Architecture: The Latest Architecture and News

The Museum of Modern Art in New York inaugurated the exhibition Architects of Liberation: Modernism in Western Africa on July 5, 2026, on view through January 2, 2027. The exhibition examines African modern architecture from the late 1950s through the early 1980s in the context of political independence in the region. Works span seven countries: Benin, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo. The display is organised around anchor projects selected as "entry points" into categories such as cityscapes, education, and housing. It is curated by Martino Stierli, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, and Ikem Stanley Okoye, guest curator and associate professor at the University of Delaware, with Mallory Cohen, curatorial associate in the Department of Architecture and Design.

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The concept of the museum has historically prompted reflections on identity, representation, and institutional frameworks. At present, museums are conceived as increasingly complex spaces, combining exhibition areas with other cultural and educational functions, prompting civic engagement, artistic experimentation, and archival responsibility. Throughout this year, numerous museum projects have been announced and advanced across multiple regions, with completion timelines largely extending from 2026 to 2030. Added to this variety is the wide range of concepts developed within the realm of ideas, proposals, and speculations. It is within this realm that this selection of projects submitted by ArchDaily readers finds its place: projects whose designs can expand the boundaries of our imagination.

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Photographer Paul Clemence has documented West Bund Orbit, Heatherwick Studio's public exhibition hall on Shanghai's West Bund waterfront, in a photo series exploring the project's evolving architectural identity. Located in Xuhui District along the Huangpu River, the building was conceived as a cultural destination within the area's emerging Financial Hub while extending the network of public spaces that define the redeveloped riverfront. Rather than focusing solely on the building as an object, Clemence's photographs examine the relationship between architecture, circulation, and landscape, revealing how the project's interconnected pathways and layered form engage both the waterfront and the surrounding city.

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This week belonged to the arts, with cultural architecture dominating headlines across the globe. Landmark buildings for major institutions advanced through important construction and design milestones, from the Shanghai Opera House to Abu Dhabi's new performing arts center, while two new museum commissions were announced following international competitions. Architecture also took centre stage as a subject of exhibition itself, with the Sharjah Architecture Triennial revealing its participant list and Austria unveiling its proposal for the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale. Beyond these developments, this week's news compilation includes three upcoming urban design projects: in Seoul, South Korea, a new riverside neighbourhood in the Apgujeong district weaves residential towers around parkland connecting the city to the Han River; in Cardiff, Wales, a pedestrian and cycle bridge over the River Taff links waterfront neighbourhoods to new housing along the water's edge; and in Bengaluru, South India, the Museum of Art and Photography is expanding its public campus, adding new civic and cultural facilities alongside a major new sculpture park set within a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in Tamil Nadu.

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When Buda and Pest joined in 1873, the two parts formed a capital whose identity has since been tied to this balance between geography and urban order. From the riverbanks and thermal baths to imperial monuments and infrastructural works, Budapest's architecture carries the traces of these overlapping histories.

That layered condition continues to shape Hungary's capital today. Alongside its historic fabric, Budapest has seen a steady accumulation of contemporary projects, from cultural institutions in City Park to new educational buildings, sports facilities, adaptive reuse works, and large-scale developments along the Danube. Often working through inherited structures rather than apart from them, these projects add new layers to a city shaped as much by continuity as by change.

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In 2026, Barcelona will become the global epicenter of architecture as it is named the World Capital of Architecture by UNESCO and the UIA. This recognition reinforces the city's role as an urban laboratory for innovation, sustainability, and contemporary design. Against this backdrop, pursuing a master's degree in architecture in Barcelona offers an opportunity for architects and industry professionals looking to specialize and connect with the trends transforming the discipline.

In the twenty-first century agenda, adaptive reuse is understood as a creative and meaningful approach to the development of the built environment. In the face of an era marked by adaptation and transformation, the shaping of human experiences aligns with the principle of "reuse, reduce, recycle." From the authenticity of place to the inherent value of materials, working in dialogue with the past makes it possible to envision new futures that engage with the uses, traditions, and beliefs of earlier eras. By considering each building as a collection of tangible and intangible elements that shape its identity, adaptive reuse interventions require a deep understanding not only of construction methods, structural systems, and spatial rhythms, but also of the cultures that built, inhabited, and will one day occupy these places.

