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Ingrained Artefacts Growth. Now, a balance between organisms and artifacts is at the crossover point. I encountered an article published in a scientific journal titled “Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass” (Nature: published online 9th December 2020). According to the article, human-made artifacts referred to as anthropogenic mass has begun to surpass all global living biomass. Furthermore, it is reported that the dominant cause of this trend is construction materials. This condition implies it has reached a limit to keep generating the “architecture solely for humans” produced so far. In this context, what would be the role of architecture, a human dwelling?

Two years two months and two days, the writer Henry David Thoreau lived in a cabin which he built himself in Walden Pond, Massachusetts, his childhood town. In just about a space of 3 m x 4.5 meters lakeside, he developed himself as an individual isolated from society looking for inspiration of the natural and its origins. His time at the cabin, let him valued what it’s really necessary and the respect of life itself which leads him to renovate himself as a human and fight on social subjects at the end of his life. This means it's funny how the toad is different when it enters than when it leaves the pond.

Bosques de las Lomas in Mexico City was conceived as a Residential district within a forested area. The clumsy architectural development has deforested the hills, transforming the forest into rooftops, streets, and concrete platforms with gardened areas, draining their rainwater into the municipal sewer system, reducing the natural water infiltration into the soil, destroying the original flora and fauna of the site. The property adjoins a federal reserve land, deforested due to the architectural development and the mismanagement of the authorities.

Located in the city of Pelotas, in the extreme south of Brazil, Casa Pampa proposes a dialogue between the meeting southern and tropical cultures. The geographical proximity between Rs, Uruguay, and Argentina, the hostile climate, and the pastoral care forge common traces between these locations in the south of South America.

The Wild Mile will create a new environment for habitat, education, and recreation on the Chicago River. Designed as a 17-acre floating eco-park, it advances a community-led vision of renewed urban ecology that helps strengthen neighborhood connectivity, generate cleaner water, and support more vibrant ecosystems.

El Terreno is a community garden and educational center built exclusively with recycled materials used in our previous constructions.

In the South of France, sited on a hill of olive trees, pinus pinea, and a vineyard, a family retreat was designed with a mission of maintaining the vitality of the site. An agricultural plot, the family’s mission was to cultivate the landscape as part of their stewardship.

With a plot by the sea, the challenge was to privilege the view from the whole house, using a quick construction based on concrete and metal structure, the open environment integrating the interior with the exterior in order to perceive the terrain as a unique space.

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Fuqiang elementary school is designed to support new ways of learning to feed Shenzhen’s growing thirst for creative talent and innovation to feed its rapidly expanding economy.

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In a traditional neighborhood of Belo Horizonte, full of stories and values, Forest House is the union between past and present, the old and the new, a building forgotten, resurfacing with new residents in the middle of the Floresta neighborhood.

Located on the vast territory of Alentejo, the house emerges from an extensive tank leaning against a wall facing south, as if it were a sounding board for the entire landscape.

With the new Engelbach kindergarten, a unique, unmistakable world for children has emerged between the Grindel Canal and Hasenfeldstrasse. A place with a homey feel that is characterized by an aura of great relaxation. A kindergarten that combines the potential of the place with the requirements of modern pedagogy.

Courtyard House is a heritage-listed interwar bungalow. From the street, there is no visible presence of an addition beyond. But the Hawthorn home has undergone a fundamental transformation. The clients, a professional couple, aspired to an idyllic, minimalist sanctuary — with abundant natural light on the south-facing site. Although the property deserved substantial improvement, their brief was for a modest three-bedroom home on a similar footprint to the existing house. This was not an extension, but a reconfiguration.

Miguel Arraiz explains that the project has been conceived as a gift for the present and future of Valencia. The architecture and design of Agora Valencia explore the materials and artisan tradition of the Valencian territory, as well as extolling its roots in order to take advantage of a unique opportunity to bring design and its transversality to the citizens, businesses, and institutions. The materials and production systems used to allow for the modular and dismountable format of the pavilion, constituting a firm commitment to circularity and durability.

Barfold Estate is a vineyard, winery and farm located in the Southwest corner of the Heathcote wine region, a 75-minute drive north of Melbourne. The client approached LAYAN to design a generous yet simple building to provide accommodation to guests visiting the vineyard.