Construction
Why a Door Opens into a Room: The Swing of a Hinge
Door swing shapes usable room space: learn how hinge position, opening direction and nearby furniture affect everyday…
The reading room
All pieces
Explore articles on architectural form, material choices, construction details, the shape of streets and the histories behind designed places.
Materials
Brick or Stone: How Facade Materials Set a Wall’s Visual Rhythm
Compare brick or stone facades by unit size, joints and surface variation to understand why one wall reads as lively…
Building History
The Rise of the Picture Window
The picture window turned a broad view into part of a room’s design. See how its changing role reshaped domestic…
Urban Form
The Myth of the Perfectly Straight Street
Understand why streets bend: read the clues left by terrain, older routes and later changes, and choose a fair way to…
Architecture
A Facade Walk for a Rainy Afternoon
A facade walk in light rain helps you read a building’s composition, openings, edges and repeated details without…
Our point of view
A building is more than its facade
The built world becomes easier to understand when we attend to its parts: what they do, how they fit together and what their forms reveal.