A Chill Hotel in Every Way But One

This article is part of our Design special section about making the environment a creative partner in the design of beautiful homes. When representatives of Grupo Habita asked the architect Alberto Kalach to design an earth-friendly, energy-efficient hotel along the jungle coast of Oaxaca, he knew he would need a few things in return. The…

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Why Monumental Cream Puff Towers Are on the Rise

THE CHEF MOST often credited with inventing the croquembouche, the French-born confection that towers haughtily over any table it graces, was, unsurprisingly, an architecture enthusiast. Toward the end of the French Revolution, years before he baked the cake for Napoleon Bonaparte’s (second) wedding, Marie-Antoine Carême began an apprenticeship at a patisserie near the Palais Royal.…

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A House That Is as Green as It Gets

This article is part of our Design special section about making the environment a creative partner in the design of beautiful homes. Eleven years ago, Sally Liu, a water-resources engineer, and her husband Bay Chang, then a senior research scientist for Google, bought a 0.84-acre lot for $2.675 million in suburban Hillsborough, Calif. Avid environmentalists…

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