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.
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.
Is This a Gay House?
The British aristocrat Horace Walpole's villa Strawberry Hill was said to be evidence of his "degeneracy."
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.
Casa Malaparte Is a Strangely Awesome House
Built by a fascist-turned-communist writer in the 1940s, it belongs to no one architectural style. But the views!
What Makes a “Beautiful” Federal Building?
A new draft executive order requiring classical architecture in government buildings negates principles established during the Kennedy administration.
How the Rothko Chapel Creates Spiritual Space
Fourteen colossal black paintings by the modern artist Mark Rothko are installed in an octagonal room in Texas. Visitors say the chapel brings them peace.
The Controversial Backstory of London’s Most Lavish Room
James McNeill Whistler created the famous "Peacock Room" for a wealthy patron. But the patron never actually wanted it.
![Design 513, Damask, 1956 and Design 104, Printed Silk and Fortisan Casement [curtain fabric], 1955, by Frank Lloyd Wright](https://daily.jstor.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/frank_lloyd_wrights_fraught_attempt_at_mass_production_1050x700-600x400.jpg)
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fraught Attempt at Mass Production
The famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright famously loathed commercialism, and yet he (reluctantly) designed commercial homewares to be mass produced.
Recreating Notre Dame
The famous Paris cathedral was built over many centuries, reflecting the growth and evolution of Paris itself.