Photographer: Sergio Grazia | ArchDaily

Hospital of the Smart Health Care City / Michel Rémon & Associés + ARCHIMATH

Hadir Al Koshta — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 04:00:00 +0000

In 2009, under the vision of His Majesty King Mohammed VI and as part of the great development projects of the UM6P Group, the Mohammed VI Green City was set in motion. From its first breath, it aspired to become more than a place: a world-class academic pole, a living ecosystem of knowledge, where learning, innovation, and an exemplary ecological lifestyle would grow side by side. Rooted in its territory yet reaching far beyond it, the city was imagined at once as local and national, intimate and ambitious.

Les Fabriques School / Brenac & Gonzalez & Associés

Hadir Al Koshta — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 06:00:00 +0000

A Climatic Refuge in Stone: BGA's School Blossoms Like a Calanque in the City - The Les Fabriques school complex, designed by BGA in the heart of Marseille's Littorale urban development zone, brings together a nursery school and an elementary school, each with its own reception areas, circulation spaces, and generously lit and ventilated classrooms. On a highly constrained plot, the agency developed a compact, vertical project, freeing the center of the site for the preschool playground, while the elementary school playgrounds and educational gardens unfold in tiers up to the rooftop. At the request of the City, a rooftop sports facility — half a basketball court, an athletics track, and a catamaran sail-like mesh — completes the program and becomes a true gathering space for the neighborhood.

Parc des Loges - Childhood and Sports Center / HEMAA Architectes

Pilar Caballero — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Founded in 2018 by Charles Hesters and Pierre Martin-Saint-Etienne, HEMAA is an architecture firm that embraces a contextual, sobriety-based approach rooted in the living world. Each project emerges from a careful reading of its surroundings, seeking a balance between nature, use, and material. In Evry-Courcouronnes (Greater Paris – France), the Parc des Loges Childhood and Sports Center fully embodies this philosophy: a gentle, landscape-based composition built from bio- and geo-sourced materials, serving a public facility that is open, generous, and sustainable.

Regional Theater of Beauvaisis / atelier AJC

Pilar Caballero — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 06:00:00 +0000

The atelier AJC - François Chochon and David Joulin have completed the regional theater of the Beauvaisis. This project, a cultural beacon, is now part of the historical continuity of post-war reconstruction, marking the city of Beauvais. The "Théâtre du Beauvaisis" was conceived as a "secular nave" reaching towards the sky. Rising from 10 to 27 meters in height, the project thus earns ipso facto the status of a major new participant in the urban dialogue. The aim is to gracefully sustain the dialogue with Beauvais's two emblematic monuments: the Saint-Étienne Church, nearby, and the Saint-Pierre Cathedral, standing a little further away.

Les Violettes School Complex and Recreation Center / HEMAA Architectes

Andreas Luco — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 07:00:00 +0000

The Parisian agency HEMAA (Charles Hesters and Pierre Martin-Saint-Etienne) completed the Les Violettes school complex in November 2024 in Mareil-Marly (France), commissioned by the city. This project includes 16 classrooms, comprising a new kindergarten, an extension of six classrooms for the elementary school, and a recreation center. Area: 2,000 m². Budget: €7.10 million. The Les Violettes school complex is a village within the village of Mareil-Marly. Located on the heights of the town, the site is bordered by numerous remarkable trees and enjoys an unobstructed view to the west of the Paris metropolitan area, with the towers of La Défense visible in the distance. The existing buildings, with varied architectures from different periods, are nestled among trees and greenery, providing a privileged setting for children. HEMAA designed a garden school that preserves and enhances the qualities of this natural environment. The building, with its material palette of wood and glass, reflects the foliage of the trees, while the spatial layout emphasizes transparency between building volumes and openness to the sky.

Casa Bendico / Gaëtan Le Penhuel Architectes

Valeria Silva — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 06:00:00 +0000

This house was designed to be soft, comfortable, welcoming, and independent as well as respectful of its environment in every sense of the term. Constructions on the Val di Noto hills must blend into the landscape, without dominating. Located in a seismically active region, threatened by fires in dry periods, this villa was the beneficiary of a meticulous materials selection process to make it safe, comfortable, and cool when temperatures reach 40°C (104°F).

Fondation Maeght Extension / Silvio d’Ascia Architecture

Pilar Caballero — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Between November 2022 and May 2024, the Fondation Maeght conducted significant building works for the first time since its opening. Respecting the original building by Josep Lluís Sert, four new rooms will be inaugurated in June 2024 for the foundation's 60th anniversary. These rooms embody a new era for the Fondation Maeght. Inspired by large American foundations, the visionary couple Marguerite and Aimé Maeght - printers and gallery owners for some of the most important artists of the 20th century - imagined the first foundation dedicated to modern and contemporary art in France. Inaugurated in 1964 by André Malraux, this place was designed by architect Josep Lluís Sert for and with the artists. Ahead of its time, Sert already took into account ecology (impluviums to collect rainwater, the orientation of the building) and dialogue in perfect harmony with the landscape and the works specially created by Georges Braque, Joan Miró, Pierre Tal Coat, Marc Chagall, Pol Bury, Diego Giacometti, or Raoul Ubac.

