Tag: wallmakers | ArchDaily

ArchDaily's Best Architectural Projects of 2025

Hana Abdel — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 07:30:00 +0000

As the year culminates, it's once again time for the ArchDaily team of curators to reflect on the best-performing projects of 2025 and consider what readers were most interested in. Through this diverse overview, we assess the cross-continental similarities and differences in trends and construction development. This year brought us many grand cultural and public spaces by Lina Ghotmeh, BIG, Zaha Hadid Architects, DnA, and Serie Architects, who populated events like Expo Osaka and the Venice Biennale, as well as a surprising number of museums and public or landscape works in China and the rest of the Asian continent. However, while these were sought-after projects, the leading works remained, unsurprisingly, residential projects.

Circular by Tradition: India’s Vernacular Building Practices for a Warming World

Ananya Nayak — Fri, 28 Nov 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Across India's varied geographies, from coastal backwaters to desert fortress cities, architecture evolved with a deep, instinctive connection to climate. These were not isolated craft traditions but complete ecological systems in which material cycles, thermal comfort, and community knowledge were interdependent. As COP30 turns global attention toward the links between heritage and climate resilience, India's vernacular practices appear less as historical artifacts and more as climate technologies refined over centuries.

ArchDaily's Best Architectural Projects of 2024

Hana Abdel — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Throughout the year, ArchDaily's team of curators works on expanding and populating our project library. Located all around the world, each curator carefully considers the best works emanating from their respective regions in an effort to have a diverse representation of the most inspiring and innovative built works. The team looks to new rising practices, new technologies, and the vernacular revival of traditional construction techniques. Seeking socially driven initiatives, as well as major works by renowned architects, the overall offers a holistic view of the built world today and is relayed through the yearly project review.

Step by Step: Exploring 12 Projects Featuring Staircase or Terraced Roof Designs

Hana Abdel — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 07:30:00 +0000

Pitched roofs and terraced lots or hillsides are some of the oldest, yet still highly functional, solutions for rainwater dispersal, redirection, and erosion management. While most constructions today still opt for traditional pitched or flat roofs, advancements in construction materials and techniques are leading to greater design exploration and layout variations. This has resulted in a rise in green roofs, passive insulation solutions, and more innovative uses of rooftops. One particular case has been the recurrence of the staircase or terraced roofs that often bring about a smooth continuity with the site and provide additional functional spaces to the project.

Learning from Global Architecture Exhibitions: Resource Efficiency, Vernacular Intelligence, and Social and Environmental Advocacy

Nour Fakharany — Wed, 29 May 2024 07:30:00 +0000

Over the past year, architecture exhibitions have significantly addressed pressing global issues such as climate change, resource scarcity, and social advocacy. According to the Harvard Graduate School of Design, architecture exhibitions can foster dynamic engagement with contemporary issues, serving as platforms for experimentation and critique. These events, such as the Venice Architecture Biennale, Sharjah Architecture Triennial, Milan Design Week, and Concéntrico, serve as essential platforms for creatives to showcase and explore new ideas. Moreover, they have been instrumental in addressing the urgent challenges posed by the climate crisis by promoting sustainable practices.

Playing with Transparency: 4 Projects Challenging Traditional Window-Making in Architecture

Carla Bonilla Huaroc — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Formally, transparency usually takes the shape of a window, a door, a curtain wall, or a skylight. These are commonly created through rectangular punched openings or in the form of glass curtain wall systems or translucent screens. The following projects play with traditional notions of transparency and window-making in playful and unconventional ways. They create visually striking facades and dynamic relationships between their exterior and interior. They filter light and frame views through their glazing and opening articulation to craft memorable architectural experiences.

Highlights from the Sharjah Triennial: 10 Installations Exploring the Beauty of Impermanence

Nour Fakharany — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Running from November 11, 2023 until March 10, 2024, The Sharjah Architecture Triennial celebrates innovations in the built environment, particularly in the global south. The main goal of the display is to draw attention to sustainable, accessible, and equitable futures while highlighting the value of alternative responses to resource constraints. As the event draws to a close, ArchDaily explores 10 architectural installations that respond to the overarching theme through various mediums.

Top 2023 Pavillions and Installations Interrogating Architecture of the Global South

Paul Yakubu — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 07:30:00 +0000

Architecture in the Global South often embodies a rich cultural heritage and craftsmanship, incorporating vibrant colors, intricate patterns, and symbolic elements. It also tackles the challenges faced by developing economies, such as limited resources, rapid urbanization, and social inequality, by promoting inclusive and community-driven design solutions. As installations and pavilions serve as radical templates for interrogating these architectural ideals and seeking innovative solutions, we present the top architectural installations as part of our year-in-review. They encompass curated exhibitions like the Venice Architecture Biennale, as well as permanent pavilion structures in specific contexts that delve into local materials, waste reuse, and the reinterpretation of historical narratives.

