The housing catalogue includes 50 low-rise home designs, including for garden suites, duplexes, four-plexes and six-plexes. Each design was developed by local architecture and engineering teams with the intent of aligning with regional building codes, planning rules, climate zones, construction methods and materials. TEXT John Lorinc RENDERINGS Office In Search Of During the spring election, the Liberals leaned into messaging that evoked a historic moment from the late 1940s, when Ottawa succeeded in confronting a severe housing crisis.  “We used to build things in this country,” begins Prime Minister Mark Carney in a nostalgic ad filled with archival images of streets lined with brand new post-World War II “strawberry box” bungalows, built for returning Canadian soldiers and their young families.  The video also includes montages from the now-iconic design “catalogues,” published by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). These supplied floor plans and unlocked cheap mortgages for tens of thousands of simple suburban houses found in communities across the country. “The government built prefabricated homes that were easy to assemble and inexpensive,” Carney said in the voice-over. “And those homes are still here.”  Over the past year, CMHC has initiated a 21st century re-do of that design catalogue, and the first tranche of 50 plans—for garden suites, duplexes, four-plexes and six-plexes—went live in early March. A second tranche, with plans for small apartments, is under development.  Unlike the postwar versions, these focus on infill sites, not green fields. One of CMHC’s goals is to promote so-called gentle density to residential properties with easily constructed plans that reflect regional variations, local zoning and building-code regulations, accessibility features and low-carbon design. As with those postwar catalogues, CMHC’s other goal was to tamp down on soft costs for homeowners or small builders looking to develop these kinds of housing by providing no-cost designs that were effectively permit sets. The early reviews are generally positive. “I find the design really very compelling in a kind of understated way,” says SvN principal Sam Dufaux. By making available vetted plans that can be either pre-approved or approved as of right, CMHC will remove some of the friction that impedes this scale of housing. “One of the elements of the housing crisis has to do with how do we approve these kinds of projects,” Dufaux adds. “I’m hoping it is a bit of a new beginning.” Yet other observers offer cautions about the extent to which the CMHC program can blunt the housing crisis. “It’s a small piece and a positive one,” says missing middle advocate and economist Mike Moffatt, who is executive in residence at the Smart Prosperity Institute and an assistant professor at Western’s Ivey Business School. “But [it’s] one that probably captures a disproportionate amount of attention because it’s something people can visualize in a way that they can’t with an apartment tax credit.” This kind of new-build infill is unlikely to provide much in the way of affordable or deeply affordable housing, adds Carolyn Whitzman, housing and social policy researcher, and author of Home Truths: Fixing Canada’s Housing Crisis (UBC Press, 2024). She estimates Canada needs about three million new dwellings that can be rented for $1,000 per month or less. The policies that will enable new housing at that scale, she says, involve financing subsidies, publicly owned land, and construction innovation, e.g., prefabricated or factory-built components, as well as “consistent and permissive zoning and consistent and permissive building codes.”  Indeed, the make-or-break question hovering over CMHC’s design catalogue is whether municipalities will green-light these plans or simply find new ways to hold up approvals.   An axonometric of a rowhouse development from the Housing Catalogue, designed for Alberta. A team effort Janna Levitt, partner at LGA Architectural Partners, says that when CMHC issued an RFP for the design catalogue, her firm decided to pitch a team of architects and peer reviewers from across Canada, with LGA serving as project manager. After they were selected, Levitt says they had to quickly clarify a key detail, which was the assumption that the program could deliver pre-approved, permit-ready plans absent a piece of property to build on. “Even in 1947,” she says, “it wasn’t a permit set until you had a site.” LGA’s team and CMHC agreed to expand the scope of the assignment so that the finished product wasn’t just a catalogue of plans but also included details about local regulations and typical lot sizes. Re-Housing co-founder Michael Piper, an associate professor at U of T’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, came on board to carry out research on similar programs, and found initiatives in places like Georgia, Indiana and Texas. “I have not found any that moved forward,” he says. “Canada’s national design catalogue is pretty novel in that regard, which is exciting.” The noteworthy exceptions are California, which has made significant advances in recent years in pre-approving ADUs across the state, and British Columbia, which last fall released its own standardized design catalogue.  He also carried out a scan of land use and zoning rules in Ontario for 15 to 20 municipalities. “We looked to see [what] their zoning permitted and what the rules were, and as you might expect, they’re all over the place,” he says. “Hence the challenge with the standardized design.” At present, high-level overviews for the 50 designs are available, including basic floor plans, 3D axonometrics, and building dimensions. Full architectural design packages are expected to be released later this year. Levitt says the architects on the team set out to come up with designs that used wood frame construction, had no basements (to save on cost and reduce embodied carbon), and drew on vernacular architectural styles. They researched representative lot sizes in the various regions, and configured designs to suit small, medium and large properties. Some versions have accessibility features—CMHC’s remit included both accessible units and aging-in-place as objectives—or can be adapted later on.  