The High Line served the warehouses in the Meatpacking District; it was elevated in 1930, to put an end to the fatalities caused by the street level traffic. For about two decades, New York’s milk, meat and produce were delivered up in the sky. After the National Highway Act and the auto industry started suffocating rail transportation in the late fifties, part of the High Line was demolished. It’s said that the last train ran on it in 1980, carrying a load of frozen turkeys. Shortly after, the owners of the land beneath, purchased at easement price, started pushing for the complete demolition of the viaduct to make room for development. But the High Line’s melancholic image, partly reclaimed by nature – the epitome of a post industrial dystopia – was inspiring to some, from railroad enthusiasts to public space advocates to Edward Norton and Diane Von Furstenberg. This eclectic congregation of visionaries aggregated under the name of Friends of the High Line, and since 1999 have been working towards earning the support of the City, the people, the entire galaxy if necessary, in order to preserve this unique trace of the industrial past and turn it into public space. The design stems from a winning 2004 competition bid by James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, whose 'agri-tecture' proposal alternates the organic with the inorganic, the intimate with the wild and the public.

Although perhaps a much too common reference, the “Think outside the box motto” is a perfect fit for the Danish architect Bjarke Ingels’ work and is also in tune with this different sort of Starchitect’s passion for comic books. And in the case of his residential projects, his motto can be given a literal interpretation: discontent with impoverished repetitions of modernist principles that have generated millions of “living boxes”, Bjarke Ingels set out to reinvent this type of function by mixing in diverse and surprising elements representing the architect’s belief that contemporary life is far richer and often implies contradictory aspects. In the end, “Yes is more”. 8 House, the most recent finalized project testifies to this belief: situated at the Southern end of the new Ørestad district in Copenhagen and in the vicinity of the natural reservation of Faelled, the complex offers housing space for people from diverse age and income ranges, office, commercial and relaxation spaces, all brought together in a dynamic structure – an urban neighborhood with multiple layers that expand with every added level, where residents can ride their bikes all the way to their apartment door thanks to the alley system that follows the building’s structure from the ground to the topmost floor.

The time: this project shows that something as intangible as time (the moment of the meeting between the client and the architects) can be crucial for something as concrete as the architectural volume (rather, the shaping of an architectural volume). Happening right in the middle of the visual documentation, forming of ideas and the loud debates between spirits of different backgrounds engendered by the publication of the first album in the iglooheritage series - "Kule. Boyar Fortified Houses in Romania", the clients' request for a "less urban" house on an approximately 2 000 sqm site took on a special significance for the architects. Chance was on both sides, as the clients were fascinated by the idea of traditional living and the architects got their opportunity of experimenting.
The experiment: An attempt to recover architectural form as part of a set of traditional values that can be made part of the present, the project is a manifesto for a certain approach - modernism becomes adjacent to the vernacular. The stylistic choice of elements typical of Boyar mansions, especially kule, is justified both by "the time" mentioned above and by the physical conditions of the site - a generous lot in the Buzău area, on a plain that opens to the Sub-Carpathian Hills.

Developped on three levels, the loft gravitates around a central area, marked by the generous attic windows whose light reaches down to the living room, through the glazed parchment on level 1. The base of this spiral is an open space comprising the kitchen, dining room and living room, plus the annexes and technical spaces, connected to the bedroom levels by an elegant L-shaped staircase, clad in wood, encased in the wall and closed, on its "free" side, by a glazed wall instead of a banister. This wall is both the geometrical centre of the spiral, and the strong point of the ensemble; any superfluous detail was eliminated, creating the illusion that the two elements are suspended next to a white wall. The building, a compact 3-floor structure with two attics, is situated on Cetăţuia St., at the edge of the historical centre of Braşov, offering a generous perspective on the city, through large glazed areas. The daytime area of the loft (located on the top levels of the building) is organized on two parallel lines, namely kitchen-dining room, united through the design of the ceiling, and living room-circulation areas. The differences in height and the arrangement of furniture emphasize the virtual separation between the two regions.

Sighetu Marmaţiei is one of the few Romanian cities that can still boast the presence of a large number of historical monuments, approximately 80 of those being examples of civilian architecture, which is truly remarkable considering the small dimensions of the old city. A simple walk through the city centre reveals to the viewer countless buildings built centuries ago, perfectly aligned along the two main streets, all characterized by harmonious proportions and decorative details of the finest kind. One of the most important monuments of civilian architecture in Sighetu Marmaţiei is the former palace of the County Prefecture. First mentioned in official documents dating from the XVIth, the current structure was built in 1690, in time undergoing a series of changes in order to adapt to several functions. Another building of exceptional architectural value is the one currently hosting the Ethnographic Museum of Maramureş and one of the city's film theatres. Dating from the XIXth century, this imposing building is - as are most buildings in the Sighet centre - very eclectic, its rooms occupying two levels. Its rectangular windows surmounted by triangular gables, the pillars with Ionic inspired neckings, the rhythm and symmetry found in the display of decorative elements on the façade - all these are features that have left their mark upon passers-by even to this day.