Tag: water | ArchDaily

Beyond Human: Architecture as a Participant in Living Systems

Moises Carrasco — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 04:00:00 +0000

The built environment has historically served humans as a mechanism of environmental control. Through our intellectual capacities and ability to organize, we have used buildings to actively influence and terraform the immediate context in which they are inserted, often treating geography, water, and ecosystems as resources to be extracted and managed. However, more and more, architecture is transitioning from exploiting physical and biological matter to actively collaborating with it. This shift demands that architects explore how buildings and their materials grow, transform, decay, and persist beyond human timelines. This thinking also serves as a starting point for the profession to reflect on how it influences the natural world, as well as the non-human species around it, creating networks and connections between humans, buildings, living organisms, and natural environments.

Swiss Pavilion Examines Water as Resource, Subject, and Legal Entity at the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale

Reyyan Dogan — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 06:30:00 +0000

Architect and urbanist Paola Viganò has been selected by Pro Helvetia to curate the Swiss Pavilion at the 20th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Chosen following a unanimous recommendation from the selection jury, Viganò's proposal explores water as a territorial, ecological, and political condition, taking Switzerland's role as "Europe's water tower" as its conceptual point of departure. Developed with StudioPaolaViganò and an interdisciplinary team, the project examines water not only as a resource but also as a subject, a legal entity, and a force that shapes landscapes, infrastructures, and the built environment.

Stitching Edges: Marinas as Instruments of Reconnection between City and Water

Camilla Ghisleni — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 04:00:00 +0000

The land-water interface has always played a fundamental role in the formation and development of cities. From ancient commercial ports to today's multifunctional waterfronts, maritime and riverfront areas represent spaces of immense economic and social potential. Within this context, contemporary nautical complexes increasingly serve as strategic urban amenities capable of integrating diverse activities, fostering a reconnection between city and water, and revitalizing often underutilized landscapes.

Heat as a Design Partner: Trees, Soil, and Wind Corridors as Cooling Infrastructure

Jonathan Yeung — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 07:30:00 +0000

"By 2050, almost every child in the world — nearly 2.2 billion children — will be exposed to frequent heat waves." UNICEF's warning is often read as a public health forecast, but it is also a challenge to architecture and the way cities are built. As extreme heat intensifies across Asia, Europe, and beyond, thermal comfort should not be reduced to merely an indoor service delivered by machines. Air-conditioning has become a life-support system for many cities, especially in dense, humid, and rapidly urbanizing regions. Yet to rely on it as the default answer is to treat heat as something that can simply be moved elsewhere (and in the process generating extra heat) — expelled from interiors into streets, service alleys, energy grids, and the atmosphere. Its expansion increases energy demand, produces waste heat, and reinforces unequal access to comfort.

Ecologies of Repair: Reconciling Our Relationship with Water

Mohieldin Gamal — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 07:30:00 +0000

Ola Hassanain is a Sudanese architect and artist operating in the Netherlands, and will be exhibiting at the Pan-African Architecture Biennale in Nairobi, Kenya, later in 2026. All three locations tell stories of the built environment's relationship with water. These illustrate the continuous battles between the amorphous forces of nature that are the rivers and seas, and human attempts to shape and control them. In most cases, they are attempts at extraction. Catastrophes happen as a result of the overreach of these attempts or of their mismanagement, or both.

Reading the Territory: The Landscapes of Estudio Ome

Valentina Díaz — Fri, 15 May 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Based in Mexico City, Estudio Ome, founded by Susana Rojas Saviñón and Hortense Blanchard, is an architectural and landscape practice working across forests, volcanic terrains, urban fragments, and former industrial sites. Winner of the ArchDaily 2025 Next Practices Awards, the studio develops projects through sustained observation of ecological and territorial conditions, where design decisions arise directly from the behavior of soil, water, vegetation, and ground.

How Waterways and Memory Shape Bathroom Design

Kiana Buchberger — Tue, 12 May 2026 06:45:00 +0000

Water has always occupied a unique position in architecture: elemental yet elusive, functional yet symbolic. It is both a material and a medium that shapes cities, structures rituals, and influences how space is perceived. Across cultures, water is understood not only as a source of life but as a carrier of meaning, associated with purification, renewal, and continuity. Its presence in the built environment often extends beyond utility, becoming a device through which architecture engages the senses and constructs atmosphere.

No Solid Ground: Three Approaches to Building Below Sea Level in Rotterdam

Olivia Poston — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 07:30:00 +0000

Architects carefully calibrate their relationship to the earth, adjusting foundations to soil, groundwater, climate, risk, and culture. Driven timber piles, rammed-earth platforms, and poured concrete slabs are each a response to a specific set of ground conditions, and each shapes the architecture that rises from it. The way a building meets the earth determines its durability and its limits because foundations are among the most consequential design choices an architect makes.

How to Design with the Rain: Architectural Strategies for Rainwater Collection across Climates

Olivia Poston — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 07:30:00 +0000

As climate variability intensifies, extreme storms are becoming more frequent in some regions while water scarcity deepens in others. Architects are increasingly pressed to reconsider how buildings engage with rainfall as an environmental force and a design resource. How can architecture move beyond shedding the excess water to actively collect, store, and reuse it? What would it mean to treat rainwater as a material that shapes resilient and meaningful spaces?

