Last month, Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry delivered a defiant middle finger to a Spanish journalist who asked if his designs were “just about spectacle”. It’s a criticism that has dogged Gehry…
At the Australian Institute of Architecture’s 2014 National Architecture Awards in Darwin last night, a total of 43 awards and commendations were given across 13 categories by five jurors, chosen from…
I predict we’re going to hear a lot more from landscape architects in the coming years. There has long been a misunderstanding about what they actually do – “something about gardens” being a common response…
Annually, the Australian Institute of Architects nominates top buildings from across the country to recognise advances in design. From England to Thailand, this year’s shortlisted projects in the category…
This fall, French street artist JR and American cinematographer Bradford Young each installed a series of portraits in crumbling New York buildings. The two projects were not coordinated, but together…
This year’s Australian Institute of Architects’ (AIA) 2014 National Architecture Awards – to be awarded on November 6 – include a category called “Enduring Architecture”. Where a fast-paced “build and…
Long-term growth and development in Japan is best achieved by working with the landscape and people – a proposition that’s easier to say than put into effect. At 2:46 pm, March 11, 2014, Tokyo stood still…
The heritage shortlist for this year’s Australian Institute of Architects’ (AIA) 2014 National Architecture Awards – to be awarded on November 6 – highlights a new trend in heritage conservation projects…
On a recent tour of Japanese prefabricated housing factories, I was awestruck by the sophistication of Japan’s construction industry: entire factories populated by robots, houses trundling along assembly…
From hippie houses and kids’ play frames to military radar stations and mountaineering tents, the geodesic dome has fascinated people as a way of building. Why? Simply because it is so extraordinarily…
The buildings from our recent industrial past can offer some exciting new places for the future, with a heritage character and sense of place. With some creative thinking and ambition, these sites can…
It makes perfect sense. If you need to design a new school or playground, who better to help than the children who are going to use it? Gradually, more architects and landscape designers are bringing young…
A development of 750 new homes in the small town of Ilfracombe on England’s north Devon coast has been approved by the local council. The news would be unremarkable if it weren’t for the identity of the…
When most people think of Brisbane architecture, they usually picture a Queenslander: high-set, timber-and-corrugated iron houses that are ideally suited to subtropical conditions. Modernism fits into…
Skyscrapers always provoke some extreme reactions, and the sale of London’s Gherkin as a result of the bankruptcy of one of its current owners is no exception. For a century, ever since the property explosions…
There’s a perverse irony in the apocryphal tale of the design competition for the Sydney Opera House in 1956. The story goes that, after the selection of the group of finalist designs for the competition…
Chinese cities are often contradictory bricolages of old and new. They wrestle with extraordinarily rapid rates of economic growth, concentrated urbanisation, the growth of a burgeoning middle class as…
Important challenges are facing our society as the population globally ages thanks to higher life expectancy, better housing and living conditions and improved healthcare. For individuals this is of course…
This year’s contenders for the prestigious Stirling Prize were recently announced. The prize is supposed to be “presented to the architects of the building that has made the greatest contribution to the…
The media coverage of Brazil’s 2014 World Cup – in the UK at least – emphasises the familiar. The BBC has given the impression of a competition largely taking place in Rio de Janeiro. The city’s Avenida…