Author: Camilla Ghisleni | ArchDaily

The Shape of Water: 20 Aquatic Centers That Build Collective Landscapes

Camilla Ghisleni — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Almost certainly, everyone has their own ritual when entering a pool. There are those who dive in without hesitation, those who start with their toes, those who swim for sport, and those who submerge themselves for pure pleasure. Private or shared, intense or contemplative, every experience with water takes place within an environment carefully constructed to receive it.

From Quarry to Countertop: Tracing the Origins of Natural Stone in Architecture

Camilla Ghisleni — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 07:30:00 +0000

For some time now, it has become common to wonder where the things we consume come from. We check labels, seek out local producers, and investigate supply chains in an attempt to understand the impact of our habits, whether on our own health or on the planet.

Stitching Edges: Marinas as Instruments of Reconnection between City and Water

Camilla Ghisleni — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 04:00:00 +0000

The land-water interface has always played a fundamental role in the formation and development of cities. From ancient commercial ports to today's multifunctional waterfronts, maritime and riverfront areas represent spaces of immense economic and social potential. Within this context, contemporary nautical complexes increasingly serve as strategic urban amenities capable of integrating diverse activities, fostering a reconnection between city and water, and revitalizing often underutilized landscapes.

Animal Care: 8 Veterinary Hospitals Around the World

Camilla Ghisleni — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 04:00:00 +0000

In 2025, the global animal health market reached approximately 70 billion dollars, and this figure is projected to double by 2033. Behind this figure, however, lies a quiet transformation within the built environment, with veterinary hospitals serving as a prime example. This typology, which for decades occupied the backrooms of improvised clinics and pet shop annexes, has increasingly developed its own architectural language and identity. It represents the architectural consolidation of a bond that has lasted for over 15,000 years.

Brasília and Chandigarh: Two Modernist Utopias Separated by an Ocean

Camilla Ghisleni — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 07:30:00 +0000

Between the 1950s and 1960s, two cities were built that would leave a lasting mark on the history of architecture and urbanism. Born of the same concept, yet separated by more than 14,000 kilometers, Brasília, in Brazil, and Chandigarh, in India—both steeped in modernist principles—were planned and built from scratch.

The Nordhavn Case: 10 Projects Transforming Copenhagen’s Harbor into a Model of Urban Regeneration and Sustainability

Camilla Ghisleni — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 05:00:00 +0000

What happens when a city’s industrial past becomes the raw material for its future? In Copenhagen, Nordhavn transforms the old harbor into a living laboratory of sustainable urbanism, where warehouses and docks give way to independent districts, small islands, and canals that redefine what it means to inhabit the city.

From Production to Spatial Experience: 10 Contemporary Distillery Projects

Camilla Ghisleni — Thu, 28 May 2026 07:30:00 +0000

Unlike many industrial programs traditionally concealed behind neutral facades and hermetic spaces, contemporary distilleries often showcase their production processes as an essential part of the architectural experience. The heat of the stills, the vapors of distillation, or the path of the raw materials cease to be mere technical operations, instead taking center stage within the space.

Inhabited Landscapes: 22 Cultural and Community Centers in Rural Areas

Camilla Ghisleni — Thu, 21 May 2026 07:30:00 +0000

The architecture of cultural and community centers in rural areas around the world has become a rich field for experimentation, where tradition and innovation intersect. Rather than replicating standardized urban models, these projects embrace contemporary approaches tailored to local realities, blending bold design, sustainable technologies, and collaborative processes. Often developed in close partnership with local communities, they draw on regional materials and cultural symbols to create spaces that do more than host activities: they express a collective identity and a profound sense of belonging. By reimagining vernacular knowledge through a modern lens, these buildings support and inspire new ways of living in the countryside.

A Project in Motion: The Story Behind the Market Square in Realengo Park

Camilla Ghisleni — Thu, 14 May 2026 07:30:00 +0000

Before any drawing or formal decision, a space in constant motion was already pulsing where the Market Square at Realengo Park stands today in Rio de Janeiro. Improvised stalls, informal gatherings, music, children running, and adults gathered under makeshift shelters made up a living landscape, shaping an ephemeral architecture.

Espai Verd: The Habitable Utopia of Valencia's Green Cathedral

Camilla Ghisleni — Wed, 06 May 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Even the most distracted passerby is captured by the monumental presence of this structure located in the established Valencian neighborhood of Benimaclet. Before it, any attempt at rational comprehension dissolves. The constructive logic seems to slip away as space unfolds in tensions and detours where nothing is immediately revealed. Between masses of concrete and the insurgency of vegetation, an almost choreographic play of planes, angles, and rotations emerges. In the vertigo of this encounter, one realizes that the building was not designed to be understood, but to be experienced.

