Contract furnishings provider, Hightower received multiple awards at NeoCon 2021, including IIDA's 'Best Small Showroom' (under 4,000 sf) and 'Best of Competition' for its newly designed Chicago showroom.
Humanscale welcomes Elizabeth Margles to its Marketing Division in the role of Chief Marketing Officer. Margles comes to Humanscale with twenty years of experience in design, fashion and retail and a background in public relations and advertising.
The exclusive relationship with Kontrol's BioCloud® Technology will provide real-time detection of airborne pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 to help make workplaces safer as organizations return to the office.
In a world of ever-reducing space, a skyscraper is an efficient way to create homes and offices without too large a footprint. It is interesting, then, that so many skyscrapers are full of hot air. In the race for the biggest buildings, architects have fallen back on antennae and pointed spires – with the result that skyscrapers are not so much efficient uses of space, but overblown vanity projects.
The architect Frank Gehry, famous for his curvy buildings and cantankerous personality, has a new gig—he's teaching an online class about architecture and design. For $90, Gehry aficionados can learn directly from the master through video lessons and a downloadable workbook with assignments. If you're lucky, Gehry himself will critique some of your work.
Three weeks after the Trump administration enacted a travel ban on citizens of seven majority-Muslim nations, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has released a statement on immigration and the impact of “unilateral travel restrictions” on the building development, design, and construction sectors.
“Beyond the essential considerations of fairness and equity, restrictions targeting specific areas of the world can have profoundly negative business impacts,” AIA President Thomas Vonier said in the statement.
For the architecture industry, this means potential hindrances to regular business travel by employees and clients, recruitment of talent from other countries, and the success of international students and faculty in architecture higher education.
HDR turned 100 years-old today. A century of pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. A legacy of bringing innovative solutions to every project – no matter the challenge. A future of collaborating and creating the only way we know how. Together.
Photographs that peer into the places where people work always feel oddly satisfying—they fulfill our voyeuristic curiosity about others' spaces without having to leave our own. That goes double for the offices of architects and designers: Where can you find more interesting spaces than with those who make a living designing them?
The London-based photographer Marc Goodwin has been visiting the offices of architects all over the world, documenting his finds for the rest of us curious interlopers. His ongoing series, which he's been working on for about a year, has taken him to China, the Nordic region, and most recently to Paris to scope out the digs of leading architecture firms. Goodwin was looking for differences in office design across regions—from the Beijing offices of MAD Architects to the Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Paris—and the various ways local character can seep into workspaces.
Lots of ink—digital and real alike—is spilled on the work of the world’s busiest architecture firms, from Zaha Hadid Architects, in London, to Renzo Piano Building Workshop, in Paris, and a whole host of places in between. But rarely do we get an inside look at the firms’ offices themselves.
Photographer Marc Goodwin, founder of photo company Archmospheres, is helping pull back that curtain, and has traveled to the offices of David Chipperfield, MAD Architects, and more to give us an inside look at where the firms work.
Architects have always been researchers, interviewing clients as well as seeking new materials and design methods. But as architecture has become more sophisticated and technology-driven, so too has the investigative process. In an effort to gather client and community feedback, designers are increasingly turning to social media, engaging with consultants, and relying on surveys. Below, several architects share their different approaches to crowdsourcing data to ensure the satisfaction of their ultimate client: the occupants.
Libraries are like the Madonnas of the architectural world—changing, evolving, and morphing with the times. Now they're in the midst of a technological reinvention. And as they shed their physical media and go digital, libraries' most significant contribution to a community is often not as a repository of books—but a beacon that draws people together.
Thionville—a city in Northeastern France near the Luxembourg border—opened a new library last year that embodies this shift. Designed by the Strasbourg-based firm Dominique Coulon and Associates, the space is brimming with details designed to foster a sense of community. The architects hope it becomes the city's collective living room; to appeal to the different types of people who might use the library, they filled it with lots of unique moments, like rooms that have distinctive personalities, differing furniture, and plenty of outdoor spaces.
On Studio Libeskind’s Instagram account, the New York- and Zürich-based firm made a statement below a photo of founder Daniel Libeskind, whose family fled Communist persecution in Poland:
Studio Libeskind would not exist without immigration.
Daniel Libeskind immigrated to the United States, fleeing persecution and Communist rulers in Poland. His wife, Nina, co-founder of the practice, is Canadian. Daniel and Nina run the studio with three partners from the US, Germany and Afghanistan. Our Studio in New York is comprised of the most dedicated and talented architects and designers from more than a dozen countries. On any given day one can hear French, Spanish, Farsi, Italian, German, Chinese, Russian, Hebrew, Dutch, Turkish, Swedish, Arabic, and Korean spoken. This diversity makes us stronger and makes this practice uniquely American, not the other way around.
Many people who design things for a living are familiar with software configuration tools that work with libraries of objects that graphically come together according to rules. The results might be a walk-through model of a building, a modular office system, or a fantasy world like what everyone under 20 knows about, thanks to Minecraft. ICE from DIRTT Environmental Systems is different: this tool is both disruptive and catalyzing, and it’s just beginning to penetrate the construction market.
