Photographer: Ziling Wang | ArchDaily

Rethinking Architecture at the Scale of Planetary Systems

Diogo Borges Ferreira — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Architecture has traditionally been described as a discipline concerned with space, form, and material presence. Yet this understanding becomes increasingly limited when confronted with the conditions that shape contemporary construction. Buildings no longer emerge from a stable relationship between site, program, and material. Instead, they are produced within a dense web of technological systems that operate across territorial, ecological, and temporal scales. Energy networks, data infrastructures, extraction processes, and global logistics shape architecture as decisively as climate or urban context.

Unearthing the Ground: Architecture and the Politics of the Subterranean

Diogo Borges Ferreira — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 07:30:00 +0000

Beneath the visible surface of cities lies an invisible architecture. Subways, tunnels, water systems, data cables, and bunkers form a dense network that sustains urban life while remaining largely unseen. The ground beneath our feet is not a void but a complex territory that holds the infrastructures, memories, and anxieties of our age. In recent years, as land becomes scarce and climate pressures intensify, architects and urbanists have turned their gaze downward, rediscovering the subterranean as both a physical and conceptual frontier. To design underground is to engage with the unseen mechanisms that shape the world above.

Timber Tectonics: 10 Projects Rethinking Wood Construction in Contemporary China

Jonathan Yeung — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 07:30:00 +0000

In much of China, concrete remains the dominant construction material. Despite growing concerns over its environmental impact, concrete continues to align with the priorities of many developers and clients—it is fast, cost-effective, and highly durable. As a result, most building types in China still rely heavily on concrete. This reliance is further reinforced by China's position as the world's largest producer of Portland cement. A deeply entrenched supply chain, rooted in raw material manufacturing and economic infrastructure, ensures that concrete remains the default choice in the construction industry.

ArchDaily's Best Architectural Projects of 2025

Hana Abdel — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 07:30:00 +0000

As the year culminates, it's once again time for the ArchDaily team of curators to reflect on the best-performing projects of 2025 and consider what readers were most interested in. Through this diverse overview, we assess the cross-continental similarities and differences in trends and construction development. This year brought us many grand cultural and public spaces by Lina Ghotmeh, BIG, Zaha Hadid Architects, DnA, and Serie Architects, who populated events like Expo Osaka and the Venice Biennale, as well as a surprising number of museums and public or landscape works in China and the rest of the Asian continent. However, while these were sought-after projects, the leading works remained, unsurprisingly, residential projects.

Beyond Manufactured Landscapes: Quarries as Sites for Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Hadir Al Koshta — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 07:30:00 +0000

Quarries can be seen as indelible abandoned scars of human resource extraction. Man-made spaces, perceived as voids, and material gain, have fundamentally shaped our accelerating built environment. All the while, the earth stands still as a silent witness. For decades, these open-pit mines have been viewed as a necessary consequence of consumerism and urban growth, their raw, imposing forms a testament to the large-scale extraction of materials essential for building our cities. However, a global architectural movement is now emerging to engage with these existing forms, transforming these subtractive spaces into sites of innovation, collaboration, and renewed purpose.

Huangyan Quarry Cultural & Art Center / DnA

韩爽 - HAN Shuang — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Huangyan Quarry Revitalization Project represents our continued focus on the socioeconomic, ecological, and cultural dimensions of post-industrial landscapes. Unlike the previous stone quarry transformations in remote rural areas of Jinyun, the Huangyan Quarry is located in a more urbanised environment adjacent to the city proper. Consequently, its programming caters to a younger demographic, evolving into a vibrant public node integrated into the city's daily rhythms. Huangyan District, part of Taizhou City in Zhejiang Province, lies at the center of Zhejiang's Golden Coast. With the airport only 26 km away and the high-speed rail station just 5.3 km away, it enjoys convenient access and strong regional connectivity. The region has abundant forests and mineral resources, and boasts three golden business cards: "Yongning, with a History of Over a Thousand Years, Origin of Chinese Oranges, and the Mold Capital".

Spaces for Browsing: Balancing Commerce and Community in the Design of Bookstores

Olivia Poston — Sat, 07 Jun 2025 07:30:00 +0000

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.

Mengzi NSAU Bookstore of Librairie Avant-Garde / ZAO/Zhang Ke Architecture Office

Andreas Luco — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 07:00:00 +0000

Located in Honghe, Yunnan province, approximately 250km south east from Kunming, Mengzi is a border town with a relatively glory history. The Avant-garde Bookstore sits by the Southlake of Mengzi, a beloved public park today, while dating back to WWII, it was the campus of the National Southwest Associated University (NSAU), a prestigious academic group that nourished numerous scholars during the war.

Haidong City Urban Planning Exhibition Hall / CADG

Andreas Luco — Sat, 01 Jun 2024 23:00:00 +0000

Located at the southwest corner of the Nanliang Relics Park in Haidong City, Qinghai Province, the Haidong Urban Planning Exhibition Hall integrates functions such as planning exhibitions, tourism reception, and relics display. The site of the ancient capital of the Nanliang Kingdom, one of the Sixteen Kingdoms, is on the main axis of Ledu District, Haidong City. The Nanliang Relics Park, which is designed by CADG, consists of a relics display area, a citizen activity area, and underground commerce, as well as an urban-planning exhibition hall.It is also called the "Central Park" of the core district of Haidong City.

