In Karim Rashid’s scalable seating system, a mix of straight, concave and convex elements combine to create wave-like arrangements that allow individuals seated on opposite sides to have more heart-to-heart conversations. Of course, matchmaking is rarely as straightforward as it looks. In this case, the design’s sweeping curves are made possible by innovative rigid foam […]

A typical workplace plays regular host to two types of group meetings: casual brainstorms and formal presentations. The versatile Tam Tam table proves equally adept in both scenarios. When collapsed, it serves as a compact whiteboard for sketching concepts. Unfolded, it expands into a full 323-by-120-centimetre meeting table with the professional presence to impress even […]

Long ago, rammed earth construction — the process of pouring soil into wooden forms, then compacting it under great pressure — was used to construct the Alhambra in Spain and parts of the Great Wall of China. Today, designer Eric Haskins employs the technique to create chairs that foster both community and architectural education. Since […]

Practicality meets whimsy at the Indoor Playground — which doubles as a lecture hall — of the Yueyang County No. 3 Middle School. The building’s sawtooth roof evokes the peaks and valleys of the Hunan mountains, and if you look closely at the brick patterns on the podium, you’ll see the constellations of the Zodiac. […]

A design company specializing in awe-inspiring light installations, Lasvit makes resolutely modern creations. Yet its new headquarters, which incorporates two restored 18th-century timber houses, shows equal regard for new and old — and in a manner that exalts its preferred medium: glass. The material is the mainstay of Nový Bor, a town in the North […]

What if Old MacDonald hired a cutting-edge architecture firm to design his farm? That’s the question posed by Montreal studio La SHED. Its concept for a family-owned organic cheese producer in Quebec’s Montérégie region delivers a contemporary cow stable that shifts away from the industrialized metal boxes common in the industry and harkens back to […]

Despite being recognized with legal status and basic utilities 12 years ago, the informal Comuna 4 settlement at the edge of Bogotá still lacked effective park space. When its citizens grew tired of lobbying city officials, they resolved to spearhead the initiative themselves. Aided by a team of university students, Aaron Brakke and his design […]

Sometimes it takes careful planning to produce organic interactions. That’s a lesson architect Lorcan O’Herlihy took to heart while developing affordable housing for previously homeless individuals in Los Angeles. Thanks to the building’s L-shaped design, each of its 26 units receives abundant space, ample natural light and comfortable cross ventilation. But it’s the strategies adopted […]

Next door to Arthur Erickson’s iconic University Hall, the Isttaniokaksini / Science Commons at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta signifies a bridge to the future. Spanning more than 36,000 square metres, the landscape-hugging building — named after the Blackfoot word meaning “deep knowledge and awareness growing out of the unknown” — houses a cross-disciplinary […]

A high-performance material for a high performance building, mass timber imbues this Toronto community centre and athletics facility with both substance and style. Comprising a bridge spanning two podiums, the building would lie recumbent — like a felled log in a forest — amid the towers of the Golden Mile commercial and residential district. The […]