Tropical modernism informed the plaster finishes of this extension in Hackney, London, which has been completed by local architecture studio Sonn.

Aptly named The Plaster House, Sonn was tasked with adding an additional bedroom to the Victorian terraced building, as well as improving its connection to a rear garden.

Looking to create a uniform, "carved-out" feeling for the space, the studio used a variety of plaster finishes in a range of pale colours both internally and externally.

"A focus on light, height and connection to the garden was key, but we also wanted the space to feel like it had been 'carved-out' of stone," Sonn founder Tim Robinson told Dezeen.

The studio created a single-storey extension containing a living, dining and kitchen space at the back of the home, which establishes a new sightline directly from the entrance to the garden.

An existing bathroom and storage area was moved to the centre of the building to allow the side return to be infilled, making space for a second bedroom.

Inside the rear extension, which the studio described as having a "monolithic and sculptural form," the floor has been lowered slightly to create a conversation pit level with the garden.

Above the kitchen, the angled plastered ceilings frame a large skylight.

"A sunken conversation pit lets the occupants sit level with the garden while increasing the feeling of height," Robinson told Dezeen. "It is an unexpected secluded oasis in an urban area."

"A clear connection to the garden is enhanced with the framing of an existing apple tree which is now visible the moment you enter from the street," he added.

A folding glass window and a rotating door open out onto a gravel patio in the garden, with the exterior of the rear extension is finished with sculptural, plaster-clad pillars and a gently curving edge to the roof.

While a palette of pale grey and cream defines the living areas, in the bedroom a pale green plaster has been used to contrast its pink and brown furnishings.

The plasterwork is complemented by wooden panelling and various stone finishes, including Rosa Tea marble in the bathrooms and terrazzo worktops in the kitchen.

"We took inspiration from 1970's tropical modernism through a mix of natural stone textures along with colourways of brown, green and beige," Robinson told Dezeen.

Previous projects by Sonn include an extension that founder Tim Robinson designed for his own garden in Hackney, with walls clad in green terrazzo to blend in with the surrounding tropical planting.

The photography is courtesy of Sonn.

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Architecture studio Celoria Architects has completed House C, a concrete home in Mendrisio, Switzerland, informed by the region's grotti– cellar-like communal spaces where local cuisine is served.

Designed for the studio's founder, Aldo Celoria, the home's foundations are formed by what was once a traditional cellar and dining area dug into the sloping site, which used to be visited by Celoria's family.

Referencing this history, the home was designed as what Celoria describes as a "massive primitive object embedded in the mountain", centred around a large kitchen and dining room.

"This was the place where we used to go as children for lunch or dinner with friends or to sit in front of the fireplace and eat chestnuts," Celoria told Dezeen.

"The project arose with the idea of maintaining this spirit of conviviality and designing a house as if it were a grotto in relation to the surrounding nature," he explained.

House C is organised around four concrete cores along the edges of its square plan, each finished with wave-like sections of concrete wall.

Acting as giant, hollowed-out columns, these concrete forms house the home's infrastructure and utilities, including a spiral staircase, bathrooms, utility rooms and a fireplace.

This frees up the rest of the floor plates to be column-free, allowing for unobstructed views through the full-height windows and glazed corners that overlook the landscape.

"The elements bend inwards, containing the infrastructure of the house and designing the central square space of each floor, which increases in size towards the upper spaces," explained Celoria.

"The structure is therefore the expression of the architectural body, conceived to promote a close dialogue between interior and exterior and between architecture and landscape," he added.

The bedrooms take advantage of the partially subterranean ground floor to provide greater privacy, with the living, dining and kitchen floor above constituting the main entrance to the home.

On the home's second floor, a single multipurpose space sits beneath a diamond-shaped skylight in the home's roof and surrounded by fully-glazed walls.

Celoria Architects kept the monolithic concrete form as visible as possible on the interiors, with wood used for the doors, staircase and kitchen counters and a fir dining table in reference to the old table the family used for dinners on the site.

"It was important to work with only one material and to express an atmosphere that was monolithic and monochromatic," Celoria told Dezeen.

Elsewhere in Switzerland, architecture studio PPAA recently completed a concrete villa overlooking Lake Zurich and Atelier Rampazzi created a trio of concrete houses with warm timber panelling.

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The United Nations has predicted it will take "until 2040 and probably longer" to rebuild the homes in Gaza that have been destroyed in the Israel-Hamas war.

Using data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the report estimated it would take 16 years to rebuild the homes destroyed in Gaza as Israel's military action in Palestine continues, following the 7 October 2023 assault on Israel by Hamas militants.

"Even under optimistic scenarios for the pace of physical reconstruction, the scale of destruction in Gaza has been such that, simply from the narrow perspective of moving in building materials, it would still take until 2040 and probably longer to restore the housing units destroyed since the start of the war," said the researchers, reported the Guardian.

The report was created by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) to investigate the expected socio-economic impact of the conflict in Gaza.

The report sets 2040 as the most optimistic scenario – basing the date on if the war were to end immediately, however, this estimation only accounts for destroyed homes and does not factor in the repair of all damaged buildings.

It made clear that rebuilding and repairing the damage to Gaza's infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, will take decades.

The report also predicted the impact on Human Development Index (HDI) estimates for Palestine if the war continues for an additional one, two and three months.

It estimated that after nine months of conflict, reduced levels of health, education, and wealth would correspond to a loss of over 20 years of development in Palestine. When analysing Gaza alone, this rises to 44 years of development being wiped out.

"Unlike previous wars, the destruction in Gaza today is unprecedented in scope and scale and coupled with the loss of homes, livelihoods, natural resources, infrastructure as well as institutional capacities, may have deep and systemic impacts for decades to come," said ESCWA executive secretary Rola Dashti.

"This assessment projects that Gaza will be rendered fully dependent on external assistance on a scale not seen since 1948, as it will be left without a functional economy, or any means of production, self-sustainment, employment, or capacity for trade."

The UNDP and ESCWA report supplements the Gaza Strip Interim Damage Assessment published by the United Nations (UN) on 29 March, which stated that by the end of January 2024, damages to the built environment in Gaza amounted to around $18.5 billion. Damage to the housing sector made up 72 per cent of this cost.

This included the damage and destruction of 62 per cent of all homes, which equated to 290,820 housing units in Gaza.

The assessment also stated that 84 per cent of health facilities had been destroyed or damaged, and a total of 56 school facilities had been destroyed and 219 partially damaged.

It also announced that unexploded weapons and around 26 million tonnes of rubble would need to be cleared from Gaza for reconstruction to commence. This has since reportedly increased to an estimated 37 million tonnes, which alone could take up to 14 years to remove.

The photography is by Emad El Byed via Unsplash. Comments have been turned off on this story due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter.

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Architects should finally acknowledge that the profession is no longer a guaranteed route to prosperity and unionise, writes Phineas Harper.

We've all met them: architecture graduates up to their eyeballs in debt, paying two thirds of their income in rent, and effectively earning less than minimum wage but who still identify as "middle class". Why, despite being saddled with low pay and crushing hours, do so many architects think they are more privileged than they really are?

Though privately educated nepo babies with family wealth and connections dominate many top jobs in the sector, the vast majority of people working in architecture are not rich. Most are ordinary state-school grads; many have no savings and high workloads and would quickly find themselves destitute if they were no longer able to sell their labour to make ends meet.

Whether they identify with the label or not, most architects are workers

Ultimately, whether they identify with the label or not, most architects are workers.

Despite this, trade unionism in the profession is low. In Britain a dedicated union, Section of Architectural Workers (SAW), launched in 2019, recently joining forces with Unite, while in the US architects can sign up with one of multiple unions. However, though membership grants employees access to support when facing down dodgy employers, the vast majority of architects on both sides of the Atlantic are not in unions.

Though RIBA membership costs twice as much as SAW and doesn't come with free legal help, thousands more architects opt to join the more expensive royal institute than their trade union.

"The foundation of this industry was rich men who didn't care if they were making money," Brooklyn-based architect and union organiser Andrew Daley tells me. He argues that the profession's upper-class history still affects how practitioners identify and which professional bodies they join today.

"The demographics have shifted, but many architects still don't think of themselves as workers. People say, 'We don't deserve a union, we're too educated, we're too bougie.' Those things can sometimes be true, but none of them mean that we don't deserve basic legal protection."

Individual union membership provides safeguards against bad treatment from employers but is only really useful as a form of last-ditch crisis insurance. The far more strategic way to improve working conditions in the long term is for multiple staff at a single practice to all join the same union and adopt a recognition agreement.

Architecture is lightyears behind other sectors

Recognition agreements are simple contracts committing employers to working with a union on behalf of their staff, setting out how the two organisations will collaborate and communicate. Typically they include commitments on how each party will work through key decisions together.

According to the UK's Community Trade Union, workplaces with union recognition agreements have eight per cent higher pay on average.

"Union recognition allows workers to be much more effective," says SAW coordinator Jake Arnfield. "It means you don't just have to react when things go wrong, but can negotiate proactively, improving conditions at your workplace for the future."

Well drafted, recognition agreements give managers a structured way to consult with their teams, and offer employees the chance to contribute positively to decision-making. Yet despite the benefits, architecture is lightyears behind other sectors in adopting them. Only one architecture firm in the US has taken the plunge, and in Britain there has never been a single recognition agreement between a private architecture practice and a trade union.

Some myopic managers fear that signing a recognition agreement will give their staff too much influence over the business, but this is wrong-headed. All employees have a vested interest in helping their employers to succeed, and the more staff are empowered to have a meaningful voice in decision-making, the stronger that vested interest becomes.

Progressive managers who want their businesses to succeed in the long term should understand that union recognition is not a threat to their operations, but an opportunity to build a more sustainable workplace culture.

Too many architects still suffer under ludicrously long hours, unpaid overtime and other workplace issues

While I was chief executive of Open City, at the request of the staff the charity adopted a voluntary union recognition agreement with Independent Workers of Great Britain that proved hugely beneficial. Within a year of signing, the union had helped us craft a much-improved pay policy and think through challenging ethical issues. Fiddly tasks that would have previously fallen to already-stretched managers were instead shared out more equitably – win-win!

Good employers who care about the ideas and welfare of their staff have nothing to fear from adopting a recognition agreement. In 2022 Bernheimer Architecture in New York made history by becoming the first American private sector architecture firm to voluntarily adopt a recognition agreement with its staff. The firm won positive media coverage as a result, and an instant reputation for being a good employer which is translating into new work.

Even at less enlightened practices where sceptical managers may at first refuse to voluntarily sign up to union recognition, it is relatively easy to twist their arm. In Britain, staff at any company with more than 20 employees can force their bosses to recognise a union if a majority of the team are up for it by following a simple statutory process. In the US workers only need 30 per cent to vote in favour.

Though many practices are good employers, too many architects still suffer under ludicrously long hours, unpaid overtime and other workplace issues all directly linked to the chronic lack of recognition agreements in the sector. There is no shame in admitting that an architecture degree is simply not the guaranteed route to middle-class prosperity that it once was, but as workers acting alongside colleagues, architects still have the power to improve the profession for the benefit of everyone.

The formula is simple: join a union, get a recognition agreement. Form follows fair pay!

Phineas Harper is the former chief executive of Open City. They were previously chief curator of the 2019 Oslo Architecture Triennale, deputy director of the Architecture Foundation and deputy editor of the Architectural Review. In 2017 they co-founded New Architecture Writers, a programme for aspiring design critics from under-represented backgrounds.

The photo is courtesy of UVW-SAW.

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The post "Why do so many architects think they are more privileged than they really are?" appeared first on Dezeen.

Italian architecture studio Carlo Ratti Associati has proposed a replacement design for the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore following its collapse in early 2024.

In collaboration with structural engineer Michel Virlogeux and the construction group Webuild, the proposed design will feature primary support pillars "well away from the navigation channel used by large vessels".

The previous Francis Scott Key Bridge (Key Bridge), which stretched across the Patapsco River, collapsed in late March 2024 after one of its piers was struck by a container ship that suffered an electrical blackout.

Carlo Ratti Associati has designed a replacement cable-stayed bridge with a main span of 2,230 feet (700 metres), an increase from the 1,200-foot (365 metre) span of the collapsed Key Bridge, which will place the central supports farther apart than the previous design.

"Opting for a cable-stayed solution enables the piles to be positioned at a safe distance, well away from the navigation channel used by large vessels and hence preventing the risk of a tragedy such as the one of March 26 happening again," said Carlo Ratti Associati founding partner Carlo Ratti.

In contrast to a cable-stayed bridge, the former Key Bridge was a steel arch continuous through truss bridge, an option that while strong, can be expensive and time-consuming to construct.

This means it's more material-efficient and ultimately sustainable, according to the team.

"In terms of sustainability, Baltimore's cable-stayed design is one of the most material-efficient ways to build at the proposed span, minimizing the project's embodied carbon," said the team.

"Moreover, it avoids the need to construct artificial islands to protect the pillars, which would considerably disturb the ecosystem of the Patapsco River," it continued.

Photovoltaic panels would also be installed "across the whole span".

Other updates would include the addition of a new lane on either side, bringing its total width to six lanes as opposed to four to accommodate high traffic and an increase in clearance from 185 feet (56 metres) to 230 feet (70 metres) in adherence to the shipping industry's latest standards.

It would also include integrated "smart features" that build upon Ratti's Good Vibrations research as a professor at MIT – which included capturing vibration data from smartphones placed in vehicles crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.

The replacement will also reconnect Baltimore "socially". It is unconfirmed if the design will be taken up by the city.

"This approach also provides a light-weight solution to reconnect two sides of Baltimore, both socially and economically–what American infrastructure should be striving to do in the 21st century," said Ratti.

According to the New York Times, the incident remains under the process of investigation, while Reuters reported Maryland officials aim for a 2028 completion of a replacement, with proposals requested by the end of May 2024.

Meanwhile, the resulting closure of the Port of Baltimore is causing delays in the global supply chain, with officials hoping to reopen the passage by the end of May.

Elsewhere, a recent report by the Norwegian Safety Investigation Authority criticised parties involved in the construction and design of a bridge that collapsed in Norway in 2022.

The images are by Brick Visual.

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The latest edition of our Dezeen Debate newsletter features Aston Martin's first residential skyscraper. Subscribe to Dezeen Debate now.

British car manufacturer Aston Martin and Argentinian architecture studio Bodas Mian Anger have finished a skyscraper in Miami.

The 66-storey tower in Downtown Miami, which marks Aston Martin's first residential skyscraper, has a curved, flat form and features a cantilevered pool deck near its top.

Readers scrutinized the building's design amidst the growing trend of luxury brand skyscrapers being developed, with one remarking: "This one isn't too bad." Another stated, "Using a brand name as a shield is no justification for lacklustre, uninspired design."

Other stories in this week's newsletter that fired up the comments section include a public toilet in Japan with rammed earth walls, a rowing club in the Faroe Islands by architecture studio Henning Larsen and a skyscraper in Downtown Miami designed by architecture studio SOM.

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Dezeen Debate is sent every Thursday and features a selection of the best reader comments and most talked-about stories. Read the latest edition of Dezeen Debate or subscribe here.

You can also subscribe to our other newsletters; Dezeen Agenda is sent every Tuesday containing a selection of the most important news highlights from the week, Dezeen Daily is our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours and Dezeen In Depth is sent on the last Friday of every month and delves deeper into the major stories shaping architecture and design.

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A series of "monumental" concrete columns frame views across a large garden at this house in Dulwich, London, extended by local studio Proctor & Shaw.

Tasked with refurbishing and extending the existing terraced home, named Dulwich House, Proctor & Shaw focused on improving its connection to a 57-metre-long garden at its rear.

As a result, the studio focused its attention on the back of the home, adding a sequence of family spaces framed by a minimal, exposed concrete structure.

"The project was all about transforming the home's relationship with the westerly garden," founder John Proctor told Dezeen.

"The new extension and principal internal retrofit were all designed with this in mind."

Previously, the rear of the home sat 1.5 metres above the garden. Proctor & Shaw lowered this by two steps to create more generous ceiling heights and a closer connection to the outdoors.

Three sequential spaces – a boot room, a kitchen and a living space – connected by wooden steps overlook a five-metre-deep terrace at the rear of Dulwich House.

"The ground floor is reconfigured and extended to provide a series of 'broken-plan' family spaces whose architecture is defined with a series of monumental columns and beams," said the studio.

A short, thick wall with a bio-ethanol fireplace at its base divides the dining and living areas, while the kitchen is centred around a large concrete island.

In the living area, a large bi-fold window is positioned alongside a seat, while in the adjacent dining area, full-height sliding glass doors lead onto the patio.

"The bi-fold window seat experience captures the essence of the scheme," said Proctor.

