Tag: landscape-design | ArchDaily

No Solid Ground: Three Approaches to Building Below Sea Level in Rotterdam

Olivia Poston — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 07:30:00 +0000

Architects carefully calibrate their relationship to the earth, adjusting foundations to soil, groundwater, climate, risk, and culture. Driven timber piles, rammed-earth platforms, and poured concrete slabs are each a response to a specific set of ground conditions, and each shapes the architecture that rises from it. The way a building meets the earth determines its durability and its limits because foundations are among the most consequential design choices an architect makes.

Parc de la Villette Opens New Urban Farm and Rewilded Landscapes in Paris

Antonia Piñeiro — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 05:30:00 +0000

Paris's 19th arrondissement Parc de la Villette is undergoing a major transformation, combining a newly opened urban farm with restored biodiversity as part of a strategy to adapt the 55.5-hectare park to climate change. Masterplanned by Bernard Tschumi in 1982 and opened to the public in 1987, the park stands as a landmark of European modernism in public space design, breaking from the traditional concept of the metropolitan park. With a 15,000-square-meter extension, this major green lung in northeast Paris is reimagining its lawns as a living laboratory for environmental education, where animals, plants, and humans coexist. The extensive renovation follows the addition of Tschumi's HyperTent in 2022, a hyperbolic paraboloid structure functioning as a new ticket booth on the podium of Folie L4, and marks the park's most significant transformation since its inauguration.

The Built Path: Pilgrimage and Architectural Sequence on the Camino de Santiago

Olivia Poston — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 07:30:00 +0000

Pilgrimage is one of the oldest and most persistent cultural practices, a spatial expression of humanity's search for meaning that has taken form across geographies and religions. While traditionally tied to formal belief systems, its definition has expanded in recent decades, reflecting new understandings of what is sacred and where meaning can be found. This shift reveals something fundamental: the act of moving through space remains central to how people construct meaningful experience. Yet most built environments constructed today are designed to be approached at speed from roads, transit corridors, airports, and optimized urban cores. The Camino de Santiago stands as a sustained counterargument to this condition. It is a piece of distributed architecture, refined over centuries, that remains a sophisticated example of design organized around the moving human body.

Coldefy Leads Winning Masterplan to Transform Budapest Brownfield into Rewilded Urban District

Antonia Piñeiro — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 05:30:00 +0000

A team led by French architecture practice Coldefy, comprising CITYFÖRSTER, Sporaarchitects, TREIBHAUS.LAND, and Marko & Placemakers, has won the competition to design a masterplan for Rákosrendező in Budapest. The project is developed for the Budapest Capital Asset Management Centre, acting on behalf of the Municipality of Budapest. The design outlines a 15-year scheme to transform a brownfield site long regarded as the city's "rust belt," located on the eastern side of the Hungarian capital. The regeneration plan includes over 10,000 apartments, new transportation links, and commercial and civic spaces, forming a comprehensive urban redevelopment strategy aligned with 15-minute city principles.

Building with Trees: Rethinking Architecture’s Relationship to Site

Daniela Andino — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Trees are often the first things to vanish when construction starts. Clearing a site has long been one of architecture's most immediate acts, removing what already exists to make room for something new. When vegetation is preserved, it is typically treated as a secondary layer, added back as landscape rather than shaping the project itself.

Quiet Hope: Frank Gehry’s Maggie’s Centre Hong Kong

Jonathan Yeung — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 07:30:00 +0000

Earlier this month, news of Frank Gehry's passing prompted an outpouring of tributes to the architect behind flamboyant museums, concert halls, and sinuous residential complexes. Rather than revisit that well-charted terrain, it is worth pausing on a more contemplative work in his oeuvre: Maggie's Cancer Caring Centre in Hong Kong. Quiet, optimistic, and calibrated for everyday resilience, the building reflects multiple registers of Gehry's intent: a commitment to positivity and survival—and, more personally, an architect's own reckoning with loss and end-of-life care.

