Magazine

Inspired by historic and modern precedents, and recalling the work of Hugh Newell Jacobsen, the aptly named Three Chimney House strives for "timeless yet contemporary voice for Southern architecture in America." TW Ryan Architecture answered a few questions about the recently completed house. TW Ryan Architecture

Hong Kong is considered a city of extreme density due to the large number of high-rise buildings. This brings advantages; for public transport provision, for example. A limited buildable area causes high site values, that in turn necessitate this high building density. Some negatives of this... Eduard Kögel

Leslie Lok and Sasa Zivkovic of HANNAH worked with various students, researchers, and departments from Cornell University to realize the Ashen Cabin, a prototype and research project that "upcycles" ash trees decimated by beetles. Lok and Zivkovic, who recently won a HANNAH

Duke University's new Karsh Alumni and Visitors Center sits at the entrance to the school and consists of four buildings: an event building, a meeting pavilion, an office building, and the historic Forlines House. The assemblage surrounds a lawn that serves as an outdoor even space.... Centerbrook Architects & Planners

A decade ago MB Architecture created an art studio out of two shipping containers in the Hamptons. The firm recently completed a single-family home nearby, also made from containers, with four of... MB Architecture

This house takes its name from Figure Eight Island, a barrier island in North Carolina that is home to a large number of regionally inflected modern homes. Point Office responded to the island's architectural context and the dictates of coastal regulations. The architects answered a few... Point Office

The Kyoto University of Art & Design's new Botenkan, as it's called, serves primarily as the home for the school's administrative functions, but a plaza atop the building turns it into a social hub for students. Architect Waro Kishi, a professor at KUAD, answered some questions about the... Waro Kishi + K.Associates

Inspired by the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit, Iovine and Young Hall is a 21st-century "learning factory" with flexible instruction spaces, maker spaces, and other learning spaces for the Iovine and Young Academy at USC. Frederick Fisher and Partners answered a few questions about the... Frederick Fisher and Partners

The remote Flowers Vineyard & Winery has produced popular Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines for nearly 30 years on California's rugged Sonoma Coast. The opening of the House of Flowers last year just a few miles from downtown Healdsburg has made their wines more accessible. Walker Warner... Walker Warner Architects

This two-unit house designed by an architect for his family features a generous indoor/outdoor living space removed from the street. Contemporary in materials and architectural expression, the house nevertheless looks to historic houses in New Orleans for inspiration. Architect Nathan Fell... Nathan Fell Architecture

LR2 Residence sits on a hillside in Pasadena, California, a city northeast of Los Angeles. Montalba Architects exploited the location by lifting the living spaces to the top of three floors to take advantage of panoramic views. The architects answered a few questions about the house. Montalba Architects

Whidbey Island, located in the Puget Sound north of Seattle, is a scenic island dotted by small farms. One such farm is the setting for a single-family residence designed by mwworks, whose design maintains as many trees on the site as possible. The architects answered a few questions about the... mwworks

Sited on the edge of a ravine in Raleigh, North Carolina, this single-family house has its own ravine of sorts: a curvaceous entry and stair that cuts through the middle of the plan. In situ studio answered a few questions about the Yamato Philbeck Residence. in situ studio

The appearance of the Edgecliff Residence is dictated by its site: a filtered facade faces the street, while expanses of glass at the rear of the house open to a vista of trees and a nearby lake. Miró Rivera Architects answered a few questions about the house in Austin, Texas’s Travis Heights... Miró Rivera Architects

Designed by Studio Zhu Pei from Beijing, the District Arts and Culture Centre is adjacent to the old city of Shouxian, in the southeast Chinese province of Anhui. Eduard Kögel

At only eleven feet wide, the narrow lot for XS House was surface parking for a long time, seen as unbuildable. Strategically using bays and other other features, ISA managed to pack seven residential units on the site, setting a precedent for other leftover spaces in and beyond Philadelphia.... ISA

Having been rebuilt and restored many times, the Kanda Myojin Shrine is one of the oldest in Japan, with a history of 1,300 years. The shrine is located in central Tokyo and is now accompanied by the new EDOCCO, Edo Culture Complex. NOMURA Co., Ltd. explained their intent behind the complex's... NOMURA Co., Ltd.

