Architecture

The Italian abode on Lake Orta.

Alberto Alessi discovered what would become the site of his pursuit—to put work, leisure, family, and a passion for wine into some magical proportion—40 years ago, when he first saw Cascina Eugenia, a 350-year-old farmstead overlooking the island of San Giulio on Lake Orta in northwestern Italy.

A gleaming crown.

The Aga Khan Museum, an oasis on the outskirts of Toronto, is North America’s first museum for Islamic Art.

An Ofist building renovation in Istanbul.

“The main idea for the design of the house was to not have too many ideas,” says interior architect Yasemin Arpaç of Istanbul-based Ofist. With partner Sabahattin Emir, Arpaç formulated an eminently simple—and versatile—living space for a 45-year-old bachelor.

Raw and refined.

FROM THE ARCHIVE: One word architects use all the time is place. Good designs, we hear, should relate to place. Buildings should be placed in context, an artful façade can help define place, and so on. In my experience as both critic and professional colleague of architects, the same applies to their public personas.

Cultural commune.

An architectural luminary and a fashion-house great will come together in Paris this fall with the opening of the Fondation Louis Vuitton in a new Frank Gehry–designed building.

Mid-century classic.

There are several morals to the story of PH1, a residential project in the Preston Hollow neighbourhood of Dallas, Texas. First, it is a story about the vitality of modern design in Texas and a story about how successful design can be when architects and interior designers work closely together.

Envisioning an art gallery.

Last week, Vancouver was formally introduced to the architects who will transform a parking lot downtown into the new Vancouver Art Gallery. Senior partner Christine Binswanger and associate Simon Demeuse of Pritzker Architecture Prize–winning Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron gave a public talk and shared some of their former work and initial impressions of the city.

Regal renovation.

Aristocracy partied here. Laughter rang down its magnificent staircase. Over the years, the château passed from owner to owner, but in recent years had been empty when the couple purchased it from an English-Irish syndicate.

Drawing a new architecture.

Daniel Libeskind builds on very big ideas. Shards and fragments, symbolic undertones, and a philosophical approach inform the architect’s work.