Magazine

A wedding in China is an issue in which many aspects have to be considered. First one needs a lucky date, chosen by an expert, for the traditional family party. However, before the party takes place, the bride and groom need an official certificate issued by the Civil Affairs Department....

Seven rivers wend their way across Nebraska toward the Missouri River. Pollutants in the rivers have led the University of Nebraska at Omaha to construct research stations on their banks to monitor and study their contamination. The first station, designed by local architect Randy Brown, has...

When a city opts to utilize prototype designs for public buildings, the results are often cheap and ugly; repurposed trailers or other modular units come to mind. But Houston, Texas has a recipe for good civic architecture in the first of what could be many police stations designed by Roth...

In an effort to involve the public in exhibitions and discussions about architecture, local AIA chapters are increasingly opting for a storefront presence. Examples include the Center for Architecture in New York's Greenwich Village (2003) and now the recently completed exhibition and...

Creative responses to practical constraints are one mark of good architecture. This is evident in the curving section of the Shield House in Denver, Colorado, which responds to bulk plane restrictions. Offset by a rectangular volume, the curving wall also acts as a light scoop and provides...

The Guangdong Province in South China is considered one of the rich provinces in the country. However, like in all other regions, the economic growth is based in the urban centres along the coast. From the hinterland the unskilled labour force moved already 30 years ago to the coastal regions and...

Cleveland, like many American cities with an industrial past, has plenty of brownfield sites that are ripe for creative redevelopment. These 27 Townhouses, developed by Adobe Modern Lifestyle Developers and designed by DIMIT Architects, occupy a brownfield site east of downtown Cleveland,...

One of the bright spots in architecture and construction during the recession is health care, stemming from the industry's growth to government spending and other factors. While this sector is highly specialized, the best medical architecture is cognizant of the way it fits into the urban...

This is a small home located on the border of a residential neighborhood and a forested area where development is restricted. Because the lot is lower than the road facing it, access is via a bridge leading to an entrance on the second floor. The shape is nearly cubic, with a triangular terrace...

In 2009 the first section of the High Line's transformation from a railway viaduct to an elevated park opened to the public, followed two years later by the second section north of 23rd Street. This 21st century park that threads its way through and alongside old industrial buildings has...

Architects as Mathias Klotz (2G 26, 2003), Smiljan Radic (2G 44, 2007) and Cecilia Puga (2G 53, 2010) testify to a strong renewal of Chilean architecture, which has its prolongation in the younger couple formed by Mauricio Pezo and Sofía von Ellrichshausen, established in the city of...

The New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects recently announced the recipients of 2012 Design Awards. One of the Honor Awards went to the Clyfford Still Museum by Allied Works, previously featured here as a

From the viewpoint of tourism the famous red wine region of southern Burgenland is still capable of further development. The wine is world class but for the constantly growing numbers of people who wish to sample it there are only few restaurants and even fewer places offering overnight...

The Greater Texas Foundation "supports efforts to ensure all Texas students are prepared for, have access to, persist in, and complete post-secondary education." With this mission it's not surprising their new headquarters is located in Bryan, a small town near Texas A&M...

Considered one of the best Japanese restaurants in Mexico City and due to its remarkable success, Tori-Tori has now moved to a bigger location in the same area of Polanco, Mexico City, where Rojkind Arquitectos and Esrawe Studio teamed up to make it happen. Although the client’s...

The Yarlong River (Yarlong Tsangpo in Tibetan, Yalu Zangbu Jiang in Chinese – the architects transcribe it as Yarluntzangbu) has its source in western Tibet and runs east through the southern part of the province. After a sharp U-turn the river crosses the border to Bangladesh and changes...

Rising on the southeastern quadrant of the University of Utah campus, the Natural History Museum of Utah is covered in a variegated pattern of copper panels that roots the building in the surrounding mountainous landscape. It is literally built into a footfhill slope of the Wasatch Mountain...

Charter schools, while part of the public education system, offer alternatives to traditional public schools. Many are started by non-profits and provide curriculum specialized in a certain area. The United Neighborhood Organization (UNO) works towards improving the Hispanic neighborhoods in...

