Tag: building-systems | ArchDaily

Designing Thresholds: How Architecture Shapes the Sense of Security at Home

Kiana Buchberger — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 06:45:00 +0000

What transforms a space of living into a home? Beyond ownership or shelter, a home is tied to a quieter sense of certainty: the feeling that one can retreat, rest, and momentarily step away from the world's unpredictability. Homes are where routines accumulate, memories settle into spaces and objects, and where personal identity takes physical form through occupation and everyday rituals. Yet this sense of belonging depends on another condition that often goes unnoticed until disrupted: security. To feel "at home" implies a condition of comfort and stability. When domestic environments fail to provide this, spaces designed for rest become sources of unease, subtly affecting routines and well-being.

Ventilated Facades and Fire Performance: A Global Approach to the System

Rene Submissions — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 06:45:00 +0000

As the technical requirements of building envelopes have evolved, fire performance has become a key criterion in the design of ventilated facades. Given this situation, analyses no longer focus solely on the individual reaction of materials, but also on the joint response of the entire building envelope under possible scenarios of external fire propagation.

Building Autonomy: Latin American Communities Bringing Life’s Systems Into Architecture

Daniela Andino — Fri, 22 May 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Before a building can be inhabited, many other things need to happen. Water has to arrive, energy has to be generated, food has to be grown or transported, and waste has to go somewhere. These processes are usually treated as something outside architecture, even though they shape the most basic conditions of everyday life.

Architecture as a Platform: What Makes a Building Evolve?

Ankitha Gattupalli — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Not long ago, recent enough to feel current, architecture entered a moment in which buildings became legible as products. The framing offered discipline and a refreshed perspective to an industry that often deems novelty more precious than operational clarity. Nudging exercises of "form" towards repeatability, user experience, performance, and scalability prepared buildings to be a "product" that could now be evaluated. Architecture is more answerable to how well it works, how clearly it communicates its use, and how consistently it delivers its intended experience.

Architecture as Infrastructure: How India Builds for a Billion

Ankitha Gattupalli — Sat, 27 Dec 2025 07:30:00 +0000

India's built environment has, in recent years, gained visibility through a growing number of transformative architectural and infrastructure projects. Cities and towns scale faster each year, despite looming concerns around climate and economic volatility. The nation has shown resilience in balancing rapid urbanization with resource constraints; this is no small feat. India's architectural practices rarely rely on novelty alone; they are built on systems that have existed for centuries. Through ArchDaily's Building for Billions, recurring stories have highlighted the social intelligence and adaptive capacity embedded in these practices, revealing an architecture that operates less as isolated form and more as infrastructure.

Designing at the Edge: 8 Conceptual Projects Where Architecture Meets Nature from the ArchDaily Community

Nour Fakharany — Fri, 23 May 2025 04:00:00 +0000

At a time when architectural practice is increasingly tied to climate and context, the boundary between the built and the natural has become a critical site of experimentation. This month's unbuilt selection gathers eight conceptual projects that work with the edges of landscape. In Ramia by João Teles Atelier, the architecture draws directly from the metaphor of a seed breaking through soil, using wood, concrete, and water to create a sensorial route through Tulum's ecology. Meanwhile, Mobius Pier by X Atelier loops gently over the river edge, becoming both infrastructure and observation point. Similarly, Il mare degli Umbri approaches the threshold differently, restoring the historic shoreline of Lake Trasimeno and reintroducing local wetland ecologies. Each project in this collection reflects a unique position: some treat the edge as a spatial experience, others as a regulatory line, and others still as a point of cultural or ecological return.

The Impact of Wildfires on Building Codes: Reflections on the Recent Los Angeles Fires

Jonathan Yeung — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 04:00:00 +0000

It has been nearly three weeks since one of California's most devastating wildfires began, triggering an immense effort to combat the blaze and mitigate further damage. As firefighters work to contain the remaining flames, the city braces for its first significant winter rainfall, raising concerns about flooding and landslides that may exacerbate the already extensive destruction.

The Second Studio Podcast: The Problem(s) with Design-Build

The Second Studio Podcast — Sun, 13 Oct 2024 03:30:00 +0000

The Second Studio (formerly The Midnight Charette) is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by Architects David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features different creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions.

What is Over-Providing? A Strategy for Resilient Architecture

Jonathan Yeung — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 03:00:00 +0000

Over-providing traditionally implies offering more than is necessary, often carrying a negative connotation due to the potential for excess and waste. However, could there be scenarios within the built environment where over-providing proves advantageous? The question critically examines how overprovisioning might enhance a building's flexibility and adaptability to diverse and evolving conditions.

