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Herzog & de Meuron to Revitalize Tirana's Communist-Era Palace of Congresses
On June 3, 2026, Herzog & de Meuron was selected to revitalize the Palace of Congresses building in Tirana, Albania. The project was designed along with collaborators Julian Beqiri, Marsela Demaj, Michel Desvigne Paysagistes (MDP), ARUP, LDK, Gentian Shkurti, SUEB Industries sh.p.k., The Space Factory Ltd, MBBM, and KLAR sh.p.k. The Palace of Congresses (or Pallati i Kongreseve) was built during the People's Socialist Republic of Albania and opened in 1986 to host the Congresses of the Party of Labour of Albania and other official activities. The International Competition for the Redevelopment of the Palace of Congresses, carried out by the Albanian government, called for a comprehensive transformation of the building while preserving its historical identity. The project should address serious infrastructural issues and bring the Palace to contemporary standards in terms of technology, functionality, and quality of spaces.
Architecture Inspired by Birds: Fundación Cosmos and the Wetland Parks of Chile
How can architectural design become an active tool for conservation? By considering nature as an inexhaustible source of inspiration, a harmonious connection with it frames the countless interrelationships that exist among humans, living organisms, and natural cycles. Designing with the landscape means learning to coexist with its temporal dynamics without controlling its processes. Traditions, ecology, and the past and present of a place all contribute to creating spaces that interpret their communities. Landscape architecture can draw inspiration from birds, plants, and other natural elements to shape the complex, dynamic network of ecosystems and human activities that make up the environment.
Śhālā Twam Community Hub / Bhoomija Creations
- architects: Bhoomija Creations
- Location: Thrippunithara, Ernakulam, Kerala, India
- Project Year: 2024
- Photographs: Prasanth Mohan, Running Studios
- Area: 2755.0 ft2
CROUS student restaurant / BPM Architectes
- architects: BPM Architectes
- Location: Talence, Bordeaux, France
- Project Year: 2025
- Photographs: 11H45
- Area: 3820.0 m2
Inside Homes that Last: Rethinking Residential Design for Climate Resilience
What makes a home resilient? Extreme weather events are becoming increasingly frequent around the world. From power outages, hurricanes, and earthquakes to wildfires, floods, and droughts, the world is experiencing a process of transformation and adaptation that requires collaboration among diverse disciplines. The role of architecture in the built environment reflects an opportunity to rethink how homes perform under changing environmental conditions—not only by anticipating the unexpected. Designing for resilience means thinking holistically, considering material choices, energy systems, landscaping, and construction details that anticipate disruption and help homes recover quickly. It involves creating architecture that evolves with the environment, is worth preserving, and endures for years and generations.
Suzhounan Railway Station / CCTN Design
- architects: CCTN Design
- Location: Suzhou, China
- Project Year: 2024
- Photographs: AOGVISION
- Area: 72000.0 m2
555 Sunshine Farmshop / SO
- architects: SO
- Location: Khao Yai, Thailand
- Project Year: 2025
- Photographs: Soopakorn Srisakul
- Area: 750.0 m2
Old Wine Tanks Become Suites at this Ionian Sea Resort
Adaptive reuse—the architectural strategy of repurposing disused buildings into spaces used for entirely different functions—is sweeping the hotel industry. It’s not just a passing fad. Consummate travelers are in search of increasingly distinct destinations that can fulfill that collective desire for experience, one that seems to be replacing the outdated propensity to amass material possessions.
This approach answers the demand manyfold. It also just makes sense when considering how quickly raw resources—building materials—are depleting and that there’s more than enough existing “material” to work with in the built environment. Hospitality seems like the right sector to best articulate this mindset and for it to be more widely understood. There is also plenty of “material” to work with when it comes to formulating compelling narratives, the type guests are now seeking.
Dexamenes Seaside Hotel is a shining example. Facing the Ionian Sea on the west coast of Greece’s Peloponnese Region, this sparingly decorated luxury resort makes the most of its winery origins. Its industrial architecture is, surprisingly, best poised to frame the stunning landscape in its environs. Alongside a push for systemized hyper-efficiency, the aim of the modernist project after-all, was to create near seamless connections between the indoors and outdoors.