Located in Easton, the seat of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, the Sigal Museum is one of four museums operated by the Northampton County Historical & Genealogical Society. It is home to "significant collections of pre-European settlement artifacts, decorative arts and textiles,...

This residence commands a sweeping view of the ocean from its perch on the steep hills that lead down to Sagami Bay in Kanagawa Prefecture, central Japan. In order to minimize the home’s visual impact on the rich natural landscape surrounding it, the architects kept the structure low and...

Kiral (chirality = is the geometric property of a rigid object of being non-superposable on its mirror image; such an object has no symmetry elements of the second kind) is the name that identifies and transmits personality to the residential building designed by ARQMOV...

With a professional career of more than twenty years behind them, French architects Anne Lacaton & Jean Philippe Vassal continue to pursue their own coherent, personal approach to architecture. Lacaton & Vassal have constructed a discourse of their own that, although seemingly simple,...

A living wall wrapping around the front door of the Little Owl Preschool is the first sign that something unique is afoot. The green surface is echoed in the second-floor roof terrace, but sustainable strategies extend to daylighting and ventilation, all contributing to a building geared to...

Site - The property is located on a site with a slight incline, continuing towards a large valley, having trees around its perimeter as it was used for agricultural purposes. Description - The house project is an extensive area that is set out in a lineal manner, with all...

When a massive tsunami hit the northeastern coast of Japan this March, the city of Rikuzentakata in Iwate prefecture suffered catastrophic damage and lost near all its functionality as a city. In the aftermath temporary housing was built at a local auto-camp site. The detached houses, constructed...

The Great Sichuan Earthquake on May twelfth 2008 killed at least 69,000 people. Alone in the administrative district of Deyang, one hour north of Chengdu, more than 17,000 people were killed. Due to poor construction and corruption in the building industry at least 7,000 schoolrooms collapsed in...

Cleaning the facade of their own office building in the midst of an industrial area in a cyclically repeated rhythm is a representative outdoor exercise for the staff of a cleaning business. With its all-around glazing, the immaculate surface of this cubic building is the projection surface for a...

The University of Toronto Mississauga campus was founded in 1965 as Erindale College. The largest building back then was the megalithic concrete South Building by architect Raymond Moriyama. The satellite campus now includes multiple architecturally significant buildings by Kohn Shnier,...

The plot of land for this project is adjoined to a large lake in a small town a few hours from Mexico City. In order to maximise the relationship with its setting, a system of long, rectangular structural shapes were decided upon, with one side completely open looking towards the lake. The...

The King County Library System is in the midst of a ten-year Capital Improvement Plan that has contributed a number of high-quality green buildings to Western Washington state. One such library, recently completed, is located just north of Seattle in suburban Kenmore, in a context of...

The Civic Center area of Denver, Colorado includes a number of governmental and cultural institutions. In the latter camp are the Denver Public Library (Michael Graves, 1995) and the Denver Art Museum (Gio Ponti, 1971 and Daniel Libeskind, 2006), and now the small but substantial Clyfford...

When what is called the “local character” of a town or village has to be defined by legislation, then something is seriously wrong. A living culture of building cannot be decreed by law. Daniel Fügenschuh has proven this once again in a subtle and innovative way.

Cloud 9's office building for the new 22@ district has won the top prize at this year's World Architecture Festival.

From the street this house has an unassuming appearnace, its low volumes converging towards the driveway. Yet a water feature, a large scupper extending from the garage, hints at the rest of the house’s delights. From the front, the two bars split to create an intimate open space while...

The Chinese artist Lei Yixin designed the newly opened Martin Luther King Memorial at the National Mall in Washington DC in the manner of Socialist Realism. The controversial question in the public was not so much the stylistic expression but more the fact that a Chinese artist got the commission...

Located on a former railyard in the South Bronx, the Mott Haven Educational Campus is easily the largest of fifteen new school buildings that opened in New York City in 2010. At over a quarter-million square feet the huge project appears smaller, due to a significant drop in grade from the...