“Architecture is a visual art, and the buildings speak to us,” said Julia Morgan (1872-1957), a pioneering woman of North American architecture, emphasizing the expressive power of buildings. Indeed, buildings can communicate emotions, ideas, and stories through their forms, materials, and details. Architecture has a profound impact on our lives, shaping our experiences, influencing our moods, and even […]
The built environment contributes to nearly half of all global CO2 emissions each year. The lion’s share of this environmental impact belongs to the day-to-day running and energy needs of our buildings such as homes, offices, schools, or hospitals: The building operations, including their energy consumption, accounts for approximately 27 percent of the world’s annual CO2 emissions. […]
Following the devastating fire of 1666, which burned London to the ground, Christopher Wren, the world’s most renowned architect at the time, was tasked with the reconstruction of St Paul’s Cathedral. Five years into this massive project, Wren stopped at the site to posit a simple question to three different builders. “What are you doing?” he […]
The AI revolution has been disrupting all creative industries in ways that might have been unimaginable merely a few years ago, and architecture is no exception. From task automation to generating design options, AI can solve countless pain points for architects around the world, while also optimizing projects for factors such as energy efficiency, structural integrity, and […]
“The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the child’s own natural desire to learn,” said Maria Montessori (1870-1952), an educator and innovator who is widely recognized as a pioneer in early childhood education. Extensive research consistently demonstrates that the crucial groundwork for learning is predominantly established in the early years of a child’s life, prior […]
“Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you,” said Frank Lloyd Wright, the celebrated US architect who designed more than 1,000 structures during his 70-year career. Indeed, artists and architects have found inspiration in nature since the beginning of history. However, there’s an increasingly popularizing approach in architecture that not only […]
“The terrifying and edible beauty,” Salvador Dali described art nouveau architecture, also known as “New Art,” an art and architectural style that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Europe. As one of the most expressive and evocative aesthetic movements of modern history, art nouveau emerged as a reaction against academic and […]
“The one way for us to become great, perhaps inimitable, is by imitating the ancients,” wrote the 18th-century German art historian and archaeologist Johann Joachim Winckelmann, encapsulating the core idea of the movement known as neoclassicm. Neoclassical architecture, sometimes also referred to as “Classical Revivalism”, is an architectural style that emerged in the late 18th […]
There’s only one material in the world that can be used in cooking, making musical instruments, cosmetic products or textiles, and making wind turbines: Bamboo. It’s described by the iconic Japanese architect Kengo Kuma as “the material of the future”. Bamboo is booming as a construction material, and for a good reason: By far the fastest-growing plant in […]
From the plains of Central Asia to the hills of Southern Spain, Islamic architecture made a mark on particularly the so-called ‘old world’. It significantly impacted the development of architectural styles worldwide, and its influence can be seen in various structures across different cultures and time periods. Islamic architecture exhibits regional variations based on local […]
While climate change is a colossal threat to all humanity, women suffer from its consequences most disproportionately and dramatically — and many of these consequences interact with our built environments in some way. According to the United Nations, women make up approximately 80 percent of the people who are displaced from their homes by climate […]
“The conscious principle in [design] has been to achieve forms that could create experiences, and that could at the same time welcome everyone’s experiences with the serenity of an effortless development,” said Gae Aulenti, summarizing her philosophy and approach to architecture and design. Nicknamed the “Grand Dame of Italian architecture”, Aulenti was born in 1927, in Palazzolo […]