In the field of architecture, wood was one of the first materials used by humans for construction, evolving and facing various challenges over the years. From the integration of new technologies into industrial production processes to ancestral techniques and materials reinterpreted for contemporary times, timber construction continues to garner significant interest among architects and designers. Beyond its versatility, strength, appearance, and sustainability, cross-laminated timber, commonly known as CLT, presents a highly promising future for the industry.

For decades, professionals have accepted an uncomfortable reality: hours spent at a desk often result in stiff backs, constant shifting, and creeping mental fatigue. While conventional ergonomic seating has sought to improve comfort through adjustable mechanisms, it has largely continued to assume that effective sitting depends on maintaining a stable posture. Growing understanding of the relationship between movement, physical well-being, and cognitive performance suggests a different approach, one in which motion becomes an integral part of the seating experience rather than something to be minimized.

Architecture often draws on the history of a place, translating local narratives into contemporary forms, materials, and spatial experiences. Located in the spa town of Bad Orb near Frankfurt, ALEA RESORT HIDEAWAY follows this approach, taking inspiration from the site's history of salt extraction.

Designed by PLAJER + FRANZ studio, the 5,200 m² hospitality project references the geometry of salt crystals through its architectural language while using lighting solutions from OLEV to shape the atmosphere of its interior spaces. In this interview, architect Alexander Plajer discusses the project's relationship to its context, the design process, and the role of lighting.

Urban planning is often confused with adjacent disciplines: urban design, environmental policy, civic strategy, local politics, or data analytics. Moreover, the overlap in training and responsibilities between planning and urban practices makes the field difficult to define clearly. In practice, it is often easier to recognize the consequences of bad planning than to articulate the outcomes of good planning. When planning is working well for residents, it should disappear altogether. It should remove friction from daily life so that people would not think to credit a discipline at all. At its core, urban planning is the relationship people have with their environments, and when that relationship is functioning, the mechanics of housing, transportation, affordability, access, and inclusion should feel ordinary and expected.

This has not always been the lived experiences of planning practices, and in many places, it still is not. Urban planning has historically served as an instrument of division, used to segregate, exclude, and erase communities under the language of progress and order. Zoning maps, infrastructure investment, and land-use decisions are expressions of who holds power and that history is embedded in the boundaries that continue to organize cities around the world. It is embedded socially, as well as physically, in the assumption that participation in planning requires expertise or formal training that most residents lack.

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Nicolás Valencia talks with Chilean architect Macarena Cortés, author of Turismo y Arquitectura Moderna en Chile, an exploration of the architecture that helped shape Chile as a tourist destination starting in the mid-1930s through railway advertising.

Nicolás Valencia speaks with the Chilean-British duo Soledad Díaz de la Fuente and Robert Newcombe, co-authors of ⁠Guía de arquitectura en tierra del valle del Loncomilla: San Javier⁠ and ⁠Material didáctico - arquitectura en tierra del valle del Loncomilla: San Javier.⁠

Both books provide an unprecedented record of earthen architecture in Chile's Loncomilla Valley, highlighting more than 40 projects that demonstrate the potential of this construction method as a viable and sustainable alternative.

Nicolás Valencia converses with Chilean architects Juan Pablo Urrutia, Beatriz Coeffé, and Felipe Corvalán, co-authors of ⁠Imitate, Cite, Copy? Essaying a Genealogy of Contemporary Chilean Architecture, a unique project in Latin America designed to trace the influences and references of those selected for the 2019 Chilean Architecture Biennial.

Nicolás Valencia talks with Honduran architect Ángela Stassano, designer of the Copán Sculpture Museum and one of Central America's leading architects. Recorded in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, Stassano discusses her bioclimatic architecture publications, scooter anecdotes, and the history of Honduras.

Videos

Underneath surfaces, behind structures, or within building services, numerous fastening systems and adhesives provide the necessary connections for building facades, finishes, and envelopes. As buildings age and design trends shift at an accelerated pace, modernizing structures requires addressing deterioration, maintenance, and performance optimization. Regardless of their installation methodologies, technologies, or tools, ventilated facade systems continue to transform how we approach building design and aesthetics.

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Nicolás Valencia speaks with Chilean architect Sebastián Irarrázaval following the release of ⁠Escritos y arquitectura,⁠ the first monograph on his career, curated by Fernanda de Maio, published by Lettera Ventidue Edizioni in a bilingual Spanish and Italian edition, and funded by the 2023 National Fund for the Arts and Culture.

