Ideas & Writing

Journal

Essay·March 12, 2024·Latest

On the Ethics of Demolition

Before we build, we often destroy. The act of demolition is architectural in itself — it requires the same precision, the same intention, and the same moral weight as the act of construction.

8 min read · Elena Marchetti

Materials · January 28, 2024

Material Honesty: A Conversation with Stone

Stone does not lie. Every quarry mark, every fossil impression, every vein of mineral deposit tells the true age and origin of the material. Working with stone forces an architecture of authenticity.

6 min · Elena Marchetti

Thinking · November 15, 2023

The Japanese Concept of Ma in Western Architecture

Ma is often translated as "negative space" — but this translation misses the point. Ma is not the absence of something; it is the presence of a pause, a breath, an interval that gives meaning to what surrounds it.

7 min · Yuki Tanaka

Sustainability · September 4, 2023

Designing for the Climate Emergency

The climate emergency is not a constraint on architecture. It is the most significant design brief of our time. The question is not how to accommodate sustainability — it is how sustainability becomes the architecture.

9 min · James Okafor