Practice

The Institute hosts a short survey quizzing architects and designers on the current state of design competitions.

The last freezing phase of the current ice age ended around 10,000 years ago, but the residents of c ertain cities in the northeastern U.S. could be forgiven for thinking it has returned with a vengeance: Boston is in danger of buckling under the weight of 95.7 inches of snow so far this winter, and the…

BIG’s brand of hedonistic sustainability is coming to Calgary, with the firm’s mixed-use skyscraper — the 57-story TELUS Sky Tower — breaking ground in the city’s downtown quarter last week. The project is being realized in collaboration with local practice Dialog, and is slated for completion in the fall of 2017. The high-rise attempts to…

Although humans have long looked to nature for inspiration, the concept of biomimicry has only been around since the middle of the 20th century. Decades before Otto Schmitt coined the term, Rene Binet’s Esquisses Décoratives (1904) predicts speculative designs that prefigure many of the forms we see today. This largely forgotten anthology of illustrations, viewable…

Five years shy of its centennial this year, the Brooklyn Army Terminal spent the first half of its l ife fulfilling its original purpose as a military hub. Sited just opposite the northern tip of Staten Island, the industrial park was the largest concrete building when it was completed in 1919 and subsequently the U.S.’s largest…

The Royal Institute of British Architects has been reinventing itself of late: The esteemed organiza tion has recently announced a newly elected president, a new website, and a new approach to exhibitions as it attempts to modernize and reaffirm its relevance to a fresh generation of millennial architects and students. Some things, though, need only be…

After a weekend in which so many people were getting hot and bothered with roses, champagne and nume rous shades of gray, perhaps it isn’t such a surprise to find that certain projects conceived at this time of year might invite a little architectural innuendo. With that in mind, we present to you Eduardo Camarena’s master…

National libraries are amongst the most symbolic icons of modern-day countries

Love ’em or hate ’em, there is no denying that Apple is a true technological Goliath, th e likes of which the world has never seen before. According to Forbes, Apple is currently the 15th largest company on earth, and comfortably the most valuable, with an estimated worth of $483 billion. It comes as no surprise,…