Documentation work in Deir ez-Zor. Image Courtesy of Deir ez-Zor Heritage Library
The historic city of Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria has had more than its fair share of calamity after the outbreak of the war in 2011. After seeing destruction caused by fierce battles between armed groups and the central government, as well as occupation by ISIL, the earthquake in February 2023 brought further damage. Behind the headlines, however, is an ancient city tracing its founding to the dawn of civilization on the banks of the Euphrates River, with living architecture from the Ottoman and French Mandate periods. A winner of the ArchDaily 2025 Next Practices Awards, the Deir ez-Zor Heritage Library aims to revitalize the city and support sensitive reconstruction by documenting and promoting its built heritage.
Carbonero House (1998). Melipilla, Chile. Image Courtesy of Smiljan Radić
Chilean architect Smiljan Radić Clarke has developed a body of work that resists easy categorization. His buildings often seem both ancient and provisional, carrying a monumental presence while retaining an unexpected sense of fragility. Stone, concrete, timber, fabric, and fiberglass are combined in unexpected ways, producing architectures that hover between permanence and ephemerality. Rather than pursuing a stable formal language, the 2026 Pritzker laureate approaches architecture as an open field of experimentation, where material behavior and structural perception are constantly tested.
More than three decades after previously hosting the event, Barcelona is set to welcome the UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona (UIA2026BCN), bringing the global architectural community back to the city between 28 June and 2 July 2026. Organized under the theme "Becoming. Architectures for a Planet in Transition," the Congress is expected to gather approximately 10,000 participants from over 130 countries, including practitioners, researchers, and students. Rather than being confined to a single venue, the event will unfold across multiple locations along the Mediterranean seafront, among them the Three Chimneys complex, positioning the city itself as an active platform for exchange, discussion, and public programming.
Ineza Clinic project outpatient unit and pharmacy exterior view render, 2026 . Image Courtesy of Kéré Architecture
Kéré Architecture has designed a new healthcare center in the Bubanza region of Burundi, about 40 kilometers north of the country's former capital, Bujumbura. Commissioned by the NGO Ineza Clinic, the project aims to improve access to healthcare for the region's rural population, complementing the services of the existing general hospital, with a focus on maternity and specialized surgical care. Francis Kéré's plan distributes the program across ten pavilions connected by a road that zigzags up the hillside toward a visitor center, forming a 3,000 m² complex. The project combines materials sourced from the surrounding region, traditional craftsmanship, and knowledge transfer, minimizing its carbon footprint, supporting the local economy, and strengthening local teams. Construction has already started, with the first phase scheduled for completion this year.
In South China, there is occasionally an urban myth—especially across Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou—about choosing a home that avoids western light. Over decades, the west-facing sun has proven to be a particularly difficult condition to live with: its low angle in the afternoon, its aggressive heat gain (especially in summer), and the way it penetrates deep into interiors. With global warming and longer, hotter seasons, that much-romanticized "afternoon glow" is increasingly experienced less as romance and more as glare, heat, and fatigue. Although this wisdom circulates as a community-driven rule of thumb, it carries an undeniable architectural clarity about building orientations: avoiding western light is not only about thermal comfort, but also about avoiding the sharpest, most intrusive form of direct illumination—light that strikes at the most unforgiving angle, washing surfaces, flattening depth, and turning rooms into high-contrast fields of discomfort.
Buildings were always intended to solve a straightforward problem: shelter. Through form and material, they protected occupants from the weather and organized human activity. Modern architecture, along with evolving lifestyles, added new priorities — efficiency, density, structural innovation, and aesthetics. People now demand more from buildings. Occupants increasingly want environments that actively support how they live, work, and feel.
Wellness has become a central concern in modern times. Decades of research in environmental psychology and building science reveal that indoor conditions can profoundly affect human health and behavior. Lighting influences circadian rhythms and sleep patterns. Air quality impacts cognitive performance and respiratory health. Temperature and acoustics shape comfort and concentration.