Who is Sebastián Irarrázaval? He graduated with a degree in architecture from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He founded Sebastián Irarrázaval Arquitectos, an office through which he has developed housing, public architecture, and cultural facilities in Chile and abroad. He has served as a faculty member at the UC School of Architecture, where he taught design studios and project courses. His work has been widely published and exhibited, earning various national and international awards, and is notable for its experimental approach to materials, construction systems, and the adaptive reuse of existing structures.

In Santiago, Nicolás Valencia speaks with Chilean architect Cristián Izquierdo, author of the book ⁠Composición Centralizada⁠, a collection of eight essays on eight houses designed and built by Izquierdo in Chile, weaving together theory and practice.

Who is Cristián Izquierdo? He holds a degree in architecture from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and an MSc from Columbia University. He is a partner at Izquierdo Lehmann Arquitectos and the founder of Taller Tecton, where he develops low-emission civic projects. He is the author of Composición Centralizada and El material de lo construido. His work has been recognized with honors such as Architectural Record's Design Vanguard and the AOA Medal for Outstanding Young Architect. He is a professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Nicolás Valencia speaks with Anna Ramos, director of the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, and architect and researcher Laura Martínez de Guereñu, author of ⁠Lilly Reich in Barcelona: The Materialization of a Neglected Authorship⁠.

Martínez de Guereñu examines the body of work created by Lilly Reich and Mies van der Rohe as a creative partnership: from the famous Glass Room at the Die Wohnung (The Dwelling) exhibition in Stuttgart and the Velvet and Silk Café at the Die Mode der Frau (Women's Fashion) exhibition in Berlin, both in 1927, to their masterpiece for the German section of the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition, the official German Pavilion.

Nicolás Valencia talks with Chilean architects Emilio de la Cerda and Paulette Sirner about ⁠Archivo Christian de Groote: cinco décadas de arquitectura⁠, a comprehensive publication on the vast work of one of the leading Chilean architects of the second half of the 20th century.

Nicolás Valencia talks with Chilean architect and 2022 National Architecture Prize winner Fernando Pérez Oyarzún about the third volume of ⁠Arquitectura en el Chile del siglo XX⁠, at the Lo Contador Campus auditorium of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

The period spans from 1950 to 1980, an era when Chile developed an architecture that reflected the years of European reconstruction and the rise of a new world order marked by US global dominance and the Cold War.

ArchDaily China is 11 years old this year. The design based on Chinese culture and site has become an important part of the global architectural design exchange, and has become a highly topical part of the global architectural and design development wave. ArchDaily China brings global architecture and design consulting and information to Chinese readers. Moreover, it showcases Chinese architecture and design to the world. We stick to our original intention and become an open platform that benefits the public, making the architecture and design industry more inclusive and equal.

This year, we once again extend an invitation to Chinese readers, hoping that everyone can participate in the selection of the 2026 China Annual Architecture Award. Through an unbiased and non-geographical voting method, everyone is a member of the jury, selecting the most representative Chinese architecture and design projects for everyone.In the next three weeks, the whole process of the selection will be divided into two stages: In the first stage, you will vote on 455 projects released in the past year, and the top 15 with the highest nominations will enter the second stage finalist list; In the second stage, the 15 outstanding projects will be voted again to determine the best champion, runner-up and third place of the year.

The 2026 Building of the Year Awards China is brought to you thanks to Dornbracht, renowned for leading designs for architecture, which can be found internationally in bathrooms and kitchens.

The architecture of Latin America and Spain is a testament to the rich and diverse cultures, traditions, needs, and solutions that define these territories. With more than 700 completed projects in Spanish-speaking countries published on ArchDaily en Español, the time has come to explore, debate, and choose your favorites for the Obra del Año 2026 award.

Now in its seventeenth edition, Obra del Año reaffirms its position as the premier architecture award in the Spanish-speaking world, decided entirely by its community. Starting today, March 24, our readers will take on the responsibility of choosing the best architectural works of 2025.

Over the next three weeks, the collective intelligence of our community will navigate through hundreds of projects built across Spanish-speaking nations: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Ten years ago, ArchDaily Brasil launched the inaugural edition of the Obra do Ano Award. Over the past decade, hundreds of architectural projects have been recognized as the best in the Portuguese-speaking world, thanks to the collective intelligence of ArchDaily Brasil's readers.