As for climate and energy efficiency considerations, the recommended materials include low-carbon components and cladding. The designs do reflect geographical variations, but Levitt says there’s only so much her team could do in terms of energy modelling. “How do you do heat energy calculations when you don’t have a site? You don’t have north, south, east, west [orientations] and you don’t have what zone are you in. In B.C. and Ontario, there are seven climatic regions. There was a lot of working through those kinds of very practical requirements, which were very complicated and actually fed into the design work quite significantly.” As Levitt adds, “in 1947, there were no heat loss models because the world wasn’t like that.” LGA provided the architects on the team with templates for interior elements, such as bathrooms, as well as standards for features such as bedroom sizes, dining areas, storage sufficient to hold strollers, and access to outdoor space, either at grade or via a balcony. “We gathered together these ideas about the quality of life that we wanted baked into each of the designs, so that [they] expressed a really good quality of life—modest but good quality,” she says. “It’s not about the finishes. People had to be able to live there and live there well.” “This isn’t a boutique home solution,” Whitzman says. “This is a cheap and mass-produced solution. And compared to other cheap and mass-produced solutions, whether they be condos or suburban subdivisions, [the catalogue designs] look fine to my untrained eye.” A selection of Housing Catalogue designs for the Atlantic region. Will it succeed?  With the plans now public, the other important variables, besides their conformity with local bylaws, have to do with cost and visibility to potential users, including homeowners, contractors and developers specializing in smaller-scale projects.  On the costing side, N. Barry Lyons Consultants (NBLC) has been retained by CMHC to develop models to accompany the design catalogue, but those figures have yet to be released. While pricing is inevitably dynamic, the calculus behind the entire exercise turns on whether the savings on design outlays and the use of prefabricated components will make such small-scale projects pencil, particularly at a time when there are live concerns about tariffs, skilled labour shortages, and supply chain interruptions on building materials.  Finally, there’s the horse-to-water problem. While the design catalogue has received a reasonable amount of media attention since it launched, does CMHC need to find ways to market it more aggressively? “From my experience,” says Levitt, “they are extremely proactive, and have assembled a kind of dream team with a huge range of experience and expertise. They are doing very concerted and deep work with municipalities across the country.” Proper promotion, observes Moffatt, “is going to be important in particular, just for political reasons. The prime minister has made a lot of bold promises about [adding] 500,000 homes.” Carney’s pledge to get Canada back into building will take time to ramp up, he adds. “I do think the federal government needs to visibly show progress, and if they can’t point to a [new] building across the road, they could at least [say], `We’ve got this design catalogue. Here’s how it works. We’ve already got so many builders and developers looking at this.’”  While it’s far too soon to draw conclusions about the success of this ambitious program, Levitt is well aware of the long and rich legacy of the predecessor CMHC catalogues from the late 40s and the 1950s, all of which gave many young Canadian architects their earliest commissions and then left an enduring aesthetic on countless communities across Canada.   She hopes the updated 21st-century catalogue—fitted out as it is for 21st-century concerns about carbon, resilience and urban density—will acquire a similar cachet.  “These are architecturally designed houses for a group of people across the country who will have never lived in an architecturally designed house,” she muses. “I would love it if, 80 years from now, the consistent feedback [from occupants] was that they were able to live generously and well in those houses, and that everything was where it should be.” ARCHITECTURE FIRM COLLABORATORS Michael Green Architecture, Dub Architects, 5468796 Architecture Inc, Oxbow Architecture, LGA Architectural Partners, KANVA Architecture, Abbott Brown Architects, Taylor Architecture Group  As appeared in the June 2025 issue of Canadian Architect magazine  The post A housing design catalogue for the 21st century appeared first on Canadian Architect.

JointForcer: Final Assault 3.2 – DUPLEX adds space battles, capital ships, and real-terrain maps to this free tactical air/naval combat game. Fly over 50 aircraft, command drones, and build missions with full control. New features include strategic ramming, improved physics, massive warships, and true 3D warfare. Play solo or multiplayer – all free. Posted by karolgrodecki on May 18th, 2025 JOINTFORCER: FINAL ASSAULT 3.2 DUPLEX EDITION – OFFICIAL PRESENTATION 1. What Is JOINTFORCER? Welcome to JointForcer: Final Assault 3.2 DUPLEX, an air & naval combat game blending arcade action, tactical planning, and strategic execution. You can play solo or multiplayer, with full mission customization. MULTI/SINGLE PLAYER ARCADE SHOOTER + AIR NAVAL SPACE COMBAT SIM + MISSION SANDBOX If you can't imagine what that means—think of an action RPG, but with airplanes, helicopters, and experimental aircraft. Choose your main weapon, two special abilities (missile pods 1 & 2), radar (like skill range), armor, and structure (self-explanatory). Then jump into a team-based dogfight deathmatch with players or highly customizable AI. From light and agile fighters to heavy bombers with powerful weapons, all the way up to capital vessels capable of spawning their own fleet. 🚨 It’s completely FREE! 🚨 -> DOWNLOAD <- With the latest Titan Mangusta (DUPLEX 3.2) patch – we’re taking the fight into space. Yes, you heard that right: space battles are now part of the experience. For those who prefer more realistic setup, there new desert missions, and something special: maps based on REAL geographical data. There is mini world map, map of United Kingdom, Europe, also Black Sea with Ukraine and Persian Gulf / Middle East maps. 2. Capital Ships – New Gameplay Tier Each faction now has access to a new class of capital ships: REBELS: Heavy Airships EAST: DD-Class Destroyers WEST: BC-Class Battlecruiser These colossal machines are easy targets, but incredibly resilient. They introduce a new kind of gameplay: Strong hull, but easy to hit Capable of dealing massive firepower Great for base assault/defense or command center missions Can RAM smaller ships :))) 3. Aircraft Collision Rework – Smarter Physics Previously, two aircraft crashing into each other in space would cause both to explode. Now: Damage is based on opponent’s hull strength. Small fighters will no longer explode capital ships Large vessels can now strategically ram opponents in close combat Encourages a new level of tactical creativity 4. New Terrain-Based Maps – Earth Gets Real We’re introducing a new map system using real-world geographical data. 🗺️ Maps include: MiniWorld (Europe-centric scaled terrain) Persian Gulf [This is height-map used to create Persian Gulf region. From left upper corner you can recognize characteristic 'shoe' - Italy, then going to centre you will see Middle East region and Suez Canal. ] Suez Canal Other large-scale coastal zones North Poland (including Russian Enclave) Features: No roads or infrastructure — pure terrain and water Ideal for sniping/hunting (large maps) Intense dogfighting (small maps) [this real-map project will be developed further with better quality and more real regions - feel free to suggest your picks!] 