The home renovator is well served on the iPad and iPhone, with apps that do everything from measure square meters to provide information on more than 150 kinds of wood.

But what about the architecture geek, who longs to spend hours scrolling through the blueprints of a Case Study House?

In recent months, several new apps have focused on specific works of architecture, like Richard Neutra's VDL Studio and Residences, Pierre Koenig's Case Study House No. 22 and Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, bringing those masterworks into the digital age.

The latter two were created by in-D media, a California-based company that has been producing architecture videos and CD-ROMs since the late-'90s and last year began transferring its wealth of content into mobile app form.

The company's founder, Timothy Sakamoto, created the apps, which sell for about $5 to $10 at the iTunes store, with his business partner, Jochen Repolust. Mr. Sakamoto recently talked about the small but growing niche of i-architecture:

Q. Do you think apps are a better way to experience great architecture than the videos you produced?

A. I think the ideal platform is a mobile app: it gives you intimacy, a connection. You interact with it more like a book, but it comes with advantages that you just don't have with books, like being able to watch video or take an interactive tour.

With a CD-ROM you use a mouse, so you're two feet from the computer screen, removed from the process. On the iPad, by swiping your finger, you get this tactile experience that's closer to experiencing the tactile world of architecture. It feels that much closer to being there.

Q. Who is downloading these apps? Architecture students? Design geeks?

A. The users tend to be architects and people in the design field. Often they haven't been to these buildings, even though they've been to architecture school.

You get some people saying, "Nine ninety-nine for an app, that's outrageous!" People think of apps as games, and they want to pay 99 cents. But a book of this nature would be $50. If anything, with the Fallingwater app, we put too much content on there.

Q. What other buildings or architects do you plan to give the app treatment to?

A. We're working on one for Taliesin West. It's an update of the DVD we produced and should be out in a month or two. I think we might be heading to Europe.

There are some early Modernist architects like Le Corbusier that have a lot of appeal.

There are a lot of fantastic buildings all over the world, and only a few people can visit many of them in person. But we could make a super app.

The New York Times

(China Daily 02/19/2012 page11)