Tag: living-architecture | ArchDaily

Paul Clemence Captures Ingenhoven Architects’ Kö-Bogen II and Its Landmark Green Facade

Antonia Piñeiro — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 06:30:00 +0000

In early 2025, photographer Paul Clemence documented Kö-Bogen II, a commercial and office complex designed by ingenhoven architects in Düsseldorf, Germany. The photo series focuses on the building's signature feature: its vast green façade, considered one of the largest in Europe. Referred to as a "green heart" and an "urban mountain," the building has become a landmark in the city due to its sloping surfaces wrapped in over 30,000 hornbeam plants. For Clemence, this was an unforeseen encounter during his first visit to Düsseldorf, which he describes as an unexpected meeting with a "stunning green pyramid."

From Concrete to Cultivation: How AI and Robotics Are Rewriting Architecture’s Material Logic

Daniela Andino — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Architecture has entered a pivotal moment. As cities continue to grow under the weight of climatic and social pressures, the materials and systems that shape them are being redefined. Artificial intelligence and robotics, once used to accelerate construction processes, are now being rethought as tools for cultivation. Printed structures that grow, breathe, and decay. Cultivation, in this context, refers to designing with biological materials, where growth and decay are active parameters, merging digital precision with ecological intelligence. This evolution shows the shift from efficiency to empathy, where architecture becomes an agent of active repair. The introduction of mycelium and other natural materials into 3D printing presents a new paradigm in architecture: the logic of the living. A place where computation and fabrication meet biological adaptability.

Shifting Sediments: Rivers as an Architectural and Cultural Catalyst

Olivia Poston — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 04:00:00 +0000

Rivers generate a distinct typology of architecture bound by design threads of material practice, environmental adaptation, cultural symbolism, and imagination. Each river system produces a unique ecosystem where water, soil, vegetation, and settlement converge to form a living network. Designing within this environment requires a capacity to read movement rather than resist it, to build on uncertain ground, and to understand permanence as a balance in motion. Unlike the fixed horizon of the sea, the river is never still. It teaches architects to think in gradients rather than boundaries, and to design as part of an evolving landscape.

Designing a Living and Dying Structure: Picoplanktonics and the Canadian Pavilion in Venice

Moises Carrasco — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 04:00:00 +0000

The Canada Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, hosted Picoplanktonics. A research that emerged as a radical rethinking of how architecture can become a platform that blends biology, computation, and fabrication to propose an alternative future, one where buildings don't just minimize harm, but actively participate in planetary repair. At its core lies a humble organism: marine cyanobacteria, capable of both capturing carbon and contributing to the material growth of the structure it inhabits. The project has been developed over 5 years by a group of researchers at ETH Zurich, led by Andrea Shin Ling and a group of interdisciplinary contributors and collaborators. Together, they formed the Living Room Collective, founded a year ago to build upon this work and showcase it at the Venice Biennale. The Core team members include Nicholas Hoban, Vincent Hui, and Clayton Lee. This conversation with the team behind the project shares the philosophy, technical challenges, and speculative horizons that animated their work from printing living sand lattices to maintaining microbial life in a public exhibition. Their aim is to inspire people to reconsider architecture not as a static object, but as a living, evolving process. One that requires care, patience, and a radical shift in mindset.

Canada Pavilion Presents Picoplanktonics, a Living Experiment in Regenerative Architecture at the 2025 Venice Biennale

Reyyan Dogan — Mon, 19 May 2025 06:30:00 +0000

The Canada Council for the Arts presents Picoplanktonics at the Canada Pavilion as part of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, which will run until November 23, 2025. Developed by the Living Room Collective, the installation engages with ongoing global ecological challenges through a speculative, research-driven approach to design, featuring 3D-printed architectural structures embedded with living cyanobacteria capable of carbon sequestration. Developed through a four-year collaboration led by Andrea Shin Ling and a group of interdisciplinary contributors, the project investigates the potential of co-constructing built environments with living systems.

A Bio-Digital Exploration: ecoLogicStudio Opens Deep Forest Exhibition at the Louisiana Museum in Denmark

Maria-Cristina Florian — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 06:30:00 +0000

The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art's "Living Structures" exhibition, running from November 8th, 2024, to March 23rd, 2025, features Deep Forest, a new installation by Prof Claudia Pasquero and Dr. Marco Poletto founders of architecture and design innovation firm ecoLogicStudio, together with academic partner Innsbruck University. This immersive work challenges traditional architectural paradigms by embracing the naturalization of architecture and technology, a direct counterpoint to modernist attempts to mechanize nature. The exhibition represents the culmination of twenty years of research in bio-digital design, showcasing the potential of symbiotic relationships between technology and the natural world within built environments.

Japan Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, Designed by Nikken Sekkei, Showcases the Cycles of Life

Nour Fakharany — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 05:30:00 +0000

The Japan Pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka, designed by Nikken Sekkei Ltd, centers on the theme "Between Lives," emphasizing cycles of transformation that shape life across plants, animals, and societies. It illustrates how, as entities approach the end of their roles, they transition into new forms, passing on elements of their existence. The Pavilion reflects this continuous cycle, demonstrating how the world operates through countless interconnected loops.

"Architecture - A Place To Be Loved": Japan Announces Pavilion for the 2023 Venice Biennale

Nour Fakharany — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 05:30:00 +0000

Japan's Pavilion has announced its exhibition “Architecture, a place to be loved – when architecture is seen as a living creature” curated by Maki Onishi, for the 18thInternational Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Centered around our post-pandemic reality of faceless developments taking over cities globally, the intervention's main question explores how people can once more find amazement in architecture and joy in shared physical spaces.

