Compass Bonfire / Messina | Rivas
Architects messina | rivas are renovating the Bonfire of Paiol Grande in São Bento do Sapucaí, Brazil, slated for completion in 2025. The new design transforms the fire pit into a compass‑like structure with twelve directional supports and a south‑facing stage that points toward the iconic Pedra do Baú landmark. Built from locally sourced eucalyptus benches and native stone, the project expands capacity for children’s educational activities while reinforcing a tactile connection to the surrounding landscape. The concept blends storytelling space with a functional lesson in geography and time.
Designing for Obsolescence in an Age of Perpetual Upgrades
Designing for obsolescence argues that buildings outlive the technologies they host, creating a mismatch between durable structures and rapidly evolving systems. Historical examples—from 19th‑century railway gauge wars to 20th‑century telephone exchanges and early data centers—illustrate how infrastructure becomes functionally obsolete...
OMA’s Metropolitan Village Advances Toward Completion in Taipei’s Xinyi District
OMA’s Metropolitan Village, a 23‑storey, 95‑metre residential tower in Taipei’s Xinyi CBD, is advancing toward completion with construction now at the highest structural element. Developed for Continental Development Corporation, the project broke ground in 2024 and targets a 2027 finish,...
Unearthing the Ground: Architecture and the Politics of Oil
Petroleum’s extraction, transport and petrochemical by‑products form a hidden architectural layer that reshapes cities worldwide. From Baku’s early oil‑filled coastline to Texas fields and Gulf complexes, oil infrastructure converts geological depth into economic value, dictating land division, road placement and...
Overlap No Ma House / IGArchitects
The Overlap no Ma house in Uruma, Okinawa, is a 72 m² residence designed for a retired couple seeking a living environment that adapts to their evolving lifestyle. Rather than partitioning spaces by function, the design treats the structure as a flexible...
Home Pavilion / MRTN Architects
The Home Pavilion, designed by MRTN Architects, is a 280 m² residence completed in 2024 that centralises the kitchen, dining and living areas within a distinct corner pavilion. Inspired by the client’s memories of Eichler homes, the design adopts California Modern...
Anglesea House / Eckersley Architects
Anglesea House, a 350 m² two‑storey residence overlooking Victoria’s Southern Ocean, reinterprets 1950s‑60s coastal modernism for a couple and their extended family. Replacing a 1970s structure on a 720 m² sloping site, the home uses an H‑plan to create two sheltered courtyards...
Vespa House / Habitat Studio Architects
Vespa House, designed by Habitat Studio Architects, is a 2024 subtropical family retreat that blends raw concrete, timber, and black accents with biophilic principles. A monolithic western façade and floating roof with deep overhangs provide privacy and passive solar control,...
GM House / Frederico Bicalho Arquitetura
The GM House, a 600 m² residence designed by Frederico Bicalho for 2025, tackles a steep site with a longitudinal layout that frames mountain views and safeguards privacy. Access is routed over a reflective water mirror to social spaces that open...
Auga Optical Salon / Znamy Się
Migdal Studio’s Auga Optical Salon translates the human visual system into architecture, guiding visitors through a spatial journey that mirrors light’s path through the eye. The design features a biconvex glass lens, a burl‑wood counter symbolizing the macula, and blue‑gradient...
Chr. Tomters Veg House / Rever & Drage Architects
Rever & Drage Architects expanded the modest red‑painted cottage in Chr. Tomters veg, Rælingen, by adding two new volumes that double the living space for a large family. The design links the original house with a winter garden and a...
De Hartenrust Residential Building / Van Bergen Kolpa Architects
De Hartenrust, designed by van Bergen Kolpa architects, will add 36 affordable social‑housing units to Rotterdam’s Rotte riverbank in 2025. The 4,160 m² development combines a nine‑storey tower, three‑storey townhouses and four‑storey corner houses, creating a sculptural presence that links the dense Oude Noorden district...
Xindu • Herbal Fragrant Cottage / Archermit
Herbal Fragrant Cottage, a 1,015 m² project in Xindu District, Chengdu, reinterprets traditional Linpan settlements through a contemporary architectural lens. The design weaves agrarian scenery into the building fabric, using criss‑crossing paths, a sunken tea room, and a sloped roof that...
