Archinect - Features

Simple, Playful, Ambitious; A conversation with Benjamin Cadena on his journey to finding his voice in architecture.

2018-12-31T18:01:00-05:00

His intuitive approach to architecture can be summed up by his playfully ambitious works that not only showcase his talents as a designer, but as an innovator in the field of architecture. Pulling from his influential upbringing in Bogotá, Cadena's use of simplistic forms and color has allowed him to shape his own voice and approach to design.

As we wrap up 2018, we welcome the New Year with this week's Studio Snapshot on an architect whose passion for community and dialogue inspires him and his creative practice. Benjamin Cadena, of Studio Cadena, talks freedom in architecture, the joys of model making, and color's association with habitation.

#ArchinectMeets @collpol19

2018-10-02T11:00:00-04:00

#ArchinectMeets is a series of interviews with members of the architecture community that use Instagram as a creative medium. With the series, we ask some of Instagram’s architectural photographers, producers and curators about their relationship to the social media platform and how it has affected their practice.

Social media has undeniably affected the way we perceive, interpret and share opinions about architecture today. Using our own account, @Archinect, as a site for image curation and news content, we wanted to ask fellow Instagram users how they navigated the platform as well as their thoughts on social media's impact on architecture.

We spoke with Collin Pollard (@collpol19), a photographer and image producer based in the San Francisco based area. Though Pollard has only been posting his work online for a year, its bold coloring and rugged yet minimal surfaces have quickly gained him a following.

From the Ground Up: Philip Johnson

2018-04-06T09:00:00-04:00

From the Ground Up is a series on Archinect focused on discovering the early stages & signs of history's most prolific architects. Starting from the beginning allows us to understand the long journey architecture takes in even the most formative of hands and the often, surprising shifts that occur on its journey. These early projects grant us a glimpse into the early, naive, ambitious—and at points, rough—edges of soon to be architectural masters.

SelgasCano's Magical Rock-Like Auditorium Opens in Spain

2017-08-17T12:47:00-04:00

Located on the boundary between the town and the country, in outskirts of Plasencia, SelgasCano's dreamy auditorium sits on a steep hillside—the edge between the nature and the city. Gently occupying the lot, cantilevering off the ground, the building stands out from the mountain landscape, its surprising materiality and colors both—complementing and contrasting the shrubby semi-urban setting.

Win ECO-MONOPOLY by playing for sustainability, not profit

2016-09-07T11:42:00-04:00

When the Parker Brothers' version of the game Monopoly was released in 1935, it was primarily a celebration of capitalism; players were encouraged to build as much high-priced real estate as they could by acquiring desirable tracts of land and then forcibly renting them out to unlucky arrivals. The goal was to bankrupt the other players, all the while dodging the slings and arrows of the often financially ruinous 'Chance' cards.

Working out of the Box: Ioana Urma

2012-10-03T14:23:00-04:00

Working out of the Box is a series of features presenting architects who have applied their architecture backgrounds to alternative career paths.

Are you an architect working out of the box? Do you know of someone that has changed careers and has an interesting story to share? If you would like to suggest an (ex-)architect, please send us a message.

Color in Architecture — More Than Just Decoration

2012-07-20T13:28:00-04:00

By Frank H. Mahnke

Color is an integral element of our world, not just in the natural environment but also in the man-made architectural environment. Color always played a role in the human evolutionary process. The environment and its colors are perceived, and the brain processes and judges what it perceives on an objective and subjective basis. Psychological influence, communication, information, and effects on the psyche are aspects of our perceptual judgment processes. Hence, the goals of color design in an architectural space are not relegated to decoration alone.