the Housing Crisis In my latest column for The Nation, I...
a year ago
5
a year ago
Single-Stair Layouts Are Not Going to Fix the Housing Crisis In my latest column for The Nation, I defend single stair buildings against their detractors - I think single stair is wonderful! - But I also don’t think it’s some kind of panacea for the housing crisis.
Archinect - Features
When Should Architecture Firms Start Hiring? Five Factors To Consider With the U.S. Federal Reserve embarking on rounds of target interest rate cuts in late 2024, AEC...
a month ago
29
a month ago
With the U.S. Federal Reserve embarking on rounds of target interest rate cuts in late 2024, AEC industry commentators are forecasting that architectural business conditions may improve in the coming months. Architecture firms experiencing an increased workload may, therefore,...
Old Structures...
Structural Logic In An Older Form From an 1880s building in Tribeca: the double beam supporting the front facade (sidewalk vault on...
4 months ago
35
4 months ago
From an 1880s building in Tribeca: the double beam supporting the front facade (sidewalk vault on the left, cellar on the right) where it meets the side wall at a pier. That’s a granite block directly below the beams, which can be a little hard to tell because of the paint on all...
Contemporist...
A Circular Off-Grid Home In Costa Rica Studio Saxe has shared photos of a secluded circular home they designed that's located deep within...
a month ago
20
a month ago
Studio Saxe has shared photos of a secluded circular home they designed that's located deep within Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula.
Archinect - Features
'AI Is a Dangerous Distraction From the Pressing Issues Defining Our Generation'; A... Liam Young was once described by the BBC as “the man designing our future.” In 2023, with open...
a year ago
3
a year ago
Liam Young was once described by the BBC as “the man designing our future.” In 2023, with open letters penned on the risks of extinction posed by artificial intelligence, such a role should be in high demand. Young’s speculations on the future take the form of fictional stories...
The Modern House
Architect Laura Dewe Mathews shares the secret ingredients of her 'gingerbread house'
5 months ago
Benny Kuriakose
Activity Spaces and Play Areas in a School Activity spaces in schools can encourage students to learn from the outdoor environment. Sports...
a year ago
2
a year ago
Activity spaces in schools can encourage students to learn from the outdoor environment. Sports activities such as athletics, volleyball,...
Common Edge
The Missing Flower Power in Walkability and Neighborhood Vitality There’s a surprisingly simple alternative to our hard, urban spaces.
6 months ago
Old Structures...
It Looked Familiar: Iconic There are all sorts of tricks – visual shorthand – for saying “you’re in New York” in movies, TV,...
3 months ago
30
3 months ago
There are all sorts of tricks – visual shorthand – for saying “you’re in New York” in movies, TV, and photos. One of them is to include some roof-top water tanks. Comics, too: The purpose of the tanks is very simple. They store water pumped up form the municipal main, and water...
The Modern House
A Day Well Spent with Lisa Jones and Ruby Kean
a year ago
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
25
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...
The Modern House
A contemporary gallery-like home with countless credentials in Hampstead
a year ago
Common Edge
Living in the Face of Fear: The Heterotopic Hope of the Maggie’s Centers The UK cancer centers are an incredible legacy for its co-founder, Maggie Keswick Jencks.
a year ago
Old Structures...
Close By From Angelo Rizzuto, a view of the Brooklyn Bridge from June 1954. It was not taken from Woolworth,...
6 months ago
48
6 months ago
From Angelo Rizzuto, a view of the Brooklyn Bridge from June 1954. It was not taken from Woolworth, as the angle is slightly wrong. The bridge was in a transition period, with one major renovation just completed and another about to start. Between 1950 and 1954, the bridge...
Construction Physics
The grid part II - the golden age of the power industry Welcome to Part II of our history of the electric power industry. For Part I, see here. By 1930, the...
a year ago
50
a year ago
Welcome to Part II of our history of the electric power industry. For Part I, see here. By 1930, the US was using 114 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, generated by more than 4000 power plants. Most electricity was generated by coal (56%) and hydroelectric (34%)...
CONTEMPORIST
Bi-Fold Windows Connect The Inside And Outside Spaces Of This Home Extension Ben Callery Architects has shared photos of a rear home extension they completed in Victoria,...
a year ago
47
a year ago
Ben Callery Architects has shared photos of a rear home extension they completed in Victoria, Australia, that includes a deck for indoor/outdoor living. The deck has been designed with a shaded area that’s home to built-in seating and a couch. The other end of the deck has...
