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It may be the world's second oldest construction material, but wood is still one of the most versatile and inspiring materials available to architects today, coveted as both a structural material and as a finish on walls, floors, ceilings and facades. In recent years it's even seen a resurgence in popularity, thanks to its sustainability credentials and its increasingly popular "natural" feel. With all this in mind, ArchDaily Materials has rounded up five recent projects that prove innovation in wood is still alive and well in the architectural world: Wilkinson Eyre Architects' Maggie’s Oxford; Shigeru Ban's Aspen Art Museum; Pushed Slab by MVRDV; MARGEN-LAB's Endesa World Fab Condenser; and finally a forthcoming building that is notable for its ambitious wooden design, the Sleuk Rith Institute by Zaha Hadid Architects.

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This Financial Times article describes the Post-Recession paradigm shift occurring in Portuguese architecture -- from construction to landscape, large to small. Pritzker Prize winners Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura have been leading this "micro" trend, designing hotels with exceptional materiality and craft. We've decided to round up some of these extraordinary structures, including: Casa Na Areia and Cabanas no Rio by Aires Mateus, Jorge Sousa Santos’ Rio do Prado, the Ecork Hotel by Jose Carlos Cruz and Villa Extramuros by Jordi Fornells. Last but not least, is ArchDaily’s building of the year for hospitality architecture -- the Tree Snake Houses from father Luís Rebelo de Andrade and son Tiago Rebelo de Andrade.

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