Michael Murphy on the Architecture of Health – Common Edge
WEBDec 14, 2021 · It has been a surprisingly rapid ascent for MASS Design Group. Famously founded in 2008 by Michael Murphy and Alan Ricks, a pair of Harvard Graduate School of Design students, the firm made an immediate name for itself with its first project, the Butaro District Hospital in Rwanda.Built on a low budget and with local workers, the naturally ventilated clinic created both a new healthcare ...
Robert Lamb Hart - Common Edge
WEBMay 4, 2020 · While Defining “Beauty” is a Dead End, Studying Its Properties Definitely is Not. 05.04.2020. By Robert Lamb Hart.
The Las Vegas Sphere: A Placeless Object in a Placeless City
WEBJan 23, 2024 · The latest spectacle is just that—spectacle. Pure, crystalline spectacle. The Sphere is, possibly, the most aggressively placeless structure ever built. For being a truly monumental object, its essence—a pure geometric shape—represents entirely nothing. And yet, based on its size, expense, and audacity, it could exist nowhere but Las Vegas.
Maquettes in Architecture: The Forgotten Joys of Model-Making
WEBDec 22, 2020 · The instant physical exploration of ideas—with quick cutting and gluing of cardboard, paper, foamcore, and wood, spiced with plasticine clay, paint, or bits of clear plastic and metal—provided a primal joy that no screen can ever capture. Like a sculptor’s maquette, an architect’s model is simultaneously a search for and a test of ideas.
In Praise of 5-Over-1 Buildings - Common Edge
WEBMar 1, 2022 · Although it was originally published in 2019, this essay by Randy Nishimura, lightly updated, serves as a rebuttal of sorts to Duo Dickinson’s recent Common Edge piece,“ The Architectural Pandemic of the ‘Stick Frame Over Podium’ Building.”Dickinson likens the building type to a plague; Nishimura offers a contrarian’s perspective. A recent spate of articles bemoaning the ...
20 Life Lessons in Architecture (and Beyond) – Common Edge
WEBSep 12, 2024 · T he following is an excerpt from a 2023 speech delivered by the author at FEED: Forum for Exchange and Excellence in Design: The Academic Classroom, in Pune, India: . My recent book on architectural legacies, Architectural Inheritance and Evolution in India, reaffirmed my belief in the interconnectedness of architecture and life.I share here some lessons that life, architecture, and design ...
Architectural Criticism That’s Not Just For Architects
WEBAug 30, 2018 · A recent essay showed me the impact of how the not-so-new media has changed our sense of what architectural criticism—really any criticism—is and what we expect from it. A few weeks ago, Kate Wagner, creator of the wildly popular blog “McMansion Hell” and contributor to Common Edge, wrote a piece for Vox.Com on Betsy DeVos’ new summer ...
The Legacy of Christopher Alexander: Form Language, Pattern …
WEBJun 4, 2018 · A Form language consists of a set of definitions and vocabulary of building and design components that can be combined coherently. These comprise specific geometries, shape and size of pieces, particular materials, etc. To most people, this is what characterizes architectural “style.”. Evolved form languages always adapt to locality ...
In His Plans for New York, Vornado’s Steven Roth Is Channeling …
WEBSep 12, 2022 · It is Robert Moses 101. Vornado’s plans for its “PENN District” development includes the demolition of 55 buildings (more than 40 of which are landmark eligible), the removal of 1296 businesses with thousands of jobs, and the erasure of 2,371 apartments, many with multiple tenants. All of this for the benefit of billionaire real estate developer, Steven Roth, Vornado’s CEO.
How Christopher Alexander Changed Architecture—and Much More
WEB03.22.2022. By Duo Dickinson. Christopher Alexander, perhaps the single most effective polymath architect of his generation, has died at the age of 85. Through teaching, writing, building, inspiring technology, planning, and even delving into theology as well as pedagogy and aesthetic theory, Alexander created, over six decades of relentless ...