The City as an Organism

Ankitha Gattupalli — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 07:30:00 +0000

Nature has continually played muse to architects. Colors and forms from the natural world find themselves embedded in artificial edifices. Buildings are also shaped by patterns of the wind and sun, topography, and vegetation. While architecture is informed by the effects of nature, buildings have been proposed as inert objects that remain static in a biologically evolving world. Anthropocentric concrete “jungles” are devoid of life, separating humans from natural environments and causing imbalances that have manifested as pandemics. What would cities look like if there were no boundaries between humans and ecosystems?

Cynical Optimism Links the Homes of Alain de Botton's Living Architecture Series

AD Editorial Team — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 09:30:00 +0000

Alain de Botton’s Living Architecture project - a joyful, democratically-minded concept to share quality architecture in the UK - was borne out of personal crisis. The Swiss-born philosopher and author gained fame in both popular and architectural circles following the release of his book, "The Architecture of Happiness."

Peter Zumthor's Rammed Concrete Retreat for Living Architecture Nears Completion in England

Niall Patrick Walsh — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 11:00:00 +0000

Living Architecture has published photographs of the Peter Zumthor-designed “Secular Retreat” as it nears completion in Chivelstone, Devon. The retreat will be the Pritzker Prize-winning architect’s first permanent building in the UK.

Grayson Perry On 'A House For Essex' And His Collaboration With FAT

James Taylor-Foster — Tue, 12 May 2015 05:00:44 +0000

In an article for The Guardian, Turner Prize winning ceramic artist Grayson Perry has written for the first time about his "plans for a Taj Mahal in Essex." The designs for the House for Essex, which have been realised over the last three years by FAT and led by Charles Holland, are of a "secular chapel" in the heart of the southern English countryside. The building was commissioned by the Living Architecture Project, which is headed by Alain de Botton and are the proprietors of property designed by the likes of Peter Zumthor, MVRDV, and David Kohn. This, their fifth foray into experimental collaborative architecture between architects and artists, is set to open its doors for holiday letting this year.

Galvanizing a Legacy: FAT's Final Built Work is Unveiled

James Taylor-Foster — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 01:00:00 +0000

The scaffolding has come down, revealing the first glimpse of FAT's extraordinary A House For Essex. Designed in collaboration with British ceramic artist Grayson Perry and commissioned by Alain de Botton’s alternative holiday rental project Living Architecture, the house will be the final built work that FAT complete. The bejewelled two bedroom dwelling, topped with a shimmering golden copper alloy roof and clad in glinting green and white tiles, sits in the rolling landscape of Essex - Charles Holland (FAT) and Perry’s home county. Adorned with sculptures integrated into a wider narrative that spatially recounts the life of a fictional character called Julie, the barn-like shape, bold colours and decoration has not simply garnered widespread attention but has also captured people’s curiosity.

Interview with Alain de Botton, Author of "The Architecture of Happiness"

Hugo Oliveira — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Better known for his books and television documentaries, which address the importance of philosophy in our daily lives, Alain de Botton is founder of “Living Architecture,” a company which rents holiday homes designed by renowned architectural practices like: MVRDV, NORD, Jarmund/Vigsnaes, David Kohn Architects and Peter Zumthor. It was while writing the book “The Architecture of Happiness” that the Swiss/British philosopher had this idea. He has also been designated honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, in acknowledgement of his services to architecture.

A Room for London Public Bookings

Kelly Minner — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 19:41:25 +0000

Public bookings to spend a night above the Thames in A Room for London, opened today (for nights January to June 2012) more information about a second stage of bookings (for nights July to December 2012) can be found here. The one-bedroom installation perched on the roof of Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall was designed by David Kohn Architects and artist Fiona Banner. The design competition for A Room for London initiated by Living Architecture, and Artangel, in association with Southbank Center attracted 500 architects and artists entries from across the world.

A Room for London

Karen Cilento — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 21:00:50 +0000

We’ve been bringing you coverage of the Living Architecture’s vacation houses and now we’re excited to share news that Living Architecture and Artangel are organizing a competition to build a new, temporary, one-bedroom structure on the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank Centre in London. The Room will allow up to two guests at a time a chance to spend a unique night in an exemplary architectural landmark overlooking London and will be available for the duration of the Olympic Year, 2012. The competition is open to any architect or architect teamed up with an artist/engineer or designer from across the world. Design proposals are expected to be bold, ingenious and intelligent, for residents and London alike. The deadline is November 30, and the shortlist announcement will be December 10.

The Shingle House / NORD Architecture / Living Architecture

Karen Cilento — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:00:13 +0000

Set for completion this October, NORD Architecture’s Shingle House will be part of the Living Architecture vacation houses, a project aimed to enhance the public’s appreciation of architecture. For their project, the young practice responded to the site’s strong winds and incorporated a modern take on the typical shingle homes that are scattered across the area.

A Secular Retreat / Peter Zumthor / Living Architecture

Karen Cilento — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:00:40 +0000

Although Peter Zumthor’s success is undisputed in the architecture world, it was interesting he would tackle a residence for Living Architecture as his past works have gracefully unfolded after years of development. For Zumthor’s project, entitled A Secular Retreat, the architect employs his signature strategy of using nature as a source of relaxation. The hill-top retreat is a quiet and passive design, truly taking the backseat to the surroundings. The home is designed to exploit the beauty of its location, capitalizing on views and providing perfect places for reflection. The home, Zumthor’s first project in the UK, is the perfect residence of the Living Architecture projects to visit for some peaceful downtime.