Team SLA to Design New 30-hectare Coastal Nature Park in Copenhagen, Denmark

Antonia Piñeiro — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 05:30:00 +0000

The City of Copenhagen has announced Team SLA as the winner of a design competition to create a new, large-scale urban park in Nordhavn. The project, titled "Nordør – New Park", was designed by Team SLA and By & Havn, and envisions a 30-hectare (75-acre) coastal nature park. Led by the design studio SLA, Team SLA includes VITA Engineers, Urban Agency, Aaen Engineering, Pihlmann Architects, Buro Happold, Kerstin Bergendal, Holdbart, and Aiming Spaces.

Bridging Disciplines, Connecting Cities: The Interdisciplinary Approach to Urban Mobility in Portugal

Susanna Moreira — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 07:30:00 +0000

An architecture degree may provide a vast curriculum, but many of the skills needed for a project lie outside the discipline. This is especially true for urban-scale projects. They demand expertise in areas like traffic studies, structural calculations, landscape design, and technical installation forecasting. These are often seen as "complementary" but are, in fact, fundamental to the overall design.

September Editorial Topic: Architecture Without Limits

Romullo Baratto — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 05:00:00 +0000

Architects today work across many worlds: from designing furniture, landscapes, and urban blocks to creating film sets, photographs, and videos. They restore and retrofit old buildings rather than build anew, while also writing, researching, and publishing. Some design virtual spaces for video games or speculate on habitats in outer space and underwater. Others engage directly with society through politics, activism, or community projects. Many experiment with biology, test new materials, and step into the role of scientist. Architects are decolonizing old narratives and decarbonizing the construction industry, and by weaving together personal passions with pressing social and environmental challenges, they are pushing the limits of the profession and expanding its scope.

A Natural Childhood: How Architecture Connects Landscape, Culture, and Play

Agustina Iñiguez — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

How do nature and landscape dialogue within spaces designed for children? How are architecture and urban design capable of shaping natural atmospheres that integrate practices of play, participation, and exploration? From participatory projects that involve children in the design process to built environments that incorporate furniture adapted to their needs, the conception of spaces for childhood entails the creation of places for encounter, learning, and coexistence. At times, these spaces are able to strengthen the relationships between interiors and exteriors, connecting their users with nature and the surrounding environment. Depending on their cultures, customs, and histories of attachment to place, several contemporary projects deploy tools and strategies that integrate architecture, nature, and pedagogy to form broad experiences of learning, play, and discovery.

From Bologna to Mexico City: 8 Unbuilt Masterplans Reimagining Communities Through Regeneration and Design

Nour Fakharany — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 04:00:00 +0000

In today's architectural discourse, masterplanning is increasingly recognized as a means to reconcile growth with long-term social, cultural, and environmental priorities. Beyond organizing buildings and infrastructure, these large-scale proposals aim to regenerate urban fabrics, adapt historic or underutilized sites, and establish frameworks for inclusive and resilient communities. Submitted by the ArchDaily community, the projects featured in this edition of Unbuilt Architecture highlight how masterplans can respond to contemporary challenges while preparing cities for an uncertain future.

Mapping as Design: A Resource-Based Approach to Rural Design in the United States

Ankitha Gattupalli — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 07:30:00 +0000

In 1982, at a conference on earth building in Tucson, Arizona, an unusual presentation challenged everything architects thought they knew about rural resources. Instead of focusing on construction techniques, the presenter, architect Pliny Fisk III, spread out a series of hand-drawn maps that revealed something extraordinary - rural Texas wasn't resource-poor, as conventional wisdom suggested, but material-rich beyond imagination. The maps showed volcanic ash perfect for lightweight concrete, caliche deposits stretching across vast territories, and mesquite forests that could supply both hardwood flooring and insulation. The revelation redefined prevailing notions of value in architecture.

