Architecture and design projects

Diamonds of Jerusalem stone shroud the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance's new Ari Kushner Building, but the solid skin they make dissolves in places, disappearing entirely at the entrance. Matthias Hollwich, founder of New York-based architects HWKN, describes the facade design as ‘a gesture of invitation’. Inside the box-shaped 2,500 sq m building, an atrium cuts th...

If your world is turned upside down and you’re unhoused by a natural or man-made catastrophe, you will probably end up in a tent. If you’re lucky. The Norman Foster Foundation, working with Swiss building materials giant Holcim, has launched the Essential Homes Research Project and come up with a more substantial, if admittedly more costly, alternative: a quick-build, de...

From the street, the original facade and front garden of the home hide the barely visible rear addition. The new addition comprises of a standing seam-clad folded form that draws the dwelling and site together. A new pool and a cabana at the end of the swimming pool have also been added to the home. Steps lead from the yard down to a covered outdoor area, furnished for...

This very steep site provided a challenge for the architects in terms of creating a suitable living platform. They wanted to minimize piling due to the difficult ground conditions and to ensure that the highly visible subfloor structure would be elegant. The solution was a series of steel portals and cable cross bracing to form a rigid frame which was then infilled with...

Trace Architecture Office (TAO) presents its newly completed Haikou Jiangdong Huandao Experimental School, an impressive educational complex situated in Haikou, China. It comprises a high school and a student dormitory for forty-eight high school classes, reflecting TAO’s commitment to exploring the interconnected nature of education and architecture within the local con...

Architecture and design practice Wutopia Lab constructs ‘Copper Blockhouse’, a multi-functional spiritual and cultural space in Shanghai, China. The structure is named after an air raid shelter reserved on the project site, a solid fortress. Drawing from nautical machinery and ships’ huge metal bodies, the project is enveloped inside an arch made entirely out of metal, a...

Hovering above San Francisco, ‘Aerie’ is a small addition to the Californian city. Architects Luke Ogrydziak and Zoë Prillinger from OPA completed the project as a vibrant work and study space cantilevering over a four-story drop of an existing house. Concept-wise, the design embraces clean gestures and breathability to devise the ideal environment for thinking. ‘For thi...

"Like a floating living body, the Dionysus Theater is full of energy, growing and iterating continuously in a dynamic way.” - Liu Haowei Dionysus, the god of wine, symbolized joy, sensuality and ritual in ancient Greek mythology, and ruled human drama culture. The spirit of Dionysus is the vitality and creativity that flourishes when man and nature are united. It has lo...

The design features a sleek and contemporary style with clean lines and a minimalist approach, which creates a sense of sophistication and elegance. The building's facade is made of glass, allowing natural light to flow into the interiors, making the space feel bright and airy. The interior design features open spaces, high ceilings, and modern finishes, creating a harmo...

The main concept in designing this project was created based on increasing the transparency and connection of the interior space with the surrounding scenery. Initially, this scenario started with the indentation of the architectural body from its border and the creation of the terraces. These interconnected and green terraces link the north, east and south fronts of the...

Cape Verde is a country where most of the production processes are handmade and rely on human dexterity and effort, whose products retain characters of intrinsic imperfection and therefore authenticity. The project for the National Centre of Art, Crafts and Design by Ramos Castellano Arquitectos in the port city of Mindelo was conceived according to this approach: a uniq...

The mixed-use tower, which will house "intimately-scaled" urban apartments, is set to take the title of Quito's tallest building from Danish studio BIG's nearby Iqon tower. It also marks MAD's first project in South America. Qondesa's exterior is designed with a "stone colouring" in reference to the surrounding buildings in Quito, many of which were constructed from vo...

Part of its popularity comes from its international menu showcasing modern Europeans and Latin America influences and all-day proposition which sees the compact venue transform from breakfast café in the morning, to bistro during the day, through to fine-dining restaurant and cocktail bar in the evening. Part of the buzz is due to its Instagrammable interiors, the work o...

What makes the project really stand out is how Baumiller managed to both celebrate the property’s classical architectural heritage and introduce a unique, whimsical aesthetic of contemporary boldness. “I have deliberately juxtaposed rich plaster mouldings, classical parquet and traditional wooden doors with reflective tiles and colour lacquered steel and glass in order t...

The Rau Haus was built for a couple with a young daughter that desired a more spacious home after years of living in dense San Francisco. They found a property south of the city in Portola Valley, a town on the eastern side of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The clients enlisted San Francisco-based Feldman Architecture to create a secluded, modern-style home that made the mo...

Moss, who leads Eric Owen Moss Architects and has been planning the tower for decades, recently completed the 235-foot (72 metres) structure in Los Angeles. The tower is roughly T-shaped in plan, with a rectangular primary volume – curved on one end – that holds most of the usable floor space, and an externalized core that holds the primary circulation and additional ro...

The designers used around 6,000 pieces of discarded wooden barrels dismantled from the whiskey barrels of a distillery. Each dismantled barrel piece is different in the curvature of the wood piece, width, length, and grain. Through the various size details and textures of each piece, the designers classified them and applied them to different positions on the facade and...

The modular house was pre-made at a factory, as well as the interior decorations, electrics, plumbing, and some furniture. The house was delivered by trucks and installed with a crane in one day on the lot, while another 1-2 weeks are required for the final exterior finish. Inspired by a wood barn situated in the natural landscape, the architects used simple materials t...

Comprising the Biodôme, the Biosphère, the Insectarium, the Jardin botanique, and Planétarium Montreal, Space for Life is the largest nature science museum complex in Canada. It brings together a daring, creative urban movement, encouraging all of us to rethink the connection between humankind and nature in order to cultivate new ways of living. The new Insectarium, nest...

