For architects and specifiers, selecting the right cladding system is both a technical and creative act, connecting material science with architectural intent. More than simple visual envelopes, façades today are high-performance systems that balance protection, insulation, and expression. As the first barrier between exterior and interior, the right cladding system can define how a building behaves and ages over time, affecting its thermal comfort, acoustic performance, fire safety, and overall durability.
Among the most commonly used façade materials are wood, metal sheets, composites, and aluminum systems. Within this range, single-skin metal panels and extruded aluminum panels are particularly notable for their blend of strength, precision, and architectural appeal. While both benefit from aluminum's inherent lightness and corrosion resistance, they differ significantly in structural logic, performance characteristics, and ideal applications. Companies such as Parallel Architectural Products—specialized in extruded aluminum cladding systems and architectural finishes—have played an important role in advancing these technologies, combining precision engineering, aesthetic flexibility, and local manufacturing.
The VELUX Group is launching the next step in its Action Leadership agenda as an experiment to explore how existing buildings can better serve both people and planet. The experiment builds on decades of demonstration projects and research into healthy buildings, including Living Places, which achieved an ultra-low carbon footprint and first-class indoor climate in an affordable and accessible way. The next step shifts focus towards existing buildings, from new build to renovation—named Re:Living.
Re:Living is a forward-thinking experiment to reimagine renovation to be more than a technical upgrade, and instead as a holistic opportunity to improve human well-being, support biodiversity, and reduce environmental impact. It's part of VELUX's long-term commitment to lead the building industry toward healthier, more sustainable practices, driven by a belief that simply reducing harm is no longer enough.
Museum Erhardt by Kéré Architecture. Exterior garden view. Render . Image Courtesy of Kéré Architecture
Construction has officially begun on the Museum Ehrhardt in Plüschow, northeast Germany, marking the first cultural project in Germany by Francis Kéré and his firm Kéré Architecture, as well as their first museum building in Europe. Developed in cooperation with HK Architekten and Hermann Kaufmann + Partner ZT GmbH, the 1,400-square-meter museum will be dedicated to photography and contemporary art. The initiative was launched by Dr. Jens Ehrhardt, son of the artist Alfred Ehrhardt (1901–1984), together with his wife Elke Weicht-Ehrhardt, to honor the painter, photographer, and filmmaker who was a leading figure of Germany's New Objectivity movement. The museum will stand near the Baltic Sea, adjacent to Schloss Plüschow, an artist residency and gallery.
Agustina Iñiguez's journey into architecture was rooted in a deep appreciation for art, drawing, and craftsmanship, interests that naturally evolved into a formal architectural education beginning at age 18. Based in Buenos Aires, Agustina balances her professional architectural practice with an active role in academia, serving as a teaching assistant at the University of Buenos Aires and as an assistant professor at Torcuato Di Tella University. Since joining ArchDaily's Editorial Team in 2021, she has brought a thoughtful and interdisciplinary approach to curating content that bridges theory, practice, and social engagement.
When Hudson Yards opened in Manhattan in 2019, it promised a new urban neighborhood built from scratch. 16 towers with 4,000 residential units were erected in hopes of creating a strong community. Despite its lavish amenities and lofty public plazas, a peculiar emptiness persisted. The development felt anonymous, speaking to a fundamental truth about human social capacity.
2025 marks the 60th anniversary of Singapore's independence, commemorating its separation from Malaysia on August 9, 1965. The occasion is celebrated in the country's national pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale with a multisensory installation that honors Singapore's diversity and reimagines city-making through food, culture, and collective design. Titled RASA–TABULA–SINGAPURA, the installation invites visitors to take a seat at the Table of Superdiversity: an enticing reimagining of city-making and nation-building through the universal act of dining. According to the curatorial team from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), the purpose of the installation is to showcase how the convergence of multicultural differences, collective histories, design, and new technology creates opportunities for more inclusive and adaptive urban futures.
