Architecture

Recapping ‘The Jetsons’: Episode 06 – The Good Little Scouts

A camping trip to the moon might seem fanciful, but 1960s advertisers were already promoting space tourism

October 29, 2012

Lunch Atop a Skyscraper Photograph: The Story Behind the Famous Shot

For 80 years, the 11 ironworkers in the iconic photo have remained unknown, and now, thanks to new research, two of them have been identified

September 19, 2012

50 Years of the Jetsons: Why The Show Still Matters

Although it was on the air for only one season, The Jetsons remains our most popular point of reference when discussing the future.

September 19, 2012

Franchising Neighborhoods: Can IKEA Sell Urban Design?

As part of a long-term investment plan, the Swedish furniture retailer is planning to construct entire neighborhoods in England and Germany

September 12, 2012

The Anti-Skyscraper Law That Shaped Sydney, Australia

What happens when public safety clashes with modern architecture?

September 10, 2012

Why is Rem Koolhaas the World’s Most Controversial Architect?

Age has not tempered the Dutch architect, who at 67 continues to shake up the cultural landscape with his provocative designs

September 2012

The Unbuilt High-rise Designs of Rem Koolhaas and OMA

The radical, unbuilt high-rises designed by Rem Koolhaas are witty, subversive, and surprisingly simple

August 23, 2012

Yesterday’s Tomorrows: How a Smithsonian Exhibit I Never Saw Changed My Life

Meet the historians who pioneered scholarship of retro-futurism

August 15, 2012

The Scene of Deduction: Drawing 221B Baker Street

From pen-and-ink sketches to digital renderings, generations of Sherlock Holmes fans have undertaken drafting the detective’s famous London flat

August 14, 2012

The Architecture of Memory

Memorization may seem like a brain-based skill, but it has as much to do with our bodies and our buildings

August 6, 2012

The Mystery of 221B Baker Street

Our series on Design and Sherlock Holmes begins with an investigation into the location of the famous detective’s London flat

July 18, 2012

An Architect-Turned-Barista Draws a Fine Line Between Brewing and Design

As the finale to our coffee series, we talk with Yeekai Lim, an entrepreneur from Los Angeles, about coffee, design, and the common ground(s) they share

July 13, 2012

How Maker Culture is Reshaping Retail Design

A San Francisco coffee shop pulls back the curtain to expose the process behind each cup served in their expansive warehouse space

July 5, 2012

The 1958 Plan to Turn Ellis Island Into a Vacation Resort

Give me your huddled masses yearning to go shopping and swimming

June 18, 2012

Googie: Architecture of the Space Age

The futurist design movement that divided critics and and swept the nation with space age coffee shops

June 15, 2012

Coffee Retailers Reinterpret the Container Store

June 15, 2012

The Airport Design Utopian

What ever happened to the Starport, the brainchild of Jim Starry that re-imagined the airport?

June 12, 2012

Inside the Plan to Get 100,000 Homeless Off the Streets

A new campaign has enjoyed stunning success in lowering the number of chronically homeless in the United States

June 2012

The New Hot Item on the Housing Market: Bomb Shelters

The cold war may be over, but sales of a new breed of bomb shelter are on the rise. Prepare to survive Armageddon in style

June 2012

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

May 9, 2012