Archinect - News

Gingerbread City is back with sweet architectural designs in London and New York

2023-12-11T13:42:00-05:00

London's Museum of Architecture has revealed the 2023 slate of participating design firms in its annual Gingerbread City exhibition, along with an expanded American component taking place in New York City through the end of the holiday season.

For the dual city festival, participants were charged with interpreting the role water plays in urban development. Their designs comprised four zones (Urban Floodplain, Canal City, Frozen Landscape, and Underwater + Floating City) in both locations, with a fifth Desert Landscape area presenting a “sweet feast for the eyes” in New York.

BubbleBurst Bonbon Museum: Spherical Symphony of Sweet Delights by Atelier Ten © Luke O’Donovan

Bakewell Bridge by Allies and Morrison © Luke O’Donovan

Highlights from the more than 100 firms that contributed to the London exhibition include a BubbleBurst Bonbon Museum by Zaha Hadid Architects, Jammy Jubilee by Foster + Partners, Atelier Ten’s The Gingerbread Factory, the Bakewell Bridge by Allies and Morrison, a...

Archinect's 2023 Holiday Gift Guide

2023-11-22T19:44:00-05:00

The holiday season is upon us, and if you're looking for the perfect gift to give this year OR you're scoping out a special something to give yourself, explore Archinect's curated gift guide picked by our editorial team.

Whether you're shopping for the architect, student, or design aficionado in your life, we've got you covered. This year, our recommendations range from discussion starter home goods to impress your holiday guests, bespoke items for the office, a unique chess set, our favorite coffee accessories to accompany Archinect's Brutal coffee, and more! To help shoppers this season, we've broken down this year's list by price to help you and your wallet.

Gifts Under $50

Frank Lloyd Wright Tea Towel — Buy here

This jacquard tea towel inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic glass window design at his 1895 Oak Park Home and Studio is almost too nice to dry your dishes with, so we certainly won't be judging if you just display it for its decorative value. (Retail price $14.96)

B...

Gingerbread City returns to the Museum of Architecture in London

2022-12-16T12:19:00-05:00

The popular Gingerbread City holiday exhibition has returned to London’s Museum of Architecture featuring some tasty designs from top firms organized into five “mini-cities” master-planned for the second consecutive year by Madeleine Kessler Architecture.

Each of the small cities represents global polar, temperate, continental, desert, and tropical climate zones. The museum’s founder Melissa Woolford told AJ in a preview of this year’s show that put forward “‘many brilliant ideas for how to tackle the challenge of building for different climates,” adding: “By bringing all these ideas together, Museum of Architecture hopes to inspire meaningful conversations around how we can act to help save our planet.”

The exhibition runs until January 2nd in the museum’s 6-7 Motcomb Street space in Belgravia. Let’s have a look at the competing teams with a selection of enticing photos. (h/t to AJ for the project descriptions.)

Desert Island. Image: © Luke O'Donovan

Liquorice Library (UHA) — "in th...

Archinect's 2022 Holiday Gift Guide

2022-11-25T15:18:00-05:00

The holidays are here, and if you're looking for the perfect gift to give to a special someone OR you're looking for a gift to give yourself this year, check out our curated list of ideas from Archinect's editorial team.

Whether you're shopping for the architect, student, or design professional in your life, we've got you covered. This year, our team's recommendations range from must-read books, fun home goods, and our favorite coffee accessories to accompany Archinect's Brutal coffee. From simple and practical gifts to those worth splurging on, we've crafted a helpful gift guide for you this holiday season.

Meet Me by the Fountain by Alexandra Lange

Meet Me by the Fountain by Alexandra Lange — buy here

If you're looking for a book that's filled with easy-to-digest information about malls, their nostalgic appeal, and fabled history, this is the perfect book to add to your library. In true Lange fashion, she provides nuanced perspectives paired with detailed research that helps her re...

Archinect's 2020 Holiday Gift Guide

2020-12-14T23:01:00-05:00

With the holidays upon us and last-minute gift-giving slowly creeping, shopping for that architect, student, or design professional in your life can be tricky. However, the team at Archinect has you covered.

This year our editors put together a list of curated must-have items from businesses and organizations passionate about design and doing good. Whether you're looking for something simple and practical or something to help spark creativity in those young and old, we have the perfect gift guide for you.

