Magazine
Reviews
on 14.05.12
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...
Reviews
on 07.05.12
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...
Reviews
on 30.04.12
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...
Reviews
on 30.04.12
The town of Onagawa in Miyagi Prefecture suffered extreme damage from the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. Architect Shigeru Ban responded by designing a multi-story temporary housing complex for survivors. Project manager Yasunori Hirano talked about the project in an...
Reviews
on 30.04.12
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,...
Reviews
on 23.04.12
An existing maintenance building was renovated into the administrative center for the Claremont University Consortium, which provides services and programs for eight colleges in the Los Angeles area. The mundane nature of the original is transformed in LTL Architects' remarkable design...
Reviews
on 09.04.12
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...
Reviews
on 02.04.12
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...
Reviews
on 01.04.12
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...
Reviews
on 26.03.12
Santa Monica, California's Brooks + Scarpa Architects is internationally renowned for innovative, environmentally sustainable architecture. Their most prized work is at two diametrically opposed poles: affordable housing and high-end single-family homes; yet each is treated equally by the...
Reviews
on 19.03.12
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...
Reviews
on 19.03.12
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
Reviews
on 12.03.12
Parking garages may make for striking architecture in places like Miami, but ultimately they are occupy a realm below other building types because they house automobiles rather than people (minus some retail space tucked into the ground level of many). But this project in Juneau, Alaska by...
Reviews
on 06.03.12
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...
Reviews
on 05.03.12
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...
Reviews
on 01.03.12
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...
Reviews
on 27.02.12
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...
Reviews
on 27.02.12
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...
Reviews
on 20.02.12
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...
Reviews
on 06.02.12
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,...
Reviews
on 01.02.12
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...
Reviews
on 01.02.12
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...
Reviews
on 30.01.12
The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University covers the art and science of ceramics through its two divisions: the School of Art & Design and the School of Engineering.The former recently expanded with a two-story building that is appropriately clad in a ceramic tube...
Reviews
on 17.01.12
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,...
Reviews
on 09.01.12
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...
Reviews
on 02.01.12
A series of roof vaults defines the various distinct yet interconnected volumes that comprise this large residence south of San Francisco. This distinction is increased by the use of various claddings -- concrete, stone, rainscreen systems -- towards breaking up the house into smaller parts...
Reviews
on 01.01.12
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...
Reviews
on 23.12.11
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...
Reviews
on 22.12.11
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...
Reviews
on 16.12.11
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...
Reviews
on 16.12.11
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,...
Reviews
on 12.12.11
An impressive lakeside vista in New York's Adirondack Mountains is preserved by spliitting this retreat into two volumes, each tucked into the hillside and covered with grass. One building groups the garage and master suite about a courtyard, while the larger structure situates a gym,...
Reviews
on 05.12.11
On a large rural property in upstate New York, overlooking the Hudson Valley and the Catskill Mountains, sits the Won Dharma Center, "a spiritual community, where people from all walks of life study, ... live and work together." The beautiful setting is enhanced by the new buildings...
Reviews
on 01.12.11
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...
Reviews
on 28.11.11
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...