I first met Gyo Obata many years ago as the newly-hired research librarian for HOK’s headquarters in St. Louis. Realizing that everyone called him by his first name helped me learn that I needn’t be intimidated by him. He was, in fact, why the office had a library. It’s largely …
100 years ago in Weimar, Germany Walter Gropius founded the visionary and highly influential design program known as the Bauhaus. Integrating art and craft – a return to craftsmanship – the curriculum began with a foundation course for all students before they moved on to specialized workshops in cabinetry, pottery, metal working, weaving, and other crafts. Only after those …
A New Archive of Chicago Buildings Goes Beyond the Loop – the new digital archive Chicago Architecture Data is the work of software developer and architectural photographer / writer John Morris and team. They’ve drawn on information from the 1995 Chicago Historical Resources Survey, city and county tax records and assessor’s data, the blog …
Steedman murals in the Great Hall – visitors to the main St. Louis Public Library (SLPL) in downtown St. Louis, MO will have the unusual opportunity to see books from the Steedman Architectural Collection on display through May of this year. The exhibit is in the library’s Great Hall – itself worth …
UIA Professional Practice Commission Database – the International Union of Architects (UIA) has a great searchable collection of information on architectural practice requirements and statistics for countries all around the world. It’s under practice overseas and is described as “the best existing database to understand the context in which architects …
Trim Tab v 24 The Water Issue – Winter 2015 issue of the International Living Future Institute’s quarterly digital magazine focuses on water, on “people and projects that are rethinking how water is used in the built environment…” Among its many good articles is one called Bertschi School: The Water Petal about the science …
The Light Therapeutic – article on current research into the effects of light on health, with far-reaching implications for the design of buildings and cities, especially healing environments. What is most startling is the way our bodies respond to light. Gloomy winter days are known to trigger …
Future Cities – 44-min discussion on BBC’s The Forum about new cities in the coming decades, especially in developing countries, and what features would make them more livable and vibrant for the largest number of people. If you’re involved in the design of cities, if you live in a growing city, …
The World of Tomorrow in 1939 – post on Design Observer about the 1939 New York World’s Fair, a dazzling display of optimism and innovation 75 years ago with the theme ‘Building the World of Tomorrow’. For a nation just coming out of the Great Depression and …
Up and down with John Kormeling – one-page article in Mark #46 (Oct/Nov 2013, page 32) about architect John Kormeling’s bridge in the Dutch city of Tilburg. It’s designed with a small building that serves as counterweight. Kormeling designed the building as both bridge master’s house and …
Shigeru Ban: Tamedia office building in Zurich completed – new seven-story office for Swiss media company sited along the Sihl Canal consists of an interlocking wooden structure within a glass skin. The architect was inspired by both the vernacular Swiss use of wood and techniques of Japanese joinery. The …
Infographic: Nine most unusual data centers in the world – take a graphic tour of data centers that are out of the ordinary because of siting (an abandoned nuclear bunker, a WWII anti-aircraft platform, inside a mountain), portability (using shipping containers), cooling methods (one uses the entire lower floor …
Hunnarshala, Bhuj, India, 2013 Winner – Hunnarshala is a group of architects and engineers that was formed in response to a major disaster in northern India. It “is based on legitimizing and giving dignity to the building artisan community that has been the repository of so much knowledge….” They work …
World Buildings Directory – nice collection of data on all World Architecture Festival (WAF) finalists and winners, from the first Festival in 2008 to the most recent in 2013. Search by project category (for instance Civic / Health / Landscape / Office / Structural / Transport), by country of project, by …
Daniel Libeskind Is No Architect – thoughtful post about the use of the title ‘architect’, what it means to be an architect, and whether only licensed and registered practitioners should be called architects of buildings. There’s a debate within architectural circles (building architecture) about who can legitimately be identified as …
Diogene: A cabin designed by Renzo Piano and RPBW for Vitra – Diogene is a single-room prototype cabin, a minimalist house of 2.5 x 3 meters that “functions completely autonomously as a self-contained system and is thus independent of its environment.” Since his student days architect Piano has been fascinated …
Frame #93 – July / Aug 2013 issue of this Dutch design magazine (text in English) features the Rijksmuseum, recently reopened after a ten-year closure for extensive renovations and restorations. One of the challenges faced by Cruz y Ortiz, the Spanish architecture firm responsible for the rebuilding …
Why Designers and Engineers is a Match Made in Heaven – post about the benefits of designers and engineers collaborating on projects from their inception. Designers and engineers depend on each other to create innovative, trendsetting and sustainable solutions for humanity. Only a few decades ago, the …