Dream Downtown Hotel

Design | Handel Architects

Stadtmuseum Rapperswil Jona Extension

Lightmos Thonglor

Fretwork is nothing new when it comes to external architecture, but the hole punch affect puts a different spin on the more traditional look. The most recent display comes from the newly renovated Dream Downtown Hotel in NYC which uses punched stainless steel and port holes to create “floating bubbles” when the light hits it just right.

Other designs in Switzerland and Thailand are less regimented with different circular combinations, positions and sizes to keep the eye wandering. The Stadtmuseum Rapperswil Jona Extension in Switzerland is my favourite with folded, punched bronze holding it’s own next to 13th Century stone.

– Siobhán McGurrin