Tag: education | ArchDaily

What Can Architectural Practice Learn From Botany?

Agustina Iñiguez — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 04:00:00 +0000

While human life depends heavily on plants for the medicines, building materials, and fuel they provide, they also play a vital role in many ecological processes. From climate regulation through carbon dioxide absorption to soil fertility and the purification of air and water, plant diversity offers opportunities to address some of the most pressing challenges of this century, including food security, energy availability, climate change, and habitat degradation. In this context, botanical gardens act as living refuges that foster innovation, adaptation, and human resilience. But what can architectural practice learn from botany and its methods?

BIG to Design Three-Building STEM University Campus in Arkansas, United States

Antonia Piñeiro — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 05:30:00 +0000

BIG–Bjarke Ingels Group was selected to design the campus of a new STEM university in Arkansas, United States, on a site located near Bentonville's downtown, formerly home to Walmart's headquarters. The project comprises three buildings occupying two city blocks and was designed in collaboration with Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, who will serve as the Architect of Record. The campus comprises around 422,000 square feet (nearly 39,200 square meters), including green spaces, public squares, an academic building, a makerspace, and a student residence. While the project was recently unveiled, the university intends to welcome its first class of students in 2029.

Mastering Interdisciplinary Architecture and Sustainable Urbanism at UC Berkeley

Rene Submissions — Mon, 11 May 2026 01:30:00 +0000

Today, interdisciplinary learning and exchange are more important than ever in addressing increasingly complex environmental, social, and urban challenges.

Zaha Hadid’s Legacy and Büro Ole Scheeren’s Róng Museum: This Week’s Review

Reyyan Dogan — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 06:30:00 +0000

As architectural discourse continues to expand across cultural, educational, and civic domains, this week's developments highlight how the discipline operates simultaneously through legacy, knowledge production, and large-scale public engagement. From reflections on influential figures and their enduring impact to evolving academic landscapes and new forms of cultural infrastructure, architecture is positioned as both a repository of ideas and an active agent in shaping contemporary identities. At the same time, projects spanning entertainment, museums, and waterfront developments point to a growing emphasis on hybrid programs and experiential environments, where architecture mediates between culture, public life, and global audiences.

Beyond the Classroom: Six Unbuilt Projects Rethinking Educational Architecture

Nour Fakharany — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 05:00:00 +0000

Educational architecture remains an exploratory ground for unbuilt exploration, offering insight into how learning environments can evolve alongside changing social, ecological, and pedagogical values. In this Unbuilt edition, submitted by the ArchDaily community, the selected projects bring together a range of proposals that examine schools, libraries, nurseries, and academic centers as spatial frameworks for care, knowledge, and collective growth. Rather than treating education as a fixed program housed within singular buildings, these projects approach learning spaces as adaptive environments shaped by landscape, climate, and human interaction.

Reflecting on the International Day of Education: From Playful Environments to Youth Agency in Architecture

Reyyan Dogan — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 07:30:00 +0000

Education has long been understood as a cornerstone of social development, shaping not only individual futures but also the collective capacity of societies to respond to change. Observed annually on 24 January, the International Day of Education invites reflection on the role education plays in addressing global challenges and sustaining social progress. As the world confronts overlapping challenges, from technological transformation to deepening inequalities, the question of how education is imagined, governed, and experienced has become increasingly urgent.

Commonwealth Association of Architects 2026 Awards: Student & President's Prize

Rene Submissions — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 09:15:00 +0000

The Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA) has launched its 2026 Awards Programme, with the Education Categories inviting students across the Commonwealth to submit work that demonstrates significant contributions to addressing contemporary global challenges including climate change, rapid urbanisation, biodiversity loss, and social inequality. Aligned with the CAA's charter objectives to maximise the contribution by architects to the well-being of society, the awards programme recognises projects and individuals whose work advances the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while demonstrating exceptional design quality and measurable impact.

The education awards encompasses two categories:

CAA Student Award: For students in Years 1-3 whose work

Architecture for Change: Parametric Urban Design, Vernacular Heritage Conservation, and Resilient Housing Solutions

Rene Submissions — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 01:30:00 +0000

Can academic projects explore new directions and contribute to public discourse on global and local issues? The 2025 Politecnico di Torino Architecture Students Award aimed to address these questions, showcasing how architectural research, training, and experimentation can be integrated into a school curriculum.

How SCI-Arc Prepares Architects to Thrive in Constant Change

Rene Submissions — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 01:30:00 +0000

Architecture is being reshaped by artificial intelligence, climate change, and shifting social structures. At SCI-Arc, students learn to face these challenges head-on, using design to shape a rapidly changing world.

Zaha Hadid Architects’ Yidan Center in Shenzhen Tops Out as a New Global Hub for Education

Antonia Piñeiro — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 05:30:00 +0000

Construction of Zaha Hadid Architects' Yidan Center in Shenzhen, China, has reached full height. The new landmark will serve as the headquarters of the Chen Yidan Foundation and the Yidan Prize, organizations dedicated to promoting lifelong learning and innovation in education. The center will host facilities for academic research, cultural events, and exhibitions, supporting the foundation's mission to advance global education. Located adjacent to the Qianhai Museum, the Yidan Center helps define a new cultural quarter in China's third-most-populous city.