The history here is rich and deeply rooted but doesn’t need to be expressed in overly explicit or kitschy detail. No, there aren’t any paintings of grapes—what was once grown here. Nor are there expressive depictions of vines not so subtly brought-in as fabric motifs. Nods to the past are simply apparent in the unadulterated and carefully updated existing architecture. With the introduction of eight new Seaview Terrace Suites, large wine tanks—inherently sheltering in their form—have been given new purpose and relevance.
This clever intervention ties in well with the story of resilient adaptation that has defined the locale for the past two centuries. After its liberation in 1830, Greece and this region in particular went through a period of abundant currant cultivation. It was the country’s main export but by 1910, demand collapsed. With locals having to quickly shift gears, they developed a new wine making industry. Dexamenes was one of the first processing facilities, positioned near the sea so that ships could directly load-up from the previously mentioned tanks. Though this second wind of ingenuity only lasted 10 years—with the country falling into another period of unrest—the strategy made sense. And though the facility remained untouched or used from the 1920s onward, the strategy makes sense again today.
Dexamenes Seaside Hotel first opened in 2019 after a painstaking renovation process. Athens-based architecture firm K-Studio had adopted a light-touch, surgical approach in which the portions of concrete walls cut-out to make way for floor-to-ceiling windows were reused in other segments of the project; as terrace surfacing, With custom furnishings fitting into an almost extra-skeletal metal pipe system floating above weathered surfaces and textured glass insert walls, the brutalist buildings were all but left intact. A place that once played host to the hurried activity of processing and storing wine became a calm retreat.
The same comprehensive approach was applied when more recently adding the eight Seaview Terrace Suites. These accommodations—occupying a new structure placed atop the tanks—have the best views. Each comes with generous verandas enclosed by wooden, pergola-like canopies. The choice of material both compliments and contrasts the prevalence of concrete everywhere else.
This addition was also joined by the opening of the dex.Silo.01 culinary space, making—like most venues here—clever use of a tank silo. Depending on moon cycles and according to an ever-changing menu, the raw curved wall—delineating a massive skylight of sorts—plays host to carefully composed video projections and other types of programing.
What: Dexamenes Seaside Hotel
Where: Kourouta, Greece
How much: $185 per night
Design draws: A converted brutalist-style wine processing facility from the early 20th century turned into a luxury seaside resort with subtle design interventions imbuing the space with a sense of calm.
Book it: Dexamenes Seaside Hotel
Go virtually on vacation with more design destinations right here.
Photography by Claus Brechenbacher and Rainer Baumann
A Celebration of Materiality, SIN Presents the FIELD Collection
If we get granular, we are all a product of our environment, choices, and innnate programming. Revolving around a singular point of view, we have no choice but to embody the principles that were instilled early, even if we choose to release them later. The FIELD Collection by SIN serves a similar function within the home – lighting that explores the materiality of the shade as principle, perhaps inviting us to explore how we inherently diffuse ourselves.
The system is simple, yet considered: a panel attaches to the wall, with a plate inset in the back to hold a lighting element. Once assembled, the light receives a shade, coming in a multitude of materials. The shade is held in with a washer and screw system, allowing any flat plane to be a possibility. Coming in 120 possible combinations, the sky is the limit with these statement pieces, speaking to the longevity and attention to detail at SIN, all with the recognition that tastes might change over time. As each version, with its distinct finish, thickness, and density, will handle light differently, each too will add its own voice to the conversation.
This flexibility in design lends the FIELD system to many more places outside the home – offices, schools, and restaurants all have areas that could use a bit more warmth. Material choice and spatial configuration is essential for determining a look, ultimately becoming a partnership between the designer and the properties of light itself.
“FIELD began as a question of how light behaves rather than how an object looks,” says Virginia Sin, Founder and Creative Director of SIN. “By holding the form constant, we were able to focus entirely on perception: how light settles onto a surface, how it changes with material, and how it shapes the feeling of a space.”
Virginia Sin makes home goods for the heart and soul. Handcrafted and deeply considered, each piece tells a story of the moments that make up a life. Spanning sculpture, lighting, and decor, she holds the warmth and delight that design can bring close to her Brooklyn-based practice, creating objects with respect for the hands that make them.
To learn more about the FIELD Collection by SIN, visit virginiasin.com.
Photography courtesy of SIN.
