The United Nations General Assembly has voted to promote the use of worldmap projections that more accurately represent the relative size of continents. The resolution was presented during a session at the UN headquarters in New York on September 4 and received 164 votes in favor, with one country voting against and six abstaining. Sponsored by Togo, the resolution encourages governments, educational institutions, international organizations, and technology companies to use equal-area projections when geographic scale is relevant. The resolution does not formally replace or prohibit the use of the Mercator projection, which has been widely used since the 16th century. Instead, it calls for greater use of projections that preserve the relative area of landmasses and encourages education about the limitations of representing the Earth's curved surface on a two-dimensional map. The 2018 Equal Earth projection is identified as one example of a map that more accurately represents continental scale.
The German Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building has appointed Kawahara Krause Architects, Andres Lepik, and Olga Cobuscean as curators for the German Pavilion at the 20th International Architecture Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia 2027. The exhibition is titled "CONVIVERE — A Repertoire of Living Together" and turns visitors' attention to the in-between spaces of housing: the threshold, the stairwell, the courtyard, the space in front of the door. The curatorial argument starts from a diagnosis of today's growing social isolation, political polarization, and increasing pressure to build more and faster, and uses these spaces, where everyday coexistence begins, to ask how architecture can contribute to the foundations of democracy.
Danish architecture practice AART has won the international competition for Rigets Skatkammer (The Royal Treasury), a new 1,300-square-meter underground extension to the museum at Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen. Developed in collaboration with VEGA Landskab, Fogh & Følner, and Artelia, the proposal places approximately 600 square meters of new exhibition space beneath the historic moat, while partially re-establishing the water surrounding Christian IV's Renaissance castle. The project is intended to provide new visitor facilities and exhibition spaces for the Royal Danish Collection, which includes the Danish Crown Jewels and historic costume collections and currently attracts more than 500,000 visitors annually.
A week of architecture news has highlighted the growing connections between environmental change, public systems, and the evolving role of architectural practice. Extreme weather events in different regions have drawn attention to the vulnerability of settlements, infrastructure, and territorial networks, while new approaches to housing demonstrate how changes in procurement, construction, and governance can influence architectural outcomes. At the same time, the recognition of established practitioners points to the lasting impact of architectural ideas across generations, as the profession continues to engage with questions of resilience, systemic change, and the broader conditions shaping the built environment.
The Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art is now officially open to the public on the shores of Jinji Lake in Suzhou, China. The 60,000 m² building was designed by BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, ARTS Group, VIA.inc, and SHUISHI for the Suzhou Industrial Park Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau. The project is designed as a village of 12 pavilions beneath a continuous, ribbon-like roof, with a covered corridor that traces a path through the landscape as a network of exhibition spaces. The layout is inspired by the tradition of Suzhou's UNESCO-listed gardens. The project opens after a series of preview exhibitions, including the firm's Materialism exhibition, which remains on view. The building complex is set to become a new venue for contemporary art, design, and public life, marking BIG's first completed art museum.
MVRDV has revealed the design for WOMA, a mixed-use development planned for Wynwood Norte, Miami, in collaboration with Quito-based developer Uribe Schwarzkopf and Miami-based architect of record Kobi Karp. The development is planned on the site of a former coffee roasting company and takes cues from Wynwood Norte's industrial character and evolving creative community. Located alongside the nonprofit Bakehouse Art Complex, the project is intended to contribute to the area's growing network of spaces dedicated to art, fashion, and making.
On 1 September 2026, the Balearic Social Housing Model was announced as the recipient of the 2026 OBEL Award. The focus of this award's cycle was "Systems' Hack," calling on architecture to critically engage with the systems that underpin contemporary society and to examine how these interconnected networks might be reconfigured in response to accelerating global challenges. The Balearic Social Housing Model, created by economist and independent consultant Cris Ballester and architect and civil servant Carles Oliver, is a six-point approach to public housing developed between 2019 and 2023, providing additional value and comfort to traditional affordable housing by bringing procurement, architecture, materials, energy, tenure, public capacity and learning together as responses to current social, environmental and economic challenges. In this interview with ArchDaily, the model's creators discuss its origins, ambitions, and material challenges in making social housing a desirable place to live.
Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has been selected to receive the Andrée Putman Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2027 Créateurs Design Awards (CDA). The award, one of two Legacy Awards presented by the organization, recognizes a career that has influenced architecture and the built environment across generations and geographic contexts. Kuma will receive the honor during the CDA Awards Ceremony, which will take place at the Shangri-La Paris on January 16, 2027.
Amid growing economic, political, and climatic instability, the 2026 OBEL Award highlights the need for architectural approaches that rethink both existing and emerging infrastructures. The title for this edition is "Systems' Hack," where "systems" are understood as interrelated mechanisms governed by shared rules and "hacking" is framed as a strategic intervention that seeks to alter how these mechanisms operate. Within this framework, the OBEL Foundation has announced the Balearic Social Housing Model as the winner of this year's award, while also announcing a new cycle in 2027 under the same topic. The Balearic Social Housing Model is recognized for "transforming the role of social housing administration in the Balearic Islands between 2019 and 2023," proposing new approaches in response to an acute housing shortage and a critically limited public rental housing stock in Spain.