The Second Studio Podcast: AV Design in Architecture

The Second Studio Podcast — Sun, 25 Aug 2024 03:30:00 +0000

World’s First On-Demand Building System: BetaPort

Camila Prieto — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 07:30:00 +0000

Today, interconnected and fast-paced lifestyles, future mobility trends and constant material innovation puts pressure on a slow-moving building industry. How can architecture keep up with this trend? Following dynamic and nomadic lifestyles, architects must explore new structural systems that should be able to reach multiple locations, as well as be adaptable and reusable in the future. By applying revolutionary technology for circular, scalable components and carbon-negative buildings, UrbanBeta –a spatial innovation studio designing strategies, building concepts, predictive tools and platforms for creating transformative spaces– has developed BetaPort, a robotic construction system powered by artificial intelligence and automation.

Architecture with SIPs: Fast-Build, High-Performance Prefabricated Homes

José Tomás Franco — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 03:00:00 +0000

The current demands of the industry lead architects to design based on construction solutions that accelerate processes without compromising quality, while reducing waste and dependence on intensive labor. Among these options, SIP panels stand out as a modular alternative that combines thermal and acoustic insulation with speed and construction precision.

Named after their acronym, SIP panels are self-supporting elements consisting of a rigid foam core sandwiched between two structural claddings, typically OSB boards. Strong yet lightweight, these panels are manufactured under strict factory controls and transported to the construction site, facilitating the rapid assembly of floors, walls, and ceilings, while creating an airtight thermal and acoustic envelope. The thickness of the panel depends on the combined thickness of its components, and its weight typically does not exceed 20 kg per square meter.

Leveraging Building Services as a Framework for the Evolution of Building Envelopes

Paul Yakubu — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Rising demands for energy efficiency, technical functionality, and interior comfort in buildings necessitate the development of more efficient building envelope constructions. The building envelope serves as a mediator between a building's exterior and interior. In today's architectural landscape, it performs a multitude of functions to enhance the building's performance. These functions include building control systems, energy supply (such as gas and electricity), and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), among others. These elements primarily determine the functionality, efficiency, and safety of building spaces. Given that the nature of building envelopes heavily depends on these services, how can they serve as primary frameworks for building design development?

Inflatable Architecture: Pneumatic Structures Transforming Built Environments

Enrique Tovar — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 04:00:00 +0000

As society, technology, and architecture have evolved, designers and architects have embraced novel construction systems and innovative approaches to reshape the built environment. This advancement has stretched the boundaries of traditional construction techniques and ignited fresh ideas in building design.

BASE Studio Reveals the Constructive, Structural, and Aesthetic Capabilities of Colihue Cane

Magdalena Casamitjana — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 05:00:00 +0000

Innovation in materials and construction systems has been a significant theme in 2023, and BASE Studio has decided to surprise us with a new material configuration that showcases the mechanical and aesthetic capabilities of Colihue. Alongside this proposal, innovative ideas for habitable projects have been generated, setting them apart from others through a distinctive spatial morphology created within a rigid perimeter of arches that inscribe a paraboloidal surface.

WZMH Develops Modular System to Save Partially or Fully Destroyed Structures

Paula Cano — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 05:30:00 +0000

Today’s cities have been substantially reshaped to correspond with environmental and social needs or to reconstruct themselves after natural disasters or war. Whereas master plans and regulations take years, millions of people remain trapped in the crossfire and urgently need aid in their cities. With this pressing issue in mind, WZMH Architects developed a prefabricated- modular system for salvaging thousands of structures across Ukraine that have been partially or fully destroyed during the war. This system aims to integrate building technology into new buildings to create more sustainable communities.

Materials and Construction Techniques of Brazilian Indigenous Peoples as a Future for Architecture

Camilla Ghisleni — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 05:00:00 +0000

“We should admit nature as an immense multitude of forms, including each part of us, who are part of everything”, says Ailton Krenak, renowned indigenous leader, in his book Ideas to Postpone the End of the World. The culture of native peoples does not understand humanity and the environment as things that are separate or superior to each other, but rather as parts of a whole. Through this particular understanding of the universe, these peoples are led to a sensitive appropriation of the territory, with structuring beliefs that are also reflected in their architecture, raising the very concept of sustainability to another level, since nature is not seen as a resource to be used, it is thought of as part of the community.

50 Construction Terms & Concepts All Architects Should Know

Dima Stouhi — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 06:30:00 +0000

As with any industry, most skills are acquired through years of hands-on working and problem solving, and not just what's taught at school. For fresh architecture graduates, engaging with general contractors, engineers, and builders during their first site visits might feel overwhelming, especially since they are exploring the practical side of the practice.