As the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale enters its concluding weeks, the global architecture scene continues to unveil significant projects and recognitions. This week's highlights include Studio Libeskind's residential complex in Prague; sauerbruch hutton's Panorama Constance exhibition building in Germany, and CRA–Carlo Ratti Associati's digitally fabricated bivouac for the upcoming Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. In New York, Venezuelan artist Miguel Braceli designed a major public artwork for the city's waterfront, addressing themes of migration, diversity, and the complexities of geopolitical identity. The week also brought recognition to sustainable and creative achievements, from the Holcim Foundation's regional awards for sustainable construction to the publication of Tadao Ando. Sketches, Drawings, and Architecture by Taschen, celebrating nearly five decades of the architect's design process.
CRA–Carlo Ratti Associati, in collaboration with Salone del Mobile.Milano, recently unveiled the design of a digitally fabricated bivouac set to debut as an urban pavilion during the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. The digitally fabricated wooden structure is designed to be self-sufficient, incorporating systems for energy production and storage, as well as water harvesting through air condensation. After its debut at Milano Cortina 2026, the structure is planned to be airlifted by helicopter to its permanent high-altitude location in the Italian Alps, where it will serve as a refuge for mountaineers.
Museum Erhardt by Kéré Architecture. Exterior garden view. Render . Image Courtesy of Kéré Architecture
Construction has officially begun on the Museum Ehrhardt in Plüschow, northeast Germany, marking the first cultural project in Germany by Francis Kéré and his firm Kéré Architecture, as well as their first museum building in Europe. Developed in cooperation with HK Architekten and Hermann Kaufmann + Partner ZT GmbH, the 1,400-square-meter museum will be dedicated to photography and contemporary art. The initiative was launched by Dr. Jens Ehrhardt, son of the artist Alfred Ehrhardt (1901–1984), together with his wife Elke Weicht-Ehrhardt, to honor the painter, photographer, and filmmaker who was a leading figure of Germany's New Objectivity movement. The museum will stand near the Baltic Sea, adjacent to Schloss Plüschow, an artist residency and gallery.
2025 marks the 60th anniversary of Singapore's independence, commemorating its separation from Malaysia on August 9, 1965. The occasion is celebrated in the country's national pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale with a multisensory installation that honors Singapore's diversity and reimagines city-making through food, culture, and collective design. Titled RASA–TABULA–SINGAPURA, the installation invites visitors to take a seat at the Table of Superdiversity: an enticing reimagining of city-making and nation-building through the universal act of dining. According to the curatorial team from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), the purpose of the installation is to showcase how the convergence of multicultural differences, collective histories, design, and new technology creates opportunities for more inclusive and adaptive urban futures.
The Tallinn Architecture Biennale (TAB) has been organized by the Estonian Centre for Architecture (ECA) since 2011. Since its founding, it has become Estonia's leading international festival dedicated to architecture and the built environment. The ECA recently announced that the upcoming edition will be curated by Stuudio TÄNA and Mark Aleksander Fischer, winners of the Curatorial Competition for the 8th International Tallinn Architecture Biennale (TAB 2026). Their winning proposal, titled "How Much?", poses the question of what affordability truly means in architecture today. The event, which in previous editions has included exhibitions, lectures, seminars, tours, satellite events, and installations across Tallinn, seeks to open a space for reflection on how architecture and design can be genuinely cost-effective, addressing the broader implications of cost and consumption. TAB 2026 will take place in the Estonian capital from 9 September to 30 November 2026.
Oricon Tower project by Eduardo Souto de Moura and OODA. Exterior render. Image Courtesy of Plomp
Eduardo Souto de Moura and OODA have unveiled the design of the Oricon Tower, a 180-meter mixed-use skyscraper planned for Tirana, Albania. Located near OODA's recently completed Bond Tower, the project is part of the city's ongoing transformation under the Tirana 2030 Masterplan, which envisions a denser and more connected urban core. The tower will house offices, residences, retail areas, and a hotel, contributing to the city's evolving skyline and serving as a new urban gateway between Tirana's historic center and its expanding western districts.
Between September 25 and October 5, 2025, the XXIII Chilean Architecture and Urbanism Biennial took place in Santiago. Under the title "DOUBLE EXPOSURE: (re)program · (re)adapt · (re)construct," the event was organized around the idea of "understanding architecture not as the production of the new, but as the ability to reactivate what already exists." Based on this premise, the curatorial team, composed of Ángela Carvajal and Sebastián López (Anagramma Arquitectes) together with Óscar Aceves, conceived a circuit of eight venues located in downtown Santiago. Their goal was to revive and reclaim urban spaces through a series of free public activities that drew around 70,000 visitors. Among the reactivated sites, the ruins of the San Francisco de Borja Church stood out. Burned during the social outburst of October 2019, the site hosted a temporary pavilion that served as a venue for talks, readings, art installations, discussions, and community events.