Concrete Curtain House / FGR Architects
FGR Architects’ Concrete Curtain House, a 500 m² residence completed in 2023, interprets suburban complexity through a layered façade of rippling concrete columns and expansive glass. The concrete “curtain” functions as a brise‑soleil, delivering thermal performance while preserving privacy and allowing...
Casa La Ladera / Estudio Diagonal
Casa La Ladera, designed by Sebastián Armijo Oyarzún, is a 220 m² residence built in 2021 on a steep hillside overlooking Lake Puyehue in southern Chile. The project organizes two stepped volumes that follow the natural slope, reducing earthworks and creating...
Wooden Blocks / YH2 Architecture
YH2 Architecture’s 2020 Wooden Blocks residence spans 3,750 ft² on a rocky outcrop above Lake Memphremagog. The house consists of two offset cedar volumes – a lower block anchored to the slope and a floating upper block – creating a double‑height overlap...
Lake Views / JA Joubert Architecture
Lake Views is a 100,000 m² mixed‑use development by JA Joubert Architecture on Tirana’s lakefront, completed in 2024. The project stacks residential units above commercial spaces and parking, using sloped volumes that guarantee every apartment an outward view of the lake, city...
XiaoZhuo Flagship Store / Offhand Practice
Emerging fashion label XiaoZhuo opened its flagship store in a 1930s heritage garden house on Shanghai’s Wukang Road. The 760 m² renovation preserves the historic façade while introducing a continuous green path that links two outdoor yards and five storeys, blurring...
Corner Apartment / Prokop Hartl
Prokop Hartl renovated a 115 m² corner apartment in a 1930s Prague building, creating a family‑friendly layout that preserves the era’s character while adding modern functionality. The design opens the floor plan to capture expansive Vltava River views and incorporates a...
Kéré Architecture Designs Healthcare Center in Burundi Using Regional Materials and Community-Based Construction
Kéré Architecture is designing a 3,000 m² healthcare centre in Burundi’s Bubanza region, using ten pavilions that follow the hillside terrain. The clinic, commissioned by NGO Ineza Clinic, focuses on maternity and specialized surgical care and relies on locally sourced clay...
Evenly Lit, Not Overlit: Rethinking Brightness in Subtropical Cities
In subtropical Asian cities such as Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, western‑facing sunlight is increasingly seen as a source of glare, heat and visual fatigue. Architects and interior designers are moving away from the default strategy of flooding spaces with downlights,...
Form, Function, and Funding: The High-Tech Urbanism of San Francisco
San Francisco’s urban fabric is being reshaped by the tech economy, driving a wave of high‑tech architecture and material refinement while sidelining existing residents. The city faces a mandate to add more than 82,000 housing units by 2031 under California’s...
Villa Modda / Depaolidefranceschibaldan Architetti
Villa Modda, a 300 m² residence in Val di Noto completed in 2026 by depaolidefranceschibaldan architetti, restores a cluster of abandoned rural structures and adds a contemporary extension that respects bioclimatic principles and local craftsmanship. The project preserves the original stone...
Adaptive Cabins in Costa Rica: Designing for Humidity and Ventilation in the Jungle
Adaptive cabins in Costa Rica are being designed to withstand extreme precipitation and high humidity typical of the jungle environment. Architects employ minimal site invasion, thermal gradients, and passive ventilation to achieve structural durability and low-maintenance operation. The cabins use...
Repeat Wellness Club / MEAN* (Middle East Architecture Network)
Repeat Wellness Club transformed a former commercial unit in a protected historic building into a fluid wellness hub through adaptive‑reuse. The design preserves the original façade while reconfiguring the irregular interior with curved modular elements, natural clay walls, and a...
Point Lonsdale House / Field Office Architecture
Point Lonsdale House, a 310 m² coastal residence designed by Field Office Architecture, blends restrained modernism with historic context near Alfred Deakin’s Ballara estate. The split‑level layout places durable blockwork below and timber‑clad volume above, optimizing north‑sun exposure and southern views....
