Between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, traveling through Rome, Paris, Venice, Florence, and other European cities was considered an essential part of a newly graduated architect's education. At a time when access to photographs and publications was extremely limited, these trips were the primary way to experience architecture up close. In the early twentieth century, Le Corbusier reinterpreted this tradition in his own way: at 23, he embarked on the Voyage d'Orient, passing through the Balkans, Istanbul, and Athens, producing travel notebooks he would return to throughout his life.
The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) has released the 2026 edition of its annual NCARB by the Numbers report, presenting data from 2025 on architectural licensure and demographics in the United States. The latest figures show a gradual increase in diversity among those pursuing licensure, while the demographic composition of the licensed architect population remains considerably less diverse than the current candidate pool. The report also examines attrition along the path to licensure, revealing differences in who ultimately reaches professional registration.
The Ukrainian pavilion at the 20th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia is being designed by the team from CO-HATY, a local volunteer initiative restoring abandoned buildings in the country to transform them into stable homes for internally displaced people. The team is formed by METALAB and relocated members of the Ukrainian Urban Curators agency, who have been developing CO-HATY since 2022. Titled "Pool of Questions," the project poses a question the organization argues is rarely voiced in the context of survival: not simply where displaced people should live, but when they can begin to live. For Venice, the imagined installation extends the restoration and adaptive reuse work into a discourse on affordable housing, dignity and rest during an ongoing war.
Argentina's vast territory reveals multiple ways of building shaped by its geographic, climatic, and cultural diversity. When designing single-family homes in Córdoba, Mendoza, Santa Fe, and Buenos Aires, numerous young Argentine architecture firms respond to distinct material, landscape, and cultural conditions by working with the resources, construction systems, and crafts available in each area. The house becomes a means of interpreting its context, engaging with local traditions, and incorporating new approaches to architectural production.
As the setting for everyday life, the house is part of an ongoing experience, acting as a complex and subtle organism that responds not only to its inhabitants' way of life but also to the landscapes in which it is situated. After presenting different perspectives and definitions by figures such as Le Corbusier, Ernesto Rogers, and Lewis Mumford, Argentine architect Eduardo Sacriste emphasizes in his book Qué es la casa its role as a reflection of the past, sharing the present and illuminating the future.
Across the Gulf, Bedouin heritage often enters architecture first as an image. Airport terminals recall tent silhouettes, visitor centres incorporate woven screens, and pavilions reinterpret traditional textiles as decorative façades. These references have become a familiar visual language for expressing regional identity. They also risk reducing one of the world's most sophisticated vernacular building traditions to an architectural motif. Long before the Bedouin tent became a cultural symbol, it was an environmental technology: a lightweight, adaptable structure capable of creating comfort in one of the planet's most demanding climates. What contemporary infrastructure may inherit is not the tent's silhouette, but the construction intelligence woven into it.
OMA, led by Partner Jason Long, together with San Francisco-based Y.A. Studio, has completed 730 Stanyan, a mixed-use affordable housing development in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. Developed by the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC) and Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC), the project provides 160 permanently affordable homes for low-income families, formerly unhoused families, and Transitional Age Youth (TAY). Located at the intersection of Haight and Stanyan Streets, adjacent to the entrance of Golden Gate Park, the development marks OMA's first completed 100% affordable housing project in the United States.
Norman Jaffe, Krieger House , Montauk, New York, 1975. Black and white photograph, 9 x 12 in. Courtesy Norman Jaffe Archives. Photo: Bill Maris. From the 2026 grant to Wandering Eye Studios for the film "Vanishing Point: An Architect’s Journey". Image Courtesy of The Graham Foundation
Since 1956, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts has fostered the development and exchange of ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. It awards project-based grants to individuals and organizations each year, and hosts public exhibitions and lectures. In June, the foundation announced the recipients of its 2026 Grants to Individuals program, awarding 54 projects that investigate architecture through exhibitions, films, publications, and research initiatives. In a second round announced this week, the organization has allocated funding to projects run by organizations with the same objective: expanding architectural discourse through diverse materials and cultural media.
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"Architecture that holds multitudes." This is the phrase Studio NEiDA uses to introduce itself, making its position toward the world clear: to listen to and respect the plurality of existences that move through each context. More than a statement of principles, the phrase seems to function as a method. What does it mean, after all, to design spaces capable of sheltering not only people, but also memories, knowledge, and conflicts?
