Magazine

Zhujiajiao is an ancient water town located in the Qingpu district of Shanghai. The roots of the town date back 1.700 years. Numerous bridges from Ming and Qing Dynasty span the many canals, streams and rivers.

Described by The New York Times five years ago as “the next cool New York City neighborhood,” Bushwick was a low-income area of Brooklyn that has undergone transformation via the influx of artists, then students, and now middle- income residents. One physical sign of this...

San Juan Island is one of a number of islands in the Salish Sea, a waterway straddling the United States and Canada. On an understandably dramatic site with mature douglas firs, rocky outcroppings, and water views, Heliotrope Architects curved this long and low house to cradle the landscape...

Perched high upon Yeomalt Bluff, the Ellis Residence, enjoys a commanding 180-degree view of Puget Sound and the Seattle skyline. The architects responded to some questions about the LEED Platinum home.

The Houses at Sagaponac is a development with over 30 speculative houses on 56 acres of New York’s Long Island. In the works since the mid-1990s, it was started by the late Harry “Coco” Brown, with architect Richard Meier, and includes a roster of well known architects from...

Pratt Instiute’s northern expansion beyond its five-block main campus brings the school to Myrtle Avenue. The appropriately named Myrtle Hall by WASA/Studio A gives Pratt a strong presence on this major thoroughfare. Further the building responds to this context by differing the street-...

Since its foundation in 2006, the work done by Ábalos+Sentkiewicz, has stood out on the Spanish and international architecture scene for its original synthesis of technical rigour, formal richness and its integrating of architecture, landscape and environment. 2G issue number 56...

Jiading District is one of the 18 districts of Shanghai in the North-West of Downtown. The district includes several towns, like Anting, known for its focus on car industries. But the district also has some rural villages based on intensive agriculture with huge orchards and vineyards. In...

De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop is one of the recipients of The Architectural League’s 2011 Emerging Voices, an award that “spotlights individuals and firms with a distinct design ‘voice’ that has the potential to influence the discipline of architecture,...

Sacred Heart University is the second-largest Catholic University in the New England, with multiple campuses in Connecticut. Fairfield is home to the school’s main campus, growing per a masterplan by Sasaki Associates. The Chapel is the first built component of this plan, also by...

On January 15 the Museum of the Moving Image opened an expansion that doubles its size to approximately 100,000 square feet. The museum renovated its landmark 1920’s building—appropriately a film studio originally—and added a striking pale blue volume at the rear, covered in...

Finding potential in the mundane can be difficult, but when necessity dictates the result can be accommodating, as if it were meant to be. Such is the case with this small tea shop in Oregon; a wood portal frames the reconfigured interior of an old house, a window into something...

Austin, Texas-based Bercy Chen Studio enlivened the exteriors of this mixed-use development (retail, offices, residential condos) with colored panels inspired by Brazilian artist Helio Oticica. Like a sunburst across the corner façades, the design creates a strong presence in...

Cultural institutions are not doing well over the time where shopping malls entitle the concept of the gallery. Huge competition in 'leisure time concepts' enforce these institutions to enrich their entertainment offer to attract new visitors. Broad understanding of culture - as the...

Ian MacDonald's latest house is an exercise in minimal intrusion - it practically disappears into the grassy hillside it's built on.

This five-story building features 72 student apartments serving Temple University. Built of 80 prefabricated boxes, the project is an example of off-site construction typically used for single-family houses being realized on a much larger scale. Philadelphia’s Interface Studio...

SUE Architekten have transformed a dilapidated corner building on the market square in Ottensheim into an open local authority building in which old and new form a perfect symbiosis. The beauty of the historic vaulting, frescoes, wood ceilings and inlays in the renovated existing building has...

The Beijing-based magazine World Architecture celebrated its 30th anniversary this autumn. Every second year the magazine organizes the WA Chinese Architecture Awards. The jury for the award in 2010 selected three prizes and five honorable mentions. Two school buildings in remote areas and a...

Los Angeles may be a city known more for its sprawl that its urban core, but downtown is home to a density of high-profile contemporary architecture by the likes of Frank Gehry, Rafael Moneo, and Morphosis. Across the street from the last’s Caltrans District 7 Headquarters is the Los...

A more fitting moniker for this project – a mix of condos, artist’s work spaces, and retail – might be “The Green Lofts,” owing to the striking rainscreen that covers part of the façade. Front Studio Architects answered some questions about their design...

The International Living Building Institute’s Living Building Challenge could be described as extreme green; it “defines the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment possible today.” BNIM’s Omega Center for Living is one of the first buildings...

As an addition to an existing church, STL's design for Our Lady of Guadalupe outside Chicago infuses tradition with a modern aesthetic. Most impressive is the wood ceiling, further activated by a tension rod structure. STL answered some questions about the recently completed...

A project for a centre for contemporary arts in Rome is now officially the best new building in the world. MAXXI, National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Italy, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, UK, has won global architecture’s most coveted accolade of ‘World Building of the...

Architects John Beard and Dale Riser describe their designs as "uniquely Southern," modernist takes on the region's vernacular buildings. That quality is apparent in this house in Mississippi, a design in two parts that reads like it was built at one time for one family. The...

Designing a house for North America’s “Last Frontier” requires a certain amount of self-sufficiency, something Workshop A|D addressed in this green and energy efficient home in Anchorage. The architect answered some questions about the project.

Marking the trailhead of a Wildlife Refuge next to the Minnesota River, the new Rapids Lake Education and Visitor Center constantly reinforces the natural beauty of its surroundings through strategically placed openings framing the landscape. Architects Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle...

As sustainability continues to take hold in the architectural profession, the most desirable projects enable designers to express green features, making them educational devices to the clients and users. Chicago firm Ross Barney Architects has done such a thing to great effect at the...

This eleven-story loft building stands out in its Philadelphia locale, not only for its height and articulated façade, but for the way it meets the sky and the ground; the former is capped by a cantilevered roof and the building is raised above the latter on angled pilotis. Winka...

Faculty, undergraduate, and graduate studens from four Virginia Tech colleges—Architecture and Urban Studies, Engineering, Business, Liberal Arts and Human Sciences—beat out 16 other teams in this year’s Solar Decathlon Europe, a 10-day competition held in June. Faculty...

In Istanbul, prisms of glass and mirrors form a kaleidoscopic geometry that reflects people’s movements with a distortion of gravity. Human activity is thus transformed into representation.