CONTEMPORIST
A Home Renovation Where Adding A Yellow Accent Wall Was A Bright Idea gon architects have recently completed a small apartment renovation inside a home in Madrid, Spain,...
a year ago
7
a year ago
gon architects have recently completed a small apartment renovation inside a home in Madrid, Spain, that includes a bright yellow accent wall. The original apartment, which measures just over 500 square feet (47m2), included a wood ceiling and beams, as well as a separate bedroom...
Common Edge
Is Santa Clara—the Heart of Silicon Valley—Soulless and Banal By Intent? The city combines great wealth and utter placelessness.
a year ago
The Modern House
The power of post-war design in Regent’s Park, north-west London
a year ago
The Solarchitecture...
Solarchitect's book recommendations I. “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” - Cicero
over a year ago
Common Edge
In Warsaw, a Student-Designed Architectural Response to Dark Times The Freedom Pavilion offers a beautiful way to contemplate peace, freedom, and solidarity with...
a year ago
99% Invisible
The Siren of Scrap Metal [EPISODE] Amid the noisy bustle of Mexico City, there is one iconic sound echoing on repeat in the background....
a year ago
37
a year ago
Amid the noisy bustle of Mexico City, there is one iconic sound echoing on repeat in the background. A recording that blares from trucks looking to buy old household items and appliances, either to fix and resell or to sell for scrap. The crews inside these trucks are essentially...
The Modern House
Philippe Malouin: the experimental designer on creating with integrity – and the art of upcycling Philippe Malouin, it’s said, doesn’t read design magazines. That might surprise you. But it also...
8 months ago
24
8 months ago
Philippe Malouin, it’s said, doesn’t read design magazines. That might surprise you. But it also might be what keeps the Canadian’s own conceptions – form-driven, material-focused, out-the-box – feeling so fresh. In many ways, it makes sense. If the ideas of others were...
The Modern House
Curator Priya Khanchandani on postmodernism and palette at her home in Archway, north London
a year ago
McMansion Hell
we’ve found it folks: mcmansion heaven Hello everyone. It is my pleasure to bring you the greatest house I have ever seen. The house of a...
10 months ago
5
10 months ago
Hello everyone. It is my pleasure to bring you the greatest house I have ever seen. The house of a true visionary. A real ad-hocist. A genuine pioneer of fenestration. This house is in Alabama. It was built in 1980 and costs around $5 million. It is worth every penny. Perhaps...
Archinect - Features
Notes on Progress: Sixteen Women Discuss What It Means To Be Female in Architecture... The tides are changing for women in architecture schools in surprising ways. Female deans currently...
7 months ago
39
7 months ago
The tides are changing for women in architecture schools in surprising ways. Female deans currently lead Harvard, Yale, Princeton, NJIT, Cornell, Syracuse, NYIT, CCNY, Cooper Union, and Boston Architectural College, among others. Despite the difficulties some of them have faced,...
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
27
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 […]
99% Invisible
The Country of the Blind [EPISODE] We meet Andrew Leland as he’s suspended in the liminal state of the soon-to-be blind: he’s midway...
a year ago
6
a year ago
We meet Andrew Leland as he’s suspended in the liminal state of the soon-to-be blind: he’s midway through his life with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that ushers those who live with it from sightedness to blindness over years, even decades. He grew up with full vision, but...
Old Structures...
Caught In The Act This October 1952 photo by Angelo Rizzuto is titled “Aerial view of Manhattan” but it most obviously...
8 months ago
27
8 months ago
This October 1952 photo by Angelo Rizzuto is titled “Aerial view of Manhattan” but it most obviously shows the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. Like a lot of Rizzuto’s photos, it catches the East River waterfront and adjacent areas in the process of changing, even if it was not...
SOCKS
Poetics of the Greenhouse: Works by Bernard Moninot Bernard Moninot is a French multimedia artist. Over the 1970s and the 1980s, he produced a series of...
over a year ago
19
over a year ago
Bernard Moninot is a French multimedia artist. Over the 1970s and the 1980s, he produced a series of drawings, (inks, crayons and acrylics) of greenhouses based on various modes of representation, from axonometric projections, to outside central perspective or interiors views....
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
18
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...
A Bit Alien From a recent trip to Governors Island, a big thing in the water near the piers on the east side of...
2 months ago
15
2 months ago
From a recent trip to Governors Island, a big thing in the water near the piers on the east side of the island: It’s the mid-length air shaft for the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and, constructed circa 1950, it’s a relative newcomer to the island’s landscape. The diagram below,...
SOCKS
Botany as an Artistic Practice: Anna Atkins’ Blueprints Anna Atkins (1799-1871) was a British botanist and photographer. She was in direct contact with...
over a year ago
21
over a year ago
Anna Atkins (1799-1871) was a British botanist and photographer. She was in direct contact with William Henry Fox Talbot, (the inventor of calotype, an early photographic technique), and with Sir John Frederick William Herschel, (the inventor of the cyanotype, a technique that...