The Beauty of Impermanence: Exploring Adaptive Architecture from the Global South at the 2023 Sharjah Architecture Triennial

Christele Harrouk — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 08:00:00 +0000

Inaugurated on November 11, 2023, and running until March 10, 2024, the Sharjah Architecture Triennial serves as a metaphor drawing attention to the design and technological innovations within the built environment, particularly in the global south. The exhibition features contributions from 29 architects and studios spanning 25 countries. Building upon Venice's global platform for experimentation at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition, the 2023 Triennial embarks on a similar journey, creating space for voices and discussions often overlooked in global exhibitions and unveiling elements that have long existed but remained unseen. With a keen awareness of the global south, but also of the global north, and an understanding of the polarities between them, as articulated by curator Tosin Oshinowo, this second edition of the exhibition focuses on "The Beauty of Impermanence: An Architecture of Adaptability."

"3-Minute Pavilion" by WallMakers Explores Waste and Material Scarcity at the Sharjah Triennial 2023

Nour Fakharany — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 05:30:00 +0000

The Sharjah Architecture Triennial opened on November 11, 2023, with the theme of The Beauty of Impermanence: An Architecture of Adaptability. Curated by Tosin Oshinowo, the program focused heavily on the Global South and alternative models the region can provide in the future. As part of the Triennial, the “3-Minute Corridor” pavilion by WallMakers explores our waste on a global scale, exploring methodologies of material reuse.

Local Colors in Rammed Earth Construction: 50 Projects Revealing Earth's Vibrant Palette

Hana Abdel — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 07:30:00 +0000

With the proper know-how, readily available earth, sand, chalk, lime, or gravel can yield a versatile, strong, and durable construction material. Its colorful results vary from region to region, depending on the natural soil component, climate, and treatment. While some prefer to minimize any added processing, others relish the exploration of rammed earth surfaces. Different textures and mesmerizing layers of multitoned or multicolored earth can be used to create a solid surface that enriches the visual quality of a space and carries a sense of warmth to any project.

Exploring Scarcity in Global South: Sharjah Architecture Triennial 2023 Announces Full List of Participants

Nour Fakharany — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 05:30:00 +0000

A group of 31 architects, studios, and designers have been invited to participate in the Sharjah Architecture Triennial from 11 November to 10 March 2024. For its second edition, the Triennial aims to explore innovative design solutions emerging from conditions of scarcity in the Global South. The participants, representing 27 countries, offer a diverse and international response to the theme, addressing its implications for the future of architecture. The Triennial is curated by Tosin Oshinowo and revolves around the theme "The Beauty of Impermanence: An Architecture of Adaptability."

First Participants Announced for 2023 Sharjah Architecture Triennial

Christele Harrouk — Thu, 11 May 2023 05:30:00 +0000

The 2023 Sharjah Architecture Triennial (SAT) will take place from November 11th, 2023 to March 10th, 2024, under the theme "The Beauty of Impermanence: An Architecture of Adaptability". Focusing on how scarcity in the Global South has led to a culture of re-use, re-appropriation, innovation, collaboration, and adaptation, the second edition of the architectural exhibition, curated by Tosin Oshinowo, aims to shift global conversations towards creating a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable future.

“I Am Always Mindful That Construction is a Sin”: Interview with Vinu Daniel of Wallmakers

Vladimir Belogolovsky — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 03:30:00 +0000

Most architects design projects in the comfort of their offices, sitting behind their desks, making decisions by looking at their flatscreens, never visiting a construction site, and managing everything remotely. This attitude may lead to a design of a sleek and even objectively beautiful building. But such a solution can't be anywhere near a genuine response to what any given site may require. How do you even find out? Is it possible to build something new as if it were an extension of what is already there in the most innate, consequential, yet original form? The only way to find out is to start from the site itself, says Vinu Daniel, the founder of Wallmakers, an award-winning architectural practice in Trivandrum, the capital of the southern Indian state of Kerala.

The Ledge / Wallmakers

Hana Abdel — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 22:00:00 +0000

Perched on the edge of a mountain, ‘The Ledge’ is a residence in Peeremedu that is designed based on a dream sequence. The inquisition that leads one to walk till the edge of a ridge or a child-like whim to jump from the top of a cliff can be attributed to a human desire to walk ahead into the clouds even after the mountain is over. Hence the building has been designed as a shard that seems to be protruding as an extension of the mountain into the air.

Jack Fruit Garden Residence / Wallmakers

Hana Abdel — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 08:00:00 +0000

The Jackfruit Garden Residence as the name suggests is a house for Mr. Riaz, whose very design arose from trying to retain the huge jackfruit tree growing in one corner of the site. Another consideration to keep in mind was that designing for a large family also meant that privacy was of utmost importance if we wanted the common spaces to be inclusive.