Unbuilt Projects: The Latest Architecture and News

Sir David Chipperfield has been awarded with the 2023 Pritzker Prize, the highest distinction in the architectural profession. Known for his well-crafted, precise, and sensible response to complex environments, the architect became initially recognized for the skillful restoration and renovation of existing buildings, often cultural institutions, before expanding the range of projects to include new structures. While his built body of works demonstrates many of the core principles of good architecture, the ongoing projects reveal an equally relevant narrative: that of his direction moving forward and the way in which his approach to these principles evolves.

Many of the ongoing projects continue Chipperfield’s interest in museological and cultural institutions, yet he continues to work across a wide array of building types. The latest major project announced tackles one of the most prominent institutions in Greece, the National Archeological Museum. This represents yet another opportunity for the architect to present museums as institutions that offer a transformation of the urban life of the cities where they are located, while also bringing forward the historical layers that define its architecture. Other projects, such as the Santa Giulia Arena in Milano or the Elbtower in Hamburg, expand the range of programs and typologies addressed by Chipperfield.

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Sport plays an important role in the life of every city, yet the buildings housing these activities pose a particular set of challenges to the architects. Scale and dimensions need to be adapted to allow for unrestricted movement, heights are adjusted to the force of an athlete’s throw, and lighting, surface, and finishes require careful consideration. The matter becomes even more complex if these activities become the center of large-scale events. The flow of people becomes an integral part of the design, as different types of users require separate circulation paths.

This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights the design of sports centers submitted by the ArchDaily community. From a tennis stadium in Italy, to a yoga pavilion on the cliffs of Portugal, this selection features projects centered around movement, practicing, following, and enjoying sports, be it tennis, baseball, yoga or football. The article presents projects from various counties, such as South Korea, Canada, Portugal, and Argentina.

This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights cultural centers by the ArchDaily community. From a spiral- gallery symbolizing the Jinju culture in South Korea, a building devoted to Irish culture to a gallery to serve as a cultural incubator for Indonesia, this round-up of unbuilt projects showcases how architects, community, and institutions team up to promote culture, arts, history, and reflection.

Featuring the firms Id lab architecture, Oxo arc, Atelier of spatial matters, ddrlp, Brno Architectural studio AOSI, Nir Shmueli Studio, Macary-Bensh Architecture, MZ Architects, and Studio BANAA, the following list explores cultural centers at different scales and varying stages of their development. Whether competition-winning projects or ongoing planned execution, each project gathers neighborhoods, arts organizations, private facilities, government-sponsored or activist-run.

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Architects play an important role in creating healthy, functional and aesthetically pleasing environments. Interior design represents a natural continuation of the same prerogative, and its importance has been accentuated in recent years, from the lockdown forcing many people to remain indoors for extended periods of time, to the rise of remote work. The task of the interior designer is not decorating spaces, but planning for an effective use of space, understanding the needs of the user and highlighting the intrinsic qualities of a space. Acoustics, lighting, material properties and proportions all play a role in achieving a coherent and enjoyable interior space.

This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights interior design projects submitted by the ArchDaily community. From a pastel-colored library in Turkey to a renovated symphony hall in San Diego, US, this selection of unbuilt projects showcases how architects design interior spaces by integrating textures, materials, light, and color in well-proportioned spaces. The article includes projects from Turkey, US, Switzerland, Indonesia, UK, and Denmark.

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This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights office spaces submitted by the ArchDaily community. From a TV station in Vietnam to a bazaar-inspired business center in Iran, this round-up of unbuilt projects showcases how architects structure corporative spaces to serve as a model for sustainable, innovative, and future-oriented workplaces.

Featuring the firms AEXN, HGAA, Ho Khue Architects, Kennon, Macroepsilon Architects, Plinthos Architects, Rvad Studio, and 3deluxe, the following list explores office buildings at different scales and varying stages of their development. Whether competition-winning projects or ongoing planned execution, each project advocates for local social-economic development and responds to the growing energy-efficient demand.

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The promise of the metaverse is proving to be a fertile ground for research and experimentation for architects. This new realm is currently undefined, consisting of many narratives, explorations, and opportunities for architects and designers to shape a new type of environment. Generative engines, such as AI image-generators, are contributing to the feeling of open possibilities. While they are not yet part of the standard practice, they bring the promise of a shift in the production of architecture. Conceptual projects such as the ones presented in this list serve little to no external purpose. Still, they are essential in conducting an understanding of the possibilities of the new technologies which are likely to have a significant effect on the profession.

This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by the ArchDaily community that experiment with a new medium and integrate novel technologies. From abstract buildings created to be experienced through virtual reality in the metaverse to investigations into the ability of AI image generator engines to develop innovative architectural expressions and even research into planimetry, the following projects are pushing the boundary of what architecture could look like in the new age of technological developments.

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This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by established firms. From a museum dedicated to Jewish history to a high-speed railway hub and a university student center, the following selection showcases a variety of concepts, design approaches, and programs developed by global architecture offices.

Featuring firms like KPF, Aedas, Fala Atelier, ADP Architecten, and Peter Pichler Architects, this week's selection of unbuilt projects explore architectural and urban interventions at different scales and at varying stages of their development. Whether conceptual works or ongoing, planned for execution, and even under construction, each project aims to offer an appropriate response to the spatial, functional, social, and environmental needs of its context.

