Inspiration

When you combine a desire for landmark creation with a penchant for contemporary design and a dramat ic natural context, the results can be breathtaking.

Each winter season, Montreal’s Quartier des spectacles ushers in, well, spectacles — in the form of interactive light installations and projections. Collectively known as the annual Luminothérapie, the dazzling display features winning designs (conceived by architects, lighting designers, artists, and engineers) that bring holiday cheer to one of the chilliest cities in North America. The…

Since at least the 1970s, when Calgon advertised its skincare products as means to “take me away,” t he bathroom has transformed from a site of hygiene to a personal haven. Yet this enormous shift does not rely on bubble beads and body washes alone. The Hornberg, Germany-based manufacturer Duravit is producing bathroom fittings that foster…

In our continued exploration of how architects experience the emotional realm during the process of creation, Architizer presents the points of views of some of the profession’s most actualized practitioners. From tributes to his former mentor — Sarasota School great Mark Hampton, who passed away earlier this year — to discussions about elevated living to…

“Architecture is the masterly, correct, and magnificent play of masses brought together in light,” L e Corbusier wrote in his 1923 manifesto Towards a New Architecture. The same can be said of the architectural photography of Hélène Binet, the 2015 recipient of the Julius Shulman Photography Award. Over the past 25 years, Binet has worked closely…

Designing for young people is, in essence, designing for joy. It’s about uplifting environments that put children at ease, spark their creativity and thoughts, and give them a sense of ownership. As any designer worth his or her salt knows, an effective way to achieve these ends is with strategic use of color, scale, and…

François Lévy, AIA, a principal architect at Lévy Kohlhaas Architecture in Austin, Texas, recently j umped at the opportunity to create a residence for Hope House, a nonprofit that started out housing special-needs children who’ve now become adults thanks to advances in medicine. With this one project, Lévy found a chance to combine his personal philosophies…

MAD Architects’ pursuit of an urban landscape at one with the natural environment has produced anoth er organic icon in Northern China. Following the opening of its wave-shaped China Wood Sculpture Museum in the burgeoning metropolis of Harbin in 2013, the Beijing-based firm has completed a remarkable venue for music and theater in the same city,…

The spaces we inhabit shape the way we live, yet they do so at different scales. Where we work refle cts our values or our circumstances. Where we gather reflects our larger sentiments or shared necessities. And our homes reflect who we are, our preferences and the furnishings we organize by our daily rhythms. These programmatic…