Art
How a Leg Splint Shaped the Iconic Eames Chair
Before Charles and Ray Eames made their name with modernist chairs, they perfected the molding of plywood with a military leg splint for World War II.
Design
Art
Be a Better Robert Moses in Games that Deconstruct His Legacy
A competition challenged developers to reinterpret a biography of the "master builder" as interactive experiences.
Interview
Meet the Artist Running for State Rep in Rural Pennsylvania
I always remember Kate McGraw’s artworks as a colorful sprawl of integrated textures — equal parts playful, abstract, and socially aware.
Art
A Burial Suit of Mushrooms that Consume Your Remains
Despite embalming and sealed caskets being a relatively new tradition in American burial, brought about by the high mortality of the Civil War, we've quickly become uncomfortable with our mortal decay.
In Brief
Converting Air Pollution into Inks and Pigments for Artists
To combat growing levels of air pollution worldwide, a technology and design team is converting airborne pollutants into consumer safe inks and paints.
Interview
Retracing a Lifetime of Urban Activism Through Jane Jacob's Last Interview
"The kind of planning for a city that would really work would be a sort of informed, intelligent improvisation, which is what most of our planning in life is in any case," said Jane Jacobs in a 1962 interview with Mademoiselle, conducted just after the 1961 publication of her influential The Death a
Books
How the Bulldozer Smoothed Postwar America into a Blank Slate
Demolition and construction following World War II radically altered the landscape of the United States, and one machine in particular allowed for such a dramatic overhaul.
Art
Designing Less Dangerous Architecture for New York's Birds
The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on the west side of Manhattan was once among New York City's top three bird-killing buildings.
Books
The Art Deco Lighter, from Smoking's Era of Toxic Glamor
The Art Deco style of the 1920s and '30s pervaded design, from the Chrysler Building in Manhattan to the Grand Rex in Paris, but it wasn't always on such a large scale.
Art
Building with Bricks Made from Industrial Waste
In August, a pair of architects will move into their new home in Rotterdam. Its rising walls are built of tan-colored bricks that, to the eye, seem like your typical building materials, but they are actually made entirely out of waste.
Art
A Rainbow of Visual Responses to the Orlando Shooting
As I watched the unbelievable events in Orlando transpire on television news networks and social media, I was so numb that all the information jumbled together.
Art
A Future Where the Decomposing Dead Could Power Cemetery Lights
The dead are often visually absent from our cemeteries, buried below the ground with tombstones representing the invisible remains.