Resources to help you find materials, perfect design details and master the tools you need to create better buildings.
Marble, granite, and concrete are age-old mainstays of solid architectural construction, from the Ta j Mahal to the Parthenon to timeless kitchen countertops. With time, however, comes better technology, and with that, modern material alternatives. Caesarstone quartz surfaces match the durability of marble, granite, and concrete, but excel in their resilience against stains, scratches, and cracks,…
It is often said that we should learn to appreciate the journey rather than being preoccupied with o ur final destination. With that in mind, Onion Co. Ltd. — the firm behind a new boutique hotel in their native Thailand — appears to have taken this philosophy to heart, creating a retreat in which the interconnecting…
Tomorrow, on April 16, after surviving the 10 plagues of delay — from hurricanes to the storms of lo cal politics — ground will be broken for the New York Wheel at the St. George tip of northern Staten Island. Opening is slated for summer 2017. Designed at a world record-setting 630 feet, the Wheel will…
When it comes to materials, Japanese maverick of modernism Sou Fujimoto is probably best known for h is use of snow-white steel members — impossibly slender beams and columns that lock together to form architecture that barely exists at all. His firm frequently veers into hyper-minimalism, framing space with skeletal structures that suggest a possibility of…
Preferences for architectural finishes naturally shift every couple of decades. In the 1970s and 198 0s, architects and designers were specifying warm metals such as brass and bronze for their projects. This was the fashion of the day and also due in part to what manufacturers made available to specifiers. With the advent of the digital…
Despite approaching the grand old age of 80, Sir Norman Foster is showing no signs of resting on his laurels. His firm recently unveiled a wave of new projects which typify their unerring ability to work on the grandest of scales, with any kind of client: whether you are a private developer or a huge…
Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron are not your usual starchitects. Ever since rising to prominence 20 years ago, when they won the competition to transform Gilbert Scott’s Bankside Power Station into the iconic Tate Modern, they have reveled in the art of surprise. While many giants of the profession have honed their signature styles…
The skyline of downtown Los Angeles has long been restrained by statutes requiring flat rooftops and the looming catastrophe in the back of every Angeleno’s mind: an earthquake. Recent changes to local laws and the continued revitalization of the historic core have paved the way for an impressive new development to challenge those limitations —…
What can music teach us about architecture? When it comes to the storied history of modernist design in Southern California, Gabriel Kahane can give a musical lesson or two in this historic building genre. Released last year, the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter’s latest album “The Ambassador” features ten tracks about ten street addresses in his birthplace of…