Today marks the start of the 2026 Obra do Ano Award, and once again we are relying on the ArchDaily Brasil community to select the best built projects in Portuguese-speaking territories. Over the next three weeks, you will be responsible for choosing the 15 finalists and the 3 winners of this edition.

All projects published during 2025 from the following countries are eligible: Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Macau, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe. In this first phase, readers can nominate one project per day to advance to the finalist stage, which will be announced on April 8.

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With just five days remaining until the finalists for the 2026 Obra del Año Award are announced, there is still time to vote for your favorite projects of the year. As the largest architecture award in the Spanish-speaking world decided by its community, the Obra del Año exists to recognize the most influential architectural projects published each year on ArchDaily en Español.

On April 8, the 15 finalists chosen by the ArchDaily community during this two-week nomination period will be revealed. By nominating projects, each reader becomes part of an impartial global jury, bringing visibility to the best architecture across Spanish-speaking countries.

With only five days left until the finalists are announced, there is still time to choose your favorite projects for the 2026 Obra do Ano Award. As the largest architectural award in the Portuguese-speaking world decided by popular vote, the Obra do Ano is dedicated to recognizing the best architectural projects published every year on ArchDaily Brasil.

On April 8, the 15 finalists chosen by the ArchDaily community over these two weeks of nominations will be revealed. By nominating projects, each reader becomes part of an unbiased network of jurors, bringing visibility to the best of architecture in Portuguese-speaking countries.

We invite you to participate in the ArchDaily China's 2026 Building of the Year Awards. We ask you to recognize and reward the projects that you feel are creating the largest impact in the built environment, that ArchDaily China has published on our projects database in 2025. By nominating and voting, you form part of an interdependent, impartial, distributed network of jurors and peers that has consistently helped us celebrate architecture of every scale, purpose, and condition, from countries large and small, and architects of all descriptions. Over the coming weeks, your votes will result in 455 projects being filtered down to just 15 projects. The 15 projects with the most nominations will move on to the voting round.

Following two exciting weeks of nominations, ArchDaily's readers have evaluated 455 projects and selected 15 finalists for the Building of the Year Award China. Architects and enthusiasts participated in the nomination process, choosing projects that exemplify what it means to push architecture forward. These finalists are the buildings that have inspired ArchDaily readers the most, which also reveal the growing trend of Chinese architecture.

Among the 15 finalists of the 2026 China Building of the Year Award, we can see a gradual shift in focus from large-scale public buildings to rural revitalization, community public spaces, exploration of new typology of school and small-scale interior spaces. People are paying more attention to their personal needs and living experiences as well as the surrounding spaces. We can also observe how different firms are responding to the needs of cities and users during the period of transformation in the real estate.

Before we get to shortlisted nominees, we want to highlight the values of this awards process — as the world's largest platform for architecture we are acutely aware of our responsibility to the profession, and to the advancement of architecture as a discipline. Since our mission is directly related to the architecture of the future—inspiring and educating the people who will design the urban fabric of the future—the trust placed in us by our readers to reflect architectural trends from regions around the whole world creates challenges that we are eager to rise to. The democratically-voted, user-centered Building of the Year Awards is one of the key pillars of our response to these challenges, aiming to tear down established hierarchies and geographical barriers. Here are the 15 finalists of the 2026 China Building of the Year Award, and the voting period will run from April 8th to April 15th, 11:59 PM (Beijing Time), 2026. The final winners will be announced on April 16th, 2026. Click here to see the details and how to vote.

Over the past two weeks, the ArchDaily Brasil community has nominated more than 14,000 projects, resulting in 15 finalists representing some of the most iconic architectural works published over the last year. Now in its 10th edition, the Obra do Ano Award recognizes the best of architecture in Portuguese-speaking countries, chosen by the readers themselves. The finalists offer a snapshot of the current state of architecture, spanning residential, urban, cultural, and other programs.

Representing Brazil and Portugal, the 15 projects reflect the needs of their specific contexts through creative solutions proposed by local architects. From interior renovations to large-scale urban interventions, and from single-family homes to community projects, the selection is diverse, yet united by a common thread: recognition from the public, who seek to see their own aspirations represented.