5. Over 50 Aircraft to Command We’ve packed the game with a huge selection of aerial machines: Fighters: F-16, F-18, EuroFighter, MiG-29, Su-33, Attack planes: SU-25, A-10 Tank Killer Multirole: SU-30, SU-33 Bombers: 🚨 New: SU-24, B-1B for the WEST [in-game codename Strategic Bomber SB-1 OPPENHEIMER] Frigates, Nuclear bombers, Capital Ships. Multiple 'what-if' experimental vessels, like DD Chrushtchev - EAST Destroyer. Finally you can use space vessels in their 'true' environment and take them into space batlle 6. Reskins, Improvements, & Bug Fixes Visual improvements on several models New effects for capital ship exhaust and heat Bug where drones spawned directly into the host vessel: FIXED Now spawn from rear sections of airships for safe deployment 7. Space Combat Expanded We’ve added multiple space maps, including: Derelict Stations Asteroid Fields Megacity Shells Combat in space is no longer flat. Up, down, left, and right lose all meaning. This is true 3D warfare – prepare for the next level. 8. Arsenal of Destruction Customize your aircraft with a deep and satisfying loadout system: Cannons, bombs, missiles (heat-seekers, dumbfire, ballistic) Radars, countermeasures, defence systems Armor mods and airframe upgrades Adjust for weight, speed, range, and role. 9. Mission Planning – Your Way You control the mission architecture: Factions (EAST / WEST / REBELS) Custom squadrons (Fighter, Bomber, Support) AI difficulty from flying target to combat aces World speed and general hull strength allow to bend rules to your like - from one shot kills to long time air&naval battles Over 25 biomes: Europe Mongolia Indo-China Middle East Oceanic + Island Zones + REALISTIC NEW MISSION MAP PACKS IN POTENTIAL CONFLICT ZONES WITH FUTURISTIC BATTLE BASES 10. Unique Features 🪂 [IMPROVED!] Ejection System Escape mid-flight Fight in escape pod of your choice 🤖 Drones & Support Fighters Light fighters spawn 1–2 UAVs Capital ships can launch up to 16 drones ⚔️ Vertical & Horizontal Combat From sea-skimming interceptors to orbit duels Battles span full vertical space 11. Strategy Meets Accessibility Whether you’re a tactician or a trigger-happy pilot: Quick-play skirmishes Full scenario missions Great for all skill levels 12. New Combat Philosophy – Especially for Rebels REBELS now fight: In open-top hovercraft Blending flesh and metal – ships are grown from biomass Believe their vessels are alive They defend the freedom of: Thought Science Speech Exploration Their strategy? Be like water: “Gutta cavat lapidem non vi, sed saepe cadendo” ("The drop hollows the stone not by force, but by falling often") Use wit, adaptability, and human skill to win. Their capital ships are like beasts. Their pilots ride on top, in suits or gas masks, feeling the air. From the skies of Earth to the void of space – they are the last free people. 🎧 Final Notes & Extras 💻 Official Links: 🛰️ Teasing Future Features/Roadmap: Naval Destroyers and landing crafts Airships Quality Flight Improvement - Adding/Implementing new animations for flight control/immersion Adding flora, grass, trees, etc, - everything has to be considered vs game size and frame rate Fly Free. Burn Bright. Download JointForcer Now.

Maison-Jardin BEAU / Alexandre Bernier ArchitecteSave this picture!© Maxime BrouilletHouses•Montréal, Canada Architects: Alexandre Bernier Architecte Area Area of this architecture project Area:  2300 ft² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2023 Photographs Photographs:Maxime Brouillet Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers:  Alumico, Artemide, Chez Lamothe , David Roussel, Hamster, MQ, Mac, Matter, Plan Beton, Showroom Montreal Lead Architect: Alexandre Bernier More SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. Located in the heart of St-Henri, a dense post-industrial residential neighborhood in Montreal, this single-family residence asserts itself discreetly through its vertical volume, raw materiality, and sensitive relationship to the garden.Save this picture!It stands out for its compact and rigorous form, constructed almost entirely of concrete, used for the structure, floors, ceilings, and interior finishes alike. This radical transformation of a typical Montreal duplex challenges domestic space through a bold mono-material approach—a typology traditionally built in wood. The unconventional use of concrete in a Montreal home makes it a unique project.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The architectural gesture explores the tension between the archetype of the mineral refuge and the lightness of a dwelling open to its environment. The dialogue between this raw materiality and the transparency of the garden-facing façade reveals an architecture that is both monolithic and porous. The whole is organized around the stacking of free and open floor plates. Freed from structural constraints, the façade allows natural light to penetrate deep into the space. The shifting shadows of foliage, cast throughout the day on the mineral wall, bring a discreet and contemplative poetry, giving the concrete's roughness an unexpected sensitivity.Save this picture!Save this picture!On the ground floor, the façade literally vanishes thanks to a large sliding door, merging the living space with the garden. A reflecting pool acts as a water mirror that amplifies the light. This liquid presence balances the building's density, introducing freshness and lightness.Save this picture!Textures, Finishes, and the Mass of Concrete - The surfaces are distinguished by a variety of concrete textures and finishes. The floors, in polished terrazzo, reveal selected aggregates exposed through scarification. The exposed concrete walls retain the imprint of the formwork ties, highlighting the constructive nature of the project. The kitchen work surfaces, including the 14-foot-long island with rounded corners, are also made of concrete.Save this picture!Save this picture!As a massive material, akin to mono-material stone houses, concrete promotes thermal inertia, passive heating, and heat storage. Complemented by a radiant floor system, it acts as a thermal battery. Its load-bearing capacity frees the façades from bracing, allowing for generous fenestration tailored to solar orientations.Save this picture!Save this picture!Decidedly contemporary, the BEAU Residence proposes a sensitive architecture of contrasts, where the weight of concrete is lightened through contact with the living. Through the use of material and an intimate relationship with vegetation, it offers a new way of inhabiting the city—between mass and transparency, permanence and flexibility, rigor and softness. A simple yet powerful gesture for a contextual, sustainable, and resolutely contemporary architecture.Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less About this office MaterialConcreteMaterials and TagsPublished on May 23, 2025Cite: "Maison-Jardin BEAU / Alexandre Bernier Architecte" 23 May 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1030350/maison-jardin-beau-alexandre-bernier-architecte&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