Shanghai Guohua Finance Center / AI Planetworks Limited
Shanghai Guohua Finance Center, designed by AI Planetworks, delivers a high‑performance office complex that balances dense commercial use with civic responsibility. Two perimeter towers frame a 3,000‑square‑metre public plaza, while a parametric façade adjusts opacity to cut cooling demand by roughly...
Casa NP Renovation / Tésa Architetture
Casa NP, a 140 m² barn renovation in the Reggiano‑Modenese region, was completed in early 2026 after a four‑year restoration. The project retained the historic vaulted structure and central portico while inserting a contemporary open‑plan residence that unfolds across staggered levels. A...
Reach Hospital Lounge / Sherpa
South Korean architects Shin Yeon Ho and Mo Byeong Guk unveiled the Reach Hospital Lounge, an 83 m² patient‑centric space at Rich Oriental Hospital slated for 2025. The design employs high ceilings, a diagonal ceiling plane, and floating furniture to create...
Nafas-E-No (New Breath) Clinic / Event Office
Architect Meysam Hatami has repurposed a decaying traditional house in Babol into the Nafas‑e‑No psychotherapy clinic, covering 1,000 m². The design blends the preserved brick façade with a minimalist interior of white surfaces and muted green accents to foster calm. Indirect...
UNSW Health Translation Hub / Architectus
UNSW’s Health Translation Hub, a 14‑storey landmark, physically links the university’s Kensington campus with the Randwick Health and Innovation Precinct via glazed pedestrian bridges and a permeable ground plane. The building’s adaptive façade reduces solar gain by 60% and delivers...
Casa Branca / NEBR Arquitetura
Brazilian firm NEBR arquitetura unveiled Casa Branca, a 150 m² residence slated for 2026 in Pernambuco’s Zona da Mata. The design emphasizes minimalist, silent geometry, using high‑performance materials from Alcoa, Celite, Lanxess Bayferrox, Tigre and others. A white, prism‑like façade contrasts...
House in Pradet / Clara Crous Arquitectura
Clara Crous Arquitectura’s Casa al Pradet, a 235 m² residence in Vilamacolum, was built on a triangular lot using a lightweight, pre‑machined wooden frame. Construction was synchronized with the local corn harvest, allowing farm labor to participate and embedding agricultural cycles into...
Place Tenaquip - Affordable Housing Units / L. McComber
Place Tenaquip converts a long‑abandoned tavern in Lachine into an 18‑unit affordable housing complex for people experiencing homelessness. Led by architect Laurent McComber and funded by the Tenaquip Foundation, CMHC, SHQ, the City of Montreal and Fonds de solidarité FTQ, the project...
Ananda House / Thought Parallels
Thought Parallels designed Ananda House, a 3,000 ft² residence for a Dallas‑based couple adjacent to their ancestral home in India. The project reinterprets regional vernacular through a contemporary lens, using an expansive overhanging roof as the visual anchor in a tight urban...
Orms Appointed to Lead Redevelopment of London’s BT Tower Into Hotel
London architecture firm Orms has been appointed to spearhead the conversion of the iconic BT Tower into a hotel for American hospitality group MCR Hotels. The Grade II‑listed 177‑metre tower, acquired in early 2024, will undergo public consultation in May,...
Mobility Justice: Urban Equity in an Era of Innovation
Mobility justice reframes transportation planning as a political issue, emphasizing equity, sustainability, and inclusive design. The article outlines three core commitments—accessibility for underserved groups, environmental justice, and community‑driven processes—and showcases global examples from Barcelona, Medellín, Bogotá, Seoul, Montreal, Mexico City,...
L’Ile Folie / MARC FORNES + THEVERYMANY
French architect Marc Fornes has unveiled L’île Folie, a sculptural pavilion that rises from a pond in Downtown Cary Park. The structure reinterprets the 19th‑century park folly using a self‑supporting skin of ultra‑thin folded aluminum panels with thousands of perforations. It...