"It's a beautiful spot to enjoy the garden as a visual amenity in the colder months, perhaps with the fire burning, but then can transform, with doors open, into a completely different experience in the summer," he continued.

"It was this transformational seasonal connection from home to garden that we wanted to create, and the architecture cleverly supports this."

At the centre of Dulwich House, an oak-lined staircase has been added to lead up to a newly-created loft space providing two additional bedrooms.

The existing bedrooms of the home on the first floor have been minimally altered, with the remaining budget being used to improve the bathrooms, one of which is finished in pink-toned plaster.

Other residential projects in London by Proctor & Shaw include an extension topped by a large zinc-clad roof and a townhouse expanded by a series of glazed volumes that draw in daylight.

The photography is by Ståle Eriksen.

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The slaughterhouses and abattoirs in this roundup, originally built for slaughtering animals, have been transformed into galleries, breweries and cooking schools.

Some of the examples have had considerable alterations to make them suited for their new purpose, while others retain original features – such as white-tiled walls and metal bars – in a nod to their industrial past.

From Spain and Denmark to the United Arab Emirates, here are six slaughterhouse conversions from the Dezeen archive:

Plato Contemporary Art Gallery, Czech Republic, by KWK Promes

Architecture studio KWK Promes converted a 19th-century slaughterhouse in the Czech Republic into the Plato Contemporary Art Gallery, adding a concrete extension and rotating walls with impressions of windows.

After decades of being in disrepair, the studio's transformation of the heritage-protected building features white exhibition spaces that open up to the surrounding gardens.

Find out more about Plato Contemporary Art Gallery ›

Anthropocene Museum 9.0, United Arab Emirates, by Cave Bureau

For the latest Sharjah Architecture Triennial, Kenyan architectural studio Cave Bureau transformed the still-functioning Old Sharjah Slaughterhouse into the Anthropocene Museum 9.0, guiding visitors along the route taken by animals for slaughter.

Guests entered through the gates, then travelled through the pens and up a ramp leading to the slaughterhouse and processing rooms, passing installations that focused on issues surrounding decolonialisation and decarbonisation.

Find out more about Anthropocene Museum 9.0 ›

ÅBEN brewery, Denmark, by Pihlmann Architects

Local studio Pihlmann Architects created the ÅBEN brewery in Copenhagen inside a former slaughterhouse, hanging bulbous steel tanks where carcasses were once suspended.

Originally built in 1932, Pihlmann Architects restored most of the original features, including white wall tiles, and added semitransparent curtains to separate dining spaces.

Find out more about ÅBEN brewery ›

Resin Interpretation Centre, Spain, by Óscar Miguel Ares Álvarez

Architect Óscar Miguel Ares Álvarez overhauled a slaughterhouse in a Spanish village by wrapping it in a windowless white facade, converting it into the Resin Interpretation Centre gallery and community centre.

Ares Álvarez retained the shape of the former slaughterhouse, which has a similar silhouette to its neighbouring buildings, but covered it in uniform white to make it stand out.

Find out more about the Resin Interpretation Centre ›

Brick Textiles installation, Italy, by Natural Material Studio and Zuzanna Skurka

At last year's Milan design week, Copenhagen-based Natural Material Studio and designer Zuzanna Skurka created an installation of soft bio textiles in a former abattoir in Porta Vittoria.

Made from bricks repurposed from demolition sites, the red-hued Brick Textiles were cut into slabs and suspended from metal bars where meat was once hung.

Find out more about Brick Textiles installation ›

Professional Cooking School, Spain, by Sol89

Outdoor paddocks and a courtyard used for storing livestock in this nineteenth-century slaughterhouse were converted into kitchens and classrooms for the Professional Cooking School in Medina-Sidonia, Spain.

Designed by Spanish architecture studio Sol89, the extension's asymmetric roofs were clad in red ceramics, while white-painted walls surround the perimeter.

Find out more about Professional Cooking School ›

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Amsterdam studio More Architecture used a large zigzagging roof to shelter Floating Hotel, which is dramatically positioned among the bamboo forests and mountains of Dachangping, China.

Located in the rural Anji region, the hotel contains 18 rooms that More Architecture said are designed to provide guests with an "immersive relationship with nature".

Floating Hotel is perched on a grid of steel columns, raised above an open ground floor containing a swimming pool and administrative spaces.

"The client had this idea of a building 'floating above the bamboo', and we took it as an inspiration to elevate the building above the mountains, and let the landscape continue under it, uninterruptedly," More Architecture partner Daan Roggeveen told Dezeen.

"We wanted to create a large roof that brings people together, and allows them to enjoy the wonderful surroundings in which the hotel is set," he added.

The studio created three different room types for Floating Hotel, each with different orientations and relationships to the landscape.

In the "corridor" rooms, extra wide spaces provide broad views over one side of the landscape, while the "gallery" rooms are oriented to give narrower, dual-aspect views.

At either end of the plan, two blocks contain suites, with those at the building's edges benefitting from panoramic views in two directions.

All these spaces have full-height glazing framed in white metal, with large doors opening onto a wood-decked terrace that wraps the entire perimeter.

On the top floor, amenities including a yoga room, breakfast space and restaurant are housed in separate glazed blocks, requiring visitors to move outside to access them from the hotel's three stair and lift cores.

"We placed these facilities in separate glass spaces so that visitors are challenged to move between the different facilities through the outdoors, engaging with the fresh air and the mountains," said Roggeveen.

Above these spaces, the zigzagging roof has been clad internally with thin wooden planks that emphasise its angular form, complemented by white walls and pale wood panelling.

Below, the ground floor rooms are finished in contrasting stone cladding, chosen to give the impression they have been "carved out of the mountain", said Roggeveen.

"To create a nice and warm atmosphere in the hotel, we used a careful selection of wood for the floors, the ceilings and the fit-out of the rooms," he explained.

"The wooden furniture, including the beds and tables, was designed by us as well, and for the desk and bars we used terrazzo."

More Architecture, which is based in Amsterdam and Shanghai, previously worked with AIM Architecture on a large clubhouse in Jiaxing, which has a fortress-like form surrounded by a small moat.

Other recently completed hotels in China include BAN Villa by BLUE Architecture Studio and Ningshan LuZhai Cottages by Kooo Architects.

The photography is by Kris Provoost. 

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Mexican architect Carlos H Matos has completed a concrete house designed to be an "ode to antiquity" and "futurity" in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca.

Known as Casa Monte, the one-bedroom house was completed in 2023 with a rooftop terrace and a 150-square-metre (1,615-square foot) footprint. It is nestled between mountains and the Pacific Ocean and serves as a rental property.

"It is equally an homage to the profound transformations that shaped Mexico’s built environment in the 20th century," Matos told Dezeen. "It has many pasts, remote and recent, and a present one still taking shape."

The spaces were designed to prompt residents toward activity and engagement. The shelter serves as a simple and serene counterpoint to from houses with climate-controlled comfort and digital access.

"This way the house becomes deeply personal and intimate, and at the same time universal in the sense that it will have hundreds of users experiencing the house, and being able to incarnate the character, its way of living and rituals," Matos continued.

Rising out of cacti and low shrubbery, the ochre-coloured structure suggests "refuge" in the open landscape, more so than "home." It is located near the Tadao Ando-designed Casa Wabi art institution.

Approached by a winding sandy path, Matos described the house as an experiment in seclusion.

Constructed with more than 1,500 earth-tinted cast concrete blocks, the architecture is "fundamentally sculptural", according to Matos.

Smooth blocks form the main level, outlining spaces that blur the boundary between interior and exterior.

Organised like a portico set on top of a platform, the ground floor includes a compact kitchen, enclosed bathroom and half-sheltered living space that opens internally to a covered rectangular pool.

Off to the side, a small cube-shaped form holds a daybed and is topped with a green roof.

The corner of the portico contains a winding staircase that ascends to the upper level where a square bedroom holds most of the floor area, but is softened and warmed by wooden floors and window frames.

The bathroom is split into two portions on either side of the bedroom, while a terrace with a planted garden bed sits opposite of the staircase.

The blocks that form the upper level are raked with a vertically oriented pattern and step back from the perimeter of the building halfway up the second level, giving the appearance that the building is diminishing toward the sky.

"A richly textured terrace offers a full view of the ocean to wake up to, a space to bathe, and a thin ladder that leads to the roof, which completes the experience after nightfall," Matos said.

"This slice of domesticated space amid an otherwise untouched landscape at once suggests civilizations past and utopian gestures of futurity, like an ancient temple activated through sleek fixtures of brass and steel."

Matos was a co-founder of the Mexico City sculpture practice Tezontle, which contributed a sculpture and two tapestries to Casa Möbius as part of the 2019 Mexico City Design Week.

Another concrete residence recently completed in Oaxaca is Espacio 18 Arquitectura's Casa del Alma, designed as a "rock carved to create a sculpture".

The photography is by Rory Gardiner.

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Local architecture practice Dubrovska Studio has created a fitness studio lined with curtains and outfitted with custom furniture made from materials sourced from around Kyiv in the face of wartime shortages.

Located in Kyiv, Stan will host barre and yoga classes for up to 15 people in its main space and includes a reception area and locker area across 1,290 square feet (120 square metres).

"In our situation, when we initiated the project, there was virtually nothing available. We literally pieced the project together from leftovers we found around Kyiv,"  said Dubrovska Studio founder Natalie Dubrovska. 

Visitors first walk into a curtain-lined reception and welcome area, which contains a custom, semi-circle sofa, reception desk and "little tables" made of stone.

The curtains lining the space follow a curved track at the corners in order to soften the space and "smooth" out the interior.

Many furniture pieces were custom-made from locally sourced or reused materials, which the studio says was a "primary concept" for the studio's design – in part due to difficulties faced when ordering abroad during the ongoing Ukraine war.

The tables were crafted from scraps found at a warehouse, while the sofa was upholstered in a neutral, multicoloured fabric from the 1970s.

"The quest for the right fabric turned into a humorous journey, with many Gobelins featuring unappealing cat face illusions," said Dubrovska. "Almost giving up, we lucked out, discovering a fabric from the 1970s that closely mirrored our initial design."

A reception desk sits to one corner, and was made from cast concrete. Rough edges line the top to contrast with the softness of the surrounding curtains, while its smooth base runs into the concrete floor.

A standing mirror sits across from the desk, mounted into a stone to create "magic and special charm" and next to it, a sink and countertop are concealed behind a curtain.

The same white drapes cover large windows along the studio, which sits in front of the welcome area. Ballet barres and mirrors also line the space.

A locker and changing room sits to the other side of the welcome area, with wooden storage created by Dubrovska Studio "in the absence of a minimalistic and soft solution" in contrast to standard metal lockers. 

A bench made of the same light-coloured wood sits in the centre of the space, while a line of showers was clad in small white mosaic tiles as a nod to public restrooms.

According to the studio, there were frequent electricity black outs during construction, but despite the challenges, Stan is a "sanctuary".

"Stan encapsulates the spirit of feminine strength, elegance, and individuality, inviting to embark on a transformative journey within its carefully curated space," said the studio. "It is not just a studio; it is a sanctuary for self-expression and holistic well-being."

Stan studio was founded by professional dancer Mariia Dreihaupt. The word "stan" is the Latin translation of the Ukrainian word "ctah", meaning "physical posture". 

Dubrovska Studio is based in Kyiv and was founded in 2018 by designer Natalie Dubrovska. It focuses on bringing "calmness, harmony and self-connection" to projects. 

Another project recently completed in Ukraine includes a holiday cabin in the Carpathian mountains. Recently architecture and design studios shared how they are coping at the two-year mark of Russia's invasion.

The photography is by Yevhenii Avramenko.

Project credits:

Team:  Natalie Dubrovska, Katerina Bandura, Daria Shmyrko

The post Dubrovska Studio uses "leftovers" in Kyiv to furnish local dance studio appeared first on Dezeen.

Peach-toned walls and arched openings define Baia Villas, a set of six holiday homes in Goa that Mumbai studio Jugal Mistri Architects has designed to evoke local vernacular.

Located in Mandrem, a small town in the north of the state, the homes are intended to mirror the character of the local area, including its colourful architecture and landscapes.

"Baia Villas started with an intimate understanding of the site and the small town of Mandrem in north Goa, which boasts remarkable beaches and heightened spirits," said Jugal Mistri Architects founder Jugal Mistri.

"[It] has a rich mix of local tradition and international appeal, boosting the senses with colourful textures, landscapes and water bodies," he told Dezeen.

Arranged in a uniform grid within a densely forested area, the holiday homes each feature a U-shaped plan that wraps around an individual courtyard.

Each villa has an identical design, containing three bedrooms and private outdoor space with a pool, jacuzzi and small garden.

The two-storey, peach-toned volumes are topped with sloping roofs coated in locally sourced tiles and punctuated by bright blue-painted arched windows. Several walls are finished with fluted plastering and "reverse buttresses" that create shaded walkways.

"The project's bold arched windows and the side streets filled with reverse fins curving out to offer shade stimulate the imagination," said Mistri.

A large veranda sits in front of the pool at the centre of each home, dividing them into two wings.

Triangular black and white tiles form a chequered pattern on the floors of this covered space, separated from the pool by a wide arched doorway, while dark-painted beams support the sloping ceiling overhead.

"The chequered veranda is an incredibly versatile space within the house," said the studio. "Upon entering through that main door, it welcomes you and then it connects the living room to the kitchen," it continued.

"It also acts as an entry point into the pool, and finally, it deconstructs the notion of open space against closed space as it straddles multiple identities."

On the ground floor of the Baia Villas, one wing contains an open living and dining area finished with neutrally toned furnishings.

To the other side of the plan, a kitchen overlooks the swimming pool, while an ensuite bedroom with large windows takes up the rest of the wing.

Behind the veranda, a staircase finished in the same peach tone as the outer walls leads to the home's upper level.

Here, an ensuite bedroom branches from either side of the central circulation space, with a large balcony bookending each room.

Steeply-pitched wooden ceilings feature in the bedrooms and the outside walls are perforated with large curved openings framing views of the surrounding trees.

Other Indian holiday homes recently featured on Dezeen include a hillside dwelling topped with two gabled timber structures and a home camouflaged by gabion walls.

The photography is by Ekansh Goel.

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Japanese studio Kooo Architects has designed the skinny Hotel Rakuragu in central Tokyo to have a "unique shape", with cut-out balconies that help to preserve privacy.

The nine-storey building occupies a site measuring just 83.5 square metres, which has buildings on either side.

This inspired Kooo Architects' unusual design, which features large balconies and terraces that are inverted, creating gaps in the facade.

"Planning windows and balconies on one side of a building for minimum lighting is typical," Kooo Architects co-founder Ayaka Kojima told Dezeen.

"However, in a small hotel with a small room area such as this, if we unconsciously design the architectural framework as usual, the layout of the interior and the way guests spend their time will be restricted," she added.

"As a challenge, we thought we could focus more on the gaps between buildings in the city centre and open up the daylight from the windows and balconies more boldly in multiple directions towards the surrounding gaps."

The hotel is designed so that the suite rooms have large balconies, while smaller twin-bed rooms don't have balconies.

"This balcony concept creates the iconic facade of the architecture, and the plan of the different balconies directly balances the mix of hotel rooms," Ayaka Kojima said.

Hotel Rakuragu has a rigid-frame steel structure with bracing – rather than the more common post-and-beam rigid structure – which has two main advantages, according to the studio.

"The first is that the placement of the pillars can be adjusted to the plan to a certain extent," Kooo Architects co-founder Shinya Kojima told Dezeen.

"By inserting braces with reinforced structure, we were able to create a unique external shape with no pillars appearing on the balcony," he added.

"Second, the pillars can be made thinner in size compared to conventional rigid-frame structures to fit within the thickness of the wall, so there are no uneven pillars that often appear on walls. We feel that this has a great effect on expanding the space in small guest rooms like this one."

The building design is also deliberately calibrated to provide privacy for the guests, regardless of which room they're in.

"The exterior of the building was not conceived by analysing the appearance from the outside but from the height of each storey and the conditions of the surrounding buildings," Ayaka Kojima said.

"The thinking process was based on observing the surrounding buildings and the creation of balconies in positions where privacy would not be invaded on both sides," she added. "The result is a unique shape."

Inside Hotel Rakuragu's 14 rooms, the studio chose to work with a grey colour palette that would complement the facade colour, maximise the effect of natural light and emphasise the shadows of the balconies.

"We feel that the light grey colour of the interior softens the shades of natural light better than white," Shinya Kojima said.

"As we have eliminated protruding pillars in this project, the gradation of natural light entering the room without any breaks was significant to the design, so we thought that grey, rather than white, would maximise this effect," he added.

