Himalayas: The Latest Architecture and News

As cities and landscapes evolve, architecture is increasingly asked to support well-being, performance, and collective experience. From stadiums that honor deep cultural memory to intimate wellness spaces that foster restoration and connection, sports and wellness typologies are expanding beyond mere functionality. They create environments where movement and health intersect with design quality, sustainability, and social meaning. Today, these spaces range from elite training grounds and recreational clubs to contemplative retreats and inclusive public amenities, shaping how communities gather, heal, and celebrate shared identity.

This selection of unbuilt proposals submitted by the ArchDaily community illustrates that diversity. In São Paulo, Luiz Volpato Arquitetura reinvents the historic Santos Futebol Clube stadium with a geometry that preserves fans' memory while introducing new commercial and social uses. In Hanoi, Van Aelst I Nguyen and Partners bring filtered light and fresh air to a dense urban sports complex. In Dubai, RSP proposes Haven, a residential development anchored in holistic wellness and nature-driven experiences, while India's Tropic Responses imagines Aira Club as a climate-conscious leisure hub. High in the Himalayas, Gadasu + Partners carve a meditative spa into mountain stone, and in Isfahan, Arsh4d Studio rethinks segregated women's parks to create inclusive, future-oriented civic space.

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Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) has announced Maura Marinelli, co-founder of franzosomarinelli, as the winner of the 2025 Wheelwright Prize. The annual $100,000 grant supports emerging architects in pursuing investigative research that addresses contemporary architectural challenges with a global perspective. Marinelli's winning proposal, "Topographies of Resistance: Architecture and the Survival of Cultures," explores how architecture can sustain and revitalize rural, mountainous regions that confront climate change, infrastructure limitations, and cultural erosion. His research aims to develop design strategies that promote autonomy, sustainability, and local identity by comparing contexts in the Alps, Andes, and Himalayas. Through fieldwork and analysis, the project seeks to propose architectural approaches that empower communities and challenge urban-centric perspectives.

“The Mindfulness City will be a sustainable city. To be mindful is to be aware — to perform best,” said Giulia Frittoli, partner and head of landscape at BIG. The Kingdom of Bhutan is a landlocked Buddhist country in the eastern Himalayas, nestled between China and India. It covers 14,000 square miles and has a population of nearly 800,000.

The Royal Office of Bhutan asked BIG, Arup, and Cistri to develop a plan for a new Mindfulness City in Gelephu in southern Bhutan, near the border with India. The city will span 386 square miles and include a new international airport, railway connections, hydroelectric dam, university, spiritual center, and public spaces.

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Located high in the Himalayan Mountains, the sparsely populated region of Ladakh is one of the more remote places on Earth. At over 3500 meters above sea level, the region includes terrain consisting of steep cliffs and wide valleys, and an extreme climate to match: temperatures often reach +30 degrees celsius in the summer months and drop to -30 degrees celsius in the winter. Severe weather patterns such as these typically require durable construction materials and technologies - yet with the region’s difficult-to-reach location and a construction season lasting only four to six months, importing materials becomes a costly, if not impossible task. Luckily, with help from Czech architecture firm Archide, residents were able to find that the best material for the job was one found right outside their doors: rammed earth.

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