Architecture

A stepwell in India

Rebuilding Rainwater Collection in India

From one conservationist's perspective, harvesting rainwater doesn't mean high-tech strategies—traditional techniques have been around for centuries

Hugo Gernsback's vision for a monument devoted to electricity (1922)

The Monument to Electricity That Never Was

Architects from around the world submitted their portfolios, and by mid-December, a jury of experts invited ten design teams to re-imagine three "dead-zones" on the National Mall.

Winners Announced for National Mall Design Competition

The area between the Lincoln Memorial and the U.S. Capitol has seen better days, but architects are vying to improve the nation’s front lawn

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What Are America’s Most Iconic Homes?

According to the National Building Museum, these houses, more than most, have impacted the way we live

A future vision of Fresno, California, as proposed by architect Darin Johnstone and environmental consultant Mark Merkelbach

Futureproofing California Farmland

Design teams propose new models for farming and suburban development in California's water-scarce Central Valley

Hydrologic Commonwealths for the American West, proposed by John Wesley Powell, 1879

Design for a Water-Scarce Future

Design strategies for arid regions go back centuries, but in the face of climate change, drylands design is a whole new ballgame

The rolling home of the future from the September, 1934 issue of Everyday Science and Mechanics

Tomorrow’s Mobile Home

Moving is a lot easier if you live inside a giant ball

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Imagining a City of Treelike Buildings

Amid growing concerns that skyscrapers were blocking sunlight for people on the ground, a British architect proposed a novel solution

Growing up in multiple countries has allowed architect David Adjaye to always be highly sensitive to the cultural framework of different peoples in his designs.

Q&A: Architect David Adjaye On His Vision for the New Museum

The designer of the National Museum of African American History and Culture talks about his vision for the new building

Inside the church of San Pedro Apóstol is an ornate gold-leaf altar—earning it the moniker of "The Sistine Chapel of the Andes."

The Sistine Chapel of the Andes

Just miles from Peru’s Incan ruins lie artifacts from another era—beautiful Baroque churches that married Spanish design with indigenous culture

The Monuments That Were Never Built

In a new exhibit at the National Building Museum, imagine Washington D.C. as it could have been

How We Will Live Tomorrow

A Whole Town Under One Roof

We're moving on up—visions of a self-contained community within a 1,000-foot tall skyscraper

The Colosseum, inaugurated in A.D. 80, seated 50,000 and hosted gladiatorial games, ritual animal hunts, parades and executions.

The Secrets of Ancient Rome’s Buildings

What is it about Roman concrete that keeps the Pantheon and the Colosseum still standing?

The view from 87 stories up includes the Oriental Pearl TV tower, center, the terraces of the Jin Mao Tower, left, and a metroplex growing to fit 23 million people.

Shanghai Gets Supersized

Boasting 200 skyscrapers, China's financial capital has grown like no other city on earth – and shows few signs of stopping

Thomas Edison circa 1914

Thomas Edison’s Brief Stint As A Homemaker

The famous inventor envisioned a future of inexpensive, prefabricated concrete homes

Building Expectations

How do people decide what does or doesn't look futuristic?

Life in a bubble: Westinghouse advertisement

Today at War, Tomorrow in Stores

Advertisers in the 1940s promised American consumers that they would be rewarded for their wartime sacrifices on the homefront

"Airships may give us a birds eye view of the city."

The Boston Globe of 1900 Imagines the Year 2000

A utopian vision of Boston promises no slums, no traffic jams, no late mail deliveries and, best of all, night baseball games

The Taj backs up against the once-vibrant Yamuna River, now often dried to the point where locals can walk in the riverbed.

How to Save the Taj Mahal?

A debate rages over preserving the awe-inspiring, 350-year-old monument that now shows signs of distress from pollution and shoddy repairs

Peace Corps volunteer Laura Kutner rallied the community to stuff plastic bottles with trash. In all, the Guatemalan students turned 8,000 bottles into building materials.

How to Turn 8,000 Plastic Bottles Into a Building

Peace Corps volunteer Laura Kutner demonstrates how she turned trash into the building blocks for one community's revival

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