The Kona Residence, by Belzberg Architects, uses Italian ceramic tiles.

Calling all architects and designers: Show off the beauty of Italian tiles while celebrating NYCxDesign and you could win a trip to Italy! Ceramics of Italy is bringing its gorgeous tiles to ICFF (the International Contemporary Furniture Fair) May 18 through 21, and launching a fun Instagram competition while there!

All you need to do is visit the Italian Pavilion (Booth #1432) at ICFF or any Italian ceramic and porcelain tile dealer exhibit or showroom located in the Tri-State area from May 13 to 21, snap a photo of your favorite Italian ceramic tile, and post it on Instagram for a chance to win a trip to Italy for Cersaie 2013. Make sure to tag your image with #architilesitaly and include the name of the manufacturer! (For all terms and conditions, please see the contest rules.)

So what are you waiting for? Follow @ceramicsofitaly on Instagram and start snapping! And make sure to visit the Italian Pavilion during ICFF, featuring eight of Ceramics of Italy’s popular tile brands, along with a special exhibition celebrating 20 years of exemplary projects by North American architects and designers using Italian ceramics.

Visit italytile.com for more details.

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Miele Kitchen by Tamie Glass & Uli Danel

That headline catch your attention? Good. We’ve got an amazing competition for you—and best of all anyone can enter: architects, interior designers, home builders, or just anyone who likes to cook (and has a space in which to do it!).

We’ve teamed up with The German appliance company Miele in search of the coolest kitchens in the world. With its full suite of kitchen appliances that double as objets d’art, Miele wants to see how you use its products to enable the most cutting-edge kitchen design.

Starting today, April 22, Miele and Architizer invite all architects, interior designers, kitchen designers, home builders, developers, interior architects, and home owners to submit their exceptional Miele kitchens for a chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip for two to Eurocucina in Milan, along with a visit to Miele’s international headquarters in Gütersloh Germany! The winning designs will be featured on Architizer.com and shared with Architizer’s 1,000,000+ social media fans.

Entries must include at least three Miele appliances, and must be submitted by July 12. For more information and submission guidelines, check out the competition page. Good luck!

Miele Kitchen by Jorge Martinez

Miele Kitchen by Cassie Wyner

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Caesarstone’s popular Classico line now includes quartz surfaces inspired by marble. Five colors are available. Pictured here is Dreamy Marfil, a blend of creamy beiges with light brown veins. All photos: Caesarstone

Even to those unfamiliar with architectural history, marble is easily recognized as a building material entrenched in cultural meaning—thousands of years of meaning, no less. The natural stone has been quarried, cut, and reassembled into icons such as the Parthenon, the Taj Mahal, and just about every monument in Washington, D.C.

Even when societies embraced concrete, steel, and glass as the material harbingers of the modern built environment, marble easily found a place in the architectural avant-garde, bringing its historic gravitas into buildings by Mies van der Rohe, Adolf Loos, and others. In these modern circumstances, the coveted stone shed some of its significance as a natural building block, and greater attention was paid to its aesthetic properties: its natural grain, its impression of durability, and its cool touch.

Well aware of marble’s complex cachet, quartz surface manufacturer Caesarstone has launched a new line of marble-colored quartz surfaces that not only reaffirms marble’s significance in architectural culture but also hails its visceral connection to nature. Read more.

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Jane Smith, of Spacesmith, and the Brooklyn Bridge Pop-up Pool by Spacesmith + David Brody Bond. Photo: Kevin Chu/KCJP

Talk about girl crush. Jane Smith started out as an interior designer at Prudential Financial, traveled the world with ExxonMobil, and, after getting her MBA from New York University, started her own firm. She now runs Spacesmith, an architecture, planning, and interior-design firm based in New York City.

Spacesmith specializes in public sector, education, and corporate interior projects, and the firm’s work includes such city-boosting projects as the Brooklyn Bridge Park Pop-up Pool and the Part of the Solution soup kitchen in the Bronx.

Jane is currently chair of the Interior Design Department at the School of Visual Arts in New York, where she helps to strengthen and inspire young talent. Her other clients include Donna Karan, Mulberry, Avon, New York University, and more. We asked her some questions about her work, how architecture gives back to the community, and design education. Click through for the interview!

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After the obscene amounts of chocolates and candies you consumed over the course of Valentine’s Day, your teeth should be feeling the sharp pang of regret right about now. Who knows the kind of damage you inflicted on your pearly whites (and jaw—Charleston Chew, we’re looking at you)! To relieve the pain we suggest two possible solutions: overcome your erstwhile fear of teeth cleanings, fillings, and gas masks, and get thy rump in a dentist chair; or just have a look at our top favorite dental offices.*

Who would have guessed that dentistry—that most unhip profession—could look this cool? Click through for the slideshow!

*Disclaimer: we cannot guarantee the efficacy of the latter.

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The big day is finally here, and you better have ordered those flowers. It’s Valentine’s Day, the loveliest—or ugliest, depending on your view—day of the year. We’ve spent the last two days attempting to set the mood with tantalizing boudoirs and wineries, but now it’s time to get down to what really matters: chocolate.

Love— it’s great and all, but we all know that Valentine’s is really all about the chocolate and candy (obviously!). If you know us at all, you’ll know that we like to overindulge in the sweet stuff(s) in more ways than one. So what better way to celebrate a holiday that glorifies mass consumption of chocolates than to roundup our favorite sugar-inspired locales. All these ten projects are devoted entirely to the manufacturing, selling, and even fashion of our favorite decadent desserts. The architects and designers behind these tasty schemes will surely satisfy all your sugar cravings. Click through for the slideshow!

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Project: Cahier d’Exercices Boutique

Architect: Saucier + Perrotte Architectes

Location: Montréal, Canada

Function: Inserted into a historic warehouse, the Cahier d’Exercices boutique cleverly employes a color gradient from glossy black at the entrance to diaphanous white at the far back of the store to visually draw in visitors, activating the often underutilized rear of the store. Scarlet red columns pace the length of the retail space, the only hint of chroma amid the elegant grayscale surroundings. Carefully placed mirrors and strip lighting create the illusion of a much larger space.  Read more about this project in the Architizer database.

Think you’ve got a better project? Submit it for an Architizer A+ Award!

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2011 Residential Winner: Kona House, by Belzberg Architects

You don’t get to 20 years without doing something right. The 2013 Ceramics of Italy Tile Competition, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, is clearly doing something right. Over the last two decades, Ceramics of Italy (CoI) has forged a unique relationship with architects and designers, consistently championing their work through mass (i.e. global) publicizing and, just as important, cash prizes ($15,000 in all), not to mention (3) free trips to Italy. This year’s iteration is a milestone for the architecture and design community to be sure, but also another opportunity for practitioners to get their work out there. Click through for more on how to enter!

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If Goldilocks ever taught us anything, it’s that the perfect chair is hard to find. Some are too rigid and hard and some are so soft it’s a wonder you can even pull yourself from the cushion. The awesome ID5 Interactive Systems faculty  and students at UdK Berlin created a piece called “1001″ that is a supportive seat and comfortable chaise lounge in one. Using the utmost in new CAD design and technology, this amazing seat bends and curls to each intuitive human movement, making it perfect for any form of enjoyment. Read more!

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Don’t know what to get the stylin’ architect in your life for the holidays? No problem: Architizer’s got you covered. We’ve combed the globe for the coolest, weirdest, and most fashion-forward bags, T-shirts, accessories, and even shoes that even the most discerning design snobs will love. And don’t worry: we’ve included plenty of (not-so-basic) black. Click through to see our picks!

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