ARCHITECTURE New found design11/6/2013On a rocky outcrop of Newfoundland, where there’s nothing between you and the Artic, the Fogo Island Inn has since May of this year proved that good design can foster tourism and thus create jobs.
ARCHITECTURE MEGALOPOLI(TIC)S11/6/2013Cities are the main arena in which globalization takes physical form. So far the city has failed to register as a political entity in its own right. A pleading for the world as an archipelago of city-states.
FEATURED Banking in South Africa11/5/2013Allen International is the brain behind what could quite easily become the “bank branch of the future”: The planning consultants opted for interactive displays, computer terminals and a meticulously planned lighting concept boasting luminaires from Reggiani.
ARCHITECTURE See you at the bus stop11/3/2013The small village of Krumbach in Austria’s Vorarlberg region provides the stage for seven of architecture’s biggest names, including Wang Shu und Sou Fujimoto, to put their ideas of what goes to make a perfect bus shelter into practice. The first “Wartehüsle”, as the Austrians call it, has already been put up.
ARCHITECTURE Hallingdal and its successors11/1/2013What would Verner Panton’s furniture be like without the bright fabrics from Kvadrat? From the very outset, the Danes collaborated closely with designers to create striking highlights. Now there’s a book describing the company, which is one of the world’s leading makers of home textiles today. A glance behind the scene.
ARCHITECTURE Schoolyard hitting it BIG10/30/2013Bjarke Ingels Group architectural firm (or BIG for a not exactly modest acronym) also succeeds on the small scale. For a school complex in Hellerup nr. Copenhagen the architects dug deep to sink a new gym into the grounds of the old schoolyard. A walkable gigantic sculpture is the result.
ARCHITECTURE Swing to work10/27/2013When “NL Architects” redesigned the “NS Stations” Headquarters in Utrecht then also reinvented the working culture there. The individual office cells morphed into a well-thought out, deadpan and charming office environment.
ARCHITECTURE Making German cities a better place10/18/2013The book “Wir bauen Deutschland” paints the portraits of 40 urban planners in public or political offices. An unusual and long-awaited glance behind the scenes of urban planning institutions.
ARCHITECTURE Rigid pins10/16/2013An office high-rise, built only of wood and glass, no steel used. It was designed by Shigeru Ban for the Tamedia media group in Zurich – and is exemplary, not just in ecological terms.
ARCHITECTURE Divine sense of detail10/11/2013Carsten Krohn’s photographic study of Peter Behrens’ architectural efforts provides a complete overview of his built output as is still in existence today. And bears witness to the photographer’s extraordinary passion for detail. An illustrated book for Behrens enthusiasts. But be advised: Prior knowledge is a must.
ARCHITECTURE Onwards and upwards10/2/2013No “London Design Festival” without a highlight: And this year, an “Endless Stair” was erected outside the Tate Modern, a walk-on, walk-off stair sculpture à la M.C. Escher.
ARCHITECTURE Close, Closer - to what?9/27/2013An architecture triennale in a time of crisis shows how architecture itself is in a time of crisis. In the face of surging financial and social problems in Portugal, the third Lisbon Architecture Triennale under the theme “Close, Closer” aptly proposes to rethink the role of architecture and architects.
ARCHITECTURE Inside the cube can be fun9/20/2013At long last there’s a bit of life in the “Sanaa Cube” in Essen. In the fall, the newly established course offered by Folkwang University will start - there. Entitled “Heterotopia – Summer Workshop 2013”, the designers and students have developed prototypes for the interior – and the results are astonishing.
ARCHITECTURE Bauhaus in Calcutta5/13/2013The title evokes images of gleaming white houses in some far-flung exotic land filled with elegant tubular steel furniture. The first Bauhaus exhibition was certainly quite different in terms of appearance.
ARCHITECTURE Go for it!3/20/2013Great architecture requires great courage on the part of the decision makers. The outcome of the competition to build the new campus for the “Frankfurt School of Finance and Management” provides a striking example of why this is so seldom the case here in Germany.
