As cities around the world brace for extreme temperatures and waves of unrelenting heat, urban greening is one of the best solutions for leaders to combat this reality. The benefits of planting trees for physical health, mental well-being, and thermal relief are well documented, and a mature canopy can transform a space by several degrees on a hot day. Trees cool the air through evapotranspiration, filter pollutants and absorb stormwater, and enhance biodiversity in urban spaces.
ArchDaily China is 11 years old this year. The design based on Chinese culture and site has become an important part of the global architectural design exchange, and has become a highly topical part of the global architectural and design development wave. ArchDaily China brings global architecture and design consulting and information to Chinese readers. Moreover, it showcases Chinese architecture and design to the world. We stick to our original intention and become an open platform that benefits the public, making the architecture and design industry more inclusive and equal.
This year, we once again extend an invitation to Chinese readers, hoping that everyone can participate in the selection of the 2026 China Annual Architecture Award. Through an unbiased and non-geographical voting method, everyone is a member of the jury, selecting the most representative Chinese architecture and design projects for everyone.In the next three weeks, the whole process of the selection will be divided into two stages: In the first stage, you will vote on 455 projects released in the past year, and the top 15 with the highest nominations will enter the second stage finalist list; In the second stage, the 15 outstanding projects will be voted again to determine the best champion, runner-up and third place of the year.
The 2026 Building of the Year Awards China is brought to you thanks to Dornbracht, renowned for leading designs for architecture, which can be found internationally in bathrooms and kitchens.
Featured Interviewee: Zhu Ping, Founder of DUStudio
Design Union Studio (DUStudio)’s approach lies in integrating resources across the entire design supply chain. Rather than merely delivering design expertise, the firm helps clients coordinate other disciplines to ensure that top-tier teams are engaged at every stage to realize the project's core concept—essentially designing with a client-side mindset. Fusing spatial design, commercial curation, and multimedia installations creates a closed-loop process. By connecting and seamlessly integrating every phase of design, they deliver the most successful projects.
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China's unique social development has provided a distinctive breeding ground for contemporary Chinese architecture. As one of the country's primary design hubs, Shanghai can be seen as an ideal entry point to understanding this landscape. Shanghai-based architect Liu Yuyang, who was born in Taiwan and raised in the United States, has forged a unique architectural trajectory shaped by his rich life experiences and multicultural background. Through an extensive portfolio of built work, he has established a distinct voice within the broader professional landscape. In the following excerpt from an interview with author Zhang Yifan (YF), Liu discusses his design approach, the origins of his philosophy, and his professional ethos.
The conversion of disused religious temples through cultural programs constitutes one of the most compelling adaptive reuse strategies in contemporary urban planning. This functional compatibility seems to be rooted in the specific characteristics of churches: their central naves offer large-scale, clear floor plans and monumental cross-sections that easily accommodate the volumetric requirements of museums, theaters, or community hubs. Furthermore, the acoustic properties inherent to their vaulted ceilings, combined with intentional natural lighting filtered through stained glass windows or domes, create the spatial conditions for activities ranging from the performing arts to the exhibition of cultural artifacts. By assuming a public and cultural role, these buildings not only avoid demolition or physical abandonment but also preserve their status as urban and identity landmarks within the city fabric, revitalizing their immediate surroundings without altering their historical significance.
Before the digital turn, architecture's memory was largely tangible. It lived in the weight of drawings, the patina of models, and the thickness of books. To preserve architecture meant to preserve its traces, the documents, sketches, and photographs through which buildings could be remembered long after their material form had changed or disappeared. The modern architectural archive, as it developed in the 20th century, was both a refuge and a device of legitimacy. Institutions such as the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Casa da Arquitectura, or the Deutsches Architekturmuseum were built upon the conviction that to preserve architecture was to preserve its documents.
However, these archives didn't merely store knowledge. They determined what counted as architecture, who belonged to its canon, and how history would be told. To archive is to edit the past — to decide what enters, what is omitted, and how it will be interpreted. The archive, as theorised by Michel Foucault and later by Jacques Derrida, is never neutral; it is an instrument of power, a space that selects and excludes. In architecture, these dynamics are especially evident as they record the visible while silencing what falls outside their categories. The act of collecting has always been, implicitly, an act of judgment.
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 contemporary bookstore is a paradoxical space. It is commercial, but rarely commercialized; public, but often privately owned; small in scale, but expansive in impact. As adjacent architectural typologies evolve under the pressures of digital consumption, economic precarity, and changing social habits, the bookstore has not dimensioned, but adapted to the twenty first century. It is not a site for private or institutional literary exchange, but a spatial hybrid that accommodates ritual, rest, performance, and socialization.
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