A Weekly Dose of...
42 Years of Critical Regionalism (Covers of some of the books discussed in this post) If your first reaction to the title of...
a year ago
41
a year ago
(Covers of some of the books discussed in this post) If your first reaction to the title of this post is something along the lines of, "Wait, isn't critical regionalism just 40 years old?," then everything you think know about critical regionalism is partial, in both senses...
Common Edge
From Venice to Detroit: Laboratories of the Future, Reconsidered Optimism and action trump didactic scolding every time.
a year ago
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
21
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...
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
8
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 […]
Construction Physics
The dream of deregulation - the grid part III For most of the industry’s history, electric power in the US had largely been provided by vertically...
a year ago
55
a year ago
For most of the industry’s history, electric power in the US had largely been provided by vertically integrated utility companies that handled every part of the electricity supply: generating it, transmitting it, distributing it to customers, and managing the overall system....
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
5
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...
99% Invisible
The Little Levee That Could [EPISODE] Most of the stories in this series have been about places that are ill-prepared for the extreme...
3 months ago
32
3 months ago
Most of the stories in this series have been about places that are ill-prepared for the extreme weather that is coming their way. But this story is about a place that managed to get the kind of infrastructure that will actually help it survive climate change. How after more than...
Construction Physics
How the Car Came to LA Since at least the 1960s, urbanists have bemoaned the car-centric nature of US transportation. In...
a year ago
5
a year ago
Since at least the 1960s, urbanists have bemoaned the car-centric nature of US transportation. In her 1961 “The Death and Life of Great American Cities," Jane Jacobs notes that “everyone who values cities is disturbed by automobiles”: Traffic arteries, along with parking lots,...
Old Structures...
I Have A Theory Walking along East 52nd Street, I passed a partially built house for sale that’s a bit narrow.  More...
a year ago
6
a year ago
Walking along East 52nd Street, I passed a partially built house for sale that’s a bit narrow.  More precisely, the lot is ten feet wide. It’s possible to have a realistic layout for a house that narrow, although obviously there will not be any grand interior spaces. The question...
Old Structures...
A Primer Worth Reading For people who don’t work on facades in New York, “Here’s why NYC sidewalks are (still) covered with...
3 months ago
32
3 months ago
For people who don’t work on facades in New York, “Here’s why NYC sidewalks are (still) covered with 400 miles of scaffolding” by David Brand is worth a look. It’s a good introduction to the tangled issues around sidewalk sheds. A very short summary: the response, for decades, to...
The Modern House
The lavish restoration of a Lisbon townhouse
a year ago
There are two types...
Why GoDaddy’s Microsoft Exchange Email for Mac Users S*cks After three years of unreliable, expensive email service from GoDaddy and Microsoft, I’ve...
over a year ago
16
over a year ago
After three years of unreliable, expensive email service from GoDaddy and Microsoft, I’ve reluctantly concluded that I have to find a new service for my domain name email. For reasons I won’t go into here, that’s a problem. GoDaddy is … Continue reading → The post Why GoDaddy’s...
McMansion Hell
2007-core nostalgia extravaganza Quick PSA: someone on Facebook is apparently impersonating me using an account called “McMansion...
3 months ago
37
3 months ago
Quick PSA: someone on Facebook is apparently impersonating me using an account called “McMansion Hell 2.0” – If you see it, please report! Thanks! Howdy folks! I hope if you were born between 1995 and 2001 you’re ready for some indelible pre-recession vibes because I think this...
Old Structures...
What’s In A Name? Apartment houses everywhere often have names seemingly disconnected from their surroundings. I grew...
2 months ago
21
2 months ago
Apartment houses everywhere often have names seemingly disconnected from their surroundings. I grew up in a building that was for no apparent reason called the Westgate, although at least the building immediately to its east was called the Eastgate. (There was no gate between...
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
The Modern House
Skye Gyngell: the chef on how she eats and entertains at home Skye Gyngell is an Australian-born chef who has spent much of her career shaping the British...
a year ago
17
a year ago
Skye Gyngell is an Australian-born chef who has spent much of her career shaping the British culinary scene. Her distinctively pared-back plates first won renown in the early noughties at Petersham Nurseries in Richmond; nowadays she runs her own beautiful restaurant, Spring, at...
devonzuegel.com
Israel's water miracle The saga of Israeli water management is one of the most inspiring stories of the last 75 years....
a year ago
10
a year ago
The saga of Israeli water management is one of the most inspiring stories of the last 75 years. Israel went from having a serious water problem to being a net water exporter to neighboring countries. Meanwhile, the population grew from ~1 million to well over 9 million. With...
