Journal
Professor Jenchieh Hung on the Spatial Intelligence of the Asian City
The street vendors, awnings and improvised structures of Bangkok are not a look to be borrowed, says Professor Jenchieh Hung, co-founder and principal architect of HAS design and research. They are a way of organizing space. In his own words, here is what that produces when it becomes a building, a drawing set and a conversation with a client.
9 Sept · 15 min read
When a Cafe Becomes a Manifesto
1 Sept · 5 min readJ.J.P. Oud's 1925 Cafe de Unie in Rotterdam turned a modest storefront into a public declaration of De Stijl principles, proving that architectural ideology could fit on a street corner as powerfully as in a villa.
Six Months Earlier: Isabelle Miaja on the Decisions That Shape a Hotel Before Anyone Draws a Room
28 Aug · 11 min readAfter three decades designing hotels across Asia, the founder of MIAJA Design Group, Isabelle Miaja, argues that a project's most consequential decisions are usually made before an interior designer is appointed. What follows is a case for sequencing, for identity over theming, and for the parts of a hotel that no photograph can carry.
The Architect as Alchemist: Why Some Studios Are Inventing Their Own Building Materials
26 Aug · 6 min readFrom hemp-filled panels to excavated-earth blocks, a growing cohort of practices is redefining the boundary between design and production
How South African Architects Are Dismantling Apartheid's Spatial Legacy
25 Aug · 8 min readA new publication maps the quiet work of practitioners rebuilding cities through collaboration, democratic engagement, and design for the public good.
How Ukrainian Naïve Art Shaped Modernism Beyond the Soviet Shadow
25 Aug · 5 min readA new volume from Assouline and Gunia Project repositions Ukraine's folk tradition as a wellspring of twentieth-century innovation, not a footnote to empire.
The Fleeting Lives of Japan's Postwar Masterworks
25 Aug · 5 min readA new monograph captures ninety modernist buildings demolished in the 21st century, revealing a culture that prizes renewal over preservation.
When Concrete Became a Language of Sovereignty
22 Aug · 6 min readThe Maison du Peuple in Ouagadougou reveals how postcolonial Africa reimagined Brutalism as an architectural declaration of independence.
The Case Against Chemical Construction
21 Aug · 6 min readA growing cohort of architects is stripping synthetic materials from buildings in favor of stone, timber, and finishes that age rather than deteriorate.
The Four Elements of Architectural Photography in Los Angeles
21 Aug · 6 min readHow light, terrain, spatial sequence, and human movement define a city's image through the lens
When the City Becomes the Kitchen
21 Aug · 6 min readAcross Asia, eating has migrated from private homes into collective infrastructures that blur the line between sustenance and civic ritual.
The Architecture of Persuasion: When Buildings Outlive the Regimes That Built Them
21 Aug · 5 min readFrom museums to nightclubs to public parks, the structures commissioned to project national identity often survive long enough to serve entirely different political purposes.
Water as System: Why Urban Design Still Misunderstands Hydrology
18 Aug · 5 min readCities treat water as a component of climate adaptation, not the framework that organizes it - a misreading with consequences for every green roof and bioswale we install.
The Enduring Logic of Mingei: How Folk Craft Thinking Survives Machine Culture
16 Aug · 7 min readA century after its coining, the Japanese philosophy of everyday beauty continues to reshape how designers approach utility, anonymity, and the uncontrollable warmth of the handmade.
When Buildings Speak in Colour: A Study of Chromatic Confidence
15 Aug · 7 min readA new volume by Adam Nathaniel Furman and Kate Mazade makes the case for architecture's most elemental yet underutilised tool.
Cork as Spatial Poetry: Rethinking Texture in Contemporary Interiors
15 Aug · 6 min readFrom tree bark to architectural element, cork is redefining how materiality shapes our connection to nature within urban spaces
When Construction Errors Become Architecture
14 Aug · 5 min readSix Chinese interiors where material resistance, labor traces, and deliberate roughness challenge the digital image of seamless design
The Quiet Recalibration of Hungarian Architecture
14 Aug · 7 min readAfter decades of state-led construction, Hungary's design culture is finding its footing in reuse, rural commissions, and the material remnants of a different era.
The Pedestrian as Subject: Rethinking Urban Mobility in Montevideo
13 Aug · 6 min readHow shifting focus from vehicles to human-scale movement reveals the democratic potential of walkable cities
