Blair Kamin has an interesting job. He is an architecture critic. That means that he knows a lot about architecture and then he applies what he knows to give opinions about the built environment which he writes up in books and newspapers, magazines and on the web. So he is NOT an architect, but rather […]
Building a geodesic dome is not simple. Ask Bucky Fuller. There is math involved and measurements, there is assembly of the parts and construction. But once you figure it out, it is really a series of circles that intersect to make triangles that fit together snugly to make an efficient and useful space. The geodesic […]
When we think of ice houses and structures, we usually conjure up images of igloos, the half domes with an entrance that we see in cartoons and perhaps a photo of a real one from some old social studies book. In China, there are ice structures at a different level – 600,000 square meters of […]
Want to visit Chicago and learn about skyscrapers? If you are a teacher, come on down to Chicago for a week long workshop offered through the Chicago Architecture Foundation. From July 6-12, 2014 or July 20-26, 2014 you will explore how to incorporate architecture into your classroom teaching. And we at archKIDecture can tell you […]
Sometimes an artist, designer or architect tries to rethink a common question. In this case it is “What is a door?” Austrian artist Klemens Torggler came up with this sort of origami door that splits in half and folds up. Instead of sliding on a track or a pivot on the corner, the panels fold […]
Christy Hale wrote a book about architecture for kids that we admire greatly – titled [amazon_link id=”1600606512″ target=”_blank” ]Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building, here[/amazon_link] – with illustrations showing kids actively playing with different materials to build structures. On the opposite page of those illustrations there are fine illustrations showing real buildings in the world […]
This book [amazon_link id=”0847839443″ target=”_blank” ] An Eames Primer: Revised Edition[/amazon_link] was written about designers Ray and Charles Eames by their grandson, Eames Demetrios. It is an excellent introduction to the work of this dynamic duo. Charles and Ray designed all sorts of great things: films, toys, museums and a whole lot of chairs, some […]
At the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, a building sits underneath a giant tube, through which the Chicago “L” train travels. We are not talking Youtube, but an actual structure in the shape of a tube, atop a building, with a speeding train going through it. (Although there is this good Youtube video about […]
People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, or so we hear. And it makes sense. But maybe more importantly, they should not walk around naked. That is, unless your glass house is built in a forest, where other people are not around. Then you can feel like you live purely in nature with the greenery, […]
Artist Dominique Pétrin likes to install insanely colored and patterned silkscreens boldly on to architectural spaces. She explained that her main influences are “the Muppet Show, Liberace, Catholic churches where I grew up and Dario Argento’s movies.” These influences have turned her into a kind of sorcerer of color and shapes, dropping patterns that are […]