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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 the Portico of the … Continue reading Constructing the Pattern on the Sala de la Barca Ceiling →
(This is the math geek part about the Sala de la Barca ceiling. For instructions on constructing the pattern with compass and straightedge, go over to Part 1.) In the process of figuring out how to draw this pattern, I ran into a lot of questions, and had to do more than a little math … Continue reading The Mathematics of the Pattern on the Sala de la Barca Ceiling →
Nord de Guerre Here’s a survey plat made in 1919 by a US Army unit in France. In the aftermath of WW1, teams of American military surveyors produced these as they went around France mapping the grave sites of fallen soldiers. On this plat we can see a number of bearings and distances from the … Continue reading Transforming French WW1 Lambert Coordinates to WGS84 →
This story begins one day when I was assembling a map of the city of Edmonton, Alberta from OpenStreetMap data. It was going to be a big map, a 42″ (106 cm) wide poster for a wall. The data was good, but the standard OSM colours were not. They would work fine for a street … Continue reading Cartographic palettes and colour harmonies →
Now that we know our way around the pattern (go back to Part 1), it should be fairly straightforward to construct with a compass and straightedge. But be aware: any pattern that requires you to construct a pentagon is an advanced challenge. They are trickier to make than squares or hexagons. Here’s what we want … Continue reading Constructing Bourgoin’s Figure 171 – Part 2 →
More in architecture
Archinect City Guide returns with an architect's perspective of Chicago! Our guide this time is Ann Lui, Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of Michigan's Taubman College and one of the two founding principals (with Craig Reschke) of the architecture and design research office Future Firm based in the Windy City. Lui was a co-curator of the 'Dimensions of Citizenship' 2018 U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, and Archinectors may also remember our Next Up: Exhibit Columbus podcast interview and the Studio Snapshot special with Future Firm. For our City Guide, Lui shares her insider tips on which Chi-Town eateries, bars, cafés, bookstores, and museums might be especially interesting for architects and designers visiting the city. Are you a Chicago local with your own go-to spots? Or have a city you think we should cover next? Share your thoughts, suggestions, and favorite places in the comments.
When Alexander Graham Bell filed a patent for the telephone on February 14th, 1876, he beat competing telephone developer Elisha Gray to the patent office by just a few hours.
Designed in 1958 by architect Charles A. Marsh Jr. for celebrated Seattle artist Alden Mason, this Mid-Century modern home feels like a secret treehouse tucked into the woods near Lake Washington. Recently restored by Nahoko Ueda of Ueda Design Studio, the house delicately blends preservation and innovation. It’s a deeply personal home that continues to celebrate creativity, connection to nature, and thoughtful design.
Scott Johnson surveys his impressive career—and designs—in a new book.
In this episode of our Studio Snapshot series, Archinect connected with James Leng and Jennifer Ly, founding partners of Figure. While formally based in San Francisco, the studio enjoys great structural liberty by working mostly remotely — a strategy reflected in the geographic variety of the young firm's work. Both partners bring a highly impressive portfolio of academic accolades to their practice, including the Burnham Prize, SOM Foundation Research Prize, Vilcek Prize, Rotch Travelling Scholarship, James Templeton Kelley Prize, Harvard’s Department of Architecture Faculty Design Award, and the Harry der Boghosian Teaching Fellowship (avid Archinect readers will remember our Fellow Fellows feature interview with James Leng on the outcome of his fellowship at Syracuse). Our conversation touches on the question of becoming a specialist vs. a jack of all typologies, how high costs affect the way they build, and what they value in new hires. (Figure is currently hiring a Job Captai...