Coffee with an...
GENERAL NOTES: *feel free to add these to your construction documents
a year ago
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
5
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...
devonzuegel.com
Inflation propagates unevenly Inflation hits some parts of the economy harder and faster than others. It's obvious once you say...
over a year ago
8
over a year ago
Inflation hits some parts of the economy harder and faster than others. It's obvious once you say it, and yet the way pundits and academics talk about inflation glosses over this reality. As a result, most people who haven't had direct experience with high inflation have a flawed...
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
12
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...
99% Invisible
Anything’s Pastable: Eat Sauté Love [EPISODE] This week we’re featuring an episode from The Sporkful’s series on the creation of “Anything’s...
8 months ago
55
8 months ago
This week we’re featuring an episode from The Sporkful’s series on the creation of “Anything’s Pastable,” Dan Pashman’s new pasta cookbook. In part two of “Anything’s Pastable,” Dan embarks on an epic trip across Italy in search of lesser-known pasta dishes — and to learn about...
Old Structures...
New Ringing The Old Here’s a terrible photo I took through the window of a ferry: There’s a weird concentric-circle...
3 months ago
31
3 months ago
Here’s a terrible photo I took through the window of a ferry: There’s a weird concentric-circle effect to the buildings in much of lower Manhattan that you can see clearly here, that the buildings on the waterfront are new and bigger than the ones behind them. It’s a simple...
Old Structures...
Being Stalked From The Past Once again, one of Angel Rizzuto’s photos, this one from 1954, gets very close to us. This is the...
7 months ago
50
7 months ago
Once again, one of Angel Rizzuto’s photos, this one from 1954, gets very close to us. This is the intersection of Whitehall and Stone Street looking east. (For once, the logic of the street grid and the actual cardinal points align exactly.) Almost every building in this view has...
Old Structures...
The Personal Connection Times Three It’s hard to overstate the importance of personal links in discussing how people feel about the...
7 months ago
31
7 months ago
It’s hard to overstate the importance of personal links in discussing how people feel about the built environment. This 1952 photo by Angelo Rizzuto looks east past St. Paul’s Chapel to the St. Paul and Park Row buildings: I’ve worked on St. Paul’s and the Park Row building. As a...
Old Structures...
Originality Is Not Easy, Part 2 A piece of a patent – number 612,365 to Willard Sears, applied for March 16, 1898, and awarded...
3 months ago
18
3 months ago
A piece of a patent – number 612,365 to Willard Sears, applied for March 16, 1898, and awarded October 11, 1898 – titled “Construction of Buildings”: Like yesterday’s patent, this is a riff on the then-new concepts of skeleton-frame buildings, with the exterior walls supported on...
The Modern House
A fossil-shaped eco home in the rolling countryside of Devon
a year ago
Common Edge
Money and the Conundrum of Architects Who Don’t Build The identity is a little different than the actual grind.
a year ago
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
23
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...
devonzuegel.com
On bounties Michael Kaminsky recently emailed me an interesting post he wrote about bounties in open source, and...
over a year ago
8
over a year ago
Michael Kaminsky recently emailed me an interesting post he wrote about bounties in open source, and I took the opportunity to write up some thoughts that had been swirling in my head for a while. You can find the (lightly edited) response I sent to him below. ~ Bounties are...
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
64
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...
Construction Physics
The Evolution of Tunnel Boring Machines Tunneling is an important technology for modern civilization, as a tunnel is often the only...
a year ago
25
a year ago
Tunneling is an important technology for modern civilization, as a tunnel is often the only reasonable way to create a direct path between two points. When the Hoosac tunnel was completed in 1875, it turned a difficult, 20-mile railroad route along “
Old Structures...
A Metaphor Looking at the Brooklyn Bridge from the waterfront on the Brooklyn side: Each of the four main...
4 months ago
38
4 months ago
Looking at the Brooklyn Bridge from the waterfront on the Brooklyn side: Each of the four main cables is attached to one of the four deck-stiffening trusses below by the vertical suspender cables. The towers are separately attached to the trusses by the diagonal brace cables in...
99% Invisible
Mini-Stories: Volume 19 It’s that time again—mini-stories are back! Get ready for a whirlwind tour of short, surprising, and...
5 days ago
13
5 days ago
It’s that time again—mini-stories are back! Get ready for a whirlwind tour of short, surprising, and fascinating tales. This week we have punny highway signs, a PAC funded by exercise, the explosive history behind the Nobel Prize, and some long toes. Let’s get into it! Slow Down,...