"The white on the exterior is also stained with a slightly greyish mixture of colours, but the contrasting white here is chosen to emphasise the shadows of the concave of each balcony."

To match the grey hue of the walls and floors, Kooo Architects used ashwood, which has a similar hue, for the furniture in Hotel Rakuragu.

Other recent projects by the studio include a rural hotel designed to blend in with a village in China and a Freitag store in a 1970s textile factory.

The photography is by Keishin Horikoshi/SS Tokyo.

Project credits: 

Architect: Kooo Architects
Structural design: Tetsuya Tanaka Structural Engineers
Facility design: ZO Consulting Engineers
Lighting design: Daisuki Lighting
Sign design: Tezzo Suzuki
Ground floor art: We+
Construction: Hyuga

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Toronto architecture studio Partisans has used parametric modelling to create an undulating stone storefront for luxury watch brand Rolex.

Partisans' latest application of its digital modelling and fabrication technique resulted in a sculptural facade that wraps the ground floor of a high-rise on Bloor Street in Downtown Toronto.

The studio worked with Italian architect Arturo Tedeschi on the project, which is intended to give the store presence and allow it to stand out from others in the busy shopping district, as well as reflect the high-precision of Rolex timepieces.

Limestone panels affixed to the building's exterior are shaped to echo the forms and textures of the brand's watches.

The material was chosen for its luxurious appearance and longevity, according to Partisans founder Josephson, who said: "Stone is future heritage, it's having a renaissance."

The panels continue the geometry of the existing building features, such as the rigid vertical mullions, but flow into softer shapes that curve around large windows and over the entrance awning.

"Each stone bay was cut according to measurements found through 3D scans of the existing building," said Partisans designer Ian Pica-Limbaseanu.

Niches are integrated into the stonework to house cove lighting that washes over the curvaceous forms at night, yet the junctions between the stone and the glass were trickiest to detail, according to Pica-Limbaseanu.

"The window detailing, specifically, had a tall order of requirements to satisfy," he said.

"Not only did it need to meet the exterior stonework at exact locations accurate to within a quarter of an inch, but it also needed to allow for easy maintenance and proper energy performance for what was otherwise an utterly unprecedented look to glazing on Bloor Street."

Tedeschi applied his computational design skills to create an algorithm for the parametric compositions etched into the limestone across the east facade.

These forms follow the geometries of engravings seen on watch-face dials while also responding to the unique qualities of the structure's elevation.

The store interiors feature plenty more stone, whose creamy tone is contrasted with dark walnut panelling and furniture.

Dark green seating matches a glass wall artwork that bears the Rolex logo, which separates the main shop floor with a more intimate lounge area tucked behind.

Partisans has previously used parametric design tools to create a rolling, pixellated brick facade for a single-family home, and a high-rise informed by architectural "revision clouds" – both in Toronto.

The firm was founded by Josephson in 2012, and has since completed a pool house in Ontario with an undulating timber roof and a lakeside sauna designed as a cavernous wooden grotto.

The photography is by Doublespace Photography, unless stated otherwise.

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Architecture practice Parallel Studio has punctured the white walls of this children's library in Zanzibar with small holes, providing natural ventilation and casting shadows across books inside.

Named Mariam's Library, the building occupies an empty plot in the village of Mwanyanya and is designed as an "inviting and inclusive environment conducive to learning, creativity, and community involvement", Parallel Studio said.

It was developed in collaboration with the local Beit Ras School after the studio's founder Mai Al Busairi visited the area and saw the community's need for more books and reading facilities.

"Mai Al Busairi collaborated with the local community and the school principal to understand their requirements, identifying the absence of books and adequate facilities as the primary concerns," Parallel Studio told Dezeen.

"This led to the conception of Mariam's Library, aimed at enhancing educational prospects for students in Zanzibar."

Mariam's Library is formed of clay-brick walls and a corrugated-plastic roof, chosen to meet a tight budget and enable it to be built in only 34 days.

Clay bricks were also chosen for their high thermal mass, which helps keep the building cool during the hot summer months. They are lined and painted white both externally and internally.

The addition of holes in these walls supports the low running costs of the library, with the perforations helping to naturally ventilate the space and reducing the need for mechanical ventilation.

Internally, the library comprises a single room divided into two zones – one for solitary learning and the other for communal activities.

Floor-to-ceiling shelving along one wall is filled with donated books and punctuated by one of two large circular windows that doubles as a sculptural reading nook for the children.

A stepped concrete seating area, which also forms a stage for performances, has been cast with a pattern of circles referencing the building's perforated facade.

The building is topped by a flat roof constructed from a timber frame and covered in inexpensive corrugated-plastic sheets.

Mariam's Library is the latest in Parallel Studio's series of philanthropic projects named Parallel Gives Program.

"We believe in the power of architecture, art, and design to foster positive change and cultivate a responsive approach to global challenges," Parallel Studio told Dezeen.

"Through the Parallel Gives Program, we devote resources and effort to serving the global community altruistically, reflecting our dedication to extending support and expertise beyond our immediate surroundings."

Using perforated walls is a common way to facilitate natural ventilation in buildings, particularly in warmer climates.

Other buildings that make use of perforated walls include the Mind Manifestation's apartment in India and the Premier Office in Vietnam by Tropical Space.

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Scottish practices Loader Monteith and Studio SJM have completed The Harmeny Learning Hub outside Edinburgh, which is clad in larch to blend in with its woodland surroundings.

The teaching space is located on the 35-acre estate of the charity Harmeny Education Trust, which provides specialist education for children who have experienced severe trauma.

Loader Monteith and Studio SJM won a competition to design it with their proposal to "embrace the students and the landscape" with a low-slung, L-shaped building that hugs the site's trees.

"Sited between two Category-A listed buildings and within a dense, mature woodland, the learning centre is rooted firmly in the principle of wellbeing," explained the studios.

"At the very core of the project is a desire to provide a safe place in which the children can explore, discover and reflect on their experiences in order to heal and develop skills that will support them into and throughout their adult life."

The Harmeny Learning Hub comprises two buildings set atop a paved patio. To the north, the classrooms, meditation spaces and two art workshops are housed in the main timber-framed, larch-clad structure that will silver over time to "camouflage" with the trees.

Perpendicular to this is a slightly smaller brick-clad volume, containing further teaching spaces and workshops along with offices and a reception area.

These two blocks are linked by paved walkways that wrap around and between them, dotted with areas of planting.

"This crucial access to nature – readily available from all rooms – offers students a diverse set of spaces to engage with their education and importantly, places of respite should activities become overwhelming," explained the studios.

"High-level windows and sections of overhead glazing offer a constant, relaxing visual connection to the outdoors."

The interiors of The Harmeny Learning Hub, designed by Studio SJM, prioritise both views of and access to the surrounding natural landscape.

In the classrooms, large skylights and glazed doors open onto the external patio, while the fittings and finishes have been kept deliberately simple with a neutral palette of pastel colours.

"Thresholds were carefully considered to offer a sense of welcome and create an informal, safe atmosphere from first entry," said the studios.

"The vocational spaces have been designed to mimic workshop or creative environments to familiarise the students with potential types of future workplaces," they added.

Loader Monteith is an architecture practice based in Scotland founded in 2016 by Matt Loader and Iain Monteith, and Studio SJM was established by Sarah Jane Storrie and Marianne Partyka in 2020.

Previous projects by Loader Monteith include an office for a bike tour operator in Inverness and an "invisible" restoration of Peter Womersley's High Sunderland house.

The photography is by Jim Stephenson.

Project credits:

Architects: Loader Monteith and Studio SJM
Client: Harmeny Education Trust
Main contractor: Thomas Johnstone
Project management: Faithful & Gould
Landscape architect: Wardell Armstrong
Structural engineer: Harley Haddow
M&E consultant: Harley Haddow
CDM coordinator: Principal CDM

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This week on Dezeen, American studio Manica Architecture revealed its design for a stadium for the Chicago Bears football team featuring a translucent roof and a glass-curtain wall at its entrance.

The stadium, which set to be located along Lake Michigan in Chicago, will function as a multi-purpose recreational campus and also host concerts and other sporting events.

It was criticised by preservationists due to its site, which is located by a protected waterfront. Manica expects to break ground on the stadium in the summer of 2025, with an opening slated for 2028.

In skyscraper news, car brand Aston Martin has completed a 66-storey skyscraper in Miami that features a cantilevered pool near its top and has a curved, flat form that references boat sails.

The brand's first residential skyscraper was designed through a collaboration between the British car manufacturer and architecture studio Bodus Mian Anger (BMA) and is located next to the mouth of the Miami River.

Also in Miami, architecture studio SOM has designed a skyscraper with an "exposed structure" that will be defined by two expansive terraces and rise 51 stories.

Renovation projects also proved popular this week. In London, dMFK Architects restored and renovated the Voysey House office in Chiswick.

Originally designed as a wallpaper factory by architect CFA Voysey, the building is Grade II-listed and has a striking facade that was carefully repaired to its "former glory".

In New York, Finnish architect Eero Saarinen's first and only skyscraper, Black Rock, was renovated by Vocon Architects and MdeAS Architects to help it "meet the expectations of today".

Prince William is "continuing his father's work" with a housing development designed by Ben Pentreath.

Set to be located in South East Faversham, UK, the project will be organised around "ancient footpaths and landscape patterns" and contain at least 875 affordable homes.

It will be the third major housing development by the Duchy of Cornwall on its lands and the first led by Prince William since becoming Prince of Wales.

In design news this week, Dezeen's editorial director Max Fraser questioned whether Milan design week has become a victim of its own success.

Queues "felt particularly acute this year", Fraser said, raising concerns that "design is increasingly moving away from providing solutions for the needs of regular people and is instead churning out a disproportionate amount of decorative objects for the wealthy".

We collected the top five houses of April this week, which included a skinny house in Japan, a home in Canada that is deliberately unfinished and a lonely cottage in the Outer Hebrides.

The other most-read houses last month were a villa in suburban London and a two-in-one holiday home on the Finnish coast.

Popular projects this week include a former slaughterhouse that's been turned into an art gallery with rotating walls, a Victorian home renovation in London and an angled office by Norwegian studio Snøhetta.

Our latest lookbook featured eight creative guest rooms.

This week on Dezeen

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US studio Ervin Architecture has unveiled the latest phase of an open-air theatre in Bangor, Maine with wood-clad, sawtooth boxes that flank open-air seating.

The Maine Savings Amphitheater is the largest single building in the state of Maine in terms of square footage, with a capacity of 16,500 spectators.

It contains 100,000 square feet (9,290 square metres) of building floor area as well as 130,000 square feet (12,077 square metres) of seating and concourse areas.

Ervin Architecture, which has offices in Maine and Florida, designed the venue to create clear sightlines, utilizing a 40-foot (12-metre) rise over 425-foot (130 metres) span from the front row to the back seat of the lawn.

Opened in 2010 as a temporary stage on a hillside between Bangor’s Main Street, the shores of the Penobscot River and the Chessie System railroad line, the amphitheatre was established as a permanent venue seating 16,500 people in 2013.

It has since gone through multiple phases of expansion, with Ervin Architecture joining the design team in 2017.

In 2018, "quasi-permanent shipping container structures" were built as annexes offsite to house food and beverage facilities, and the permanent eastside foundation was poured allowing the installation of four shipping containers that housed the corporate club spaces.

2019 saw structural and infrastructural improvements, extended foundations, and restroom facilities, before a sheet pile wall measuring 450 feet by 40 feet (137 metres by 12 metres) was constructed to shore up Main Street while the hillside was excavated to make way for expansion.

"EA has been entrusted with devising and executing a dynamic array of renovations and property improvements, establishing an adaptable design that is rooted in audience engagement and supports multi-seasonal outdoor operations," the team said, calling out the custom architectural and engineering solutions that maximize the topography.

By 2023, the site boasted five permanent buildings that contain four sponsored clubs, 10 corporate suites, terraced fixed seating, improved venue ingress and egress and expansive concessions options across seven acres.

Two large, sawtooth-shaped buildings sit on either side of the stage and help to create a better acoustic environment for visitors.

"[It was] acoustically enhanced with an innovative rainscreen that allows the facades to drain efficiently using an air and moisture barrier that doubles as an acoustical fabric," the team said.

"The result is a captivating aesthetic that establishes a functional layout of undulating balconies that provide each unit with independent, nonconflicting sight lines."

In the open-air seating, a "canyon-land" circulation plan is embedded in the terraces, removing crowds from sightlines and creating a dramatic reveal of the stage for entering visitors.

The team prioritised the reduction of the venue's carbon footprint with an emphasis on energy conservation, renewable and recycled content – like ZIP system sheathing, Marlite finishes and Azek cladding – and water conservation through low-flow fixtures and a green roof system.

Currently, the team is planning for a grand opening at the end of May and working on plans and feasibility studies for future expansions including "dueling skydecks" rooftop lounges and backstage amenities for visiting performers, such as apartments, offices and a driving range, spa and pool.

Nearby, HGA recently completed two mass timber education buildings for Bowdoin College, and Lever Architecture has designed a mass timber extension for the Portland Museum of Art.

The photography is by Dan Finnen.

Project credits:

Architect: Ervin Architecture
Owner: Waterfront Concerts
Civil, structural, & electrical Engineer: Haley Ward
Structural engineer: Foresight Engineering

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New York architecture studios SO-IL and Office of Strategy + Design have announced plans for the adaptive reuse of a series of warehouse buildings at a marina on the Detroit River as part of the Little Village development.

The project includes the conversion of four warehouses into an integrated "arts campus". It is part of the Stanton Yard development led by New York architecture studio Office of Strategy + Design (OSD), which will convert the area in between the buildings – currently serving as dry dockage – into a landscaped outdoor area.

OSD will also convert the waterfront of the marina into green public space and has designed a new waterfront building for the site.

SO-IL will provide critical restorations of the structures and unify the campus through a courtyard area that will connect to the buildings as well as to the street and adjacent marina.

Multiple entrance points from the street will be lined with sloped meshed canopies and a series of perforated barriers will be erected around the campus.

"With interior spaces ready to be tailored to any number of art-making, workshop, educational, performance, gallery, and recreational possibilities, our intervention creates a porous space in which programs exist in dialogue with the city and one another," said SO-IL.

The forms of the existing structures will remain generally as is. But renderings from SO-IL show the introduction of new architectural roofs, the most stand-out being a white sawtooth roof to be added to the entrance building.

Metal siding will replaced at certain junctures by polycarbonate panels to bring in diffuse light to the flexible art spaces within.

"We wanted to celebrate the site's industrial character, while clearly demonstrating its renewed purpose and identity," said SO-IL principal Florian Idenburg.

The studio said that other interventions into the current structures will include "polished metal, hammered concrete, and layered brick" but did not elaborate on the interiors or layouts of the buildings themselves or the specific uses of these materials.

According to SO-IL, these interventions will "reclaim the industrial locale, restoring its natural beauty". The adjacent marina will remain functioning.

Stanton Yards is one of many interventions developed by the local arts institution Library Street Collective to rejuvenate disused aspects of Detroit.

"As Detroit undergoes a waterfront renaissance, Stanton Yards shows the importance of designing from the outside-in, giving priority to people and the land as a means to creating a thriving new community destination for the city," said OSD principal Simon David.

It is part of a neighbourhood that the developers call Little Village, which includes a church converted into an art gallery by Peterson Rich Office and an in-progress conversion of a bakery into artist studios by OMA.

Elsewhere in the city, New York architecture studio ODA renovated the historic Book Tower skyscraper, adding restaurants and a hotel.

The images are by Bloomimages. 

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Global architecture studio Henning Larsen has designed a rowing club defined by a sloping green roof and timber structure in the Faroe Islands that celebrates the area's sports heritage.

Situated next to Klaksvík's picturesque fjord, the clubhouse by Henning Larsen draws on the region's traditional architecture with the aim of forging a "harmonious dialogue" between the structure and its waterfront setting.

"Our design approach was deeply rooted in the landscape and culture of Klaksvík," studio design director Ósbjørn Jacobsen said.

"The sloping green roof and timber facade pay homage to the surrounding natural beauty, while also nodding to the traditional architecture of the Faroe Islands; a harmonious dialogue between the built environment and the fjord landscape."

Set within a larger urban development of Klaksvík led by Henning Larsen, The Klaksvík Row Club poses a "vital contribution" to the area's urban development masterplan, which is currently 40 to 60 per cent completed, according to the studio.

The 620-metre-square timber structure, which the studio said was designed in celebration of the Faroese sports heritage, is topped with a serrated roof that transitions to a sloping green roof towards the building's rear.

A wooden dock wraps around the structure's base, providing views out towards the fjord and surrounding landscape.