All products featured on Architectural Digest are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.“I don’t like fame. I don’t like the sense of belonging to the public,” Elizabeth Taylor admits in Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, the 2024 documentary featuring unearthed recordings of the Hollywood legend by journalist Richard Meryman. “The person my family know[s] is real. But the other Elizabeth Taylor, the famous one, really has no depth or meaning to me. It’s a commodity and it makes money. One is flesh and blood, and one is cellophane.” Taylor, who skyrocketed to fame as a child actor and was among the first film stars to receive a $1 million payday for a role, spent much of her life in the spotlight. It’s not surprising, then, that the late icon considered her public image to be completely divorced from her private persona.The Lost Tapes grants viewers a glimpse into that life through Taylor’s candid reflections on it all—the romances, the tragedies, the opulence, and the scandals. Though her superstar status meant that even her rare private moments sometimes got the on-camera treatment, the below selection reveals an intimate look at the “real” Elizabeth Taylor’s time at home, outside the limelight.Photo: George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images1/211942In 1939, Taylor, her older brother Howard, and her parents—stage actress Sara Sothern and art dealer Francis Lenn Taylor—moved from London to Los Angeles. After a couple of years living in LA’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood, the family moved into a Spanish-style Beverly Hills home. Here, Howard and Elizabeth are seen in the backyard with their pets during the year in which the 10-year-old began her acting career.Photo: Earl Theisen/Getty Images2/211947This 1947 shot shows Taylor and her mother prepping hamburgers and hot dogs in the kitchen of their family home. Biographer Alexander Walker wrote that the 1929-built abode sported “pink stucco walls and red roof tiles, a huge round-arched window facing the road and a dusty front ‘yard’ with an olive tree in it.” It would remain the young starlet’s home until her first marriage.Photo: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images3/211949Featuring decorative tiles and terra-cotta floors, the dwelling had all the classic Spanish-style details that remain beloved throughout Los Angeles today. The Hollywood legend is pictured here at age 17, drying off her dog, Amy (named after Taylor’s character in the film Little Women, which hit theaters in March of that year).Photo: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images4/211949The future Oscar winner is seen here with her mother reading sheet music at their piano. At the time, Taylor was engaged to William Pawley Jr., the son of a US ambassador. “I want our hearts to belong to each other throughout eternity,” the teenage actor wrote in a letter to Pawley. It wasn’t in the cards, however; the engagement ended just a few months later.Photo: Archive Photos/Getty Images5/211950Photographed in her childhood home, the movie star twirls in a velvet dress before an ornately framed painting. Walking in her father’s footsteps, Taylor continued to collect art throughout her life. The very same painting can be seen in photos of Taylor’s final residence, six decades after this snapshot was taken.Photo: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images6/211950Eager for independence from her sheltered upbringing, Taylor married hotel heir Conrad “Nicky” Hilton Jr. in May 1950 at the age of 18. However, Hilton was “abusive, physically and mentally,” the actor wrote in her 1988 book Elizabeth Takes Off. “The honeymoon and the relationship were both over by the time we returned. I couldn’t bear to reveal that my marriage was a failure, and I kept quiet for months. Around Christmas, I could stand it no longer and moved out of our house.” The residence in question, pictured here, was a Pacific Palisades rental where the pair stayed after a stint at the Bel Air Hotel.Photo: Ed Jackson/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images7/211951The young couple officially divorced in January 1951 and Taylor moved into New York’s Plaza Hotel, which was owned by Hilton’s father at the time. The exes met on October 15, 1951, in her suite to wrap up some loose ends—including a property settlement, per the New York Daily News, which published the above snapshot. The star speaks fondly of her time at the iconic hotel in The Lost Tapes, describing it as “the first kind of free, independent time I’d ever had in my life.”Photo: Ed Jackson/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images8/211951The couple discusses the divorce settlement and meets with the press in Taylor’s Plaza suite here. “I was a divorcée, and I was 19. Roddy [McDowall] was there with me, and Monty [Clift]. Just having fun with my chums, doing all kinds of crazy things,” Taylor said of her time living at the famed hotel. “If I wanted to go ice skating at nine at night, we would. Or we’d just have hot dogs all day long. Completely irresponsible sort of behavior. I didn’t have to keep proper hours. I didn’t have to do anything properly. And I had a ball.”Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images9/211952In 1952, Taylor married English actor Michael Wilding and moved into his London apartment, where they are pictured here playing piano. The starlet looked to Wilding, who was two decades her senior, as a source of stability and comfort following her volatile first marriage, she explains in The Lost Tapes.Photo: WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images10/211953Taylor and Wilding bought a house in Beverly Hills in 1953, the same year that the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof star gave birth to her first child, Michael Jr. Pictured in September of that year, the 21-year-old actor reclines on her sofa with the infant. “We will have the outside painted yellow, with white shutters, the living room will be in gray with periwinkle blue—my favorite color, ” Taylor allegedly said upon buying the home.Photo: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images11/211953Baby Michael’s sweetly decorated nursery had a butter yellow, baby blue, and pink color scheme. Taylor described the storybook Beverly Hills dwelling in her 1965 tome, An Informal Memoir. “One whole wall was built of bark with fern and orchids growing up the bark,” she wrote. “You really couldn’t distinguish between the outside and inside. And all the colors I loved—off-white, white, natural woods, stone, beigy marble. The pool was so beautiful. There were palm trees and rock formations—it looked like a natural pool, with trees growing out of it. It was the most beautiful house I’ve ever seen.”Photo: CBS via Getty Images12/211957Taylor and Wilding split after nearly five years of marriage. One month after the divorce was finalized, the Cleopatra star married film producer Mike Todd in