ARCHITECTURE Hide and seek in Andalucía3/8/2013A new addition to Spain’s Costa Tropical, the “Non Program Pavilion” is the brainchild of architectural firm Jesús Torres García, based on the design philosophy of the famous Oscar Niemeyer. Thanks to its expansive glass front the building blends wonderfully with the surrounding nature.
ARCHITECTURE Witnesses to violence6/18/2012Should architecture serve power, provide a visual representation of it? How do we read traces of destruction that scar the urban space? An ambitious reader by Bechir Kenzari on the relationship between architecture and violence seeks to answer precisely such questions.
ARCHITECTURE High-rises from paradise12/29/2011Green design goes really green: Singapore-based Woha architecture office develops visionary high-rises that not only exceed the customary standards for sustainable design, but are completely conquered by nature. At airy heights and well above the clouds of urban smog, they turn residential and office complexes into paradisiacal lagoons.
ARCHITECTURE A Jules Verne of architecture2/10/2011The creative Villa Villekulla in Brooklyn, New York serves as the headquarters of the architecture cooperative Terreform ONE. This is where ideas are generated for the city of the day after tomorrow. And where mobile houses and soft cars are designed.
ARCHITECTURE The model housing development in Òbuda12/4/2010In 1958, a model housing development was built in Budapest, the designs of which derived from a government-organized architecture and design competition. Even though the house designs were subsequently not built in other places, the interior designs laid the foundations for the modern Hungarian furniture industry.
ARCHITECTURE The architect as a moderator of change10/31/2010With the exhibition "Small Scale, Big Change", the Museum of Modern Art in New York City is honoring socially motivated architecture from around the world. On display are eleven projects which, detached from the mainstream, help to improve local living conditions. As meager as the means may in some cases be, the impact this commitment to building has is astonishing.
ARCHITECTURE Raumlaborberlin and the revival of the urban style8/7/2010The projects by the artists' and architects' collective "Raumlaborberlin" are far from being conventional. The group of eight, which is at present developing the exhibition architecture for the "Audi Urban Future Award" that is curated by Stylepark, is currently presenting a very special kind of installation at Kunsthaus Bregenz.
ARCHITECTURE Creativity moods 2: On the sound of rooms3/18/2010Erich Mendelsohn refers to it as "charm", Peter Zumthor as "spiritual quality" when architecture creates an atmosphere that appeals to all the senses, when rooms jingle, light dances, and materials and colors are carefully combined.
ARCHITECTURE The Construction of Progress11/11/2009After Russia, the Ukraine is the biggest country in Europe in terms of area. While the capital Kiev is characterised by monumental edifices from the Stalin era, in the provincial town of Kharkiv one finds masterpieces of Russian constructivism from the 1920s, in total contrast to the town of Lemberg in the Western Ukraine, where time seems to have stood still since the era of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
ARCHITECTURE The Bauhaus is blue8/4/2009A young guy is waiting at the traffic lights next to us wearing a machine gun. While wandering along looking in shop windows, we come across a black and white poster with German text referring to the new paper bag by Munich-based designer Saskia Diez. We are in Tel Aviv, on the trail of the largest conjoined ensemble of buildings in the early international style.
ARCHITECTURE Stuttgart, Königstrasse – bricked up5/24/2009In design, interculturality is currently the big hit. Elements from different cultures are being combined in ever more sophisticated ways. However, the reality in cities like Rio de Janeiro provides a very different picture. Soon the favela could become a model of uncontrolled urban growth in Germany too.
ARCHITECTURE Fishbones in the living room4/24/2009Inspired by colourful leaves the architects Tham & Videgård Hansson create a bold composition of colours and patterns, which flow between the rooms of a large 10-room apartment in central Stockholm.
ARCHITECTURE Historical experiment5/4/2007The latest issue of Berker Blueprint is dedicated to the Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam, a former prison which the Dutch architecture studio MVRDV and numerous designers and artists converted into a design-oriented concept hotel.
FEATURED Lichtlinien im Wegedschungel5/1/2001TTC Timmer is a specialist in the field of energy-saving air conditioning technology. The company provides the new "finger" A-Plus at Frankfurt Airport with a good climate.