Office in Sanno / Studio Velocity. Image Courtesy of Studio Velocity
Historically, architecture and the built environment have insisted on creating flat, hard surfaces. In earlier eras, walking without paved ground meant mud-caked shoes, uneven footing, tripping hazards, standing water after rain, and high maintenance. Hence, as we shaped cities, we prioritized a smooth, continuous, solid horizontal datum. The benefits are real: easier walking, simpler cleaning, and straightforward programming—furniture, equipment, and partitions all prefer a level base. This universal preference for building on flat ground remains the norm and, for many practical reasons, will likely continue to be.
What's less recognized is that making a truly flat surface is surprisingly difficult—and many well-executed "flat" floors aren't perfectly flat at all. They are often gently sloped, calibrated to precise gradients for drainage. While interior spaces do not always require this, many ground floors and wet areas do incorporate subtle inclines as a safeguard—whether for minor flooding or to manage water that overflows from the street or plumbing when one of the discharge systems is malfunctioning.
SCI-Arc alumni continue to make an indelible mark on the global design landscape, pioneering new approaches in architecture, technology, and interdisciplinary practices. With a reputation for fostering radical experimentation, the school has produced graduates whose work challenges conventions and redefines spatial possibilities. Recent alumni achievements underscore SCI-Arc's role in shaping the next generation of architects and creative thinkers.
The cultural center is an architectural typology that has fascinated architects and urban planners for decades. Whether due to its multifaceted program, its often emblematic scale, or its potential to transform the urban context in which it is inserted, it is a building type that carries strong symbolic and conceptual value. The wide circulation of international references—many designed by renowned architects—reinforces the aura of prestige associated with this program, frequently seen as a privileged ground for formal and conceptual experimentation. Not by chance, cultural center designs are among the most recurring themes in competitions, exhibitions, and academic studios.
Yet behind this contemporary fascination lies a complex history in which the notion of space dedicated to culture has been redefined over time, gradually taking the form we recognize today. This ongoing evolution invites us to reflect not only on the historical path of these spaces but also on the possibilities that will shape their future.
Domestic workers in Hong Kong and Singapore are the city's quiet infrastructure. In Hong Kong alone, there are a total of roughly 300,000 domestic workers, serving a portion of the approximate 2.7 million households. Their care labor sustains dual-income family routines: childcare, eldercare, cooking, cleaning, and the everyday logistics that make professional life possible. Yet the people who hold this balance together remain largely invisible in policy—and, crucially, in space.
On Sundays in Hong Kong's financial district, that invisibility becomes visible. Elevated walkways and podium forecourts—underused on weekends—turn into ad-hoc commons. With cardboard mats, small tents, towels, food and water, and a music speaker or two, domestic workers assemble places to sit, rest, and socialize. These improvised rooms in the city are often their only chance to exercise spatial agency—something they rarely have in the homes they maintain or in formal public infrastructure. In the absence of sanctioned, serviced places for rest, quieter bridges and passages become practical stand-ins.
Shenzhen is China's first Special Economic Zone（SEZ), serving as a window for China's Reform and Opening-up and an emerging immigrant city. It has evolved into an influential, modern, and international metropolis, creating the world-renowned "Shenzhen Speed" and earning the reputation of the "City of Design." Architectural design stands as the most intuitive expression of Shenzhen's spirit of integration and innovation. Over the past decade (2015-2025), the development of urban architecture in Shenzhen has closely integrated with its open and inclusive urban character, ecological advantages of being nestled between mountains and the sea, and the local spirit of blending traditional culture with innovative technology, showcasing Shenzhen's unique charm and robust vitality across multiple dimensions.
