Tag: ornament | ArchDaily

A World in Between: The Role of Hybrid Forms in Contemporary Bathrooms

Kiana Buchberger — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 01:30:00 +0000

When is a form still circular or rectangular? In twentieth-century modernism, this question was largely absent. Architecture was built on clarity, reduction, and formal purity. Influenced by architects such as Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, modernist design established a visual order based on rational geometry, industrial materials, and the rejection of ornament. Circle and square, function and expression, were kept strictly apart—a logic that dictated the rigid, modular layouts of traditional bathrooms for decades.

Ornamentation in the Age of Algorithms and Robotics: Can Technology Bring Back Architectural Detail?

Moises Carrasco — Sun, 30 Nov 2025 07:30:00 +0000

Architectural ornamentation has been a recurrent subject of debate across the industry for decades. A practice that was largely abandoned during the Modernist movement could now be standing on a platform that might, again, allow its resurgence, due to the current convergence of robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and digital fabrication. Technology has seemingly removed the primary obstacle to decorative detail: the high cost of skilled manual labor. However, this new technical capacity demands a critical examination: What does ornamentation truly represent, and what do we gain or lose by resurrecting it through algorithmic design?

Sculpting Facades: Using New Technology to Create a More Textural and Expressive Architecture

Carla Bonilla Huaroc — Wed, 10 Jan 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Advancements in 3D printing technology are progressing at an unprecedented pace, accompanied by a parallel surge in computational power for manipulating and creating intricate geometries. This synergy has the potential to offer architects an unprecedented level of artistic freedom in regards to the complex textures they can generate, thanks to the technology's remarkable high resolution and rapid manufacturing capabilities. If the question of production was out of the way, and architects could now sculpt virtually anything into a facade effectively and efficiently, what would they sculpt?

Motifs and Ornamentations: Inspirations Behind the Colors of African Traditional Architecture

Paul Yakubu — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 07:30:00 +0000

African societies' cultures are intrinsically linked to color. From fabrics to clothing, products, sculptures, and architecture, various societies explore rich and vibrant colors that are vivid, expressive, and joyful. Through different shades, hues, contrasts, motifs, and ornamentations, colors are embraced as an unspoken language, a palette for storytelling, and a sense of cultural identity. Although the use of color in African societies may seem decorative on the surface, it is extremely symbolic, with a deep sense of history behind it. Traditional African architecture is a prime example. Ethnic societies have endowed their homes with color through ornaments and motifs, expressed it with religious and cultural patterns, employed it on facades to tell familial stories, and created labyrinths of communal architecture that not only celebrate color but explore its ethnic meaning.

Crafting for Contemplation: The Minimal vs. The Ornamental

Matthew Maganga — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 04:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, this year’s edition of the Serpentine Pavilion opened to the public. Designed by Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates, it’s an evocative project, its cylindrical form referencing American beehive kilns, English bottle kilns, and Musgum adobe homes found in Cameroon.

Decoration Deserves to Be Celebrated for What It Is, Rather Than Dismissed for What It Isn’t

Leilah Stone — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 03:30:00 +0000

Beginning with the moral indignation expressed in Adolf Loos’s 1910 lecture “Ornament and Crime” and Le Corbusier’s 1925 The Decorative Art of Today, decoration has been attacked from every possible angle. Driven by the heroic male architect, Modernist dictates of good design—functionalism, truth to materials, purity of form—quickly took over and continue to be the dominant ideology today in the way architecture and interiors are taught and practiced. If Modern architecture was rational, masculine, and structural, then decoration was considered emotional, feminine, and shallow. Or, according to Loos, it was flat-out degenerate.

Ornament, Crime & Prejudice: Where Loos' Manifesto Fails to Understand People

Mathias Agbo, Jr. — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 09:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published on CommonEdge as "African Architecture: Ornament, Crime & Prejudice."

The Long(ish) Read: "Ornament and Crime" by Adolf Loos

James Taylor-Foster — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 04:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the fourth installment of The Long(ish) Read: an AD feature which presents texts written by notable essayists that resonate with contemporary architecture, interior architecture, urbanism or landscape design. Ornament and Crime began as a lecture delivered by Adolf Loos in 1910 in response to a time (the late 19th and early 20th Centuries) and a place (Vienna), in which Art Nouveau was the status quo.

What Happens When Light Starts to Create Brand Experiences?

Thomas Schielke — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 09:30:00 +0000

Global companies often exploit architectural icons to transform physical form into their desired brand reputations. To help achieve this goal, after twilight, the natural qualities of buildings have often been supplemented by architectural lighting, as the facades call unmistakeably for attention with their colorful and dynamic illumination. Representation has become the leading motivation for upgrading the lighting at headquarters and retail outlets. But when the illumination evolves into spectacular gestures, the brand identity and architecture itself starts to fade. Hence, the struggle for individuality has revived the discussion about ornament – though ornament appears now as light.

AR Issues: Why Ornament vs Icons is the Wrong Debate Entirely

Christine Murray — Sat, 26 Sep 2015 09:30:00 +0000

ArchDaily is continuing our partnership with The Architectural Review, bringing you short introductions to the themes of the magazine’s monthly editions. In this introduction to the September 2015 issue, Editor Christine Murray discusses the postmodern reappraisal of ornament that has recently returned to architectural consciousness, arguing "what is disappointing is that we are still stuck discussing how a building looks."