As cities and communities adapt to new cultural, environmental, and social realities, architecture is taking on an expanded role in shaping spaces of resilience, gathering, and imagination. This edition of Architecture Now highlights six recent projects that span continents and typologies, from the redevelopment of post-industrial landscapes to sacred architecture, cultural pavilions, and civic hubs. Whether through mass timber innovation in Vancouver and Jülich, adaptive reuse in Ostrava, a children's pavilion in London, a spiritual centre in India, or a parametric church in Kyiv, each project demonstrates how design can bridge heritage and innovation while fostering connection, care, and community.
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has revealed the six shortlisted projects for the 2025 RIBA Stirling Prize. Since its establishment in 1996, the prize has recognized works that respond to contemporary challenges while shaping more inclusive futures. This year's shortlist spans a diverse range of scales and programs, including the restoration of one of the nation's most iconic landmarks, a pioneering medical research facility, a contemporary almshouse designed to reduce isolation among older residents, a university's "factory for fashion," a fully accessible home, and a creative house extension. The winner of the award will be announced live at the Stirling Prize ceremony on 16 October in the Roundhouse, London.
Whether for design competitions or architectural awards, buildings are often judged for what they offer–the programmed functions, the form, or the visual delight. In a minority of cases, it is the absence or the reduction of intervention that made a project successful. In 1971, a high-profile architectural competition in Paris was won by a proposal that only utilized half the available site, giving the rest as an urban space to the city. In London, a proposal to convert a disused power station with minimal additions, leaving large spaces untouched, won a design competition in 1994. The Stirling Prize, the UK's most prestigious architectural award, in 2017 was won by a proposal that was little more than an empty platform. These examples of cultural buildings from Northwestern Europe illustrate how the absence of intervention can provide more.
SPPARC architecture and design studio has revealed plans to renovate the former Ravenscourt Park Hospital in Hammersmith, London, which has stood vacant for two decades. The building, originally named the Royal Masonic Hospital and designed by Thomas S. Tait, is regarded as one of the first major modern buildings in the UK and was Europe's largest independent acute hospital when it was opened by King George V in 1933. Built to provide low-cost treatment for Freemasons and their families, the 260-bed facility operated until 1994, reopened as an NHS hospital in 2002, and was permanently closed in 2004. According to the recent announcement, the Grade II listed landmark, currently on Historic England's Heritage at Risk register, is intended to be repurposed as 140 new homes, a 65-bed care home, and spaces available for public hire.
August 12, designated by the United Nations as International Youth Day since 1998, was conceived as an occasion to bring youth issues to the forefront of the international agenda and to celebrate the contributions of young people to today's global society. Each year, the observance focuses on a specific theme. In 2025, it is "Local Youth Actions for the SDGs and Beyond," emphasizing the role of youth in transforming global ambitions into community-driven realities. The aim is to highlight how young people help implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within local contexts and bridge the gap between policy and practice. In this spirit, we present three educational programs, in Romania, the United Kingdom, and the United States, that empower youth to deepen their understanding of the built environment and envision a more sustainable, people-friendly urban future.
When one thinks of public spaces, the image of a pool rarely comes to mind. Public spaces are the center of civic life, places where most interactions, activities, and behaviors follow strict social and cultural norms to ensure the safety and comfort of all users. In contrast, swimming and bathing represent something more intimate and primordial, a sensorial experience distinct from any other. In addition to the health benefits, the act of floating in space creates a break from everyday life and its constraints.
As social spaces, public baths, and pools offer an even more unusual experience. Here, regular conduct rules and norms no longer apply. Social nudity becomes the new norm, and, as people strip off their clothes, they also lose their status markers, transforming the pool into an egalitarian oasis. Across history, these often-discredited spaces offered a heightened social experience, fostering connections and bringing a new element to dense urban environments. As a typology present since antiquity, public baths and pools have also been a disputed space, as a manifestation of difficult topics such as gender and racial segregation, gentrification, and surveillance in contrast to the freedom they promise.
Marking World Play Day, June 11, the Play Pavilion, designed by British architect Peter Cook in collaboration with the LEGO Group, has just opened. The Pavilion is located next to Serpentine South in Kensington Gardens, London. Developed with Pablo Wheldon and Cong Ding, the Pavilion is a collaboration between Serpentine, the LEGO Group, The Royal Parks, and CONSUL. The project builds on Serpentine's broader efforts to connect architecture, design, and public engagement through temporary installations in the park.
The V&A East Storehouse will open to the public for the first time on Saturday, 31 May 2025. Located in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the project is part of East Bank, a new cultural quarter supported by the Mayor of London. Designed by the internationally recognized architecture firm Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, the new facility serves as both a working store and a visitor destination. Following a decade of planning and extensive audience consultation, V&A East Storehouse is the first of V&A East's two new cultural destinations to open in East London. The second, V&A East Museum, is scheduled to open in spring 2026 and will explore the role of making and creativity as agents of change.
Bangladeshi architect and educator Marina Tabassum and her firm, Marina Tabassum Architects, have been selected to design the 2025 SerpentinePavilion. Titled "A Capsule in Time," the proposal takes inspiration from the ephemeral nature of architecture in the Bengal Delta, incorporating a semi-transparent structure intended to evoke a sense of community and connection. The Pavilion will open to the public on June 6th, until 26 October 2025, with a press preview two days before the opening. Tabassum's pavilion will mark the 25th year since the Serpentine's first commission of Zaha Hadid's inaugural structure in Hyde Park in 2000.
Clockwise from top left: Foster + Partners with Yinka Shonibare and Michel Desvigne Paysagiste; WilkinsonEyre with Lisa Vandy and Fiona Clark, Andy Sturgeon Design, Atelier One and Hilson Moran; J&L Gibbons with Michael Levine RDI, William Matthews Associa tes, Structure Workshop and Arup; Heatherwick Studio with Halima Cassell, MRG Studio, Webb Yates and Arup; Tom Stuart - Smith with Jamie Fobert Architects, Adam Lowe (Factum Arte) and Structure Workshop. Image Courtesy of the teams and Malcolm Reading Consultants
The UK Government has revealed five shortlisted design concepts for the Queen Elizabeth II Memorial, set to be located in the historically significant landscape of St James's Park in London. The proposals, now accessible through a newly launched online gallery, mark a key stage in the development of a national tribute to the late monarch. Public feedback on the exhibited proposals will be gathered until 19 May 2025 and will inform the Committee's decision on the winning design team, expected to be announced in early summer 2025. The final design is anticipated to be unveiled in 2026, coinciding with the centenary of Queen Elizabeth II's birth.
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