Inspiration

To kick off our summer fun product series, we recently showcased our favorite recent projects and si te furnishings geared toward public spaces and amenities. Now we’re focusing on some of the best new introductions — and a few old ones — for outdoor entertaining at home, from a freestanding hammock to charcoal grills. Blu Dot:…

Faced with the restoration of a tower built in the 13th century by the Arabs of the Nazari kingdom, architects Mercedes Miras Varelas and Luis Castillo Villegas bring a historical building back to life and design a distinctive extension to respect traits of the existing structure. Set on the edge of a cliff in the…

Few cities have undergone radical urban transformation like Shenzhen. Designated as China’s first Sp ecial Economic Zone in 1980, this market town of 30,000 people experienced an explosive population increase to 10,000,000 inhabitants over the last 30 years. Shenzhen’s powerful economic status drove massive building projects across the city; new architecture seemingly emerged overnight, continuously reshaping…

NATHANIEL BERMAN IS FOUNDER OF HOUSELY, A DESIGN AND REAL ESTATE BLOG TRACKING TRENDS IN DOMESTIC AR CHITECTURE. HERE, HE LOOKS AT EXAMPLES OF 3d-printed furniture and the technology’s impact on furniture manufacturing. Pizza, working cars, entire office buildings, tiny power tools — is there anything that can’t be made with a 3D printer? Over the…

Zürich has a special relationship with the avant garde. Dada— the first modernist movement to define itself as “anti art,” a radical insurgency against the status quo — was born here. Beginning in 1916, renegades like Tristan Tzara and Hugo Ball published manifestoes, put on inscrutable performances, and basically did everything they could to shock…

German factories are the site of much of Germany’s economic prosperity. German manufacturing account s for a quarter of its GDP, and its exports are second only to China. The country’s manufacturing boom dates back to reunification and modernization after World War II. Factories became more technical, focusing on the booming industries of automotive and consumer…

Chances are, if you live in a big city, you don’t have your own private oasis for enjoying the great outdoors. Fortunately, many of these same metropolises find ways to counter such a deficiency for their denizens by providing public spaces — from park and plaza to waterfront walks — and streetscape amenities and other…

MVRDV is not known to create buildings that blend into the background, but the Dutch firm’s latest p roject — a library in Tianjin, China — is one of its most mesmerizing creations yet. Nearing completion and scheduled to open in mid-2017, this rectangular glass building has an almost gravitational visual pull. Tianjin Library is articulated…

Updated July 1, 2016 See-through bridges and transparent swimming pools are already in the works for the world’s architectural adrenaline junkies — but those vertigo-inducing projects may just have been trumped by a new addition to the US Bank Tower in Los Angeles. Developer OUE Limited — which purchased California’s tallest building in 2013 —…