Inspiration

These architects helped to elevate a traditionally humble building typology.

Generally speaking, the varied shades of pink are often discounted as too girlish, juvenile or campy for any significant treatment in architecture. Because of these associations, more often than not, the color is reserved for decorative effect or other, more trivial applications. Think 80s kitsch-pastiche, Googie-style roadside architecture, or the household princess playhouse. Notwithstanding the…

He wanted to be a painter, but fortunately for Danish Modern aficionados, his father talked him into architecture instead. Like other architects of his time, he ended up creating bespoke fixtures and furnishings for his projects, many of which are still coveted and some that are frequently knocked off. On this day in 1902, Arne…

Beyond the physical realm of buildings, light surely is the most fundamental substance to the archit ectural profession: it has the capability to transform cold, clinical spaces into welcoming, uplifting or even moving environments with the flick of a switch. It makes sense, then, that countless architects throughout history have stepped outside of their usual disciplines…

From providing optimal light and views to ensuring comfortable amounts of solar heat gain, parametri c façade design lends itself to aesthetic efficiency, environmental soundness and ease of construction.

Back in the day, residential designers on a budget used to loathe having to specify laminate as oppo sed to real stone or solid surfacing on a kitchen countertop. But today, there’s a bumper crop of more realistic-looking options available, such as the designs of the new Maison family of products from Arborite. The leading Canadian…

Moshe Safdie is renowned for conceiving radical solutions for high-density residential projects, and the architect recently added another unusual scheme to this section of his portfolio. Safdie’s firm has completed Sky Habitat, a pair of apartment towers in Singapore linked by three aerial “streets.” Safdie’s Bishan housing development attempts to break free from the perceived…

One might wonder what motorcycles have in common with pendant lighting and conclude “very little.” B ut in the case of Danish designer Tom Rossau, the connection is, in a strange way, cause and effect. An avid motorcyclist, Rossau opened a biker apparel shop in the 1990s and created his own light fixtures for that space.…

This classic example of midcentury modern architecture now stands crumbling on the Croatian island o f Krk.