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By Paula Mesa
Designing buildings for animals has prompted an extraordinary range of responses, from palace to cat flap, which say more about humans than the residents
Since time immemorial, and from continent to continent, saunas or bathhouses have played a community role, stripping their users of social distinctions and affording a rich seam for architects
From the pissoir to the sanisette, from the communal to the stand-alone pod, from male to female provision, a rich seam of history runs through toilets
Sacred lair of the commodity, its mysteries veiled by plate glass: who can resist the lure of the shop?
Anonymous rooms for anonymous and rootless lives, the hotel has long been a giant metaphor for modernity
The control of nature promised a world transformed for the benefit of humans, but have gigantic dams drowned such hopes?
Once glamorous gateways to freedom, airports have become zones of consumerist tedium and state terror – but the emotional intensity of the departure gate endures
When human particles collide in the accelerator of the square, the public comes into being – as evanescent as an unstable element
Our final encounter with architecture increasingly takes place in crematoria but, despite an association with modern bureaucratic society, the type has a long history
Idealised as a comforting refuge and a site of warm conviviality, the public house can also be divisive
From the green quadrangles of medieval almshouses to towering banlieues, the history of mass housing represents architecture at its most high-minded – which makes its failures all the more painful
Creating new urban areas from scratch may appear to be a utopian exercise, but more frequently it entrenches existing systems of power
With the 1940s came a compulsion to move headquarters from the inner-city sprawl to more tranquil environs out of town. Is the resurgent migration a retreat to a natural idyll or a calculated isolation?
Religious belief systems remain powerful and distinct but, alongside the differences, comes a call for greater tolerance and cohesion. Can the worship of different gods take place under one roof?
The fire station is a unique blend of domesticity and workplace, with the engines brought as close as possible to the living quarters in search of the world’s briefest commute (preferably via pole)
Gloriously kitsch picture palaces engulfed the masses in darkness, while opening virtual space through the screen
Commodities flowed from them, along with money for their owners - but the factory also produced new ways of living, of thinking, and of designing
The university is one of the oldest surviving institutions in the western world. It has colonised the globe, its architecture reflecting the prevailing ideology – of which it is the reproductive machinery
A sealed volume, the tomb has no interior – or if it does, you really don’t want to go there. The exterior, by contrast, is a screen onto which we project our hopes and fears about the other side of life
Soaring expression of the individualistic spirit of capitalism, logical extrusion of land values or irrational, anti-urban monster?
The studio reflects the changing status of artists through time, from the humble workspace of art workers to the hallowed ground of masters
Sites of ablution, illicit heavy petting, athleticism, surveillance, leisure, racism and death: pools bring people together stripped of status symbols, but in ways profoundly marked by wider social conditions
Symbol of middle-class aspiration, conservatism and compromised individualism, the semi-detached house is England’s modern domestic type par excellence
Since its birth in the Renaissance, opera has been claimed as a reincarnation of community-forming Greek drama, while being used to represent the power of the state − whether feudal, dictatorial or democratic
Museums arrange the world according to the changing way we see it: from Renaissance memory theatres and Baroque cabinets of curiosity, via Enlightenment typologies, to Modernist teleologies and the current vogue for environmental contextualism
Conceived in an era of command and control, the traditional fixed and stratified office is evolving to embrace more fluid and intuitive ways of working
Ancient civilisation advocated letting the wider world’s healing power flow through the body and mind, but the industrialisation of healthcare isolated patients from these larger contexts. From city centres to sylvan settings, today’s hospitals must reintegrate the public realm into the healing process
In the industrial era, schools developed as highly controlled environments to instil the discipline to thrive in a machine age. Now, to prepare pupils for success in a knowledge economy, the evolving typology is more fluidly conceived to provide flexibility, connectivity, and spaces for social and educational encounters
In this piece from November 2011, Oriel Prizeman examines six recent public library projects in the first of a major new quarterly series on typology
Oriel Prizeman examines six recent libraries in the first of a new quarterly series on typology
Oriel Prizeman examines six recent libraries in the first of a new quarterly series on typology
Oriel Prizeman examines six recent libraries in the first of a new quarterly series on typology
By Laura Mark
By Oliver Lowenstein
By Lucy Bullivant
By Peter Davey
Winner of the Ada Louise Huxtable Prize 2018, Madelon Vriesendorp talks Lina Bo Bardi, bitches and cosmic jackets following the Women in Architecture awards in March
Gloria Cabral from Gabinete de Arquitectura talks about inequality in Paraguay, Peter Zumthor, and how to change the world, after winning the Moira Gemmil Prize for Emerging Architecture at the Women in Architecture awards 2018
Sandra Barclay from Barclay & Crousse talks about who shouts the loudest and fighting for quality in public buildings in Peru, after winning the Architect of the Year 2018 at the Women in Architecture awards 2018
Ada Louise Huxtable Prize winner 2018 Madelon Vriesendorp discusses women being written out of the script, defending her legacy and #MeToo heralding an end to mother-in-law jokes
Jane Drew Prize 2018 winner Amanda Levete talks tinned tuna, taking off your shoes and women doing it their own way at the Women in Architecture Luncheon on 2 March 2018
2017 Ada Louise Huxtable prize winner Rachel Whiteread talks to us about her ‘shy sculptures’, working in series, how Gordon Matta-Clark influenced her student days and why she finds it difficult to collaborate with architects.
