Practice: Materials

Enrique Norten's architecture aims to completely blur the boundaries between public and private real ms.

For product design to move forward, sometimes it has to look backward. That’s the logic Italian ligh ting brand Karman applied to its latest collection, which references historical, traditional and archetypal objects and ornament with modern twists. NotreDame NotreDame is named for the famous cathedral for good reason: Its lace-doily pattern, rendered in resin and marble…

A pioneer in coating products that transform ordinary surfaces into writable ones, IdeaPaint came up with, well, a new idea: What if we took brainstorming and collaboration on the road, literally? “For years, our customers have been telling us they need something to complement our dry-erase paint, to have options throughout their space that were…

Small can have big impact — when it comes to residential glass block, anyway. That’s the logic behin d downsizing the Seves Doric glass block, originally designed in 2008 by architect Rafael Moneo for a library at the University of Deusto in Bilbao, Spain. Back then, Moneo specified blocks 30 by 30 centimeters square, but now,…

We continue our NeoCon 2016 recap with a look at the latest contract finishes that are sure to enliv en walls, floors and even countertops or tabletops. Think patterned architectural glass, vibrantly hued carpet tile, shimmering high-performance wall coverings and stone-emulating laminate. 3form: Translucent Color Portfolio and EdgeThe main story in 3form’s Merchandise Mart showroom this…

Some 50,000 design professionals converging on Chicago for NeoCon, which starts today, will encounte r thousands of product launches from 500 exhibitors. New directions in function and style promise to reveal themselves within this tremendous volume. Yet for attendees of the trade show who prefer to see what’s next in shorthand, one stop at Calligaris Contract…

Almost everyone seems to be downsizing in a big way these days: The tiny-home trend is huge. Of cour se these diminutive dwellings present particular challenges to designers who are scrambling to come up with new and unique ways to save space.

Jenny Sabin is fascinated by the intersection of architecture and science. The head of her own exper imental design studio and a faculty member of Cornell University’s architecture department, Sabin is dedicated to applying insights from biology, physics, engineering and mathematics to architecture and material systems. Her interdisciplinary approach has produced mesmerizing projects including Branching Morphogenesis,…

Architects: Showcase your next project through Architizer and sign up for our inspirational newslett er. It may be cliché nowadays to state that something exists at the intersection of art and design, but take one look at the repertoire of New York City–based Ian Stell and this descriptor may be the first one on your lips,…