Having explored adaptability at the city scale, we are now zooming in on the building itself—and, crucially, on practice. How can architects, developers, and consultants embed adaptability as a measurable, mainstream outcome? This question will be on the agenda at the Adaptable Building Conference (ABC) on January 22 at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, where architects, engineers, policymakers, and industry leaders will explore the potential of adaptable buildings—and how to deliver them at scale.
In a balance of aesthetics, performance, and versatility, HIMACS shows a solid surface material of choice for many architects and designers. Taking a further step forward, the entire range of standard HIMACS sinks and basins is now officially SCS certified, containing a minimum of 8% pre-consumer recycled content. This certification enhances the material's technical and visual appeal by providing a more sustainable option without compromising quality or functionality.
From bathroom vanities with integrated basins to kitchen islands with flush-mounted sinks, HIMACS shapes offer a seamless balance of style and function. Each component integrates effortlessly with the surrounding HIMACS surface, creating a continuous, grout-free finish that is both elegant and easy to maintain.
Taking a deeper look at the interplay of light and shadow in architecture seems to be a recurring topic on the agenda of many professionals in the field. Spaces of light and darkness are conceived to enhance circulation and spatial directionality, as well as to highlight the colors, textures, and forms of specific architectural elements. That said, the impact of natural light on building facades reveals the need to develop strategies that support energy savings, improve the thermal and visual comfort of interior spaces, and promote the reduction of carbon emissions. Considering light as another material in architecture, in what ways could its power contribute to the architectural experience?
Today, interdisciplinary learning and exchange are more important than ever in addressing increasingly complex environmental, social, and urban challenges.
Each summer, the University of California, Berkeley's College of Environmental Design (CED) becomes an intensive laboratory for architectural, landscape, and urban exploration. Through two complementary programs—Design + Innovation for Sustainable Cities (DISC) and the Summer Institutes—Berkeley offers an immersive curriculum grounded in disciplinary rigor, intentional exchange, and a shared institutional culture. Together, these programs reflect CED's long-standing multidisciplinary structure, with architecture, landscape architecture, city planning, and urban design thriving and collaborating under one roof.
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Second Prize Winner: Branch. Image Courtesy of Buildner
Buildner has announced the results of the Howard Waterfall Retreat architecture competition, an international design challenge developed in close collaboration with the Howard Family Trust. The competition invited architects and designers to propose a multi-generational family retreat set within a privately owned, forested landscape in Northwestern Pennsylvania, centered on the dramatic presence of Howard Falls and the surrounding gorge.
Rather than prescribing a singular architectural solution, the brief emphasized a careful dialogue between architecture and nature. Participants were asked to consider how a retreat could balance shared and private living, respond to steep topography and water systems, and integrate sustainably within a sensitive ecological setting. The project also called for an interpretation of family legacy, encouraging designers to acknowledge the history of the site and the original summer cottage while imagining a retreat capable of evolving across generations.
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First Prize Winner: Edge of presence. Image Courtesy of Buildner
Buildner has announced the results of its Re-Form: New Life for Old Spaces, an international ideas competition examining the adaptive reuse of small-scale existing buildings. The competition invited architects and designers to propose transformations of used, abandoned, or overlooked structures with an approximate footprint of 250 square meters, located anywhere in the world. With no fixed site or program, participants were encouraged to explore alternatives to demolition and new construction through reuse strategies grounded in contemporary social and environmental concerns.
As an open-format competition, Re-Form foregrounded sustainability, feasibility, and community impact over formal or typological constraints. Submissions ranged from precise urban insertions to more speculative rural interventions, reflecting a broad range of approaches to working with existing fabric. Many projects focused on how limited, often marginal spaces could be reactivated to support new forms of collective use while responding to material, climatic, and ecological conditions.
Ellisse, location: Armando Cose, Designer: Philippe Malouin
Communicating an idea using only the essentials is a far greater challenge than it often appears. From Japanese haikus to the refined sculptures of Constantin Brâncuși, many artistic expressions have sought to condense the maximum meaning with the minimum of elements. This economy of form is not a sign of scarcity, but of intensity: every stroke, every word, every silence gains weight. There is something intrinsically appealing in what presents itself as simple and well-resolved, whether it is a text that wastes no words, a tennis player who moves with purposeful gestures, or a melody that is both direct yet unexpectedly profound.
That same principle, which transcends various artistic languages, resonates deeply in contemporary design. When reduced to the essential, furniture or everyday objects reveal a form of beauty that arises from precision and transcends their function. This is exemplified by HUM, the new collection of taps developed by designer Philippe Malouin for QuadroDesign, in which a simple gesture is transformed into a complete language.
Bratislava, the rapidly developing capital of Slovakia—located in the heart of Europe—continues to strengthen its presence on the European architectural map. As a growing hub of contemporary design—already home to projects by Zaha Hadid Architects, Massimiliano & Doriana Fuksas, Stefano Boeri, Studio Egret West, and Snøhetta—the city has now reached another important milestone: an international architectural and urban design competition has been announced to shape the future of Zváračák, one of the last major brownfield sites near the city center.
Liminal Air Space-Time by Shinji Ohmaki, Noor Riyadh 2025. Image Courtesy of Noor Riyadh
Noor Riyadh 2025 brought large-scale light installations to public sites across the Saudi Arabian capital, temporarily transforming transit hubs, historic districts, and significant landmarks into illuminated urban environments. From November 20 to December 6, 2025, Riyadh became a citywide gallery of light, motion, and shifting perception. The festival's fifth edition featured 60 artworks by 59 artists from 24 countries, including more than 35 new commissions, responding to the theme "In the Blink of an Eye." Through light as both medium and concept, the installations reinterpreted the capital's rapidly evolving architectural landscape and reflected how perception shifts in spaces shaped by heritage and ambitious urban development.
