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At a time when public support for the arts is under pressure in many countries, Darat al Funun — literally "House of the Arts" — stands by its long-standing mission to champion artists. "Artists are witnesses of their time," affirms Suha Shoman, its founder. "Maybe Art does not operate change, but it does record it […] it points fingers. At the same time, it speaks of, even if it's so difficult and at times so violent, it speaks of beauty as well."

A place where the past remains present, Darat al Funun spreads in the hills of Jabal al Luweibdeh, on a rugged terrain overlooking the eye of downtown Amman, Jordan. Its landscape is warmly inviting and accessible to the public, with a lower entrance in the south and an upper one in the north. Across its cascading terraces, the site is visually permeable as well, demonstrating the foundation's core tenet: art is a civic necessity and a vessel for history.

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Videos

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Rising from the rocks that form the base of Castle Rock in Edinburgh, Argyle House stands in stark contrast to the city's most iconic landmark. Built in the late 1960s, this angular, grey building is a quintessential example of post-war Brutalist architecture. A geometric concrete structure stripped of ornamentation that has recently become an unlikely star on screen, serving as the backdrop for the series Dept. Q, based on novels by Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen. Yet the 11-story complex, which once housed government offices and now homes promising startups, continues to divide opinion. On one hand, its imposing presence challenges the historic urban fabric; on the other, its architectural significance makes it an important part of the city's modern heritage.

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German architecture practice JSWD has been selected to design RIYMAR Towers, a proposed mixed-use development in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, following an international invited architecture competition organized by Malcolm Reading Consultants on behalf of RIYMAR Real Estate. Located near the intersection of King Fahd Road and Olaya Street, adjacent to the Riyadh Gallery complex, the project is planned as a new development combining residential, hospitality, office, retail, and leisure functions. The project is positioned within the broader urban transformation outlined by Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, which includes objectives related to tourism, cultural development, hospitality, and increased homeownership.

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A new microlibrary project by Indonesian studio SHAU is under construction in Jakarta. The Microlibrary Taman Puring is part of the microlibraries initiative designed and organized by SHAU Rotterdam-Bandung (Florian Heinzelmann and Daliana Suryawinata), in collaboration with the City of Jakarta and the Microlibrary Foundation, a nonprofit initiative dedicated to expanding a network of sustainable, multifunctional community reading spaces across low-income neighborhoods in Indonesia. SHAU's first project, Kampung Mrican Phase 1, received the highest prize in the social architecture category of the Ammodo Architecture Award 2025, funding that made possible the realization of this second one.

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Architectural mediation is also a form of spatial and urban production. Open House Valencia offers a way of understanding it as a relational practice capable of introducing new dynamics into the everyday structure of the city. Its urban dimension takes shape through a temporary infrastructure that redistributes attention, access and urban rhythms, bringing together spaces that usually remain outside the scope of shared experience.

Through this infrastructure, buildings enter into a wider network of relationships shaped by different temporalities, scales and forms of urban life. Architecture enters circulation as knowledge, memory and experience; buildings acquire new positions within a network of urban references, while collective attention shifts towards spaces, histories and relationships revealing connections that may otherwise remain dispersed across the urban experience.

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