North America

What this cluster covers

North America is where industrial construction was tested at scale first. The balloon frame made timber housing fast and repeatable, the Chicago steel frame made height possible, and the postwar continent then built a suburban model whose energy and land consequences are the working brief for much of today's retrofit work.

Alongside that industrial line runs a strong regional one: Quebec and New England timber traditions, adobe and rammed earth in the Southwest, Louisiana's climate-driven galleries and raised floors, Pacific Northwest wood modernism, and the Prairie School's flattened horizon. Each solves a specific climate rather than importing a style, which is why they remain useful references.

Entries here cover mass timber and CLT construction, seismic design on the west coast, insulation and airtightness retrofits of stick-framed housing, adaptive reuse of industrial fabric, and the urbanism questions — zoning, density, parking — that decide whether any of the above gets built. Cities discussed include New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.