More stories about COMMENTARY

• Uses Abound for Newly Discovered Silicone Type

  Scientists at Rice University have found a new form of toughened silicone, which they anticipate will be applied to a wide variety of products, ranging from electronic displays to self-healing polymers.

• Crowdfunding Resurrects Controversial Drawing Tool

  An early 19th-century device that enabled users to draw lifelike images before the invention of the camera is making a comeback due to a Kickstarter proposal.

• New Material Changes Properties When Stretched

  A new tear-inspired material developed by scientists at Harvard's Wyss Institute could help architects with stormwater management in buildings.

• Using Pixels to Make Fantasy Structures

  Recently, cultural critic Celia McGee sent me a link to a blog about real and imaginary library architecture in Minecraft.

• Students Design Ecolabels for Building Products

  Blaine Brownell gets his students to dream up new, hypothetical ecolabels that could be used to rate the environmental quality of building products.

• L.A. Exhibition Shows What Might Have Been

  Sam Lubell’s “Never Built Los Angeles” now showing at the city’s Museum of Architecture and Design.

• Christo Designs Largest Inflated Envelope

  Christo's new inflatable envelope is next example of the resurgence of inflatable architecture, attractive for its potential to create maximum effect with minimal material.

• How Architecture Aids Our Memories

  Classicism, and really all of architecture, is a continual remaking of a time and place based on fragments we draw from many sources in order to create something radically new.

• Downtowns Go Residential in Rotterdam, Cincinnati, and Maryland

  How much control should the government have in reinventing our urban cores? Aaron Betsky says more is better.

• 'The New York Times' Overlooks Architects in Sustainability Conference

  April's conference on energy and sustainable cities, hosted by 'The New York Times,' will not feature any architects as keynote speakers.