Designed by Barozzi Veiga, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne is equipped by Arbonia with fire-protection doors, flush-mounted wooden doors and soundproofing elements made of wood.
14 individual brands and two subsidiaries are represented under the Swiss brand Arbonia. Although the brand, which is now making its long-overdue public debut, maybe new, the list of realized projects certainly is not. A glance at the reference archive, which Arbonia presents prominently, shows this. These include construction projects for the healthcare sector as well as offices and administration, historical buildings, educational institutions, hospitality and residential developments. Three particular distinct highlights stand out, as they uniquely embody Arbonia's motto: 'open to aspiration'.
BIG, artist Doug Aitken Workshop, NIRAS, Volcano, and RWDI have won a competition to redesign three public spaces surrounding major music venues in Ørestad, Copenhagen. The initiative, titled Byens Scene ("The City's Stage"), aims to revitalize the areas around DR Koncerthuset, Bella Arena, and Royal Arena, transforming them into an interconnected landscape for everyday use and public performances.
For over five decades, Swiss photographer Thomas Mayer has developed a serene, emotional, and documentary language for architecture. His lens captures the random and memorable moments of our built environment - reflections in the rain, long blue hours in Nordic summers, and the quiet darkness of sacred spaces. Recognized by ArchDaily as one of the top architectural photographers, Mayer carries an abundant fascination for light and space.
Lighthouses have stood along the margins of continents and islands for centuries as points of light in vast maritime territories. Rising in solitude from rocky cliffs, reefs, and headlands, these towers were tools for navigation and instruments of spatial clarity, shaping coastlines and marking the boundary between land and sea. Built to guide, warn, and locate, they constituted a global network of visibility long before the advent of digital mapping. Yet as maritime technologies evolved, many of these structures lost their original purpose. The typology, once essential, now stands at the edge of obsolescence. What remains is not merely an architectural relic, but a powerful spatial form — resilient, symbolic, and increasingly open to reinterpretation.
The first photographs of the long-anticipated David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) have been unveiled, captured by architectural photographerIwan Baan. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor, in collaboration with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the building marks the culmination of a process spanning more than two decades. The museum recently offered an exclusive preview of the building in its raw architectural state, ahead of the installation of artworks. Major construction was completed at the end of 2024, and portions of the lower levels are already accessible to visitors. The galleries are scheduled to officially open in April 2026, when they will house LACMA's permanent collection.
Studio Libeskind has released new images of the design for the transformation of the Boerentoren tower, one of Europe's earliest skyscrapers, located in the heart of Antwerp, Belgium. Developed in collaboration with Belgian architecture firm ELD, the project reimagines the 1932 Art Deco landmark as a new public cultural hub that will house The Phoebus Foundation's art collection. The design includes the addition of exhibition spaces, a panoramic viewing platform, a rooftop sculpture garden, and new restaurants and bars. According to the architects, the original architectural features will be preserved while introducing a new architectural feature, which they are calling the "Reimagined Crown." Initially announced in 2022, the project has now received preliminary approval from the Flemish Heritage Agency and the City of Antwerp.
The NSW Independent Planning Commission has approved the public domain works for Sydney's Harbourside redevelopment, marking a significant milestone for the project designed by Snøhetta in collaboration with Hassell and Mirvac. First unveiled in December 2021 as the winning entry in an international design excellence competition, the scheme aims to transform Harbourside at Darling Harbour into a new, iconic destination at the heart of the city. The proposal reimagines the waterfront at Tumbalong / Darling Harbour with more than 11,200 square meters of renewed public space, featuring significant trees, planted areas, sculptural sandstone pathways, and integrated public artworks.