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This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights private villas submitted by the ArchDaily community. From a Mediterranean retreat in Greece to a one-person residence in Iran, this round up of unbuilt projects showcases how architects design private villas that combine contextuality and functionality in structures that promote comfort, privacy, and connection to nature. The article includes projects from Indonesia, Greece, Iran, and Jordan.

This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights educational facilities submitted by the ArchDaily community. From a contextual Earth school in Senegal, to a borderless, collaborative school in Vietnam, this round up of unbuilt projects showcases how architects infused nature with architecture, offering students the chance to engage with the landscape and learn more about their surroundings from their academic institutes. The article also features projects from Lebanon, Switzerland, Armenia, Ukraine, and Greece.

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Offering short-term accommodation to travelers, hotels represent one of the main elements supporting the hospitality sector. They often aim to create a serene environment, isolated from the bustle of city life, yet representative of the local identity. Boutique hotels represent a rising sub-sector of hospitality design. These are small hotels typically between 10 and 100 rooms with carefully chosen interior design, providing a memorable experience to their guests. From historic renovations to contemporary ground-up hotels, hotel projects represent a great opportunity for architects to create unique environments centered around leisure and relaxation.

This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by the ArchDaily community. Located in the forests of Portugal, on the shore of the Greek island of Crete, or in the deserts of Egypt, this round-up of unbuilt projects showcases how architects respond to local conditions in order to create designs that cater to the needs of tourists and travelers.

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This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights residential projects submitted by the ArchDaily community. From a small community-dwelling in Ghana to a villa tucked under a hillside in Portugal, this roundup of unbuilt projects explores how architects react to various site topographies, cultures, and material availability when designing spaces that provide more than shelter to their users. The article also includes projects from India, Iran, Ireland, Latvia, Georgia, and Saudi Arabia.

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This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights different competition-winning designs and honorable mentions submitted by the ArchDaily Community. From large scale urban developments to small interventions and installations, this article highlights a selection of projects that have taken part of international and/or national competitions, and have received recognition from their juries.

From a metro station refurbishment that highlights the colors of Belgrade, to a memorial park on the coast of Miami, the award-winning entries are designed by young architects who have reimagined cultural, commercial, and urban projects, and provided innovative solutions that cater to the city and community. This round up also includes projects in Pakistan, Czech Republic, Germany, Vietnam, and Turkey.

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This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights educational and cultural projects submitted by the ArchDaily community. Through examples from all around the world, the article explores how these spaces of knowledge and discovery are designed to inspire and inform.

Featuring a monolithic museum in Portugal, a digital heritage centre with a media facade in Korea and a mobility research centre in Turkey, the round-up spans various kinds of educational and cultural spaces, as well as different attitudes towards the built or natural environment. The following projects reveal the ideas that shape spaces of knowledge in different contexts, illustrating diverse approaches toward what constitutes an institution of culture.

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Along with several other imperative factors, the success of an architectural project relies heavily on how it is communicated to its users and builders. Most architects opt for realistic computer generated renders to showcase their projects, while others choose to explore different techniques, translating their architectural narratives through photo collages, sketches, animation, hyper-realistic miniature models, walkthroughs, diagrams, and occasionally, script. 

This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by the ArchDaily community that are presented through different media. From a hand-drawn sketch of a coastal redevelopment in Norway to an abstract composition of photography and architectural drawings in Poland, this round up of unbuilt projects showcases diverse architectural typologies and their unique visualizations. The article also includes projects from the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan.

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This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights designs submitted by established architecture practices, featuring conceptual works, competition entries and projects in different stages of development. From the transformation of a former mall into a healthcare facility in the United States, a masterplan for the redevelopment of a zoo in Canada to a brewery regeneration in China, the following explores a variety of designs by global architecture offices.

Featuring firms like Perkins +Will, Henning Larsen Architects, URBANUS or Mandaworks, this week's selection of unbuilt projects highlights worldwide interventions that illustrate a variety of ideas, from adaptive-reuse strategies, interventions in heritage sites and new models for public buildings.

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This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights private residential projects submitted by the ArchDaily community. From a residential quarter comprising eight urban villas, to private getaways in the suburbs of Hyderabad, India, this round up of unbuilt projects showcases how architects design private spaces that combine locality and functionality in structures that cater to the residents’ lifestyles and behaviors. The article also includes projects from Iran, the United States, Thailand, and Greece.

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This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights competition-winning projects submitted by the ArchDaily Community. From large scale urban developments to interventions in the landscape, from housing projects to educational spaces and commercial buildings, this article showcases a variety of design approaches, programs and scales. The proposals featured are the results of local and international competitions, either creative concepts or projects currently in progress.

The competition-winning entries include a range of different projects, designed by both new practices and established firms. are a few of this week's highlights. A "city within a city" urban development in Ukraine, an EV station design in Canada that reinterprets the traditional typology of highway rest areas, a sustainable housing block in Finland and a clubhouse in the landscape of New Zealand are some of this week's highlights.

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This week’s curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by established firms. From river-side commercial centers to mixed-use towers, this article explores commercial and residential functions designed by global architecture offices that are either conceptual, have won first-prize in design competitions, or are currently being realized.

Featuring a pedestrian bridge by Grimshaw Architects in France, and a finance-district skyscraper dubbed as the "Lighthouse of the 21^st Century" by Ronald Lu & Partners, this roundup explores how established architecture firms have designed buildings that cater to the spatial and environmental needs of their users and respective functions. This round up also includes designs from SOM, IMPLMNT, Gensler, and Aedas, among other notable architects.

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