Creating living spaces in a world between on and off. Image Courtesy of GIRA
Across recent architectural discourse, interior design has been centered on how spaces shape psychological and atmospheric experience, and on what gives interior environments their emotional resonance. Attention has shifted toward small details rather than relying primarily on form or structure. Light, for instance, is not only a technical requirement but also an architectural material in its own right. It can structure space, animate surfaces, define textures, and shape atmosphere while influencing well-being. At the same time, the characteristics between minimalism and maximalism shape how atmospheres are perceived, prompting reflection on how approaches to simplicity or exuberance might influence mood. Rather than existing as opposing aesthetics, these tendencies explore how interiors interact with mental states, reflect personal identity, and respond to the subtle shifts in the way people inhabit and experience space.
Cities are slowly reshaping themselves. Walkable streets, bike-friendly networks, and mixed-use neighborhoods are becoming planning priorities as climate goals, changing lifestyles, and remote work reshape daily patterns. Yet even as these people-centered ideas gain momentum, most cities still rely heavily on private cars, creating a tension between the urban futures we're designing for and the mobility habits that persist today.
This tension has pushed architects and developers to rethink one of the hardest pieces of the urban puzzle: parking. Mixed-use buildings are multiplying, stacking homes, workplaces, and services into tighter footprints, and every square foot has to work harder. The challenge is no longer simply where to put the cars, but how to integrate parking in ways that support density, livability, and long-term adaptability—allowing cities to evolve without letting vehicles dominate their form.
Where cities were once shaped by simple structures that could adapt to new uses, they are now packed with rigid dwellings—often designed with a single use in mind and fixed in both layout and lifespan. As climate deadlines tighten, communities demand more resilient, resource-conscious spaces, and work and living patterns continue to shift, this rigidity is becoming a liability. When buildings refuse to bend, they are often treated as disposable, triggering cycles of demolition, downtime, and loss. Adaptability, once considered an added convenience, is becoming an imperative—something the inaugural Adaptable Building Conference (ABC) in Rotterdam aims to put front and center.
The niche has been a space of visible intention throughout the history of architecture. In ancient Roman architecture, it served as a formal device carved into masonry to display statues, vases, or other objects. These recesses animated the walls of temples, bath complexes, and civic buildings, adding rhythm, depth, and focal points to otherwise massive structures. The interior spaces of the Pantheon framed statues of gods, and the Baths of Caracalla used similar voids to structure expansive halls. By the Renaissance, the niche evolved into a refined architectural frame. In Florence, the external cavities of Orsanmichele held guild-commissioned statues, while the Uffizi Palace's recesses displayed sculptural works. Whether filled or intentionally left empty, these openings articulated internal and external walls and facades, introduced hierarchy, and provided visual interest, serving as deliberate gestures meant to be seen.
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The Basic Services Unit, a full-scale housing prototype by ELEMENTAL and Holcim, presented in Venice during the 2025 Architecture Biennale. Image Courtesy of Holcim Awards
During the Time Space Existence exhibition, organized by the European Cultural Centre in Venice, the building-solutions company Holcim and Pritzker Prize-winning architect Alejandro Aravena, with his firm ELEMENTAL, unveiled a full-scale prototype that introduces a new approach in incremental housing solutions.
The housing prototype—The Basic Services Unit—was built with Hoclim's recently launched biochar technology, which transforms buildings into carbon sinks by permanently trapping carbon in a bio-based material called biochar. This material is used as a component of low-carbon concrete, cement, and mortars.
All architecture is grounded in the earth. This pliant, resilient raw material is the origin of extruded ceramic tiles—clay transformed from its natural state into an architectural solution without relinquishing any of its authenticity. Exagres' work is rooted in this natural material, carefully transforming the clay with skillful precision and guiding it on this journey rather than forcing it.
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AI powered architectural concept generation. Image Courtesy of AIRI Lab
As artificial intelligence tools sweep through creative industries, architecture stands at a pivotal moment: how to adopt systems that amplify design thinking without eroding authorship or craft. To understand how the profession is responding, AIRI Lab surveyed designers and leaders from practices including LWK+P, MVRDV, Gensler, Büro Ole Scheeren, CUBE, HUAYI, and others. Their responses reveal a nuanced, pragmatic view: AI is a collaborator rather than a substitute.
The quintessential symbol of Manhattan, Waldorf Astoria New York officially reopened for the public this year after an extensive renovation. Over its long history, the property has undergone numerous transformations, from its 19th-century beginnings to the modern landmark that stands between Park Avenue and Lexington Avenue.
Reimagining a building that pioneered modern hospitality—a jewel in New York's skyline—posed a challenge that required close collaboration between preservationists, 3D visualizers, architects, and designers. Together, they worked to preserve its protected architectural heritage while meeting contemporary expectations for craftsmanship and comfort.
Modern residential construction in the UAE demonstrates the need for advanced thermal envelope solutions in hot, arid climates where cooling can account for up to 70% of peak electricity consumption. Image Courtesy of Terraco
Terraco, a global leader in Exterior Insulation Finishing Systems, has demonstrated through independent studies that when planning building renovations, it is essential to adopt a deep retrofit strategy that includes energy-efficient measures, such as thermal insulation of external walls and roofs.
The studies show that cooling energy use in buildings can be reduced by up to 47% annually in Middle Eastern and South Asian climates, directly as a result of installing the combined Terraco EIFS and Roof Insulation Finishing Systems, compared to leaving external walls and roofs uninsulated.