Large timber doors front the building and open up to the dock, which is equipped with a timber slipway to create a direct access route for the row boats.

Slatted timber was used to decorate a set of doors on the ground floor, along with an opening on the upper floor, which emit a warm glow in the evenings.

"We wanted to create a space that is more than simple boat storage," said Jacobsen.

"The expansive doors opening onto the wooden dock and the open timber interior were designed to enhance the community use of the space."

Inside, the structure opens up to a spacious, open-plan boat storage area that showcases the traditional craftsmanship of Faroese boat-making.

Exposed timber beams and panels line the space and are complemented by black steel used for the window frames, light fixtures and structural detailing.

A designated area offers space for training sessions and is fronted by large windows that look out towards the fjord on one side.

Adjacent to this, a cafe provides a communal space for rowers and visitors alike, while a loft area lit by deep skylights provides additional space above.

The studio also embedded wooden shelves into the timber structure to showcase an array of trophies.

Other projects being completed by the studio as part of the wider Faroe Islands development include a mass-timber university building that references ancient construction methods and a wood-and-concrete ferry terminal that draws on Viking fishing boats.

Elsewhere, recently completed waterfront buildings include a timber and concrete home in coastal Washington and a series of tunnel-like vaults housing cafes and workshops beside the Vltava River in Prague.

The photography is by Nic Lehoux.

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Concrete loggias overlook a courtyard at this social housing block in Paris, which French studios Francois Brugel Architectes Associes, H2o Architectes and Antoine Regnault Architecture have converted from offices.

Named Ilot Saint-Germain, the housing is located in two interconnected blocks previously owned by the Ministry of the Armed Forces in the city's seventh arrondissement.

To the south, a load-bearing stone building dating back to the 18th century faces the road, while to the north, an L-shaped, concrete-framed building from the 1970s hugs an internal courtyard.

Francois Brugel Architectes Associes, H2o Architectes and Antoine Regnault Architecture were tasked with transforming these former workspaces into 254 social homes, while adding a gymnasium and kindergarten for residents and the wider city.

Looking to highlight and complement the qualities of the existing buildings, the studios retained and restored their structures, drawing on their palette of pale stone and concrete for the gymnasium and kindergarten.

"The important thing was to work with the existing features, using the qualities of the original buildings and making them visible," H2o Architectes' Jean-Jacques Hubert told Dezeen.

"There is a real interest in thinking of the different ways in which these buildings, through the project, belong to the city," added François Brugel Architectes Associés's founder François Brugel.

An open courtyard space at the centre of Ilot Saint-Germain now also houses the gymnasium, which has a sunken concrete form with a wood-lined interior illuminated by clerestory windows.

On the opposite side of the central housing block, the kindergarten is contained in a matching pale concrete volume, finished with narrow vertical openings.

Both concrete volumes are topped by garden spaces designed by landscape architecture studio Élise & Martin Hennebicque, with ramps and steps providing access to the gymnasium's roof.

Ilot Saint-Germain's apartments are organised to minimise internal corridors and their interiors are kept minimal and flexible to allow residents to adapt them to their needs.

Facing the courtyard, the 18th-century block opens up with large, arched windows, while the 1970s block has been lined internally with loggias, providing each apartment with sheltered outdoor space.

"Each building offers specific layouts [that] result in a wide variety of typologies," said Hubert.

"Each user must find their place in the daily life of their home, the garden and the amenities," he added.

The use of pale concrete at Ilot Saint-Germain was guided by the stone and concrete finishes of the existing buildings, which have been complemented by dark wood window frames and pale metal balustrades.

Recently featured in Dezeen's Social Housing Revival series was another retrofit of a former military site in Paris, The Caserne de Reuilly, which saw h2o Architectes alongside six European practices adapt a former barracks site into nearly 600 homes.

The photography is by Jared Chulski.

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Japanese studio Tono Mirai Architects has used soil and wood to create Toiletowa, a curving structure in Saitama prefecture containing a public toilet that reuses wastewater.

Located in a park in the town of Miyoshi, the building has a wooden frame covered with rammed earth made with soil sourced from construction sites and mixed with hydrated lime.

Tono Mirai Architects aimed to create a building that exemplifies waste-free construction, working with engineering firm IS Engineering and industrial waste treatment company Ishizaka Corp to develop its rammed-earth walls.

The material covers the wooden frames of the two curving walls that enclose the public toilet, which is topped by a gently curving timber roof with skylights.

"Two semicircular rammed-earth walls made of recycled earth placed in a staggered manner create a gentle movement and circulation within the forest, and the entire building acts as a well of light, connecting heaven and earth with light coming from the skylights," said the studio's founder Tono Mirai.

"A mixture of gypsum board and soil brought to Ishizaka Corp from demolished homes by house builders were separated and purified at the company's factory," he continued.

"Until now, it had only been used as a roadbed material for pavement, but this is the first time it has been used as a building material."

Mirai explained that a wooden frame was used for Toiletowa because the rammed earth alone did not have the required compressive strength.

"Due to the lack of compressive strength, the rammed-earth structure was not used as a stand-alone structure but instead was used as a finishing touch for the wooden framework, and slaked lime was mixed and rammed together to create this rammed-earth wall," he said.

"Not only that but it was also used as plaster mixed with lime for partitions and as hard-packed earthen floor."

Neighbouring the toilet is a semicircular timber structure containing wastewater tanks, designed to display how water is circulated and reused for watering crops in the surrounding gardens.

"A biotechnology called combined fermentation (EMBC) developed by doctor Yasuhide Takashima is used to treat and regenerate this toilet wastewater," said Mirai.

"By allowing aerobic bacteria and anaerobic bacteria to coexist, changes in fermentation, decomposition, fermentation synthesis and fusion occur, and the water is purified and contains zero bacteria, malignant bacteria, and E.coli, making it odourless – clear enough to drink," Mirai continued.

"The enzyme water created in this process circulates endlessly, and the water containing enzyme-bound crystals activates the soil and has the effect of improving crop productivity."

Most of the timber elements in the two structures are made from reclaimed wood, and the foundations are made from crushed stone instead of concrete.

The basins and toilet bowls are also made from recycled wood chips.

"Most of the building is made from recycled materials and materials that return to the earth without using concrete," said Mirai.

"More than just a toilet, it was built as an environmental education space that recycles industrial waste and serves as a model for a future waste-free, recycling-oriented society."

In the landscaping, crushed stone tiles are married with wood chips and lava stones, laid to make pathways that allow rainwater to drain into the earth.

Other public toilets in Japan include a circular building wrapped with metal louvres by Tadao Ando and a cedar-clad restroom in a park by Kengo Kuma, created as part of the Tokyo Toilet project that sw architects and designers create 17 public toilets across the capital city.

The photography is by Takeshi Noguchi.

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Dezeen teamed up with kitchen appliances brand Gaggenau to host and film a talk about reduction in design with representatives from Zaha Hadid Architects, SOM and Industrial Facility during Milan design week 2024.

Moderated by Dezeen's editorial director Max Fraser, the talk explored how principles of reduction and essentialism in architecture and design can be employed to improve our lives.

Titled Design by Reduction, the panel gathered contributors from different industries, with Zaha Hadid Architects associate director Johannes Schafelner representing architecture, Industrial Facility founder Kim Colin discussing industrial and product design, and SOM interiors lead Francesca Portesine representing interior design.

Amongst the topics discussed by the panel was how the process and aesthetics of reduction in design can improve well-being through fostering simplicity in people's day-to-day lives.

Explaining the role of reduction in interior design, Portesine stated: "Generally, it is a very good thing that there is less rather than more to look at, to feel, to concentrate, to give importance to one element at a time."

"The balance of a space is created by simplicity, by reduction of materials," she continued.

These comments were mirrored by Colin, who suggested that the role of the designer is to counter the complexity of the world by making a complicated world simple.

"I don't think we need to build in complexity – complexity is there in everything," she said. "We really try hard to simplify things and make things easier. We deserve for things to be made more easily and more easily accessible."

She went on to describe how, in the field of industrial design, reduction can be used as a means to create products that fit holistically into the lives of users.

"Often we try to quiet the noise. You can imagine a room full of products that are in the marketplace, shouting for your attention for you to buy them," she explained.

"They want you to buy them," she continued. "But then what happens when you live with them? You're living with a bunch of things that are shouting at you."

Schafelner described how reduction in architecture allows architects to design and build more efficiently, mitigating both the cost and environmental impact of buildings.

"When we talk about reduction, it's all about efficiency," he said. "It's really minimising the design, minimising the structure to have a better product."

He went on to describe how artificial intelligence (AI) can assist the architect in working more efficiently.

"AI will also help us," he stated. "There are now new tools which automatically give you realistic images in one second."

"It's a much more intuitive workflow. And in the future, this will definitely help us to be more efficient."

Addressing the question of how principles of reduction can help to build a more sustainable future, Colin posited the return of the principle of "less is more."

"Using less material, less time, less effort, less shipping – less is more is back," she claimed.

"It should be easy to make as well as easy to live with. They should go hand in hand."

The talk took place in the conservatory of Milan's historic Villa Necchi Campiglio, where the brand created an immersive installation called Elevation of Gravity to showcase its appliances.

Amongst the brand's new launches was the Essential Induction cooktop, which has been designed to integrate into a kitchen worktop seamlessly.

Covertly integrated induction hobs are integrated into a conductive Dekton stone countertop, indicated by a small LED light. The only other visible element of the cooktop is a performance dial located on the side of the countertop.

The Essential Induction cooktop was designed to break down barriers between spaces used for cooking and living in the kitchen, and the principle of reduction at play in its design informed the topic of Dezeen's talk.

The photography is by Giovanni Franchellucci.

Partnership content

This video was produced by Dezeen as part of a partnership with Bentley. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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Rental platform Airbnb has announced the addition of its Icons program, a category that provides a range of experiences including a stay in the house from Pixar's Up and an overnight stay in the Musee D'Orsay in Paris.

The first 11 Icons experiences include recreations of houses from popular culture, such as the floating house from Pixar's film Up, and visits with celebrities, such as a night out with comic Kevin Hart.

The 11 Icons include a full-scale model of the house from Pixar's Up, which will be suspended by a crane – though not when guests are inside it – to a stay in the clock tower of Paris's Musee D' Orsay.

This was transformed into a bedroom by French designer Mathieu Lehanneur and will be available for the opening of the upcoming summer Olympics.

The experiences will be awarded to guests through a selection process, with approximately eight additional Icon experiences being rolled out throughout the year to join the first batch. Each Icon is free or under $100 (£80).

"Icons take you inside worlds that only existed in your imagination – until now," said Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky. "As life becomes increasingly digital, we're focused on bringing more magic into the real world. With Icons, we've created the most extraordinary experiences on Earth."

The launch follows the platform's release of recreations of Barbie's Malibu Dreamhouse and Shrek's swampland cottage, as well as previous overnight experiences in an Ikea showroom and the last remaining Blockbuster.

"These experiences captured people's imagination and they allowed people to step into someone else's world," said Chesky. "And at its best, this is what Airbnb does. And what it's always been about."

To create the spaces, the brand employed a variety of strategies. In the case of the Up house, it was built from scratch, while other properties were renovated or outfitted with a particular theme such as the X-Mansion from the X-Men movie series or Prince's Purple Rain house.

"The Up house is one of the most iconic homes in any film ever," said Chesky. "You're gonna be able to stay in Carl and Ellie's home and it will feel like you're stepping inside the movie."

"This is a real house we built from scratch. We had to literally paint every detail in the home to match the exact Pantone colours used in the film, from the roof tiles to the siding," he continued.

For the X-Mansion, the team searched for a home in Upstate New York that looked like an approximation of the house from the movie series and then covered the interior in comic-strip style illustrations by artist Joshua Vides.

According to Airbnb VP of design Teo Connor, it took approximately two weeks for Vides and his team to hand-paint each room.

"Each Icon has a different timeline because they're all so unique, so different," Connor told Dezeen. "[There was] a huge amount of effort to bring these things to life and I think it really shows."

"With these types of things, we're really wanting to immerse you in a world and for it to feel authentic," she continued.

Other Icons include a stay at the Ferrari museum in a custom-made circular bed that is surrounded by various Ferrari models and a visit to Bollywood star Janhvi Kapoor's "childhood oasis" in India.

To visit the various experiences, travellers must submit a written entry through Airbnb during a timed submission period. 4,000 guests will be selected and awarded a "golden ticket" to attend the experiences over the coming year.

The brand also released several updates in order to make booking and organizing group trips easier for travellers, including multiple users being able to message the host and a ranking system when selecting a rental together.

Last year, Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky warned against designers failing to embrace AI and announced a program that called to designers and creatives to rent out their spaces for supplemental income.

The photography is courtesy of Airbnb.

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The latest edition of our weekly Dezeen Agenda newsletter features the approval of Foster + Partners' 18 Blackfriars Road development in London. Subscribe to Dezeen Agenda now.

UK architecture studio Foster + Partners has been granted planning approval for 18 Blackfriars Road, a development that will contain two residential blocks and a 45-storey office skyscraper.

The studio claimed that the project would have the lowest carbon footprint of any tall building in London.

"[18 Blackfriars Road] will feature London's lowest whole-life carbon high-rise, which also aims to be the first to achieve the WELL Community Gold rating," said Foster + Partners head of studio Nigel Dancey.

This week's newsletter also featured American studio Manica Architecture's designs for the National Football League team Chicago Bears, a terraced London house called Oasis renovated by architecture studio Unknown Works and British furniture retailer Habitat's reveal of its 60th-anniversary collection.

Dezeen Agenda

Dezeen Agenda is a curated newsletter sent every Tuesday containing the most important news highlights from Dezeen. Read the latest edition of Dezeen Agenda or subscribe here.

You can also subscribe to our other newsletters; Dezeen Debate is sent every Thursday and features the hottest reader comments and most-debated stories, Dezeen Daily is our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours and Dezeen In Depth is sent on the last Friday of every month and delves deeper into the major stories shaping architecture and design. 

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British automotive manufacturer Aston Martin and Argentinian architecture studio Bodas Mian Anger have completed a skyscraper in Miami with a curved, flat form and a cantilevered pool deck near its top.

Located in Downtown Miami, the 66-storey skyscraper was designed through a collaboration between the British car manufacturer and Bodus Mian Anger (BMA) and developed by local firm G&G Business Developments. It is the first residential skyscraper to be branded by Aston Martin.

The skyscraper stands 818 feet tall (249 metres) beside the mouth of the Miami river and features a flat, curved envelope that the architecture studio likened to a boat's sail – a common sight off the Floridian coast.

Aston Martin claims that the new skyscraper is the tallest residential structure in Florida, though it may soon be surpassed by one of the other towers going up in Miami. These include the supertall Waldorf Astoria skyscraper designed by Sieger Suarez Architects and Carlos Ott.

Beyond the symbolic relevance, BMA said that the sail also has some practical purposes, shoring the structure up against high-force winds and also allowing for ventilation.

"Airflow and wind and the understanding of Florida being susceptible to hurricanes was important," BMA director of projects Martin Freyre told Dezeen.

"We worked closely with engineers during the initial phase, and part of the inspiration shows what Aston Martin is about, which is as much about aerodynamics and power as it is about beauty."

"With the waterfront facade curving gently like a sail, the building is being built to meticulous tolerances and environmental regulations in a part of the world where architecture is coming under ever-increasing scrutiny."

Freyre added that the water-side location of the property presented some challenges during construction, and a foundation had to be massive in order to support the skyscraper.

"The Aston Martin building was a challenge in relation to the proximity of the water," he said.

"[It] sits on one of the largest foundations in South Florida that had over 14,000 cubic yards of concrete poured, which equates to over 1,400 full drum loads of a cement truck mixer."

The structure's solid foundation and sail-like form also tie it to the design of Aston Martin, according to BMA, who said that its glass facade and curving form also reference the aerodynamic shape of the vehicles.

"The emphasis is in the close relationship with Aston Martin's design DNA and the graceful lines and curves of the building that reflect the elegance that Aston Martin is known for," Freyre said.

"You wouldn't think that millimetres should matter in a building, but they do."

Additional details on the interior also recall the design of Aston Martin vehicles.

Carbon fiber was used for the fixtures in many of the 391 condominiums and amenity spaces, which include an art gallery, movie theatres, conference rooms, a spa, and a barber shop. Bespoke Aston Martin handles were placed on the doors of the residences.

Near the top of the structure is a cantilevered form that juts like a lip from the 55th floor and holds an infinity pool and lounge.

Above the pool, crowning the structure, is a three-storey penthouse that Aston Martin calls its Unique Triplex Penthouse, which boasts 27,191 square feet (2,526 square metres) of living space.