Severe late-August wildfires across northern Algeria have brought residential areas, agricultural lands, and critical transport corridors directly into the path of rapidly spreading flames. The destruction across Jijel, Béjaïa, and Tizi Ouzou claimed at least 12 lives and forced the emergency closure of major national highways. The latest outbreak follows a summer of repeated fires across the country, with authorities recorded nearly 2,000 fires nationwide in July, while fires in the northeastern province of Annaba at the end of the month forced more than 100 people to leave their homes and damaged nearly 150 houses. The current fires have again brought residential areas, roads and other infrastructure into the path of rapidly spreading flames. Forest fires occur regularly in northern Algeria during the summer, with increasingly frequent drought and periods of intense heat contributing to more severe fire conditions.
An exhibition tracing the vision behind Herzog & de Meuron's ten selected projects in China will open on September 12, 2026, at the M+ Museum in Hong Kong. The exhibition marks the museum's fifth anniversary; since opening, M+ has built its collection around visual art, design and architecture, moving image, and Hong Kong visual culture from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The museum building, designed by Herzog & de Meuron between 2012 and 2021, is located in the city's West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK), a cultural hub spanning forty hectares alongside Victoria Harbour. "Herzog & de Meuron: In Focus" is curated by Ikko Yokoyama and Iris Ng and reviews projects dating from 2002 to 2021, including Tai Kwun in Hong Kong (2006–2018) and the National Stadium in Beijing (2002–2008).
Architecture across Latin America this month reflects an ongoing negotiation between environmental challenges, cultural heritage, and changing approaches to public and professional life. From Colombia's earthquake and its impact on historic architecture to new cultural projects in Argentina and environmentally responsive design in Ecuador and Medellín, recent developments highlight how architecture continues to respond to both regional conditions and broader global challenges. Questions of heritage and infrastructure also remained prominent, as UNESCO raised concerns over the impacts of the Tren Maya on Mexico's Calakmul World Heritage site, while new initiatives in Chile and Costa Rica explored ecological design and sustainable practice. The month's stories point to a regional architectural landscape shaped by resilience, adaptation, and the relationship between built environments and their wider social and natural contexts.
A lower section of a Himalayan glacier collapsed on Wednesday, August 26, creating an ice and rock avalanche down the Lhende River valley that triggered severe flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border. The floods destroyed entire villages, with at least 350 confirmed dead and more than 1,300 people still missing. Characterized by their sudden and violent nature, flash floods occur within the first six hours after heavy rainfall or another floodwater source. In this case, the event has been attributed to a glacier collapse higher in the Himalayas, linked, in some scenarios, to a heat wave in the area. The speed of the movement is also distinctive of this type of flood, whose path of destruction in this case follows the Trishuli River basin in Nepal. According to the International Federation of Red Cross, the most affected areas are the Nepalese Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts. A more detailed assessment is expected in the coming days as floodwaters recede; in the meantime, it is already possible to outline some of the evidence from a territorial point of view.
This week's news focused on how architecture engages with what already exists and communicates beyond the building itself. Several stories explored restoration and reuse, from the renewal of a historic university hall to the preservation of an artist's exhibition spaces and the incorporation of reclaimed materials into new construction. Elsewhere, architecture continued to serve as both subject and setting for exhibition, with new museum and cultural venue announcements examining architecture's broader social, technological, and ecological contexts. On the radar, three projects to watch: in Berlin, sauerbruch hutton has won the competition to extend the Federal Ministry of Defense's headquarters at the Bendlerblock; in Santa Barbara, SOM and Mithun have unveiled designs for a major new student housing complex at UC Santa Barbara; and, addressing a different kind of construction altogether, Paulo Tavares' practice Autonoma has launched Documental, an open-source platform that lets journalists, researchers, and civil organizations turn data, images, and satellite imagery into geolocated digital stories in defense of human and environmental rights.
Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, whose seven-decade career encompassed painting, sculpture, installation, performance, literature and film, has died at the age of 97. Kusama died at a hospital in Tokyo on August 14, 2026, according to a statement from Yayoi Kusama Inc. and Yayoi Kusama Studio Inc. Known internationally for her polka dots, pumpkins and Infinity Mirror Rooms, Kusama developed a distinctive artistic language around repetition, infinity, self-obliteration and the relationship between the individual and the world.
Steven Holl Architects has been selected to lead the renewal of Ida Noyes Hall at the University of Chicago in Illinois. The project will upgrade the 111-year-old building's infrastructure, improve accessibility, and introduce new spaces for programs, events, and informal gathering while preserving its historic character. Designed by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge and completed in 1916, Ida Noyes Hall was originally conceived as a women's clubhouse and has since evolved into a broader campus gathering space. JLK Architects will serve as the historic preservation architect, with Workshop Architects leading student-life programming and operations planning.
City Tower One is a 358-meter-tall (1,175 ft.) tower in Dubai designed by Pelli Clarke & Partners. The 93-story mixed-use skyscraper completed construction and launched for leasing in June 2026. The building is located in the Trade Centre First neighborhood, on a site connecting Sheikh Zayed Road to Al Badaa Road along Eleventh Street, and includes 608 residential units across from Hazel Wong's Emirates Towers and Killa Design's Museum of the Future. The building's presence in Dubai's skyline and everyday urban life was recently captured by local photographer Ahmad Alnaji, founder of SARAB Art Production and a contributor to the visual identity of landmark buildings across the region, including projects by architecture practices such as Foster + Partners, UNStudio and Killa Design.
