Author: Faiza Ansari

Skyscrapers first emerged in the late 19th century as cities began expanding rapidly during the Industrial Revolution. Growing populations, rising land values, and limited urban space pushed architects and engineers to build upward instead of outward. The invention of steel-frame construction and the elevator made it possible for buildings to rise higher than ever before, transforming the skylines of cities such as Chicago and New York. What began as a race for height gradually grew into evolving ideas of architecture, engineering, sustainability, and urban living. Today’s skyscrapers are designed to respond to climate, integrate greenery, reduce energy use, incorporate intelligent…

As the Venice Biennale officially opens to the public today, Venice once again transforms into a city-wide stage for contemporary art, where centuries-old palazzos, industrial dockyards, national pavilions, and hidden courtyards become part of one of the world’s most influential cultural events. Since its founding in 1895, La Biennale di Venezia has expanded beyond art into architecture, cinema, dance, music, and theater, shaping the global cultural landscape across disciplines. For the 61st edition of Venice Biennale 2026, the exhibition unfolds across the Giardini, the Arsenale, and multiple venues throughout Venice from May 9 to November 22, 2026. This year’s edition…

The Met Gala has long been fashion’s biggest night, where celebrities, designers, and artists come together on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for an evening that celebrates costume, culture, and creativity. Organized annually in support of the Costume Institute, the event is known for one of the world’s most-watched red carpets. This year’s exhibition, Costume Art, explored the relationship between fashion and the body through art history, while the dress code “Fashion Is Art” encouraged attendees to move beyond traditional couture into the realm of sculptural and architectural design. Celebrities arrived looking like living structures, surreal installations,…

This spring of 2026, the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens Costume Art, a new exhibition that positions fashion as an enduring subject: the dressed body. This is the inaugural exhibition inside The Met’s newly unveiled 12,000-square-foot gallery adjacent to the Great Hall; the show marks a major institutional moment for The Costume Institute. Costume Art approaches clothing through a series of thematic body types. These categories examine how bodies have been idealized, distorted, disciplined, exposed, concealed, and reclaimed across cultures and historical periods. The idea behind the show is simple yet profound: how has the human body been depicted in…

From May 14–20, NYCxDesign Festival 2026 will take over New York City as its official design week, bringing together 250+ events across 10 design disciplines in 7 days. It is one of the most influential moments on the global design calendar, where architecture, urbanism, interiors, product design, technology, art, and more converge into a single, citywide experience. NYCxDesign is not confined to a single venue, but it unfolds across New York through galleries, streets, waterfronts, studios, and public spaces. This turns the city into an open platform for ideas, experimentation, and exchange. From large-scale exhibitions and keynote conversations to neighborhood…

Early football grounds emerged in industrial cities, where large working-class audiences gathered around simple pitches, often with little more than terraces and basic stands. As football grew into a global sport, stadiums evolved with it, capacity increased, structures became more complex, and civic pride took over. This new generation of stadiums now extends beyond the ninety minutes of play, integrating public space, technology, and urban life into a single architectural system. As the world gears up for the FIFA World Cup 2026, let’s take a look at the new wave of football stadiums that are taking shape across continents. 1.…

Soviet-era landmarks were never neutral, as they were designed to do more than occupy space. They were built to communicate power, shape memory, and give physical form to ideology. Across Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, architecture and sculpture showcased a language that was bold and deeply symbolic. What makes these structures compelling today is not just their scale or form, but the way they were built to commemorate war, resistance, or national identity within a broader socialist framework. Others represented technological progress or collective ambition. Some have been restored and continue to function, while others remain abandoned, slowly changing with…

Every year, the global construction industry generates roughly 11–13 billion tonnes of waste. This debris isn’t just an eyesore but is a carbon bomb. Demolishing a building releases massive amounts of embodied carbon, and sending that material to landfills wastes the digital, physical, and economic value locked inside. Yet the way different regions handle this crisis varies wildly. The European Union has made Construction & Demolition waste a cornerstone of its circular economy, mandating high recovery rates and pushing for design-for-disassembly. Japan leads the world in technological innovation, turning concrete into aggregate and steel into rebar with near-perfect efficiency. The…

Urban design today is no longer just about drawing plans but is also about testing ideas, comparing scenarios, and understanding how a city performs before it is built. Density, climate, mobility, land use, and infrastructure are all variables. This is because architects are not solving one problem but balancing many at once. This is where Grasshopper becomes important. It allows designers to move from static drawings to systems that respond, adapt, and evolve. But Grasshopper on its own is only a starting point. Its real strength comes from plugins. Each plugin adds a new way of thinking. Some bring environmental…

Long before domes and palaces defined Dresden’s skyline, it was a modest Slavic settlement along the Elbe River, a trading node shaped by geography. Its transformation came in the early 18th century, when Augustus the Strong set out to recast the city as a seat of power. What followed was an act of image-making. Dresden was envisioned as a Baroque capital, where architecture could project authority, wealth, and culture. But this staged identity did not survive for long. The Bombing of Dresden marked a violent break, collapsing centuries of architecture into a field of ruins. When reconstruction began, it did…