This guide covers a workflow that moves from project parameters to generated floor plans, 3D perspective views, exterior design exploration, and site context visualization, using AI tools in place of preliminary CAD and rendering work.

Chinese architect Sui Yanfei has won the 4th Kazuhiro Kojima Award in 2025, becoming the first recipient from outside Japan since the award's inception. The jury presented this honor to Sui in recognition of his deep insight into Chinese social realities alongside his continuous exploration of new, future-oriented possibilities for architecture. His work focuses on extending Eastern thought within a post-human context and excels at reinterpreting historically accumulated social structures. Grounding his practice in social, economic, and institutional realities, he transforms architecture within complex networks of relationships into a medium that connects people, objects, and time. The diverse practice of his studio is both deeply rooted in reality and brings a new poetry to contemporary life.

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The Arquiteturas Film Festival has opened submissions for its 13th edition, which will take pace from July 1 to 5, 2026, in Porto, Portugal. Organized by INSTITUTO and directed by architect Paulo Moreira, the festival was founded in 2013 and has established itself as an international platform dedicated to discussing and disseminating architecture in dialogue with cinema, visual and spatial arts, critical thought, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Under the theme "Urban Age," the 2026 edition invites filmmakers, architects, and artists to reflect on the urban era we inhabit and the ways in which cities and territories are shaped by contemporary social, political, and environmental challenges. The festival proposes a reflection on the lived experience of urbanization—from the material forms of architecture to the social and cultural dynamics that define contemporary cities.

An architectural award serves as a legitimizing mechanism, indicating which approaches, materials, and strategies are beginning to take center stage in the discipline's discourse. By bringing together projects with different programs, scales, and constraints, these initiatives bring to light emerging priorities and directions in the field. Within this context, the Shaw Contract Design Awards have established themselves as a global recognition platform for interior design and a barometer of the transformations reshaping the discipline, prompting reflection on the role of design in building more responsible, inclusive, and sustainable environments.

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Taking a deeper look at the interplay of light and shadow in architecture seems to be a recurring topic on the agenda of many professionals in the field. Spaces of light and darkness are conceived to enhance circulation and spatial directionality, as well as to highlight the colors, textures, and forms of specific architectural elements. That said, the impact of natural light on building facades reveals the need to develop strategies that support energy savings, improve the thermal and visual comfort of interior spaces, and promote the reduction of carbon emissions. Considering light as another material in architecture, in what ways could its power contribute to the architectural experience?

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At the helm of architectural discourse on sacred architecture, attention almost always settles on the monument. Temples, mosques, monasteries, and churches dominate architectural histories, design criticism, and photography alike, becoming the physical symbols through which faith is understood. For millions of pilgrims across India, the most consequential architectural experience begins long before the shrine comes into view. It unfolds across mountain roads, river ghats, shaded streets, temporary camps, queue systems, bridges, water kiosks, medical stations, and countless ordinary pieces of infrastructure through which pilgrimage actually takes place. The architectural work of pilgrimage may lie less in the shrine itself than in the environments that allow millions of people to reach it.

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Buildner has announced the results of its Re-Form: New Life for Old Spaces, second edition, an international ideas competition examining the adaptive reuse of small-scale existing buildings. The competition invited architects and designers to propose transformations of used, abandoned, or overlooked structures with an approximate footprint of 250 square meters, located anywhere in the world. With no fixed site or program, participants were encouraged to explore alternatives to demolition and new construction through reuse strategies grounded in contemporary social and environmental concerns.

MVRDV and Balance Architettura have unveiled their proposal for the renovation of the Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art (GAM) in Turin, Italy, following their selection through a public competition in December 2025. The project seeks to restore the spatial qualities of the museum's 1959 building while introducing new exhibition strategies, publicly accessible storage, and flexible display systems designed to accommodate evolving curatorial needs. Conceived as both an architectural restoration and an institutional transformation, the proposal aims to reconnect the museum with the surrounding city while adapting it to contemporary approaches to exhibition-making and public engagement. The project is supported by Fondazione Torino Musei and funded by Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, and the construction is expected to begin during the second half of 2027.

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Dar al Funoon Abu Dhabi, the new performing arts institution designed by the late architect Frank Gehry, is among his final works. Translating to "House of the Arts," the landmark building, commissioned by Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism, was designed as a global hub for the performing arts and is expected to open in 2030. The project adds to Gehry's work in the emirate, which also includes the upcoming Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and follows the city's designation as a UNESCO Creative City of Music in 2021.

Almost certainly, everyone has their own ritual when entering a pool. There are those who dive in without hesitation, those who start with their toes, those who swim for sport, and those who submerge themselves for pure pleasure. Private or shared, intense or contemplative, every experience with water takes place within an environment carefully constructed to receive it.