Archinect - Features
The Illusion of Space: Can Artificial Intelligence Understand the Third Dimension? Popular text-to-image generators like DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion have introduced what...
a year ago
8
a year ago
Popular text-to-image generators like DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion have introduced what some believe to be a new creative frontier in the architectural design process. However, they also encourage us to reflect on a series of relationships at the heart of design,...
The Beauty of...
The Inbetweeners (Ebbsfleet International and Stratford International, UK) Well then. At the end of the last article I promised to write about the stations on HS2 phase 1...
6 months ago
65
6 months ago
Well then. At the end of the last article I promised to write about the stations on HS2 phase 1 assuming that I hadn’t been too enraged by the political fallout from hopefully soon-to-be-ex-prime minister Rishi Sunak’s cancellation of phase 2 of HS2. Reader, I have been enraged....
Contemporist...
This Cape Town Home Was Given An Updated Interior And A New Garden Pavilion Interior design firm ARRCC has shared photos of a project they recently completed in Cape Town,...
a year ago
19
a year ago
Interior design firm ARRCC has shared photos of a project they recently completed in Cape Town, South Africa, that included the updating of the interior and the addition of a new garden pavilion.
Old Structures...
Looking Closely The picture above shows the top end of a ten-story column, where it’s embedded just below a parapet....
a year ago
8
a year ago
The picture above shows the top end of a ten-story column, where it’s embedded just below a parapet. My first thought, when seeing something like this, is that I sometimes have trouble getting people to understand the nature of steel embedment in masonry between 1900 and 1940....
devonzuegel.com
Numbers for understanding cities Whenever I think about physical places, I find myself coming back to a few types of numbers again...
over a year ago
9
over a year ago
Whenever I think about physical places, I find myself coming back to a few types of numbers again and again. I've collected these into spreadsheets so that I can reference them more easily, and I figured they might be useful to others too: Urban densities – Population density...
Old Structures...
Amazing Detail I recently put up a map put up an 1884 planning map for the expansion of the Croton water system...
11 months ago
5
11 months ago
I recently put up a map put up an 1884 planning map for the expansion of the Croton water system north of New York. It turns out that was just an appetizer. Today’s map, from 1899, has much more detail and is amazing proof of what could be done with hand drafting: no GIS...
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
17
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...
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
18
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...
McMansion Hell
ode to a faux grecian urn Howdy everyone, Today’s house, built in 2001, comes to you from, you guessed it, the Chicago...
8 months ago
5
8 months ago
Howdy everyone, Today’s house, built in 2001, comes to you from, you guessed it, the Chicago suburbs. The house is a testimony to traditional craftsmanship and traditional values (having lots of money.) The cost of painting this house greige is approximately the GDP of Slovenia...
Old Structures...
A Year Later, Maybe Yesterday, I was pondering the purpose of some of the strange steel framing near the top of the...
a month ago
27
a month ago
Yesterday, I was pondering the purpose of some of the strange steel framing near the top of the Singer Building. Here’s another stereoscopic view of the building, after it was completed: We’ve got two men standing on a tiny setback roof – not a terrace or official observation...
The Modern House
Love at First Sight: homes with spectacular views for sale Is there anything quite like waking up to a breathtaking view? We’re particularly partial to...
a year ago
7
a year ago
Is there anything quite like waking up to a breathtaking view? We’re particularly partial to panoramas of rolling fields, big blue waves and slick cityscapes – all of which appear in this story. From a flat in St Leonards overlooking the sea to a Limehouse […]
The Modern House
Mary Portas: the queen of the high street’s inspiring journey from homeless orphan to a London... Our guest on this episode of our podcast, Homing In, is Mary Portas. As a retail consultant and...
a year ago
11
a year ago
Our guest on this episode of our podcast, Homing In, is Mary Portas. As a retail consultant and broadcaster, Mary is best known for presenting TV shows such as Mary Queen of Shops, in which she came to the rescue of the UK’s failing high […]
Old Structures...
Messy First I apologize for the reflections and glare artifacts in the picture: trying to get a decent...
a week ago
9
a week ago
First I apologize for the reflections and glare artifacts in the picture: trying to get a decent photo through a clean and polished storefront window on a sunny day is a frustrating endeavor. But at least that gives a second meaning to the post title. Second – but really first –...
A Weekly Dose of...
For the Love of (Architecture) Books Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so I put together a list some things I love ❤️ about architecture books...
a year ago
17
a year ago
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so I put together a list some things I love ❤️ about architecture books — and just as many things I don't love 💔 about them: 20 pairs in 4 categories. I can't be alone in having these opinions and I might be a bit harsh in my criticisms, but if I...
