The history of architecture is filled with remarkable unrealized hypotheses, whether due to infeasibility, conceptual radicalism, or other specific factors. Even when conceived by the field's most prestigious minds, these ideas never overcame the inevitable constraints of material reality, nor could they be adapted to make them viable, even partially. Yet, the significance of these projects goes beyond the tangible. Beyond enriching the profession's intellectual heritage, these once-abandoned proposals were—and still are—a catalyst for reflection and a source of inspiration for diverse artistic approaches.

With a coastline of 832 kilometers facing the Atlantic Ocean, Portugal has a long and deep relationship with the sea, which was for many centuries considered the country's main means of communication with the rest of the world. Today, the Portuguese coast attracts millions of tourists every year from across Europe and around the world, who arrive in search of warm weather and beautiful seaside scenery. The main destinations are the southern beaches which are warmer than in the North however, the number of tourists has increased throughout the entire country over the past decade.

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Reflecting on contemporary housing is perhaps one of the most compelling and relevant undertakings of our time. In a rapidly changing world—where technology advances at a breakneck pace, populations grow, and resources become increasingly scarce—it is vital to reconsider how we live and how we can do so better.

Located 108 kilometers to the south of Tel Aviv, Beersheba (Be'er Sheva) is one of Israel's oldest cities. Although in existence since biblical times, military campaigns and occupations have seen it destroyed and rebuilt throughout the centuries, resulting in the juxtaposition of various time periods and cultures that can be seen throughout the city. One of Beersheba's principal transformations happened during the population boom of the 1950s sparked by the formation of the State of Israel in 1948. To keep up with the need for housing, the government rebuilt and expanded the city, which soon transformed from a small military outpost of 4,000 people to a vibrant urban center in the middle of the Negev Desert.

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To calculate the amount of CO2 emitted by each country, the traditional method considers emissions from each sector of a nation's economy using a “bottom-up” approach, relying on data collected on the ground. However, a new approach to answering this question utilizes satellite data from NASA.

Countries around the world have urban, suburban, and rural problems- and it’s all connected by the problem itself. There are too many highway systems. In some cities that are notoriously known for their traffic jams, like Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Atlanta, there are almost five miles of road per every 1000 residents. This has also impacted how some forms of public transit, like rail cars and busses, operate, significantly reducing their efficiency. So why do we build these superhighways, and how can we fix their congestion?

The Madrid City Council aims to encourage bicycle use as a means of transportation. To this end, the city has operated BiciMAD since 2014—a public bike-sharing system integrated into the Spanish capital's transit network. Now, the program will be free for trips of up to 30 minutes.

When you come to think of it, most of the food on your plate has a history behind it - a long journey that we are unable to describe. In her book Food Routes: Growing Bananas in Iceland and Other Tales from the Logistics of Eating (2019), Robyn Shotwell Metcalfe refers to the paradox of fish being caught in New England, exported to Japan, and then shipped back as sushi, revealing a large and complex network that nobody can see when they buy takeout Japanese food at the local grocery store.

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Solar energy is one of the fastest-growing energy sources in the world. Going beyond rooftop installations or large power plants, various innovations are emerging to harness the power of sunlight. One such recent initiative is being developed by startup Sun-Ways, which will install removable solar panels along railway tracks in Switzerland.

Architectural education has always been fundamentally influenced by whichever styles are popular at a given time, but that relationship flows in the opposite direction as well. All styles must originate somewhere, after all, and revolutionary schools throughout centuries past have functioned as the influencers and generators of their own architectural movements. These schools, progressive in their times, are often founded by discontented experimental minds, looking for something not previously nor currently offered in architectural output or education. Instead, they forge their own way and bring their students along with them. As those students graduate and continue on to practice or become teachers themselves, the school’s influence spreads and a new movement is born.

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As part of a research project by the Gensler Research Institute, the first Gensler Mexico Workplace Survey was conducted in late 2022. The study aimed to highlight the fundamental role the office plays in facilitating face-to-face meetings with colleagues and clients. The findings presented below reveal key shortcomings in current office workspaces. Furthermore, they foster a better understanding of the characteristics that make workplaces efficient, functional, and engaging, offering insights to rethink user experience design. Ultimately, this presents a clear opportunity to enhance both individual and collaborative work.

Modernism in Brazil was shaped by various facets and conceptions of progress. In architecture, one of the primary aesthetic languages used to express this was ceramic tile panels, as seen in the work of artists such as Athos Bulcão, Cândido Portinari, and Burle Marx.

In the northern region, specifically in the state of Pará, the Modernist movement arrived adapted to local standards. This was reflected in the widespread use of parapets to conceal roofs, gardens featuring native plants, wooden window frames, and facades clad in ceramic tiles, among other features. Furthermore, engineers and architects of the era, such as Ruy Meira and his nephew Alcyr Meira, designed several murals across the region using both whole and broken tiles. 

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Light — how we perceive the world around us — is an integral, emotive architectural element. Access to light is enhanced and limited in an architectural capacity globally, with architects of expensive tropical dwellings celebrating sunny vistas with expansive glazing, while a wide range of art galleries reject light in its natural form, eliminating it in adherence to the sensitive exhibit requirements of art pieces. Light in an architectural and urban sense is also highly symbolic, evident in the many metropolises of our world, but where this symbolism takes on an interesting dimension is in the archipelago of Zanzibar.

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Heatherwick Studio has revealed their first public library design, planned for Howard County Libraries in Maryland, United States. The building will serve as a community center and was designed to reflect the changing and complex role of libraries within cities. The program expands beyond book lending services, providing spaces for cultural events, collective learning, workshops and lending of objects of use. Construction is expected to begin in 2024, and the library is scheduled to open to the public in 2027.