Memory of the Earth: 4 Examples that Reinvent Former Ceramic Factories

Camilla Ghisleni — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 04:00:00 +0000

There is an ancestral gesture in shaping earth. Long before architecture emerged as a discipline, clay was already being molded by hand and transformed by fire, turning raw material into domestic utensils and cultural objects. In the history of this craft, ceramic factories marked the transition from manual knowledge to mass production, expanding in scale without completely breaking from their material origins. Scattered across different territories, these structures record the relationship between technique, landscape, and time. Over the decades, however, many of them eventually lost their original function, replaced by more technological processes or consumed by the surrounding urban development, coming to occupy an intermediate state between permanence and obsolescence.

Why do we want to float? The psychology of lightness in architecture

Camilla Ghisleni — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 07:30:00 +0000

In 1962, architect Buckminster Fuller imagined a floating city that would free humanity from its dependence on Earth. The hypothetical project consisted of massive airborne geodesic spheres that would naturally levitate on warm, sun-heated air and be anchored to mountaintops. Designed to house thousands of people, Fuller's Cloud Nine aimed to ease land ownership politics and housing shortages while helping preserve nature.

Mapping the Technosphere: Architecture as an Interface Between Systems and Territories

Camilla Ghisleni — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Architecture can no longer be thought of as an isolated object, detached from the technical networks that sustain contemporary life—a scenario that demands different readings and approaches. Against this backdrop, in March, ArchDaily's monthly topic focused on The Technosphere: Architecture at the Intersection of Technology, Ecology, and Planetary Systems, a broad and inevitably complex topic. Stemming from the concept of the technosphere, coined by geologist Peter Haff to describe the collective artifacts produced by humanity, a panorama emerges in which contemporary life is deeply intertwined with machines, data, and energy grids.

What is the Technosphere and why does it redefine Architecture?

Camilla Ghisleni — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 07:30:00 +0000

At a time when satellites orbit the planet, undersea cables support the global flow of data, and algorithms organize daily life, a question emerges within the field of architecture: at what scale are we actually designing today?

Architectures of the Gaze: 25 Viewpoints to Experience the Landscape

Camilla Ghisleni — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 07:30:00 +0000

Viewpoints are structures designed for observing the landscape from elevated vantage points. Situated in the midst of nature or within the urban landscape, they function as devices that organize the gaze and establish a direct relationship between the body and the territory. Along this boundary between observer and landscape, viewpoints can take on various configurations, from subtle gestures to monumental structures, always in response to their context. Regardless of scale, they are—to some extent—attempts to domesticate vastness: precise frames that render legible what might otherwise feel overwhelming without mediation.

First Aid for Endangered Heritage: An Interview with Ambulance for Monuments

Camilla Ghisleni — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 07:30:00 +0000

Ambulance for Monuments is a first-aid initiative dedicated to safeguarding Romania's endangered built heritage, operating in a race against time to prevent collapse and irreversible loss. The project responds to the growing vulnerability of historic structures, from Saxon fortified churches and manor houses to wooden churches and rural landmarks, many of which no longer benefit from the community networks that once sustained them. In a country deeply affected by emigration since 1990, where nearly half the population still lives in rural areas, entire villages have lost the people, skills, and everyday care that once kept these monuments standing.

The Earthen Towers of Shibam: A Vertical City in the Desert of Yemen

Camilla Ghisleni — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 07:30:00 +0000

Symbols of technological development and urban density, tall buildings as we know them today emerged in the late 19th century, primarily in the United States, in response to rapid growth in urban commerce and the need to expand cities without consuming more land. The term skyscraper, for instance, was coined in the 1880s and originally referred to buildings of about 10 to 20 stories—an impressive height at the time.

Architectural Ingredient: 15 Brazilian Restaurants That Push Boundaries

Camilla Ghisleni — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 07:30:00 +0000

The relationship between architecture and gastronomy transcends the simple functionality of a dining space. It is a sensory symbiosis where the environment prepares the palate as much as the seasoning does. A dish's visual aesthetics can be understood through principles of volumetry, balance, contrast, and rhythm — concepts equally vital to architectural design. Likewise, restaurant architecture — its colors, lighting, and material choices — acts as an invisible ingredient that can elevate the dining experience or compromise the perception of flavor before the first bite. Both disciplines are dynamic and direct reflections of social behaviors and cultural trends that dictate how we occupy space and nourish our bodies.