Now that NeoCon 2005 is history, let’s take a moment to pick apart the blur of showrooms, sales pitches, and stairs. As for trends, we spotted a few, including the integration of green design into products and business models, and…
As a nation of workaholics, Americans are continuing to spend far more time at the office than ever, literally making their workplace their second home. Since renovating our living spaces has become a national sport, it follows that the American…
A furniture manufacturer gets into the business of helping companies avoid waste.
By keeping the messy process at arm’s length America’s most famous architect lands a plum job at Ground Zero—on his own terms.
When the Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C) Home Competition opened last summer in Roanoke, Virginia, it became an instant inspiration for architecture students and educators from around the world. Prompted by the competition’s call for affordable, sustainable urban housing, as well as the…
Do sustainable buildings cost more to construct? A report compiled by Lisa Fay Matthiessen and Peter Morris of cost-management firm Davis Langdon concludes that building green can have minimal affect—if any—on construction costs if sustainability goals are discussed and integrated…
Architects can’t resist the lure of buildings—even if the brief doesn’t really call for them.
In May, two days before the Seattle Central Library’s official opening, the building’s architect, Rem Koolhaas, discussed the structure with Metropolis contributing editor Christopher Hawthorne. The interview took place in a staff conference room on the library’s 11th floor; the…
Quick: think of a good contemporary memorial. No, not that one we’ve all heard quite enough about: Maya Lin’s shrine to the Vietnam War—a wonderful thing, a bolt from the blue, a one-in-a-million shot—a modern design that people actually respond…
When Susan Hakkarainen, the president and founder of Ivalo Lighting, set out to create a new line of fixtures, she created the kind of brief that designers salivate over. “The charge was, design me an architectural element,” she says. “Don’t…
An outsider’s view of how interior design is perceived, practiced, and preached.
This keynote address was delivered by Susan S. Szenasy, editor in chief of Metropolis, at the International Interior Designers Association’s (IIDA’s) 3rd annual conference, held Oct. 9-11, 2003, in Mexico City. On June 18, 2001—in those more innocent days before…
If Ani DiFranco left Buffalo, N.Y., she’d be following a trend: The population of the blue-collar town has been shrinking for years. But singer/songwriter has never followed the crowd. With longtime manager Scot Fisher, DiFranco started an independent music label,…
Susan S. Szenasy, editor in chief of Metropolis, delivered this keynote address on Oct. 9, 2003, to launch the 25th anniversary celebrations at the College of Design, Iowa State University, in Ames, Iowa. Her assignment: to comment on what she…
A founding member of the architecture collective Private Ideology, Valdas Ozarinskas is part of a new generation of Lithuanian builders.
Our resident curmudgeon offers up his second annual valentine to things he loves.
We asked designers, urbanists, and city-dwellers to outline their personal best- and worst-case scenarios for the future: one idea they would like to see happen, or one they fear might be on the way.
A new ambulatory-care clinic for a remarkable institution seeks to become the nation’s first LEED-certified healthcare facility.
Combining teaching and practice, history and material innovation, Toshiko Mori emerges as an architect and educator.