Architecture and water are of opposing natures. While one delimits and contains, the other insists on spreading, and it is from this tension between solid and liquid that aquatic centers emerge. In these buildings, the presence of water transforms everything around it. Light fragments into shimmering reflections, sound acquires a distinct reverberation, and temperature and humidity define the atmosphere of the spaces, while materials and structural systems are constantly put to the test. Yet their uniqueness is not merely technical.

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On December 20, 2019, the opening press conference for the eighth **Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (Shenzhen)** (hereinafter "UABB") was held at the **Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning (MOCAPE)**, marking the official launch of this year's biennale.

Under the theme of "**Urban Interactions**," this year's UABB is chief-curated by architect and director of the MIT Senseable City Lab **Carlo Ratti**, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering **Meng Jianmin**, and renowned curator and art critic **Fabio Cavallucci**. The South China-Turin Joint Lab (Politecnico di Torino and South China University of Technology) serves as the academic curator. The exhibition **opens on December 21, 2019, at the main venues—the Shenzhen Futian High-Speed Railway Station and the Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning—and will officially open to the public on December 22**. In addition, **nine sub-venues** across various districts of Shenzhen will interface with the main venues, establishing an organic network of interaction throughout the city.

The exhibition comprises two main sections, "**Eyes of the City**" and "**Ascending City**," each exploring the evolving relationship between urban space and technological innovation from distinct perspectives. **The main venues showcase over 140 works, bringing together more than 280 exhibitors from 24 countries and regions**. These include renowned international and domestic architects, artists, and institutions such as MVRDV, Liam Young, Stefano Boeri, Sou Fujimoto, Thomas Heatherwick, Ryoji Ikeda, Wang Shu, Yung Ho Chang, Dominique Perrault, Philip F. Yuan, Liu Cixin, and Academicians Cui Kai and Wang Jianguo.

"The history of architecture is incomplete. Not wrong, but incomplete," said Lesley Lokko when announcing The Laboratory of the Future, the theme of the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale. Echoing the curator's statement, a new study published by Studio Autonoma, led by Paulo Tavares, reveals deep disparities in representation within the Brazilian pavilion at the world's largest architecture event.

Titled Historical Census of the Brazilian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale (1980-2021), the study reveals a significant discrepancy in the profile of curators and participants over these three decades, with a predominance of white men from Brazil's Southeast region, particularly from São Paulo.

What has architecture done for democracy in Portugal—and what has the democratic era done for Portuguese architecture? These are the questions guiding the exhibition O que faz falta. 50 anos de arquitetura portuguesa em democracia [What is Needed: 50 Years of Portuguese Architecture in Democracy], organized by Casa da Arquitectura, which celebrates the fifty years since the 1974 Carnation Revolution.

Curated by Jorge Figueira with co-curator Ana Neiva, the exhibition highlights the intimate relationship between architecture and the democratic regime in Portugal, exploring how Portuguese architects contributed to democratic consolidation by transforming the country's public and private spaces over five decades.

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The history of building materials is a journey of innovation and adaptation to environmental demands. In their most rudimentary forms, for example, the earliest adhesives were made from natural sources, such as mixtures of tree resins, lime, and water. Later, cultures like the Egyptians refined these methods, using starch and casein (a milk protein) to bond elements in their structures. This evolution reached a milestone during the Industrial Revolution, when industrialization and the introduction of synthetic compounds laid the groundwork for the advanced products we know today. The production methods of these materials have transformed construction, optimizing processes and driving significant progress toward sustainability.

"Perhaps in other times knowledge was a secret, which held back progress. As knowledge is made public, knowledge advances." - Juan Baixas

This micro-documentary by HOLDER is the result of an initiative dedicated to bringing visibility to contemporary Latin American design through its histories and creations. In this first episode, Juan Baixas offers a first-person account of the creation and development of his Puzzle Chair, a piece that was added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York in 2015, highlighting its significance in modern design.

When the Minergie sustainable building standard was established in Switzerland 25 years ago to reduce energy consumption and improve indoor comfort, it was hard to foresee that it would become one of the country's most sought-after certifications. Today, it boasts a significant footprint with over 50,000 certified buildings. It was equally difficult to imagine its future in present-day Latin America: how could a system developed for the specific demands of one nation respond to the needs of another region with such diverse geography and culture?