BIG and Dencityworks Design New Mixed-Use Waterfront Tower in Brooklyn, New York

Antonia Piñeiro — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 05:30:00 +0000

The proposed mixed-use tower at 175 Third Street is the fifth building planned across four sites within the Gowanus Wharf development in Brooklyn, New York. With views toward Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, the 1,080,000 sq ft proposal includes affordable housing, retail and artist spaces, fitness areas, social and entertainment spaces, culminating in a rooftop with lounging zones and an outdoor pool. The project also envisions a 28,000-sq-ft public waterfront esplanade designed by Field Operations, intended to contribute to the ecological rehabilitation of the Gowanus Canal, continuing the broader transformation of this industrial neighborhood. Other project collaborators include dencityworks | architecture, AKRF, bucharest.studio, DeSimone, Ettinger Engineering Associates, Fried Frank, Hatfield Group, Impact Environmental, and Jenkins and Huntington.

EUmies Awards for Young Talent 2025 Unveils the Finalist Projects at the Venice Architecture Biennale

Reyyan Dogan — Mon, 12 May 2025 06:30:00 +0000

The exhibition "Intelligens. Talent. EUmies Awards. Young Talent 2025" has officially opened as a Collateral Event of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Organized by Fundació Mies van der Rohe with the support of the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, the exhibition presents the Shortlist and Finalist projects of the EUmies Awards in the Young Talent category. It brings together 12 master's thesis projects from 11 architecture schools across 7 countries, offering a comprehensive insight into emerging voices in architecture, urban planning, and landscape design.

Reed Hilderbrand and SO-IL Reimagine San Antonio Botanical Garden with New Pollinator Habitat and Greenhouse

Antonia Piñeiro — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 05:30:00 +0000

Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture firm has unveiled images of its strategic master plan for Texas' San Antonio Botanical Garden, in the United States. The plan is designed to guide the future of this public landscape, reflecting long-term objectives focused on accessibility, conservation, and horticultural education. The vision includes a new horticultural campus and a public greenhouse for the site, designed by SO-IL, an architectural design firm based in New York whose 450 Warren housing project in Brooklyn was selected by ArchDaily's audience as the Building of the Year 2024 in the Housing category. The master plan aims at a more ecologically sustainable environment while enhancing the visitor experience across the garden's 38-acre landscape.

Public Space as a Tool for Community Healing: Scales of Intervention in Latin America

Paula Pintos — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 07:30:00 +0000

Public spaces are more than just physical voids in the urban fabric—they are stages for social interaction, cultural expression, and collective memory. In times of social fragmentation and environmental stress, these spaces can serve as catalysts for healing, offering safe environments where communities can reconnect. Through thoughtful design and participatory processes, public space interventions can rebuild trust, promote mental well-being, and foster a renewed sense of belonging among community members.

Taming Nature: How Architecture is Redefining Its Relationship with the Environment

Jonathan Yeung — Sun, 06 Apr 2025 07:30:00 +0000

Integrating natural elements into architectural design has long been a fundamental pursuit in creating comfortable, sustainable environments that enhance both individual well-being and the relationship between buildings and their surrounding context. In areas with vast landscapes, incorporating natural elements is essential for seamlessly connecting architecture with its site. Conversely, in dense urban environments dominated by built structures, introducing greenery becomes also increasingly vital, reintroducing nature into the so-called "concrete jungle."

Playful Pedagogy: 4 Projects Using Topography to Redefine Children's Learning Environments in China

Nour Fakharany — Sun, 02 Feb 2025 07:30:00 +0000

Educational architecture globally is undergoing a significant transformation, moving away from static, rigid designs toward more dynamic, interactive, and nature-driven environments. As cities become denser and land availability diminishes, architects are reimagining schools not just as places for learning but as ecosystems where children can grow holistically. A key element in this shift is the integration of landscape and topographical design, which allows schools to transcend traditional boundaries, combining education with play, exploration, and connection to nature. These designs aim to create engaging spaces that challenge children to interact with their environment physically and emotionally, fostering creativity, independence, and well-being. By layering natural elements such as mounds, gardens, terraces, and play structures into architectural plans, educational spaces are being reshaped into vibrant, multi-dimensional landscapes that encourage movement, imagination, and discovery.