architecture

The Stupid Starchitect Debate

By James S. Russell / On September 18th, 2014

Editor's note: James S. Russell will be participating in a webinar with the Security and Sustainability Forum next Thursday. Below, we repost with permission a recent piece from his blog.

#Foreword Friday: Designing with Empathy Edition

By Admin / On October 18th, 2013

This Friday, visionary architect Sim Van der Ryn takes you on a reflective journey of a more ecological and humane approach to design. With a focus on the strengths and weaknesses in our approach to the design of our communities, regions, and buildings he looks at promising trends and projects that demonstrate how we can help create a better world for others and ourselves. Enjoy this beautifully illustrated book drawing on a rich and revered career of a noted leader in the field.

#Foreword Friday: Big City Edition

By Jason Leppig / On October 11th, 2013

This week, join New York City's Chief Urban Designer, Alexandros Washburn, as he rides out Hurricane Sandy from his apartment in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

From Carton to Carpet: Recycled Homes

By Avi Friedman / On March 8th, 2012

North Americans are doing their fair share in reducing the millions of tons of domestic garbage that the country generates. Each week they carefully sort their own waste and place it in a box near the curb for a pickup. When the program began, some argued that recycling is no more than fancy garbage collection. They were wrong. Not only has recycling eased the pressure on our landfills, recycled products became the prime component in many construction products.

It Is a Matter of Scale or What is the Connection between Brain Size and Sprawl

By Admin / On September 26th, 2011

Scale is fundamental to urban design. If you get it right, and achieve a well-proportioned space between buildings, you have a sound basis to build upon. Even if the architecture is far from perfect, the public realm you create can be decent and comfortable. If you get the scale wrong and your master plan is built, even the most lustrous architecture won’t remediate the failure of space-making; people might still use it for utilitarian reasons (think the parking lot of a Wal-Mart), but will not enjoy it.

Two Unmentionable Words

By James S. Russell / On July 19th, 2011

I was in Salt Lake City some time ago and was advised sotto voce that it would be unwise to voice a certain term. In Kansas it’s just not done either, a local explained. Bruce Katz, who heads the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institute no less, suggested less offensive words. These unutterable words? Climate change. In large swaths of the country, bullying by climate-change skeptics has made these words unsuitable for use in civil discourse. “They just start arguments,” people have told me. “People can’t get past those terms. You’ll never reach them,” say most others.