Magazine

Shenzhen Shuiwan 1979 Life Plaza is nestled within the leafy streets neighboring Shekou’s South Mountain. At the heart of this new development is a "secret garden" floating over three floors of retail space that sits at the summit of a grand atrium and offers visitors a pleasant retreat from... CLOU architects

Swiss architect Luigi Snozzi died on December 29, 2020, at a nursing home in Minusio after contracting the coronavirus. A short video portrait made when he was laureate of the Prix Meret Oppenheim 2018 captures the architect's passions and ideals. John Hill

Although the striking five-story ARRIVE Hotel reflects the increasing density along Sixth Street in popular East Austin, the project retains an unassuming century-old, one-story brick building. It houses Lefty's Brick Bar, one of six dining venues in a hotel that clearly prioritizes pedestrian... baldridgeARCHITECTS

Share of 826 apartments sold in the new Qiyi City Forest Gardens in Chengdu, China, that are inhabited: 10 René Ammann

In 2020 we presented 42 Buildings of the Week, featuring short Q&As with architects about recently completed buildings in the United States. It's your turn to help us crown a Building of the Year by voting for your favorite this month. The winner will be announced in February. John Hill

Between April and December, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Swiss-Architects editor Elias Baumgarten interviewed a slew of German, Austrian, and Swiss architects: virtual conversations that were transcribed into the five-part D-A-CH Talks series. The fifth conversation is translated... Elias Baumgarten

The Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad (IIMA) has announced plans to raze 14 of the 18 dormitory buildings designed by Louis I. Kahn. The buildings are an integral part of the campus designed by Kahn and completed in 1974. John Hill

The new building for the Faculty of Social Work (Building T) and the Sports Hall Extension at Kampus Schoonmeersen of University HOGENT in Ghent, Belgium, were completed in September 2020. The buildings are now open but with limited access due to the coronavirus. SADAR+VUGA, STUDIO LENS°ASS

Although it will be held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic, BAU 2021 is still taking place over three days in January. Four short films, created in cooperation with World-Architects, explore the event's four main themes.  John Hill

In one of his last official acts as the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump has signed the "Executive Order on Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture." John Hill

As part of its "Branching Out: Building Libraries, Building Communities" initiative, the Chicago Public Library has built and renovated dozens of libraries, including a modernization and expansion of the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Branch Library. The design by bKL Architecture builds upon the "good... bKL Architecture

With the completion of its new headquarters, the 1,600 employees of the Le Monde Group have been brought together under the same roof in a generously arching building on 67-69 Avenue Pierre-Mendès-France in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. Snøhetta

Residents are moving into The Smile, a mixed-use residential development in Harlem designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group. The main architectural feature of the Y-shaped building is a leaning facade that Ingels says "[fulfills] the century old set-back requirements in a new way." BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

Castelnau-le-Lez is a town located near Montpellier in the South of France which enjoys a very mild Mediterranean climate. The new Prado Concorde development on the edge of the Lez river and at the entry to the town combines collective housing with school facilities and shops in a vast urban... Valode & Pistre

A team led by Milanese architect Stefano Boeri has designed a temporary pavilion with a flower logo as part of Italy's coronavirus vaccination program. The pavilion expresses the program's campaign slogan: "With a flower, Italy comes back to life." John Hill

The New St. Pete Pier opened to the public in July, five years after Rogers Partners won a competition to design a replacement for St. Petersburg, Florida's old pier jutting into Tampa Bay. The multifaceted designed provides plenty of outdoor activities that cater to residents and visitors,... ROGERS PARTNERS Architects+Urban Designers

Twelve years in the making, the freestanding building designed by David Chipperfield Architects Berlin for the Kunsthaus Zürich is now complete. The keys were handed over the museum on December 11, with an opening planned for October 2021. John Hill

For sure, 2020 is a year many people would like to soon forget, what with the coronavirus pandemic derailing the events that regularly attracted architects and leading to the deaths of some notable figures in architecture, among other things. Nevertheless, against the backdrop of the pandemic,... John Hill

Share of United States workers who are employed in an occupation where exposure to COVID-19 occurs at least once per month: 18.4% René Ammann

The major new training center of 5,000 m², dedicated to the transmission and promotion of French gastronomic expertise, is located in the outlying district of Meudon-la-Fôret, 10km southwest of Paris, in an area of huge potential for the Greater Paris region. Arte Charpentier Architectes

Andi Schmied's forthcoming book, Private Views: A High-Rise Panorama of Manhattan, documents Manhattan luxury apartment towers from the inside, after the artist gained access to them by posing as a Hungarian billionaire. A short film reveals some of those visits. John Hill

OMA’s long-anticipated Taipei Performing Arts Centre, nearing completion in the capital of Taiwan, aims to be a theatre for everybody and everything. Ulf Meyer explores how the novel-looking building follows from an idea born a century ago. Ulf Meyer

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced that Edward Mazria, founder and CEO of Architecture 2030, is recipient of the AIA Gold Medal. John Hill

Point Counterpoint II, a floating concert hall designed by Louis I. Kahn for the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, has found a permanent home on the Delaware River in Kahn's hometown of Philadelphia. John Hill

A group of architects, designers, educators, and artists is calling on MoMA, Harvard GSD, and other US institutions to remove the name Philip Johnson from any titles or other honorifics due to the architect's "commitment to white supremacy." John Hill

The city of Yangshuo in Guangxi Province lays about 65 kilometres south of Guilin and is surrounded by a dramatic landscape of towering karst mountains, which as a tourist attraction have been a highlight of domestic and foreign visitor programs for decades. The karst landscape has been on the... Eduard Kögel

As an existential financial crisis threatens Lebanon, the opening of the LSB regional headquarters, located in the city of Tyre on the southern coast of Lebanon, examines the untapped potential in challenging established code. Domaine Public Architects

The National Museum of the United States Army opened last month, on November 11, better known as Veterans Day. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the building is wrapped in a... Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Share of time Hugh Broughton Architects, in London, designed a research station in Antarctica with a team in Australia over Zoom: 100% René Ammann

As announced during an online presentation on December 3, the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) in London has awarded Dong Mei and Liu Xiaochuan of China's BCKJ Architects the 2020 Royal Academy Dorfman Award. John Hill

Green Pea inaugurates in Turin: An architecture in which sustainable materials, greenery and natural light are the protagonists. A manifesto built as an experience of the possibilities and beauty of new technologies of conscious building and of the values represented by a vision of respect for... ACC Naturale Architettura Cristiana Catino, Negozio Blu Architetti Associati

Landscape for Architects is an ambitious new book by Gabriele G. Kiefer and Anika Neubauer that provides an introduction to landscape architecture through a series of questions about design, answers in the form of precedents, and hundreds of schematic drawings across five trilingual... John Hill

The walls of the lobby for Maida Smiles in London's Maida Vale district are covered in more than 500 hand-crafted ceramic discs, appropriate for a clinic specializing in cosmetic dentistry. John Hill

Gerhard Heusch, founder of Heusch Inc. has unveiled a 1,500-sf underground office addition to his innovative Oak Pass residence in Beverly Hills, California.  Heusch Inc

Situated in the eclectic Marconi-Alexandra neighborhood, the project takes advantage of unusual urban conditions such as surrounding garages, train tracks, an adjacent laneway. Rather than being seen as negative, these elements are incorporated to the project beneficially. Pelletier de Fontenay

Ten years in the making, The Circle at Zürich Airport, designed by Japanese architect Riken Yamamoto, is now open to the public — in the midst of a pandemic that has seen passenger traffic at the airport reduced by more than 80%. John Hill