Despite its small size, the island of Taiwan is densely populated, with more than 80% of its people living in urban areas. Available space is often limited, particularly in major cities like Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung. Therefore, designers face the ongoing challenge of creating interiors that feel spacious, functional, and visually appealing despite their sometimes compact footprints. Rather than seeing these limitations as constraints, architects embrace them as opportunities to experiment with smart layouts and multi-functional furniture that enhances livability.
https://www.archdaily.com/1027646/sana-frini-and-philippe-rahm-curate-the-architecture-exhibition-at-the-2025-versailles-biennale-of-architecture-and-landscapeArchDaily Team
The United Center arena in Chicago, designed by HOK Sport (now Populous), Marmon Mok, and W.E. Simpson Company, was built between 1992 and 1994. With a capacity of over 20,000 seats for sports and general events, it includes more than 6,000 parking spaces in lots surrounding the arena. These parking lots span approximately 55 acres (over 22 hectares) in Chicago's West Side (1901 W. Madison Street). A new master plan, named the 1901 Project, aims to transform this space into a mixed-use neighborhood. Led by design collective RIOS, with contributions from landscape architecture studio Field Operations, this long-term, multi-phase project aims to connect neighborhoods by creating new public spaces and infrastructure on a metropolitan scale. The proposal recently received approval from the Chicago Plan Commission.
Pakistan has unveiled its national pavilion for the 19th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, set to take place from May 10 to November 23, 2025, in Venice, Italy. Titled (Fr)Agile Systems), the pavilion explores the dual nature of resilience and vulnerability in the face of climate change, using Pakistan's rich geological and cultural heritage as a lens to examine global environmental inequities. Through a striking installation featuring rock salt, a material shaped by time yet susceptible to change, the pavilion challenges dominant narratives of climate adaptation, advocating for localized, nature-based solutions rather than one-size-fits-all approaches.
The 2025 Pritzker Prize has been awarded this year to Chinese Architect Liu Jiakun. Born in Chengdu in 1956, he grew up in the densifying city, before attending and graduating from the Chongqing Architecture and Engineering College (Chongqing University) in 1982 with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Architecture, and becoming one of the first college graduates to be tasked with rebuilding the country during the Chinese transition period. However, it wasn't until many years later that the architect understood that "the built environment could be used as a medium for personal expression". It was then that his endeavors and career took off, with Liu Jiakun starting his practice in 1999, and participating in more collaborative works across China and Europe. Based on his experiences, his works are anchored in his understanding of reality and a respect towards China's multi-traditional history and internal diversity; all while achieving a seamless balance between architecture and nature, tradition and modernity.
These concepts do not obstruct his consciousness of human needs and the importance of community spaces. Through his projects, Liu Jiakun proves that spaces can affect human behavior and become positively evocative. A public space such as those he's created can be conducive to a benevolent atmosphere that provides rest and collaboration. "such as my pursuit of narrative and poetry in design." The comprehensiveness of Liu Jiakun's works makes it easy not to be constrained by stylistic or aesthetic limitations or requirements. He just follows what the site, natural landscape, pre-existing urban frame, and citizen needs might require. The physical result is a mix of all of these with the predominant vernacular traditions.
Liu Jiakun, the 2025 Pritzker Prize winner, has spent decades redefining Chinese architecture by combining utopia with function and social engagement with personal memory. His buildings are reflections of the everyday lives of ordinary people, crafted with an understanding of place, culture, and materiality. Rejecting the pursuit of a fixed architectural style, Jiakun believes in a strategy rather than a signature aesthetic, tailoring each project to its specific context and needs. His work integrates history with contemporary urban needs, collectivism with individual experience, and density with openness, offering timely solutions to the challenges of rapid urbanization.
Jiakun's approach is deeply rooted in Chinese philosophy, common sense, and local craftsmanship, ensuring that architecture grows naturally from its surroundings rather than being imposed upon them. His buildings reflect an authenticity that speaks to both past and present, avoiding grand gestures in favor of spaces that foster interaction, spirituality, and human connection.