February 1957. The two are pictured here in their penthouse apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Taylor and Todd kept estates on both coasts; in addition to their NYC abode, they maintained a 1920s Spanish-style primary residence near Coldwater Canyon in Beverly Hills. The roughly 4,000-square-foot home didn’t offer the high-profile pair much privacy—its front steps began right at the curb, winding around a turret, and up to an arched wood front door.Photo: CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images13/211957A few months after they married, Todd and Taylor welcomed CBS’s cameras into their NYC home at 715 Park Avenue for a 1957 Person to Person segment, which showed the newlyweds’ duplex filled with art; a Monet painting in a gilded frame hangs behind them in this photo. Taylor gave birth to the couple’s daughter, Liza, before Todd’s tragic 1958 death in a plane crash.Photo: Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images14/211966After a five-year marriage to singer and actor Eddie Fisher that generated tons of scandalous tabloid fodder, Taylor married her Cleopatra costar, Richard Burton, in 1964. The couple, whose relationship essentially birthed modern paparazzi culture, is pictured here at their Gstaad, Switzerland, property. Dubbed Chalet Ariel, Taylor and Fisher purchased the estate early in their marriage. The Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? star retained ownership of the dwelling for the rest of her life.Photo: James Andanson/Sygma via Getty Images15/211967The couple—again pictured at their Swiss vacation home, with a trio of petite pooches in tow—were known for their passionate yet turbulent marriage. “We enjoy fighting,” Taylor reportedly said. “Having an out-and-out, outrageous, ridiculous fight is one of the greatest exercises in marital togetherness.” It’s fitting that the relationship was filled with drama, seeing as it began with some: The couple started their affair while Taylor was still married to Fisher and Burton was married to Welsh actress Sybil Christopher.Photo: David Cairns/Getty Images16/211967The frequent costars also spent a great deal of time on their yacht, Kalizma. They reportedly bought the luxury vessel for $192,000 (roughly $1.8 million adjusted for inflation) in 1967 and invested another $200,000 in refurbishing it to their liking. It was onboard the Kalizma that the Welsh actor gifted Taylor the famous 69.42-carat Cartier diamond now known as the Taylor-Burton diamond.Photo: David Cairns/Express/Getty Images17/211967The couple looks out from the deck of the Kalizma in this snapshot. They reportedly outfitted the vessel with Chippendale mirrors, Louis XIV chairs, and English tapestries. Taylor’s suite—from the bedroom to the bathroom—was done up in a hot pink color scheme. Grace Kelly, Orson Welles, and Ringo Starr were among the A-list guests that Taylor and Burton entertained on the yacht.Photo: Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images18/211977After divorcing Burton (twice—once in 1974 and again in 1976 after a brief second marriage), Taylor married American politician John Warner in December 1976. They are pictured here in the kitchen of their roughly 7,000-square-foot fieldstone-walled manor in Marshall, Virginia. Taylor reportedly kept horses on the sprawling property, which was known as Atoka Farm.Photo: Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images19/211977Warner and Taylor roam the grounds of the 400-acre plot in this photo. The actor helped her husband with his 1978 senate campaign, though his busy government schedule put a strain on the marriage, and they divorced in 1982. “She was my ‘partner’ in laying the foundation for 30 years of public service in the US Senate,” Warner said later. “We were always friends—to the end.”Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images20/211987Taylor’s primary residence from 1981 until her 2011 death was at 700 Nimes Road in Bel Air. This 1987 photo shows the Hollywood icon smiling on her sofa in the ranch-style home, which was formerly owned by Nancy Sinatra. Taylor worked with AD100 Hall of Fame designer Waldo Fernandez to decorate the dwelling, which was posthumously featured in the July 2011 issue of Architectural Digest. A trophy room, plush pastel carpets, and abundant flower gardens were among the estate’s highlights.Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images21/211987Taylor sits in a welcoming living room at her Nimes Road dwelling in this shot. “Of course when she had to appear at an important event, she would put on the most beautiful dress and the most amazing jewelry and become Elizabeth Taylor, the star,” famed fashion designer Valentino once said. “But at home she liked a cozy life, friends, good food.”The Hollywood legend died in 2011 at age 79.

At I/O 2025, nothing Google showed off felt new. Instead, we got a retread of the company's familiar obsession with its own AI prowess. For the better part of two hours, Google spent playing up products like AI Mode, generative AI apps like Jules and Flow, and a bewildering new $250 per month AI Ultra plan. During Tuesday's keynote, I thought a lot about my first visit to Mountain View in 2018. I/O 2018 was different. Between Digital Wellbeing for Android, an entirely redesigned Maps app and even Duplex, Google felt like a company that had its pulse on what people wanted from technology. In fact, later that same year, my co-worker Cherlynn Low penned a story titled How Google won software in 2018. "Companies don't often make features that are truly helpful, but in 2018, Google proved its software can change your life," she wrote at the time, referencing the Pixel 3's Call Screening and "magical" Night Sight features. What announcement from Google I/O 2025 comes even close to Night Sight, Google Photos, or, if you're being more generous to the company, Call Screening or Duplex? The only one that comes to my mind is the fact that Google is bringing live language translation to Google Meet. That's a feature that many will find useful, and Google spent all of approximately a minute talking about it. I'm sure there are people who are excited to use Jules to vibe code or Veo 3 to generate video clips, but are either of those products truly transformational? Some "AI filmmakers" may argue otherwise, but when's the last time you thought your life would be dramatically better if you could only get a computer to make you a silly, 30-second clip. By contrast, consider the impact Night Sight has had. With one feature, Google revolutionized phones by showing that software, with the help of AI, could overcome the physical limits of minuscule camera hardware. More importantly, Night Sight was a response to a real problem people had in the real world. It spurred companies like Samsung and Apple to catch up, and now any smartphone worth buying has serious low light capabilities. Night Sight changed the industry, for the better. The fact you have to pay $250 per month to use Veo 3 and Google's other frontier models as much as