"Melding a captivating design aesthetic with one of the city's most idyllic locations, on one of the last parcels of the Miami waterfront, the ultra-luxury Aston Martin Residence adds further distinction to the already expressive Miami skyline," said Aston Martin executive vice president and chief creative officer Marek Reichman.

"We think this project firmly sets the mark for luxury residential design around the world."

According to Aston Martin, the residences, which include customizable interior schemes, are 99 per cent sold.

Other branded skyscrapers in the city include the upcoming Dolce & Gabbana supertall skyscraper and a Bentley-branded skyscraper with an internal car elevator.

The construction comes despite indications that sea-level rises could affect the infrastructure of the city.

The photography is courtesy of Aston Martin. 

Project credits: 

Architect and interior design: Bodas Mian Anger, Aston Martin
Structural engineer: DiSimone Consulting Engineering - Miami
Architect of record: Revuelta Architects International
Contractor: Coastal Construction/Miami

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Belgian studio Mamout has extended a townhouse in Brussels, adding a small garden room built from a prefabricated shell of pastel green-coloured steel.

Aiming to improve the connection between the home and its garden, Mamout drew on the form of an existing bow window on the rear facade to create a glazed seating area for the existing kitchen.

"The aim is to create the smallest possible extension, but one that offers a radically new perception of space from the inside," Mamout architect Sarah Avni told Dezeen.

"We imagine the extension as a response to the existing bow window, which is a typical element of Belgian architecture," she added.

The garden room sits slightly elevated off the ground to avoid covering the home's basement windows and is accessed from the garden patio by a small concrete stair.

While mimicking the existing windows form, Mamout opted for a steel structure that would provide a contrasting "thin and light look". This was manufactured as a single piece by a shipbuilding workshop in Liège, allowing it to be craned into place and "plugged into" the existing building.

"The intervention is integrated into the facade as a bow window should be, like a floating element, allowing the fabulous wisteria to continue spreading," said Avni.

"The tolerance for possible mistakes was very low – everything was settled and designed before it was brought on site," she added.

Inside, a full-height opening leads from the kitchen into the extension, where a contrasting stone floor finish subtly sets it apart from the rest of the room.

A built-in window bench follows the curve of the steel form, with a small table providing an area to have breakfast overlooking the garden, both finished with matching fluted wood bases.

A minimal, white finish has been given to the walls and full-height window frames, matching those already in the home while helping to focus attention towards the garden.

"We proposed a very calm and peaceful atmosphere punctuated by a curved bench that follows the steel shell," said Avni. "The position of the bench allows you to be seated in the garden."

Mamout was founded in Brussels in 2014 by Matthieu Busana and Sébastien Dachy.

Previous projects by the studio include the refurbishment of another Brussels townhouse that "makes the most of what already exists" and a courtyard house built using materials from a dismantled warehouse.

The photography is by Séverin Malaud.

Project credits:

Architect: Mamout
Structure: JZH & Partners
Energy: Earth&Bee
Furniture designer: Sébastien Caporusso
Decoration: Aurore de Borchgrave
Contractor: G-Line Construct
Steelwork: Ateliers Melens & Dejardin

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Architecture studio Elding Oscarson has extended the National Swedish Museum of Technology with Wisdome Stockholm, a timber building topped by a curving roof that bulges over a dome inside.

Made from 277 pieces of triangular cross-laminated timber (CLT), the spherical structure, which the designers refer to as a "visualisation dome", contains tiered seating surrounded by 3D screens.

It sits inside an open-plan rectangular hall with a cafe, which can be used for temporary exhibitions and events.

Elding Oscarson founders Jonas Elding and Johan Oscarson told Dezeen that they developed their design for Wisdome Stockholm to showcase the possibilities of timber construction.

"We wanted the project to show the possibilities with timber, so we aimed for making everything in timber – of course the flooring and interior, but also the exterior," they said.

Situated on an unused courtyard outside the existing museum, the one-storey extension has low facades built to a similar height as the stable buildings across the site.

Topping the rectangular building is an asymmetrical roof that bulges and curves over the visualisation dome inside.

"We wanted to expose the tall dome and place it completely indoors, in order to emphasise the function of the building and to make the dome the focal point of the space," said Elding and Oscarson.

"As a result, the shape of the building became very specific, somewhat peculiar maybe, but with an exterior design communicating this building holds a very special function."

The roof was made from a timber gridshell of layers of thin laminated veneer lumber (LVL) board bonded by LVL dowels and bolts. It sits atop an LVL column structure spanning 48 by 24 metres.

"One major challenge was to find a structural concept that would be feasible for production and installation on site," Elding and Oscarson explained.

"The solution, proposed by the engineers, was to use many thin layers of LVL and bond them together with timber dowels."

According to Oscarson and Elding, this construction method has historically been used for long-span timber bridges but has never been used for an LVL gridshell to the size of the one at Wisdome Stockholm.

The first timber layer of the gridshell was pre-shaped and acted as a mould for the other four layers, which were fabricated as flat panels and bent into shape on site.

"This hybrid method is a novel way of constructing a timber gridshell," said Elding and Oscarson. "It's a beautiful piece of timber engineering which was exactly what we opted for."

"We wanted the engineering to play a significant role in the design and the building to become even a pedagogic object on its own, as part of the Museum of Science and Technology," Elding and Oscarson continued.

"Ultimately, the project is really about exploring what is possible to do in timber and to inspire everyone that has the chance to experience the space, material and structure."

Nordic spruce lines the building's facades, and a low skirting made from heart pine helps protect against rain and snow.

The roof was covered with untreated shakes of heart pine, informed by traditional roof cladding found on historic buildings in the surrounding area.

"We really like this merge between the very elaborated structure, planned and fabricated in a completely digital process, and the very traditional roof made of 80,000 hand-nailed shakes," Elding and Oscarson explained.

Other projects by Elding Oscarson in Sweden include a weathering steel extension to the Skissernas Museum in Lund and a home in Mölle clad in roughly sawn Douglas fir.

The photography is by Mikael Olsson.

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American studio Walker Warner Architects has completed Hale Kiawe, a family retreat with simple, gabled forms that are set within an undulating landscape dotted with chunky lava rocks.

Located along the Kona Coast on the island of Hawaii, the house was designed for a family who wanted a functional and beautiful retreat that was minimalist in spirit.

"The homeowners, who come from a cross-cultural Indian background, believe that minimalism is about possessing only what is truly essential, and thus aimed to under-design their space," said San Francisco's Walker Warner.

The team was influenced by a traditional Hindu system of architecture called Vastu Shastra – particularly its emphasis on "harmonious living".

For a 4.7 (1.9-hectare) site with tall grasses, kiawe trees – also known as the American carob – and lava rocks, the team conceived a main dwelling and two guesthouses, along with a detached garage and swimming pool.

The project is called Hale Kiawe, a term combining the name of the trees and the Hawaiian word for house.

Informed by the agrarian buildings once found in the area, the buildings are clad in wood siding and are topped with corrugated metal roofs.

"Simple lines and geometries create a striking contrast with the undulating landscape and stunning coastline in the distance," the team said.

"The home is elegant but spare, exhibiting a spiritual existence that adapts to the environment with ease and comfort."

Totalling 5,600 square feet (520 square metres), the buildings are set around outdoor spaces and are connected by pathways.

The main entrance is hidden from the road and faces east to align with Indian cultural practices. A walkway and water feature lead to the entrance within an enclosed porch, or lanai.

"This tranquil, open-air pavilion serves as the heart of the home and transitions you from the busyness of the outside world to the calm and quiet within," the studio said.

The main dwelling contains a primary bedroom suite and an open-concept kitchen, dining area and living room. Each guest dwelling contains a pair of bedrooms.

"Rooms are open and large in scale, offering depth of tranquillity and renewal while still maintaining a sense of minimalism and restraint," the team said.

The team incorporated large windows and full-height glass doors to capitalise on the views and pleasant climate. The house can be opened up to the outdoors for most of the year.

Interior finishes include oak millwork, granite countertops, and flooring made of oak and stone.

Neutral colours mimic those found in the natural environment and help keep the focus on the landscape. The homeowner's love for Indian textiles and tapestries also informed the colour palette.

Rooms are fitted with custom decor from places such as Bali, Mexico and India. Kiawe wood was used for certain pieces, such as side tables and a desk in the main bedroom.

The interior was designed by local firm Philpotts Interiors.

Outside the home, landscape interventions were intended to strengthen the connection between architecture and nature.

"The plantings are thoughtfully integrated into the site, weaving together the built environment and the natural surroundings, and restoring a sense of unity between the two," the team said.

Established in 1989, Walker Warner Architects has an extensive portfolio of buildings focused on the outdoors.

Others include a barn-inspired guesthouse in northern California that is wrapped in reclaimed wood and a wood- and zinc-clad house in Santa Monica that hugs a spacious courtyard.

In Hawaii, the firm designed a residence called Hale Nukumoi, which features pigmented concrete, dark timber and deep roof overhangs.

The photography is by Matthew Millman.

Project credits:

Architect: Walker Warner
Walker Warner team: Greg Warner (principal), Sharon Okada (senior project manager), Matthew Marsten (job captain), Vivi Lowery (designer)
Interior design: Philpotts Interiors
Philpotts team: Marion Philpotts-Miller (principal)
Construction: Metzler Contracting Co
Landscape: David Y Tamura Associates
Lighting: Eric Johnson Associates, Inc
Structural: GFDS Engineers
Civil: Aina Engineers, Inc
Mechanical: Mark Morrison Mechanical Engineering
Plumbing: Mark Morrison Mechanical Engineering
Electrical: Morikawa & Associates
Geotechnical: Geolabs, Inc
Millwork: Wick Rice Cabinetry

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American architecture studio SOM has designed a skyscraper in Downtown Miami defined by two expansive terraces and an "exposed structure".

Located in Miami's Brickell neighborhood, 848 Brickell will rise 51 storeys and host office and retail space, as well as a restaurant and fitness centre across 1,267,580 square feet (117, 762 square metres).

Renderings show three volumes divided by two expansive public terraces, one on top of the base of the tower and the other about halfway up, covered by the 23rd floor.

An "exposed structure" wraps around the building's facade, with angled support beams framing the outdoor spaces.

"Continuing SOM's legacy of high-rise innovation and multi-disciplinary design, one of 848 Brickell's defining features is its exposed structure," said the team.

"Angled structural members heroically raise the tower above two distinct 40-foot tall outdoor terraces," it continued.

A series of rectangular glass volumes, each spanning four to five stories, are affixed to either end of the tower and will contain private terraces for tenants on their topmost floor.

The building's base, which is shown clad in metallic panels, will contain a double-height lobby, a restaurant and 7,000 square feet (650 square metres) of retail space.

A fitness centre and conference rooms will be located in an enclosed glass volume on the first public terrace, which will also contain outdoor sports courts, a cafe and landscaping.

A total of 750,000 square feet (69,677 square metres) of office space will be located throughout the building, while a public rooftop sits at the top, protected by a screen structure.

Some passive strategies to create energy efficiency are planned for the design, including louvres along the building's east facade and "high-performance insulating glass" used to clad the building.

Additionally, its outdoor space encourages a "healthy and productive working environment", according to the team.

Co-developed by local firm Key International and Chicago-based Sterling Bay, the project aims to take advantage of a growing market for high-end office space in the city.

"848 Brickell was conceptualized to capture the growing market for high-end office space in Miami with its expressive structure and wellness-focused programming," said the team.

"Designed to reflect the city's culture and environment, the building is informed by the surrounding climate and driven by a vision for an innovative, resilient workplace with best-in-class amenities," it continued.

As of now, there are no set dates for construction of the project.

It joins a number of skyscrapers recently unveiled for the Brickell neighbourhood, including Dolce & Gabbana residences designed in collaboration with New York-based practice Studio Sofield and Mercedes-Benz' first US residential skyscraper by SHoP Architects.

The images are courtesy of SOM.

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The transition from print to online journalism has led to "chaos" within architecture criticism that has upsides as well as downsides, author Paul Goldberger tells Dezeen in this exclusive interview.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Goldberger served as the in-house architecture critic for The New York Times in the 1970s and '80s during the zenith of postmodernism.

He spoke to Dezeen about the changing priorities within architecture discourse in recent decades, including a greater focus on social responsibility.

"There is a greater willingness to deal with issues and to deal with architecture as a symbol of social inequity," he said.

As an example, he pointed to the conversation surrounding recently built skyscrapers on the Manhattan street colloquially known as Billionaire's Row.

"If you look at the 57th Street supertall towers, while there are aesthetic differences from one to the other – and some are better than others and more successful as works of architecture – that whole discussion, while it's not invalid, is incomplete," Goldberger told Dezeen.

"It has to be set within the context of the fact that every one of them is a powerful symbol of profound social inequalities that are becoming more and more marked in this society," he continued.

"Those buildings are more and more conspicuous as physical objects, and I think that overrides the aesthetic differences."

Goldberger links this shift in values to the waning of so-called starchitecture culture – where individual architects become famous for their work – and the growing consideration of social and environmental issues in architecture.

He cited an addendum in a new edition of his influential 2009 book Why Architecture Matters that delves into social responsibility and architecture as an example of this shift.

Obsession with starchitects "exaggerated"

However, Goldberger believes that starchitecture and socially responsible architecture are not mutually exclusive – warning against considering these terms in "absolutes".

"We are in a period where there's a much greater understanding of social responsibility and the need of architecture and architects to do different things," he said.

"I think our culture was far too much in thrall of celebrity and built up starchitects beyond reason, and now we are probably putting them down or trying to avoid them beyond reason."

He suggests the idea that architects themselves have sought celebrity status has been overstated.

"I think the obsession with starchitects was always somewhat exaggerated – never as all-consuming as the media might have had it – and that was not completely architect-driven so much as driven by the culture's broader focus on celebrity," he said.

Goldberger traces the starchitect tradition back to hugely influential American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

"The greatest bullshit artist in the history of architecture was Frank Lloyd Wright – he also happened to have been one of the greatest architects who has ever lived," said Goldberger.

"[Wright] fabricated parts of his own history – he was very gifted at exploiting the media," he continued.

"The vehicles people have at their disposal to play those games evolve and change. It's not entirely new, it's just that the tools change."

"Nobody has the authority"

Architecture criticism has undergone a major shift during Goldberger's career as journalism has increasingly moved online.

The resulting proliferation of voices, especially on social media, has led to a cacophony of architectural discourse much different to the mid-to-late 20th century, he said.

"I was at The New York Times in the day when it had a kind of hegemony over journalism and also over the world," Goldberger recalled.

"We were critical to what happened in the city. The New York Times would have an opinion about almost anything, and everybody would pay attention."

The transition away from individual critical voices having a major influence has had positive impacts and not-so-positive impacts, he argued.

"I don't think anything directs the public discourse now," he said. "There's a lot of shouting and not a lot of clarity."

"In some ways that's healthy. It creates a sort of chaos and it levels the playing field – almost anybody can be on it. If certain established organs of journalism had too much authority once, now, kind of nobody has the authority."

But while the more democratised critical landscape has enabled historically under-represented people to participate, Goldberger is uncertain about whether social-media-dominated debate is leading to useful conversations.

"Everybody's happy to try to kick the ball in some direction or another, but we're not really having serious discussions about serious issues in terms of planning and architecture and design," he said.

"The most urgent issue is not what people build, but how much they're building; there's too much. The critical issue is land preservation and growth."

Goldberger has written widely about the importance of criticism in the work of preservation, and believes there can be a balance between a chorus of voices and rigorous critique on these kinds of issues.

"Like the slow food movement, there's absolutely a need for a slow reading movement," he said.

"I know the audience is smaller, but I think [criticism] is real and serious – not every building is worth that, plenty of buildings are just fine to talk about on X, because they're not worth more than 280 characters, but other things are."

"I don't want to sound like a Luddite," he said. "Because, like all of us, I spend a lot of my life online – so I'm not sitting here yearning for the day when print was all there was."

"But I don't want us to be in a day where it doesn't exist at all."

The main photo is by Michael Lionstar.

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The post Architecture criticism in 2024 defined by "shouting and not a lot of clarity" says Paul Goldberger appeared first on Dezeen.

Architecture studio A6A has converted a former model-making workshop in Bordeaux into a studio for itself that is defined by pared-back materials and spaces.

Named L'Atelier, the L-shaped block was originally formed of a street-facing garage, a central garden and a large shed to the rear.

Drawn to the spatial organisation and finishes of the workshop, A6A made minimal alterations but transformed it into a series of flexible workspaces intended to "reflect the philosophy" of the studio.

"We found many resonances with our approach to the profession in this space, an ideal place to realise our vision of architecture," said A6A.

