A white box covered in Teflon-coated fiberglass fabric in the Netherlands. A Cor-Ten-clad volume cantilevering over a glass shop in Pittsburgh. A house in Tokyo composed solely of glass and small platforms of white steel. A raised concrete box in West... more »

Leonardo da Vinci once said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Simplicity in design calms us and somehow inspires us, not only in architecture but also in other forms of design. Apple, for example, has refined its products over the years... more »

What is the difference between modern and contemporary architecture? Why the distinction? At their most literal, "contemporary" is the architecture being produced now, the architecture of the moment. "Modern" architecture breaks with the past — specifically... more »

A while ago I took a crack at defining the differences between modern and contemporary architecture by looking at the exteriors of 10 homes. In my view modern architecture is rooted in the early- and... more »

On some days it seems that modern architecture has 10 times as many detractors as proponents, even though the movement has influenced a great deal of residential architecture — from open floor plans to means of construction. Some of the dislike for... more »

I was 22 years old, full of myself and sitting at a conference desk across from Charles Foreman Johnson, who had recently been named as one of the 100 best design professionals in the world by Architectural Digest. Between us, sitting proudly on... more »

Maine designer Riley Pratt estimates that the average energy bill for his home is less than $20 per month. And that’s including the $10 a month he pays just to have service. To put that into perspective, the average homeowner in Maine spent... more »

Water in the garden is magical; even more so when it's adjacent to the house, requiring us to cross it to reach the front door. Maybe the magic comes from childhood stories of castles and moats, but moats certainly don't exist only in castles. Traditionally... more »

The story of the Dialogue House in Phoenix spans a decade and a half. Architect Wendell Burnette designed the house in the late 1990s, earning a prestigious Progressive Architecture Award in 1999. It... more »

Walk down any suburban street, and you can probably guess the general layout of most of the houses. We are familiar with conventional houses and subconsciously absorb the clues their facades reveal — a tall, vertical window possibly reveals the stairs;... more »

One of my predictions for 2013 was "breaking up the house," by which smaller detached volumes are able to respond to unique site conditions, such as existing trees, slopes and water's edges. Smaller... more »

A week after seeing one of Imbue Design's projects in Salt Lake City, the head of a local nonprofit that develops low-income housing hired the company — composed of Christopher Talvy, Hunter... more »

While helping their friends move to Ellensburg, Washington, Scott and Emily Faulkner fell in love with a midcentury home there. Designed by architect James Cowan in 1957, the house nodded to Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian style, with its L-shaped plan,... more »

I've noticed a lot of houses with dark exteriors lately. Some have been made with the shou-sugi-ban technique, which creates a protective... more »