Eiffel Tower, August 1888

The Artists Who Hated the Eiffel Tower

Now an icon of modernism and avant-garde design, the Eiffel Tower was once seen by Parisian writers and artists as a blight on the cityscape.
Part of the series La Città Nuova, 1914, by Antonio Sant'Elia

Exploring the Avant-Garde Architectural Manifesto

More than a century later, the architectural manifesto continues to hold our attention, emphasizing a charged moment when society was breaking with the past.
Llainfadyn cottage. This 1762 cottage is solidly-built of mountain boulders, and a pair of stout oak trusses supports the roof of small, locally-quarried slates.

Vernacular Architecture in Wales

The pioneering collection of farm and craft buildings at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff preserves traditional design and building techniques.
Photograph of Chinatown YWCA in San Francisco (now used by the Chinese Historical Society). Julia Morgan architect. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinatown_San_Francisco_%2826720090647%29.jpg

Julia Morgan, American Architect

Morgan, the first licensed woman architect in California, helped bring parity to the built environment, the community, and the profession.
Nakagin Capsule Tower in 2021

Tearing Down Nakagin Capsule Tower

Japanese Metabolists argued that architecture should be adaptable, changing as a city changed. Why, then, is this icon of Metabolism being dismantled?
Construction of the Pedregulho Residential Complex

Latin America Revisits Its Modern Architecture

As preservationists grapple with crumbling monuments in Brazil and Peru, they’re also confronting the progressive agendas that originally shaped the buildings.
A wooden skyscraper

Wood: The Best “New” Building Material?

A 2017 study for an 80-story wooden structure in Chicago was an opportunity to examine the potential for the building material's future.
The House of Tomorrow, artist rendering exterior view

Solar Housing Is Actually Kind of Retro!

The domestic fuel scarcity of World War II led to innovation in home heating—especially passive solar technology.
A painting of Strawberry Hill from the Southeast by Paul Sandby

Is This a Gay House?

The British aristocrat Horace Walpole's villa Strawberry Hill was said to be evidence of his "degeneracy."
Statue of The South Bank Lion in London with Big Ben in the background

Fake Stone and the Georgian Ladies Who Made It

Coade stone was all the rage in late eighteenth-century architecture, and a mother-and-daughter team was behind it all.