by Craig Webb as told to Jade Chang – July 20, 2007 via MetropolisMag.Com

Craig Webb, a partner and project designer at Gehry Partners, discusses several of the challenges and the innovative solutions involved in the creation of New York’s Inter­ActiveCorp headquarters. The full story from our June issue can be found here.
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On most of our buildings we start with a very cut and dry program analysis of the pieces and do relationship diagrams based on those. Most of our buildings are more complex in program; this is an office building—nine floors of typical office space that need to get subdivided and laid out. Because of that, the process was truncated a bit.

continue reading "Anatomy of a Building"

by David Sokol – November 26, 2007 via MetropolisMag.Com

Responsible vehicular design is taken to task at the Art Center College of Design.

In March 2005, Stewart Reed had a homecoming to southern California. The 1969 transportation-design graduate of Art Center College of Design returned to Pasadena to take on the chairmanship of the department. Although Reed had collaborated with his alma mater in the interim—he taught a class while heading Toyota’s advanced design studio in nearby Newport Beach, and served as an advisory board member—Reed’s work as a full-time educator is only just starting.

continue reading "Safe at Any Speed"

by Martin C. Pedersen – November 7, 2007 via MetropolisMag.Com

One of the challenges in covering sustainable design is its inherent complexity. To get beyond the superficial forces mere journalists like us wade into the deep and uncharted waters of product engineering and (god forbid) chemistry. So, where do you begin? How do you organize such a vast and sprawling subject matter? Fortunately, when we set out to do a green products issue, we found a great industrial design road map: the Okala Course Guide—created by Philip White, Louise St. Pierre and Steve Belletire—done in conjunction with the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA). White spent a number of years at Philips Design in the Netherlands and now teaches industrial design at Arizona State University. While working on the October 2007 issue, we spoke to White about the evolution of the course guide, the eco-education of designers, and the brutal economic realities of the marketplace:

continue reading "Greening the Curriculum"

by Elizabeth A. Evitts – October 23, 2007 via MetropolisMag.Com

For the first time in the history of the Solar Decathlon competition, a European team has taken top honors. German students from Technische Universitat Darmstadt beat out 19 other collegiate teams in the Department of Energy’s third Solar Decathlon held on the National Mall in Washington D.C. from October 12 – 20. The competition invited colleges and universities from around the country and around the world to build and operate prototype zero-carbon homes using the latest in solar and sustainable technology. Stretching four blocks and flanking both sides of the Mall, each home in the Solar Village had to power itself using only the sun over the two-week trial, and also had to generate enough energy to fuel an electric car. Over the course of the competition, judges assessed the homes in ten categories ranging from architecture and engineering to energy balance and comfort.

continue reading "Students Let the Sun Shine In"

by Alysha Brown – September 27, 2007 via MetropolisMag.Com

Alain de Botton has written about everything from Proust (How Proust Can Change Your Life, 1997) to love (Essays in Love,1993) to travel (The Art of Travel, 2002). In his most recent book, The Architecture of Happiness, the writer, who also moonlights as a philosopher, producer, and the Director of the Graduate Philosophy Program at London University, tackles the complex world of architecture. He recently chatted with metropolismag.com about happiness, the perfect city, and what a philosopher has to offer the world of architecture.
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continue reading "The Philosophy of Building"