Architecture

Created by U.S. architectural firm Brooks + Scarpa, the recently completed Green Dot Animo Leadership High School in Inglewood, Los Angeles, wears its green heart very much on its sleeve. The new public school for 500 students is characterized by a large south facing façade covered with 650 solar panels, which not only help shield the building from the sun but also capture an estimated 75 percent of the energy needed to power the school.  Read More

Taking its name from Schlump, the Hamburg underground station where the building stands, Schlump ONE is a 1950s administration block that has been transformed into a modern office thanks to a dramatic facelift conceived by the architects at J. Mayer H.  Read More

Architects, it seems, are increasingly interested in transforming a building's use without making permanent changes to the fabric itself. If the BEEBOX we covered in January (a sort of drop-in, self-contained office desk) is exhibit A, then B is an altogether grander intervention. A design team led by Tokyo's Masatomo Kojima has cooked up ROKU Edogawa, a flexible aluminum structure designed to transform any interior space into a cafeteria.  Read More

Modern passive house it may be, but as its name suggests, the showstopper at Equinox House in Bulgaria harkens to ancient times when humans built buildings in veneration to heavenly bodies. A narrow aperture in the roof transforms the house into a solar calendar leading it's designer, Ignatov Architects, to refer to the house as a "celestial instrument."  Read More

An image has been released of what looks set to become Google's new California HQ. Named Bay View, the nine-building campus is designed to maximize the likelihood of innovation-friendly chance encounters between the workforce.  Read More

Great Ormond Street Hospital is a children’s hospital based in London, UK, which recently received an installation dubbed “Lullaby Factory,” courtesy of architectural firm Studio Weave. Spanning a total of ten stories in height, and 32 meters (105 feet) in length, Lullaby Factory enlivens a formerly dull space while producing gentle lullabies which can only be experienced from within the building.  Read More

Thanks to its tropical climate, Far North Queensland (FNQ), Australia, is a place where residents regularly have to deal with threats from the environment in the form of cyclones, while being mindful of their impact on the environment. One architectural firm has constructed a building that attempts to address both concerns simultaneously. Designed by Charles Wright Architects, the Stamp House in FNQ is a self-sustaining home that's sturdy enough to withstand a Category 5 cyclone.  Read More

It’s no surprise to see the popularity of shipping container homes increase in recent times, especially when architects just keep getting more and more creative with what they can do with them. Adding to the list of innovative shipping container homes is the prefabricated WFH House, which incorporates the use of recycled shipping containers into a modular building system. Designed by Danish architectural studio Arcgency, the home is also coupled with a online personalization system that allows clients to customize their own home, including its layout, size, facade and interior.  Read More

In April 2009, the historic Italian city of Aquila was affected by a devastating earthquake and has since been struggling to recover from the estimated 10 billion euros in damage. In an effort to raise community spirit and further aid the disaster recovery, late last year the Northern Italian city of Trento donated this colorful auditorium designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano.  Read More