TRANQUILITY MEETS EFFICIENCY

The Beyeler Foundation Museum in Basel, Switzerland was designed by Renzo Piano to house a private collection of modern art and to foster a relaxed relationship between artifact, visitor, and nature. But the building was also engineered by Arup to be rigorously energy efficient. Next week authors Dean Hawkes and Wayne Forster will explain how the team accomplished these diverse aims, making tranquil spaces undisturbed by the often "intrusive visual noise of engineering and constructional technique."

IN SEARCH OF "BETWEENNESS"

In a 1955 address titled "Between Humanism and Materialism," Finnish architect Alvar Aalto urged his colleagues to embrace a "betweenness of opposites." Their aspiration, he explained, should be a search for an architectural language that weds nature with mechanization, flexibility with standardization, and tradition with the new. Next week architectural critic Randy Gragg describes how architects, glass artists, and steel fabricators are collaborating to explore "betweenness."