In-depth case studies on amazing architecture and the building-products that helped make it a reality.
Africa’s tallest tower is not what you might expect. Ponte Tower in Johannesburg is a hulking concrete cylinder that is about as scary as a building can be. Its round courtyard is some 54 stories tall, and tops out at over 560 feet. This tube to the sky is something out of a science fiction…
Leave it to the Brits to come up with something so funny and true that it ends up being a little ter rifying. Austerity is an update of Monopoly, but instead of robber barons and railroads, there are global financiers and the Shard. It is a fitting parody of the classic Parker Bros board game that…
Beijing’s got its Big Shorts (CCTV Tower, OMA, 2012), London’s got its Gherkin (30 St Mary Axe, Norm an Foster, 2003), and al-Wakrah’s got various euphemisms for the female anatomy that just aren’t fit to put in writing (al-Wakrah Stadium, Zaha Hadid, 2018). San Francisco, how ’bout you? Last month may have been the best one…
Speaking of Airbnb, the startup is also a prime example of the so-called “sharing” econo my’s nebulous legal status when it comes to taxes, regulations, and building codes. But even as the company faces controversy (most recently in Paris), cities like Portland, Ore., have welcomed Airbnb’s business model, going so far as to change their laws…