Set along the outer breakwater of Port de Cap-d'Ail, located next to Monaco, the Beach House occupies a threshold between land and sea. Surrounded by water and docked boats, the building sits in close dialogue with the harbor, exposed to the shifting light, reflections, and atmosphere of the Mediterranean. Within this setting, the house reads almost like another vessel moored along the harbor wall.
When architect Dave Rowles began work on the project, however, the residence offered little of this character internally. The former private home had been stripped back almost entirely, leaving a raw concrete shell. The renovation, therefore, began with a fundamental question: how can an interior capture the qualities of its surroundings? Rather than competing with the powerful maritime context, the design focused on creating a calm, material-driven interior that frames and amplifies the beauty and experience of the surrounding landscape crafted from oak, cedar, marble, and stainless steel details. In collaboration with barth, a company specializing in interior craftsmanship, Rowles transformed the concrete structure into a cohesive interior, where natural materials, light, and refined detailing define both the interior and exterior spaces.
As housing shortages and affordability challenges intensify across global cities, this week's architectural discourse centers on how design, policy, and adaptive strategies intersect to shape the future of urban living. Initiatives range from grassroots movements and legislative reforms aimed at expanding access to housing to innovative models that rethink ownership, development, and community engagement. At the same time, architects are reimagining existing structures and districts, transforming underused offices, historic landmarks, and unfinished buildings into mixed-use, culturally significant, or publicly accessible spaces. Across scales, these stories illustrate how architecture negotiates scarcity, value, and social priorities, demonstrating its capacity not only to produce new buildings but also to recalibrate urban environments in ways that balance heritage, sustainability, and human experience.
Concéntrico, the Spanish laboratory for urban innovation exploring new ways of inhabiting public space through temporary urban installations, presented the program for its upcoming edition on March 17th, along with its main lines of work for the 2025–2026 season. The festival invites architects, designers, artists, and researchers from different geographies to propose interventions that activate squares, streets, riverbanks, and vacant spaces in the city. This year's edition includes the participation of Smiljan Radić, the recently awarded Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate, who will develop a light, foldable, and temporary structure built from industrial plastic fabrics following the concept of a "poor circus." Another 26 teams, including three practices selected through the festival's international open calls, will intervene in Logroño's public space from June 18 to 23, 2026, with projects ranging from climate-responsive structures to ephemeral public space activations.
The southern ambulatory of the Colosseum in Rome has been restored through an intervention led by Stefano Boeri Interiors, a multidisciplinary studio founded by architects Stefano Boeri and Giorgio Donà, for the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo, focusing on the reconstruction of the crepidine and the repaving of missing sections to reinstate the monument's original ground levels and improve the legibility of its southern perimeter. The project builds on an archaeological investigation campaign that informed both the geometric definition of the intervention and its material articulation.
Costa Rica is a small country in Central America, internationally renowned for its tourism, biodiversity, and tropical climate. Given this context, tropical design strategies for hotel design are often more studied, but residential cabin projects can represent a more surgical approach to understanding the landscape. Often situated in remote forest or jungle locations, these cabins, apart from the common tropical design strategies, have to prioritize long-term durability and low-maintenance costs, particularly in regions where access for repairs is logistically difficult. This necessitates a design philosophy that favors both structural and climatic resilience.
Building in this context requires precise design responses to two primary environmental stressors: extreme precipitation and high humidity. Costa Rica's tropical climate, while varying by altitude, generally delivers an average monthly rainfall exceeding 150 mm in many regions. This constant water load can create a "wet-bulb" effect, where stagnant, saturated air accelerates interior material degradation and creates physiological discomfort for the inhabitants. To design effectively under these conditions, contemporary cabin architecture employs a three-fold strategy of minimal site invasion, the creation of thermal gradients, and passive climate mitigation.
