Architecture: Research Guide

Located on the site that once housed the old pony stable, the chapel was conceived as a space for introspection, retreat, and spiritual connection.The choice of location stemmed from a desire to give new meaning to that part of the property, making use of a pre-existing structure built among a bamboo grove — a natural element that became essential to the new architectural essence.

Brighton Girls was established in 1876 as a founding school of the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST). In 2020 the school wanted to consolidate all its accommodation on one site, which included listed buildings that were not put to their best use. From long discussions with the headteacher and GDST team, Walters & Cohen fully grasped the school's needs and came up with an innovative plan to make the best possible use of their existing spaces.

Every project is an opportunity to go further than what is initially thought possible. This loft conversion and top-to-bottom reconfiguration transformed a dark, cramped one-bedroom apartment into a bright, multi-level family home. By replacing the old roof with an energy-efficient one, we created space for a mezzanine level. This introduces a dramatic spatial variety, which is further enhanced by the contrast between dark materials and the natural light flooding through the oversized skylights.

The Corner House, located at the intersection of two busy streets in San Juan, Manila, responds to the city's need for open-air public spaces suited to its tropical climate. It becomes a refuge from the dense urban environment, offering a space for relaxation and social interaction.

Jiuguo Courtyard Inn is a youth hotel located in the scenic area of the Tianjin City Concession, and is the first practice of Modum Atelier to incorporate an operational perspective in its design.The original building is mainly made of masonry with a timber roof, showing the combination of early colonial style and local building materials. As the building is located on the inner side of the street, it lacks a prominent commercial display surface, so how to highlight the entrance and courtyard features became the focus of the design. We adopted a 'patchwork' approach to the design intervention, maintaining the original building in its current state to the greatest extent possible, respecting ..

Beach house built around nature, preserving original elements and providing a unique experience at any time of the year.

The new Kindergarten Kreuzfeld is an important milestone in the development of the Kreuzfeld neighborhood in Altach (Vorarlberg, Austria) and unites kindergarten and infant care beneath one roof. With the newly added building, a neighborhood center has been created, which establishes an identity and radiates into the village as a place of social encounter.

We were commissioned to transform a pre-existent 180sqm restaurant with the typical Chiado vaulted interior in a contemporary ‘Tasca’. Tasca is a traditional portuguese restaurant, that serve home-style food, where you eat at the counter or at tables with no cloth towels. It was at ‘tascas’ that most of the conversations started with a glass of wine and a shared plate of a “petisco”, maybe a salad made of a strange part of the pig or even a simple plate of lupines.

Creating an educational setting is a specific and sensitive task. Merging children's safety and learning optimization requirements with an aesthetic appeal and solid concept can birth some of the most beautiful, unique projects around. One common configuration is the elliptical or circular school. A circular, more specifically ringlike educational setting can suggest a sense of protectiveness and safety with the construction of the embracing surrounding membrane. It is also a practical setup that envelopes multiple functions while linking them, consequently allowing interactive instances through the central courtyard.

Rooted in our guiding principles of functionality, sustainability, and smile, this office space was conceived as a sanctuary for creativity—an environment that nurtures both well-being and innovation. Located at the edge of a natural pond, the building's organic form follows the curvature of the shoreline, integrating architecture seamlessly into its landscape.

CHYBIK + KRISTOF (CH+K) has unveiled new images of its multi-purpose arena in Jihlava, a progressive city in the heart of the Czech Republic. Designed as part of a winning competition proposal in 2019, the project is being developed for the local ice hockey team, HC Dukla, and is scheduled for completion in late 2025. The arena has recently reached a key milestone with the installation of its characteristic facade. Unlike many similar developments that relocate to the outskirts, the venue retains its central position, an intentional decision by the municipality to activate the city core, support local businesses, and ensure accessibility by public transport and on foot. The project aims to e..

Villa Hee is a small vacation home with surprisingly large rooms. It is located in Hee, just south of Hamburgsund on the Swedish West Coast. The prevailing and at times harsh climate has greatly influenced the design and material choices. The plot is relatively large, flat, and situated on a naturally rich piece of land with pines, rocks, and meadow grass. The house is oriented in a straight north-south direction, closed off to neighbors and road to the north, while open towards the forest and fields to the south and east.

A new public school has just opened in the Meatpacking District. Here, the focus is on food, architecture, learning, and movement. The school was designed in close collaboration between Danish NORD Architects and BBP Architects.

The site is located in a detached housing area in Bitgaram-dong, Gwangju-Jeonnam Joint Innovation City. The city center forms a gravitational hub centered around the expansive lake park, observatory, commercial buildings, public institutions, and high-rise apartments. Meanwhile, the detached housing area opens out toward farmlands and mountain ridges, extending beyond the urban edges and blending into the surrounding pastoral landscape.

This project is located in a hutong neighborhood of Beijing's old city, occupying an area of approximately 97 square meters, surrounded by a dense residential courtyard. Before this renovation, the space had undergone a previous transformation by another team, making this project a second optimization (re-renovation).

The European AHI Award recognizes architectural heritage interventions across Europe, highlighting their role as a forward-looking model for 21st-century architecture with tangible social, environmental, and economic benefits. In its seventh edition, the award honored six projects, four first prizes and two special mentions, during a ceremony held in early June at the Paranimf Ceremonial Hall of the Escola Industrial in Barcelona. A total of 238 projects from architecture studios in 24 European countries were submitted. The selected winners are located in Antwerp, Kortrijk, Olot, Ancient Corinth, and Milan.

