Magazine

Kunshan is a town in the Yangtze River Delta near Shanghai. Many of the old canals in the city are converted into six-lane streets. For local residents it is difficult to find an atmospheric spot which reflects the former close relationship between nature and the urban environment in the...

Architects Kathryn Ogawa and Gilles Depardon note that Wabi-Sabi – the concept of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature – influenced the design of this 11-story building in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Imperfection here is clearly found in the Cor-Ten steel...

The Hudson River Park stretches from Battery Park City at the southern tip of Manhattan to West 59th Street. This transformation of the island’s industrial waterfront and its many piers into recreational parkland features a number of new structures, including these four structures west...

A floating spa on the St. Lawrence River provides stunning views, packaged with restorative massages and soothing saunas.

Architects’ contributions to the public realm are more than just the façades of buildings. They also include street furniture and other elements of urban design, especially in cities where design is valued for making contributions to a sense of place. Robert Maschke...

Strongly informed by site conditions, both locally and regionally, inform Studio created a stunning branch for the Ann Arbor District Library (AADL) that is rooted in its place. The building acts as a bridge over an internal roadway to accommodate parking and protect the site’s landscape...

This residence on the Big Island of Hawaii is big itself, actually made up of a few separate structures. Most striking is the entry pavilion, which uses local basket weaving to infuse the thoroughly contemporary design with local culture. Digital technology also interesects with traditional...

What's more exciting than competition? Venture to say it makes the world go round. Especially exciting when has been launched among cities - complex entities, organisms  within internal  struggle. Competition encourages the pursuit of perfection, acts as a catalyst allowing to...

Called Beekman Tower before its completion, 8 Spruce Street is architect Frank Gehry’s first large-scale residential project. And it is a big one, reportedly the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere at 870-feet tall. Just steps from City Hall and the Woolworth Building,...

A radiating plan that reaches towards the water defines this house designed by Connecticut-based Centerbrook Architects and Planners. Further an embedding of natural features (rocks, logs) gives the project its distinctive blend of modernism and nature. The architects answered some questions...

With a small budget, a lot of self-build and a highly developed sensitivity Carmen Wiederin and Philipp Tschofen from propeller z have made a desolate farmstead into an atmospheric refuge. A section of the barn roof was cut out, in its place a lightweight space capsule now sits on the top of the...

According the U.S. General Service Administration (GSA), “border station architecture is an emerging building type [that] did not exist until the early decades of the 20th century.” This century’s post-September 11th climate means more and more border stations are being...

Zhujiajiao is an ancient water town located in the Qingpu district of Shanghai. The roots of the town date back 1.700 years. Numerous bridges from Ming and Qing Dynasty span the many canals, streams and rivers.

Described by The New York Times five years ago as “the next cool New York City neighborhood,” Bushwick was a low-income area of Brooklyn that has undergone transformation via the influx of artists, then students, and now middle- income residents. One physical sign of this...

San Juan Island is one of a number of islands in the Salish Sea, a waterway straddling the United States and Canada. On an understandably dramatic site with mature douglas firs, rocky outcroppings, and water views, Heliotrope Architects curved this long and low house to cradle the landscape...

Perched high upon Yeomalt Bluff, the Ellis Residence, enjoys a commanding 180-degree view of Puget Sound and the Seattle skyline. The architects responded to some questions about the LEED Platinum home.

The Houses at Sagaponac is a development with over 30 speculative houses on 56 acres of New York’s Long Island. In the works since the mid-1990s, it was started by the late Harry “Coco” Brown, with architect Richard Meier, and includes a roster of well known architects from...

Pratt Instiute’s northern expansion beyond its five-block main campus brings the school to Myrtle Avenue. The appropriately named Myrtle Hall by WASA/Studio A gives Pratt a strong presence on this major thoroughfare. Further the building responds to this context by differing the street-...

Since its foundation in 2006, the work done by Ábalos+Sentkiewicz, has stood out on the Spanish and international architecture scene for its original synthesis of technical rigour, formal richness and its integrating of architecture, landscape and environment. 2G issue number 56...

Jiading District is one of the 18 districts of Shanghai in the North-West of Downtown. The district includes several towns, like Anting, known for its focus on car industries. But the district also has some rural villages based on intensive agriculture with huge orchards and vineyards. In...

De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop is one of the recipients of The Architectural League’s 2011 Emerging Voices, an award that “spotlights individuals and firms with a distinct design ‘voice’ that has the potential to influence the discipline of architecture,...

Sacred Heart University is the second-largest Catholic University in the New England, with multiple campuses in Connecticut. Fairfield is home to the school’s main campus, growing per a masterplan by Sasaki Associates. The Chapel is the first built component of this plan, also by...

On January 15 the Museum of the Moving Image opened an expansion that doubles its size to approximately 100,000 square feet. The museum renovated its landmark 1920’s building—appropriately a film studio originally—and added a striking pale blue volume at the rear, covered in...

Finding potential in the mundane can be difficult, but when necessity dictates the result can be accommodating, as if it were meant to be. Such is the case with this small tea shop in Oregon; a wood portal frames the reconfigured interior of an old house, a window into something...

Austin, Texas-based Bercy Chen Studio enlivened the exteriors of this mixed-use development (retail, offices, residential condos) with colored panels inspired by Brazilian artist Helio Oticica. Like a sunburst across the corner façades, the design creates a strong presence in...

Cultural institutions are not doing well over the time where shopping malls entitle the concept of the gallery. Huge competition in 'leisure time concepts' enforce these institutions to enrich their entertainment offer to attract new visitors. Broad understanding of culture - as the...

Ian MacDonald's latest house is an exercise in minimal intrusion - it practically disappears into the grassy hillside it's built on.

This five-story building features 72 student apartments serving Temple University. Built of 80 prefabricated boxes, the project is an example of off-site construction typically used for single-family houses being realized on a much larger scale. Philadelphia’s Interface Studio...

SUE Architekten have transformed a dilapidated corner building on the market square in Ottensheim into an open local authority building in which old and new form a perfect symbiosis. The beauty of the historic vaulting, frescoes, wood ceilings and inlays in the renovated existing building has...

The Beijing-based magazine World Architecture celebrated its 30th anniversary this autumn. Every second year the magazine organizes the WA Chinese Architecture Awards. The jury for the award in 2010 selected three prizes and five honorable mentions. Two school buildings in remote areas and a...