There are other software configurator tools that will spit-out a bill of materials, but this ICE software is many levels deep, managing the middle office (logistics, labor rates, etc.), all the way to manufacturing (production queues, shipping). It's the most exciting software platform in the building materials industry I have seen, blending a conventional-enough looking sales tool with enterprise software.
The architecture and design industry still doesn't provide the same opportunities for both sexes said architect David Adjaye, on the day that hundreds of thousands of women worldwide marched for equal rights.
Asked whether his sector was at the forefront of gender equality, the recently knighted British architect replied: "I don't think we're leading it at all."
He was speaking to Dezeen during the Interior Design Show in Toronto, one of many cities internationally where huge demonstrations – spurred by the inauguration of US president Donald Trump the day before – took place on Saturday to highlight women's rights.
"I find it exhausting that women are still fighting for gender parity," said Adjaye. "I find it embarrassing to be really honest."
Take an inside look at Apple Campus 2's construction during one of the most rainy periods of time in recent history. Featuring jaw dropping aerial imagery via drone, this footage is sure to tantalize your senses.
The monthly Architecture Billings Index (ABI) came in at a score of 55.9 in December, up 5.3 points from November's 50.6, the American Institute of Architects announced today.
The ABI is a leading economic indicator of construction activity in the U.S., and reflects a nine- to 12-month lead time between architecture billings and construction spending nationally, and regionally, as well as by project type. A score above 50, like this month, represents an increase in billings from the previous month, while a score under 50 represents a contraction.
SEATTLE - Of all of Amazon.com 's transformations of Seattle's urban core, perhaps no single project has drawn as much curiosity as the glass domes now slowly emerging.
The fruit of a bold design, the so-called Spheres will serve as a haven of carefully tended nature geared to letting Amazonians break free from their cubicles and think disruptive thoughts. It's an internet-era, Pacific Rim answer to the architecturally astounding gardens set up by European monarchs during the Enlightenment era.
The structures are also the architectural crown jewel of Amazon's $4 billion investment in building an urban campus, an eye-catching landmark that symbolizes the rise of what 20 years ago was a fledging online bookstore into a global e-commerce and cloud-computing leviathan.
The last thing architects revamping J.C. Penney's headquarters have to worry about is space. With 1.8 million square feet, the sprawling Plano business campus is the size of one of downtown Dallas' biggest skyscrapers. But the Penney building is only 3-stories tall and stretches almost a quarter mile long on the north side of Legacy Drive near the Dallas North Tollway.
Architects HKS designed the building for Penney in the early 1990s.
A quarter century later, the new owners have hired the Dallas design firm to come up with plans to bring the buildings up to date. "The idea is this is going to be a 21st century campus," said HKS' David Lubin. "We are reactivating the building more than repositioning.
David Hatton, AIA, NCARB, takes the helm of CannonDesign’s firmwide education practice. A recognized thought leader and speaker within the market, David takes over a well-respected and growing area within the firm.
“David’s perspective and approach will support the education team in further exploring what’s looming within the market,” says CEO Brad Lukanic, and the firm’s former education leader. “I’m excited to witness how he will further advance our collective education resources and the resulting design solutions.”
David comes to CannonDesign as a partner from VSBA LLC (Venturi Scott Brown Associates), where he specialized in higher education, healthcare and museums, while leading business development initiatives. He’s also held senior leadership roles at Stantec and Burt Hill.
“I’m intrigued and passionate about the educational evolution and our ability to create environments that enhance learning opportunities,” says David. “The convergence of technology, pedagogy and design is currently in an exciting transformational state. The concept of “learning is everywhere” allows CannonDesign to exploit our services not only in education, but also in healthcare, workplace and other institutional markets.”
On Dec. 27, PBS's American Masters documentary series, presented by WNET's public television station Thirteen, will conclude their 30th anniversary season with an hour-long episode called “Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw the Future." The documentary follows the celebrated architect Eero Saarinen's son Eric, on a journey through the modernist structures his father designed, including the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Dulles International Airport near Washington D.C., the David S. Ingalls Skating Rink at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., and the TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport near New York City. Eero, who died at the age of 51 in 1961, was posthumously awarded the AIA Gold Medal one year after his death, for his stellar contributions to American architecture.
Walking clients through a project can be tedious, particularly if the work is still ongoing. Architects have long relied on paper, physical models, field visits, and, more recently, digital tools to convey progress on a project. Earlier this year, Autodesk announced plans to make 3D models created in a selection of its software programs compatible with Microsoft's HoloLens augmented reality (AR) technology. The company is not alone. Software developers in the AEC space are evolving digital modeling with the development of AR and virtual reality (VR) platforms that allow project teams to use mobile phones, tablets, and headsets to immerse themselves and their clients in their forthcoming buildings.
The monthly Architecture Billings Index (ABI) came in at a score of 50.6 in November, down a scant 0.2 points from October's 50.8, the American Institute of Architects announced today. Following two months of contraction before October, today's release indicates continued growth.
The ABI is a leading economic indicator of construction activity in the U.S., and reflects a nine- to 12-month lead time between architecture billings and construction spending, nationally, as well as regionally and by project type. A score above 50, like this month, represents an increase in billings from the previous month, while a score under 50 represents a contraction.
