Architecture of Water: Disappearing Fixtures in Contemporary Wellness

 | In Collaboration

What if the most advanced elements in a bathroom were the ones you could barely see? In spaces where walls, ceilings, and floors form uninterrupted surfaces, fixtures retreat, and water itself becomes the primary material shaping experience. The careful placement of fixtures in bathrooms, such as sinks, taps, showerheads, and shower drains, each asserting their presence as both an object and a function. But what happens when these elements begin to disappear?

Instead of adding mounted elements to a bathroom's design, some approaches work through subtraction. The bathroom is no longer composed of visible objects, but understood as a continuous surface. Fixtures recede into walls and ceilings, allowing water, light, and atmosphere to take precedence. What takes shape is a form of minimalism and something more: an architecture that absorbs its technical systems entirely, allowing fixtures to disappear, leaving only their effects. The experience itself becomes the protagonist, no longer mediated by visible objects, but shaped directly through water, light, and space.

Milan Design Week 2026: Must-See Installations, Exhibitions, and Events

From April 20 to 26, Milan Design Week 2026 returns as a citywide platform where design operates as both a cultural practice and a form of exploration. Framed by the Fuorisalone theme "Be the Project," this year's edition shifts the focus from outcome to process, positioning design as a dynamic, human-centered act shaped by intuition, responsibility, and transformation. Installations and exhibitions across the city foreground making as an open-ended condition, one that embraces error, temporality, and experimentation as integral to creative production. Within this context, design becomes a space of exchange between disciplines, materials, and intelligences, reflecting broader conversations around sustainability, emerging technologies, and the evolving relationship between the physical and the digital.

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Sayuwon Park Visiting Center Gate / liveraniandrea

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  • Architects: liveraniandrea
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  140
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2025

Coachella 2026 Immersive Installations Explore Monumentality and Light Transparency in the California Desert

The 25th edition of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival returns to the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, from April 10 to 12 and April 17 to 19, 2026, bringing together more than 130 acts alongside an ambitious program of large-scale art installations. Presented by Public Art Company (PAC) and curated by founder Raffi Lehrer in collaboration with Goldenvoice Art Director Paul Clemente, this year's selection explores monumentality through luminance, transparency, and lightness of form. Set within Coachella's desert oasis, the installations invite visitors to engage physically and sensorially, responding to shifting daylight and the evolving atmosphere from sunrise to nightfall.

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Mapping the Technosphere: Architecture as an Interface Between Systems and Territories

Architecture can no longer be conceived as an isolated object, detached from the technical networks that sustain contemporary life — a condition that calls for new readings and approaches. It is within this context that, in March, ArchDaily’s monthly theme focused on The Technosphere, a topic both broad and inherently complex. Drawing on the concept of the technosphere, coined by geoscientist Peter Haff to describe the totality of human-made artifacts, a landscape emerges in which contemporary life is deeply intertwined with machines, data, and energy networks.

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Cunha House / Roberto Brotero Arquitetura

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Lee House / Candalepas Associates

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Watsons Bay, Australia

Hongling Middle School Shixia Campus / Tumushi Architects

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Elmali House / PIN Architects

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Elmalı, Türkiye
  • Architects: PIN Architects
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  354
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2024

Renovation of the Mountain House AC. / DARP - De Arquitectura y Paisaje

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Polène Flagship Store / NORM Architects

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Milan, Italy

Ten Social Housing Units in Santa Margalida, Mallorca / Javier Gavín + Siddartha Rodrigo + Juan Moreno + DATAAE

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Santa Margalida, Spain

Renovation Design of Yongping Warehouses / Atelier cnS

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  • Architects: Atelier cnS
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  4311
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2025

How Spanish Ceramics Bridge Culture, Memory and Identity at Milan Design Week 2026

 | In Collaboration

How does an architectural installation express the identity of a region? How can a building material connect with the essence of a nation? Throughout its history, Spain has been shaped by a wide range of cultures and civilizations, including Muslim, Phoenician, Roman, Greek, Carthaginian, and Visigothic influences. From flamenco to ceramic tiles adorning façades and historic monuments, each region of Spain embraces its own customs and traditions, reflected in its architecture, history, art, and design. During Milan Design Week 2026, Tile of Spain presents Spanish Design as a Souvenir at the Fuorisalone—an installation that transforms ceramic tile into a narrative medium through a series of sculptural objects reinterpreting everyday icons of Spanish life.

Getty Center to Close Temporarily for Its Largest Modernization Since 1997 Opening

The Getty Center has announced a comprehensive modernization program marking its most significant transformation since its opening in 1997. Located within the Santa Monica Mountains and overlooking Los Angeles, the campus will temporarily close to the public from March 15, 2027, through spring 2028 to accommodate the planned works. The initiative focuses on enhancing visitor experience, improving accessibility, and advancing energy resilience, while supporting the long-term stewardship of the institution. Before the closure begins, the Getty Center will continue its program of exhibitions and events through early 2027.

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Writing Cabin / Olin Petzold

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  • Architects: Olin Petzold
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  12
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2024

"Artisans of the Reiwa Era" Documentary Showcases Traditional Japanese Wood Construction and Craftsmanship

Rinshunkaku is a notable example of early Edo-period residential architecture. Originally built in the Wakayama Prefecture by the Kishu Tokugawa family, the villa was relocated to Sankeien, a traditional Japanese garden in the city of Yokohama, during the Taisho era (1912-1926). The garden was created in the early 20th century by businessman and art patron Sankei Hara and features a number of historic buildings relocated from Kyoto, Kamakura, and other areas of Japan. Rinshunkaku, one of the garden's gems, is a prime example of traditional Japanese architecture and wood construction. Its historical value motivated a large-scale restoration project in 2019, documented in the film Artisans of the Reiwa Era (Reiwa no Shokunin-tachi), filmed and edited by Katsumasa Tanaka and Hiroshi Fujiki. The documentary offers a close, detailed view of Japanese craftsmanship and wood expertise, highlighting rare traditional techniques and paying tribute to the artisans who preserve them.

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Capsule Retreat: Building Through Process in Lebanon’s Mountain Landscape

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Set within the mountainous landscape of Zabbougha, Lebanon, Capsule Retreat by EAST Architecture Studio is shaped through the process of its making. The project unfolds through material decisions, on-site adjustments, and evolving conditions, allowing construction itself to guide its spatial logic.

The construction process played a central role in defining the project. Built during a period marked by economic collapse, material shortages, and ongoing disruption in Lebanon, the house developed through continuous adaptation. With no general contractor, the architects took on an expanded role, coordinating craftsmen, testing ideas directly on site, and responding to changing constraints. In this context, sociopolitical conditions became not only a challenge but a catalyst for rethinking design. "We were constantly testing ideas on site", say the architects and founders of EAST Architecture Studio, Charles Kettaneh and Nicolas Fayad, "tailoring these decisions economically while exploring what local craft could offer."

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