The Tallinn Architecture Biennale (TAB) has been organized by the Estonian Centre for Architecture (ECA) since 2011. Since its founding, it has become Estonia's leading international festival dedicated to architecture and the built environment. The ECA recently announced that the upcoming edition will be curated by Stuudio TÄNA and Mark Aleksander Fischer, winners of the Curatorial Competition for the 8th International Tallinn Architecture Biennale (TAB 2026). Their winning proposal, titled "How Much?", poses the question of what affordability truly means in architecture today. The event, which in previous editions has included exhibitions, lectures, seminars, tours, satellite events, and installations across Tallinn, seeks to open a space for reflection on how architecture and design can be genuinely cost-effective, addressing the broader implications of cost and consumption. TAB 2026 will take place in the Estonian capital from 9 September to 30 November 2026.
As cities continue to expand upward, the office tower remains one of the most visible symbols of architectural ambition and urban evolution. No longer defined solely by efficiency or corporate image, contemporary workplace architecture is being reimagined as a hybrid ecosystem, one that balances density with daylight, productivity with well-being, and technology with material and spatial integrity. The following unbuilt projects, submitted by the ArchDaily community, reveal how architects across continents are rethinking the typology of the tower, turning verticality into an opportunity for connection, adaptability, and sustainability.
From India's Shivalik Curv and Embassy Zenith, where form and movement are combined to redefine skyline identity, to Dungen in Sweden, a low-rise timber office that mirrors the calm of a forest grove, each project explores how workplaces can become more flexible, humane, and environmentally conscious. In Kyiv, APEX Business Center positions itself as a catalyst for urban vitality, while Jakarta's BNI Tower PIK 2 transforms the corporate tower into a crystalline symbol of growth. In Munich and Ankara, mixed-use concepts like Highrise Hufelandmark and Rhythm Ankara explore the office as part of a broader civic landscape, where work, leisure, and public life intersect.
When architects are still students, a moment often marks a turning point: their first encounter with software. It's not just about learning a tool but discovering a space where ideas transcend physical models, taking shape in a digital environment and beginning a relationship many will carry throughout their careers. What happens next? Software keeps evolving, and with it, the design experience. In recent years, this evolution has accelerated—machine learning, AI, prompts, and integrated workflows have moved from the periphery to the core of design practice, becoming part of the shared language between software and users. As these tools take hold, a key question emerges: How will this reshape our experience of designing architecture in the future?
Architecture has never been confined to the act of building. It constantly negotiates between material practice and intellectual reflection, yet throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, many architects felt that the built project alone was insufficient to address the full range of questions facing the discipline. Economic pressures, political contexts, and programmatic demands often narrowed the scope of practice.
Exhibitions and curatorial platforms, by contrast, created spaces of experimentation and critique, opening arenas where architecture could interrogate itself, where its past could be reinterpreted, its present challenged, and its future projected. In this tension, the figure of the architect-curator emerged, treating curating itself as a form of design — not of walls or facades, but of discourse, narratives, and frameworks of meaning.
Rapid urbanization, driven by population growth, is among the powerful megatrends transforming how cities are built. The world is adding a city the size of Madrid every single week — and will do so for decades to come. To meet this demand sustainably, a collaborative, systems-thinking approach to construction is needed.
This week's architectural developments highlighted how design operates as a form of social and culturalinfrastructure, linking care, community, and context across scales. From London's reinterpretation of the almshouse model to the transformation of urban gateways in Phnom Penh and Tirana, architecture reflected a shared interest in spaces that foster connection and adaptability. Parallel to these urban and infrastructural works, new cultural projects in Paris and Hanoi explored how museums and performance spaces can renew public institutions through material experimentation and spatial flexibility.
Architects and designers around the world are pushing the boundaries of modern design, and Corian® Solid Surface is being bent, curved, and twisted to help them realize their boldest visions.
In hospitality spaces, for example, every surface has the potential to shape a guest's experience from the first invitational moment. Visionary designers are using their talents to convey the story of a place, the emotion of an aesthetic, and the essence of a brand. With the right material, we can profoundly influence how a space feels and functions for guests, using everything from sleek, welcoming reception counters to soothing spa-like shower escapes to soaring backlit sculptural panels as our canvas.
