ENGINEERING SIDRA TREES The Education City Convention Center on the outskirts of Doha, Qatar, designed by Arata Isozaki, includes a giant structure resembling two intertwined trees to support the building's exterior canopy. Used in lieu of vertical columns, the 250-meter- (820-foot-) long, doubly curved steel tree structure forms the signature entrance to the convention center, currently under construction. — Published 2008.0227
	OUR ORGANIC AIRPORT U.S. airports are being continually retrofitted to meet the latest demands of security and growing passenger volumes — gathering climate crisis notwithstanding. One result of ad hoc remodels is an overcrowded, inconvenient, frustrating experience for travelers. To seek solutions to these problems in a new airport design paradigm, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initiated a competition for a million-square-foot (93,000-square-meter), 24-gate facility dubbed 38 N 82 W Regional Airport. The students who won the competition describe their process — working with a variety of digital media — for designing an airport that improves traveler experience while providing a distinctive, legible spatial structure and minimally invasive security. — Editor — Published 2007.0523
	FOBA KYOTO Some architects pursue consistent themes that can be adjusted to any site or building type, while others take a fresh approach to every project, giving each a distinctive expression. FOBA, the firm that Katsu Umebayashi established on the outskirts of Kyoto in 1994, has a foot in both camps. — Published 2006.0927
	FIRE STATION IN TOULOUSE French architect Pierre Debeaux was known as an uncompromising artist, a rigorous geometer, and a passionate master builder. The Jacques Vion Firehouse in the city of Toulouse remains unquestionably his major work, the epitome of his late mature style. — Published 2005.0921
	PRINTED PLASTIC PLACES "Mass customization," contradictory though it may sound, has been successfully achieved in various niches of the manufacturing world for several years. The term refers to products coming off an assembly line that have been individually configured according to customer specifications. The same combination of customization and economy of mass production may be coming to architecture. — Published 2004.0714
	LOGICAL / ECOLOGICAL DESIGN "Most buildings are terrible. They're unhealthy, and they're bad for the soul." Fred Stitt, director of the San Francisco Institute of Architecture, didn't mince words as he officiated over "Ecological Design: The Unstoppable Wave." The conference, held in Oakland, California in August 2003, aimed at improving architecture through a better understanding of its relationship to the natural environment. — Published 2003.0917
	AVOIDING PAINT TOXICITY When considering paint choices for a project, several factors must be balanced, including cost, long-term performance, and the effect on indoor air quality. Each of these factors is so important that it can be difficult to understand priorities. — Published 2003.0709
	INDOOR AIR QUALITY FOR THE EPA The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Research Center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, is the new home to one of the largest multidisciplinary groups of environmental scientists in the world. Designing and building this 1.1 million-square-foot (100,000-square-meter) campus presented the agency with an opportunity to demonstrate its environmental ethics. — Published 2003.0416
	JØRN UTZON PRITZKER PRIZE Danish architect Jřrn Utzon, best known for his design of the Sydney Opera House in Australia, has been chosen as the 2003 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. This prestigious honor is widely considered to be the "Nobel Prize" for architecture. — Published 2003.0416
	INSIDE CASA BATLLó The interior of Casa Batlló, an art nouveau masterpiece of Spanish architect Antonio Gaudí, has been one of Barcelona's best-kept secrets. This year, to honor the 150th anniversary of Gaudí's birth, the current owners have opened Casa Batlló to public view for the first time since it was completed nearly a century ago. — Published 2002.1113

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