Inside the Mind of Sou Fujimoto
Metropolis interviews the renowned Japanese architect, whose retrospective exhibition Futures of the Future is currently on view at Japan House Los Angeles.
Guy Horton
Ceilings Plus Joins Forces with SCI-Arc Grads to Push the Limits on Building Products
The Los Angeles-based fabricator Ceilings Plus and SCI-Arc graduates push the limits on building products.
South America's First Bahá’i Temple is a Triumph of Material Innovation
The poetic form of the Bahá’i Temple of South America is a triumph of engineering and material innovation.
A Pioneer of Digital Fabrication Heralds the Machine-Made Revolution in Architecture
After two decades of experience in robotics-based fabrication, Andreas Froech, founder of Machineous Consultants, wants more control over his work and is reclaiming his role in the design process.
L.A. Gallery Bridges Innovative Design on Both Sides of Pacific
Based out of a Los Angeles landmark, Gallery ALL is a vital node in the city's design network.
Please Do Not Enter Is L.A.'s Best Design "Secret"
Please Do Not Enter isn’t a secret, but it isn’t exactly well-known either. To founders Nicolas Libert and Emmanuel Renoird, both originally from Paris, this means they are doing something right.
Tokyo's Endangered Modernist Buildings Find an Unlikely Advocate
The fashion designer Tomas Maier has launched a campaign to save the best of the Japanese capital's twentieth-century architecture.
Yuri Suzuki: Sound Artist, Designer, and Sometimes DJ
The London-based designer mixes computer programming and grade-school charm in his whimsical sound installations.
Using Crystals and Plantings, Cao Perrot Studio Creates "Dreamscapes"
With bases in Los Angeles and Brittany, France, the landscape designers craft exquisite outdoor spaces around the world.
Wrk-shp Uses Concrete to Make Clothing and Planters Alike
Designers Airi Isoda and Ryan Upton see architecture everywhere—in everyday objects, interior spaces, and ready-to-wear apparel.
On China's Problem with "Weird" Architecture
How seriously should architects take Xi Jinping’s remarks on unusual buildings?
3-D Printing Saves a Frank Lloyd Wright Treasure
In central Florida, architects have adopted 3-D printing to restore an obscure Wright-designed gem.
This Designer Wants to Create a Real River for Los Angeles
The landscape architect has spent nearly two decades helping transform a mammoth drainage canal into a true urban amenity.
Of Fundamentals and Fundamentalists: Critics Talk Koolhaas's Biennale
What everyone is saying about Rem's Venice curatorial effort.
Learning From Mao: USC Students Redesign a Fashion Classic
Students from the USC School of Architecture were given a strange task: create a Mao jacket out of unconventional materials.
In Midst of Controversy, Qatar Cancels Four Stadiums
The Gulf state has announced that it will reduce the number of stadia it had planned to build for the 2022 World Cup.
Q&A: Wendell Burnette on the Architecture of Place
The architect and former Taliesin fellow discusses why landscape matters.
The Architecture of This Science Center Offers a Lot to Geek out About
In both its form and function, the Southwest Fisheries Science Center is intimately tied to the water.
Architect Chiaki Arai Shows Kahn Influence With New Project
For a stunning cultural center in Japan, Chiaki Arai achieves the sublime material clarity of his legendary mentor, Louis Kahn.
What's So Different About Koolhaas's Venice Biennale?
The architect has big plans for this year's biennial. Will it be radically removed from previous programs, as Koolhaas suggests?
How Migrant Workers Are "Silent Collaborators" in Global Architecture
Beyond Qatar, fantastic architecture is dependent on migrant labor.
Why Architects Shouldn't Fetishize Slums
Projects like Hong Kong's Kowloon Walled City have sparked fascination among architects and designers, who overlook the terrible living conditions these slums fostered.
Hamburg Looks to Become Europe's Green-Building Showpiece
How Hamburg's first International Building Exhibition is changing the face of the city.
New VR Headset Lets Architects Step Into Their Designs
Kickstart the Spacemaker VR, a new virtual reality system that gives architects the chance to fully experience their designs.