you want should tell everything you need to know about who the company thinks these tools are for: they're not for you and I. I/O is primarily an event for developers, but the past several I/O conferences have felt like Google flexing its AI muscles rather than using those muscles to do something useful. In the past, the company had a knack for contextualizing what it was showing off in a way that would resonate with the broader public. By 2018, machine learning was already at the forefront of nearly everything Google was doing, and, more so than any other big tech company at the time, Google was on the bleeding edge of that revolution. And yet the difference between now and then was that in 2018 it felt like much of Google's AI might was directed in the service of tools and features that would actually be useful to people. Since then, for Google, AI has gone from a means to an end to an end in and of itself, and we're all the worse for it. Even less dubious features like AI Mode offer questionable usefulness. Google debuted the chatbot earlier this year, and has since then has been making it available to more and more people. The problem with AI Mode is that it's designed to solve a problem of the company's own making. We all know the quality of Google Search results has declined dramatically over the last few years. Rather than fixing what's broken and making its system harder to game by SEO farms, Google tells us AI Mode represents the future of its search engine. The thing is, a chat bot is not a replacement for a proper search engine. I frequently use ChatGPT Search to research things I'm interested in. However, as great as it is to get a detailed and articulate response to a question, ChatGPT can and will often get things wrong. We're all familiar with the errors AI Overviews produced when Google first started rolling out the feature. AI Overviews might not be in the news anymore, but they're still prone to producing embarrassing mistakes. Just take a look at the screenshot my co-worker Kris Holt sent to me recently. Kris Holt for Engadget I don't think it's an accident I/O 2025 ended with a showcase of Android XR, a platform that sees the company revisiting a failed concept. Let's also not forget that Android, an operating system billions of people interact with every day, was relegated to a pre-taped livestream the week before. Right now, Google feels like it's a company eager to repeat the mistakes of Google Glass. Rather than trying to meet people where they need it, Google is creating products few are actually asking for. I don't know about you, but that doesn't make me excited for the company's future.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/googles-most-powerful-ai-tools-arent-for-us-134657007.html?src=rss

Marcel Breuer’s HUD headquarters may be in jeopardy, but folks who adore the the Hungarian emigre’s most famous New York work now have good reason to celebrate. The former Whitney Museum of American Art, completed by Marcel Breuer and Associates in 1966, was unanimously designated an individual and interior landmark today by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). Now, both the former Whitney Museum of American Art’s exterior and its interior are protected under the Landmarks Law—a major preservation win. The LPC also recently designated Paul Rudolph’s Modulightor Building Apartment Duplex an interior landmark. The LPC recognized the interiors as emblematic of the 1960s, when Brutalism was in vogue. (Courtesy NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission) The Whitney Museum of American Art was renamed the Met Breuer in 2016, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art took it over. Sotheby’s acquired 945 Madison Avenue in 2023, and subsequently brought on Herzog & de Meuron to renovate the place. The “sensitive adaptation and renovation,” Sotheby’s said in 2024, will deliver new world class gallery space for displaying the auction house’s “full suite of offerings.” Today’s landmark designation by LPC had the support of Sotheby’s. “We fully endorse the landmark designation, as reflected in our initial plans for the building,” Sotheby’s Global Head of Real Estate Steven Wrightson said in a statement. “We look forward to welcoming the public back and honoring the Breuer’s enduring legacy as we usher in a new chapter of Sotheby’s.” Sarah Carroll, LPC chair, commended the former Whitney Museum of American Art building for its “unique interior” that serves as a remarkable example “of the Brutalist style of modern architecture.” The interiors, Carroll elaborated, “represent a powerful testament to New York City’s role as a global center of innovative design.” “Today’s designation honors Marcel Breuer’s groundbreaking vision and ensures that this architectural icon will continue to serve as a premier showcase for world-class art, and be preserved and protected for generations to come,” Carroll continued. The news comes after Cape Cod Modern House Trust acquired Breuer’s summer cottage, following a lengthy preservation initiative to save it.

A native Michigander, Nawal Motawi enrolled in the University of Michigan's Stamps School of Art & Design in the 1980s. After a year and a half, she dropped out "in disgust," she revealed in an interview with the Ann Arbor District Library. Motawi was turned off by the program's emphasis on self-marketing, and "I felt the critiques were a lot of baloney," she says. Motawi resolved to start over and study something else.Motawi's father, an Egyptian immigrant and food scientist for Gerber, wasn't thrilled that Motawi had enrolled in art school in the first place. But her parents were less thrilled that she had dropped out. As they were footing the bill for her education, they laid down the law: "We're going to pay for college through this date. If you're still in school after that, you got to pay for it yourself." Motawi looked at the credits she'd amassed, then returned to finish her degree.8x8 Imperial Peacock - Turquoise 8x8 Imperial Peacock - Turquoise After graduating, Motawi got a job at Detroit's Pewabic Pottery, where she learned about both the intricacies of ceramic tile glazes and the Arts & Crafts movement. Following that and a residency at CCS, she resolved to start her own studio. Dithering or daunted, "I was thinking of trying to go back to school, and my dad said, 'Look, why don't you just start the thing?' My mom came up with this idea to buy a house and rent it to me on very reasonable terms…. They invested in real estate and rented to me, and I started the tile works in that garage."4x12 Samara - Cream 4x12 Samara - Cream Motawi began producing tiles of her own design and selling them at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market. "I realized I didn't have a marketing budget, so I had to figure out how to sell them any way I could. The fee at the time was $11 per day. I started out just selling little Christmas ornaments made of clay, and I also had samples, just concept boards of layouts.4x8 Skylight - Turquoise 4x8 Skylight - Turquoise "Ann Arbor has a very art appreciating and affluent society, and that was very, very important [LAUGHTER] to my being able to start the business." Motawi's work caught the eye of a wealthy shopper named Cynthia, who was redoing her fireplace. Motawi invited her to her garage studio, pitched some ideas, and won the project.8x8 March Balloons - Cream 8x8 March Balloons - Cream "I did a fireplace for Cynthia, who lived in a brand new duplex on Fourth Street. [Her next-door neighbor] saw her place and said, I want Motawi for mine. I did a fireplace and a backsplash for her." That led to a photograph of Motawi and her brother Karim standing in front of the fireplace, in an article in the Ann Arbor News; in the 1990s, this was the closest you could get to going viral.8x8 May Basket - Cream 8x8 May Basket - Cream Motawi—who had repeatedly tried to get into the Ann Arbor Art Fair and been rejected—began to build her client base. Motawi Tileworks soon outgrew the 600-square-foot garage studio and moved, several times, into larger spaces. (Her parents sold the rental house and turned a profit.)6x8 Saguaro - Green 6x8 Saguaro - Green Today Motawi Tileworks has over 40 employees working out of a 12,900-square-foot facility in Ann Arbor. The company's handmade art tiles are distributed in over 300 locations in North America. The Motawi collection that most caught my eye are the ones you see pictured here. Motawi licensed the right to translate Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural motifs into ceramic art tiles.8x8 Jewelry Shop Window 8x8 Jewelry Shop Window 4x8 Skylight - Brown 4x8 Skylight - Brown 6x8 Saguaro - Rainbow 6x8 Saguaro - Rainbow 4x8 Sumac - Bone 4x8 Sumac - Bone 6x8 Waterlilies - Light Blue 6x8 Waterlilies - Light Blue 8x8 Coonley Playhouse 8x8 Coonley Playhouse 8x8 Frozen Spheres - Purple 8x8 Frozen Spheres - Purple 8x8 Frozen Spheres - Cream 8x8 Frozen Spheres - Cream 4x4 Avery Tulip - Turquoise 4x4 Avery Tulip - Turquoise Check out all of Motawi's Frank Lloyd Wright collection here. The company's other collections are also well worth a gander.8x8 Frank Lloyd Wright Framed Set

TechHive Editors Choice At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros Bright, high-quality lighting (in white or in color) You can daisy-chain up to 10 light bars Easy to install and configure Excellent app Cons You lose all the great features of the GE Cync app if you connect the light bars via Matter Connecting via Matter is the only way to add the light bars to Apple Home Onboard Wi-Fi adapter is 2.4GHz only Our Verdict These beautiful undercabinet light bars deliver both excellent task lighting and fabulous lighting scenes, but they’re better suited to smart homes that revolve around Alexa or Google Home, because using Matter to connect them to Apple Home entails giving up the excellent GE Cync app and all the control features it has to offer. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today I’m not ready to remodel my (very) small galley kitchen, but my family desperately needed more space for storing some of the bowls, cups, and glasses we use every day. The least expensive solution I could think of was to install a floating shelf on the only empty wall. Problem solved, but also, problem created: The 10-inch-deep shelf cast an objectional shadow on the counter below. Given the small amount of counter space in our kitchen, we utilize every square inch for food preparation. I needed those shadows to be gone. Enter the GE Cync Reveal Smart LED Undercabinet Bar Light. These under-cabinet lights can be hardwired to your home’s electrical system or plugged into a standard AC outlet. And if your cabinets don’t go all the way to the ceiling, you could also mount them on top to cast light up the wall and onto the ceiling. The GE Cync undercabinet light bar can produce 34 “light shows” that involve not just colors but also animations. The lights come in white enclosures rated for installation in damp locations. They measure 4.8 inches deep, 1.8 inches thick, and are available in three widths: 12-, 18-, or 24 inches. You can daisy-chain up to 10 of them. I went the plug-in route and mounted two of the 18-inch models under my floating shelf. Voilà! No more shadows. An 18-inch GE Cync Reveal Smart LED Undercabinet Bar Light, unboxed.Michael Brown/Foundry The lights are exceedingly easy to physically install, thanks to captive self-tapping screws that you can drill into the bottom of your cabinet or shelf with just a screwdriver. This neatly avoids the need to pre-drill pilot holes that inevitably end up being just a bit off when you go to screw in the light itself. As I’ve already mentioned, you can wire the lights to your home’s electrical system or use the provided cable with a 3-prong plug at one end to power the lights. If you go the plug-in route, the cord emerges from the bottom of the plug at a rightward angle, allowing you to plug it into either the top or bottom of a duplex outlet, even if the outlet is occupied. Pro tip: Using a cable chase to hide the excess electrical cord looks a lot better than just letting it dangle. The cleverly angled plug can fit in either the top or bottom of a duplex outlet, even if the other socket is occupied.Michael Brown/Foundry Each bar has one button for toggling the lights on and off (or you can dim the LEDs by holding this button down) and a second one for changing the color or color temperature. Special stub cables are provided for daisy-chaining the lights—again, up to 10—after which either set of buttons will control both lights. Specifications Once the lights are set up, you can control them individually or configure multiples to operate in sync. They can be controlled via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi (2.4GHz networks only), with the latter method being the best approach to take if you want to use Alexa or Google Assistant voice commands to control them. The lights are also Apple Home compatible, but only via Matter over Wi-Fi (there’s no Thread support), and adding them to your Wi-Fi network in that fashion prevents you from using the Cync app to program and control the lights. You can make many—but certainly not all—settings changes and schedules using the Apple Home app, but you won’t have full control over them if you go that route. You also won’t be able to access any of the lighting effects that the GE app offers. My home revolves mostly around Alexa, so I didn’t enroll the lights in Matter. You daisy-chain up to 10 of the GE Cync Reveal light bars using the provided stub cables.Michael Brown/Foundry The LED light bars can produce colored light from a palette of 16 million colors, or you can choose a tunable white light (ranging from a very warm 2,000 Kelvin to a cool 7,000K). You can also set them to use GE’s own Reveal HD+ setting, which promises white light with higher contrast. I like it. The 18-inch light bar tested here produces up to 1,150 lumens of white light at a color temperature of 3,000K, but note that using the Reveal setting reduces the bar’s maximum brightness