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New de­signs for world­wide ar­chi­tec­tu­ral projects by Zaha Hadid reach us al­most weekly. Now Zaha Hadid Ar­chi­tects have de­si­gned a rug for non-profit or­ga­niza­t­ion Arzu. The one-of-a kind rug is part of Arzu Rug’s "Hope by Designers” coll…

From 1926 on­wards Van Does­burg worked with hus­band and wife Hans Arp and So­phie Täu­ber. They were in­iti­ally com­mis­sio­ned for the project but asked him to as­sist in re­no­vat­ing the in­te­rior of the eighteenth-century Au­bette. The bar­ra…

The ‘Zone Pa­la­tul Parlamentului’ was rea­li­sed in all its dull mo­nu­men­ta­lity du­ring the Ce­au­sescu re­gime. The dic­ta­tor got the idea for the big­gest ever grand pro­jet after vi­sit­ing North Korea, where he saw at first han…

In 1996, two years after the first post-apartheid elec­tions were held in South Af­rica, the Aca­demy of Ar­chi­tec­ture in Rot­ter­dam in­itia­ted the Hou­sing Ge­ne­ra­tor Com­pe­ti­tion for South Af­ri­can Ci­ties, a project that in­vol­ved va­rio…

'And if there are no more ci­ties, we re­turn to sa­va­gery.' This is one of the two quo­tes from Shadrach Woods with which Tom Aver­maete be­gins his book. It's a quote that rings dif­fer­ently in the weeks after the un­rest in French sub­urbs. Cer­…

A study by Ar­nold van Be­zoo­yen in 2001 into a da­ta­base of ma­te­ri­als was where Ma­te­ri­alex­lo­rer.com star­ted. Re­se­arch and de­ve­lop­ment of the da­ta­base took place in the ID-StudioLab of the Fa­culty of In­dus­trial De­sign at Delft U…

Statements from more than twenty image-makers and thin­kers were pre­sen­ted in rapid suc­ces­sion. One thing was clear: our 'next nature' is not that cham­pio­ned by the World Wild­life Fund. Ins­tead, na­ture is a human crea­tion. From sta­cked lan…

'The clues of what we crea­ted du­ring our ca­reer and wrote about ar­chi­tec­ture and ur­ba­nism can be found in Bob's first buil­ding »Mother's House«. From con­tra­dic­tion and com­ple­xity to com­mu­ni­ca­tive ar­chi­tec­ture, and from in­te­rior…

The first ar­chi­tect men­tio­ned by name in the his­tory books - as we learn in ar­chi­tec­ture clas­ses - is Da­e­da­lus. He it was who de­si­gned the la­by­rinth for King Minos in Crete (1700-1400 BC). Yet there is ano­ther can­di­date: Be­zalel B…

The ex­hi­bi­tion is an in­itia­tive of the Mi­nis­try of Trans­port and Water Ma­nage­ment, the Foun­da­tion for Art and Pu­blic Space (SKOR) and the Ate­lier HSL. It sets out to give some re­le­vance to the cul­tu­ral and so­cial si­gni­fi­cance of…

Situationist Guy De­bord de­vi­sed the no­tion of psy­cho­geo­gra­phy in the 1950s. It deals with the study of the exact laws and spe­ci­fic ef­fects of our geo­gra­phic en­vi­ron­ment. Psy­cho­geo­gra­phy de­scri­bes the sud­den change in at­mo­s­ph…

'A fri­end of my mo­ther used to live in this house. Han­ging from the win­dow­sills of her lovely house were the most be­au­ti­ful flower­pots. As child­ren we often se­cretly tried to pick the flowers, but she al­ways saw us and said, »Carry these …

Michael (my cou­sin and co-designer of the sub­mis­sion) cal­led from Je­ru­sa­lem after I'd down­loa­ded the in­for­ma­tion dos­sier. 'Have you seen the 1944 ae­rial photo?', he asked. Of course I had - that was the first image I had up on screen. Y…

Everything that Her­zog & de Meu­ron do is ex­pe­ri­men­tal. In Oc­to­ber 2002 the Ca­na­dian Centre for Ar­chi­tec­ture in Mon­treal opened an ex­hi­bi­tion cal­led Her­zog & de Meu­ron: Ar­cheo­logy of the Mind. The con­cept de­vi­sed by cu…

‘This will be a fan­tas­tic year! Ar­chi­tec­ture will be the theme for 2007. Right from the start of the twen­ti­eth cen­tury Rot­ter­dam has been in­ter­na­tio­nally re­now­ned for its pro­gres­sive ar­chi­tec­ture. In­no­va­tive struc­tu­re…