 |
BEHNISCH IN BOSTON
With ever-rising energy prices, commercial tenants in office buildings have begun to consider the increasing cost of heating, cooling, and lighting their spaces as a "second rent." Savvy developers and architects are responding to their concern by making new buildings far more energy efficient than in the recent past. — Published 2005.0209
 |
 |
NEIGHBORLY MOD
The Ebeling House in Dortmund, Germany makes a direct challenge to conventional expectations and local taste, and it is equally bold in its reference to modernist minimalism. Is this boldness hostile, or friendly? Does it reward analysis? Does it make a humane place for living? — Published 2005.0202
|
 |
POSTCARD FROM OVIEDO
Dear ArchitectureWeek,
With its 263-foot- (80-meter-) high spire visible from most parts of town, La Catedral de Oviedo serves as a city symbol and directional landmark in the heart of Oviedo, Spain (not to be confused with Orvieto, Italy!). The cathedral stands on one side of a historic square with government buildings lining the other sides. The street is closed to motor vehicles, but is always busy with pedestrians. The church continues to hold services and is a popular site for weddings and baptisms. — Published 2004.0818
|
 |
LITERALLY GREEN FACADES
"Facade greening" is essentially the use of a living — and therefore self-regenerating — cladding system for buildings in which climbing plants, or in some cases trained shrubs, cover the surface of a building.
Climbers can dramatically reduce the maximum temperatures of a building by shading walls from the sun. They can reduce the daily temperature fluctuation by as much as 50 percent, a fact of great importance in warm-summer climate zones. — Published 2004.0728
|
 |
EARLY MODERNISM IN SERBIA
Belgrade is an under-appreciated center of regional modernism of the 1920s and 1930s. This city played a role in the larger, international modernist movement but with a uniquely Serbian flavor. Sadly, many architectural examples from the period have been destroyed or altered beyond recognition, so photographic documentation remains an important preservation resource. — Editor — Published 2004.0602
|
 |
UNCONVENTIONALLY COLORFUL
In case the city of Montréal, Québec needed a kickstart into the 21st century, it certainly has one now. The colorful expansion of the Palais des Congrès doubles the size of the existing convention center and puts the city on notice that sober limestone and granite are being challenged as the urban norm. — Published 2004.0407
|
 |
WEST AFRICAN ADOBE
Too often, when people in the West think of African architecture, they imagine nothing more than a mud hut — a primitive vernacular remembered from an old Tarzan movie. Why this ignorance to the richness of West African buildings? Possibly it is because the great dynastic civilizations of the region were already in decline when the European colonizers first exposed these cultures to the West. — Published 2004.0225
|
 |
DANCES WITH BUILDING
Three years ago, when a father and his daughter were looking at colleges and evaluating dance programs, they visited the University of Arizona in Tucson. There they discovered one of the country's best dance programs with one of the worst facilities. The man offered to donate funds for a new dance theater if the university and its College of Fine Arts would each match his gift. The result: the new Stevie Eller Dance Theatre. — Published 2004.0204
|
 |
JUVARRA IN TURIN
The Duke of Savoy was in search of an architect to help him transform the city of Turin in the Italian Piedmont. The duke wanted his capital to be a modern, successful city of his Late Baroque period, that would show that the powerful House of Savoy stood at the forefront of world architecture. — Published 2003.1029
|
 |
BREATHING IN BERLIN
In recent years, architects have begun to view the skins of buildings like the skins of living organisms: properly designed, they breathe, change form, and adapt to variations in climate. A building that demonstrates this in several ways is the GSW Headquarters in Berlin, designed by Sauerbruch & Hutton Architects, with engineering by Arup. — Editor — Published 2003.0813
|
The Facade page: [