The Sharjah Architecture Triennial has announced the theme for its upcoming edition: Architecture Otherwise: Building Civic Infrastructure for Collective Futures. Scheduled for November 2026, the event will unfold across the city and the Emirate of Sharjah, UAE, through site-specific installations, exhibitions, performances, workshops, and public programs. Positioned as a platform for architectural and urban exploration across West Asia, South Asia, and the African continent, the Triennial will combine practical and theoretical approaches to contemporary urban life. Conceived by its curators, Vyjayanthi Rao and Tau Tavengwa, SAT03 aims to explore how architecture can shape collective life in regions undergoing rapid urban transformation. Consequently, selected participants will take part in month-long residencies, embedding their work within the social and cultural fabric of Sharjah.
Yale Art + Architecture Building. Image Courtesy of gwathmey siegel & associates architects
By the mid-nineteenth century, American universities began to distinguish architecture from civil engineering and the applied sciences formally. Architecture was emerging as a discipline defined by both technical competence and conceptual inquiry, spatial imagination, and cultural agency. As this disciplinary identity evolved in the postwar decades, its built expression coalesced into the emerging architectural language of Brutalism.
Bijoy Jain Designs the Louis Vuitton Set Inspired by Snakes and Ladders. Image Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
Paris Fashion Week Men's Spring/Summer 2026 has just concluded, featuring a series of shows that highlight the relationship between architecture and fashion as creative disciplines. Through carefully curated architectural environments, these shows engage viewers on multiple sensory levels, weaving together visual impact with spatial and material stories that echo the themes and philosophies behind each collection. This intersection between fashion and architecture opens up new possibilities for storytelling, inviting audiences to explore how fashion design and spaces can resonate together to create immersive experiences.
Saint Laurent presented its menswear collection at Tadao Ando's Bourse de Commerce, where the building's cylindrical concrete form and filtered natural light provided a minimal and contemplative backdrop. Louis Vuitton, by contrast, staged its show in the plaza of the Centre Pompidou, where Studio Mumbai's intervention introduced a large-scale, hand-painted installation inspired by Snakes and Ladders. These site-specific choices reflected distinct approaches to engage with architectural context, illustrating how contemporary fashion presentations can extend beyond the runway to enter into dialogue with their surroundings.
Miguel Ramón López y Ander Bados Sesma, comisarios de la XVII Bienal Española de Arquitectura y Urbanismo. Image Courtesy of XVII Bienal Española de Arquitectura y Urbanismo
The seventeenth edition of the Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (BEAU) will take place in December 2025. The event consists of an exhibition hosted in a former thermal power station repurposed as a cultural center in Ponferrada, in northeastern Spain. This edition will be curated by architects Ander Bados Sesma, from Atelier Ander Bados, and Miguel Ramón López, a Ponferrada native and architect at Estudio Lamela, under the curatorial proposal titled flujos comun.es ("common flows"). Their curatorial proposal responds to the theme of the open call: Architecture as a Policy for Change, an invitation to reflect on the role of the discipline in processes of social, economic, and environmental transformation. Within this framework, flujos comun.es presents a critical perspective on the challenges associated with hyperconnectivity. The call for proposals and project submissions is currently open, and will be until the end of July, depending on the category.
Osaka Expo 2025 Japan Pavilion / Nikken Sekkei. Image Courtesy of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
In certain parts of the world, construction is still dominated by wet systems—concrete, masonry, and cementitious materials that are poured, cured, and fixed in place. While this has long been considered the norm in some south-east Asia countries, such as Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and China, in most of these regions, they typically share a common trend where labor is relatively inexpensive. This serves as one of the reasons to make concrete more easily available, as one of the typical downside of concrete is its intensive labour cost - this further differentiates concrete as a cheaper and more efficient material system to be building out of.
However, not enough considerations in the region are given to the sustainability aspect when using these wet construction materials,often overlooking the significant drawbacks of its material lifecycle and the difficulty to recycle it without downcycling - making it one of the more unsustainable materials available to be built out of.