"We wanted to design a place for experimentation and meeting, which leaves room for manual work and research," it told Dezeen.

"[It's] a timeless intervention in an existing building that we will never tire of over time."

Facing the street, the existing steel door to the garage has been retained, above which a sign with the name of the original workshop owner can still be seen.

This heavy steel door leads into L'Atelier's model workshop and material library – an open, flexible space with a sanded concrete floor and a long birch storage wall.

Here, original wood and glass doors to the garden have been preserved, beyond which a series of new and existing paving stones provide access to the main studio. This is accessed by a set of double-height, glass sliding doors.

"The garden appears like a haven in the middle of the city, a plant explosion which owes a lot to its original configuration and which we have come to amplify by integrating ground covers and shade plants with a tropical look," said A6A.

In L'Atelier's main studio space, the large volume of the existing shed has been retained, with more private areas such as meeting rooms and a toilet housed in a standalone wooden volume. A small mezzanine with additional workspaces sits above it.

The shed's exterior walls and metal frame – the only elements that A6A could preserve – are complemented by a new roof of slender white-steel trusses and birch desks and bookshelves below.

"Three materials dominate the project," explained the studio.

"Each of the materials was used for its structural characteristics and the ability to do certain work ourselves: we formed and poured concrete, partly sanded the slab and entirely manufactured all the fittings in wood," it added.

A6A, which is known fully as Atelier 6 Architecture, was founded in Bordeaux in 2013 by Michel Hardoin, Roberto de Uña and Antoine Ragonneau. Previous projects by the studio include an off-grid and easily transportable cabin in Ustaritz, which is clad in charred planks of Douglas fir.

Other self-designed studios on Dezeen include Paul Westwood's office in a disused garage in London and The Act of Quad's workspace in a former library in Mumbai.

The photography is by Rory Gardiner.

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The Duchy of Cornwall has submitted plans for a 2,500-home development in Faversham, UK, designed by Ben Pentreath, which will be the first major development led by Prince William.

Designed by Pentreath in collaboration with landscape architect Kim Wilkie, the South East Faversham development will be organised around "ancient footpaths and landscape patterns" and contain at least 875 affordable homes.

A planning application for the first phase of the scheme was submitted earlier this month.

South East Faversham will be the third major housing development by the Duchy of Cornwall on its lands, following Poundbury near Dorchester and Nansledan near Newquay, but the first led by Prince William since becoming Prince of Wales.

"The detailed proposals for South East Faversham have been developed by an expert team of professionals over the past six years who have been guided by the Duchy's overarching principle: sustainable stewardship for communities, enterprise and nature," said a spokesperson for the Duchy of Cornwall.

"The Prince of Wales is committed to continuing his father's work, as well as exploring new opportunities including tackling climate change and responding to social challenges such as mental health and homelessness."

Located alongside the M2 motorway to the southeast of Faversham, the 2,500-home development will be arranged around several large green spaces, including a central park and linear park alongside the major road.

It will also contain Faversham Football Club and Faversham Cricket Club, along with orchards, allotments, meadows and wooded cycle paths.

"The masterplan is profoundly led by the local landscape and historic development patterns of Faversham," Pentreath told Dezeen.

"It responds to ancient footpaths and landscape patterns, to topography and water, and to the need to support and strengthen local food networks," he continued.

"We have planned for almost every street to be tree-lined to provide shade and natural habitat, with tree root health at the core of the project, wrapping our services in a cage, rather than constraining tree roots in a cage; and with a broad approach to ecological enhancement throughout the landscape, on both large and small scales."

The development is being designed to be a "well-balanced, mixed-income community " and will contain a variety of housing types with 875 homes deemed "affordable", including social rented homes.

It will be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy and be built using local materials where possible to surpass the RIBA and LETI 2030 standards of low-carbon construction. It will also include a water recycling centre.

"As always on Duchy projects, we have integrated social and affordable housing, pepper-potted in a visually indistinguishable way; we have designed a huge mix of housing types from starter homes to retirement cottages; and mixed-use commercial centres, schools, surgeries and civic buildings, so that every home is within a 5-10 minute walk of a local centre and daily needs," explained Pentreath.

"Architecturally, we consulted over several years with the people of Faversham, as to what they would want to see in a new development," he continued.

"Working with local people, we developed proposals for a language that gently draws on the finest parts of Faversham and the wider Swale vernacular, at the same time as bringing in subtle evolution – such as solar roofs – that allows more easily for the Duchy of Cornwall's clearly stated net-zero and fabric-first ambitions."

Pentreath believes the scheme "is profoundly different" from standard mass housing being developed in the UK. The project will be developed over the next 20 years.

"The development is profoundly different in concept and detail from standard schemes, which are sadly all too prevalent locally as well as regionally," he said.

"There is no doubt that our approach, stitching into and, we hope, strengthening, local networks, is profoundly different from the standard, commercially-driven PLC housebuilder schemes, that can become a parasite on an existing town rather than contributing to and strengthening local resilience," he continued.

"There is a much slower delivery proposed than a normal volume-house builder scheme. Housing will be brought forward gently, over a 20-year period, to allow for the development to settle slowly and integrate with local communities in a more natural way."

The South East Faversham scheme was developed while King Charles III led the Duchy of Cornwall. It follows the well-known Poundbury development of 6,000 homes near Dorchester that was planned by Leon Krier and contains a central square designed by Quinlan Terry.

The Duchy of Cornwall is currently developing Nansledan near Newquay following similar principles, which will contain 4,400 homes when completed.

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In this week's comments update, readers are discussing a selection of brutalist and modernist churches captured by photographer Jamie McGregor Smith in his book Sacred Modernity.

With 139 photographs of 100 churches, McGregor Smith created the book to showcase the sculptural and unique forms of some of the churches built across Europe in the post-war period.

"Powerful demonstration of architecture at its best"

Readers were divided in their reactions.

"Awesome," wrote JZ. "When the church leads with adventurous designs, rather than cheap regurgitation, you get powerful, inspirational results."

"Some really fantastically sculptural buildings with awe-inspiring and exciting interior spaces," agreed Alfred Hitchcock. "Architects and engineers working in harmony (before we start worrying about the carbon emissions from the concrete production!)" they added.

Puzzello, meanwhile, felt it was a "powerful demonstration of architecture at its best."

Other readers weren't quite so convinced. "Yikes, I'll stick with my local All Saints Church – centuries old and handsome as ever," wrote disapproving commenter Mr J.

For Jack Woodburn, the designs evoked "end of times/Armageddon informed bunkers."

Commenter The Truth expressed their aversion to the "drab, heavy, grim and inelegant interiors" before suggesting "the late 1960s and early 1970s was a period where architectural experimentation struggled to find meaningful experimentation, as indeed the majority of these images confirm."

Architecture at its best? Join the discussion ›

"I am starting to think nothing ever looks good in this scale"

Also splitting opinion in the comments section this week was four skyscrapers in Toronto designed by US studio Rafael Viñoly Architects, which will be the studio's first built project in Canada.

"What a drab and boring urban landscape...well, I guess it fits perfectly then," quipped Souji.

"I am starting to think nothing ever looks good in this scale" reflected Miles Teg. "These kinds of giant towers are so devoid of human scale, however cool the design looks, they always feel imposing and ugly to me," they concluded.

However, not all commenters were quite so pessimistic. Ken Steffes proposed that "the colour of these structures make them attractive."

Anthony Hartnell was also a fan, writing "looks fantastic and a compliment to the growing neighbourhood!"

What do you think? Join the discussion ›

"This really is first class"

One project that readers could reach a consensus on this week was a house in a converted chapel in Devon, England, revamped by London practice Tucker Design Studio to reveal and restore the building's original features.

Several commenters had nothing but praise for the dwelling – Souji described it as "beautiful!", for Chris it was "stunning" and in Zea Newland's book it was "perfect". Chris D was similarly captivated and determined "this really is first class".

Alfred Hitchcock was also a fan and thought it was "a really beautifully done and sensitive conversion". But they did point out that "it's probably a second home, which is perhaps not so great for locals."

Ralph Kent was one of the few readers to voice any reservations, commenting "very nice but the kitchen looks way undersized/underspecced for a property of that size".

Would you live in this converted chapel? Join the discussion ›

Comments update

Dezeen is the world's most commented architecture and design magazine, receiving thousands of comments each month from readers. Keep up to date on the latest discussions on our comments page and subscribe to our weekly Debate newsletter, where we feature the best reader comments from stories in the last seven days.

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UK architecture studio Foster + Partners has been granted planning approval for office and residential development 18 Blackfriars Road, which the studio claims will be net-zero carbon.

Located on a two-acre brownfield site in London's Bankside, 18 Blackfriars Road will contain two residential blocks and a 45-storey office skyscraper.

Foster + Partners claimed the project would have the lowest whole-life carbon of any London high-rise development when it submitted its application, which has recently been approved by Southwark Council.

"[18 Blackfriars Road] will feature London's lowest whole-life carbon high-rise, which also aims to be the first to achieve the WELL Community Gold rating," said Foster + Partners head of studio Nigel Dancey.

"We are incredibly proud to be part of this pioneering vision for Southwark."

Designed in collaboration with developers Hines and Lipton Rogers, Foster + Partners claims the development will be 100 per cent electric and net zero carbon in operation.

18 Blackfriars Road will also have ground-source heat pumps generating 95 per cent of the development's heating needs, according to the studio.

Two residential blocks measuring 22 and 40 storeys tall will contain 400 homes, 40 per cent of which will be affordable housing.

A skyscraper on the development will contain offices designed to be naturally lit and with access to outdoor terraces on every third level.

There will also be affordable workspace and assembly rooms for the local community, play areas for children and a public plaza at the centre of the development with shopping and food areas.

"The new neighbourhood aspires to define the office of the future, with flexible floorplates for longevity and cascading green terraces, which bring a social dimension to the workplace," said Dancey.

Strips of terracotta-coloured cladding will decorate the buildings, running vertically down the glazed facades of the skyscraper and horizontally on the residential blocks.

Foster + Partners plans to increase biodiversity on the site by 150 per cent through various methods, including planting around one hundred trees.

The studio hopes to transform the site, which it says has been undeveloped for 20 years, into a thriving work and living hub that is connected to the local community.

"We have designed a healthy, mixed-use development that plugs into and seeks to significantly enhance the existing urban fabric," said Dancey.

"The project will provide new homes, offices, retail and a wide range of cultural and community facilities to bring this dormant site back to life."

"Vibrant new public spaces are central to the design concept, connecting with a cycle highway and a number of public transport interchanges to encourage car-free travel," Dancey added.

Other designs recently unveiled by Foster + Partners include an office tower in Hollywood wrapped with spiralling terraces and a tiered supertall skyscraper in New York.

The images are by Foster + Partners.

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Dezeen Events Guide has launched its guide to NYCxDesign 2024, highlighting the key events in New York City from 16 to 23 May.

The festival celebrates its 12th anniversary with a programme of exhibitions, open showrooms, tours, talks, design fairs and product launches.

Located across neighbourhoods in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, around 200 events are taking place across eight days, spanning architecture, design, art, fashion and technology.

Use our interactive map

This year's guide also features a curated map with the key events of the festival, helping you navigate your way around the city.

There is still the opportunity to feature in the guide

There are three types of listings still available:

Standard listings cost £125 ($160) and include the event name, date and location details plus a website link. These listings will feature up to 50 words of text about the event.

Enhanced listings cost £175 ($225) and include all of the above, plus an image at the top of the listing's page and a preview image on the Dezeen Events Guide homepage. These listings will also feature up to 100 words of text about the event.

Featured listings cost £350 ($450) and include the elements of an enhanced listing plus a post on Dezeen's Threads channel, inclusion in the featured events carousel on the right hand of the homepage for up to two weeks and 150 words of text about the event. This text can include commercial information such as ticket prices and offers and can feature additional links to website pages such as ticket sales and newsletter signups.

For more details about partnering with us to help amplify your event, contact the team at eventsguide@dezeen.com.

About Dezeen Events Guide

Dezeen Events Guide is our guide to the best architecture and design events taking place across the world each year.

The guide is updated weekly and includes events, conferences, trade fairs, major exhibitions and design weeks.

The illustration is by Justyna Green.

The post Dezeen Events Guide launches digital guide to NYCxDesign 2024 appeared first on Dezeen.

The latest edition of our Dezeen Debate newsletter features a conversion of a Czech slaughterhouse into an art gallery. Subscribe to Dezeen Debate now.

Architecture studio KWK Promes has repurposed a slaughterhouse in the Czech Republic into the Plato Contemporary Art Gallery, featuring exhibition spaces lined with rotating concrete walls.

These additions comprise six large rotating walls. Three act as entrances to the gallery, while the remaining three open their exhibition spaces to the surroundings.

Commenters were stunned by the renovation, with one lauding it as a "very smart intervention" and a "highly cultural architecture refurbishment". Another agreed, describing it as "simultaneously whimsical and reverent".

Other stories in this week's newsletter that fired up the comments section include four skyscrapers and a series of public spaces in Toronto designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects, the winner of the Mies van der Rohe Award for Europe's best new building and a collection of surreal furniture created for Schiaparelli.

Dezeen Debate

Dezeen Debate is sent every Thursday and features a selection of the best reader comments and most talked-about stories. Read the latest edition of Dezeen Debate or subscribe here.

You can also subscribe to our other newsletters; Dezeen Agenda is sent every Tuesday containing a selection of the most important news highlights from the week, Dezeen Daily is our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours and Dezeen In Depth is sent on the last Friday of every month and delves deeper into the major stories shaping architecture and design.

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The first and only skyscraper designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen in New York City has undergone a renovation by Vocon Architects and MdeAS Architects to help it "meet the expectations of today".

At the behest of developer HGI, local architecture studios Vocon Architects and MdeAS Architects renovated and restored the 51W52 skyscraper, also known as Black Rock, which was completed as a headquarters for American media giant CBS in 1964.

CBS moved all of its facilities out in late 2023 and Black Rock now contains offices for a variety of companies, including HGI itself.

Designed by modernist architect Saarinen as his first and only skyscraper, 51W52's original symmetrical facade of granite, bronze and travertine has survived, with the bronze fins updated by the renovation team.

At the time, Saarinen called it the "simplest skyscraper statement in New York".

The original design was mostly maintained, and the developer, which purchased the landmarked building in 2021, said that the relatively column-less floor plans made it a perfect candidate for a contemporary office, though the interiors needed an update.

"From the beginning, we understood the immense potential of 51W52 given its architectural significance, desirable floor plans, and central location in Midtown," said HGI president T Richard Litton Jr.

"The structure of the building was optimal, we just needed to make subtle enhancements to reflect and appreciate its original design."

Most of the structural elements in the building were left intact. The architectural team completely renovated two lobbies on the ground floor, including a revamp of the finishes and the elevators. They also redid the building's rooftop garden.

The project also included the renovation of key amenities spaces including a lounge, fitness centre and a private cafe.

The studios said that instead of completely rethinking the aesthetics of the 900,000-square-foot (83,600 square-metre) building, they aimed to "let the significant architecture speak for itself".

The wide, long walls of the lobby were finished in detailing that echoes those used for the original facade. Some of the walls were covered in brass-tipped wooden slats, while others feature monolithic granite slabs.

Back-lit stone clads the reception desk, above which was placed a modernist fresco that incorporates the CBS logo to call attention to the history of the building.

This artwork, by artist Vincent Ashbahian, was originally displayed in the building in the 1970s and willed back to the building after his death.

Toronto outfit Viso created a massive lighting fixture made of dangling lights on strands to cover a large swath of the lobby.

"By conceptualizing the experience from the outside in, we were able to restore the fundamental beauty of his design and apply the principles of form, light, and even water to new elements such as the feature stair and water feature that meet the preferences of contemporary office users," said MdeAS Architects managing partner Dan Shannon.

From the lobby, a glass-lined stairwell leads down to lounge areas. The stairwell shaft is clad in stainless steel rendered in an undulating pattern.

Models of furniture originally designed by Saarinen and architect Florence Knoll were placed throughout the renovated spaces.

As it leads to lounge areas below, it passes over a small, still water feature: a small pool of water retained by black-painted metal.

"The creation of private lounges, a conference center, and fitness studios help the building meet the expectations of today's best corporate talent, while their designs maintain the integrity of Saarinen’s original architecture," said Vocon Architects principal Tom Vecchione.

Saarinen is known for his modernist architecture, with built work across the United States and Europe. Recently, a number of his buildings have been undergoing renovation, including his TWA terminal at JFK, which was repurposed into a hotel.

Other modernist skyscrapers that have undergone restorations and renovations in New York City include the famous Lever House skyscraper, which was restored by SOM, its original architects.

The photography is by Colin Miller.

