Magazine

The influence of Kazuo Shinohara (1925-2006) on Japanese architecture can be seen in the work of Toyo Ito, Kazuyo Sejima and numerous young studios. However, Shinohara's work is scarcely known in the West, in large part due to the very tight control that the architect exerted over the...

Even as other parts of the world build taller than the New York City and the rest of the United States, skyscrapers still get most of the attention in Manhattan. Yet low-rise buildings on an island defined by blocks and blocks of structures reaching for the sky can also offer architectural...

As Austin, Texas-based architect Vincent Snyder attests, at first glace the Ottmers Residence looks fairly traditional—recalling a barn or some other farm structure—but for its Hill Country context the architecture is quite modern. The house can be seen as rectangular box with a...

As green building becomes the norm rather than the exception, green features in a design can read like a laundry list of the same components and systems: low-e glazing, lo-flow toilets, recycled materials, etc. These features are certainly good, but they have become relatively easy to...

In the United States, a push for small class sizes and therefore small schools has reoriented educational architecture towards, among other things, campuses rather than megaschools. This approach results in projects—like the Marysville Gretchell High School north of Seattle—with...

Architecture is art of compromise. We learn form of building does not exist without context of its surroundings. It is not easy to create valuable space with a balance between elements. Even more, it is difficult to enrich the space with new elements in order to maintain its continuity of...

Tougaloo College is “a private, historically black, liberal arts institution” founded in 1869 on the northern edge of Jackson, Mississippi. The Bennie G. Thompson Academic & Civil Rights Research Center is the first building to be constructed on the historic 500-acre campus...

Retrofitting suburbia is a 21st-century concern in America as buildings created for short life spans now require attention. The infill and improvement of suburban sprawl towards more sustainable ends includes projects like this office building, located in a business park near the New Jersey...

Peters Park occupies a plot of land in Boston’s South End that was actually water before the city was built up in the 19th century. The park coincides with the Neck to the Shawmut Peninsula, a historic location without a trace of its watery past. Local residents formed the Neck Art...

Cheered on by a large, chic crowd gathered from the worlds of design and fashion into Harbourfront Centre, Azure magazine editor Nelda Rodger unveiled her Toronto-based journal’s first AZ Awards for excellence in international architecture and design one hot evening a couple of weeks...

On the northern edge of the University of Minnesota Duluth’s campus sits the Bagley Nature Area, an area for student learning and research. A new classroom building adjacent to Bagley Pond serves the students, while itself serving as a learning tool for sustainable design. The LEED...

This guest house, small at only 850 square feet (80sm) has a strong presence on an impressive site overlooking the Dry Creek Valley near Sonoma, California. Almost the same amount of area is given over to terraces, taking advantage of the beautiful vistas. Architects Chris Cooper and Wendy...

The women’s housing project [ro*sa] is a piece of applied utopia. After a lengthy, discursive incubation period Köb&Pollak Architektur, together with the developer WBV-GPA, have carried out a building that allows enough room for the individual as well as the community, Tailor-made...

In 2006 the Gary Comer Youth Center designed by John Ronan Architects opened on Chicago’s underserved South Side. The colorful building housing recreational facilities received numerous awards and led to the recent Gary Comer College Prep, which forms a small campus with its...

In 2002 the Provincial Government of Guangdong announced a new regional development vision based on culture. Compared with Shanghai, Beijing or its neighbouring city Hong Kong, Guangzhou has not been in the focus of the Western audience as a city of contemporary Chinese cultural production....

Philip Johnson designed the 1953 Wiley Residence as a glass pavilion cantilevered above a stone podium. The house, in the same town as Johnson’s iconic glass house, also included a pool adjacent to an existing barn on the site. Roger Ferris + Partners renovated the house and barn for a...

The Levine Center for the Arts in Charlotte, North Carolina is made up of four downtown venues that instill culture in a city better known for banking, finance and racing. One such component is the Mint Museum Uptown, which houses a collection of art, craft and design and international traveling...

Arthouse at the Jones Center occupies the site of the first three-story brick building in Austin, Texas. In the century and a half since, a theater and department store also called the corner of 7th Street and Congress Avenue home. Arthouse, a contemporary arts venue, recently reopened its...

The Astronomy Department at Wellesley College in Massachusetts was created in 1901, housed in a building that now takes the name of school trustee and donor Sarah E. Whitin. A small expansion and restoration by Boston-based designLAB architects had to contend with a century of use and...

In recent years the countries of the former Yugoslavia have experienced a fascinating cultural transformation that has also affected architecture. Since it was founded in 2001 (following the split of the studio njiric+njiric), the work of the Croatian studio njiric+ arhitekti, led by Hrvoje...

Located one block from the LAPD Police Administration Building in Downtown Los Angeles, this garage and parking structure serves the Police Department while creating a unique...

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...