Yale Art Gallery

Rarely does the first major work of an iconic architect face his last major work, in the same building type, open to the public, free of charge, and in excellent condition. Louis I Kahn's seminal, recently restored addition to the Yale University Art Gallery is just across Chapel Street from his Yale Center for British Art. Jayne Merkel describes the interiors of these mid-20th-century modern masterpieces and the recent Herculean efforts to return them to Kahn's intentions while making them suitable for the preservation, study and exhibition of art according to 21st-century standards. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fabricating Elegance: Digital Architecture's Coming of Age

For Joseph Rosa, John H Bryan Curator of Architecture at the Institute of Chicago, elegance with its ‘refined aesthetic ability’ represents a concurrent maturing of design culture and technologies. It builds on the pioneering fabrication techniques of the late 1990s, spearheaded in seminal projects such as the Korean Presbyterian Church in New York by Greg Lynn, Douglas Garofalo and Michael McInturf, and the Yokohama Port Terminal by Foreign Office Architects. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Enthusiastic Sceptic

Nat Oppenheimer , principal of structural engineers Robert Silman Associates, is a dissenting voice among the advocates of building information modelling (BIM) - an enthusiastic sceptic. Could the quest for integration be leading towards oversimplification rather than customisation and differentiation? Even towards the sort of standardisation adopted with LEED ratings in the quest for sustainability? Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Lebbeus – A Postmodernist? Early Scenes of Shopping and Dwelling

Vivid colours, commedia dell’arte, collage and hypergraphics, and villae jutting out of the cliffsides designed for the unknown dwellers – are these projects postmodern? American art, architecture and design critic Aaron Betsky investigates this question and its context, focusing on the V.I.P. Center Shopping Mall, an unbuilt scheme that was to win Lebbeus Woods his first professional acknowledgement under the auspices of the Progressive Architecture Award.     

The Global Architectural Influences on London

London today has become ‘a laboratory and testing ground’ for neoliberal capitalism, attracting investment from the Middle East, Russia, India, the Far East and Australasia as well as the US. Murray Fraser describes the urban impact of economic globalisation in the capital, while exploring ways that it might potentially be countered. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Heinz Isler's Infinite Spectrum: Form-Finding in Design

Heinz Isler (1926-2009), the Swiss designer renowned for his shell structures, was extraordinary for his innovative and exacting work. He directly produced physical models by hand in order to not only create design prototypes, but also to generate scaled-up measurements for construction. John Chilton describes how Isler successfully applied the principle of the inverted catenary arch, which was first pioneered by Robert Hooke in Sir Christopher Wren's St Paul's Cathedral in the 17th century, to thin membrane structures in three dimensions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘Complexity and Contradiction’:The Italian Architectural Landscape

Italy is renowned the world over for its vibrant design culture. Yet for decades its architectural heritage has held contemporary architecture in a stranglehold, stifling the real possibility of realising innovative schemes in historic cities. In recent years, there has been every outward sign that this situation has abated: a growing number of municipalities are actively setting out to attract signature architecture, and a new generation of architects has emerged - largely educated abroad - who are unhindered by the strictures of historicism. Though, as guest-editor Luigi Prestinenza Puglisi explains, there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful, the situation is far more complex and contradictory than it first appears, as the passage of architectural advancement in Italy constantly stop-starts and is beset by some major roadblocks. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.