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Architecture studio Unknown Works has renovated a terraced London house called Oasis, adding a side and rear extension to create a flexible interior and maximise natural light.

The Victorian home in Kentish Town is owned by Unknown Works' co-founder Theo Games Petrohilos, who wanted to update its interior with a large open-plan living area suitable for cooking, working and entertaining guests.

Extensions to the side and rear mean that the home now occupies the site's full width, with large sliding glass doors opening directly onto the rear courtyard garden.

This maximises light and space while establishing a better connection with the garden where large fig and bay trees have been retained.

"The old spaces were dark and didn't make anything of the connection to the garden," Petrohilos told Dezeen.

"I think the previous owners weren't big cooks because they left the kitchen in a cramped setup as a galley with the dining table set to the end," he explained.

"You couldn't feed more than two or three in that space, while the main living space prioritised a big sofa and a TV, which seemed a little sad," added Petrohilos. "I swapped it up with a massive dining table in the main space."

To the front of Oasis, the original bedroom and ensuite bathroom have been updated with bespoke birch-plywood furniture. This includes a bed with integrated storage and floor-to-ceiling wardrobes on wheels that double as adaptable partitions.

At the centre of the plan, Unknown Works has placed a small internal courtyard inspired by Japanese stone gardens to provide cross ventilation through the home and access to natural light for the reconfigured bedroom.

The stainless steel and plywood kitchen is complemented by concrete flooring that runs into the garden, designed to "give a feeling of al fresco dining experience year-round".

Bespoke timber joinery and custom-made furniture feature throughout Oasis, including a 16-seater, stainless-steel dining table set on castor wheels to maximise adaptability.

"I want to allow for the different possibilities in terms of the way we live," said Petrohilos.

"In the kitchen, the flexibility in the space allows the big stainless steel table to be spun around, moved to each side of the room or rolled outside into the garden."

With the client for Oasis being the studio's co-founder, the project was also used as an opportunity for Unknown Works to develop and test new ideas.

"This project seeks to maximise light, space and a connection to nature – we've done this with a materiality that expresses the way things are made," concluded Petrohilos.

"For most architects, the opportunity to live in one of our own buildings is a real privilege, after the design and making process, every day you're able to learn so much."

Unknown Works is a London studio founded by Ben Hayes, Kaowen Ho and Petrohilos in 2017.

Its other recent projects include CLT House, which also features modular furniture on wheels, and an "otherworldly" music studio in a garden.

The photography is by Lorenzo Zandri unless stated otherwise.

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Including a skinny house in Japan, a home in Canada that is deliberately unfinished and a lonely cottage in the Outer Hebrides, here are Dezeen's houses of the month for April.

Also featured are a villa in suburban London and a two-in-one holiday home on the Finnish coast.

Read on to find out more about the most-read houses on Dezeen this month:

Unfinished House, Canada, by Workshop Architecture Inc

The most popular house featured on Dezeen this month is a prefabricated home in Ontario by Toronto studio Workshop Architecture Inc.

Inside, the house has been left incomplete with an exposed structure – which the architects said was the result of "an aesthetic attitude, an approach to material reduction, and budget restraint".

Find out more about Unfinished House ›

Caochan na Creige, Scotland, by Izat Arundell

The modest Caochan na Creige sits on the eastern coast of Scotland's Outer Hebrides.

To help the home blend in with the dramatic landscape, architecture studio Izat Arundell used a timber-frame structure and thick blocks of local stone.

Find out more about Caochan na Creige ›

2700, Japan, by IGArchitects

Physically constrained Japanese houses are a perennial favourite on Dezeen, so it's unsurprising that this home in Saitama, which is just 2.7 metres wide, made the top five most-read for April.

Local studio IGArchitects arranged a series of layered living spaces over two stories, with exposed concrete featuring prominently inside and out.

Find out more about 2700 ›

Kingston Villa, UK, by Fletcher Crane Architects

Kingston Villa was conceived by UK studio Fletcher Crane Architects as a contemporary evolution of the typical suburban architecture in south-west London.

It has a simple, gabled form with a bronzed metal canopy above its entrance and pale textured brickwork on the facade, in a style that the architects described as "heavy, yet quiet".

Find out more about Kingston Villa ›

Two Sisters, Finland, by MNY Arkitekter

Finnish studio MNY Arkitekter designed this timber holiday home in Salo to enable two sisters to live together but in separate units.

Two standalone blocks are joined by a central terrace and have large windows at the western end looking out towards the sea.

Find out more about Two Sisters ›

The post Dezeen's top five houses of April 2024 appeared first on Dezeen.

Lisbon, Melbourne and Clerkenwell's design weeks are among the architecture and design events featured in Dezeen Events Guide this May.

Other events taking place during the month include NYCxDesign, London Craft Week and Design Miami Los Angeles.

London Craft Week
13 to 19 May, UK

London Craft Week is a festival showcasing the work of designers and makers, exploring disciplines such as art, ceramics, embroidery, candle making, material innovation, glassblowing, metalwork and fashion.

The programme includes talks, workshops, exhibitions, installations, fairs, performances, tours and parties dotted across the city.

2024 marks the event's 10th anniversary with expectations of around 250,000 attendees across the seven days.

Dezeen is a media partner for London Craft Week 2024.

Design Miami Los Angeles
16 to 20 May, USA

For the first time, design fair Design Miami expands its events to Los Angeles, located at a private estate designed by architect Paul R. Williams in the city's Holmby Hills.

The showcase includes vintage and contemporary furniture, lighting and design objects from global galleries, with the exhibition following the theme Master Works: Important Design, 1938–Present.

The creative director for this year's Design Miami Los Angeles, Basel, Paris and Miami fairs are led by artist and founder of Mirage Magazine Henrik Purienne.

NYCxDesign
16 to 23 May, USA

Annual design festival NYCxDesign returns to New York City for eight days, hosting around 200 events across Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens.

The festival's programme features exhibitions, fairs, tours, talks, open showrooms and product launches led by brands in the graphic, urban, product and landscape design fields, as well as art, technology and architecture.

Among the events is the ICFF and Wanted 2024 fair, located in the Javits Center from 19 to 21 May.

Dezeen is a media partner for ICFF and Wanted 2024.

Clerkenwell Design Week
21 to 23 May, UK

London's Clerkenwell Design Week celebrates its 15th edition, presenting furniture, lighting, flooring, kitchen and ceramics in exhibitions and open showrooms.

Among the displays, events include talks and workshops, which are situated across more than 130 venues in the Clerkenwell district of the city.

Dezeen is a media partner for Clerkenwell Design Week 2024.

Lisbon Design Week
22 to 26 May, Portugal

Launching last year, Lisbon Design Week hosts its second event, with parties, exhibitions, talks, tours and open showrooms over five days.

Events are located at various venues across Portugal's capital city, focusing on contemporary fashion, textiles, sculpture, furniture, art and lighting.

Melbourne Design Week
23 May to 2 June, Australia

More than 100 exhibitions are taking place at this year's Melbourne Design Week, alongside a series of talks, tours and workshops.

Each year, the festival asks participants to respond to the concept of Design the World You Want. Additionally for 2024, the programme follows three key themes: Ecology, Ethics and Energy.

Located in Melbourne and the surrounding Victoria area, the events expect to see 70,000 attendees across 11 days.

About Dezeen Events Guide

Dezeen Events Guide is our guide to the best architecture and design events taking place across the world each year. The guide is updated weekly and includes virtual events, conferences, trade fairs, major exhibitions and design weeks.

Inclusion in the guide is free for basic listings, with events selected at Dezeen's discretion. Organisers can get standard, enhanced or featured listings for their events, including images, additional text and links, by paying a modest fee.

In addition, events can ensure inclusion by partnering with Dezeen. For more details on inclusion in Dezeen Events Guide and media partnerships with Dezeen, email eventsguide@dezeen.com.

The post Six architecture and design events in May from Dezeen Events Guide appeared first on Dezeen.

Architecture studio dMFK Architects has restored and renovated the Voysey House office in Chiswick, London, which was originally designed as a wallpaper factory by architect CFA Voysey.

The studio renovated the Grade-II listed building – the only factory designed by the architect – into a "premium workspace" for property developer Dorrington. It will be occupied by wallpaper company Sanderson Design Group, which originally commissioned the building as an extension to its main factory more than a century ago.

The team aimed to revive the structure's original character reversing a series of renovations over the past 100 years following its conversion into offices after a fire in 1928.

Built with white glazed bricks, painted Staffordshire blue bricks and Portland stone, the building has a striking facade that was carefully repaired to its "former glory". This included replacing the non-original windows with steel reproductions of the original frames.

"The main concept for the project was to deliver a holistic restoration that refocuses attention on the quality of CFA Voysey's original building," dMFK Architects director Joshua Scott told Dezeen.

"We've embraced the opportunity to unravel the story of the Voysey House, which had lost its way after being subjected to a series of functional changes over the past century that significantly diluted its impact."

The studio reorganised the building's layout with a four-metre-high wallpaper showroom placed on the ground floor, which had contained a garage and entrance lobby.

Throughout, dMFK Architects aimed to draw attention to the building's original structure including its iron columns and shallow, barrel-vaulted concrete ceilings enclosed in corrugated iron shuttering.

New doors and joinery added throughout the interior also reference original detailing by Voysey, while Staffordshire blue quarry tiles were used on some floors and to line the main staircase.

"Whilst retaining the original bones and structure of the building, we've introduced new elements to create a modern and sustainable workplace that pays homage to Voysey's original design," said Dorrington head of development and regeneration Bruce Thompson.

Office spaces occupy the first, second and fourth floors and are lit by an internal light-well, with large openings leading out to terraces. A historic archive is hosted on the third floor.

Oxidised copper cladding was used to wrap around the light-well and is complemented by metal railings and window frames coloured in "Voysey bottle green" chosen to pay homage to the original paintwork.

In restoring the historic factory, the building's U-Value has been reduced by more than 50 per cent along with it achieving an EPC rating of A, according to the studios.

"The non-original existing windows were replaced with ultra-thin 7.7mm double glazing set within steel reproductions of the original frames," Scott said.

"These look like they've always been there to a passerby, but they're brand new – a change which has vastly improved Voysey House's energy efficiency."

Voysey was a British Arts and Crafts architect and designer who was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1940. Voysey House stands as the only commercial building designed by the renowned architect. Recently, Voysey's Winsford Cottage Hospital in Devon was converted into a holiday home by Benjamin + Beauchamp Architects.

Elsewhere, other restorations of historic buildings include the renovation of the Grand Palais by Chatillon Architectes which is set to host olympic games in Paris and the reconstruction of the Notre-Dame cathedral's spire following a devastating fire in 2019.

The photography is by Jack Hobhouse.

Project credits:

Architect: dMFK Architects
Client: Dorrington
Occupier: Sanderson Design Group
Main contractor: Ambit
Heritage and planning advisors: Turley
Structural engineer: Heyne Tillett Steel
MEP engineer: DSA Engineering
Fire engineer: Trigon Fire
Steel windows specialist: West Leigh
Brick specialist: Paye
Project manager: Pillar
Quantity surveyor: CHP

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Mexican architecture practice HW Studio has created a hillside house outside of Mexico City consisting of a vertical volume that houses circulation and a horizontal volume containing its living spaces.

Located in Morelia, HW Studio created the 4,735 square foot (439 square metres) Casa Shi to strike a balance between the "natural and artificial".

The house is made up of a rectangular, vertical stone-clad volume – containing the main circulation – affixed to a low-lying, horizontal volume with bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen and living rooms.

It is located on a hillside site, which overlooks a golf course and natural reserve.

"The stone volume vertically connects the entrance and garages with the rest of the house," said the studio. "Which is nestled within this disruptive white, abstract, and even challenging volume that seeks a visual balance between the natural and artificial."

"In some Eastern cultures, it is believed that to intensely experience any phenomenon, one must place two opposites together; this house could be an exercise in the meeting of these two opposites: the Baroque mountain teeming with vegetation and these two Platonic volumes," it added.

The house is entered below grade, where a long, outdoor staircase leads to the front door. From here, another staircase leads up to the main floor, with an enclosed ancillary space and a small bathroom tucked behind it at the basement level.

The entrance stair leads visitors to a long hall, which divides sleeping areas from the living room, kitchen, and a solitary bedroom tucked against the far side of the house, above the staircase.

A curved wall encloses the kitchen and living spaces.

"This axis or corridor presents an anomaly," said the studio. "A single slightly curved wall that aims to soften the journey and also serves as a tribute to the three women comprising this family."

A dividing wall separates the kitchen from the living area, which is located in a corner. Floor-to-ceiling windows and an Engawa, or veranda, run the perimeter of both spaces to "diffuse light and provoke a smooth transition" between the exterior and interior.

The three bedrooms on the other side of the divide sit in the centre of the house, with corresponding bathrooms and storage units wrapped around each one in an L shape.

An enclosed courtyard sits in front of them.

"The bedrooms or private areas remain secluded, without any windows to the exterior," said the studio. "The necessary illumination is received through a long courtyard, an intimate gathering point for the family, only connecting with the outside through the sky."

The house is clad in stone, which the studio envisions weathering over time to blend with the mountainside environment. The pilings on which it is cantilevered over the edge were covered in earth so as to blend the house with its surroundings further.

"This house seems to sit gently upon the mountain, and the final part of the slab floats lightly above it, supported by pilings covered by the same earth from the excavation, giving the impression that this large white element simply decided to perch there," said the studio.

HW Studio recently completed a house partially buried into a hillside in Morelia and a San Miguel de Allende house with open-air corridors and courtyards.

The photography is by Cesar Béjar.

Project credits:

Lead architect: Rogelio Vallejo Bores
Architect: Oscar Didier Ascencio Castro
Team: Nik Zaret Cervantes Ordaz

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American studio Manica Architecture and National Football League team Chicago Bears have unveiled the design of a football stadium along Lake Michigan in Chicago, drawing criticism from preservationists.

Manica Architecture designed the multi-purpose recreational campus – featuring a stadium enclosed with a translucent roof – to bring a variety of concerts, community celebrations, and sporting events to the Windy City's downtown, to replace the Bears' current home at Soldier Field.

"The transformative project will increase public open and green space, providing Chicago's families a safe place to gather and play," the Kansas City-based studio said in a press release.

"The recreational campus anchored by the new state-of-the-art stadium will enhance the existing vitality of downtown, increase connectedness to the adjacent museums, and attract residents and visitors alike to a more vibrant and dynamic cultural destination that can be enjoyed throughout the year."

Similar to the studio's designs of the Las Vegas Raiders' Allegiant Stadium and the upcoming Tennessee Titan's Nissan Stadium, the renderings depict an oblong stadium with a bubbled glass roof. The arena will be surrounded by planted green space and pedestrian access that connects the venue to the neighbouring marina and public transit station.

A multi-story glass wall will open the north end zone to a large public plaza and a view of the Chicago skyline.

The stadium and associated campus improvements will be "one of the largest construction projects in Illinois history," while the stadium and associated improvements will "add open space, improve accessibility, and provide Chicago families and tourists a safe place to gather year-round", according to the architecture studio.

However, the design and necessity of the new stadium have faced objections from the community.

It has an estimated to cost over $4.2 billion, with the sports franchise committing to contribute over $2 billion with additional prospective contributions from the NFL and the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority. The remainder of the funding, approximately $1.5 billion, could be drawn from state taxpayers – a financial priority doubted by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker following the Bears' announcement.

The studio maintained that the proposal's public-private partnership will "create increased revenue streams that can be used for underfunded city and state programs," while the magnitude of the facility will drive tourism and economic image to the area.

Friends of the Parks, a Chicago-based preservation group, questioned the selection of the potential site and the future of Soldier Field, a nearly 100-year-old, open-air sporting and military landmark whose tiered seating is noticeably missing in the unveiled renderings.

"We are already a great city – in large part due to our protected lakefront," said the group.

"As is so often the case in Chicago, the powerful and wealthy are demanding that our entire city stop and fast-track their plans to expand operations on the people's lakefront."

According to the plan, sports fields and greens will replace the Bears' current home upon completion of the new stadium.

"Soldier Field will be restored to its original grandeur with open athletic fields for community use," Manica Architecture said. "The historic colonnade, honoring the military men and women who have served our country, will be preserved and publicly accessible."

At the moment, Manica expects to break ground in the summer of 2025, with an opening slated for 2028.

In February, Manica Architecture's sleek black design for Nevada's Allegiant Stadium hosted Super Bowl 58. Also in the sporting world, last year HOK unveiled a "futuristic" design for the renovation of the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium in Florida, surrounded by a fritted glass membrane.

The renderings were provided by Manica Architecture.