What role do glass surfaces play in connecting contemporary architecture, nature, and the experience of those who inhabit interior spaces? The evolution of the glass envelope has accompanied the development of contemporary architecture, with the transmission of natural light serving as one of its defining qualities. Furthermore, the material's versatility and transparent character blur the boundaries between indoors and outdoors, while evoking a range of sensory and psychological experiences, among other virtues. In its constant search for innovation, Glasstech offers a wide range of glass solutions, providing end-to-end support from initial project design to final installation. To illustrate these diverse applications, we examine Casa Bosque in Chile as a prime example of architecture in harmony with its natural surroundings.

Offering a balance between aesthetics and comfort, designing wooden decks for outdoor spaces such as patios, terraces, walkways, balconies, gardens, or swimming pools represents an excellent alternative for creating outdoor areas for relaxation, entertainment, and recreation. When paired with swimming pools, fountains, or water features, decking in various dimensions, colors, and finishes combines the warmth of wood with the clarity of water, provided it is treated and maintained to maximize durability and optimize long-term performance. Indeed, Leaf Panel's Forta Deck offers a renewable, recyclable, and high-quality solution for outdoor flooring, highlighting the importance of reducing the carbon footprint of building products and leveraging the properties of acetylated wood to improve outdoor performance.

Nicolás Valencia speaks with Venezuelan architect Betina Rincón, research coordinator at ⁠re:arc institute⁠, about the work of the Danish philanthropic organization in supporting and funding community-led solutions to address the climate crisis worldwide.

This week on the TERRAZA podcast, Nicolás Valencia talks with Chilean designer Karla Silva about the book ⁠Viña del Mar Moderna⁠, published in 2022.

The Fundação Bienal de São Paulo has announced the curatorial team for the Brazilian Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, scheduled to open on May 10, 2025. The task will be led by the group Plano Coletivo, composed of architect Luciana Saboia and architects Eder Alencar and Matheus Seco. The selection of the group reflects the Foundation's commitment to highlighting architectural practices that foster positive social and environmental impact.

Plano Coletivo is recognized for its collaborative and multidisciplinary approach, integrating architecture, urbanism, and design with a focus on sustainable and inclusive solutions. The team has carried out significant projects across various regions of Brazil, always seeking to engage local communities in the design and implementation process.

A cada ano, a equipe de Curadoria de Projetos do ArchDaily rememora a vasta gama de obras publicadas ao longo desse período, apresentando retrospectivas que permitem não apenas identificar tendências e variações na produção arquitetônica, mas também reconhecer de que forma impactam a nossa audiência. No ArchDaily Brasil, a seleção anual de melhores casas – que ano após ano, segue permanecendo como nossa categoria de projeto mais popular – representa uma amostra das variadas soluções, estratégias, técnicas e materiais encontrados na arquitetura residencial dos países de língua portuguesa.

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The Architects Association of Chile and the Ministry of Cultures announced the results of the competition for the XXIII Chilean Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism. The winning proposal, "Double Exposure: reprogram, revitalize, rebuild", by Sebastián López, Ángela Carvajal, and Óscar Aceves, addresses interventions in disused heritage spaces, merging old and new works. In addition, awards were presented to "Urban Amusements" and "Weaving Territories". The event reflects on historical architecture and its revitalization.

The curatorial team for the XXIII Chilean Biennial of Architecture comprises Sebastián López Jeldes, Ángela Carvajal Fernández, and Óscar Aceves Álvarez, and the jury is composed of Fernando Pérez Oyarzún, Amarí Peliowski, Cristián Izquierdo, Macarena Cortés, Pablo Rojas, Beatriz Buccicardi, Fernando Miranda, Martín Urrutia, and Vicente Burgos.

Seeking to reflect on the contemporary city invariably runs up against the limitations imposed by the methods of the Modern Movement. Classical sciences and their deterministic methods, which guided—and still guide—the urban planning of this era, describe world phenomena through strict causal relationships and, consequently, define them by reductive universal laws that exclude contradictions and uncertainties. The frequent result of these perspectives is an idealized, mechanistic world that denies the complex, actual nature of phenomena such as cities.

The Council for Architecture and Urbanism of Amazonas (CAU/AM) announced the winners of the ATHIS Ideas Competition - Arquiteto e Urbanista Zezéu Ribeiro Award, which sought to promote technical assistance projects for social housing (ATHIS). The initiative's main goal is to address the housing challenges of vulnerable communities in the state through affordable, innovative, and socially responsible architectural solutions.

The winning projects stood out for their sensitive and contextualized approach to local needs, incorporating principles of sustainability, community participation, and the efficient use of resources. Focusing on housing improvements, land tenure regularization, and the upgrading of urban spaces, the proposals align with the objectives of the ATHIS program, established by Federal Law 11,888/2008, which guarantees free technical assistance to low-income families.