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
3
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...
Old Structures...
“Pre” Residential construction in New York can be broken into groups in a number of ways, but the most...
7 months ago
50
7 months ago
Residential construction in New York can be broken into groups in a number of ways, but the most straightforward is not known to the general public, and that’s by era of regulation. For just under a hundred years, multiple dwellings – AKA apartment houses – have been governed by...
Old Structures...
One Event, Two Views On July 9, 1776, a bunch of New Yorkers – who maybe or maybe were not part of an organized group...
a year ago
6
a year ago
On July 9, 1776, a bunch of New Yorkers – who maybe or maybe were not part of an organized group called the Sons of Freedom – celebrated the publication of the Declaration of Independence by pulling down a six-year-old equestrian statue of King George III at Bowling Green and...
Old Structures...
The Main Attraction Hasn’t Changed From one of the New York Public Library’s scrapbooks, a view north from Park Avenue and 41st Street...
a month ago
20
a month ago
From one of the New York Public Library’s scrapbooks, a view north from Park Avenue and 41st Street in 1920: The focal point of such a view is, of course, Grand Central Terminal. The big vacant lot, protected only by an easily-hopped fence, was the former site of the 1860s Grand...
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
12
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...
devonzuegel.com
Argentina On Two Steaks A Day (Idle Words) 04.13.2006 Argentina On Two Steaks A Day The classic beginner's mistake in Argentina is...
over a year ago
5
over a year ago
04.13.2006 Argentina On Two Steaks A Day The classic beginner's mistake in Argentina is to neglect the first steak of the day. You will be tempted to just peck at it or even skip it altogether, rationalizing that you need to save yourself for the much larger steak...
Old Structures...
Begging The Question The title refers to one of the classic logistical fallacies, where an argument is made that assumes...
6 months ago
42
6 months ago
The title refers to one of the classic logistical fallacies, where an argument is made that assumes its conclusion. The specific instance of this fallacy that often bothers me concerns code updates and existing buildings. Every time a code – for example, the New York City...
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
10
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...
Contemporist...
A Small Cabin-Like Structure That Can Be Compressed When Not In Use Architects Juan Ruiz and Amelia Tapia have shared some photos of their latest design, a small...
a year ago
Old Structures...
Training I spent most of Tuesday in an online course run by the California Office of Emergency Services, for...
a month ago
21
a month ago
I spent most of Tuesday in an online course run by the California Office of Emergency Services, for their Safety Assessment Program. This is training for “second responders”: the architects, engineers, and other building professionals who assess the safety of structures after an...
Old Structures...
A First Attempt If you’re familiar with a final product, looking at the early ideas can be disconcerting. Things...
10 months ago
15
10 months ago
If you’re familiar with a final product, looking at the early ideas can be disconcerting. Things seem familiar but wrong, as can be seen in this 1870s map with a proposal for Morningside Park. The Upper West Side was pretty sparsely populated at that time because of the...
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
3
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,...
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...
a year ago
10
a year 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.
Construction Physics
How Fast Can a City Grow? In the last post, we noted Los Angeles was the fastest-growing city in the US at the end of the 19th...
a year ago
9
a year ago
In the last post, we noted Los Angeles was the fastest-growing city in the US at the end of the 19th century, growing nearly 10% yearly between 1880 and 1930. This made me wonder what the landscape of city growth rates looks like. How fast were other US cities growing at the same...
Old Structures...
Moving Goalposts The image above, of the Grand Union Hotel on the east side of Park Avenue is labelled by the New...
a year ago
5
a year ago
The image above, of the Grand Union Hotel on the east side of Park Avenue is labelled by the New York Public Library as 1868 to 1900, but is likely from the late 1870s, or early 1880s. The hotel is the building on the right with three flags and with S-curved mansard roofs on its...
Old Structures...
Bones Beneath The Skin A peek behind the surface at the 68th Street station on the Lexington Avenue (6) train. This station...
4 months ago
34
4 months ago
A peek behind the surface at the 68th Street station on the Lexington Avenue (6) train. This station was part of the Dual Contracts expansion of the subway system, and opened in 1918. I’m pretty sure the platforms were lengthened at some point after that, probably in the 1950s or...
Construction Physics
Construction Productivity - Structural Steel This week we’re continuing our investigation of productivity trends in US construction. We...
a year ago
21
a year ago
This week we’re continuing our investigation of productivity trends in US construction. We previously looked at single family home construction, and noted that the number of hours required to construct 100 square feet of single family home has slightly increased over the past 50...
A Weekly Dose of...