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Architecture studio Snøhetta has completed the Vertikal Nydalen office and apartment building in Oslo, with two angular towers designed to encourage air flow through the building.

Located near the river Akerselva in the city's Nydalen neighbourhood, the building was designed by Snøhetta to offer views of the surroundings and provide natural ventilation to minimise energy consumption.

"The angled facade is designed to create pressure differences that enable air to move through the building," said Snøhetta.

"The air enters through valves in the facade, which open and close as needed," it added. "When two windows open on different sides of the building, the pressure difference forces the air to move through the premises, so the air circulates."

The 18-storey building has restaurants on the street level, offices on the five floors above and apartments on the top levels of the tallest tower.

"To maintain certain sightlines and gain a lighter impression, the building is divided into two volumes of different heights, where only one part exploits the plot's maximum potential of 18 storeys," said Snøhetta.

Angled steel balconies with perforated railings jut out from the building, animating the pine-clad facades.

According to Snøhetta, the building does not need to purchase energy for heating, cooling or ventilation, which it calls a "triple zero solution".

Instead, the building uses geothermal wells, photovoltaic panels, natural ventilation and a low-energy system for heating and cooling, the studio said.

The building's concrete core was mostly left exposed to slowly release heat and cold in the interior.

"Water from geo-wells in the ground circulates in the clay walls and concrete slabs when heating or cooling is needed," said Snøhetta.

"The heat absorbed into the concrete walls during the day is released at night and contributes to stable temperatures in the building," it continued. "The photovoltaic panels on the roof power the heat pump that controls the heating and cooling system."

Public space around the building was designed as a "new town square" for the local area, aiming to create sunlit plazas and pathways with minimal wind.

According to Snøhetta, feedback will be collected on the thermal comfort and air quality of the building, and programmed vents can be adjusted to best suit the users.

"We are proud to finally be able to showcase the whole of Vertikal Nydalen and the work that has gone into designing a multi-use building with natural and balanced ventilation and minimal energy consumption," said Snøhetta founding partner Kjetil Trædal Thorsen.

"I encourage all to challenge the framework and existing regulations and explore opportunities to solve things in new and unconventional ways," he continued. "This is the only way to evolve and improve."

Other recent projects by the studio include a glulam extension to a ski museum in Oslo and its progress on a geometric skyscraper on the perimeter of Central Park in New York, which topped out last month.

The photography is by Lars Petter Pettersen.

Project credits:

Architect, interior architect and roof terrace landscape architect: Snøhetta
Client: Avantor
Landscape architect street level: LALA Tøyen ​
​Consulting building engineer: Skanska Teknikk
​HVAC consulting engineer: Multiconsult ​
Electrical​ consulting engineer: Heiberg og Tveter ​
​Acoustics consulting engineer: Brekke and Strand
​Fire consulting engineer: Fokus Rådgiving ​
​What consulting engineer: COWI

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Local studio Valbæk Brørup Architects drew on the principles of Danish functionalism for Kildeskovsvej, a red-brick house outside Copenhagen with a blocky form broken up by large corner windows.

Located on a gently sloping site in the city's northern suburbs and named after the street on which it sits, Kildeskovsvej has a deliberately simple form that references the typical two-storey brick homes in the area.

These neighbouring residences were constructed during the era of Danish functionalism, which Valbæk Brørup Architects said prioritised "simplicity and purposeful design".

"[These homes] were all constructed between 1900 and the 1950s, during the period when modern Danish houses were being developed," Valbæk Brørup Architects' partner Stefan Valbæk told Dezeen.

"They have inspired our approach to the project, where we wanted to create a hyper-modern residence, but with clear references to the old villas and the context in which the project is situated," he added.

Thanks to its T-shaped plan, Kildeskovsvej has two gardens on either side. The one facing north is more private, while the other facing the road to the south is more open.

A kitchen and dining room at the heart of the home benefit from dual-aspect views over both of these gardens, opening onto a patio to the north.

The slope of the site enabled the studio to sink the living room slightly, creating a feeling of spaciousness that is enhanced by a fully glazed corner incorporating a door to another patio.

This is contrasted by the narrower end of the home, where a corridor leads to a small seating area. Above, the bedrooms overlook the garden with a row of large windows.

"The house's open glass entrance towards the road welcomes the inhabitant – through a dark corridor, one moves further into the house from here," said Valbæk.

"The movement through the house is a spatially contrasting narrative, with different moods tailored to the functions of the rooms and the unique character of the plot," he added.

Kildeskovsvej's exterior is clad in red brickwork, complemented by copper-coloured metal window frames and parapets.

Inside, this minimalist approach is continued, with white walls, paved and wooden floors and ceilings clad in cement-bonded wood wool to dampen reverberations.

"The choice of material inside is simple and calm, allowing the highly tactile red bricks on the facade, the windows and the landscape to remain in focus," said Valbæk.

Copenhagen-based studio Valbæk Brørup Architects was established by Valbæk and Eva Kristine Brørup in 2005. Previous projects by the studio include a barrel-vaulted summer retreat in a Danish forest that is reminiscent of agricultural structures.

Other Danish houses recently featured on Dezeen include a cedar-clad summerhouse by Norm Architects and Villa E in Aarhus by CF Møller.

The photography is by Peter Kragballe.

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Searches for the term "interlocking architecture" have recently experienced a near twenty-nine-fold increase on Pinterest. We've rounded up seven of the best examples from across Dezeen.

From cantilevers in Dubai to high-rises in Ecuador, this roundup showcases the diverse and innovative applications of interlocking architecture across the globe.

Studios in this roundup including Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and SAANA used concrete and rammed earth to create dynamic projects.

Scroll down to see eight projects from our interlocking architecture board on Pinterest.

EPIQ, Ecuador, by BIG

The EPIQ tower, a collaboration between Danish architecture studio BIG and Quito-based developers Uribe Schwarzkopf, features L-shaped stacked blocks that curve as they converge at the structure's centre.

The 24-storey tower in Ecuador has facades made of long bars of coloured concrete.

Find out more about EPIQ ›

The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia, by SANAA

Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning studio SANAA expanded the Art Gallery of New South Wales featuring a series of pavilions descending towards Sydney's harbour.

SANAA aimed for the new Sydney Modern building to complement its scenic surroundings situated prominently on a hillside overlooking Woolloomooloo Bay in Sydney Harbour.

Find out more about the Art Gallery of New South Wales ›

The Radio Tower and Hotel, United States, by MVRDV

Colourful and irregularly stacked volumes form the Radio Tower and Hotel in Manhattan, New York.

Designed in collaboration with Dutch architecture studio MVRDV and local firm Stonehill Taylor, the 23-storey tower contains a restaurant, shopping spaces and office spaces.

Find out more about The Radio Tower and Hotel ›

Deloitte Summit, Canada, by OSO

Tokyo-based architecture studio OSO designed Deloitte Summit, a skyscraper in Vancouver, Canada, which features stacked protruding boxes, reminiscent of Japanese lanterns.

The 24-story tower was built by stacking a series of steel-framed cubes on top of each other, resulting in an interlocking, sculptural effect.

Find out more about the Deloitte Summit ›

Interlocking flats, England, by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris

Wood-lined windows set into brick facades are featured in this mixed-use building in London's Southwark borough completed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris.

The form of the building was designed to mirror the staggered arrangement of its internal spaces.

Find out more about these interlocking flats › 

One Za'abeel development, Dubai, by Nikken Sekkei

This year, Japanese studio Nikken Sekkei built the world's longest cantilever as part of the One Za'abeel development in Dubai.

The 67.5-meter structure is part of The Link, a horizontal structure suspended 100 meters above a six-lane highway.

Find out more about One Za'abeel ›

Living Art Pavilion, China, by Mozhao Architects

Mozhao Architects expanded a technology park in Shenzhen by incorporating a furniture shop and teahouse within a series of six concrete blocks.

In designing the pavilion, the architects found inspiration in the traditional housing style native to the Shajing area, known for its sloping roofs and courtyard spaces.

Find out more about the Living Art Pavilion ›

Follow Dezeen on Pinterest

Pinterest is one of Dezeen's fastest-growing social media networks with over 1.4 million followers and more than ten million monthly views. Follow our Pinterest to see the latest architecture, interiors and design projects – there are over four hundred boards to browse and pin from.

Two of our most popular boards in the last fortnight are installations and kitchens.

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Mexican architecture studio  Módica Ledezma has chosen earth-toned materials to construct the single-pitched buildings that make up this rural complex of stables in Mexico.

Amongst the forests of Valle de Bravo, in the State of Mexico, Módica Ledezma designed the Equestrian San Ramón facilities to serve a multi-functional program for the care and training of horses.

The 1,370-square-metre complex was laid out using rigid geometry, with perpendicular volumes connected by intersecting axes that provide routes for the animals and staff.

The buildings form an L shape around four square corrals and a circular "walker" paddock where the horses can spend time outdoors.

The two stable blocks form the longer branch of the L and are divided into a larger first building and a second smaller one slightly up the hill.

A main "nave" forms a central axis through both buildings, linking the two, with four stables on either side in each section.

A perpendicular axis divides the first stable in two, and another outdoor corral separates the two buildings, which are architecturally identical.

"Each stable building works interdependently with each other, adapting to the topographic slope where, despite their scale, and thanks to the use of materials such as steel and glass, they communicate lightness and flexibility," said Módica Ledezma.

Both of the stables are topped with clay-tiled, mono-pitched roofs, which angle upward to the north and allow light into the structures through large clerestory windows.

"For the stables, a single-pitched roof system was implemented that would allow for the generation of wide open spaces and high heights that will promote correct air circulation," the architecture studio said.

Inside, the roofs are propped up on angled weathering-steel beams that sit on red brick partition walls, each with stepped profiles.

Wooden panels across the stable exteriors slide open to let in fresh air, while metal-framed gates swing open into the nave for access.

All of the materials have natural, earthy colours that pop against the backdrop of oak, pine and fir trees, as well as tall grasses planted around the structures.

"For this project, the ochre tones stand out and contrast with the abundant vegetation," said Módica Ledezma.

In the chamfered corner section of the complex are staff facilities including several bedrooms, a meeting room and dining room.

A small covered parking lot and a service module with a laundry, bale warehouse, workshop, and isolation and veterinary stables are also located in the shorter, flat-roofed wing.

"The buildings function with a constructive logic of pieces that fulfill utilitarian functions first," Módica Ledezma said.

"As a consequence, the product is a harmonious organism of diagonal, staggered, vertical, rigid and stylised geometries that work together as a unit for human and animal enjoyment."

Mexico has a long history of equestrian culture, and the country's rural areas are home to many facilities designed specifically for raising, training and keeping horses.

Other contemporary sites with architectural significance include a complex where the stables are linked by steel bridges in Huixquilucan and a ranch comprising triangular structures in Jalisco.

The photography is by Zaickz Moz.

Project credits:

Architecture office: Módica Ledezma
Architect(s) in charge: Hector Modica and Carlos Ledezma
Collaborators: Oscar Torres Alfonzo, Andrea Gonzalez Sanchez, Luis Ortega Romero, Emanuel Ortiz y Fernanda Soriano
Construction: Andrea Gonzalez and Luis Ortega

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Architecture studio KWK Promes has converted a slaughterhouse in the Czech Republic into Plato Contemporary Art Gallery, with exhibition spaces lined with rotating concrete walls.

Located in Ostrava, the original heritage-protected slaughterhouse building dates back to the 19th century, but after decades of disuse, it had become dilapidated and partially collapsed.

Tasked with adapting the structure into an art gallery, KWK Promes added an extension and concrete infills that contrast the existing sooty brickwork but mimic its ornamentation.

These additions include six large rotating walls, three of which provide entry to Plato Contemporary Art Gallery and three that allow its exhibition spaces to be opened to the surroundings.

"We introduced a solution that makes art more democratic," explained the studio.

"The main idea of the project is based on preserving the functionality of the openings as shortcuts connecting the building to the city," it added. "This has provided artists and curators with entirely new exhibition possibilities and allows art to literally 'go out' into the space around the building."

Plato Contemporary Art Gallery's rotating walls create two entrances on either side of the building, leading into a central reception, ticket office and cafe area.

The four exhibition halls each sit on the ground floor around the edges of the building, allowing them to benefit from natural light and a connection to the surrounding park.

The new wing at the building's southern end replaces a section of the original slaughterhouse that collapsed during the renovation but was needed by the gallery to meet its spatial requirements.

Inside, it contains an additional exhibition hall with offices above, finished externally with a blind concrete facade decorated with the impressions of windows, sills and lintels to echo the rotating doors.

On the first floor, this wing connects to a small group of rooms for visiting guests and a space for the gallery's educational programme.

"Following extensive discussions, we made the decision to rebuild using new materials, mirroring the approach we took with the rotating gates," the studio told Dezeen.

"Our objective was to preserve the conceptual coherence of the entire project, clearly delineating between historical elements and contemporary interventions."

While the original brickwork has been left visible internally in the circulation areas, the galleries have been reinsulated and lined with lime plaster, with deep reveals created for the building's numerous small arched windows.

"The deteriorated bricks have been mostly replenished with those recovered from a collapsed section of the building, [and] the new glazing has a ceramic screen print, making it appear dark and dull, attenuating the light in the galleries," said KWK Promes.

Surrounding Plato Contemporary Art Gallery, KWK Promes landscaped a park with trees, flower meadows and a small pool of water, with a gravel terrace around the gallery connecting to a series of paths.

"Initially, we imagined a paved surface for artistic activities, but as we got to know Ostrava better, we realised that the place was more in need of attractive green space for residents," explained the studio.

"The contaminated soil there has been rehabilitated and replaced by a biodiverse park with water-permeable floors, flower meadows and with retention basins."

KWK Promes is a Polish architecture studio founded in Katowice in 1999 by Robert Konieczny and Marlena Wolnik. Its other recent projects include the white-concrete House on the Road and Quadrant House, which features a rotating living space.

Plato Contemporary Art Gallery was recently named one of seven finalists in this year's Mies van der Rohe Award for Europe's best new building.

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London practice Tuckey Design Studio has revamped a house in a converted chapel in Devon, England, revealing and restoring the building's original features.

To celebrate its ecclesiastic history, the Old Chapel house has been reworked to reverse "characterless" alterations made during its conversion in the 1970s and later in the 1990s.

This involved stripping back walls, reorganising the ground-floor bedrooms and creating a "grand main hall" on the first floor with an open-plan living, dining and kitchen area, Tuckey Design Studio said.

"When we first stepped foot on site we were greeted by a characterless and muted interior that deceived the rich history and beautiful rural context," Tuckey Design Studio told Dezeen.

"White plasterboard covered the walls and ceiling, and carpeted floors smothered the first-floor nave, with crude interventions from the '90s haphazardly altering the building use into a compromised family home," it explained.

"We enhanced the open-plan character of the nave by cutting to reveal, accentuating the drama by exposing existing joists, repointing stone arches and uncovering existing floorboards."

To improve the home's circulation and connection between living spaces on both floors, a mezzanine level has been removed and the old north entrance to the chapel has been restored as the main entry hall.

Accessed through the garden, this entrance area leads visitors through the sleeping quarters and up to the main living area that is framed by a repointed stone arch and exposed timber joists.

At the centre of the main living space, a woodburning stove denotes the distinction between the lounging and dining zones.

A timber box reminiscent of a wooden pulpit has been tucked into the eaves of the kitchen to create space for an additional ensuite bedroom.

Replacing an existing extension that Tuckey Design Studio said had no "historic or architectural value" is a small courtyard on the ground floor, which offers access from two of the double bedrooms and improves cross ventilation.

A single-storey extension has been added to the southwest corner of Old Chapel to enlarge the ground-floor space for a generous family bathroom and small study.

The extension is topped by a roof accessible from the first floor's living space, providing views across the surrounding landscape.

Old Chapel's interior material and colour palette is defined by timber joists and flooring, exposed stone walls and plaster intended to create a calm atmosphere.

Many of these materials are reclaimed, including wooden floorboards and terracotta tiles, sourced from local construction sites and reclamation yards.

According to Tuckey Design Studio, the interior design is also designed to be sympathetic to the chapel's architecture, complementing and drawing on its historic building details.

"The home is self-referential in its historic function and appearance," said the studio.

"We implemented subtle details that nod to the building's heritage, such as carved niches recessed into the walls and cradling light fixtures alongside crafted arches, bows, and pitches, reminiscent of this period of sacral architecture."

Old Chapel is the latest retrofit undertaken by Tuckey Design Studio, the practice previously known as Jonathan Tuckey Design, which was founded in 2000.

Its other recent projects include the conversion of a former factory in Norway into a hotel and wellness centre and the restoration and extension of a traditional stone farmstead in Italy.

The photography is by James Brittain.

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