Chinese architect and educator Liu Jiakun has been announced as the laureate of the 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the highest honor in the architecture field. This prestigious award recognizes Jiakun, founder of Jiakun Architects (established 1999), for his ability to blend traditional Chinese elements with contemporary design and for his commitment to social equity in the built environment. Born in Chengdu, China, where he continues to live and work, he becomes the second Chinese architect to receive the accolade, following Wang Shu (2012). Jiakun joins a distinguished list of previous laureates including Riken Yamamoto in 2024, David Chipperfield in 2023, and Francis Kéré in 2022. The award ceremony will be held this spring at the Jean Nouvel-designed Louvre Abu Dhabi, with a global video release of the presentation this fall, followed by the 2025 Laureates' Lecture and Symposium in May.
Following an international competition, Polish American architect Daniel Libeskind's firm, Studio Libeskind, in collaboration with La Compagnie de Phalsbourg, has been selected to design the flagship building for the Léon Blum district, adjacent to the future Line 15 station of the Grand Paris Express. The competition featured eight teams, including Snøhetta, Valode et Pistre, Stefano Boeri, Sou Fujimoto, and Jean-Paul Viguier. The winning project is a mixed-use building of over 20,000m², featuring a green wall and incorporating bio-sourced materials. The project is part of a broader urban development strategy for Issy-les-Moulineaux, an extra-wall area of Paris currently undergoing significant transformation.
Design disciplines, like user experience (UX) design, have evolved to excel at devising experiences that make digital interfaces navigable. They accomplish this through a deep understanding of user needs and by mapping user journeys with meticulous attention to detail. The city represents a physical interface experienced by multiple users - residents, tourists, people of various ages and genders each experiencing it uniquely. In a time where digital interfaces are crafted for frictionless user experiences, why do many cities remain challenging to navigate?
Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW), in collaboration with Holger Meyer Architekten, has won the competition for the new Midstad project in Frankfurt. Led by Joost Moolhuijzen and Erik Volz, the design reimagines the future of European city centers as resourceful and multifunctional. The project involves a 35,000 m² rehabilitation of an existing department store on the Zeil in Frankfurt's city center, integrating a six-story mass timber extension and a mixed-use, community-driven program. The project involves reconstruction during ongoing operation, partial demolition, and the expansion of the existing department store.
Continuing our annual tradition, we asked our readers who they believe should be awarded the 2025 Pritzker Prize, architecture's most prestigious honor.
Founded by Jay Pritzker and administered by the Hyatt Foundation in the United States, the Pritzker Prize recognizes living architects, regardless of nationality, whose work has made a lasting and meaningful impact on humanity through the art of architecture.
https://www.archdaily.com/1027073/archdailys-readers-select-who-should-win-the-2025-pritzker-prizeArchDaily Team
Education has long been a driving force in the Middle East, shaping knowledge, encouraging innovation, and strengthening cultural identity. In recent years, educational architecture in the region has expanded beyond its academic function, evolving into public gathering spaces and cultural hubs. These institutions are designed not only for learning but also for dialogue, research, and collaboration, often integrating open courtyards, multi-use public areas, and architectural elements that reflect local heritage. Whether through their physical openness, adaptability, or connection to the urban environment, these spaces reinforce the idea that universities and research centers are essential to civic life.
Located on the top of the Boa Viagem viewpoint in the city of Niterói, the Niterói Contemporary Art Museum - MAC was designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer. Inaugurated in 1996, it is a modern architectural masterpiece dedicated to housing a collection of Brazilian contemporary art from the 1960s to the 1990s. Rising above the cliff like a lighthouse, it appears to float in the air, resting on a water basin. Facing Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay in Brazil, its circular lines and revolutionary double-curved form stand out on the horizon, offering an open plaza of 2,500 square meters alongside a reflective pool that gives the structure a remarkable sense of lightness.
Ecuador, though a relatively small country in terms of land area, boasts a vast and diverse range of ecosystems and natural landscapes, including the Andes mountains, the Pacific coastline, and the Amazon rainforest. This makes the natural environment a key player, shaping its relationship with the built environment and demanding that architecture seamlessly integrate with and respect its context.
Over the years, Ecuadorian architecture has developed its own identity, successfully adapting to these diverse settings. Various construction techniques have been implemented, relying on locally sourced materials to create spaces and shelters in complete harmony with the landscape. Amid the growing trend of seeking a closer connection with nature, architecture in different regions of Ecuador has had to adjust to these conditions.
Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has been announced as the winner of the international design competition for the Napoli Porta Est masterplan, a large-scale urban regeneration project in Naples, Italy. The project, which includes the new Campania Region headquarters, aims to reconnect fragmented urban areas and revitalize a district that has long been considered isolated and unsafe due to inadequate public spaces and physical barriers.
