STAYING PUT IN STYLE: BARING ALL Baring All Most American suburban homes have more walls than people want. There are two types of walls in most homes: those that carry weight (bearing walls) and those that don't (nonbearing walls). — Published 2013.0109
	ESPACE JACQMOTTE - MIXED USE IN BRUSSELS When architect Michel Jaspers discovered this full city block, which had been left vacant for decades and fallen into disrepair, he conceived to transform it into what the Espace Jacqmotte is today: probably the first large-scale mixed-use complex in the heart of the city. The aim was to provide a mix of functions, thereby fulfilling the needs of various different occupants and visitors. — Published 2013.0109
	CONNECTION BY SUBTRACTION Connection by Subtraction In the original plan for this 1970s contemporary house, half the floor space was chopped up to create a kitchen, laundry, three-quarter bath, and back door. The removal of virtually all the non-bearing walls in that part of the plan allowed a tight U kitchen to expand into one that has a full island with pantry closets layered onto the remaining bearing wall. — Published 2012.1205
	BALTHAZAR KORAB - ARCHITECT OF PHOTOGRAPHY Talk with Balthazar Korab long enough, and a consistent narrative emerges — one of a life and career replete with intriguing contradictions. A photographer with no formal training, he first aspired to be a painter but instead studied architecture, and prefers to be known as “an architect who makes pictures rather than a photographer who is knowledgeable about architecture.” — Published 2012.1205
	OPEN UP THE KITCHEN Removing a wall and applying new countertops are easy to do conceptually, but such work often implies that you need to replace perfectly usable cabinetry, which is not necessarily the case. Half of the kitchen in this small house in a coastal community was perfectly good (with stock cabinets less than 10 years old), but the kitchen itself was closed in by four walls with a small opening to the living and dining areas of the house. — Published 2012.1114
	GREEN HOUSING PRO BONO Sierra Bonita Affordable Housing Paul Zimmerman, executive director of the West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation at the time, asked Patrick Tighe Architecture to present a scheme for a site the organization had acquired along with the city of West Hollywood. — Published 2012.1114
	SAINSBURY LABORATORY - STIRLING PRIZE A stately temple of science has recently been added to the University of Cambridge campus. The limestone-clad Sainsbury Laboratory, a major plant science research center in Cambridge, England, has received the Stirling Prize for 2012 from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Rooted in Darwin's Garden — Published 2012.1024
	A BRIEF HISTORY OF PREFAB After the Second World War there was a regular prefabricated housing boom in the United States. Some 70 companies were active in this market segment in the post-war era, ultimately leading to the construction of roughly 200,000 prefabricated houses. However, companies such as Vultee, Lustron, and the Spartan Aircraft Company, which offered buildings built on the basis of steel frames or clad in sheet metal, were still not able to survive. — Published 2012.1003
	ISLAND INN AT FRIDAY HARBOR The Island Inn at Friday Harbor has got it going on. With great bone structure, sleek proportions, and an au-courrant nerdy streak — wearing its hydrology on its sleeve — this nicely detailed project is a real model. — Published 2012.0919
	TALKING WITH NORMAN FOSTER Whenever he can he likes to fly himself, be it in his private jet, or in a helicopter. Norman Foster loves flying and he must love it. He is constantly on his way to Moscow, Abu Dhabi, Beijing or to one of the many other cities in which he is planning and building his numerous projects. Born in 1935, Norman Foster has been in the business for over 40 years. He's built many records, the biggest, longest and most expensive buildings of the world, won all the important architectural prizes and awards, and even acquired a peerage – and yet his fame is still growing. He wrote architectural history with an office building in Ipswich and an airport in Stansted early on in his career. Many office buildings and airports worldwide are built according to ideas he first formulated. Foster has also chivvied ecological building along, for example with the Commerzbank Headquarters in Frankfurt and the rebuilding of the Reichstag in Berlin. But all that looks almost modest in comparison with the projects he and his firm are working on today. Gigantic high-rise buildings are in prospect, whole towns have been commissioned from him, and the Foster architectural machine seems to whirl along faster and faster. But when we finally meet in a hotel garden beside Lake Geneva, with the sky summery blue, children splashing about in the pool, all the hectic pace drops away. He looks as if he were on holiday by the sea, white trousers, white polo shirt, a pink belt and orange moccasins – even though he's just come from the office. He works a lot down here in Switzerland now. His home is here, and so is his young family. — Published 2012.0725

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