Designing the Future, Again: What the 55-Year Return of the World Expo to Osaka Reveals

Jonathan Yeung — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 07:30:00 +0000

The 2025 Osaka Expo has captured widespread attention—not only for its architectural ambition and spectacle, but also for breaking records and generating controversy. Its most iconic feature, a monumental timber ring designed by Sou Fujimoto, has already made headlines as a Guinness World Record-breaking wooden structure. Built on the reclaimed island of Yumeshima, the site has attracted praise and critique in equal measure. Beyond its awe-inspiring 2-kilometer circumference—parts of which extend dramatically over the water—the structure has also drawn concerns, including questions about health & safety, extreme heat, and swarms of insects that may affect the visitor experience.

The Illusion of Level: Detailing for Water in “Flat” Architecture

Jonathan Yeung — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 07:30:00 +0000

We walk on "flat" ground every day and rarely think twice—but how flat is it, really? In the city, curbs are chamfered, sidewalks pitch toward grates, and roadways are crowned to shed water into shallow gutters. In suburbs and on unpaved paths, irregular terrain is the norm. Inside buildings, by contrast, we pursue near-perfect horizontality—structural frames, slabs, and finishes are all disciplined to create level walking surfaces in the name of safety and accessibility. Yet flatness is inherently at odds with water. A closer look reveals a quiet repertoire of accommodations: slight falls at entries, thresholds raised a few millimeters, wet areas with barely perceptible pitches. The floor is read as flat, but it is in fact carefully tuned—micro-topographies masquerading as plane—to manage water without calling attention to themselves.

Architecture on Water: Adaptive and Ecological Approaches from Venice 2025

Nour Fakharany — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 05:00:00 +0000

This curated selection of projects from the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale explores how architects and designers are rethinking the relationship between the built environment and water in response to the global climate crisis. As sea levels rise and extreme weather events increase, water is no longer a distant threat but an immediate design condition. Rather than resisting it, these projects look at how architecture can coexist with, adapt to, and even regenerate through natural forces. Together, they suggest a shift toward working with the elements, acknowledging water not as a limit to construction but as an active participant in shaping future environments.

Closing the Water Loop with Greywater Recycling in the Bathroom

Eduardo Souza — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 01:30:00 +0000

Water is the foundation of life. It shapes landscapes, regulates climates, and sustains every living organism. Yet on the only known inhabited planet, this essential resource faces a growing crisis: although 70% of Earth's surface is covered by water, less than 1% is actually available for human use. Most of it is consumed by agriculture and industry, while in households, activities like bathing and flushing use vast amounts of drinking water for non-essential purposes. The bathroom, therefore, has become a key space for innovation, where technology and design can help redefine how we use and reuse this vital element.

Carlo Ratti Associati and Höweler + Yoon Launch Floating Plaza "AquaPraça" in Venice on Its Way to COP30

Reyyan Dogan — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 06:30:00 +0000

CRA–Carlo Ratti Associati and Höweler + Yoon designed AquaPraça, a floating gathering space for global climate dialogue set to anchor COP30 in Belém, Brazil, making its debut at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia on 5 September 2025. It will then embark on a transatlantic journey to Brazil, where it will form part of the Italian Pavilion at COP30, held from November 10 to 21, 2025. Following the event, it is intended to become a permanent floating landmark in the Amazon as part of Belém's cultural infrastructure.

Snøhetta Unveils Jesselton Docklands Master Plan in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Reyyan Dogan — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 06:30:00 +0000

Snøhetta has unveiled plans for Jesselton Docklands, a tropical waterfront master plan in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. The development reimagines the city's former port as a civic and cultural hub, strengthening its connection to the waterfront and positioning it as a new gateway to Sabah and the wider Southeast Asian region. Situated near Kota Kinabalu International Airport, the development includes a new ferry and cruise terminal, integrating infrastructure with the island's ecological and cultural context to position the city as a key point of connection within the region.

Pylon of Permanence Showcases Water-Filled Glass at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025

Reyyan Dogan — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 06:30:00 +0000

At the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, the installation Pylon of Permanence presents Water-Filled Glass (WFG), a glazing system developed to address the environmental impact of glass in the built environment. Although glass is one of the most widely used construction materials, its embodied and operational carbon footprint surpasses that of concrete, steel, and brick. Water-Filled Glass proposes an alternative approach by transforming glass from a passive enclosure into an active energy regulator.

Longevity Through Renewal: The Enduring Wisdom of Hong Kong's Water Villages

Jonathan Yeung — Sat, 26 Jul 2025 07:30:00 +0000

While Hong Kong is widely celebrated for its iconic harbor view, glittering skyline, and fast-paced urban lifestyle, its origins tell a different story—one deeply rooted in its relationship with water. Before transforming into a dense, vertical metropolis, Hong Kong's architectural identity was closely tied to its maritime context. Today, the city is often associated with slender, glass-clad towers that symbolize modernity. While visually striking in their pursuit of height and form, many of these buildings appear disconnected from their immediate environment, often overlooking natural site conditions, ecological responsiveness, and contextual sensitivity.

'All Architecture is Water Architecture': Eva Franch i Gilabert, Mireia Luzárraga and Alejandro Muiño on Catalonia's Pavilion in Venice

Agustina Iñiguez — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 04:00:00 +0000

As part of the collateral events of the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, the Institut Ramon Llull presents the project "Water Parliaments: Projective Ecosocial Architectures", bringing together the waters of Lleida, Girona, Tarragona, Barcelona, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, and beyond to address the water crisis as an interconnected ecosocial, cultural, and political issue. Framing architecture as a tool for critical speculation and collective action, the project advocates for the imagining of future scenarios grounded in coexistence—interweaving the human and non-human, the natural and artificial, the technological and vernacular, the global and the local.