Founded in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 2007 by Johanna Hurme and Sasa Radulovic, and shortly afterward joined by its third partner, Colin Neufeld, 5468796 Architecture was established as an architecture firm whose early work explored the current state of housing in North America. The Canadian studio operates as a collaborative group of approximately 20 designers, where they prioritize the collective value of ideas over individual authorship.
In the low-lying deltas of Bangladesh, water defines both life and loss. Every year, millions are forced to rebuild after floods wash away their homes, crops, and livelihoods. In these precarious territories, the act of building has become an act of resilience. It is here that Khudi Bari emerges as a modest yet radical proposal. Designed by Marina Tabassum Architects, the project provides a lightweight, modular, and affordable dwelling for communities displaced by climate change. Recognized as one of the winners of the 2025 Aga Khan Award for Architecture, it represents a form of architecture that empowers rather than imposes.
The Busan Slope Housing project by OMA addresses urban redevelopment on the steep hillsides of Busan, South Korea, drawing on the city's topographical complexity and historical settlement patterns. Developed in collaboration with the Busan Architecture Festival and the Department of Housing and Architecture, the project explores strategies to rethink hillside neighborhoods while responding to both contemporary housing needs and the social and spatial legacies of these areas. Rather than replacing these areas with conventional high-rise estates, OMA envisions a flexible, context-responsive framework that integrates contemporary housing typologies with the site's inherited structure.
The RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 has been awarded to Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects, a new social housing development for older residents in London. Presented annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) since 1996, the prize recognizes the UK's best new building, celebrating architectural excellence, innovation, and social impact. This marks the second Stirling Prize win for Witherford Watson Mann Architects, following their 2013 recognition for Astley Castle, and continues their trajectory as a practice that engages deeply with social and cultural contexts. The firm was also shortlisted in 2019 and 2023.
Architecture has historically produced many iconic buildings shaped by singular visions—often designed unilaterally for users, communities, and cities. While this top-down approach has enabled strong formal coherence and conceptual clarity, it has also prioritized authorship over engagement. The result: projects that may be celebrated as visionary, yet often feel disconnected from the everyday realities of those who inhabit them.
Designing for others is inherently complex. As architects, we are frequently tasked with creating environments for communities with whom we may have no personal or cultural familiarity. This distance, however, can offer valuable objectivity. It allows us to engage diverse perspectives with fresh eyes, critically analyzing the needs and constraints of multiple stakeholders. Through this process, the discipline of architecture has advanced—pushing boundaries in spatial thinking, material innovation, and structural experimentation.
This curated selection of projects from the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale explores regeneration as a deliberate, intelligent process rooted in the specific conditions of a place. For decades, the Biennale has been a testing ground for architecture's most urgent ideas, allowing designers, researchers, and institutions to present visions that address evolving environmental, cultural, and social challenges. This year's projects reveal how regeneration, whether of an entire coastal city, a disused industrial site, or a neglected public space, requires more than replacing the old with the new. It calls for a precise reading of existing contexts, the preservation of embedded knowledge, and the careful integration of contemporary needs.
The eight selected works show that regeneration can emerge from multiple starting points: reactivating heritage through adaptive reuse, restoring ecological systems as part of urban planning, developing open and modular strategies for social housing renewal, or layering technological innovation onto historically rooted practices. While the scale of intervention varies, each project demonstrates a sensitivity to what is already there and existing, be it material resources, urban patterns, or cultural memory, and a willingness to work with these assets as catalysts for transformation. Together, they suggest that regeneration must start somewhere, and that its success lies in balancing innovation with the intelligence of what already exists.
Sierra Blanca Estates, a real estate development firm, has officially announced plans to build a new residential neighborhood in the coastal city of Málaga, Spain. According to the developers, the proposal is intended to address the city's growing demand for housing in the capital of the Andalucía autonomous community, located along the Mediterranean Sea in the southern Iberian Peninsula. The new neighborhood is planned for the El Bulto area and would include a 21-storey building designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.
Riken Yamamoto, born in Beijing in 1945 and raised in Yokohama shortly after World War II, is a Japanese architect celebrated for fostering community through architecture. After founding his practice, Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop, in 1973, he became renowned for works ranging from social housing, such as Hotakubo Housing and Pangyo Housing, to civic projects like the Hiroshima Nishi Fire Station and Saitama Prefectural University, all unified by modular simplicity. Honored in March 2024 as the Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, he was praised by jury chair Alejandro Aravena for "blurring boundaries between public and private," fostering spontaneous social interaction, and "bringing dignity to everyday life" by enabling community to flourish through thoughtful design. In this interview with Louisiana Channel, the architect reflects on the social role of architecture, emphasizing the inseparable bond between housing and context, and the need to create spaces that foster visible, meaningful relationships.
