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The Place: Encounter and contrast. Patagonia is one of the most important tourist destinations in Chile and the world, a geography that strikes you with its scale, untamed wilderness and the bond that’s generated between the visitor and the landscape.

Located in the heart of Paris, this 235sqm apartment spread over three floors had not undergone any transformations in decades. At the request of the new owners, we were tasked with rethinking and restructuring the entire triplex. Our first concern was to completely review the distribution of spaces and their organizations in order to adapt them to the needs of new owners. At first, all the existing partitions were demolished: The objective was then to preserve and enhance the light that had become through after demolition.

Yulin Alley is initiated by the Yulin East Road Community and Disabled Persons Federation of Wuhou District and is planned, designed, and operated by Nhoow architects. It's a community center that is trying to create an environment of freedom and equality that suits all. More people with disabilities will be encouraged to come and take part in our activities and more people can do more exploration attempts. We truly hope that everyone in Yulin Alley can get a little more than they expect and enjoy a good moment of life.

Located on an urban lot within a consolidated neighborhood in the central region of the city of São Carlos, in the interior of the State of São Paulo, the project for this residence opts for a volumetric configuration facing the interior of the lot, with the intention of guaranteeing maximum privacy to the residents. The landscaping was designed at the same time and plays a fundamental role in shaping spaces, composing backgrounds and controlling temperature and solar incidence.

The New York Greenhouse is an annex of the Cactus Store in Los Angeles, is a 400 sq/ft storefront and education center that focuses on rare and bizarre desert plants. An opportunity arose to temporarily expand the store's operations to a vacant lot in Manhattan's Lower East Side, across from Seward Park on the Chinatown border.

Buildings are the lifeless inhabitants of cities that have stood quietly in the streets for years to provide us with shelter and comfort and to make memories over time. In addition to being beautiful and responding to the needs of users, they must be rooted in the culture of their context.

The KUGENUMA-Y House is located close to the sea in Shonan. It is a house with a simple structure, including a 5-storey Raw Concrete and steel mesh frame and a 6-storey steel slope of 150 m full length. 

The house is designed by the Japanese architect Shota Nakanishi and the structural architect Hirofumi Ohno in Japan. The site is a residential area in Kanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan, in the Hokuriku region. The Hokuriku region has the rainiest days of any region in Japan.

If you were asked what the ideal classroom should look like, what would you answer? We have it clear: that it is outdoor, versatile, inclusive, respectful with the environment, and above all, amusing! With these premises, we designed the new temporary schoolyard, which the students of the school called Zona Santiago, and in which they even collaborated in its conception and design. A place designed for movement! A plot for all. Next to the Santiago Apóstol del Cabanyal School, there is a site formerly occupied by a parking lot. The school did not have its own schoolyard in which to carry out outdoor activities except for the small roof terrace of its own building. The Valencia City Council has temporarily handed over the site to the school, how should be transformed this place so that it becomes a true outdoor learning site?

The VR cabin project was developed in the search for the perfect connection between the user and its environment, creating a space that coexists directly with the natural landscape that surrounds it. This space is generated with the idea of ​​providing a warm and welcoming environment that allows seclusion from the city. The cabin was born as a vacation refuge to offer privacy to the user.

The Balsaneo nautical and sports center is the result of the will of a young visionary mayor from the center of France who wants to give his city a reputation with an ambitious innovative facility dedicated to the pleasures of water in all its forms. The building offers 2000 m2 of water space with swimming pools for competition training, spectator stands for 500 people, relaxation and wellness pools, an outdoor 50m pool, a balneotherapy area with hammams, saunas and massage rooms, a sports center with spaces dedicated to sports and a multi-purpose room that can be used as a music room or a wedding hall, 2 cafeterias, outdoor solariums planted and a solarium on the roof.

There is a vast private and beautiful site, a plot on the Leman Lake, looking towards the majestic Alps. The fictional character that we have called to invest our site is Mr. Barrett, the particular caretaker of the 1963 Joseph Losey’s film The Servant.  The primary purpose of this private commission was to design a garden that, during its realization, started to dialogue with a second intervention on the same plot, the renovation of a chalet, Mr. Barrett’s house. The garden presents some sort of spatial contrast with the house; as much as the interior of the chalet is vertical, “sectional” and quite modest in its dimensions, the garden offers an experience of diverse open horizontal areas delicately enclosed by plants.

Located on a plot of 8 x 21 meters, in the metropolitan area of Asunción, we were asked for a house that provided a feeling of spaciousness on the ground floor and the highest possible privacy on the upper floor. We proposed a housing system that can be applied to other urban lots in the city, with a flexible and adaptable structure (in length and width) and rooms that meet different uses for different users. The structure is a mixed system: on the ground floor, it is made of metal, and on the upper floor we used fair-faced concrete. The upper floor blocks are suspended over the front and to the quiet part of the building by means of diagonal tensioners, generating shadow and protection overhangs.

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On this 713 sq.m plot, located in a residential condominium, there is a solitary pequi native tree, legally protected and very representative of the Central Brazilian region of the Cerrado. Adjacent to the lot, a green non-buildable area, still flourishing, promises to become a densely wooded forest, a common green space to the residents of the condominium.

DAK – The Other Side Studio – an artist retreat in Mumbai  - Many coastal areas around the world are facing an immense dilemma. How do you deal with densification and increase in population in these areas considering the reality of rising sea levels? Coastal areas are however some of the most desirable places to live and work. In fact, they are often attractive from a perspective of livelihood or because of their advantageous environmental conditions. It is therefore important to consider when construction activity does have to take place, it builds resilience to an uncertain future. Moreover, it should employ building methods and use materials that have a minimal impact on their fragile ecosystems.

Text by Valerio Olgiati. House-shaped columns carry horizontal slabs and form an earthy stone shelf, made of concrete. The center of the building is illuminated by an atrium. Four massive pillars form the building's foundation in it. All parts of the building form an indivisible structure.