Tag: site-specific | ArchDaily

7 Unbuilt Houses Shaped by Site, Climate, and Constraints

Nour Fakharany — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:30:00 +0000

Residential architecture continues to offer a productive ground for unbuilt exploration, revealing how architects respond to site, climate, and constraint at the scale of the domestic. In this Unbuilt edition, submitted by the ArchDaily community, the selected projects bring together a range of proposals that reconsider the house not as an isolated object, but as a spatial system shaped by its environment. These works position architecture as a framework that negotiates between ground, material, and inhabitation, often emerging directly from the conditions of the site.

Architecture of Belonging: Vision Pakistan in Islamabad by DB Studios

Daniela Andino — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 07:30:00 +0000

For DB Studios, architecture is not only about building, but about belonging. It is about creating a situated practice, one that responds to its context, its people, and its local identity, expressed through materials, color, and spatial decisions. In this sense, design becomes a way of articulating a language rooted in its context and shaped by the people it serves.

Building with Trees: Rethinking Architecture’s Relationship to Site

Daniela Andino — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Trees are often the first things to vanish when construction starts. Clearing a site has long been one of architecture's most immediate acts, removing what already exists to make room for something new. When vegetation is preserved, it is typically treated as a secondary layer, added back as landscape rather than shaping the project itself.

6 Unbuilt Retreats Exploring Hospitality Through Landscape and Refuge

Nour Fakharany — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Spaces of retreat continue to offer fertile ground for unbuilt exploration, revealing how architecture can support rest, reflection, and immersion in nature amid shifting environmental and cultural conditions. In this Unbuilt edition, submitted by the ArchDaily community, the selected projects assemble a diverse range of proposals that reconsider hospitality through the lens of refuge. These works position accommodation not as spectacle or excess, but as spatial frameworks shaped by landscape, climate, material restraint, and shared experience.

Drawn by Hand: Géométral's Site-Specific Architecture

Moises Carrasco — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 05:00:00 +0000

Founded in 2022 by Clément Masurier and based in Paris, France, Géométral is an architectural practice defined by design strategies that are linked to the landscape, which it treats as a primary determinant of form. The studio, one of the winners of the ArchDaily 2025 Next Practices Awards, approaches each project as a small universe that combines program, atmosphere, and spatial narratives. Rather than a single signature style, they focus on crafting moods and situations tailored to each context and user.

Beyond Universal Models: The Turn Toward Situated Architecture

Daniela Andino — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Specificity has re-emerged as a central language in architectural discourse. In an increasingly globalized field, where projects often follow familiar models regardless of context, architects are now turning toward approaches rooted in the particularities of each site. This renewed attention to context reflects broader social, climatic, and political pressures: cities are facing extreme heat, ecological challenges, shifting demographics, and new forms of collective life that demand responses grounded in their immediate conditions.

Village in the Vertical City: Tai Hang and the Afterlife of Vernacular Hong Kong

Jonathan Yeung — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Vernacular architecture in Hong Kong originated as a series of small, coastal settlements—simple, village-like communities that reflected the city's early identity as a fishing hub. These seaside villages were typically composed of low-rise, timber-framed houses clustered around temples, forming tight-knit communities closely tied to the rhythms of the water.

Touching the Earth Lightly: How Freeing the Ground Plane Shapes Architectural Atmosphere

Jonathan Yeung — Sat, 15 Mar 2025 07:30:00 +0000

Architecture and its atmospheric qualities have long been a subject of discussion, yet reaching a consensus on the matter remains elusive. This is largely because spatial experience is deeply personal—rooted in emotions, sensory perceptions, and individual preferences that are difficult to articulate in words alone. The way one perceives, feels, and interacts with a space adds another layer of complexity, making it challenging to define and agree upon its atmospheric impact. Nevertheless, architects and designers continuously strive to shape environments that are not only functional and comfortable but also capable of evoking emotions and leaving a lasting impression on their occupants.

Rethinking Sustainability Through Site-Specific Strategies

Diogo Borges Ferreira — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 07:30:00 +0000

Sustainability in architecture is often framed as a universal challenge, leading to standardized solutions that prioritize efficiency over context. However, architecture is inherently tied to its environment — buildings interact with climate, topography, and cultural history in ways that demand specificity. Instead of relying on standardized sustainability checklists, how can architecture embrace site-specific solutions? This conversation is deeply connected to the concept of Genius Loci, or the spirit of a place, introduced by Christian Norberg-Schulz and embraced by architects advocating for designs that resonate with their surroundings. It suggests that architecture should not be imposed upon a site but rather emerge from it, informed by its materials, climate, and cultural significance. This philosophy challenges the widespread application of generic sustainable technologies, instead proposing that sustainability must be inherently tied to the location in which it operates.