In today's competitive design landscape, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is no longer just a trend—it has become a baseline expectation. Yet many practices still struggle to balance the complexity and effort involved with the actual value they receive in return. But what if it were possible to unlock the benefits of BIM without adding unnecessary workload? Exploring a lean approach to BIM—focused on efficiency, clarity, and real project outcomes—can help architectural teams streamline their design workflows, strengthen collaboration, and maintain creative control from concept through delivery.
CRA–Carlo Ratti Associati has been selected to design the Buzzi Heritage cultural center in Casale Monferrato, Italy. The proposal introduces a 100-meter-long suspended truss that links two former educational buildings, consolidating archival, research, and cultural functions within a single structure. The project also marks the first real-world application of a patented structural system developed through research by Carlo Ratti Associati in partnership with Maestro Technologies. Positioned above a system of open spaces, the intervention reconfigures the site as a publicly accessible cultural complex while maintaining a clear distinction between built and landscaped areas.
Today's housing crisis is a global phenomenon that can be broadly divided into two major problems: a shortage of residential buildings and barriers to accessing those that already exist. The deficit is real and concrete when it comes to what the UN calls "adequate housing for all." According to UN-Habitat, an estimated 96,000 new housing units would need to be built per day to meet population needs by 2030. Climate change and forced migration are broadening the gap. But 2.8 billion people worldwide, representing nearly 40% of the global population, lack access to stable shelter, secure land, and basic sanitation services not only because of underproduction, but also due to an economic barrier: an affordability crisis. As demand grows and prices rise, housing, now increasingly functioning as a form of social security, becomes a target for rental income and real estate speculation. As adequate housing is a human right, pressure on governments and private entities is increasing worldwide to limit speculation and ensure fair access to existing dwellings. Below, we present four examples of initiatives in Spain, Australia, France, and the United States that aim to urgently expand housing access while limiting speculation.
Architecture has traditionally been described as a discipline concerned with space, form, and material presence. Yet this understanding becomes increasingly limited when confronted with the conditions that shape contemporary construction. Buildings no longer emerge from a stable relationship between site, program, and material. Instead, they are produced within a dense web of technological systems that operate across territorial, ecological, and temporal scales. Energy networks, data infrastructures, extraction processes, and global logistics shape architecture as decisively as climate or urban context.
Seen from this angle, architecture is less a discrete object than a moment within a larger technical field. Supply chains, data systems, automated maintenance, and energy grids do not sit "behind" the built environment. In a certain way, they influence what can be built, what is affordable, how buildings perform over time, and what kinds of waste they produce. When architecture is assessed primarily through form, it risks overlooking the systems that condition its production and afterlife.
Every architecture student knows what it's like to spend sleepless nights working away, rushing to finalize a project as a deadline looms ahead. Revising every detail, putting the finishing touches and hoping for the best. The pay-off? Seeing the finished project, talking about it with your classmates, and getting to dream about your perfect idea of what a space should look and feel like.
While making the shortlist selection throughout the past two weeks, the ArchDaily jury panel was well-aware of what it feels like to be an architecture student. Comprised of architects, the panel carefully studied, considered and debated each individual project, with an understanding of what goes into each and every submission. The result is a shortlist that exemplifies the spirit of the Student Project Awards and its mission to recognize the creativity and vision of students who are redefining architectural practice and discourse.
World Trade Center Biotic, Brasília. Image Courtesy of Architects Office
Located within the Parque Tecnológico de Brasília, the World Trade Center Biotic is a mixed-use development designed by Brazilian studio Architects Office as part of the district's broader urban expansion. The project is part of the master plan developed in 2020 by Carlo Ratti Associati and is currently being developed. Conceived as a multi-program complex, the proposal brings together offices, residential units, a hotel, retail spaces, and shared facilities within a single urban framework. The project occupies a site of approximately 70,000 square meters and is planned to reach about 180,000 square meters of built area, with an estimated 150,000 square meters expected to be completed by 2030.
