Month: August 2021

“I felt like I was Nino Rota and Oscar Niemeyer was Fellini, it was like I was creating an important piece of music in that work of art.” Renowned visual artist Athos Bulcão uses this comparison between the Italian composer and the film director to refer to the relationship between his work with ceramic tiles and architecture. This fusion between art and architecture marked an important period in the history of Brazil, shedding light on issues such as national identity, the massification of art, and architectural techniques aimed at the tropical climate.

Often, when people think of buildings, they default to imagining rectangular structures—or at the very least, structures with orthogonal floor plans and hard angles, certainly not buildings with circular plans. The rarity of the circular plan comes in part from the fact that poor design choices can lead to wasted space and awkward interior arrangements, especially if furniture and appliances are rectangular in shape. However, strongly designed circular planes can have a dramatic effect, generating extraordinary spatial configurations that meet a variety of aesthetic and functional needs, while challenging the material specification process. Below, we list 18 buildings with circular plans, considering their varying strategies of design.

A new art object called “Russian Quintessential” was opened at the Archstoyanie festival. The author of the project is Chief Architect of Moscow Sergey Kuznetsov. Philosophical reflections on the future of Russian architecture have been put into practice thanks to unique engineering solutions and modern construction technologies.

Rajasthan is synonymous with sandstone as a building material but sadly, over the last few decades, this material has been reduced to a ‘cladding ‘medium and its potential as a robust and sustainable structural element has not been explored. The house in Jaipur presented us with an opportunity to explore and evolve a method of building that has been prevalent in traditional buildings for centuries. We laid out a simple brief: no material other than stone should be used for construction.

55 Sathorn house is the culmination of years of experience in design, use of materials, and dedication to fine construction details.  The design represents a reflection upon its owner, who is also the architect. The goal was to create a simple three-bedroom house in the bustling center of Bangkok. Sathorn is a vibrant business and cultural district located in the heart of Bangkok. The neighborhood’s distinctive identities comprised of narrow side streets and low-rise townhomes are integral parts of the design consideration.