Ancient History: China's Legacy of Monuments and Memorials

Eric Baldwin — Sun, 03 Dec 2023 07:30:00 +0000

Few countries showcase living history like China. From the iconic Forbidden City to diverse landscapes and building styles, China has a rich cultural and architectural legacy. As the world’s largest construction market, the country continues to invest in new projects. At the same time, this rapid urbanization and accelerated development is juxtaposed with ancient building sites intertwined with layers of history and collective memory.

Mountain Dwelling / STUDIO FSJ

Collin Chen — Thu, 15 Sep 2022 22:00:00 +0000

Located in the “Ten Crossing” scenic area in Fangshan, Beijing, the project finds itself in one of the most magnificent Karst landscapes in northern China. The site as we found it, was an old farmyard in the middle of the mountain. In this project, confronting the unconquerable nature as well as the individual’s need for shelter, we tried to transform the outside world into part of the body’s “digging”. This is our imagination of living in mountains in northern China.

Revitalizing Abandoned Landscape in China: Quarries as Unconventional Spatial Resources

Eduard Koegel — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 04:00:00 +0000

Today, reusing and adapting existing spatial resources is regarded around the world as an important contribution to sustainable development, and new challenges are thus also emerging at the margins of classic building tasks due to the changing assessments regarding whether to preserve or demolish. Xu Tiantian’s projects in the quarries of Jinyun combine aspects of landscape planning, interior design, artistic installations, and social planning with an economic revitalization of the rural area. In this way, a ruined and exploited landscape becomes a sign of departure with which a new sustainable coexistence can be linked to a narrative about the history of the location.

Quarry No. 8: Book Mountain / DnA

Collin Chen — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Only a few meters from Quarry No. 9, one finds the entrance to Quarry No. 8, which houses a location for reading and studying that is distributed over various platforms in the interior. The space extends about 50 meters into the mountain and reaches a height of nearly 40 meters. This cave, too, was created as a result of stones being quarried by hand from the top down. The lateral terraces are evidence of faulty rock, which is why the quarrying of blocks was abandoned and a random interior topography was created.

Quarry No. 9: Stage Space + Quarry No. 10: Live Performance / DnA

Collin Chen — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Quarry No. 9: Stage Space. Quarry No. 9 is cut into the rock as if with a knife and after a narrow entrance widens into an approximately rectangular area that tapers upwards in the interior like a very high-pitched roof with a narrow slit that lets daylight in. This quarry is a typical example of top-down mining. But, here, the fact the lower part that was created by means of machine excavation is also visible since it differs in shape from the hand-worked parts above it. The lower area has a vertical wall structure due to the use of machines, while the conical shape above is the result of manual work. The cathedral-like space, the rear part of which is partly covered, has excellent acoustics, even though its shape was created by chance during the quarrying of stones. After various tests were performed, the acoustic qualities were improved by means of the flooring, panels in the side railings, and sound-absorption measures to facilitate versatile use.

Exploring Chinese Rural Construction Strategies Based On Diébédo Francis Kéré’s Philosophy

Xiaohang Hou — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 04:00:00 +0000

The immensity of China leads to the diversity of customs and climatic conditions. Each area has its own unique materials, construction methods, and climate adaptation measures. The regional characteristics of Chinese architecture are generally preserved in rural buildings. But we cannot overlook how contemporary technology may considerably improve the living and use conditions of rural buildings. What is the best way to create a balance between classic or inherent technology and new ones? How would the construction of rural architecture provide inspiration for the development of Chinese architectural cultural symbols?

Museum of Poetry / DnA

Collin Chen — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The Guantang road, in the Xiping community of Songyang County, was once a maple tree forest in ancient times. Over hundreds of years, this was the location of the Parrot Cenotaph, the memorial tomb for Zhang Yuniang. A few decades ago, with the county urban development, the maple forest was eventually replaced by buildings. A small triangular lot, with only a few trees left, became the intersection of two major roads. This lot was protected by a basic metal fence to preserve the original Parrot Cenotaph. An ancient well called Lanxue Spring Well, and a few steps away, a low and minimal bar-shaped tombstone is inserted into the earth, consist of the only remaining memorial site of Zhang Yuniang in the county.

Huiming Tea Space / DnA

Yu Xin Li — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Jingning County, Chimu Mountain & Huiming Tea. Jingning County, part of Lishui City, Zhejiang Province,is the only She ethnic minority autonomous county in China. The She ethnic minority moved to Jingning, Zhejiang Province from Luoyuan, Fujian Province in the second year of the Tang Dynasty (766 AD). It was originally part of the Southern Chinese nomads. Chimu Mountain, located 10 miles southeast of Jingning County's urban center. The northeast half of Chimu Mountain, warm in winter and cool in summer and steaming with clouds and fog, is favorable for tea plantations.

Oil Workshop / DnA

Collin Chen — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Hengzhang Village is located in Dadongba Town, Songyang County. The village has a long history and preserves lots of cultural relics and historical sites. The old oil workshop at the village entrance was built over one hundred years ago.