According to the World Bank, the Angola National Urbanization and Housing Program (PNUH), launched in 2008, aimed to build one million new housing units. However, by 2024, it had delivered only approximately 220,000. Power2Build, an Angolan construction startup, estimates the current housing deficit in Angola at around three million homes, with the situation particularly critical in Luanda, one of the fastest-growing cities on the African continent. With an entirely Angolan multidisciplinary team, Power2Build aims to contribute to reducing this deficit through the use of automated 3D concrete printing technology. Implemented on-site with large-scale construction printers from Danish company COBOD, the system is expected to accelerate construction timelines and improve building quality. Large-scale cement-based 3D printing eliminates the need for traditional molds by precisely placing or solidifying specific volumes of material in sequential layers using computer-controlled positioning. The process involves three key stages: data preparation, material preparation, and printing.
During 2024, the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) launched a three-part documentary and exhibition series titled Groundwork, exploring alternative modes of practice in light of the current climate crisis. The process began with a series of studio visits in search of offices addressing substantial questions for contemporary architecture through practice, culminating in the selection of three projects: Xu Tiantian's "minimal intervention" museum on Meizhou Island, Carla Juaçaba's community pavilions in a coffee field in Minas Gerais, and bplus.xyz (b+)'s European Citizens' Initiative for a new legal framework to facilitate the renovation and transformation of existing buildings. The latter, HouseEurope!, was recently recognized as the winner of the seventh edition of the OBEL Award and was showcased at the international exhibition of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025.
Buildner, in collaboration with building materials manufacturer Kingspan, has announced the winners of the MICROHOME Kingspan Edition with a 100,000 EUR prize fund.
What does a change in use and/or scale in buildings imply? How can a church or chapel be transformed into a home? While the architecture of many contemporary sacred spaces shows a remarkable capacity for adaptation and evolution, the creative boundaries of many professionals extend beyond their conception as structures of spirituality or worship. Globally, the conversion of large churches and small chapels into private residences reveals a wide field for intervention and exploration, one that can preserve, restore, adapt, and/or renew the character of spaces originally conceived for other uses and scales, which for various reasons have been abandoned, become obsolete, or now require transformation.
The installation and exhibition representing Estonia at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia is curated by architects Keiti Lige, Elina Liiva, and Helena Männa. Titled Let Me Warm You, the national exhibition explores different dimensions of sustainability by questioning whether insulation-driven renovations in Estonia are simply compliance measures to meet European energy targets or whether they can also serve as opportunities to enhance the spatial and social quality of mass housing districts. To make this point, the Estonian installation covers the façade of a Venetian building with insulation panels, replicating how they are commonly installed in Estonia for mass housing renovations.
Danish maritime architecture studio MAST, in collaboration with construction company BIK Bouw, has designed a new floating community for the disused Spoorweghaven dock in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The proposed neighborhood, which has received initial support from the Municipality of Rotterdam, includes over 100 apartments, public spaces, commercial units, and a recreational harbor near the city center. Floating architecture is MAST's response to the Netherlands' housing crisis, offering a modular, adaptable solution for building a wide range of structures on water.
Space has become a luxury in many of the world's most densely populated cities—a growing reality that's hard to ignore. Megacities like Tokyo, Shanghai, Mumbai, Mexico City, and São Paulo already have populations exceeding 20 million, while other urban centers across Asia and Africa continue to expand rapidly. Among these, Delhi stands out: if current trends continue, it is projected to become the most populous city by 2028. As these cities expand, housing—especially new developments—follows a new logic: as square meters shrink, furniture adapts, and daily life learns to fit and thrive in high-density environments. This change isn't just about size; it reflects a new way of living. Where spaciousness once dominated, density now rules. Every corner gains spatial and commercial value, with the kitchen emerging as one of the biggest challenges in housing design today.
What makes a building architecture? The eternal debate over what distinguishes architecture from mere utilitarian construction has often included affordable and social housing as an influential topic, sparking different points of view. This question is particularly significant in the Latin American context, where unique conditions go beyond cost concerns, whether imposed or unavoidable. Limited access to financing, the prevalence of self-construction, and the spread of informal settlements are interconnected factors shaping the built environment. These dynamics foster an aesthetic that, for some, challenges notions of good architecture, manifesting in urban landscapes where exposed materials become a defining feature.
The internal environment is the focus of this second article about designing for noise to improve well-being. According to several recent studies, noise in cities has become an increasing hazard to health. Environmental noise, that is, noise from traffic, industrial activities, or amplified music, which reaches internal spaces, is not merely an annoyance. It has been linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dementia, and mental health issues. As the world urbanizes, more people are exposed to excessive levels of noise. In medium- and high-density housing, in office buildings, and in schools, noise pollution can emanate from internal as well as external sources.
Buildner has released the results of its Denver Single Stair Housing Challenge, an international design challenge inviting architects, designers, and urban planners to explore innovative solutions for high-density residential living. Participants were tasked with reimagining a common point access block typology—often characterized by vertical circulation concentrated in a compact core—and transforming it into a more sustainable, community-oriented, and adaptable living environment. The competition was focused on sites in Denver, Colorado, though its issues are relevant to urban situations throughout the United States and around the globe.
