Practice: Materials

Herman Miller’s Aeron was the chair when it launched in the ’90s. It catapulted the word “ergonomics ” into the workplace, and, with its foam-free mesh-seat design, it looked nothing like office chairs before it. Everyone from the early dot-com techies to Hollywood producers — and their mothers — had to have one not only because…

“Clients have said that the VR experience was much more realistic than expected.”

Back in August, the tech world went wild upon hearing Elon Musk’s announcement that Tesla was enteri ng the solar roof market, and then everyone wondered just how effective the product could be compared to standard photovoltaic panels and what exactly it would look like. As of last weekend, we know the answer to the latter:…

In just 30 years, Technical Glass Products (TGP) has revolutionized the way that fire-rated glass is made — transforming it from the glass characterized by heavy wire-mesh inserts to clean, wireless modern glazing. “We’ve gone from a slab steel door with wire and glass in it to a sleek transparent smooth fire-rated glass curtain wall,”…

Over the last few years, the media has been weighing in on workplace design trends with articles lik e “The Open-Office Concept Is Dead” (Fortune magazine) and op-eds like “Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace” (Washington Post). Unless you’ve been living under a rock, then you know these authors who may not be as embedded in our industry aren’t necessarily wrong: Research conducted and presented by office furniture manufacturers and major design firms like Gensler has suggested that open plans can actually impede productivity and employee well-being but they also point to possible solutions such as hybrid offices, where there’s compromise between open-office plans, casual lounge areas and privacy zones.

High-performance composite materials are now so common within architecture and interior design, it c an be easy to forget that, like the stone, brick and steel of classic buildings throughout the previous centuries, they originate in the earth. Recognizing this fact, Architizer’s founder Marc Kushner traveled to Cosentino’s global headquarters and manufacturing facilities in Almeria, Spain,…

Architects-to-be, listen up: On November 1, the National Council of Architectural Registration Board s (NCARB) is launching a new version of the Architect Registration Examination, the test series for licensure within the U.S. We spoke with some practitioners who have recently become licensed — or are currently in the process of certification — to learn how…

When author Benjamin Grant typed in “Earth” on a mapping program back in 2013, he made an accidental discovery that would fundamentally change his view of the world and send him down a path of discovery for the following three years of his life. “The project really started as a mistake,” says Grant, the author…

Customers no longer want to simply choose, but to play a role in the design process, too — according to the independent market research company eMarketer. Now there’s an intuitive Online Configurator that can fulfill this desire by offering a simple and fun introduction to the world of USM, one of the world’s most creative…