Situated in one of the fastest-developing regions over the past decade—the southern part of China, including Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area—urban growth has been driven by an overwhelming wave of commercial ambition. Projects here are often designed for maximum density, height, and efficiency, resulting in developments of enormous scale that can easily span several acres. Prioritizing transit-oriented development, these complexes frequently take the form of sprawling malls built directly above major transportation hubs. Designed to disorient and prolong foot traffic to encourage economic activities, these mega-structures have become commonplace in cities like Hong Kong and Shenzhen.
While this typology of megastructures offers clear advantages—economic efficiency, high development returns, and convenience for transit users—it almost invariably ignores its urban context and environment. These developments often turn a blind eye, deliberately so, to their environmental footprint and the city's walkability. At such overwhelming scales, the human walking experience is diminished, if not outright neglected. Pedestrians become interiorized—trapped within the insulated world of these complexes.
Amid coasts, rivers, lakes, and mountain ranges, Spain’s natural environment encompasses a wide variety of climates, topographies, and vegetation species. Aiming to raise global awareness of the impact of construction on the environment and the importance of addressing climate change through new ways of creating architecture, several architectural practices and research teams are exploring the design of cabins or small-scale lodging prototypes. While capable of integrating harmoniously with their surrounding natural context, they also demonstrate strategies for self-sufficiency, resource utilization, and space maximization, as well as broad applications of innovative technologies and material solutions adapted to each region.
Thatching is a traditional building technique that has been reinterpreted in different ways in contemporary projects, allowing its value to continue to endure over time. As well as being a culturally and historically valuable technique, given its presence in humanity for centuries, it also has a number of other constructive advantages, such as its great environmental value, as it is an accessible renewable material.
The technique consists of grouping, intertwining, and overlapping dry vegetation, creating light surfaces with excellent thermal and sound insulation and which are cheap and relatively simple to build. In addition, flexibility is one of the technique's most prominent features, and it is particularly popular in roofing applications.
Lithuanian Airports has announced Zaha Hadid Architects as the winner of the international competition to design the new arrivals terminal at Vilnius Airport. Conceived as an integral part of the airport's evolving infrastructure, the new terminal will complement the recently completed departure terminal, enabling Vilnius Airport to accommodate up to 10.6 million passengers annually. The project marks a significant step in the airport's long-term development strategy, addressing future growth in passenger demand while enhancing Lithuania's role as a key gateway in the Baltic region.
The fifth edition of the London Design Biennale is taking place at Somerset House from 5 to 29 June 2025. The theme of this year's edition is "Surface Reflections," an invitation to explore "the dynamic interplay between internal experience and external influence." The curatorial proposal, set by British artist and designer Samuel Ross, encourages a focus on the underlying layers of the objects, systems, and spaces that shape our daily lives. The Biennale exhibition is a journey through 35 pavilions by countries, institutional design teams, and curators, presenting soundscapes, immersive experiences, and performances, as well as sculptural and evocative objects. To confront contemporary global challenges, topics include identity, memory, innovation, technology, craftsmanship, ecology, and belonging.
Chicago Fire FC soccer stadium. Image Courtesy of Gensler
From Milan's Scalo Farini to downtown Chicago, and from the Tuscan countryside to the UK's retrofit initiatives, recent announcements demonstrate how architecture is evolving in response to climate goals, cultural identity, and urban transformation. Herzog & de Meuron's new headquarters for UniCredit will anchor one of Europe's largest redevelopment sites with a focus on sustainability and workplace innovation, while Gensler's stadium design for Chicago Fire FC aims to redefine the U.S. matchday experience as part of a major waterfront development. In Tuscany, Alvisi Kirimoto's Sapaio Pavilion merges agricultural production with architectural sensitivity, and in the UK, RIBA and The King's Foundation are advancing retrofit as a national agenda. Meanwhile, finalists including MVRDV, Heatherwick Studio, and Mecanoo are advancing in an international competition to create a climate landmark intended to inspire large-scale behavioral change. This edition of Architecture Now brings together diverse yet interconnected efforts to shape how architecture can support long-term ecological, cultural, and civic impact.
