Month: March 2013

Italian Architect Plays with Degrees of Minimali

Many architects deem themselves modernists or traditionalists; some are interested in concrete and glass, others wood and brick; some treat architecture as sculpture while others work within pre-existing structures. These dualities often remain as such, but Andrea Oliva has found ways to combine them. Italian architect Oliva founded his design practice, Studio Cittaarchitettura, in 2000. …

Hironaka Ogawa’s Interior Trees

Japanese architect Hironaka Ogawa designs buildings that embrace nature in unique ways. In an interview with Architectural Record, Ogawa said that his childhood home, built by his grandfather nearly a century ago, was a union of structure and surroundings. He has since striven to design buildings that have similar links between man-made and natural environments.For …

Santiago Calatrava: Drawing Across the Sky

Santiago Calatrava has built more than thirty bridges, and has designed transportation hubs in major cities around the world—including one at New York’s former World Trade Center site, shrouded in controversy and still unfinished—and public projects include an Olympic sports complex in Athens and an extension for the Milwaukee Art Museum. Many of his designs, …

Severely White: Fran Silvestre’s Minimalist Houses and Wind Tower

Based in Valencia, Spain, Fran Silvestre Arquitectos works on a range of projects, including public buildings, houses, and interior renovations. Starkly minimalist, his projects, often with sharp, though not overbearing or unpleasant, angles, are covered in smooth, white materials inside and outside. The Spanish designer’s minimalist approach to houses at first may sound out of …

Pete Bossley’s Architecture for Good

New Zealand–based Bossley Architects, led by founder Pete Bossley, offers a range of architectural and interior design services. The award-winning firm is best known for its work in galleries, museum, residential, and retail spaces, but Bossley’s public projects showcase his practical approach to making architecture for the greater good of society. Bossley believes, at least …

Austrian Brothers Create Winning Designs

Sibling rivalry is not an option for Austrian architects Karim and Rames Najjar. The brothers founded their architectural firm in Vienna in 1999, and have completed “a range of designs from naval architecture to commercial buildings, to villas and their beloved ‘research’ projects,” according to the firm’s profile. Their style can be as varied as …