Olmsted Trees Olmsted Trees Photographs by Stanley Greenberg, with contributions by Tom Avermaete, Kevin Baker,...
over a year ago
28
over a year ago
Olmsted Trees Photographs by Stanley Greenberg, with contributions by Tom Avermaete, Kevin Baker, Mindy Thompson Fullilove Hirmer Publishers, August 2022 Hardcover | 9 x 11 inches | 160 pages | 100 illustrations | German/English | ISBN: | $X.00 PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION: Central...
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
26
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 Modern House
House Music: pianist Simeon Walker performs at Domus – a modernist masterpiece, currently for sale
2 months ago
Contemporist...
Western Red Cedar Gives This Home A Warm Feeling Inside And Out Swatt | Miers Architects has sent us photos of their project, the 'Happy Valley Residence' in...
a year ago
The Modern House
Five bright things to do and see this July July is here: the sun is shining and the air is hot – and so are our top picks of things to do and...
a year ago
22
a year ago
July is here: the sun is shining and the air is hot – and so are our top picks of things to do and see this month, from an exhibition on an emerging artist exploring light and space to a food and art extravaganza celebrating […]
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
9
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...
Common Edge
Notre Dame Cathedral and the Rebirth of Artisanship The miraculous rebuild was enabled by the century-old French system of trade guilds and education.
5 days ago
Old Structures...
Half Of A Grand Commercial Palace 380 Broadway has architecture above its station. It was built in 1860 with retail space at the base...
7 months ago
50
7 months ago
380 Broadway has architecture above its station. It was built in 1860 with retail space at the base and loft space above, but it’s got that grand marble-veneer facade on the upper floors and some very nice cast iron by Daniel Badger at the first floor. It’s fortunes have followed...
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
6
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...
Archinect - Features
10 Ghost Towns With Unique Architecture Cities are like living bodies, each one animated by the pulse of human life. People give a city...
a month ago
22
a month ago
Cities are like living bodies, each one animated by the pulse of human life. People give a city purpose, identity, and movement. When a city is abandoned, its soul departs, leaving behind only the silent architecture, a skeletal remnant of what once was.  While such environments...
CONTEMPORIST
A Black Brick Exterior Is Consistent With The Dark Forest Surrounding This Modern Home Architecture and interior design firm GO’C has shared photos of a home they recently completed...
a year ago
4
a year ago
Architecture and interior design firm GO’C has shared photos of a home they recently completed northwest of Seattle on the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington. Located on a secluded wooded site, near a small beach town, the home has been designed with dark black brick walls with...
Contemporist...
Dark Vertical Wood Siding Was Chosen As The Primary Exterior Cladding To “Camouflage” This Cabin Architecture firm Prentiss + Balance + Wickline has shared photos of a house they designed in...
10 months ago
26
10 months ago
Architecture firm Prentiss + Balance + Wickline has shared photos of a house they designed in Wawona, California, for a couple with grown children and their families.
99% Invisible
One Year: The Day the Music Stopped [EPISODE] On Aug. 1, 1942, the nation’s recording studios went silent. Musicians were fed up with the new...
a year ago
24
a year ago
On Aug. 1, 1942, the nation’s recording studios went silent. Musicians were fed up with the new technologies threatening their livelihoods, so they refused to record until they got their fair share. Evan Chung explores one of the most consequential labor actions of the 20th...
Common Edge
Condocide: Death of a Building Type The building collapse in Miami may not have been an aberration. The condition of aging condos...
a year ago
50
a year ago
The building collapse in Miami may not have been an aberration. The condition of aging condos nationwide is dire.
The Solarchitecture...
Follow up to circadian rhythm post Let's use the tools that Substack gave us!
over a year ago
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
55
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...
Old Structures...
I’m Fairly Sure The Library of Congress calls this 1952 photo by Angelo Rizzuto “View of children playing on sand...
6 months ago
54
6 months ago
The Library of Congress calls this 1952 photo by Angelo Rizzuto “View of children playing on sand and dirt mound near stone structure and construction materials” which is nice and descriptive. They use that kind of title when no one was certain what the subject of the photo is....
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
33
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...
Common Edge
Letter From Asheville: The Aftermath of Helene The road to recovery will be long.
a month ago
Archinect - Features
The US Just Defined a Zero Emissions Building: Is It Enough? For the first time, the US government has issued a definition of a 'zero emission building.' While...
5 months ago
47
5 months ago
For the first time, the US government has issued a definition of a 'zero emission building.' While the effort to define a 'zero emission building' is both timely and commendable given the proliferation of unverified titles such as 'net zero' and 'carbon positive' in the AEC...
Common Edge
What Is Sacred Architecture in an Increasingly Secular Time? Is it space or the people who animate it?
