Inspiration: Industry

A global competition where winners' thesis books will be promoted on Design observer and Blurb and d iscussed by a design jury.

In architecture school, impressionable students are taught to reach for the stars in their mission t o create the greatest buildings of their generation. Thomas Wong, partner and Design Principal at Ennead Architects, has taken this advice to heart, channeling all manner of heavenly influence in his proposal for Shanghai’s latest civic landmark, a 38,000 square-meter…

One of the most iconic architectural typologies in history is set to be resurrected in Cairo! Four a nd half millennia after the Pyramids of Giza were completed on the outskirts of the city, the Ministry of Housing has unveiled a proposal for a tower, Zayed Crystal Spark, to anchor the planned development of Sheikh Zayed…

Welcome to the future! The Googleplex is coming, and it’s exactly how you imagined it: a bustling me tropolis full of luscious parks, cyber cafés, public art, cycle paths and yoga classes … all encased in gargantuan glazed bubbles, naturally. When Google’s Vice President of Real Estate David Radcliffe spoke of his company’s search for the…

Architecture and especially historical monuments or statues can often become implicated into war and cultural cleansing. Unfortunately, that usually means simply wiping them off the face of the earth in the misguided attempt to do the same to whatever culture they represent. The terror group ISIS is of course not above some good old fashioned…

Just last month, we were speculating about how an Uber-style fleet of driverless cars could change t he make-up of cities. Now, the same questions may need to be applied not to our roads, but to the skies far above: Helicopter livery operator Gotham Air has launched an airborne taxi service, promising to transfer time-squeezed commuters…

Earlier this month, Fendi celebrated the opening of a new New York City location designed by fashion architect of choice, Peter Marino. The Italian luxury fashion house is relocating the flagship outpost from the Fifth Avenue location (also designed by Marino) to 598 Madison Avenue. Marino wanted sought to overhaul the space — previously occupied…

Living off the grid — independent of the municipal water supply, sewer, natural gas or electrical po wer grid — has long been a dream of survivalists and environmentalists. The autonomy of a self-sustaining house is attractive to them because it not only saves energy, but it also lessens dependence on the government. In the case…

Anyone can stand on the sidewalk and take a picture of a bridge with their iPhone — search #architec ture on Instagram and you’ll get millions of results of varying quality. What separates a follow-worthy photographer from an amateur is his or her ability to make familiar scenes meaningful, elevating a snapshot into cultural commentary. Wolfgang…