In-depth case studies on amazing architecture and the building-products that helped make it a reality.
Images courtesy NL Architects. When Chinese president Xi Jinping called for the end of all of the &# 8220;weird architecture” in China, Dutch designers NL Architects must not have gotten the memo. Their design for a chain of hotels is one of the weirdest yet, in a very good way. Each one is shaped — in…
The success of the High Line in New York has spawned a new generation of reclaimed-urban-infrastruct ure-parks. São Paulo, Brazil might be the latest city to find a patch of elevated greenery in the dense metropolitan fabric. The question is, do they reeeally want one? The answer is looking like a “yes,” given the current status…
Steven Holl has firmly established himself as a go-to-guy for new museum projects. He got his start with the iconic façade for the Storefront for Art and Architecture back in 1993, a collaboration with the artist Vito Acconci. While that was a small project that is but a sliver of space compared to his buildings…
Mark Fisher was a student at the AA in 1960s London when he started experimenting with inflatable st ructures. This somewhat unassuming beginning took him on a journey that included making pneumatic structures for Pink Floyd and eventually designing sets for everyone from Madonna and Lady Gaga to Metallica and AC/DC. Images courtesy Stufish Fisher and…
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…