Henderson Associates Architects, Inc

10/23/2026

𝗙𝗨𝗥𝗡𝗜𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗭𝗬

It’s Furniture Friday once again, so this time let’s look at some movers-and-shakers
in the form of contemporary modular furniture, from Murphy beds to customizable,
mobile work station plus under-desk pet bed.

In an IKEA-like move, plywood company Lozi [BOTTOM LEFT PHOTO} debuted its new modular system at September’s London Design Festival (LDF). This system includes a fold-down Murphy-style bed and “clean-lined wardrobes,” among other pieces that offer alternatives to bespoke cabinets and furniture.

The cute Omi Series 2 stool in Tardis blue [BOTTOM RIGHT] was just one contribution at the LDF hailing from Africa—this piece reinterpreting traditional African seating into a six-legged stool that can be modified into three separate modules yoked by steel rods.

Another debut at the LDF was the highly practical Advanced Concepts 2.0 modular
furniture system by the Canadian firm Dubbeldam Architecture + Design, which
features “a mobile work station, an under-desk pet holder, and a ceiling system
where coils descend from a grid to partition space,” with each piece flexible within
an office environment (with post-COVID offices in mind).

The workstation itself is essentially is a cube that can be easily re-located after first
docking to be fully charged. As far as electronics go, those include a cubicle-style
screen that can be raised and lowered to ensure privacy and a completely
electrified tabletop that can charge electronics placed on it.

Do any pieces in this mini-furniture roundup catch your eye?
https://www.dezeen.com/2026/10/04/innovative-practical-modular-furniture-designs/



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The center photo shows the Amoreba, which consists of hundreds of soft, upholstered balls that can be combined, with a range of configurations. It's by architecture and design studio Golem. Photo by Mathilde Hiley.

10/22/2026

𝗦𝗛𝗘𝗘𝗣'𝗦 𝗪𝗢𝗢𝗟 + 𝗦𝗘𝗔𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗗

Have you ever looked at a sheep’s coat and thought, now I can intregrate that into building materials to STRENGTHEN (not warm!) them? What about seaweed; could that help make a common building material better?

If you haven’t, you may need to pivot, just a little, because back in 2010, a group of scientists at the Universities of Seville and Strathclyde found that mixing sheep's wool fiber into clay could raise its strength under load by 37 percent (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101005085503.htm) compared with similar air-dried blocks without it.

A later study focused on seaweed as a binder, discovering that the best alginate, from a brown seaweed called Laminaria hyperborea, elevated the strength to more than double an untreated sample (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1617/s11527-016-0801-0).

Better-made bricks can mean not only strength gains, but also carbon reduction. “One life-cycle comparison found that swapping sun-dried bricks in for fired ones could save up to 5,907 kg of CO2 equivalent per 1,000 bricks.”

What these two preliminary studies in the lab show, says Space Daily, is “a direction.”

The old way of firing bricks in a kiln is proven but carbon-heavy. “This way is low-energy and promising and, for now, still a lab result. Whether it becomes a material you’d trust to hold up a roof is an open question, but it’s the kind worth watching.”

We agree and will keep an eye out for materials stories like these:
https://spacedaily.com/m-sheep-wool-was-mixed-into-clay-soil-along-with-alginate-a-polymer-taken-from-the-cell-walls-of-brown-seaweed-and-the-blocks-were-left-to-air-dry-rather-than-fired-adding-wool-fibre/

10/20/2026

𝗟𝗢𝗖𝗔𝗟 𝗦𝗢𝗟𝗔𝗥

Sustainability is a goal worth supporting at the local level, not just the national. That's why we were so enthused to be sought for a multilevel solar installation at a beloved community resource like the award-winning Glen Carbon (IL) Centennial Library.

