Latest, 6 min read
Why we still draw by hand
Every project in the studio begins with a pencil. Not out of nostalgia: a hand drawing forces a decision that software lets you put off.
Astrid Halden, Founding Partner
Journal
Notes from the drawing table.
Essays from our studio in Istanbul on drawing, materials, light and what makes a building last.
Earlier notes.
5 notes · 29 min of reading
, 8 min read
Designing for the hundredth winter
Most buildings are designed for their opening day. We design for the hundredth winter: the rain, the salt, the frost and the hands that will touch every surface.
Karim Voss, Founding Partner
, 5 min read
The architecture of shade
In the Gulf, shade is the first luxury. Notes from designing Qasr Al Nour, a building that is mostly about what it keeps out.
Lina Haddad, Partner
, 7 min read
A quarry, returned
How a century-old limestone quarry on the Jurassic Coast became a public garden, built only from what the quarry left behind.
Noor Al-Sayed, Head of Landscape
, 4 min read
White is not a colour. It is a surface.
Lime wash, plaster, marble, paint. Why the white of Casa Alba took eleven samples and one very patient plasterer.
Mikkel Brandt, Director of Technical Design
, 5 min read
The model on the table
Before any render, there is a white card model on the studio table. It is still the best way we know to see a building whole.
Jonas Ek, Head of Sustainability
“Good shade is not darkness. It is light that has been asked to wait at the door.”