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The Second Studio (formerly The Midnight Charette) is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by Architects David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features different creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions.

A variety of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes are interviews, while others are tips for fellow designers, reviews of buildings and other projects, or casual explorations of everyday life and design. The Second Studio is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.

This week David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design are joined by Architect Jai Kumaran, founding partner of West of West to discuss his background; the influence his father’s work had on his career; attending architecture school; why he pursued a master’s degree; starting and growing an office; exploring project types; branding in architecture; and more!

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MVRDV and Orange Architects collaborate on the NUVO project, a new mixed-use complex to be built in Ukraine’s capital, the team of architects has revealed their design for three of the buildings that will become part of NOVO. Commissioned by Kovalska, the project is now restarting after work was put on hold due to the active conflict in Ukraine. The two firms are collaborating to refine the master plan initiated by APA Wojcehowski Architects.

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Although more related to evolutionary aspects than to architecture itself, the inherent physical fragility of human beings has required, since prehistoric times, that we protect our bodies and our buildings from external elements. As an example, beginning with the primitive huts used in the earliest forms of domestic architecture, furs were employed as an exterior covering to restrict the flow of air and, consequently, regulate the interior environment.

Subsequently, we have observed an evolution that clearly shows advances in insulation techniques, going from vernacular materials such as adobe to an increase in the thickness of walls using stone or brick, finally reaching the cavity walls developed in the 19th century, which left a small air chamber between an exterior and an interior face of the wall. Its later popularization led to the introduction of insulation between both faces, a system that is widely recognized and used today and has laid the foundations for further developments in this field.

Building envelopes create a physical boundary or shell integrated to the outer skin of a structure, separating indoor and outdoor environments. By assembling architectural components such as walls, roofs, windows and doors, the building is enclosed to provide protection and insulation, playing a determining role in the energy efficiency, comfort, structure, and durability of the project. Through multiple styles and shapes, they are key to giving character to a building, its visual appearance and integration with the surrounding environment.

Maintaining the fundamental functions of an envelope while playing with aesthetic possibilities, Euramax’s tailor-made metal cladding solutions create unconventional, colorful envelopes for designing with innovative geometries, patterns, and configurations.

Michael Rotondi’s buildings—museums, civic centers, education facilities, monasteries, restaurants, and residences—evoke kinetic mechanisms that fold, hinge, twist, and split open. They express the architect’s feelings, thinking, and mood at the time they had been designed, and, on some occasions, during their assembly and construction. Rotondi was born in 1949 in Los Angeles.

He established his RoTo Architects, a research-based firm in his native city, in 1991 after co-heading Morphosis for 16 years with Thom Mayne. Parallel to his practicing career, the architect has been teaching and lecturing at SCI-Arc, Southern California Institute of Architecture, which he co-founded in 1972, led its graduate program from 1978-1987, and was the school’s second director for a decade from 1987 to 1997.

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This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Although it was originally published in 2019, this essay by Randy Nishimura, lightly updated, serves as a rebuttal of sorts to Duo Dickinson’s recent Common Edge piece, “The Architectural Pandemic of the ‘Stick Frame Over Podium’ Building.” Dickinson likens the building type to a plague; Nishimura offers a contrarian’s perspective.

A recent spate of articles bemoaning the proliferation of 5-over-1 apartment buildings caught my attention. Outlets such as Bloomberg, Common Edge, Crosscut, and Curbed have all commented on the building type, the common thread being a reproach for their ubiquity, sameness, and inexpensive construction. Some of the critiques rightfully point to the confluence of multiple factors—evolving building codes, a lack of developable land, rising construction costs, and an acute lack of affordable housing—that have given rise to countless examples of the type across the country. The same dynamics are in play here in my hometown of Eugene, Oregon, so we naturally have our share of 5-over-1 developments.

The new headquarters of the building materials manufacturer HeidelbergCement consists of three interconnected building sections of different heights. The atrium of each building section provides plenty of light and luminance. The building was opened in June 2020 and provides up to 1,000 employees with a state-of-the-art work environment. The architectural firm AS+P Albert Speer + Partner based in Frankfurt was responsible for the project as a general planner, and carried out the design in collaboration with W+Architektur, with the latter providing the consulting office for the client’s project manager.

PERI, one of the leading formwork and scaffolding manufacturers worldwide - and the building materials manufacturer HeidelbergCement - combined their architectural and concrete expertise for the execution of this project. In doing so, the existing limits of PERI’s concrete construction offerings were pushed. The architectural highlights of the project were successfully realized using special PERI formwork elements.

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Jeffry Burchard explores in his essay the "opportunity found by extending the life and purpose of viable existing buildings", that have shaped our cities. Arguing that "we have an abundant supply of buildings", the author proposes four essential steps to transform existing buildings.