Museum of Furniture Studies project visualizations, 2026. Image Courtesy of COBE
The Museum of Furniture Studies was founded in 2017 in Stockholm, showcasing a collection of more than 1,300 furniture pieces by over 44 international designers. The museum's physical location closed in 2022, maintaining its visibility through its Digital Archive for Design Furniture until it was acquired by IKEA in 2024. This week, Danish architecture studio Cobe announced the transformation of a former IKEA warehouse in Älmhult, Sweden, into a new home for the museum. The project involves converting a closed storage facility into an open and accessible space for design while preserving its industrial structure. The building is scheduled to open in early February 2027.
Each spring, Milan Design Week 2026 transforms the city into a distributed platform for design culture, where prototypes, product launches, and research-driven explorations coexist across multiple scales, including a growing presence of architect-designed objects. Held from April 20 to 26, the 2026 edition once again centered around the 64th Salone del Mobile.Milano at Fiera Milano, complemented by a network of independent venues and exhibitions throughout the city, an expanded landscape that is further reflected in ArchDaily's accompanying selection of installations and exhibitions from this year's program.
Netherlands-based, nature-inspired architecture practice ORGA has completed the design of a carbon-negative neighborhood in Marknesse, a village in the Dutch province of Flevoland. The project comprises 12 affordable rental homes built with a high percentage of biobased materials. Its main objective is to develop scalable housing solutions that minimize CO₂ emissions and reduce reliance on fossil resources. The design reinterprets the traditional Dutch brick house, known as the "Delft Red" typology, characterized by red brick facades and orange-red roof tiles, while introducing wooden chimneys that double as habitats for bats. Commissioned by housing association Mercatus, the prototype was built in the first half of 2025 and is intended for first-time buyers and low-income households.
Henning Larsen, in collaboration with KHL Architects & Planners, Arup, and Flaviano Capriotti Architetti, has proposed the design for a 14-story residential building in Taipei for Continental Development Corporation. The project, titled Northern Lights, has a gross floor area of 3,464 square meters and is scheduled for completion in 2029. Situated adjacent to Daan Park, the development includes 46 residences and is positioned within a dense urban environment while maintaining proximity to one of the city's primary green spaces, which is described as a key contextual reference in the design.
Xu Tiantian is the founding principal of DnA_Design and Architecture, an interdisciplinary practice that addresses both the physical and social dimensions of the contemporary living environment, across scales. Born in 1975 in Fujian, China, she received a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a bachelor's degree in architecture from Tsinghua University in Beijing. Her recent work focuses on rural revitalization through a strategy she describes as "architectural acupuncture," understood as small-scale, site-specific interventions designed to activate local culture, agriculture, and tourism. These interventions, primarily concentrated in China's rural regions, have been recognized by UN-Habitat as a global model for urban–rural integration. In this interview with Louisiana Channel, she reflects on the role of the architect, questions architecture itself and the concept of beauty, explains her working methodology, and emphasizes the spatial dimension of nature.
Renaissance of the Real by Annabelle Schneider and Snøhetta, Milan Design Week 2026. Image Courtesy of USM
Across cultural platforms, heritage sites, and institutional developments, this week's news reflects how the built environment is reshaped through processes of transformation, reinterpretation, and public engagement. From archaeological reactivations and adaptive reuse strategies to museum expansions and large-scale international gatherings, architecture operates across multiple temporalities, balancing preservation with contemporary use and spatial continuity with evolving cultural programs. Within this context, ArchDaily's selection of installations and exhibitions from Milan Design Week 2026 highlights how design weeks increasingly function as curatorial frameworks for experimentation, while global events and institutional projects continue to expand the formats through which architecture is produced, shared, and debated.
Saint-Denis is a commune in the northern suburbs of Paris, France, known for the Gothic Basilica of Saint-Denis and the Stade de France. At one corner of Place Jean-Jaurès in its historic center, adjacent to the Basilica, stands the Îlot 8 housing complex, a Brutalist landmark designed by architect Renée Gailhoustet. Built between 1975 and 1986 to provide workers' housing in the city center, countering the trend of relegating social housing to peripheral areas, the project is now at the center of a controversial redevelopment plan. Often referred to as "residentialization" and restructuring, the proposal involves the demolition of significant parts of its original design. This reconversion is part of the French Nouveau Programme National de Renouvellement Urbain (NPNRU) and is justified by concerns over structural deficiencies, safety, and maintenance.
A building designed by Minoru Yamasaki in downtown Minneapolis is set to be converted into a hotel, marking a new phase in the life of the former headquarters of the Northwestern National Life Insurance Company, one of the architect's lesser-known yet formally distinctive works. Vacant since 2023, the building at 20 Washington Avenue South is now the subject of an adaptive reuse proposal that aims to introduce hospitality and public-facing functions. Initial plans were presented in April 2026, outlining a transformation of the structure while retaining its defining architectural features. The project is expected to move forward pending approvals, with a projected opening targeted for 2028.
Rotterdam-based firm MVRDV has announced a new milestone in the development of its Tour & Taxis Towers, a mixed-use project in Brussels, Belgium. The design was commissioned by real estate investor and developer Nextensa in 2021, within the framework of a site-specific land use masterplan also designed by MVRDV. The two-tower project combines offices, housing, and public amenities across 58,000 m², forming a landmark in the neighbourhood and reaching 126 metres at its highest point. Recently granted construction permission, the project is designed to reduce embodied carbon through the use of a hybrid structure and lightweight façade elements, aiming to minimize the use of concrete in both the structure and foundations. From the early stages, the firm has employed its CarbonSpace software to guide these decisions.
The UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona has released its full program, outlining the structure, participants, and range of activities scheduled to take place from June 28 to July 2, 2026. Expanding on the previously introduced theme, Becoming. Architectures for a Planet in Transition, the Congress is conceived as a distributed event across multiple venues and urban contexts rather than a single-site conference. Organized by the International Union of Architects (UIA) in collaboration with the Higher Council of the Colleges of Architects of Spain (CSCAE) and the Architects' Association of Catalonia (COAC), the event is expected to gather approximately 10,000 participants and 250 speakers from more than 130 countries.
Ooooh, that's EpiQ! By Ricardo Orts Ulises, Milan Design Week 2026. Image Courtesy of Skoda
Bringing together a week of exhibitions, installations, and industry exchange, Milan Design Week 2026 and the 64th edition of Salone del Mobile.Milano concluded on April 26, following six days of programming across the fairgrounds and the city. Held from April 20 to 26, this year's events reaffirmed Milan's central role within the global design calendar. The Salone itself drew over 316,000 visitors from 167 countries. With 1,900 brands represented and a strong international presence, the week once again operated as both a cultural platform and an economic engine, navigating a context marked by market uncertainty while maintaining its capacity to convene designers, institutions, and industry leaders at a global scale.
The Pantheon in Rome is globally known as a major tourist and architectural icon, a built testimony to both Greek culture and Roman technique, and a symbol of the Roman Empire. The monument was recently intervened upon by the Italian architecture studio STARTT (Studio of Architecture and Territorial Transformations). The project, titled Pantheon – Micro Architectures for Archaeology, was promoted by the Italian Ministry of Culture as part of a program of interventions initiated in 2019 to open public access to the archaeological areas of the Pantheon. STARTT's project represents the first phase of the program, focusing on opening a new entrance from the Pozzo del Diavolo, an area located behind the monument's Rotunda, allowing visitors to access parts of the building's archaeological fabric that were previously reserved for technical functions.
The Bass Museum of Art has appointed the Los Angeles-based architecture practice Johnston Marklee to lead the expansion of its campus in Collins Park, Miami Beach, advancing a long-term vision that integrates architecture, landscape, and contemporary art. Founded in 1964 following the donation of the John and Johanna Bass collection, the museum is housed within a 1930s Art Deco building originally designed by Russell Pancoast as the Miami Beach Public Library and Art Center. Over time, the institution has evolved through architectural interventions, most notably the campus framework introduced by Arata Isozaki, which establishes a dialogue between the historic fabric and contemporary additions.
The University of Toronto has revealed the design for the Temerty Building, a new facility for health research and education at the heart of the university campus. The project was designed by MVRDV and Diamond Schmitt Architects in collaboration with Two Row Architect. It builds on a previous collaboration between the first two offices at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus, scheduled for completion in late 2026. The project was first introduced in Temerty Medicine's 2018-2023 Academic Strategic Plan and envisions a 36,000-square-metre extension to the university's Medical Sciences Building, including laboratories for higher education, classrooms, and shared spaces. Work on site is expected to begin in the second half of 2026, starting with preparatory work in July.
Located in Tomioka, Fukushima Prefecture, Sea of Time – TOHOKU is both an artwork by Tatsuo Miyajima and an architectural project commissioned by the artist. Designed by Japanese architectTsuyoshi Tane of Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects (ATTA), the project envisions a permanent museum to house Miyajima's artwork. Currently under development from 2024 to 2027, with an anticipated opening in spring 2028. Positioned on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the proposal brings together architecture and installation within a site shaped by the memory of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, framing both the landscape and its historical context as integral components of the design.
Ooooh, that's EpiQ! By Ricardo Orts Ulises. Image Courtesy of ArchDaily's editors on-site in Milano
Observed annually on April 22, International Mother Earth Day frames this week's architectural discourse through an urgent call to rethink the relationship between the built environment and natural systems, foregrounding themes such as urban rewilding, the restoration of aquatic ecosystems, and the integration of ancestral knowledge into contemporary design practices. On another note, the opening of Salone del Mobile.Milano 2026 and Milan Design Week 2026 seek to reinforce the global relevance of design as a platform for exchange and experimentation, activating the city of Milan through a network of exhibitions and installations that engage both industry and public audiences. Among the announcements of award-winning architectural projects this week, the United Nations' House of No Waste (HØW) Competition highlights emerging architectural responses to climate and resource challenges. The awarded projects demonstrate scalable strategies for reducing material waste and embodied carbon while promoting adaptable, socially responsive, and resource-conscious public infrastructure.
Metamorphosis in Motion by Lina Ghotmeh. Image Courtesy of ArchDaily's editors on-site in Milano
Milan reactivates its role as a global design capital this week as Milan Design Week 2026 has began on April 20, followed by the opening of the 64th edition of Salone del Mobile.Milano on April 21 at Fiera Milano, Rho. Rather than a single event, the week unfolds as a layered system in which the fair and the city operate through different temporalities and spatial conditions. From early openings across urban districts to the formal start of the fairgrounds program, the staggered calendar reinforces a continuous flow of activity that extends across institutions, infrastructures, and public space.