Troika Zimmermann Clutch Pencil with Scale

Troika Zimmermann Clutch Pencil with Scale - buy here

Clutch pencils are a classic drawing tool that gives designers a wide range of options when sketching. Instead of switching through various led sizes, this tool allows users to draw fine lines, heavy ones, shade, and much more.

reMarkable Paper Tablet

reMarkable Paper Tablet - buy here

If you're struggling to keep physical and digital notes, sketches, and drawings organized, give this di...

How has Hollywood shaped the idea of an American house?

2018-12-22T13:28:00-05:00

The decorated Christmas houses, bedecked in wreaths and lights and the mythology of Christmas, and the haunted houses of Halloween, draped in fake spiders’ webs and punctuated by plastic pumpkins, are two sides of the fantasy. The suburban house represents freedom and independence just as it can come to represent a trap.

What is the aspirational American house and why is the general public obsessed with this version of residential living? Hollywood has painted a picturesque image of what an ideal American house looks like, especially during the holiday season. These ideal homes can be broken into three specific groups: the Christmas home, the Haunted House, and the infamous McMansion.

Image © homesoftherich.net

All three homes consist of staple vernacular styles like large fireplaces, staircases, multiple garages, and windows of varying styles. However, why have these designs won the hearts of the public and have become the "design goals" of many builders across the nation? Some may say these homes embody varying forms of the American dream, each expressing a combination of fantasy and longing within contemporary American culture.

House in The Addams Family (1991) © Allstar/Paramount

Image © homesoftherich.net

When people think of the contemporary American life, "families relocate thousands of miles...

The Holland Tunnel holiday decorations have people very annoyed

2018-12-12T13:05:00-05:00

The Port Authority's holiday decorations for the Holland Tunnel toll lanes have commuters outraged. For one local motorist, the failed attempt at festivity is so annoying that he even started a Change.org petition to have the display altered. As of Wednesday morning, over 1,200 supporters have signed on.

The issue is less to do with the decorations themselves, and more about their obviously incorrect placement. Workers adorned the Jersey-side tolls' signage with wreaths and a tree. But, instead of placing the tree ornament over the appropriately shaped letter 'A,' it was positioned over the letter 'N,' much to everyone's chagrin.

The clearly off-kilter display has Cody Windelspecht, who created the petition calling for its alteration, describing the arrangement as an "OCD Nightmare."

"I look at it and it makes me itch. It gives me anxiety and anger—why wouldn’t they just put [the tree] in front of the A?" he told the New York Post, adding that one guy he talked to "avoids the Ho...

New Fairy Tale Architecture in Places Journal

2016-12-22T16:46:00-05:00

How many architects, young and old, have been inspired by a hero or heroine who must imagine new realms and new spaces — new ways of being in this strange world? This project presents a line of flight into architecture as a fantastic, literary realm of becoming.

This week, our series on Fairy Tale Architecture returns with four new designs by Snøhetta, Ultramoderne, Smiljan Radić, and Bernheimer Architecture. Each one explores the relationship between the domestic structures of fairy tales and the imaginative realm of architecture. But don’t expect a light escape into fantasy. These fantastical worlds draw their power from engagement with the real.

Tiddalik the Frog, designed by Snøhetta

Flatland, designed by Ultramoderne

Gripho, designed by Smiljan Radić

The Seven Ravens, designed by Bernheimer Architecture

Need another last-minute holiday idea? Build your own Gingerbread Village with these architectural drawings

2015-12-23T14:57:00-05:00

If last-minute is your signature style for the holiday season, here's a crafty idea from a fellow designer that you can use to impress your guests or as a fun family-friendly activity. Robert Christo is a Brooklyn-based architect who enjoys building gingerbread houses with his family during this time of year. He decided to take the well-loved pastime a step further and draw some IKEA-like architectural drawings for a Gingerbread Village. With some frosting, a good amount of gingerbread, and whatever sweet edibles you need, use Christo's handy instructions as a guide to assemble your own festive town, including homes, shops, village green, a schoolhouse, and sledding hill. (Hopefully you won't need an Allen wrench in the process.)

Update: Robert Christo shared a few more drawings he sketched.

To zoom in on the drawings, click here.

If you still have some gift shopping to do, check out Archinect's holiday gift guides:

The 2015 holiday gift-giving guide for architects

Archinect's 2015 holid...

Archinect's 2015 holiday guide to architecture books

2015-12-17T14:42:00-05:00

No matter how prepared I think I am, December is always a frenzy. Between wrapping up end-of-the-year projects and remembering to buy wrapping paper, the days disappear faster than my coworker’s toffee. If you’re anything like me, the holidays are heralded by a panicky visit to the mall and a desperate scramble to find the right gift. Chances are that gift will be a book (sorry, sis).

