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?
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.
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.