Abadim House / Paulo Moreira Architectures
- architects: Paulo Moreira Architectures
- Location: Cabeceiras de Basto, Portugal
- Project Year: 2021
- Photographs: Ivo Tavares Studio
- Photographs: Courtesy of Paulo Moreira Architectures
- Area: 320.0 m2
Casa Tlaloc / Lopez Gonzalez Studio
- architects: Lopez Gonzalez Studio
- Location: Xalapa, Mexico
- Project Year: 2026
- Photographs: Cesar Bejar Studio
- Photographs: Zaicks Moz
- Area: 316.0 m2
Cherry Orchard Shared Living Spaces / Actual Office
- architects: Actual Office
- Location: London, United Kingdom
- Project Year: 2025
- Photographs: Building Narratives
- Area: 600.0 m2
PREVI Lima and the Politics of Resident Authorship in Social Housing
Architects are accustomed to being credited for buildings long after construction ends. Names remain attached to projects through photographs, publications, and histories, often decades after the original drawings were produced. Buildings, on the other hand, rarely remain faithful to that narrative for long. Families grow, technologies change, businesses emerge, and daily life introduces demands that no plan can fully anticipate. Over time, architecture accumulates modifications, repairs, additions, and improvisations that gradually distance it from its original form.
Few projects confront this question as directly as PREVI Lima. Conceived in the late 1960s as Peru's Experimental Housing Project, PREVI invited an international group of architects to develop housing prototypes capable of accommodating growth over time. The project is often remembered for its ambitious roster of designers, which included figures such as James Stirling, Aldo van Eyck, and Christopher Alexander. More than fifty years later, the neighborhood has become a record of resident decisions, revealing a form of architecture designed to remain unfinished.
CP Rancho / Weber Arquitectos
- architects: Weber Arquitectos
- Ubicación: Valle de Bravo, México
- Año Proyecto: 2025
- Fotografías: Ariadna Polo
The Lasting Impact of Architectural Education: Training Professionals to Question Convention
Architectural schools usually leave lasting marks on their students, shaping their style and critical inquiry long after formal education has ended. For example, SCI-Arc, founded in 1972 and based in downtown Los Angeles, is an institution recognized for its culture of experimentation, critical investigation, and creative independence, building a reputation based on the idea that architecture should be understood as a field open to dialogue with art, technology, design, and contemporary culture. The diversity of trajectories of its alumni demonstrates how this environment can generate distinct professional approaches, but united by the same willingness to explore new possibilities.
OMA Completes Hangzhou Prism Mixed-Use Development in China's Future Tech City
OMA has completed the Hangzhou Prism, a large-scale mixed-use development in Hangzhou's Future Tech City district, China, following a design and development process that began in 2016. Commissioned by Xinhu Real Estate Group and led by OMA Partner Chris van Duijn, with Michael Hadjistyllis serving as project architect, the project combines residential units, a hotel, offices, commercial spaces, and public amenities within a single building volume. Marking OMA's first completed project in Hangzhou, the development occupies a central site within one of the city's emerging innovation and business districts.
"The Century of Gehry": Frank Gehry Retrospective Opens at the Serralves Museum in Porto
From June 12 to December 20, 2026, the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Porto, Portugal, will be hosting a retrospective exhibition dedicated to the career of Frank Gehry (1929-2025). Titled The Century of Gehry, the exhibition presents to the public original large-scale models, sculptures, drawings, furniture, and other works documenting the architect's notable, and at times controversial, postmodern architecture. The exhibit covers from early experiments to iconic buildings such as the architect's house in Santa Mónica, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The Serralves Museum occupies a building designed by the Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira in 1991. The exhibition is housed in the new wing that bears his name.
Contemplative Drama: How Gaudí Shaped Light and Color at Sagrada Família
It is afternoon in the summer, and the nave of the Sagrada Família is saturated with warm colors. Shafts of amber and crimson sweep across the stone floor, shift as a cloud passes over Barcelona, then deepen again. Around you, visitors slow without quite realizing it. Some raise their phones — not to capture the architecture, but to step into the light itself, positioning themselves in a pool of orange or gold as if the colours were something you could wear.
They are, without knowing it, doing exactly what Gaudí intended: surrendering, however briefly, to the sensation of being bathed in something larger than themselves.
Ara Manor / Reincarnation
- architects: Reincarnation
- Location: Baroicha, Bangladesh
- Project Year: 2025
- Photographs: Prantography
- Area: 6800.0 ft2
House Yolk / TOUCH Architect
- architects: TOUCH Architect
- Location: Khet Bang Khae, Bangkok, Thailand
- Project Year: 2025
- Photographs: Jinnawat Borihankijanan
- Area: 340.0 m2