Architects and Artisans

A childhood growing up in Spain led architect Lewin Wertheimer to fulfilling a lifelong dream of designing and building a home in Andalucía. Actually, the Venice, Calif.-based architect built three homes there: one for his mother, and two townhomes, mirror images of each other, as investment rentals. They’re located near the town of Fuente de [...]

This is not your typical architecture exhibit.  But then again, Stanley Tigerman is hardly your typical architect. “Ceci  n’est pas une rêverie: The Architecture of Stanley Tigerman” opened on August 22 at the Yale School of Architecture Gallery in historic Paul Rudolph Hall, with a lecture by Tigerman on “Displacement.” The title of the exhibit, [...]

Brazil is on a design roll, and Roberto Cocenza is riding its crest. He’s director of BOOMSPDESIGN 2011, the international design conference scheduled for Aug. 31 – Sept. 2 in Sao Paolo, with an international lineup of the design world’s rock stars slated to participate.  About 500 people will attend, spending two days at a [...]

Let’s just call it New England Modern. Team Massachusetts’s entry in the Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competition in late September expresses itself in a traditional vernacular with a contemporary sensibility. “We wanted to create something that was marketable to New England, particularly for the needs of small families,” said project manager Spencer Culhane.  “We [...]

Sometimes the best offense is a strong defense. In the case of the city of Dura-Europos, defending itself against a siege by the Sasanian Empire in 256 A.D., a tactical act – though a failure in the short term – has led to its immortality. Preparing for an onslaught of warriors from the ancient near-Eastern [...]

Ever had a hankering to see your work follow in the footsteps of Stanley Tigerman, Aldo Rossi, Architectonica, Bernard Tschumi, Mitchell Mauk and Michael P. Johnson? Now’s the time, and here’s the opportunity: Confindustria Ceramica, the Association of Italian Ceramics, has joined forces with Architizer, the online design community, in a challenge to find the [...]

If you’re going to publish a book on New England iconography, why not reach for the stars and get Norm Abram of “New Yankee Workshop” to write the foreword? That’s author Bruce Irving’s logic for his new book, anyway. It’s likely a strong strategy for the award-winning producer of “This Old House,” too.  Between the [...]

First, imagine you’ve got one of the more uninviting back yards in all of suburban D.C. A place where plants don’t want to grow well.  A place that needed some definition, and an identity.  A place to relax with friends, which might be turned into a stage for concert space. Further, suppose you decided that [...]

Here we have the unlikely story of success and failure, based upon the tenets of Feng Shui. “My wife is a genius with color and my mother is a Feng Shui master,” said Los Angeles-based builder Clint Arthur.  “So I was aware that all parts of the Feng Shui baqua have a color associated with [...]

Are the new X1600 workpants from Swedish manufacturer Blaklader a stunning work of art? Hardly. But are they an evolutionary work of functionality that finds its art in utilitarian genius? Absolutely. Most of that genius is the result of 50 years of focus groups and customer suggestions, carefully incorporated into Blaklader’s corporate culture and marketing [...]