There is no denying that Studio NEiDA's plural approach is, in part, rooted in its own geographical position. Working between Togo and Germany, the practice operates across two seemingly distinct contexts that are nevertheless historically connected. In a recent interview, Jeanne Autran-Edorh, the French-Togolese architect and co-founder of the studio, alongside the curator and writer Fabiola Büchele, recalls the history between the two countries, noting that, as few people know, before becoming an independent republic, Togo was a German colony that later came under French rule.
The ceiling is one of the largest continuous surfaces in a space, yet why is it rarely the first architectural element people notice? Often perceived as the plane that conceals structure and building services, it quietly recedes into the background while facades, materials, structural systems, and furniture define a building's architectural identity. Yet few architectural elements influence the experience of a space as consistently as this one. The ceiling shapes how sound travels, how light is reflected, how air moves through a room, and ultimately how architecture is experienced, bringing together technical performance and architectural expression through a single continuous surface.
Danish architectural theorist Steen Eiler Rasmussen observed in his book Experiencing Architecture that ceilings shape the character of a room through rhythm, proportion, light, and atmosphere. Rather than simply enclosing space, they help organize it, defining areas and guiding movement without the need for additional walls. As buildings became larger, more open, and more dependent on integrated building services, architecture began asking more of this overlooked surface. The ceiling gradually shifted from a concealed building component into an active architectural system in which acoustics, lighting, ventilation, thermal comfort, and technical infrastructure could converge on a single plane.
In the heart of Ahmedabad's Navrangpura district in India sits the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium. More than just a cricket ground, the stadium stands as one of India's earliest experiments in modernist public architecture. Built in the decades following the country's independence, the structure has not only become an engineering landmark, but also a major public space within Ahmedabad's urban fabric. Despite the building's architectural and historical significance, as well as its deep involvement in daily community life, it has suffered significant physical degradation as a result of decades of poor maintenance and lack of funding. That fragility is precisely why it has drawn international attention. In 2020, the World Monuments Fund (WMF) placed the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium on its World Monuments Watch, a global list highlighting cultural heritage sites facing urgent preservation challenges.
Architecture in Brazil this month highlights the country's diverse approaches to cultural production, heritage, and the transformation of its built environment. From the curatorial formation of the 15th São Paulo International Architecture Biennial to the recognition of Amazonia Theaters on the UNESCO World Heritage List, recent developments bring questions of representation, preservation, and cultural identity into focus. New projects in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Rondônia meanwhile explore adaptive reuse, relationships between architecture and landscape, and new approaches to materiality and sustainability. Alongside these developments, ongoing discussions surrounding Fordlândia and the archive of Lucio Costa revisit how Brazil's architectural heritage is preserved, interpreted, and understood today.
From 25 July to 25 October 2026, Shanghai's Power Station of Art (PSA) will host the first exhibition in China dedicated to the work of Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi. Titled "The Poetics of Survival," the exhibition was curated by Renato Anelli, and the display was designed by OPEN Architecture in a 2,300 m² space of the PSA contemporary art museum in Huangpu. The objective was to design "a stage where the audience gets a glimpse of the everyday reality of Brazil in Lina's time" through a journey across the architect's work and layered persona. The exhibition is not described as a retrospective, but as an "encounter with the master's poetics of survival," a late-20th-century concept describing how creative work becomes a tool to endure trauma such as historical oppression or extreme crisis. The concept serves as a common thread linking the reality portrayed and contemporary observers of a body of work "informed by her ingenuity, versatility, and generosity."
There has never been a more celebrated moment for craftsmanship in architecture. Across magazines, awards, and international exhibitions, handmade brick, lime plaster, carved stone, woven bamboo, and rammed earth have re-emerged as symbols of environmental responsibility, cultural continuity, and architectural authenticity. Beyond these carefully documented projects lies another reality. The overwhelming majority of buildings constructed today, from apartment blocks and office towers to public housing and commercial developments, continue to rely on industrialized systems that leave little room for skilled artisans. Craft has become increasingly visible at the very moment it has become increasingly uncommon. In countries such as India, the contrast is difficult to ignore. Centuries-old building traditions continue alongside one of the world's fastest-growing construction industries. To reframe the question of why craftsmanship is returning, perhaps the intrigue is why it now appears primarily where construction budgets, timelines, and clients can afford it.
How can we transport ourselves to natural environments when we find ourselves in entirely urban contexts? The materiality of spaces is one of the factors that determines the atmosphere we inhabit. In this regard, the incorporation of natural materials in interior architecture can help introduce textures, colors, and qualities inherent to nature into our daily spaces. In this article, we explore the specific use of cork as a resource in interior design and the different ways it can transform the experience of a space. Cork is the bark of the cork oak, a tree species that, when harvested without harming the tree, can be transformed into a material suitable for multiple applications in architecture and design.
