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America’s rapidly changing labor market means it’s harder to find economic security at a young age.

The American engineer known as the father of the Boeing 747 has died at the age of 95. (more…)

Glenn Close is returning to Broadway for the first time in 20 years this fall in Edward Albee’s “A Delicate Balance.”

The mother of a boy accused of fatally stabbing a classmate may have sought to transfer him to another school to get away from students she said had been bullying him, according to a new report.

Last week Facebook revealed that it had manipulated the news feeds of over half a million randomly selected users to change the number of positive and negative posts they saw.

Architects: Superkül inc
Location: Dundas, Hamilton, ON, Canada
Architects In Charge: Andre D’Elia, Meg Graham
Area: 1000.0 ft2
Year: 2012
Photographs: Shai Gil

From the architect. Built on 16 acres of land in the Niagara Escarpment – a working countryside and UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve – this house extension makes a strong connection to its natural environment and a century farmhouse on the site.

Designed as additional living space for a family of four, the 1,000 sq.ft. long single-storey addition is connected to the existing farmhouse by a glass link. The offset creates an intimate courtyard between it and the farmhouse, with views through the house to the Escarpment beyond.

The extension is clad in COR-TEN steel panels and IPE wood siding, while the windows are white oak on the interior and sapele mahogany on the exterior. Sustainable design components include a reflective roof membrane, radiant concrete floors, geothermal ground source heat pump, heat mirror high R-value sealed window units, motorized operable skylights for passive cooling, south overhang canopy over south facing windows for solar shading in summer, increased wall and roof insulation, and low VOC finishes. A modest refurbishment of the existing farmhouse ties it materially into the extension.

Architects: estúdio AMATAM
Location: Linda-a-Velha, Portugal
Area: 410 sqm
Year: 2013
Photographs: Courtesy of estúdio AMATAM

Collaborators: João Amaral, Manuela Tamborino
Floor Covering : Gerflor
Walls: Mrperswall, Stick My Dream, Rubicer, Primus Vitoria, Gerflor
Lighting: Climar
Furniture: IKEA

From the architect. “In reality we work with few colors. Which gives the illusion of their number is being put in its rightful place.” (Pablo Picasso)

Designing this space for children led us to a journey through time and space in search of that restlessness that exists in the background of all beings , the imagery that makes us dream and we always seek whenever we need our most childish and creative essence .

This new place, existing but now refurbished, is an opportunity to create a retreat for young people, where they could set free all their creativity. In order to achieve this, it will be essential to use color to stimulate the spatial and visual perception, so the color psychology has become one of the fundamental assumptions we have dealt with in this intervention.

The existing space is an area inside the Kalorias Health Club complex in Lisbon, and was defined by two large rooms and a large hall, whose initial function was associated with corporate events. The need to create a multipurpose room was defined in the program – large and versatile, allowing different uses; a reading room – dedicated to academic support, watching films, reading books and educational use of computer equipment; a visual arts room – whose main function would be the crafts and visual expression; and finally a more playful room, dedicated to fun and physical games.

Based on these programmatic needs, the spaces were adapted retaining the most of the existing structures, however a logic of adding new elements was adopted – shall it be new forms, colors, textures, graphics – that in the end could reflect a symbolism that would allow who enter into this space to be transported to a dreamlike reality.

This challenge that we put on ourselves led us to wander around and get away from the usual architectural thinking guidelines, forcing us to dematerialize some notions of spatial equilibrium, so we could get to such a detachment from the established reality notions, that in the end would allow us to create a space above all playful and distinct for children.

Each new designed room has unique features, in a sense tells a different story, it’s a destination per say. In all of them there are new design elements that are combined with surprising colors, helping contextualize the spaces in a very particular way. The corridor is the unifying space that communicates with all rooms and adds together the spatial and formal language.

The different arches, which are the main distinctive feature of the corridor, symbolize a passage, a promenade for little princesses and small kings, but also serve as a window display for the different rooms/functions. The Reading Room, where was created a small amphitheater, allows children to draw and write around this huge blackboard that also can become a huge screen, for movies and cartoons.

The Room for Visual Arts gives primacy to curves and organic shapes and vibrant colors to stimulate visual expression. The huge blue ceiling sparkled with white lamps is a reminiscent of a starry sky, while the pierced walls uncover small hiding spaces and create unique visual effects. In the Play Room, the green carpet dilutes the ground with the wall which in turn is wrapped in a set of colored slopes deconstructing the ceiling. The last room at the end of this magical corridor is assumed to be the most versatile space, which is defined as an open area and a playful space that is distinguished by its tetris color mountain and a small stage for theatrics.

Nevertheless, the most rewarding aspect of this project is still to come… the time to see how different children adapt and appropriate this space as their own, the time to observe how this dream world created by adults can fit in a child’s imagination. In the end we aspire that this new space that has been reborn with lively colors, unusual shapes and unique features could help achieve the children’s full potential.

Planned to transform former gas station site at the entrance of SOHO by mid-2015, this COOKFOX-design was labeled as one of the most “erudite and captivating” presentations the Landmarks Preservation Commission has seen in years. The seven-story office and retail building is centered around the idea of connecting users to nature. Softening the building’s modern steel and glass facade will be a cloak of lush balconies topped with prime penthouse office space.

As described by the architects, “300 Lafayette Street is an unusual void, a fragment of space left over from the confluence of Lafayette and Houston Streets. This prominent, if disjointed, intersection is the result of past planning decisions that turned Houston Street into one of Manhattan’s major cross-town traffic arteries. As a consequence, the site has been under-utilized for many years, in spite of its high visibility to thousands of people each day.

“Since the 1930s the site has been in continuous use as a gas station. Its greatest value, however, has come in the form of advertising revenues generated by enormous billboards that target drivers on Houston Street. For pedestrians and the average New Yorker, the site has long had little to offer.

“Seen as a residual site between SoHo and NoHo, the corner has challenged each district’s integrity, both functionally and aesthetically. The opportunity to fill in this “missing tooth” is a rare chance to restore the overall cohesiveness of the neighborhoods. We believe a site as visible and prominent as 300 Lafayette Street deserves to be transformed into a bold new statement about the city and its future.”

Architects: COOKFOX
Location: 300 Lafayette St New York, NY 10012
Client: LargaVista Companies
Area: 80000.0 ft2
Year: 2015
Photographs: COOKFOX, dbox

References: COOKFOX, Curbed NY

Steve Case, co-founder of America Online and now chief executive of the investment firm Revolution, talks about risk-taking — or lack thereof — in the business world.