Cover story
The white block on Kessler Street is finally coming back to life
A 1968 office tower, empty for eleven years, is being turned into 140 homes without knocking a single wall down. We followed the retrofit for a year.
Journal214
Essays, interviews and reports on how places are built, and how they could be built better. Published since 2019.
Architecture9 min read
Why the new Bergen library feels warm in February
Low sun, pale timber and one very long staircase. We spent a week inside to find out how it works.
Cities7 min read
The quiet case for narrower streets
Three cities took a lane away from cars. Traffic did not collapse. Here is what the data showed after two years.
Climate11 min read
A solar roof on every school by 2030, costed line by line
The numbers behind one council plan, and the procurement trick that made it affordable.
Interviews15 min read
Mireille Tanaka plants gardens that will outlive her
The landscape architect on patience, clay soil and designing for trees that take forty years to arrive.
Objects5 min read
The stacking chair that outlived three offices
A plywood chair from 1974 is still in production. Its designer explains why nothing on it has changed.
Architecture8 min read
Building with what is already on site
Reclaimed brick, crushed concrete and the new rulebook for demolition waste.
Cities10 min read
After dark: designing streets for the night shift
Lighting, buses and benches for the people who keep a city running at 3 in the morning.
Climate12 min read
Who owns the wind? Community energy in the Welsh hills
Villages that built their own turbines now fund their buses with the profit.
Architecture6 min read
A facade that shades itself
How a folded skin cut cooling loads by a third in a hot, dense block.
Objects4 min read
A lamp made from a factory mould nobody wanted
Small-batch lighting from a foundry that almost closed in 2019.
Cities9 min read
The fifteen-minute city, measured honestly
We walked every route in one district with a stopwatch and a notebook.
Interviews13 min read
Studio Halden on growing without getting bigger
Four partners, eleven staff and a rule against projects over six storeys.
Climate7 min read
Urban forests are not just parks with more trees
Foresters and planners on the difference, and why it matters for heat.
Architecture8 min read
Small homes, generous rooms
Five floor plans under 60 square metres that never feel cramped.
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