Architecture: The Latest Architecture and News

The Elie Khouri Art Foundation (EKAF) has appointed Sumayya Vally of Johannesburg- and London-based practice Counterspace to design its permanent home in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Scheduled to open in late 2028, the institution will occupy a repurposed villa in the Jumeirah 1 district, transforming the existing residential property and its surrounding grounds into a space for contemporary art exhibitions, education, and public programming. The appointment forms part of EKAF's plans to establish a permanent platform for contemporary art in Dubai, with architecture and curatorial programming developed in parallel.

Egypt's New Administrative Capital (NAC), located about 45 kilometers east of Cairo, is one of two major urban development projects under construction near the Egyptian capital, along with New Cairo, a satellite city east of Cairo's Ring Road that dates back to the 2000s. To date, Cairo remains the official capital of the country, but various government functions have been moved to the purpose-built city. The new capital in Egypt's Eastern Desert recalls the iconic modernist initiative of Brasília and adds to similar recent projects in countries such as Equatorial Guinea, Indonesia and South Korea. Manuel Álvarez Diestro's photographic work offers a glimpse of this endeavor from the perspective of a pedestrian approaching the urban landscape.

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Beyond their buildings, infrastructure, and streets, cities can be understood as territories shaped by materials, resources, and processes of transformation that define their physical environments. As drone technology becomes increasingly integrated into architectural documentation and urban analysis, aerial imagery offers new opportunities to examine these different layers at multiple scales. As Jane Jacobs once suggested, "Cities are the mines of the future."

From documenting building surfaces and identifying patterns in material distribution to observing how construction systems and urban landscapes evolve over time, drones can provide valuable information to architects, engineers, surveyors, urban planners, and researchers, supporting their work and informing their workflows. When combined with photogrammetry, thermal imaging, geographic information systems (GIS), and automated image processing, aerial observation is no longer limited to a single discipline or field of application. Instead, it opens up broader discussions about surface conditions, environmental performance, and material resources.

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At a time when public support for the arts is under pressure in many countries, Darat al Funun — literally "House of the Arts" — stands by its long-standing mission to champion artists. "Artists are witnesses of their time," affirms Suha Shoman, its founder. "Maybe Art does not operate change, but it does record it […] it points fingers. At the same time, it speaks of, even if it's so difficult and at times so violent, it speaks of beauty as well."

A place where the past remains present, Darat al Funun spreads in the hills of Jabal al Luweibdeh, on a rugged terrain overlooking the eye of downtown Amman, Jordan. Its landscape is warmly inviting and accessible to the public, with a lower entrance in the south and an upper one in the north. Across its cascading terraces, the site is visually permeable as well, demonstrating the foundation's core tenet: art is a civic necessity and a vessel for history.

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Grimshaw has begun the reconstruction of 70 Mulberry Street, a historic community center in Manhattan's Chinatown, originally built as Public School 23 in the late nineteenth century. The building later became home to several of the neighborhood's cultural and nonprofit organizations before a fire in January 2020 destroyed its upper three floors and displaced five tenants. Led by the New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC), the project will preserve portions of the historic building while providing a renewed home for the displaced organizations.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) has unveiled a new memorial in Freetown, Sierra Leone, honoring more than 900 members of the Sierra Leone Carrier Corps who died in the First and Second World Wars. Designed by Lagos-based Oshinówò Studio, the intervention was unveiled on November 7 and commemorates the Carrier Corps individually by name for the first time. The design was first revealed in May 2025.

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This article is part of our new Opinion section, a format for argument-driven essays on critical questions shaping our field.

In 2022, Tokyo's Nakagin Capsule Tower was demolished, bringing an end to one of modern architecture's most recognizable experiments in adaptability. Designed by Kisho Kurokawa and completed in 1972, the building consisted of 140 prefabricated capsules attached to two concrete cores. Its architectural proposition was radical: individual capsules could be replaced as needs evolved, allowing the building to renew itself without dismantling its principal structure. Yet over five decades, the proposed replacement system was never realized. Despite various preservation efforts, deteriorating building services and difficulties in collective decision-making eventually led to its demolition.

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The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami) has appointed Gensler to lead the renovation and expansion of its second building in Miami's Design District, with the project scheduled to open in late 2027. Acquired by the museum in 2024, the building is located on the same block as its existing facility and will add 30,000 square feet of space, doubling ICA Miami's facilities. The expansion will introduce new galleries, educational spaces, and venues for public programming, establishing a multi-site campus intended to extend the museum's exhibition and community activities.

The United States' contribution to the 20th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia will explore the relationship between the country's architecture, landscapes, and the people who shape it. Titled Earth Craft, the exhibition will be commissioned, organized, and curated by a team from the University of Miami School of Architecture (U-SoA). The lead curator, Professor Germane Barnes, conceived the exhibition as a representation of the United States "through its makers and not through its icons," recognizing that celebrated buildings were raised by anonymous builders who dug, shaped, and fired architectural legacy. Vyta Pivo, assistant professor, curator, and historian of Earth Craft, adds a contemporary approach by translating inherited knowledge of soil, water, and heat into computational design, conceiving craftwork and robotic fabrication as complementary. The exhibition will occupy the United States Pavilion at the Giardini della Biennale between May 8 and November 21, 2027, tracing earthen materials from the ground to finished buildings.

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A new capital is usually introduced through its principal buildings: the assembly, the secretariat and the ceremonial spaces that give a seat of government its public image. In Amaravati, India's Andhra Pradesh, that image of a new capital sits within an older landscape of cultivated fields, villages and established routes. Before the capital project, the region was already occupied by agricultural villages, local roads and settlements connected to the Krishna River and its water systems. The capital project is reorganizing this agrarian territory into a planned administrative city, bringing existing settlements and land ownership into the process of urban development. Its architectural identity will depend on how the new buildings, infrastructure, and public spaces relate to the settlements and landscapes already there.

