Articles by Violet Law

Perhaps it is fitting that two teams from the Asia-Pacific reigned in the first Solar Decathlon ever held in Asia.

In late September, the University of Chicago broke ground on a $42 million addition to its Regenstein Library. Designed by Chicago’s Murphy/Jahn, it is not a wing, per se, but rather a bunker of books topped by a glass dome. Images courtesy Murphy/Jahn Murphy/Jahn have designed a new wing for the University of Chicago’s Regenstein Library, a Walter Netsch–designed Brutalist work that anchors the predominantly Gothic campus. In 2005, the university commissioned Murphy/Jahn to design an addition to the Regenstein, a Walter Netsch–designed Brutalist work that anchors this predominantly Gothic campus. Although Netsch had created expansion plans for the five-story

2007 Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. Curated by Qingyun Ma (Shenzhen, through March 9) and Weijen Wang (Hong Kong, through March 15). Can we envision a city with buildings that don’t last forever? Should buildings have expiration dates? Can we trust our judgment about the future? These are the issues being debated at the 2007 Shenzhen-Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. The biennale features more than 130 exhibits. At least 200 architects, urban planners, and artists have converged to brainstorm about some of the most pressing issues facing the future of the city. The theme,

Correction appended February 14, 2008 Hong Kong is a jungle of high-rise buildings, so it may come as a surprise that architects and preservationists there are objecting to plans for a tall tower designed by Herzog & de Meuron. The Swiss firm was hired by a local nonprofit to transform the city’s old Central Police Station compound into an arts and culture complex—but after a backlash against the scheme the Hong Kong chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) stepped in and is holding a charrette next week to identify other viable designs. Images courtesy Herzog & de Meuron

Can an iconic new building by a world-renowned architect boost the global profile of an already well-regarded higher education institution? Officials at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University hope so. Last week they unveiled the competition-winning design by London-based Zaha Hadid for an interdisciplinary hub that will be home to its school of design, which BusinessWeek ranked among the top 60 worldwide in 2006. She beat out SANAA, of Japan, and Sauerbruch Hutton Architects, of Germany, to win the commission. Images: Courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects The shape of Hadid’s new tower for the Hong Kong Polytechnic University is reminiscent of a

At a time when quite a few mid-century Modernist structures are threatened with demolition, a new retrospective exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., aims to remind people of the contribution that Modernist architects made through their bold experimentation with forms and materials. Photo: Courtesy Constance L. Breuer (top); Minneapolis Star and Tribune Co., Courtesy Marcel Breuer Papers, Archives of American Art, Washington D.C. (above). Marcel Breuer in the Wassily chair, circa 1926 (top). Breuer standing in front of the Saint John’s Abbey and university complex, Collegeville, Minnesota, during its construction circa 1961 (above). Related Links: Grosse Pointe

Most green roofs are located out of sight and beyond reach, but the future tenants of a residential and retail project now under construction in Philadelphia will get to enjoy a green roof designed to serve as both a garden and a storm-water treatment system. Photo: Courtesy Erdy McHenry Architecture A green roof will cap the Radian's street-level shops. The roof will be located atop the ground-floor retail podium of the Radian, a 154-unit privately owned student housing-complex on the University of Pennsylvania's Philadelphia campus. Ringed by dense plantings of black-eyed Susans and other flowering species, the space is located

Held on the mall in Washington, D.C., the event drew more than 120,000 visitors during its two-week run.

Summer camp is usually for kids, but imagine trading your drafting pencil and computer mouse for a hammer and chisel—or laying the bricks that form a building you design. Some 40 early-career architects did just that at a weeklong masonry camp, which ends today, hosted by the International Masonry Institute (IMI) in Bowie, Maryland. Photo: by Hazel Bradford, Courtesy the International Masonry Institute Some 40 early-career architects spent the week learning six different masonry techniques from journeymen at a camp sponsored by the International Masonry Institute in Bowie, Maryland. For their final project, which is being critiqued today, the architects