10 months ago
A Weekly Dose of...
Book Briefs #35 Revisited Last week I cobbled together eight books, some of which publishers had sent me more than a year ago,...
a year ago
54
a year ago
Last week I cobbled together eight books, some of which publishers had sent me more than a year ago, in an effort to write a "Better Late Than Never" installment of "Book Briefs,"  something I had done back in April 2018 with Book Briefs #35. But, sensing I would not be able to...
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
22
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
Why modern living is easy at Farnley Hey – Peter Womersley’s first domestic dwelling
7 months ago
Old Structures...
An Original Or An Imitation Of An Imitation The Leonard Street facade of 249 Church Street: For this discussion, ignore the stone ground-floor...
6 months ago
39
6 months ago
The Leonard Street facade of 249 Church Street: For this discussion, ignore the stone ground-floor storefront, which was a 1920s alteration of this 1867 loft building, probably replacing cast iron columns and lintels. The rest of the facade is, per the Landmarks designation...
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
23
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...
CONTEMPORIST
An Old Brick Home Received A Modern Wood-Clad Extension ID Architecture has shared photos of a house extension they designed that has been thoughtfully...
a month ago
25
a month ago
ID Architecture has shared photos of a house extension they designed that has been thoughtfully integrated into the existing property in the small village of South Kelsey, England. Originally built in the early 19th century, the property named ‘The Old Rectory’ has undergone...
The Modern House
A television producer on transforming an old student house into a fine family home in Queen’s Park
a year ago
The Modern House
Five things to do and see this August August has arrived – and come rain or shine we’ve plenty on the agenda this month. From an Italian...
a year ago
8
a year ago
August has arrived – and come rain or shine we’ve plenty on the agenda this month. From an Italian menu that will transport you to the Mediterranean coast to an exhibition celebrating contemporary African photography, here are five shows, suppers and soirees not to be […]
Common Edge
Peter Calthorpe Has a Plan for More Housing in California Through a state-mandated use of form-based codes and a focus on “grand boulevards” of underutilized...
a year ago
23
a year ago
Through a state-mandated use of form-based codes and a focus on “grand boulevards” of underutilized commercial strips, the number of potential units expands by orders of magnitude.
The Modern House
Sent from Coventry: a graphic lament to the modernist architecture of 'the city of the future' The printmaker and illustrator Paul Catherall uses linocuts to represent iconic British landmarks....
6 months ago
36
6 months ago
The printmaker and illustrator Paul Catherall uses linocuts to represent iconic British landmarks. His current exhibition ‘Sent from Coventry’ is a collection of prints that highlight and record the groundbreaking post-war buildings in Coventry – Paul’s hometown – which, at the...
devonzuegel.com
Tutorial: Telegram → Logseq quick notes I've long wanted a notes app with an optional chat style interface for append-only notes. The idea...
over a year ago
7
over a year ago
I've long wanted a notes app with an optional chat style interface for append-only notes. The idea is that I'll use the simpler append-only interface while on the go, and then use full-featured interface to review, edit, and organize those notes when I'm back at my computer. I...
Common Edge
Why Does America Provide More Space for Storing Cars Than Housing People? Paved Paradise recounts parking’s pivotal history, exposing its environmental, economic, and social...
a year ago
CONTEMPORIST
Wood Covers The Interior And Exterior Of This Modern Canadian Cottage Akb Architects has designed a modern cottage in Canada that’s clad in rough-sawn cedar boards and...
a year ago
6
a year ago
Akb Architects has designed a modern cottage in Canada that’s clad in rough-sawn cedar boards and western red cedar shakes. The residence is hidden among trees with carefully sited openings providing views of a freshwater lake. Each volume is nested above and within the existing...
Contemporist...
Before & After - The Complete Renovation Of A Small Loft Apartment New York City-based design studio beda (Brad Engelsman Design Architecture), has shared photos of a...
a month ago
28
a month ago
New York City-based design studio beda (Brad Engelsman Design Architecture), has shared photos of a renovation project they completed of a small 500-square-foot (46 sqm) loft apartment.
The Modern House
A slender space-savvy home in Clerkenwell, inspired by the City’s skyscrapers
a year ago
Old Structures...
Baseball in New York 1 With both the Mets and Yankees playing league championship games yesterday, this seems like a good...
2 months ago
29
2 months ago
With both the Mets and Yankees playing league championship games yesterday, this seems like a good time to discuss some of the oddities of New York’s relationship to the game of baseball. And the best place to start is just how many professional teams there have been here. Most...
The Modern House
The trials and triumphs of a tropical-inspired new-build in Bristol
a year ago