The project was a commission to design the new generation fitness club, which focuses on four different group workout concepts: LIFT, the strength-training concept; RUSH, the bootcamp-based HIIT concept; BAGS, the boxing-focused concept; and finally FLOW, the yoga based training concept. Max Schirnhofer, the founder of King Kong Club, had the initial idea to open a new...

The allowed footprint of the new build was 21 feet x 26 feet (6.5m x 8m), which was the footprint of an old shed that was replaced. The small house has a footprint of 538 square feet (50m2), which includes 3 levels, the main level with the living room and kitchen, a sunken bathroom downstairs, and two bedrooms upstairs. Outside, there’s an unheated natural swimming poo...

Located in the ‘Fragrant Lake’ of Huanggang City in China, the ‘Sprite Cabin’ is one part of the ‘wild’ getaway homes building plan by architectural practice Wiki World. Adjacent to the Inner Lake Peninsula, the construction puts up two clusters of crystal-like formations surrounded by a bamboo forest. The two geometric structures shape three peaked volumes each covering...

Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto has designed ‘Nicolas Ruinart Pavilion’, a new visitor center for Ruinart, the oldest champagne house in Reims, France. The 1,400 sqm contemporary building features natural stone and wood, and is clad in a gradient glass façade topped by a curved roof. The new project is located on a site steeped in history and is set in relation to the pr...

Sited along the Merwede Canal in the Utrecht neighborhood of Rivierenwijk, EVA Architecten’s contemporary Houseboat opens freely onto the water and harbors an intimate relationship with greenery on the shore. The structure perches on a dark aluminum plinth while its facade is marked by a sequence of wooden slats punctuated by large glazed openings and black window frames...

The Abrahamic Family House, a trio of cubic buildings, stands proudly erect on Saadiyat Island, the cultural district of the United Arab Emirates’ capital of Abu Dhabi. Beside the waters of the Arabian Gulf, the three edifices comprise a Jewish synagogue, an Islamic mosque and a Catholic church, all designed by British-Ghanaian architect Sir David Adjaye. They are titled...

The Museum of Art and Photography (MAP) wasn’t born as a museum – at least, not in the flesh. Conceived by philanthropist and collector Abhishek Poddar in 2020 as India's first online-only art and photography gallery, it effectively upended the typical ‘physical-first, digital-next’ museum rulebook by assuming a bricks-and-mortar avatar earlier this month, three years af...

This Condesa house is the brainchild of the collaboration of two Mexican studios – featuring architecture by the established practice TAX, headed by Alberto Kalach, and interiors by the emerging outfit Tow Va Bow, founded by architect Emilio A Cohen. The result? The project is a harmonious blend of rawness and greenery, soft and hard surfaces, and an urban approach that ...

The heritage-listed Elder House, built in 1937, is a prominent building in Adelaide’s city centre – featuring a large frontage that is faced with South Australian red granite. Sans Arc Studio intentionally positioned Umaii to sit off of the historical marble interior walls and delicately within the space, as if carefully dropped from above. “The intention with Umaii was...

Architect Maria Danos and her client connected over a shared cultural psyche, both being Australian-born with Greek backgrounds. The task of redesigning the 1920s property in the Melbourne suburb of Oakleigh into a multigenerational home was therefore charged with personal meaning and memories shared by client and architect. Ultimately born from a reverence for place, th...

The new Maroquinerie de Louviers by Hermès, the celebrated fashion house's second structure to complete in its growing Normandy hub in Louviers, has just launched to a design by Lina Ghotmeh. The French-Lebanese architect, who has been selected to design London's prestigious 2023 Serpentine Pavilion this summer, crafted the workshop facility that focuses on leather goods...

When it comes to luxury resorts in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai and Abu Dhabi may grab the lion’s share of the headlines, but insiders know that there are serious contenders aplenty to be found nearby. Exhibit A is the emirate of Ajman – a brisk 40-minute drive from Dubai, but a world apart from the madding crowd. Here, on a sprawling 247-acre estate framed by long st...

The Terrace Apartment by Estudio Guto Requena stands out in more ways than one. It is the Brazilian architect's own base, designed as the forever home for himself, his husband and their two dogs; it is housed in an icon of São Paulo's modernist architecture, designed in 1962 by Botti Rubin Arquitetos; and importantly, it also a unique urban retreat that brings, quite lit...

Oman’s newest cultural landmark transports visitors through the nation’s 800 million year history through a series of immersive, high-tech experiences at the recently inaugurated Oman Across Ages Museum. Located near the ancient city of Nizwa, the monumental steel-clad structure conceived by Cox Architecture emerges from the plane as a series of angular, geometric volume...

Studio Gang and Landscape Architect SCAPE announces the opening of its Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. The 133,000-square-foot museum project is recognized at once by its innovative roof — a flowing, folded plate concrete structure, blossoming out to the north and south. Spanning the length of the building, the roofline connects new construction and renovated spaces and es...

Envisioned as a competition entry for Mirae Asset Global Investments, a South Korean IT company, ‘K-Project’ by David Chipperfield Architects takes shape as a dynamic headquarters in the Seongsu district of Seoul. The practice designed the project in close collaboration with local architects and consultants, conceiving it as a piece of infrastructure with the flexibility...

Design group Lechner & Lechner follows a curved timber frame construction method to form an ‘Amorph Living Sculpture’. Aiming to merge the living space with the natural surroundings through visual integration, the design utilizes strategic vantage points identified by Google Earth. The project’s visual landmarks include the Leopoldkron Castle, the Leopoldskorner Pond, th...