DnA's Xu Tiantian Unveils her Comprehensive Design Process in CCA’s Groundwork Debut: 'Into the Island'

Hana Abdel — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 04:00:00 +0000

With the heightening of ecological and social crises all around the world, architects have had to re-evaluate their role, impact, and design approach. As the "new needs" of people arise, new architectural processes must be explored to answer them. However, this still comes with much resistance from the standing practices and push for financial gain that often makes it difficult to implement more comprehensive solutions. These notions led the CCA (Canadian Center for Architecture) to launch their new 3-part film and exhibit series called " Groundwork", curated by the associate director, Francesco Garutti. Through this project, the CCA selected and followed three renowned contemporary architects/practices as they developed their concepts and field research, which allowed them to engage respectfully with their site and residing communities. It's an up close and personal look into what motivates the selected architects to examine alternative ways of designing and the challenges they go through as the three parallel stories unfold.

Desert X AlUla 2024: Exploring Unseen Art in Saudi Arabia's Desert Region from February 9 to March 23

Nour Fakharany — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 05:30:00 +0000

Desert X AlUla will open its latest exhibition themed “In the Presence of Absence,” from February 9th to March 23rd, 2024. Featuring 15 commissioned artworks that explore the unseen, the festival takes place bi-yearly in the desert region of Saudi Arabia. This edition of Desert X AlUla is curated by Maya El Khalil, renowned for her art advisory and MENA-focused curation, and Marcello Dantas, an award-winning curator known for his interdisciplinary practices.

The City as a Tile-Based Game

Marina Oba, Daniela Moro e Gabriel Tomich — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Alterity is essential to human development. If deprived of a variety of stimuli, the brain is unable to develop, losing plasticity and deteriorating like an atrophied muscle. This reasoning is widely accepted when it comes to social relations or cognitive and physical activities. But what about the stimuli promoted by the built environment?

Call for Submissions: Poldra Site-specific Sculpture

Rene Submissions — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 10:46:00 +0000

POLDRA - Public Sculpture Project Viseu envisions to develop contemporary public art/art in public space proposals – with a significant focus on sculpture – created for selected spaces (site-specific) reinventing and reinterpreting them; while encouraging interactions between the visitors and the sites themselves. Through this dynamic, the work of art will be the kickstarter of a relation that it is hoped can exist beyond the act of looking.
I've been doing so for the past two years by exhibiting the works of Neeraj Bhatia (Canada), Pedro Pires (Angola), Elisa Balmaceda (Chile), Natalia Bezerra & Kaitlin Ferguson (UK), Steven Barich (USA),

Open Call for Proposals: Contrei live land art festival

Rene Submissions — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Open Call for Proposals
Artists, (environmental) Architects, Designers & Makers

In 2020, Contrei live is set to become an art trail of land art and artistic interventions at the intersection between art, design, architecture and landscape. It highlights the region’s landscape in an extraordinary manner, using water as the guiding principle. The project seeks to question, to amaze and create connections between locations, between generations, between art and landscape, between dream and action.

This call for proposal is an open call to artists, (landscape) architects, designers or creators to submit a first draft proposal before April 17th. More information about the

Museum Proposal Displays Floating Figurines in Corten Columns of Light

Samantha Buckley — Sat, 02 Dec 2017 12:00:00 +0000

The Kharayeb Archaeological Museum (KAM) was designed by Shiogumo in the agricultural lands of the coastal village Kharayeb, in the south of Lebanon. The site-specific museum was commissioned to preserve and enhance the historical, cultural, and public significance by the directors of the archeological mission and site, Dr. Ida Oggiano (Istituto di Studi sul Mediterraneo Antico of CNR, Italy) and Dr. Wissam Khalil (Lebanese University).

Santo António Museum / Site Specific Arquitectura + P-06 Atelier

Cristian Aguilar — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 04:00:19 +0000

The project is located in Lisbon's historical centre, in the border area between Baixa Pombalina and Alfama neighbourhood.