Material Memory
Senses can trigger our memory, but can memory trigger our senses? My grandfather used to tell us stories of the war and his march from Omaha Beach to Berlin. With […]
Author Archives: roberthholley
The Great Metal Tube in the Sky
Composite Bird My window seat next to the wing of the Boeing 777 that would carry me across the Arctic Sea to China was anything but desired. As soon as […]
Wt Hpnd 2 Vwls?
Architecture, Materials and The Battle of Speed and Quality Yeah, so where have all the vowels gone? What happened to them? We find ourselves in a world where words are […]
Journey to the Center of a Bathhouse
Every once in a while, I like to indulge in looking back to a rather perplexing creation of Peter Zumthor, the bathhouse at Therme Vals. And what a peculiar bathhouse […]
And Then There Was Teflon
A Brief History of Technology, Part 2 – Through the Teflon Looking Glass Lets step away from heavy-handed theory and digital technology for a minute and look at Teflon. As […]
A Brief History of Technology, Part 1
Information and Material Let’s take a few steps back for a minute and look at the history of technology. But first, when you think of what technology is, what comes […]
Strange Materials: Collaborating with Technology
So recently, I’ve been asking the question, how can architecture engage and interact with us? With our ever-increasing dependence on computers and technology, can our physical surroundings actually seduce us into “looking […]
New Aesthetic: The Digital / Physical Threshold
What would it look like if our digital world began to cross over into our physical world? What form would it take and what would it do? How would we […]
Follow Me: Social Media and Architecture
What good is architecture if we don’t look up and recognize it? Why bother creating space if we choose not to engage with it? And what good are materials if […]
MATERIAL INTERROGATION: Reconsidering Nostalgia
Does anybody really have an issue with nostalgia? I sure hope not. Every so often we look to those that came before us for both wisdom and inspiration. The successes […]
Insulation: The Man Behind the Scenes
Monday evening isn’t typically considered the best night for live music, but this is Minneapolis, and I’ll be damned if something as arbitrary as a day of the week can […]
Sound Material
Who says material has to be tangible? Well, ok, I’ve never actually heard anyone say that, but it seems to be a pretty common assumption, right? Well you’re WRONG (listen […]
Material Dynamics: Skin and Asphalt
One time, when I was about five years old, the hand-held telescope that I had tied around my neck with a hockey skate lace got caught up in the spokes […]
Mass Innovation
Considered “the Pierce-Arrow of the American building industry,” the outdated practices of arch construction evolved to produce an organically compelling defeat of gravity in an age where manufacturing and automation were […]
MATERIAL FOCUS: Des Moines Public Library
Des Moines Public Library, Des Moines, Iowa David Chipperfield Architects, United Kingdom Herbert Lewis Kruse Blunck Architecture, Des Moines There’s a difference between invention and innovation. Prometheus stole fire from the […]
Material Strategies 
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