The Industrial Foundry for Marine Vessels. Image Courtesy of Naksit Wisetmora
Industrial buildings are often expected to prioritize efficiency, production, and technical performance above all else. As a result, architectural quality is frequently treated as secondary to functional requirements. Advances in material systems, however, allow industrial facilities to balance both, creating buildings that respond to climate, improve working conditions, and establish a distinctive architectural identity.
Pelli Clarke & Partners has completed the Lola Mora Cultural Center in San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina, a new cultural institution dedicated to the life and work of Argentine sculptor Lola Mora (1866-1936). Located in the country's northwestern region, the project is the firm's first cultural building in South America and the final project led by its founder, the late César Pelli. Designed as a net-zero facility, the center brings together six of Mora's monumental marble sculptures for the first time in more than a century, providing a permanent home for works that were previously displayed outdoors in Jujuy.
Louisville's Belvedere in Kentucky is a 53-year-old gathering place for concerts, festivals, and community events. The elevated concrete plaza was built on top of the city's largest parking structure and stands over a major highway overpass. Since 1973, it has functioned as a riverfront civic space for events and large gatherings, but its use as a casual public space is in evident decline. In its current state, the space lacks shade, greenery, and amenities, while the concrete deck has worn over the years. In February 2025, Heatherwick Studio unveiled the first images of its vision to transform the Belvedere, a project commissioned by the city's mayor and the Louisville Metro Government. This week, the firm released new images of the redesign as an open, green, and flexible space connected to downtown Louisville.
Getting away is a long-held fantasy and desire. In literature, film, and music, people have created imaginary journeys, possible worlds, and settings for enjoyment. It is that fantasy that fuels a specific architectural typology: the hotel. Against a backdrop of scrutiny of tourism, the climate costs of travel, and the competition and externalities associated with short-term rentals, that fantasy takes on even more striking forms. A hotel is no longer just a place to stay, but a space for enjoyment that can encompass a wide range of activities, such as entertainment, relaxation, sharing a meal, and even working. This diverse range of concepts takes on organic and impressive forms in the seven unbuilt projects compiled in this article, which range from urban hotels to beach resorts.
Craft in contemporary interiors is increasingly valuable in the way materials are joined and brought into relation with one another. As the appetite for fast, inexpensive, and profitable retrofitting grows, there is also a parallel desire for interiors that feel thoughtfully resolved: spaces where details are integrated, material assemblies are considered, textures transition with intention, and hardware is treated as part of the architectural language rather than an afterthought. In many contemporary Chinese interiors, craft operates quietly through the treatment of surfaces and structures: timber that retains its irregularity, terrazzo that records aggregate and handwork, or finishes that reveal the care of their making.
This is especially important in an era when digital images increasingly reward smoothness. Rendered interiors often appear seamless, frictionless, and complete before construction has even begun. Craft complicates this image. It introduces tolerance, texture, material resistance, and the sense that a surface has passed through human hands before becoming architecture. Imperfection is not necessarily a failure of precision. To the eye that knows how to read it, it can become evidence of process.
sauerbruch hutton and Studio Gang have been selected to renovate the German House in New York following an international competition organized by the Federal Republic of Germany. Located on United Nations Plaza in Manhattan, the building houses the Consulate General of Germany, the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations, and several affiliated cultural institutions. The project marks the first collaboration between the two practices. Berlin-based sauerbruch hutton will serve as Lead Designer, while Studio Gang will act as General Planner and Architect of Record, overseeing project delivery and implementation. The proposal focuses on adapting the existing building, with the stated goal of extending its lifespan while improving its operational and environmental performance.
Hungary's architectural landscape spent the socialist decades being redrawn from above, its cooperative farms consolidated out of family plots and its standardized housing blocks distributed across the territory in a form that would have been identical anywhere else. The sociologist Virág Molnár, whose Building the State traces the political uses of architecture in postwar Hungary and East Germany, has made the case that this reshaping of the built environment was one of the political project's primary instruments and not a byproduct of it, a mobilization that carried through socialist modernization and into the transition that followed. The British critic Owen Hatherley, whose Landscapes of Communism explores the housing estates of Budapest alongside those of Warsaw and Kyiv, describes the far end of that same inheritance, where buildings have outlasted the ideology that commissioned them and remain occupied by people with little stake in defending the reasoning behind them.
