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Observed annually on April 22, International Mother Earth Day frames this week's architectural discourse through an urgent call to rethink the relationship between the built environment and natural systems, foregrounding themes such as urban rewilding, the restoration of aquatic ecosystems, and the integration of ancestral knowledge into contemporary design practices. On another note, the opening of Salone del Mobile.Milano 2026 and Milan Design Week 2026 seek to reinforce the global relevance of design as a platform for exchange and experimentation, activating the city of Milan through a network of exhibitions and installations that e

If elevated networks reveal a city that increasingly walks above the street, the podium–tower is the typology that often makes that condition feel inevitable. Across Southeast Asia, podium–tower projects have become one of the dominant languages of metropolitan growth: a system that concentrates housing, jobs, retail, and transit connections into highly legible and managed parcels. From an urban planning perspective, the model can be remarkably effective—absorbing

The wall can be a compressed memory, a condensed memory of the process through which a mental wall is materialized. Through its very presence, it operates as a mechanism of visibility and invisibility. Walls are sometimes mental and sometimes physical, but in all cases, they are powerful. They possess the power to conceal and to reveal bodies, objects, and cities. The distinction between public and private life profoundly shapes behavior, clothing, and even the movements of the bodies.

Located within the tree-lined streets of Colonel Light Gardens, NTH by Ply Architecture is a carefully resolved addition that responds to both context and family life. Set among a fabric of heritage bungalows, the project adopts a measured architectural language—balancing continuity with distinction—to ensure a respectful integration within its established streetscape.

Origin: A Response to a Familiar Place — Xiangyun Town is not an unfamiliar place. Since it is close by, there were many occasions in the past to come here with my child. The earliest impressions of the place were, on the one hand, the many art installations in its public plaza areas, and on the other hand, its friendliness toward children and the community, with spaces for play and pause. Therefore, being invited this time to design and build a community book pavilion in the plaza felt more like returning to a place once encountered in everyday life and responding once again to the question of what kind of public space is truly needed here.

Set within a 40-cent north-facing plot in Edamuttom, Thrissur, Louvered House stands as an exploration of how contemporary living can harmoniously coexist with the sensitivities of Kerala's tropical climate and cultural memory. Once a flourishing nutmeg plantation, the site still retains its original trees and lush greenery, weaving ecological continuity into the architectural design. To the east, the client's ancestral tharavad remains, adding another layer of heritage and familial rootedness to the project. This delicate balance of the old and the new forms the philosophical core of the residence.

Casa Ceniza is a single-family home conceived as a massive geometric volume that protects itself from the street while creating an internal landscape of patios, water, and vegetation. Closed off from the outside and open to gardens and interior patios, the house proposes an introspective architecture where spaces are gradually revealed along the journey.

When the building was first accessed, it was in an advanced state of ruin: it had completely lost its roof, the flooring of the upper level of the first bay —corresponding to the old school— and was undergoing a significant process of vegetation colonization, the result of decades of continuous abandonment. The lack of protection against the elements had accelerated the deterioration of the walls and vaults, seriously compromising the stability of the entire structure. Although the competition documents limited the intervention to a part of the property, the project understood from the outset that it was essential to execute the entire roof as a preliminary structural and heritage operation, aimed at stopping the degradation process and ensuring the future conservation of the building.

Box in a Box. A refurbishing project with a dual stylistic code, conceived for an early 20th-century apartment in Milan. An apartment located on the third floor of a post-WWI bâtiment on Viale Beatrice d'Este in Milan has undergone a meticulous and unusual refurbishment by DDBA. The residence, featuring a typically bourgeois character, is distinguished by large French windows overlooking rows of poplars and the vibrantly colored façades of the residential buildings directly opposite, designed by Giordano Forti and Camillo Magni.

Honduras is the second-largest country in Central America, both in territory and population. Today, its urban fabric remains heavily influenced by modernist principles from the 1970s that prioritised high-speed arterial corridors and automobile-dependent "point-to-point" mobility. In addition, the country faced many challenges regarding public safety du