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From the end of Mere Boulevard in Tallinn, Linnahall appears as a long, low mass of limestone and concrete laid between the Old Town and the bay, kept deliberately beneath the line of the medieval silhouette so that the spires remain visible from the water. Broad stairways climb its flanks to a roof paved as a public square, and from there a sequence of terrace steps down toward a small pier, a helicopter pad and the open Gulf of Finland. Under that surface sit an amphitheater for 4,200 people, a foyer of 6,000 square meters, an ice hall, cafés, a bowling alley and a recording studio.

The building opened in the summer of 1980 as the V. I. Lenin Palace of Culture and Sport, in time for the sailing regatta of the Moscow Olympics, which Tallinn hosted on behalf of a capital with no coastline. It was one of more than 120 projects planned under the city's Olympic program, alongside the yachting center in Pirita, the TV Tower, Hotel Olümpia and a new airport terminal.

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The New Mexico Literacy Institute (NMLI), a 31,000-square-foot educational center designed by Multistudio in collaboration with Albuquerque-based Design Plus Architects, is scheduled to open in December 2026. Located in New Mexico, the project is a legacy initiative of Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and is intended to provide a statewide facility for literacy education, serving learners of different ages and abilities. The design brings together educational, recreational, and community spaces, approaching literacy as a process that extends beyond conventional classroom settings.

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Designed by Franco-Japanese architects Moreau Kusunoki, with Australian architecture firm Genton as local architects, Powerhouse Parramatta is, according to the NSW Government, the largest cultural infrastructure project in Australia since the Sydney Opera House. The project was first announced in 2019, construction began in 2022, and the opening was first announced for 2025. The main building was completed earlier this year, giving way to the upcoming opening this Saturday, November 7, 2026. Powerhouse Parramatta is part of Powerhouse, the largest museum group in Australia, a network of cultural venues dedicated to arts, design, science, and technology. The new building's program offers the public five exhibitions and a 23-day Opening Festival of talks, workshops, music, and performances around the different exhibition topics.

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Cabins offer architects opportunities to experiment playfully with architectural form, materials, landscaping, and spatial configurations. Their compact footprints, relatively simple programs, and close proximity to the natural surroundings allow for unconventional design approaches and the ability to test experiential, architectural ideas. Often constructed as spaces of rest, cabin architecture encourages architects to prioritize the experience of inhabiting a space, exploring how individual design elements contribute to the character and atmosphere of the interior.

Natural light plays an important role in shaping this experience, particularly in compact spaces where the placement of openings will significantly influence spatial perception. While conventional window openings establish visual connections with the surrounding landscape, skylights introduce daylighting from above and create a unique opportunity to observe seasonal variations and the movement of shadows during the day. Beyond providing natural light for the inhabitants, well-designed skylights create a dynamic relationship with natural light and establish a closer connection to the surrounding environment and day.

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The Sharjah Architecture Triennial (SAT) has announced the opening programme of its third edition, Architecture Otherwise: Building Civic Infrastructure for Collective Futures. Curated by writer and anthropologist Vyjayanthi Rao, with Associate Curator Tau Tavengwa, the Triennial will take place from November 14, 2026, to April 14, 2027, with its six-day opening programme running from November 14 to 19. Co-curated by Rao and Sharmeen Inayat, SAT's Research and Civic Engagement Curator, the programme brings together participatory projects, live performances, film screenings, lectures, and discussions across the Emirate of Sharjah, culminating in a two-day international conference on November 18 and 19.

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This week started with World Cities Day, which this year, in line with World Architecture Day, was an occasion to spotlight deficient access to adequate housing, secure tenure, basic services, and affordable living conditions worldwide. Once again, we are faced with a call to approach architecture and urban design differently, making design a social tool rather than merely a market tool. Examples of sensible approaches can be seen in this week's announcements: waste-based materials, adaptive reuse of industrial heritage, and the recognition of the evolving nature of drawing. The controversial proposal to replace Milan's San Siro Stadium with a new design by Foster + Partners raises questions about notions of value and beauty in the contemporary world, while at ArchDaily, we invite students to imagine new forms of urban life through architecture. To reasonable conflicts, creative solutions. Finally, in this week's radar, we received news from the XIV Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (BIAU), held this year in Brasília; a new curved timber-and-concrete building by OODA in Lisbon; and a masterplan by SOM for a brand-new city in Egypt.

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Located on the Caribbean coast of Central America, Belize is a small country with an intriguing history. It is bordered by Mexico to the north and Guatemala to the west and south, with the Caribbean Sea along its eastern edge. Known as British Honduras for most of its past, it was formally made into a British colony in 1862, long after its Central American neighbors had won their independence from Spain. As the territory transitioned toward independence, it adopted two symbols of its emerging identity: a new name, Belize, and a new capital, which was built not just to govern the new nation, but also as a way to prevent hurricanes from putting the country's institutional stability at risk.

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This October, architecture across Latin America became a platform for exchange, bringing together discussions on inhabitation, cultural identity, emerging practices, and the relationship between the built environment and its wider context. From conversations on emerging architectural practices and material research at Design Week Mexico to new approaches to housing, landscape, and public space in Chile and Mexico, recent developments highlight how architecture responds to specific local conditions. Across the region, initiatives addressing climate adaptation and heritage recovery in the Dominican Republic and Colombia also bring attention to the changing responsibilities of cultural institutions and the built environment.

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