Jane Drew Prize 2017 winner Denise Scott Brown on sexism, prizes, low architectural pay and the fight for self-esteem
The Moira Gemmill Prize shortlist: interview with Ada Yvars Bravo
The Moira Gemmill Prize shortlist: interview with Rozana Montiel
The Moira Gemmill Prize shortlist: interview with Johanna Hurme
The Moira Gemmill Prize shortlist: interview with Jing Liu
The global winners from this year’s International VELUX Award 2016 on rethinking daylight in architecture
Ellis Woodman revisits the building that brought Aalto international attention
Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai explains his concept and the realisation of the MPavilion 2016 in Melbourne, Australia
The judges, winners and supporters of last year’s Emerging Architecture awards share their experiences
As an experience, the pavilion is just as much a physical reality as any other form of architecture
Even simple pavilion projects have the potential to affect change
How can housing offer residents a sense of agency?
Architects’ ability to synthesise is crucial to help Indian cities keep up with unprecedented migration and provide necessary infrastructure to its newcomers, says Kundoo
Norman Foster discusses the importance of the campaign as well as the judging process and award winners of 2016
Eva Jiricna, Norman Foster, Martha Thorne, Terry Farrell and more discuss the challenges facing women in architecture and the shortisted architects for the 2016 Women in Architecture awards
Produced by Architectural Video, the story of a building is described in a day
‘I became an architect out of curiosity’: Winner of the 2016 Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture
‘Rammed earth and bamboo are not materials of the past’: Heringer on architecture’s impact on the planet’s resources
From projects for the official home town of Santa Claus to underprivileged communities in Africa
‘I like to go through the emotional route for things’: Founder of WAA (We Architech Anonymous) discusses the work of her practice in Beijing’s competitive market
‘There’s not a lot of historical boundaries’: Catherine Johnson and Rebecca Rudolph on Los Angeles’ history of architectural experimentation
‘Feminine values are very important’: Co–founder of Burnazzi Feltrin Architects who fell in love with architecture as a girl scout
‘As an architect you have to be optimistic’: Co–founder of onSITE and director of the design/buildLAB on how architecture must set things in motion
An atmospheric film of Architect of the Year Jeanne Gang’s award-winning building at Kalamazoo College, Michigan
An atmospheric film of the wedge-shaped award-winning house
An atmospheric film of Bilbao’s low-income housing in Mexico
AR Work: Hear from the judges as they outline the criteria and reveal the shortlist
Sponsored Feature, Copper Awards: Facades of folded, perforated copper plates covering this hall with a semi-transparent veil
Sponsored Feature, Copper Awards: LAN’s Commended project creates a new urban space in a pivotal location
Sponsored Feature, Copper Awards: A closer look at House VDV, Commended project and Public Choice Winner of the 2015 Copper Awards
By Eleanor Beaumont
A curated selection of the best architectural ideas in the world to
inspire your mind and feed your soul. Each special edition is created
using sheet-fed litho printing with hand-inserted tip-ins and gatefolds
with vegetable-based inks on a mix of FSC-certified paper and card.
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