The architect Michael Graves, who died last week at the age of 80, was passionate and insistent about the importance of drawing in architectural practice. Over the course of his career, the use of computer-aided design software became ubiquitous among generations of architects, but Graves remained steadfast in his belief that drawing by hand was...

Gilles-Marie Oppenord (1672-1742) was born to a Dutch Cabinet maker who worked exclusively for the French Court.  After having trained under his father, Oppenord set out for an education in Rome in 1692. It was there that he studied under the director of the French Academy in Rome, who encouraged him to pursue architecture by...

See how state-of-the-art 3D scanning, 3D imaging, and 3D printing techniques came together in this epic effort to fully model Andrew Carnegie’s 1903 mansion in the heart of New York City. The Cooper Hewitt museum, which is housed by the Carnegie mansion, has made this 3D data freely available for architects, filmmakers, video game developers,...

Prison design has been a topic of debate and a site for innovation, even in the eighteenth century. This etching is Plate 14 from a series of imaginary prison interiors designed by the Roman architect, designer, and print maker, Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720- 1778). This print is both an exploration of the limits of the...

Eighteenth-century meal services were elaborate affairs, as exemplified in this print showing tureens and a table center piece designed by Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier for Evelyn Pierrepont, Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull in the 1730s. Meissonnier worked for Louis XV, becoming  orfèvre du roi (goldsmith to the king) in 1724. This engraving is plate 115 in folio 72 of...

The infamous Bastille prison was demolished in 1789, in the first year of the French Revolution, an event that had great political as well as artistic consequences. This pen and wash drawing is a design for a monument intended for the Place de la Bastille following the destruction of the prison. The design has been...

Michael Sorkin is an architect and urbanist whose practice spans design, criticism, and teaching. He is the principal of Michael Sorkin Studio in New York, a global design practice focused on urbanism and green architecture. James Wines is founder and president of SITE, a New York-based architectural studio chartered in 1970. Through his multidisciplinary practice,...

MacArthur Fellow and 2013 National Design Award Winner Jeanne Gang is the founder of Studio Gang Architects, a Chicago-based collective of architects, designers, and thinkers practicing internationally. Gang uses architecture as a medium of active response to contemporary issues and their impact on human experience. Each project resonates with its specific site and culture while...

Michael Sorkin is this year's National Design Award in the Design Mind category. Hear him speak about "slow culture," the future of the planet, and what design means to him. The National Design Awards were conceived by the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum to honor lasting achievement in American design. The Awards are bestowed in...

James Wines is this year's National Design Award winner in the Lifetime Achievement category. Hear him speak about creativity, finding inspiration, and the rhythm of a long career in design. The National Design Awards were conceived by the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum to honor lasting achievement in American design. The Awards are bestowed in...

Jeanne Gang is this year's National Design Award winner for Architecture Design. Hear her speak about scale, authorship, and putting users first. The National Design Awards were conceived by the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum to honor lasting achievement in American design. The Awards are bestowed in recognition of excellence, innovation, and enhancement of the...

Join Harlem-based landscape architect Elizabeth Kennedy as she presents her work on the Brooklyn Grange farm, a massive 65,000 sq ft roof towering eleven stories over the East River, atop Building no. 3 at the historic Brooklyn Navy Yard. Constructed as a Stormwater Management Tool funded by a NYC DEP Green Infrastructure Grant under PlaNYC,...

2011. Editors: Esteban Bisio and Domingo Pablo Risso Patron. Courtesy of Proyecto Rehabitar. In response to the deterioration of public housing in Argentina, Proyecto Rehabitar ("Rehabilitation Project"), led by architect Eduardo Bekinschtein, is implementing rehabilitation work in partnership with the housing secretary, municipal agencies, and community groups.

National Design Award winners Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam have worked together in architecture for over forty years. Founded in 1984, their Atlanta-based firm, Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, has won international acclaim for work that ranges from a sleek factory for Herman Miller to the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center for Wellesley College and...

Five Intelligent Coalitions: Design and Social Impact panelists were invited to expand on the Design and Social Impact white paper recommendations. Each had participated in the 2012 Social Impact Design Summit, which the “Design and Social Impact: A cross-sectoral agenda for design education, research and practice” white paper chronicles. Bryan Bell, Co-Founder of the SEED...