The Bauhaus in the Age of Frictionless Design

The Atlantic’s CityLab Ι March 14, 2019  The Institute of Design at Chicago’s Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) may be the most direct offspring of the Bauhaus, which was the most influential design school in the world. Founded by former Bauhaus faculty member László Moholy-Nagy in 1937, and later absorbed into IIT (whose architecture school was… Continue reading The Bauhaus in the Age of Frictionless Design

For the Atlanta-Based Firm BLDGS, No Building Is Beyond Rescuing

Metropolis Magazine Ι March 2019  Atlanta’s west side is strewn with recycling centers, warehouses, shipping companies, abandoned rail lines, and other markers of light industry. It’s a grimy setting but one that architects Brian Bell and David Yocum felt ineluctably drawn to; there, inside a former auto-parts shop in 2006, they founded BLDGS. A comically… Continue reading For the Atlanta-Based Firm BLDGS, No Building Is Beyond Rescuing

With Haus Gables, Architect Jennifer Bonner Celebrates and Critiques the American Single-Family House

Photo by Tim Hursley.

Metropolis Magazine Ι March 2019  There’s an irresistible meta-critique at the heart of architect Jennifer Bonner’s Haus Gables in Atlanta, asking: What if you blurred the lines between real architecture and the media and methods used to simulate it, namely drawings and models? A professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) with a practice of… Continue reading With Haus Gables, Architect Jennifer Bonner Celebrates and Critiques the American Single-Family House

Do Legacy Construction Companies Have the Inside Track on Modular Building?

Redshift Ι January 8, 2019  Fresh-faced, tech-oriented startups get most of the attention in the modular-building world, but despite their “it” factor, they’re still startups. Is there a market share in modular just waiting for companies with the approach and know-how that come with legacy experience? Chicago-based legacy construction company Skender has been researching modular construction… Continue reading Do Legacy Construction Companies Have the Inside Track on Modular Building?

What Makes Us Us

Landscape Architecture Magazine Ι May 2019 Since its inception, it’s been hard to find much agreement in landscape architecture over the profession’s purpose and how it should work. For some contemporary designers, landscape architecture, in theory if a bit less in practice, is most visible when ecological systems are designed and deployed to remediate the earth,… Continue reading What Makes Us Us

Why Architecture is Important

ACSA Ι Jan. 14, 2019 If you ever wondered why architecture is important—look up and around. You are likely surrounded by it right now. Architecture’s grasp—that is, buildings and the designed environment—ends only in extreme conditions (the bottom of the ocean, the atmosphere, and a few dwindling spots on terrestrial earth.) Unique among creative and… Continue reading Why Architecture is Important

Circle of Light

Landscape Architecture Magazine Ι January 2019  From the University of Chicago’s Crerar Science Quad, one can see the entire scope of the 128-year-old university’s built history. Bordered by science buildings and one medical school facility, the dominant Collegiate Gothic flavor of the university’s campus is present in the quad’s southern and southeastern edge, anchored by the… Continue reading Circle of Light

The Design Media Needs to Examine Its Own Privilege

Common Edge Ι Nov. 20, 2018 Kate Wagner grew up in rural North Carolina. As a kid, her mom, who never went to college, worked in a grocery store deli and later in childcare. Her dad had a steady government job with a pension, and his time in the military meant he had the resources… Continue reading The Design Media Needs to Examine Its Own Privilege

Art on the Mart by Valerio Dewalt Train Associates and Obscura Digital

Nov. 7, 2018 Ι Architectural Record The silvery, room-sized box peeking out from the Chicago Riverwalk’s limestone balustrade is perhaps the least obvious and scrutinized part of this new spine of green space, which is changing how the city considers its other great waterfront. As the projection room for a video-art installation beaming images onto the… Continue reading Art on the Mart by Valerio Dewalt Train Associates and Obscura Digital

Inventive Design Turns a Gantry Into a Low-Cost “Vertical Village” for Creatives

Autodesk’s Redshift Ι Oct. 18. 2018 In East London, The Trampery on the Gantry is doubling down on the “creative” aspect of creative reuse. Part of the massive broadcast center used during the 2012 Olympic Games, the former HVAC gantry structure has been retrofitted by architecture firm Hawkins\Brown as an arts and media innovation hub. The… Continue reading Inventive Design Turns a Gantry Into a Low-Cost “Vertical Village” for Creatives