Specialist information for architects

Here you can find special subscription offerings for architecture offices. We present specialist literature for you and your colleagues – books, single issues, or issue bundles. You can also find a range of stylish products and gifts from the DETAIL Collection.

The online database DETAIL Inspiration supports you in your search for inspiration for sophisticated designs and building solutions. With more than 4,000 project documentations from more than 30 years of DETAIL, DETAIL Inspiration is the largest research and inspiration platform of its kind.

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The book documents the most exciting projects in Amsterdam‘s current architectural scene, including floating houses, hotels in former bridge keepers‘ cottages, and carefully renovated cultural monuments such as the Felix Meritis or a bicycle garage under a harbour basin. The built showcase projects provide an insight into Amsterdam‘s urban resilience and innovative approaches to housing. Supplementary essays and interviews with the protagonists of architecture take a look behind the scenes of their ideas workshop. The contributions complete the picture of a vibrant and forward-looking architectural culture.

Perhaps you’d like to expand your library and you would like to order entire series or multiple selected titles: Please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Subscribe to DETAIL with selected articles on relevant topics. Take advantage of special issues that deal with the topics you are currently working on or obtain combined knowledge with our yearly packages.

Issue 12/2025

We humans long for daylight, a view of greenery, and a sense of connection. Yet today, transparent building envelopes seem less in demand. Instead of granting views in and out, we create retreats. What forms of transparency remain desirable amid social uncertainty and urban densification? And do transparent or translucent envelopes still make sense when contemporary energy concepts are applied? Light, air, and sun are no longer universally welcome. The spaces behind the climate envelope must be protected from solar gains and heat loss. Limited opening ratios, smart building technology, and algorithm-driven facade design have become the norm. In such scenarios, people are treated as disruptive elements, better kept passive.

Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal show that another way is possible. Working with 51N4E in Brussels, Lacaton & Vassal recently extended a residential block in the Peterbos district using their familiar approach: adding new winter gardens. Transparent and translucent sliding panels alternate, while curtains provide shade or privacy when needed. The result is adaptable space that responds to changing conditions – yet always leaves the final decision to the human user. A drawn curtain can create a sense of withdrawal, but it can just as easily be opened again. Claudia Hildner

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