Los Angeles's MUTUO recently completed Wonderland, three side-by-side single-family houses on a steep lot in the Hollywood Hills. With an informal design sense reminiscent of R.M. Schindler's iconic "Greek hillside" MUTUO

Dearborn Homes is a public housing development on Chicago's South Side, just north of the Illinois Institute of Technology. The homes sit astride Williams Park, which has a new fieldhouse with an iridescent skin courtesy of STL Architects. The architects answered a few questions about the... STL Architects

Spain's Selgascano has designed each of the half-dozen co-working locations for Second Home. Their latest, in the heart of Hollywood, is the most striking, with a smattering of elliptical "bungalows" intermingling with plants and an old building. Selgascano sent us some text and images on... Selgascano

Austin, Texas architects Claude Pendley and Fred Day designed the 2,500-square-foot building at 2001 North Lamar Boulevard for Southland Life Insurance Company back in 1960. BCKW, the new owners that are also an insurance company recently completed a renovation of the local icon with architect... Mark Odom Studio

The expressive use of wood, human scale, variety of outdoor public spaces, and sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean make the new Civic Center, in the words of Miller Hull Partnership, "quintessential Del Mar architecture." The architects answered a few questions about the project. Miller Hull Partnership

Taiyuan is the largest city in the northern Chinese province of Shanxi, where about a quarter of Chinese coal is mined. There are over three million inhabitants in Taiyuan city centre and the city has long been known for its high levels of air pollution. In recent years, air quality has... Eduard Kögel

Balbao Park, located in the San Francisco neighborhood of the same name, is full of recreational facilities: baseball diamonds, a soccer field, tennis courts, a playground, and an indoor pool. The last is housed in a concrete-and-glass building from the 1950s that was recently renovated by a... ELS/Kuth Ranieri Architects

The moniker for this residential addition in a small town north of Washington, DC, says it all. KUBE architecture doubled the footprint of a 1950s modern house but "splits" its gable roof into two sheds to bring in lots of natural light and frame views of the property's mature trees. The... KUBE architecture

Located in Brooklyn's popular Williamsburg neighborhood, this residential building on three adjacent lots has to contend with a busy expressway right out its front door. Studio ESNAL's design responds with a facade that cuts down on the noise of traffic and fits into the industrial area... Studio ESNAL

Cocoon House is the perfect name for this L-shaped house on New York's Long Island: The rounded walls on the more public side of the house are solid, while the glassy, private side is colorful, like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. Nina Edwards Anker's nea studio sent us some text and... nea studio

Named for the nearby Frio River, this house in Texas Hill Country is broken up into four buildings, giving it the feel of a camp rather than a contemporary dwelling. The forms of the buildings and the materials covering them furthers this impression. Tim Cuppett Architects answered a few... Tim Cuppett Architects

Seven professorships at ETH Zurich under the banner of NCCR Digital Fabrication came together to take digital planning and construction methods out of the lab. Matthias Kohler and Konrad Graser answer our questions about the DFAB HOUSE. ETH Zurich, NCCR Digital Fabrication

Today, officially about 31 million of the 1.4 billion inhabitants of the People’s Republic of China are counted as Christians. With the economic opening-up of China in the early 1980s, the communist party used capitalist principles to marginalize the radical socialism of Mao Zedong, and in the... Eduard Kögel

This civic hall in Kamaishi, Japan, that replaces the one destroyed in the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami offers numerous cultural venues marked by flexibility. Most striking is the glass-roofed "People's Plaza" that hosts outdoor performances and other events. Aat + makoto yokomizo... aat + makoto yokomizo architects

With an urban landscape full of single-family houses and with baby boomers reaching retirement age, the United States is seeing a boom in accessory dwelling units, commonly known as granny flats. Best Practice Architecture's Granny Pad can be seen as a precedent for future ADUs, especially... Best Practice Architecture

Recycling old buildings for different uses, though hardly new, is the most responsible approach for architects in our age of climate change. Gensler went on step further and conceived the transformation of a warehouse into office space in East Austin as "upcycling," turning something... Gensler

Wine enthusiasts visiting Quintessa Winery for a private tasting will walk along wooded paths to a small pavilion with beautiful views of the winery's expansive vineyards. Walker Warner Architects answered a few questions about the trio of tasting rooms they designed for Quintessa Winery. Walker Warner Architects

Three staggered concrete volumes follow the gentle slope of a property in Sonoma, California, their roofs lifting up to views of the sky and a canyon. The guesthouse, designed by Mork Ulnes Architects, is also a sturdy house that was put through a test last year. Casper Mork Ulnes explained by... Mork Ulnes Architects

Although located less than a mile from the Idaho State Capitol Building in Boise, the Watercooler sits close to neighborhoods full of single-family houses. In turn, Beebe Skidmore Architects' design of the residential development balances the site's urban and suburban qualities. The architects... Beebe Skidmore Architects