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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.

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Artificial intelligence has evolved from an emerging technology into an everyday tool. Architects and interior designers are integrating it into their workflows, shortening the time between an initial idea and its realization. In the field of visualization, AI has naturally integrated into existing tools and processes, working alongside software such as Revit, AutoCAD, SketchUp, Lumion, Enscape, or Twinmotion.

Against this backdrop, Render AI was launched over three years ago with a clear goal: to integrate into the creative process quickly and intuitively. It is an AI-powered rendering tool designed for architecture, design, and interior design firms, capable of transforming sketches, 3D models, Revit screenshots, drawings, or photographs into client-ready presentation images.

By popular demand, we are briefly reopening applications for the ArchDaily Student Ambassador Program 2026/2027.

ArchDaily began on campus, founded by two architecture students who believed that architectural and design ideas should be accessible to everyone, spreading further and wider. Eighteen years later, while our tools have advanced, our horizons broadened, and our opportunities expanded, our core mission remains unchanged. ArchDaily is now officially launching the Student Ambassador Program, empowering the next generation of architects to play a direct role in connecting their campuses with the global architectural dialogue.

Due to high demand, we are briefly reopening applications for the ArchDaily Student Ambassador Program 2026/2027.

ArchDaily was founded within a university, started by two architecture students who believed that architectural knowledge should reach further than it did at the time. Eighteen years later, that conviction remains unchanged—but the perspectives, tools, and opportunities have grown. We launched the Student Ambassador Program to give the next generation of architects a direct role in connecting their universities with the global architectural conversation.

Studio Campo Baeza, based in Madrid, together with Quito-based Maoda, has won the international competition to design the new National Museum of Ecuador (MUNA) in Quito. Their proposal, titled Echoes of the Sun, was selected by a national and international jury from 17 finalist entries in the second phase of the competition. The public competition initially attracted 148 teams from around the world, with 20 shortlisted to develop design proposals before the winning scheme was announced during a public ceremony in Quito on July 6, 2026.

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.

A new space dedicated to contemporary art on the Île Seguin, in the Greater Paris area, is opening in October 2026. The new cultural institution, named "Large," will be housed in a building designed by Catalan architects and Pritzker Prize recipients RCR Arquitectes, the studio's first project in Paris. It is situated on La Pointe des Arts, a large-scale redevelopment of the Île Seguin's former industrial area into a mixed-use complex spanning more than 53,000 m² and focused on arts and culture. The project's architectural massing follows the stratification concept set out in the masterplan by Ateliers Jean Nouvel. The institution will open with the exhibition "Imaginary Engine: From Masterpieces of the Collection Renault to Artists of Today," bringing together 55 artists from 23 countries to explore the relationship between humanity and machines, in tribute to the site's industrial history and Renault's decades-long collaboration with artists.

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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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MVRDV has been selected to design Inaura, a mixed-use hotel and residential tower in Downtown Dubai, developed by Arada. The project will rise to 210 meters on a site located between Downtown Dubai and Business Bay, with views toward the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Fountain. Following the competition, MVRDV will continue its involvement as design guardian, while Dubai-based Dewan Architects + Engineers will act as lead consultant. The interiors will be developed based on a concept by MVRDV, aligned with the developer's focus on fitness, wellness, and lifestyle-related programs.

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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 counting on the ArchDaily Brasil community to select the best built projects in the Portuguese-speaking world. Over the next three weeks, you will be responsible for choosing the 15 finalists and 3 winners of this edition.

All projects published during 2025 from the following countries are eligible: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Macau, Mozambique, Portugal, 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.

The architecture of Latin America and Spain is testament to the rich and diverse cultures, traditions, needs, and solutions that define these territories. With more than 700 projects built 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.

In its seventeenth edition, the Obra del Año reaffirms its place as the largest architecture award in the Spanish-speaking world, decided by its community. Starting today, March 24, 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 explore hundreds of projects built in Spanish-speaking countries: 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.