Why "Tallness" Isn't Good for Cities
Is "tallness" really an urban quality cities should care about?
Why the Solar Decathlon Should Enter the Real World
Is the Department of Energy’s well-intended program limited to the buzz it produces?
Los Angeles Has Never Cared for Landmarks. Except Disney Concert Hall
Ten years later has Gehry’s homage to Uncle Walt’s memory made a difference for LA?
Future Hamburg Now: An Introduction to Hamburg
The continuing story of a city willing to take risks
For MOCA, P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S Experiments with Carbon Fiber
Integrating advanced manufacturing, architectural design, and digital media create an alternative mode of production for architecture
On the "Starchitect," or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Portmanteau
Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the portmanteau
Curtis B. Wayne Talks His Architecture Podcast, "Burning Down the House"
Curtis B. Wayne talks about his podcast Burning Down the House
Designing Beijing
From the Smart Cities, Healthy Cities Exhibition of sustainable Dutch design, Breathing Cloud by Dorette Sturm. Courtesy: Beijing Design Week In addition to being the political hub of China, Beijng has long been a city on the global art and…
Steven Ehrlich Receives Maybeck Prize
Dubai Federal National Council building. Courtesy Ehrlich Architects Steven Ehrlich was recently named this year’s recipient of the Maybeck Award for achievement in architecture. The award is given by the American Institute of Architects California Council for an outstanding body…
Chipperfield Receives Mies van der Rohe Award
© Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz / David Chipperfield Architects, Photo: Jörg von Bruchhausen On June 20, British architect Sir David Chipperfield took center stage at a ceremony in Barcelona to officially receive the much-coveted European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture –…
Successful Blue Ventures
courtesy Blue Ventures Buckminster Fuller was an architect, but in the truest sense of the title, he was a problem-solver who viewed complexity with the eyes of a scientist. Upon his death in 1983, his family established the Buckminster Fuller…
JR's TED Wish Unfolds in Pakistan
Photo courtesy 18% Grey for TEDx Karachi At this year’s TED Conference in Long Beach, California, one of the highlights was a skinny, sunglass-donning Frenchman who goes by the moniker, JR. Being the recipient of the TED Prize is clearly…
Julius Shulman's Unseen Los Angeles
Julius Shulman knew everybody. That’s how he worked. He moved through the city not merely photographing, but orchestrating and choreographing images that helped define what it meant to be modern and in Los Angeles through the buoyant optimism of the…
Eduardo Souto de Moura
Eduardo Souta de Mora. Photo: Francisco Nogueira At the youthful age of 58, Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura has won architecture’s most prestigious award, the Pritzker Prize (regarded as architecture’s Nobel Prize). He now enters the ranks of an…
Q&A: Frances Anderton
Los Angeles radio host Frances Anderton is the voice of architecture and design. In fact, through her radio show on KCRW, DnA: Design and Architecture, she has become the voice of design for the city. Architecture is one of those…
China Before Architecture
[Army Pants] My first trip to China was in 1988. Ironically, this was the same year sweeping land reforms were instituted by the government. It was very simple, really. It was like a massive stimulus package. Though, at the time,…
Why We Look at Architecture
The Broad Art Foundation with its parametric concrete “veil”. Courtesy Diller Scofidio + Renfro "It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible." -- Oscar Wilde I’m…
I've Seen Things You People Wouldn't Believe
The 2011 TED Prize-winner is the artist who goes by the tag, JR. His enormous photographic installations obscure the facades of buildings, overlay streets, and sometimes collage to cover clusters of buildings in one massive broken image. While some shy…
When SPOT Dreams of Electric Sheep
Sheep 16850 by drunkenbutterfly Scott Draves (aka SPOT) produces software art that makes my brain melt. I’m almost positive it’s doing something neurological similar to the pink beam of light fired at Horselover Fat’s brain in Philip K. Dick’s novel,…
My Robot
Deep in suburban southern California, the future of architecture has already arrived. This future is not just about more complex forms and compound geometries. It is not simply about software but how to make what is generated with software a…
