Inspiration

When New York City’s Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum underwent its redesign and renovation, it took the opportunity to address a major necessity: a substantial freight elevator for transporting monumental works. But the firms leading the project — Gluckman Mayner and Beyer Blinder Bell — needed to make the new lift accessible while preserving the…

With the recent announcement that the U.S. and Cuba have agreed to reopen their embassies, we’ve rou nded up modern designs for diplomatic architecture from around the world. Carefully straddling the line between openness and utility, these structures each try to embody a welcoming and stately architecture while remaining secure and protected. Located in both rural…

We’ve gotten used to lofty infinity pools and some pretty astonishing cantilevered baths, but aqueou s ideas are being taken to a whole new level in London courtesy of Arup Associates. In collaboration with HAL Architects, the global design and engineering firm has taken on one of its most challenging structural challenges yet: the Sky Pool,…

Roundabouts have long since been associated with the European driving experience. More recently, the se circular one-way road junctions are being used not only to help traffic flow efficiently without the need for signals, but also as a platform for new urban interventions that connect pedestrian, bicycle, and car traffic. From multi-colored glass pavilions to football…

Everyone appreciates a beautifully outfitted bathroom, whether it’s in a residential, hospitality, o r office environment — and doubly so when one is an architect or interior designer. So, when world-renowned A&D figures transition from specifying to actually designing the bath fixtures, the expectations run high and the outcomes frequently deliver (with some exceptions, of course).…

For architects, designers, and their IT support, working on shared Revit® models outside of the offi ce can create costly and time-consuming headaches. Previous work-around solutions like VPNs with virtual desktops open up security vulnerabilities, add expensive hardware, and create long wait times for changes to save and update on the central server — minutes that…

With cities growing as fast as lightning in the current climate, it seems we are forever negotiating scaffolding and construction hoardings on every sidewalk. Typically, these utilitarian structures are not pretty: they are designed to function as necessary, formed by tunnels of plywood, canopies of plastic sheets and netting, and a spider’s web of steel…

French architects have an abundance of colorful characters throughout their country’s history to tak e inspiration from, from Charles Garnier and Gustave Eiffel to Philippe Starck and Jean Nouvel. Indeed, those practicing in Gallic lands are spoiled for choice when discussing the impact on contemporary architecture from Calais to Cannes, and Strasbourg-based studio Dominique Coulon and…

Take a second look: this Dutch “farmhouse” isn’t what it seems, but a glass building that houses com mercial and recreational spaces. The technology that enabled architecture firm MVRDV to conjure this illusion is actually none other than digital ceramic printing, which, by fusing ceramic inks to glass via firing or tempering, is more commonly used…