Reports on the latest and greatest from the architecture and building-product industries.
A star-studded cast of architects has been selected to participate in a competition to design the ma ster plan and flagship buildings for South Sea Pearl Eco-Island in Haikou Bay, Hainan, China. Hainan Airlines Group is looking for innovative approaches to tackle this highly unusual site and create a new hub for eco-tourism in the South…
Metabolism might not be the best-known postwar architectural movement, but it was surely one of the most imaginative. The brainchild of young Japanese architects including Fumihiko Maki, Masato Otaka, Kiyonori Kikutake and Kisho Kurokawa, Metabolism sought to create buildings that, like organisms, would grow and develop over time. “We regard human society as a vital…
“All my life, I have loved frames and limits; and I will maintain that the largest wilderness looks larger seen through a window,” wrote English writer and professional contrarian G.K. Chesterton. “To the grief of all grave dramatic critics, I will still assert that the perfect drama must strive to rise to the higher ecstasy…
The American shopping mall has always been a symbol of excess. In at least one respect, this reputat ion is justified: There are far too many of them!
They range from a contemporary multifamily residential property to a campus of new office buildings modeled in Neoclassical and Colonial Revival styles to a university’s modern obelisk-like clock and bell tower. But there exist common threads between such diverse projects — the abundant use of fired-clay brick and recent recognition from the Brick Industry Association.…
The Columbia University Medical Center’s new state-of-the-art medical and graduate education buildin g — the Roy and Diana Vagelos Education Center — now looms large over the neighborhood. The 14-story glass and concrete tower, located in Washington Heights in Northern Manhattan, was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler and forms an extraordinary…
Brooklyn is without a doubt the most culturally relevant place in the world … at least according t o the people who live here. Over the past decade, Brooklyn has become a flashpoint for a number of major trends, including craft beer, beards and most of all that elusive cultural archetype known as thehipster. Now…
The DNA double helix is an example of science at its most poetic. The image of symmetrical, twisting strands encasing the blueprints for life is so elegant one would think it came from one of da Vinci’s notebooks. Vienna and Beijing–based firm Penda — winner of the Emerging Firm of the Year Award at this…
High fashion is all about aspirational fantasy. Flicking through Vogue, one cannot help but imagine the fabulous lives implied by the photo-spreads. The clothing is just one dimension of the idea of glamour, which is the real product on display. And for the fantasy to be sustained, the idea needs to seem just a little…