What I like and what I believe about those sketches and models is that they’re distillations of ideas ... They could become art installations, or they could become buildings. They’re sort of hybrid pieces in the world of visual ideas before they become buildings [...]

I always go see the site and try to discern what the energy, nature, and character of the place are—the possibilities of a place. Then I start drawing. — Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works, via fastcodesign.com

Until recently, though, Mr. Meier had never broken ground in South Korea. He checked that off his list with the newly opened Seamarq Hotel, a towering white complex overlooking the East Sea in the city of Gang-neung. “Our client chose a really magnificent site,” Mr. Meier said from his New York office. — The Wall Street Journal

When asked why the company chose not to commission Rem Koolhaas' OMA, who are already involved with designing the department store’s art foundation, Costa says that the decision to select BIG was based on the firm’s disruptive thinking and that OMA was already working with German department store KaDeWe in Berlin. “We were confident to work with new architects,” he says. — Business of Fashion

A joint venture with star Brazilian furniture designer Jader Almeida is bringing a new dimension to the luxury furnishings brand Artefacto. For Paulo Bacchi, the 47-year-old Brazilian CEO of Artefacto USA and brand advisor to Artefacto Brazil, the curvy seats, low round wood tables, minimalist lighting fixtures, and other iconic designs of the 35-year-old Almeida add a young, cosmopolitan flair to his company and its stylish, sustainably sourced, mansion-worthy wares. — Ocean Drive

[Aaron] Jacobson [of FAAN], now 31, spent “a lot of time imagining space” as a child in Cleveland, Ohio, and remembers being ecstatic when his parents gave him graph paper, which he’d fill with blueprints for dream houses. He studied architecture at Washington University in St. Louis and received his master’s degree from University of Toronto before moving to Beijing to work for a small Chinese firm. A half-year later...he first tried his hand at garments... — New York Times

'The dumpling maker has a structural problem,' says Jason Kim, a project manager at ARO. 'The skin has to be thin enough where you have the right ratio of meat to skin, but strong enough to hold together.' — Sporkful

For the 2016 Spring/Summer Prada Real Fantasies, AMO graphically reinterprets the Indefinite Hangar as a synthetic sunset fixed within a 3 dimensional blank space. The abstract hangar is populated with geometric objects and furniture. Characters move through a neutral scene between the undefined and distilled fragments of daily life. The horizon and scale constantly shifts, manipulating the frame and disrupting a linear sequence: an artificial landscape where fiction and collection collide. — OMA

Shanna Tellerman wants to help you redecorate your home. She’s not a designer, furniture aficionado, or personal shopper. She’s the founder and CEO of a company called Modsy that rolls all of the aforementioned jobs into one mobile app to make redesigning a room easier (and more fun) [...]

What makes Modsy different from the handful of other home design tools out there is that it actually lets users see designs in the context of their own homes—and its renderings are utterly realistic. — Fast Company

So 3D printing didn’t even have much of a chance before the railing began regarding fumes and toxicity and in general, the question of how sick we might be getting while the filament takes its time melting nearby...[A recent University of Texas at Austin] report seems to offer up fairly common sense information, although they do state that more studies should be done regarding exposure to fumes and potential carcinogens, and should be weighed against usage patterns while 3D printing. — 3dprint.com

Moving from one subway car to another is no easy task.

There is the dart-and-hustle option, entailing a sprint between entrances before the doors close, and the perilous — and prohibited — passing between the doors at the end of the car.

But the Metropolitan Transportation Authority wants to examine another route: a new generation of subway trains with open pathways between cars. — the New York Times

The Palace at Versailles has announced that Olafur Eliasson will display his artworks at the palace and its gardens this year. The Icelandic-Danish artist's exhibition will be on view from June through October, following the well-received installations of contemporary art at the baroque symbol of absolute monarchy by Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, and French artist Xavier Veilhan... — artnet.com