Backdrops are called backdrops for a reason—they’re designed to fade against the focus of a particular scene. But as a new single-serving Tumblr called Anime Backgrounds proves, sometimes the best art is to be found behind the characters. More »
Earlier today we talked about the Living Building Challenge, a certification system that rates the sustainability of a building over the course of a year. Here’s a follow-up about 23 Park Place, a Park Slope townhouse that’s probably the most energy efficient home in the city, thanks to its Passive House certification. More »
Happy Earth Day! Wait, you didn’t know it was Earth Day? You probably aren’t alone. The 43-year-old fauxliday has declined in popularity over the past few years, perhaps because it’s been so thoroughly co-opted by companies interested in associating with sustainability—it’s easy to be cynical about greenwashing. More »
If necessity is the mother of invention, prison cells must be veritable hotbeds of creativity—and not just for making wine in toilets or tattoo guns from Bic pens and guitar strings. According to three Italian designers who’ve been holding design workshops with prisoners since 2003, the incarcerated are brilliant lifehacks. And we can learn from them. More »
Safe to say we all need a little escape at the end of this crazy week. So rest your weary eyes on some architecture and design in the most beautiful items we found this week. More »
It’s been 20 years (to the month) since Kowloon Walled City was demolished, but amazingly, it remains one of the most dense structures ever built. As many as 33,000 people crammed into the seven-acre plot, known in Cantonese as “the city of darkness,” before they were relocated in 1993. This diagram, from the South China Morning Post, is an eye-popping reminder of one of the most legendary structures in the world. More »
Financial institutions—and stock exchanges in particular—are usually designed to project an image of stability. Not so in Shenzhen, where OMA‘s new Stock Exchange is set to open in a few weeks. Unlike the staid Neoclassicism of Wall Street, Shenzhen is getting one of the most structurally daring buildings of the century: an 820-foot tower than anchors one of the largest architectural cantilevers ever built. More »
Modular construction is as old as settled civilization and as ubiquitous as Lego, but it’s less than common to see an architect literally reinventing the brick, as Jose María Sáez and David Barragán have. The pair of Ecuadorian architects are the subject of a recent profile in Dwell, where they discuss how they built a sprawling home out of 900 identical concrete blocks, designed and fabricated specifically for the project. More »
It’s nice to be a grandparent because you can enjoy spending time with your grandkids without worrying about the minutia of parenting. Plus, it’s your second go around with little rascals so you get to have fun with it. Like Steve and Jeri Wakefield, two grandparents who are having so much fun at being awesome grandparents that they built their grandkids this amazing tree house mansion. I don’t think kids have ever dreamt of tree houses this nice. More »
It’s no secret how the recently built Panorama House, which stretches along the hilltop like a beautiful, stone accordion, got its name. But while the outside is lovely to behold, it’s what’s hiding within that really caught our attention: an awesome library-slide crossbreed in a stadium seating body. More »
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