Materials: Architecture in Detail

This new series examines the role of details in contemporary architecture through the work of many emerging and established practitioners whose designs speak sensitively and energetically at the small scale. The collection presents these details in photographs, accompanied by working drawings, sketches, an introductory essay, and captions that explain how the elements were conceived and built.

The details presented are often beautiful telltales of a designer's thoughts, scaled to our eye, made physical to the touch of our hand. These crafted moments remind us that architecture can be a subtle and powerful force—played out in some cases by evoking historical motifs, in others by radical experimentation with new materials. But more than a simple catalogue of ideas, these details are ultimately shown as individual expressions of discovery, gestures of delight or severity, of beauty and clarity. They are meaningful indications of the architect's presence—more than all else, willful signs that the true craft of design is alive and well.

Materials examines a wide spectrum of architectural palettes, from traditional materials used in innovative ways to the testing of new substances that alter the meaning of historic forms. The images demonstrate the use of single materials throughout a space as well as the joining of multiple components in one place. These details exemplify projects in which patterns, textures, color, and surface qualities contribute ingeniously to the character of the architecture around them.