to 900 lumens. The 12-inch light bar delivers up to 750 lumens (630 with Reveal), while the 24-inch model delivers 1,500 lumens (1,200 with Reveal). Light shows The GE Sync Reveal app offers a host of lighting options in both color and various white color temperatures, depending on your needs.Michael Brown/Foundry The Cync app is so rich with features that you’ll want to think twice about going the Matter and/or Apple HomeKit route that will deny you access to it. Or you might decide that these lights are just not the right solution for your home if you’re striving for a homogenous smart home. In any event, going far beyond the usual color wheel for picking colors from a palette of 16 million shades, you can also choose from nine white color temperature presets: Sunlight, Early Morning, Candle Light, etc. There are also 34 “light shows” that involve not just colors but also animations. The app divides these between 10 presets and 24 other categories under the heading Explore. Each preset is labeled with an evocative name, such as Candle, Rainbow, Fireworks, and Aurora. The button on the left toggles the lightbar on and off, or you can hold it down to dim and brighten. The button on the right steps through light colors and white color temperatures.Michael Brown/Foundry Tapping a preset changes the lightbars’ behavior immediately, while the 24 Explore choices must be previewed before they can be sent to the lightbars. If that isn’t enough options for you, you can create custom light shows based on nine effect types: Wave, Flicker, Fill, Pop, Alternating, Erratic, Rhythm, Pulse, and Static. Each custom light show has adjustable parameters for color palette (with an option for random changes), brightness, fade and color duration (each on a scale of 0.1 to 5 seconds). These custom shows can be saved with names and called up later or scheduled. Lighting schedules It wouldn’t be a smart light if you couldn’t schedule it to turn on and off, so of course you can use the Routines section of the app to program the lights to turn on and off, either at defined times or on a sunrise/sunset (or sunset/sunrise) schedule (with padding before or after those events). This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart lighting. The scheduling section of the app also lets you create lighting scenes, which are curiously distinct from the light shows I’ve already mentioned. Scenes give you the option of choosing a photo—or uploading one of your own—that will influence the illumination the light bars produce. Honestly, this feature seems like an afterthought, and it’s not one that I see myself using on a regular basis. The GE Cync Reveal Smart LED Undercabinet Bar Light proved to be a problem solver in my kitchen.Michael Brown/Foundry Should you buy GE Cync Reveal Smart LED Undercabinet Bar Lights? Unless you’re set on controlling everything with Matter and/or the Apple Home—or you don’t mind giving up the effects available in the app—these GE Cync Reveal Smart LED Undercabinet Bar Lights are a fabulous solution for smart task lighting in a kitchen or other workspace that has cabinets or shelves mounted over counters. The light bars are very easy to install and configure in the app, which offers a seemingly endless number of lighting colors, routines, and options. They produce high-quality task lighting when you’re cooking, working, or crafting; and their lighting scenes are great for entertaining or just relaxing.

If you’ve been following any architectural news for the past years, you’ve probably seen all the upcoming developments in the Middle East, with vast cities being built in the middle of the desert. The designs seem fantastical and at times outlandish, but these countries probably have the resources to pull those off. The UAE in particular has been pretty aggressive in planning for cities of the future. Design-wise, we get to see some amazing plans and renderings and most of them are also looking at sustainable construction and eco-friendly living. For example, Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has once again pushed the boundaries of architectural innovation with the unveiling of Oystra, a visionary seafront development located on Al Marjan Island in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE. Designed in collaboration with premium developer Richmind Properties, this project blends ZHA’s signature fluid aesthetics with forward-thinking sustainable design to create a landmark residential destination along the Arabian Gulf. Designer: Zaha Hadid Architects Spanning 128,000 square meters, Oystra comprises four dynamic 20-story towers whose sinuous forms echo the ripple-like patterns of waves meeting sand. The design draws deep inspiration from the natural rhythms of the sea and sky, with soft, flowing lines that give the towers a sense of motion and elegance, characteristic of ZHA’s organic architectural style. The towers will house over 950 residences, ranging from spacious one- to four-bedroom apartments to luxurious duplexes, penthouses, and waterfront villas. Impressively, more than 75% of the units offer unobstructed sea views, positioning Oystra as one of the most desirable waterfront addresses in the region. In line with the UAE’s drive for sustainable urban development, Oystra incorporates an array of green technologies tailored to the local environment. These include seawater-based cooling systems, thermally insulated facades, and architecturally integrated balconies designed to filter light and heat, all working together to reduce energy consumption while enhancing occupant comfort. Designed as much for lifestyle as for luxury, Oystra is a community rich with world-class amenities. Residents will have access to a European spa, yoga pavilions, personal training studios, paddle courts, a golf simulator, and a fully equipped games lounge. A 150-meter crystal lagoon offers a resort-like aquatic escape, while rooftop dining and an on-site cinema provide upscale entertainment options. One of the development’s most iconic features is the UAE’s first 360-degree rooftop infinity pool, offering panoramic views across the island and the Arabian Sea, a striking highlight that underscores Oystra’s commitment to luxury and innovation. Oystra is strategically located just a 10-minute walk from the upcoming Wynn Al Marjan Resort, the region’s first integrated resort with gaming facilities. Ras Al Khaimah itself is on a rapid growth trajectory, with booming tourism, expanding infrastructure, and increasing international investment, contributing to the emirate’s evolving global profile. With Oystra, Zaha Hadid Architects continue to redefine the standards of luxury living by harmonizing cutting-edge design, environmental responsibility, and a premium lifestyle experience. Set against the breathtaking backdrop of Al Marjan Island, this development is poised to become a landmark of modern architecture and a beacon for sophisticated coastal living in the UAE. The post Oystra towers aims to redefine Al Marjan Island skyline first appeared on Yanko Design.