Margaret Staal-Kropholler (1891–1966) is regarded as the first woman architect in the Netherlands. She completed her first work as an unqualified architect in 1917. Less well known is that Grada Wolffensperger (1887–1965) became the first woman to complete the univer-sity course in architecture at the Technische Hogeschool in Delft that same year. A further twenty women had completed their architectural training by 1945.

Why and how did these women become architects at a time when women w...

Architecture and design as a source of inspiration for album covers

Collection of the finest, strangest and most remarkable architecture covers

An endless delight for lovers of both music and architecture

‘Architecture is frozen music’, Wolfgang Goethe is quoted as saying. It turns out that architecture is a major source of inspiration for musicians and composers – from classic and modern composers via jazz and the blues to new wave bands and rappers who sing the praises of the big cit...

A unique insight into the making of the architectural world’s most influential event

Yaneva’s ethnographical approach offers a fresh perspective on the Biennale as an essential tool for architectural discourse

Launch at the finissage of the 2025 Biennale Architettura di Venezia

Biennales have occupied a central place in the discourse of architecture. Every two years, architects, educators and students from all over the world gather in Venice to celebrate the most influential event...

For English see belowHerman Hertzbergers Lessons for Students in Architecture, nu in de zevende druk, is sinds de eerste uitgave in 1991 een klassieker geworden voor studenten overal ter wereld. In dit immens succesvolle boek brengt de architect zelf de fundamenten van het vak en de ideeën die aan zijn eigen werk ten grondslag liggen onder woorden. Het bevat een breed gamma van onderwerpen en ontwerpen, waarbij praktijkervaring en evaluatie van het gebruik van deze gebouwen als leidraad dien...

The Art of Urbanization reexamines a forgotten tradition in Belgian and European planning history, reconstructed through a longitudinal analysis of the Study Committee of the Antwerp Agglomeration (1907-1939). Against prevailing trends, Antwerp’s urban expansion was not the product of rational master planning, but evolved gradually through collective and pragmatic responses to emerging urban questions.

Drawing on a wide range of historical sources and richly illustrated, the book reconstruc...

Apparatus and apparatisation, the focus of the Cyber-Physical Architecture (CpA) issue #2 of SPOOL, refer to an assemblage of various components, tools, and instruments that in combination produce an exponential surplus beyond the linear sum of parts.

The CpA #2 samples various interests afforded by the apparatus and apparatisation in and of architecture and how they open up new potentials and opportunities. The first article, Building as Apparatus? (by Leach) addresses the theme of “buildi...

Over the last decades, the perception of glass in the engineering world has changed from that of a brittle, fragile material to a reliable structural component of high compressive load-bearing capacity. Although the structural applications of glass in architecture are continuously increasing, they are dominated by a considerable geometrical limitation: the 2-dimensionality imposed by the prevailing float glass industry. Cast glass can overcome this limitation: solid 3-dimensional glass compon...

Who were Le Corbusier’s photographers? The question is seldom asked yet is germane to under­standing the architect’s work. Le Corbusier used photography to promote modern architecture in ways no others did. He directed the photography of his buildings, selected the images that he liked, cropped them, abstracted them, and placed them on the pages of his many books. He mediated the medium of photography mani­pulating visual facts in an era when “the camera never lied”. Yet always ...