You can peep our Instagram for the full spool, but here are a couple shots that illustrate this solar installation that speaks not only for the trees but for the net generation of Illinoisans: https://www.instagram.com/hendersonassociates/

10/19/2026

𝗥𝗢𝗕𝗢𝗧𝗦 𝗜𝗡 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡

Not only is the United States facing a shortage of affordable housing, but the pace at which skilled tradespeople are available to replace those retiring or industry growth is just not enough. To put some numbers to this, the National Association of Home Builders 2026 Housing Outlook showed that about 1.2 million homes were needed while 300,000 construction jobs were open at the end of 2025. Further, NAHB estimates that almost 740,000 workers a year are needed to replace the losses.

Something has to be done to stem the tide. CNBC reports that, according to NAHB chief economist Robert Dietz, labor shortages alone subtract “about $11 billion a year [from homebuilders’ pockets] through higher costs and lost production and add roughly two months to the average construction timeline.”

Can robots be introduced into this equation, perhaps helping to automate repetitive, or even dangerous, tasks? The jury’s still out on that, but automatons are making some strides (just don’t watch them face-planting or exploding at this summer’s robot “Olympics”
in Beijing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjrqx1PAG70). Particularly in controlled environments, but less so on ever-changing construction sites.

So far, robots have not been replacing human workers wholesale, but they have improved things “in highly repetitive, well-structured tasks, including layout, factory automation, and task-specific applications such as drilling, fastening, and material handling.
Vineet Kamat, a University of Michigan professor who studies construction robotics, noted that the biggest positives of roboticized ‘workers’ is not in full labor replacement but increased precision, reduced errors, and greater throughput.

Check out the rest of the analysis here: https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/09/12/housing-shortage-home-construction-robots.html



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One example is Dusty Robotics' FieldPrinter, which converts digital building plans into marks that it puts directly onto the floor. It can mark walls, plumbing, electrical and mechanical locations, images, text, and even QR codes that give instructions to different tradespeople.

10/08/2026

𝗔 𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗡 𝗛𝗢𝗨𝗦𝗘

Is it a house or giant planter? Could it be both?

With the sprawling jungle that is four-level 111 House in the heart of São Paulo, Brazil—a collaboration between architect Isay Weinfeld and landscape architect Rodrigo Oliveira collaborate—anything is possible!

Weinfeld’s expertise as a post-Oscar Niemeyer modernist applying contemporary themes has offered a perfect backdrop where the 5,564-square-foot home meets the ample, naturalistic, Japanese-inspired ‘asymmetrical’ 3,000-square-foot garden in a residential home for a small family.

Flowers, planters, and greenery populate every level of the home, and they seemingly crawl up each side of the structure, too.
Fran Parente’s photographs of this remarkable tropical residence are not to be missed: https://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/residential/sao-paulo-house-isay-weinfeld-rodrigo-oliveira-brazil

Isay Weinfeld and landscape architect Rodrigo Oliveira collaborate in this São Paulo house, where modernist-inspired, contemporary architecture goes hand in hand with tropical planting

10/05/2026

𝗠𝗘𝗘𝗧 𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗜𝗚𝗡 𝗣𝗥𝗢

If you've not had the pleasure to meet our newest design professional, Elle Malacarne, yet, here's an informal chance to trace this SIBA graduate's journey from Belleville West all the way to Henderson.

We are so proud of our team and hope you'll also welcome Elle (middle in the photo) into your midst: https://hendersonarchitects.com/meet-our-design-professional/

10/02/2026

𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗕𝗘𝗘𝗦

It’s a Friday in Fall, so let's go bee-yond the ordinary, to a very niche tiny home fit for the people and the bees: dubbed House and Beeyard, by OKKA architects (in Hungarian: okka.hu).

In the rural countryside of Hungary, a traditional stone home and ‘beeyard’ for storing hives lay in disrepair. “Instead of reconstructing the buildings with conventional modern systems, the project developed a construction method that integrates the remains of the original house into the new architecture.”

Material reuse guided the architect-owner of the home, with “Stones from the demolished house . . . carefully salvaged and incorporated into the walls of the new buildings.”

