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The Grand Hotel: The Bourgeois Dream of an Aristocratic Castle
Journalist Klaus Leuschel provides a crash course in, and a guided tour of, grand hotels, and how even design excellence in the five-star tradition is of no avail when the quality of hospitality does not match it.
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Selling Spaces: new directions in retail design
In spite of the rise of e-commerce, the physical point of sale is still with us. That said, the traditional store is having to up its game in terms of the experience and brand relevance it offers consumers – not only to compete with online shopping but also to support it. Architonic goes all secret shopper to investigate.
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Prefabricated Architecture
When architects such as Jean Prouvé and Charles Eames began experimenting with buildings made using off-the-shelf components following the second World War, little did they know that technology would one day allow buildings to be created from kits cut by a computer anywhere in the world. Architonic looks at some of the more radical examples of contemporary prefabricated architecture, and the materials and technologies making these possible.
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Mind the Gap: architects fitting extraordinary buildings into small spaces
Every city evolves differently, according to fluctuations in population and wealth, changes in industry and other social and economic factors. As old buildings are replaced, or new ones constructed, spaces between these buildings appear or alter; spaces that are either promptly integrated into the fabric of their environment or are left dormant and unused. Architonic examines how contemporary architects are capitalising on the benefits of these forgotten alleys, gaps and passages and transforming them into practical and desirable urban property.
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Knowledge Bases - Library architecture from antiquity to the digital age
The development of writing in ancient Egypt also gave rise to the first libraries as places of storage for these witnesses to a new, revolutionary cultural technology. Using the following examples as a basis Architonic here highlights the range and diversity of libraries which are currently in existence, showing how buildings of this kind bring together the very latest technology and history...
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Taking the Waters: born-again spa and wellness architecture
The spring of architectural creativity is in full flow, with a number of offices working internationally adding value to the age-old practice of therapeutic bathing. Here's our selection of the best of the latest spa and wellness architecture. Go ahead. The water's warm.
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Pop-up stars: temporary contemporary architecture
From huge temporary stadia to tiny transitory event spaces, pop-up architecture fulfils many roles and comes in many guises. In some cases the very latest technologies are used to engineer complex structures, while in others a readymade approach using scavenged materials is more appropriate. Architonic examines some key pop-up projects that are designed to make the most of their short lifespans.
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Olympic Landscapes
Among and around the buildings that will house hockey players and hurdlers, cyclists and swimmers throughout the duration of this summer’s Olympic Games in London are public spaces that strive to meet the exacting Olympic standards of excellence and performance, but which have a much more longterm goal. Architonic speaks to Vogt Landscape Limited, the architects behind a public realm project that has been a challenge of speed and endurance, but that they hope is fit for both Olympians and for generations of future inhabitants.
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Underground Structures
At the end of the 19th century, HG Wells imagined a future in which industry had been completely located underground, whilst above ground all was green and leafy.
Instead, something very different has happened to the building of structures beneath our cities...
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High Performance Spaces: concert halls and opera houses that hit the right note
If music be the food of love, then where better to dine out than a world-class concert hall or opera house? Here, Architonic examines a number of recently completed architectural projects that perform as hard as the artists who take to their stages. Play on.
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ARCHITEKTUR 0.12: the first exhibition on popular Swiss architecture wins big audience
‘Are Swiss architects unable to create interesting buildings?’, asked Felix E Müller, editor-in-chief of Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag, in a recent article. ‘Unfortunately, all new buildings look the same.’ With this provocative statement, Müller laid the foundations for the first exhibition on popular Swiss architecture, ARCHITEKTUR 0.12, which took place this October in Zurich’s Maag Event Hall.
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Zbyněk Hřivnáč - One of Them
From a global view of history of design, the Czech design scene still remains at the edge of historical periods and styles. Despite that fact, some great Czech designers have found themselves in an international context in the past.
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Park life: the evolving approach to designing urban public space
It could be argued that the pinnacle of urban landscape architecture was reached in seventeenth century France and the French formal gardens or in Britain's philantrophic Victorian public parks in the ninenteenth century. Contemporary urban architects and designers are rarely afforded the same amount of space, money and time as their antecedents. Here, Architonic looks at some recent successes that add value to their surroundings by pushing the boundaries of park design.
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Architecture between heaven and earth: extraordinary Control Tower Design
Even if it has become an everyday experience to take a flight in an aeroplane people continue to be fascinated by the act of overcoming gravity. The attraction of aircraft, airports and their infrastructure is accordingly great..
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Hole Lot of Sense: smart uses for perforated façades and partitions
Perforated walls, panels and screens have been used for centuries as a way to control the level of light entering a building or to offer privacy to the occupants. The functions of perforations have remained largely the same, but the materials and methods of manufacture have altered considerably. No longer cut or carved by hand, developments in computer-controlled technologies mean that detailed patterns can now be quickly and easily etched into various materials for interior or exterior use. Architonic looks at some recent projects demonstrating the contemporary effects that can be achieved using perforated materials.
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