The Frontier Interview—Brock James on designing libraries
The Toronto architect discusses the imperative of flexibility, fostering community, and responding thoughtfully to existing contexts
The Built Environment
Stories about buildings, cities, and the landscape
Trojan Horses
Will the Olympics die out before host cities learn how to harness them to achieve good things?
Let It Grow
An argument for preserving the intimacy, resilience, and dynamism created in postwar Tokyo—and exporting it across the world
The Frontier Interview—Dan Leers on “Widening the Lens”
On the definition of photography, sensing rather than seeing landscapes, and museums as drivers of sustainability and community
Enough Is Enough
On sufficiency and upfront carbon, through Lloyd Alter’s new book
The Built Environment
Eastern Promises
In Egypt, President Sisi speed-runs nearly two centuries of urban-planning ideas in service of his political agenda
The Frontier Interview—Common Accounts, “The Death Report”
Igor Bragado and Miles Gertler rethink architecture’s relationship to the inevitable
The Frontier Dozen—May 16, 2024
Annotated links to twelve stories, buildings, videos, or projects that deserve your attention
Names On the Land
On the “narrative struggle” that monuments and markers represent
The Frontier Interview—Virginia Hanusik
The New Orleans artist on extractive economies, resilience, and the emotional power of art
Postcards from the Edge
Organizer and writer Matt Hern reports from the new suburbs
The Built Environment
The Frontier Interview: Terremoto
On creative autonomy, acknowledging labor and laborers, and building relationships that will last decades.