“The ensemble consists of the main house and the Beeyard, organized around a shared outdoor space that recalls the layout of the former farmstead. Inside, the ceiling of the open living space and the built-in furniture in both buildings are made from spruce plywood panels. The roof is finished with traditional wooden shingles.”

This tiny rural home (about 871 square feet) with an understated, minimalist vibe seems to fit the Hungarian countryside, don’t you think?

Check out the gallery: https://www.archdaily.com/1184944/house-and-beeyard-okka-architects



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Photos © Balázs Danyi

09/30/2026

𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗦𝗖𝗨𝗟𝗣𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘𝗦

Although you’ll have to trek all the way to Mexico, it will be worth it (in our opinion) to see the mythic and fantastical Quetzalcóatl Park by Javier Senosiain Aguilar. Begun in 2007, the Aztec-inspired park remains in progress, though an airbnb is nearby for rental.

Explore the park grounds, about an hour outside Mexico City, and you’d find a mosaic snake-head fountain feature, a rainbow greenhouse studded with stained glass, and sinuous trails galore. Animal-formed topiary dot the grounds, too, and The Farm, one of the park’s inhabitable spaces, was created to house domestic animals—in a cavernous, museum-like space from the looks of it. “A living garden where architecture breathes” is about as apt a synopsis as any.

If you’re curious about Senosiain’s techniques, such as ferro-cement using metal rods as an inner ‘skeleton’ of sorts, check out the piece here: https://www.designboom.com/architecture/inside-the-serpentine-world-of-javier-senosiains-quetzalcoatl-park/

Visit this psychdelic park where ceilings melt into floors online (or book one of the limited tours): https://www.parquequetzalcoatl.com/en
~~~ OR ~~~
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parquequetzalcoatl
https://www.instagram.com/javiersenosiaina/

09/29/2026

𝗠𝗜𝗗𝗖𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗬 𝗦𝗧𝗬𝗟𝗘

Creature comforts for the midcentury homeowner extended to a comfortable spot to enjoy convos with friends and neighbors via the very much stationary telephone, and furniture grew up to support this need in the form of the sometimes unflatteringly spoken of “gossip bench,” as opposed to the utilitarian alliteration of the “telephone table.”

Along with those rotary dial phones (IYKYK) and ever-tangled lines, the telephone table went out of style and use in the 1980s as cordless and, eventually, mobile or wireless phones took hold.
Could telephone tables be making a comeback, though? They provide a convenient rest stop for, say, a foyer or perhaps even a mud room if you’re apt to sit and read your mail or phone when first arriving home and taking off your shoes, coat, etc.

This short, fun piece shows the evolution from sitting rooms of the late 19th century, when telephones were status symbols, to the nooks and parlors of the war years, and finally on to telephone tales and benches, whilst exploring telephoniana such as the Long Island Telephone Museum and the legendary Princess Phone.
Dial into the past here: https://www.dwell.com/article/remember-when-your-phone-had-its-own-gossip-bench-4a813c49

How household landlines spawned a booming, now obsolete, mid-20th-century furniture category—one that might be coming back into fashion.

09/24/2026

FOR SALE

Don’t call him Canada’s Frank Lloyd Wright.

And yet, British-Canadian designer and architect Fred Thornton shows an aptitide for midcentury residential designs not un-reminiscent of FLW’s work—namely The Mahogany House in Canada.

The home is located in Sunset Gardens, a neighborhood of about 50 houses in North Vancouver’s Canyon Heights district. Blending European residential and West Coast modernism, the four-bedroom, 1990-square-foot Mahogany is largely original since its ownership has been the same since 1970.

It boasts a private garden, plus exterior cladding in mahogany boat plywood, with a similar plywood veneer throughout the interior. “The result is a warm jewel of a structure, with precise cabinetry and carpentry paired with solid painted concrete blocks, large panes of glass, and high-level windows.”

Do you spot a few Wright influences in this $2.9M midcentury modern beauty?

https://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/residential/fred-hollingsworths-mahogany-house-is-a-hidden-jewel-of-mid-century-modernism