Tag: Architecture

In the first months of 2020, the coronavirus pandemic evolved from a localized infectious disease into a chronic global emergency. The bizarre took over human existence, and everyday life was transported into a state of magical realism. In One Hundred Years of Solitude, Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez describes how the town of Macondo was subject to strange phenomena, such as the overnight proliferation of rabbits that paved public spaces with small animals, or the sudden fall of leaves carpeting the streets in green within hours. During the pandemic, these strange phenomena were not far from human reality: animals reclaimed urban spaces during mandatory quarantines, and streets transformed into vibrant communal areas filled with greenery and public life in a short period of time.

For centuries, domestic architecture throughout the Gulf has been organized around the courtyard. Houses presented thick exterior walls and limited openings to the street, turning inward toward a shaded garden that structured everyday life. This spatial arrangement responded to both climate and culture. The courtyard brought daylight into deep plans, enabled cross-ventilation, and provided a protected outdoor environment within dense urban fabrics. In the House with Seven Gardens, in Diyar Al Muharraq, Bahrain, the Bahrain-based practice Civil Architecture, one of the winners of the

The Dormis Donata form the connecting axis of KUSKA, a rural complex located at 3,100 meters above sea level in the agricultural landscape of the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Nestled between mountains and terraces, they offer a context in which architecture engages in dialogue with memory, topography, and the cyclical rhythms of the environment. Designed to bridge two modes of habitation—permanent and temporary—they serve a key role as an intermediate space between the private core (next to the Home) and the communal core (next to the Quincho).

Located in Istanbul, Türkiye, an 84-hectare neighborhood is currently under development in the Riva area of Beykoz along the city's Black Sea coast. The master plan has been developed by an international design team including Snøhetta, Bjarke Ingels Group, and MVRDV, alongside local practices KEYM, DB Architects, Rasa, and

The power of the site - The Aubusson Tapestry Museum is situated in an exceptional context shaped by a rich history and a powerful natural environment. The Creuse capital of tapestry has been marked by its history since the royal manufactory of the 14th century. Its landscape is characterized by a granite base carved by the Creuse and the Beauze rivers, flanked by two wooded hillsides. This entire valley-town is dotted with historic monuments that form the northern panorama of the museum garden, with at its center the Clock Tower, a remnant of the protective wall that once surrounded Aubusson.

On March 5, 2026, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) revealed images of a new landmark project in Kazakhstan, in Central Asia. The project consists of two towers, the "Iconic Complex," and a master plan for the area, the "Gateway District." The complex is located in Alatau, a new city along the Almaty–Qonaev highway planned to become an international investment hub. A strategic project for the country, the city's master plan extends through 2050, with the first phase of major infrastructure projects s

The concept of the technosphere provides a framework for understanding the scale of human impact on Earth. The term was coined by Peter K. Haff, and it is defined as the global network of human-made artifacts: a physical layer of infrastructure, buildings, vehicles, and machinery that functions alongside the biosphere and atmosphere. Currently estimated at 30 trillion tons, this

Conceived as a center for top-level sportsmen and women on a regional scale, this project incorporates a high density of programs and uses, within an arid territory and a loose, poorly defined urban fabric. The architecture is monumental in its design but retains great simplicity in its implementation and in the choice of materials used.

At the onset of the project, the client had a clear request for a modern house with a generous patio for the family to unwind. Set on a 1-acre parcel, the Patio house reinterprets the prairie house typology, with its large overhangs that skim along the horizon, in a tropical setting. The E-shaped floor plan creates two courtyards that merge with the larger lawns as well as the pool, towards the North.

Beyond being a source of life, the power of the sun in architecture has long been tied to humanity's need to harness and control it as a vital resource. Since ancient times, solar energy has been used to measure time, support planting and harvesting, and provide protection from heat and cold. Today, solar radiation plays a significant role in global energy consumption. Architectural solutions based on materials, technologies, and environmental analysis are developed with an understanding of solar energy's capacity to transform the interior environment of buildings. But how can buildings be transformed into sources of clean energy?