Luckily for you, we’ve put together a handy guide to some of this year’s most exciting titles. Have an architecture student in the family? No problem. A vegan, card-carrying eco-warrior aunt? Perfect. A cousin who just loves design? We’ve got you covered.

And if you have a long-haul flight coming up, treat yourself to one of these great titles and you’ll arrive at your destination before you know it!

The Young-at-Heart

Architecture is always changing and it can be hard to catch up. Young Architects 16: Overlay highlights the six emerging American firms who won the prestigious Architectural League Prize, an...

Hello Wood to give 5,000 pieces of Christmas Charity Tree firewood to Budapest community

2014-12-22T19:48:00-05:00

Getting caught up in holiday madness has become so normal that it's easy to forget that the holidays can act as a reminder that caring for each other -- no matter how simple the act -- can go a long way. Architecture firm Hello Wood, who built the 11-meter Christmas tree made out of 365 sleighs last year, recently built another Christmas tree installation in Budapest called the Charity Tree.

This time around, Hello Wood worked with Design Terminal and the Hungarian Interchurch Aid to construct the 11-meter Charity Tree, which was built in 5 days from 5,000 pieces of firewood that weigh 150 quintals (or about 30,000 lbs.).

Visitors can also walk inside the tree to find a chapel-like interior space. At night, the tree glows with lighting effects by Philips Hungary.

After the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6, all the wood used to make the installation will be given to local families in need. The Charity Tree addresses the issue of the many Hungarian families lacking daily heating d...

Archinect Sessions XS: Predictions for 2015

2014-12-18T13:05:00-05:00

This week, with the encroaching holiday craziness picking up steam, we're releasing a mini-version of Archinect Sessions to cap off the 2014 podcasting season. For this special XS session, Paul, Amelia, Donna and Ken make predictions for the world of architecture in 2015, and discuss our plans for the year's end. We'll return from the hiatus with a new episode airing on January 8th.

Listen to "Archinect Sessions XS: Predictions for 2015":

iTunes: Click here to subscribe, and click the "Subscribe" button below the logo to automatically download new episodes.
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Download: this episode

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Donna's tree set-up:

Santa's address in Greenland

Denmark's claim to the North Pole

Sony ha...

The House on Chicken Feet

2011-12-22T14:23:00-05:00

We were able to meet the Grimms’ strict design requirements by employing a slender tower design of vertical cylindrical stems that are joined by intermittent outrigger beams with a reinforced space at the very top for Rapunzel’s long captivity.

This week, Places has a holiday series on fairy tale architecture. Participating firms — Bernheimer Architecture, Leven Betts, and Guy Nordenson and Associates — have selected favorite tales and produced works exploring the intimate relationship between the domestic structures of fairy tales and the imaginative realm of architecture.

Baba Yaga's Hut, by Bernheimer Architecture

Jack's Beanstalk, by Leven Betts with Bret Quagliara

Rapunzel's Tower, by Guy Nordenson and Associates

Nothing says "Christmas" like a bunch of dead animals suspended over an orchestra

2011-12-20T11:59:00-05:00

Archinect member Ricardo Soares has shared with us a video he captured on his smart phone last night in NYC's Guggenheim museum. Maurizio Cattelan's installation All, which I'm quite fond of, personally, is seen suspended from the oculus of the rotunda above the orchestra.

Archinect's Last Minute Gift Guide - 2012 Archinect Calendar and T-Shirts!

2011-12-15T18:25:22-05:00

Need a last minute Christmas gift idea? For an architect even? – Worry not, we got you covered with cool gifts from the Archinect Shop that even Santa will envy you for!

In Focus is Archinect's series of features dedicated to profiling the photographers who help make the work of architects look that much better.

This 2012 calendar celebrates the work of twelve outstanding architectural photographers previously featured on Archinect, including Nelson Girrado, Jordi Miralles, Luc Roymans, Eugeni Pons, Amy Barkow, Leonardo Finotti, Miguel Coelho, Thomas Volstorf, Simon Gardiner, GRIDUO, Kevin Bauman, and Kim Høltermand.

All profits from the calendar will be donated to Architecture for Humanity.

Get the Archinect In Focus Calendar here.

Forget the Frank Lloyd Wright book, architects want Archinect T-Shirts for Christmas! Orders placed before December 21 will arrive in time for Christmas (for orders within the USA). Act fast, many of the popular designs ...