Living Continuum Studio and House / Damith S Munasinghe Associates
Living Continuum Studio and House, designed by Damith S Munasinghe for 2025, is a 2,400 ft² two‑storey residence‑studio in Malabe, Sri Lanka. Built on a 7.5‑perch compact site, the project merges daily living with design work through flexible, open‑plan spaces and four interior...
HVM Maya / Perkins&Will
Perkins & Will’s HVM Maya, an 18,000 m² luxury tower in Campo Grande, Brazil, reimagines high‑end living by merging the building with the adjacent Parque das Nações Indígenas. The design uses a west‑facing circulation belt and brise‑soleils to achieve passive thermal comfort, while exposed...
Hotel Palácio De Tavira / Fragmentos
The Hotel Palácio de Tavira, slated for 2025 completion, revitalises a historic 18th‑ and 19th‑century palace in Tavira’s centre while adding a contemporary addition called the Medina. Architects Pedro Silva Lopes and Marcus Cerdeira preserved original façades, stone staircase, ceramics...
Facing the Age of Robots? Material Innovation in Architectural Structures
Robotic systems are reshaping architectural construction by moving beyond simple automation to become material makers. Advanced six‑axis arms, mobile platforms and 3D‑printing robots now translate computational designs directly into built forms, enabling complex geometries and on‑site adaptation. Projects such as...
Aurva Illam House / Iki Builds
Aurva Illam, a 5,660 ft² prototype on Hyderabad’s urban fringe, reimagines luxury through reclaimed stone, rammed‑earth walls and passive‑solar geometry. The design stacks ascending vaults that create shade, harness stack‑effect ventilation and eliminate mechanical cooling. Integrated rainwater harvesting and terracotta insulation...
Self-Sustaining Farmhouse / Manoj Patel Design Studio
Manoj Patel Design Studio unveiled a 1,500 ft² self‑sustaining farmhouse on a 30,000 ft² plot near Vadodara, India. The design relies on self‑shading brick walls, curved and angular volumes, and a central glazed volume to maximize daylight, ventilation, and thermal comfort. Materials...
Wood House / JAK Architecture
JAK Architecture transformed a fragmented Barwon Heads home into a cohesive, family‑focused residence while preserving the original footprint. Working with a $600,000 budget and a tight timeline, the firm added modest extensions that sit beneath the existing envelope, emphasizing restraint...
OMA / Shohei Shigematsu Designs Ellipsoidal Pavilion for Mushroom Cultivation at Casa Wabi in Oaxaca, Mexico
OMA’s New York office, led by Shohei Shigematsu, opened a 200 m² ellipsoidal pavilion at Fundación Casa Wabi in Oaxaca on 4 March 2026. The concrete‑shell structure serves as an incubator for mushroom cultivation, featuring three climate‑controlled chambers and a central viewing space. Its curved...
Bondi House / Nick Kent Design
Bondi House, designed by Nick Kent Design, showcases a lightweight, steel‑framed structure that hovers above a native garden, creating a sculptural retreat in Bondi. The house uses a modular 150 UC portal‑frame system and a 2000 mm × 900 mm grid to accelerate construction and...
Caetés House / Ateliê GR
Casa Caetés, designed by Gabriel Rodrigues Grinspum, is a 243 m² three‑story residence built on an urban mixed‑use lot for a large family of seven. The compact layout separates work, social, and intimate zones across street‑level, semi‑buried, and upper floors, integrating...
Buildner and Kingspan Launch MICROHOME 2026 With €100K in Awards and Announce 10th Edition Winners
Buildner, in partnership with Kingspan, has launched MICROHOME 2026, the eleventh edition of its global micro‑home competition, offering a €100,000 prize pool. The contest challenges architects and designers to create modular, self‑sufficient homes no larger than 25 m² that prioritize sustainability, affordability...
Kingdee Cloud Tower / HENN Architekten
Kingdee’s Cloud Tower, a 211‑metre highrise slated for 2025, will complete the company’s software park in Shenzhen’s Nanshan district, adding 98,800 m² of office, conference and restaurant space. The pentagonal, cantilevered form maximizes a narrow site, creating an open‑air lobby and...