On October 25, 2025, the Fondation Cartier Pour l'Art Contemporain will open its new premises to the public with an inaugural exhibition drawn from its own Collection, entitled Exposition Générale. Located in the heart of Paris, the new space occupies a Haussmannian building that once housed the Grands Magasins du Louvre, recently reimagined by Jean Nouvel. Conceived as a dynamic architecture with five mobile platforms, the building was designed to expand the possibilities of a traditional exhibition venue. These mechanisms aim to accommodate all forms of visual expression, including photography, cinema, the performing arts, science, and craft, within a space that resonates with the urban life of Paris and engages with questions of urban planning and ecology. Within these parameters, the inaugural exhibition brings together more than 600 works by over 100 artists in a contemporary scenography designed by Formafantasma.
Isola Della Musica Opera and Convention hall by Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Render. Image Courtesy of RPBW
Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW), in collaboration with Sydney and Hanoi-based PTW Architects, has begun construction of the Isola della Musica, a new opera house and convention center in Hanoi, Vietnam. Commissioned by Sun Group, the project was first conceived in 2017 and forms part of a broader masterplan that reshapes the existing boundary between West Lake and Đầm Trị Lake. Inspired by the region's history of pearl cultivation, the building features a series of curved concrete shells whose forms and surfaces evoke the texture and luminosity of mother-of-pearl.
This week in architecture, global recognitions and new unveilings underscored the field's growing commitment to climate awareness, cultural continuity, and adaptive reuse. From Expo 2025 Osaka's closing ceremonies to international award announcements, the focus turned to architects and designers redefining the relationship between place, material, and community. Alongside these recognitions, major new projects, from Dubai to California, illustrated how design continues to evolve across scales: shaping cities, preserving heritage, and addressing urgent global challenges through context-driven architecture.
Monday, October 13th, marked the conclusion of Expo Osaka 2025. The exhibition gathered representatives from 165 countries and international organizations and welcomed around 28 million visitors to Yumeshima, a reclaimed site in Osaka Bay. The site was reimagined through a masterplan and bounded by a Guinness World Record-breaking wooden circular structure, both designed by Sou Fujimoto Architects. Over 184 days, participants were able to visit the self-built, modular, and shared pavilions, national exhibitions, and public activities organized under the overarching theme "Designing Future Society for Our Lives." During its six-month run, the Expo set out to explore three pivotal subthemes, Saving Lives, Empowering Lives, and Connecting Lives, as an invitation to bring together new perspectives for our built and social ecosystem.
The Créateurs Design Awards (CDA) announced Xu Tiantian, Founder and Principal Architect of DnA_Design and Architecture, as the recipient of the 2026 edition of Le Prix Charlotte Perriand. The award celebrates architects whose work embodies innovation, social responsibility, and a deep engagement with community and place. The architect was recognized for her transformative work bridging urban and rural communities through innovative design interventions. Her approach to architecture was acknowledged as a tool for cultural preservation and rural revitalization, making her an exemplary recipient of this honor, previously awarded to prominent architects such as Frida Escobedo, Jeanne Gang, Kazuyo Sejima, and Ryue Nishizawa.
Hudson's Detroit mixed-used development. Aerial view. Image Courtesy of Bedrock
Detroit-based Bedrock development group has announced the completion of the first phase of its Hudson's Detroit mixed-use project in the city center. The project was first unveiled in 2017, when the company presented plans for a 1.2-million-square-foot development designed by SHoP Architects to be built on one of downtown Detroit's long-abandoned sites, formerly occupied by the J.L. Hudson's Department Store. Once the tallest department store in the world and a central gathering place for the city throughout much of the 20th century, the site has now been reimagined as a contemporary urban destination. After nearly a decade of planning and construction, Hudson's Detroit aims to bring new activity and public space to a location emblematic of the city's commercial and cultural past.
Adolescent Girls Co-Design and Build their Public Spaces in Beirut June 2024. Image Courtesy of CatalyticAction
Make Space for Girls (MSFG) is a London-based charity that campaigns for public spaces and parks in the United Kingdom to be more inclusive of teenage girls. The organization conducts research on how public spaces are used and designed, raises awareness about perceived inequalities in their use, and collaborates with public and private institutions to promote the representation of teenage girls in the planning and design of outdoor environments. Their research indicates that their exclusion from the design of parks and public spaces often leaves them without places where they feel welcomed or valued, and that parks and public spaces for older children and teenagers are currently designed for the default male. From 8 to 15 October, the organization is running a fundraising campaign to support the implementation of its new three-year strategy aimed at promoting more inclusive public spaces.