Buildner Announces Kinderspace 2025 Winners and Next Call for Entries

Rene Submissions — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 06:45:00 +0000

Buildner has announced the results of its Kinderspace Edition #2 Competition and launched the third annual Kinderspace Edition #3 with an upcoming registration deadline of 26 November 2025. Following its inaugural launch, this annual international competition once again invited architects, designers, and educators to explore new possibilities for early childhood learning environments.

Environments of Curiosity: Translating Pedagogy into Architectural Form in Montessori, Waldorf, and Beyond

Olivia Poston — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Children encounter space differently from adults. For them, the world is not yet rationalized into function and circulation but is experienced through emotion and curiosity. Where adults may navigate rooms through habit, children inhabit them through immediacy. A patch of sunlight becomes an event. The curve of a hallway invites wandering. The sound of footsteps on wood or the softness of fabric beneath fingertips is not background but information. What adults may dismiss as peripheral moments quietly mediates their sense of safety, autonomy, belonging, and possibility. Architecture is an opportunity for pedagogy to become physical.

A Natural Childhood: How Architecture Connects Landscape, Culture, and Play

Agustina Iñiguez — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

How do nature and landscape dialogue within spaces designed for children? How are architecture and urban design capable of shaping natural atmospheres that integrate practices of play, participation, and exploration? From participatory projects that involve children in the design process to built environments that incorporate furniture adapted to their needs, the conception of spaces for childhood entails the creation of places for encounter, learning, and coexistence. At times, these spaces are able to strengthen the relationships between interiors and exteriors, connecting their users with nature and the surrounding environment. Depending on their cultures, customs, and histories of attachment to place, several contemporary projects deploy tools and strategies that integrate architecture, nature, and pedagogy to form broad experiences of learning, play, and discovery.

Inclusive Playgrounds: Every Body Can Play Through Architecture

Enrique Tovar — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 07:30:00 +0000

Play extends beyond its recreational dimension, unfolding as a social act that encourages children to learn, interact, be creative, and engage with their spatial context. As Johan Huizinga notes in Homo Ludens, it is a fundamental element of culture, where kids form bonds and explore ways of coexisting. When the architecture of play spaces excludes certain bodies or modes of participation, the collective experience becomes fragmented and loses part of its meaning. Designing with inclusion in mind, therefore, means recognizing that the actual value of play lies in its potential to be shared by everyone.

International Youth Day: Three Educational Initiatives for Community-Led Urban Change

Antonia Piñeiro — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 05:30:00 +0000

August 12, designated by the United Nations as International Youth Day since 1998, was conceived as an occasion to bring youth issues to the forefront of the international agenda and to celebrate the contributions of young people to today's global society. Each year, the observance focuses on a specific theme. In 2025, it is "Local Youth Actions for the SDGs and Beyond," emphasizing the role of youth in transforming global ambitions into community-driven realities. The aim is to highlight how young people help implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within local contexts and bridge the gap between policy and practice. In this spirit, we present three educational programs, in Romania, the United Kingdom, and the United States, that empower youth to deepen their understanding of the built environment and envision a more sustainable, people-friendly urban future.

“Even If You Want to Be a Gardener, Study Architecture”: Archigram Co-Founder Sir Peter Cook on Boldness, Creativity, and Architectural Education

Antonia Piñeiro — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 05:30:00 +0000

Sir Peter Cook is an English architect, professor, and writer, and a founding member of the neo-futuristic design group Archigram, alongside Warren Chalk, Ron Herron, David Greene, and Michael Webb. Beyond the group's radical urban concepts and visionary imagery, he co-founded CRAB Studio (Cook Robotham Architectural Bureau) with David Robotham in 2006, where they have developed built, conceptual, and speculative projects. He recently designed the Play Pavilion, located next to Serpentine South in Kensington Gardens, which opened on World Play Day, June 11, 2025. He is also known for the BIX Light and Media Façade at MoMA and for his series of drawings and collages that explore spaces, building elements, and organic landscapes.

An Epic of Fire and Stone: The Story Behind the Intervention at the Benedictine Monastery of Catania, Sicily

Camilla Ghisleni — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 07:30:00 +0000

The Benedictine Monastery of San Nicolò l’Arena in Catania, Sicily, holds within its stones the echoes of five centuries, shaped by time, varied uses, violent earthquakes, and the blazing force of Mount Etna. Its walls, silent witnesses to history, were molded both by the fire of nature and by human hands. Yet among all the transformations it underwent, none was as profound or poetic as the one led by Italian architect Giancarlo De Carlo, starting in 1980. After 30 years of dedicated work, time required to truly understand such a complex and awe-inspiring site, the former monastic residence was reborn as a university, not by force, but through revelation.

Rethinking Mixed-Use Architecture: 8 Conceptual Projects That Integrate Nature, Culture, Work, Play, and Community

Nour Fakharany — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 04:00:00 +0000

From forest-inspired offices in Sweden to jungle-nest clubhouses in Tulum, mixed-use architecture continues to evolve as a tool for integrated living. As cities grow and our expectations of public, private, and commercial space shift, designers are increasingly rethinking how different functions including work, play, rest, learning, can coexist in a single architectural language. These projects suggest that buildings and projects no longer need to silo activities, but rather choreograph them to reflect the rhythms of everyday life.