Yama-Tani Housing / Kengo Kuma & Associates

Hana Abdel — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 03:00:00 +0000

Yama Tani is a small wooden housing project located in the northeast of Paris. Unlike the high-rise buildings in the surrounding area, its street is made up of buildings from 2 or 3 floors up to 5. We therefore aspire to recreate a human scale like in a village and to bring nature into the building.

Maison des Services Latécoère / Brenac & Gonzalez & Associés

Hadir Al Koshta — Sun, 25 Aug 2024 11:00:00 +0000

The key idea of the project and its main variations - The Maison des Services Latécoère is simple, says Xavier Gonzalez: "It is the pavilion in the park, which brings people together, where they want to go. It's like a party pavilion. It's a place to connect.” The tea pavilion typology served as inspiration for this wood-frame design. A hymn to the plasticity of larch and spruce, this low-carbon project is frugal and low-tech. A simple application of RT2012, it has been designed like a Japanese pavilion in a garden, echoing the surrounding park. With this in mind, the choice of wood as the construction material meant that the inherent constraints of wood were taken into account from the outset, without technological subterfuge. Every structural, technical and functional element has its place, and everything is made of wood: beams, posts, floors, joists, terraces, roofing, facade, joinery and sunshades.

The Athlete's Village - Îlot Quinconces Plot 8 Sector D1 / Brenac & Gonzalez & Associés

Hadir Al Koshta — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Annette K Sports Health Well-Being Center / Seine Design

Hadir Al Koshta — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Annette K is a living space dedicated to the well-being of the body and mind. Paris was longing for a bathing lounging space that reminisced the long-lost swimming pool of Deligny or the water reveries from the impressionist era. Being near the Seine, bathing, sunbathing and thriving through the spaces and the day was the appeal of the project.

The Athlete's Village - Îlot Quinconces Plot 5 Sector D1 / Brenac & Gonzalez & Associés

Hadir Al Koshta — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 03:00:00 +0000

We have made available our expertise as builders in the field of housing and new construction techniques, through innovative typological research based on the notion of metropolitan domesticity, uses and quality of life, whether for apartments or communal areas.`. In contrast to historical references, we thought in terms of heritage, so that this new district would be a "long-term" place to live as a family within the dynamics of Greater Paris while offering athletes the opportunity to show their hospitality beforehand. Our work focused on the design of cells that could be quickly and cost-effectively converted to residential use. Our intervention focuses on three strategic buildings, plots 1, 5 and 8.

The Athlete's Village - Îlot Quinconces Plot 1 Sector D1 / Brenac & Gonzalez & Associés

Hadir Al Koshta — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 12:00:00 +0000

How can the prestige of France and the values associated with it be promoted through sport, when the French capital has already distinguished itself brilliantly as a driving force in the fight against climate change during the COP 2021 climate agreements? Every major sporting event is a witness to the passage of time, periodically revealing a snapshot of the state of the world in which we live together. This notion of cohabitation is particularly relevant today, given the urgent need for change. Our contribution to the welcoming dynamic is an opportunity for the agency to showcase French know-how, as demonstrators of a new paradigm.

Les Coteaux Fleuris School / HEMAA Architectes + Hesters Oyon

Andreas Luco — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 17:00:00 +0000

On a remarkable site whose backdrop is the hillsides of the Seine Valley, this new school is attached to the Norman village of Heudebouville (France). A landscape of the wooded countryside. From the history of the place, the school borrows materials and morphology: the wood of the half-timbered houses of the city center for the glazed frames and the framework; the slate of the bell tower and the town hall to clad and protect the facades and the roof.

How Do Double-Skin Façades Work?

Eduardo Souza — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 04:00:00 +0000

Double skin façades: Almost a self-explanatory name for façade systems consisting of two layers, usually glass, wherein air flows through the intermediate cavity. This space (which can vary from 20 cm to a few meters) acts as insulation against extreme temperatures, winds, and sound, improving the building's thermal efficiency for both high and low temperatures. Perhaps one of the most famous examples of double-skin facades is Foster+Partners' 30 St Mary Ax Building, "The Gherkin."

The airflow through the intermediate cavity can occur naturally or be mechanically driven, and the two glass layers may include sun protection devices.

Francilian House / HEMAA

Pilar Caballero — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 14:00:00 +0000

In the suburbs of Paris, the extension signed Hemaa Architectes of a detached house brings together two architectures from different periods in a site with marked topography.

Cultural Centers: 50 Examples in Plan and Section

Fabian Dejtiar — Sun, 01 Oct 2023 07:30:00 +0000

How many times have you been faced with the challenge of designing a cultural center? While this may seem like quite a feat, many architects have had to design a program that blends a community center with culture.

La Fantaisie Hotel / PETITDIDIERPRIOUX Architects

Hadir Al Koshta — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 12:00:00 +0000

Derived from the reconfiguration of an existing hotel, the building has been extensively renovated while preserving its structure.