“A city built for speed is a city built for success.” This phrase, attributed to Le Corbusier, one of the most influential urbanists of the 20th century, condenses one of the most significant social developments of that era.

Mobility is a central aspect of shaping the social fabric. According to Eduardo Bericat, Professor of Sociology at the University of Seville, every form of society implies a system of mobility. Consequently, transformations within this system entail anthropological changes of immense significance.

Japan's Pavilion has announced its exhibition “Architecture, a place to be loved – when architecture is seen as a living creature” curated by Maki Onishi, for the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Centered around our post-pandemic reality of faceless developments taking over cities globally, the intervention's main question explores how people can once more find amazement in architecture and joy in shared physical spaces.

Gender is an undeniable layer of inequality in cities, which distinctly and effectively marks the experience and daily life of men and women in urban environments. Public lighting is crucial to ensure more inclusive and equal spaces, and often it is not planned from a gender perspective.

Poorly lit public spaces reinforce feelings of fear in these environments and must be rethought to promote safer cities, especially for women. With more than half of the world's population living in urban areas – a scenario expected to increase – how can we make public spaces safer and more comfortable so that they can be fully enjoyed and accessed by everyone?

With offices in Zürich, Barcelona and Majorca, the work of Gus Wüstemann Architects is a constant evolution between matter and context. From the strong heritage of timber and concrete construction in Switzerland, to the blurry boundaries of inside and outside found in Mediterranean architecture, Gus' work always put an emphasis on the core values of the local construction and craftsmanship, mixed with the cross learnings of working across different regions.

Currently working on projects such as A Barn, for Demna’s Atelier and Loïc’s Studio, and a mixed use hybrid concrete/timber in Feldmeilen, along with several residential projects in Italy and the Balearic Islands, Wüstemann's architecture can be seen as archetypical, essential or even raw. The interiors are a direct expression of these core concepts, with a brut aesthetic.

Founded in Shanghai in 2018, XISUI Design is currently a boutique, close-knit team that encourages every member to realize their full potential and enjoy a healthy work-life balance. We have accumulated extensive experience in delivering projects driven by digital design and construction technologies, encouraging practical actions that turn groundbreaking innovation and imagination into reality. In integrating digital technology into the design and construction fields, our completed works currently focus on spatial design, installation art, children's playscapes, and landscape structures. We offer schematic design, strategic planning, and construction administration services. Our office is located in the Jing'an District of Shanghai, near Jing'an Sculpture Park and within walking distance of Metro Lines 1, 2, and 13. We welcome pragmatic individuals who aspire to shape the future to join us and grow together.

Upholding the design philosophy of “Cutting-edge, Joy, and Creativity,” we leverage advanced digital design and fabrication technologies to create richer imaginative spaces and narrative environments. Our design pursuits combine pioneering modes of expression with a continuous exploration of intrinsic essence, allowing users of different ages, family structures, and cultural backgrounds to experience the genuine emotion, local heritage, and profound care for life embedded in our work.

“How to give your home: Dark Academia vibes” reads the title of a popular YouTube video targeted at homeowners fascinated by the aesthetics relating to liberal education and the arts. A subculture born in the age of social media, Dark Academia is one of many internet aesthetics that have gained prevalence in the last decade. Image-based platforms like Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok have amplified internet aesthetics, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social media allows users to support and create their own trends that rapidly amass a following. Today, the creation of aesthetic trends lies in the hands of the general public and will dictate the way interior design trends develop.

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

George Smart is an unlikely preservationist, almost an accidental one. The founder and executive director of USModernist, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation and documentation of modern houses, Smart worked for 30 years as a management consultant. “I was doing strategic planning and organization training,” he says. “My wife refers to this whole other project as a 16-year seizure.” Recently I spoke with Smart about his two websites, the podcast, the house tours his organization conducts, and why documentation is such a power preservation tool.

The relationship between architecture and its various mediums of representation, reproduction, and publicity is nothing new. Drawings, blueprints, and photographs published in books, magazines, and newspapers have historically been an integral part of the profession's trajectory. Over the last decade, with the rise of social media—particularly platforms centered on visual communication—architects have adopted these tools in myriad ways, incorporating them into their professional practice. Yet while these networks can produce and popularize content for diverse audiences, does architecture risk becoming a hostage to its own representation in this era of engagement?

The Government of the Province of Neuquén, along with Region 1 of the Neuquén Association of Architects (CAN) and the Argentine Federation of Architects' Organizations (FADEA), launched a national competition for ideas and preliminary designs for the Neuquén Memory and Identity Park. The park will be developed on a four-lot federal plot belonging to the Argentine National Army in this region of Argentine Patagonia.

The transition of human settlements from a nomadic to a settled lifestyle transformed the conception of dwellings, extending beyond their primary use as shelter. Over time, each housing typology that developed around the world acquired unique characteristics that defined its identity and materiality, shaped by the culture and geographic region where it emerged.

In North America, the ancient city of Tenochtitlan was a benchmark for the technological and construction advancements of its time, distinguished by the use of native materials, such as earthen/stone floors, adobe walls, and local wood/cane posts. Over time, dwellings in Mexico have managed to preserve their identity while incorporating high-quality materials. The development of new technologies and the sophistication of the manufacturing process for architectural materials led to the rise of porcelain tiles, such as those developed by Firenze, which became a valuable resource due to their versatile aesthetics, high strength, and durability.