Curated lists of the best new building-products, materials and design solutions to inspire your next project.
The airborne capsules that have transported skiers to-and-fro through the alps for a large part of t he last century are likely to play a large part in the future of urban transportation. Cable-drawn aerial transportation doesn’t require a lot of infrastructure or space and is cheaper and quicker to build than ground public transportation. Venturing…
Earlier this year, a math problem from a Singaporean school exam given to a high school student went viral. Attached to the popular hashtag #cherylsbirthday, the question asked students to use their logic skills to determine when fictional character Cheryl’s birthday must be, given a set of invented circumstances and 10 possible dates to choose…
Labor Day is dedicated to the celebration of workers’ professional achievements and economic progres s. For those working in the United States, the holiday falls on the first Monday of September and signals the end of summer. Many Americans associate the holiday with sunny outdoor celebrations, frenzied back-to-school preparation, and sales in stores across the country.…
For centuries, ballet dancers have captivated audiences with their grace, strength, and expressive m ovement. Together with lavish costumes, sets, and music, their carefully choreographed movements tell a story. Ballet training requires tremendous discipline, physical rigor, and years of practice. Like many modern architects, contemporary choreographers pay homage to classical techniques, while infusing their work with…
Cruise ships are a rare spatial typology. Combining transportation with leisure amenities, commercia l spaces, and living quarters, these massive vessels create a unique experiential microcosm. For individuals on these pleasure voyages, ports and maritime architecture are often far from their minds. But it is these structures that must accommodate the cruise ship’s large volume of…
Behind every great building there lies a story: one of diligence, determination, and creative inspir ation. Telling this story with a visceral flourish can help architects communicate concepts to clients, as well as convincing doubters and inspiring trust in the design process. One of the most powerful ways to do this in recent years has been…
While the practice of drinking tea has a long history in China, the nation’s relatively modern relationship with coffee dates back to the mid-nineteenth century, when China opened to foreign trade and Western missionaries and businessmen brought the bean to treaty ports. Among the industrialized treaty port cities, Shanghai became known as “Paris of the…
On the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, Latvia’s landscape is composed of lowland fields, farms, an d hilly pastures. The country’s natural beauty has been well preserved, and offers hundred of miles of untouched seashore and scenic forests to explore. Wooden houses dating back centuries can still be found in the countryside and in Riga,…
The primary role of fences is to keep the outside out and the inside in; however, preventing escape and intrusion is quite a limited take on the role of fences. More interesting is the function of providing a boundary: fences used to indicate edges and planes instead of spaces that are defined by being enclosed.…