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Last week, Apple opened its largest store in Europe, housed inside Rome’s 19th century Palazzo Marignoli. Designed by Foster+Partners, Apple Via del Corso celebrates the historic building by revealing its 1890s murals, frescos, and graffiti works from the 1950s, hidden from view for decades. The project creates a juxtaposition between the historical layers, the artwork and the signature minimalist aesthetic of Apple stores.

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Titled "Inbetween", the Australian pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale Di Venezia demonstrates architecture's "capacity to strengthen cultural connections and understanding between non-indigenous and first nations people". Curated by creative directors Tristan Wong and Jefa Greenaway, with Jordyn Milliken, Aaron Puls, Elizabeth Grant, and Ash Parsons, the pavilion will be on physical and digital display at the Giardini from May 22nd until November 21st, 2021.

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Following it's closure in January 2021, the 150-foot monumental staircase in Hudson Yards have reopened to the public on May 28th, but with a ban on solo visitors. The closure was confirmed after three individuals committed suicide since its opening in 2019, all under the age of 25. The structure was “temporarily closed” amid consultations by the firm with suicide-prevention experts and psychiatrists about how to prevent more potential suicides.

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The ability to detach dividing walls from fixed structural frameworks has been one of the most notable contributions of modern architecture. The moment came when Le Corbusier's conceived the Dom-ino system, in 1914, and was brought to life in the Villa Savoye, where the structural lattice of pillars contrasted with an independent and even organic distribution of the interior partitions. The so-called open plan has been used and reinvented by architects since then for multiple scales and programs, with a flexibility that allows for the creation of large spaces with or without partitions. But one important nuisance that plagues the open plan it that is often difficult to create closed spaces when necessary, which can improve acoustic qualities and the possibility of natural light. Operable partitions serve this purpose through various mechanisms, such as sliding, folding, or wheeled panels, but they do not always facilitate the necessary conditions. Directly addressing these issues, Skyfold has developed the solution: operable walls that fold vertically and remain hidden when retracted.