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Small Scale: The Latest Architecture and News

Rethinking the Roles of Small-Scale Informal Wood Industries in Tropical Africa

Tropical Africa boasts vast forests that cover 3.6 million square kilometers of land in West, East, and Central Africa. These forests provide valuable timber resources that significantly impact sectors, such as the furniture, fuel, and paper industries. However, interestingly, timber is seemingly absent in the contemporary architecture of the countries in this region. While architectural taste plays a role, the main reasons for this absence can be attributed to the wood industries' inability to meet the requirements of availability, affordability, aesthetic appeal, durability, and climatic and structural performance of timber. The wood industry in tropical Africa is mainly composed of informal and small-scale operations, focused primarily on sawing logs rather than refining wood for architectural or structural purposes. Despite this, the large number of informal enterprises in the region presents an opportunity to reshape the wood industry and utilize the local forestry resources to construct timber buildings.

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Why are Scale Models So Appealing?

Ambitious and diverse, models are representative tools non-exclusive to architects. Peculiar fascination with miniatures – and what they tell us about our larger world- extends to all ages, cultures, and purposes. From scaled temples of clay from 200 B.C. found in Mexico, ceramic models carried during medieval Islamic journeys, Victorian doll houses, and LEGOS, models are more than baby buildings. Miniatures unveil the essentials, explain much larger concepts, contain intimate and historical data, and invite us to challenge our known selves and perspective.

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Meet the 75 Finalists in ArchDaily's 2023 Building of the Year Awards

After two weeks of voting in our 14th edition of the Building of the Year Awards, our readers have narrowed down over 4,500 projects to just 75 finalists across 15 categories, casting over 100,000 votes. This year's awards celebrate the very best in design, innovation, and sustainability from around the globe, with the shortlist featuring an exceptional range of projects, from a house in a favela to cutting-edge cultural centers and innovative public spaces that are sure to impress. As a crowdsourced award, we are proud to say that your selections are a true reflection of the state of architecture, and this year's finalists are no exception.

The ArchDaily Building of the Year Awards is brought to you thanks to Dornbracht, renowned for leading designs for architecture, which can be found internationally in bathrooms and kitchens.



How to Ensure Comfort and Well-Being in Small Spaces?

While some aspects of comfort and well-being in an indoor environment are related to external factors, such as natural lighting and ventilation, others are directly associated with the interior layout and the sensations created by architecture in the people living in that space.

It is always challenging to balance all of the elements that can provide greater comfort and well-being in interior design, particularly in small environments that must be fully optimized since it is not always possible to create large openings to the outside or even to accommodate the whole architectural program in a conventional manner.

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Elo Studio / Ticiane Lima Arquitetura & Interiores

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  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  15
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2020
  • Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project
    Manufacturers:  Casa Moysés, Criare, Deca, Dpot, Enjoy House, +9

Sisters Houses / Daher Jardim Arquitetura

Sisters Houses / Daher Jardim Arquitetura - Interior Photography, Houses, DoorSisters Houses / Daher Jardim Arquitetura - Exterior Photography, Houses, GardenSisters Houses / Daher Jardim Arquitetura - Interior Photography, Houses, FacadeSisters Houses / Daher Jardim Arquitetura - Exterior Photography, Houses, GardenSisters Houses / Daher Jardim Arquitetura - More Images+ 16

  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  80
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2020
  • Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project
    Manufacturers:  Marmoraria MG, Sai Glass, Stark Tecnologia

How Are Public Washrooms Shaping Places in China?

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Public Toilets in Zuzhai Village / cnS. Image © Siming Wu

In recent years, with the accelerated urban development of public spaces in China, public washrooms have been assigned numerous new roles. Designers have come up with a variety of proposals which suggest turning public washrooms into a place where social gathering can be redefined, and temporary stay can be more engaging. Although the scale of public washrooms is significantly smaller than that of any other type of architecture, Chinese architects have been working innovatively on fitting the public washrooms into the changing social contexts. Below are a few examples that demonstrate some current architectural experiments with public washroom design in China.

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High-Rise Living: 7 Houses Under 65m² in Rooftops and Attics

When it comes to attics, we often imagine underused spaces in homes and buildings, such as warehouses or rooms that are exclusively used to shelter infrastructure systems. However, reflecting on the reuse of traditional attics in 19th-century Parisian buildings as housing, which is happening nowadays, one realizes that these spaces can be reinvented and, with a little creativity, they can provide impressive living spaces.

6 Small Scale Projects with Large Social Impact

The field of architecture has the potential to influence human relations in countless ways through the built space. In small-scale projects, in particular, the challenges of tackling the dialogue between the space and the individual are combined with the task of conveying ideas to inspire people to explore the use of these minimal spaces. 

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Yellow Treehouse Restaurant / Pacific Environments

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Micro-Architecture: 40 Big Ideas for Small Cabins

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In spite of their apparent simplicity, small cabins have always been a welcome design challenge in which scale, materiality and habitability must be resolved in order to take maximum advantage of minimal spaces. Perhaps the most famous exercise in cabin design, the Le Corbusier-designed 16m2 cabanon was a container of ideas in which the Swiss architect explored the "modulor"-- an understanding of the fundamentality of human scale. In the ensuing half-century, many prominent architects have ventured into cabin design both experimentally and at a primitive level, especially as a small refuge in harmony within a natural context.

We have selected 40 small cabin designs from around the world that explore different types of solutions according to context and programmatic needs. 

Meet the Mobile Dwelling Space Named B.O.B.

Three M. Arch. candidates at Montana State University, Jonathan Chavez, Kimball Kaiser and Adam Shilling, won an Undergraduate Scholars Program research grant which they used to fund their design-build project: B.O.B., the Backyard Office Box. B.O.B. is a kit of parts which, when put together, create a 150-square-foot dwelling space. The design team, also known as Tr3s, wanted their project to be adaptable to a variety of sites and users. B.O.B. can function as an additional space to already existing projects or standalone as a temporary shelter.

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