Cities today are being reimagined as living, evolving organisms, combining digital intelligence, ecological systems, and new materials to shape radical futures. At Carlo Ratti's "Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective." biennial, over 750 participants challenge established boundaries between architecture, landscape, and technology. Several conceptual projects showcased in the main exhibition challenge conventional boundaries between architecture, landscape, and technology. From bio-adaptive urban systems and Martian water-based settlements to immersive symphonies of satellite data, these works collectively envision new models for cohabitation, resilience, and planetary awareness.

RAHYAFT Central Office Approach is a knowledge-based architectural concept that aims to challenge conventional notions of office space. It envisions a dynamic environment where workspaces are integrated with collective areas, pause zones, and circulation paths, creating a vibrant and interactive building in which daily activities are not dictated solely by the traditional office program.

The project responds to the commission to create a new Early Learning School (ELS), an independent building that maintains a connection with the other blocks and sports areas, being part of a master plan for the expansion of Altair School.

After a devastating fire in 2021, aluminium manufacturer Aluned faced a critical question: how do you rebuild a workplace that is not only functional but also sustainable, inspiring, and in dialogue with its surroundings? HA-HA Design & Development, a Rotterdam-based architecture firm, saw an opportunity in the crisis. By retaining the existing foundations and steel structure, they designed a contemporary work environment that honours the site's industrial heritage while embracing the landscape. "We saw the loss of the old building as a chance to show what circular and adaptive building can truly mean." — Nima Morkoç, Architect at HA-HA. "It's remarkable how a limitation, the existing..

Sofie is a house full of character, located in Dilbeek, Belgium, in a very green environment. The house needed to be completely renovated, but also partly extended. Many beautiful elements were present and carefully preserved: wooden floors, moldings, decorative wooden elements around windows and doors, and stairs. Above all, the existing volume was restored.

The first edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale took place in 1980, immediately revealing its role as a platform for images and ideas that would become essential references in contemporary architectural theory and practice. This disruptive character was embodied from the very beginning by the strangely familiar floating structure designed by Aldo Rossi, titled Teatro del Mondo. At once temporary and archetypal, the project introduced central themes that would shape Italian architectural discourse in the years that followed. To this day, it continues to inspire reflections on timelessness, imagination, and the memory embedded in cities.

Creating a City-Within-a-Park for Urban Community-Building

The summer of 2025 has brought extreme heat across Europe and beyond, with record-breaking temperatures and widespread climate-related impacts. Red alert warnings have been issued in France, Italy, and Spain as temperatures exceeded 46°C in parts of the Iberian Peninsula. These conditions have led to school closures, restrictions on outdoor work, and pressure on urban infrastructure, including power grids and public transport systems. The heatwave has simultaneously intensified wildfire risk across the Mediterranean. In western Turkey, ferocious wildfires near Izmir forced the evacuation of over 50,000 people as high winds and low humidity fueled rapidly spreading flames. In Spain's Catalon..

The ensemble, consisting of a house for people and a barn for animals, is the archetype of the Romanian rural household. With time, these households have changed their functions and initial owners, becoming one of the main resources for quiet living outside the crowded cities. The project is located in a picturesque pre-mountain village, surrounded by oak and ash forests.

BIG, artist Doug Aitken Workshop, NIRAS, Volcano, and RWDI have won a competition to redesign three public spaces surrounding major music venues in Ørestad, Copenhagen. The initiative, titled Byens Scene ("The City's Stage"), aims to revitalize the areas around DR Koncerthuset, Bella Arena, and Royal Arena, transforming them into an interconnected landscape for everyday use and public performances.

Ari House is a 3-storey private residence situated in a dense urban neighborhood, designed with a clear emphasis on openness, calm, and seamless spatial flow. Rooted in the principles of indoor-outdoor living, the architecture creates a quiet sanctuary that balances structural innovation with material warmth. The home responds to the client's brief for a light-filled, comfortable living environment while negotiating the challenges of a large-span structural grid and urban privacy.

For over five decades, Swiss photographer Thomas Mayer has developed a serene, emotional, and documentary language for architecture. His lens captures the random and memorable moments of our built environment - reflections in the rain, long blue hours in Nordic summers, and the quiet darkness of sacred spaces. Recognized by ArchDaily as one of the top architectural photographers, Mayer carries an abundant fascination for light and space.

Memphis River Parks Partnership, Studio Gang, and SCAPE announce the opening of Tom Lee Park, a newly transformed 31-acre public space set between the Mississippi River and downtown Memphis. The park's design was a collaboration between Studio Gang and SCAPE, with Studio Gang leading master planning and architecture and with SCAPE leading its landscape design. Named for Tom Lee, a local Memphis hero and Black river worker who single-handedly saved 32 people from drowning after a steamship capsized in 1925, the park's design seeks to foster greater economic equity across Memphis by providing publicly accessible amenities for local residents. Situated on the banks of the Mississippi River, the..

In the core hinterland of Daliang Subdistrict, Shunde District, a 138,000 square meter of three-dimensional water town is breaking ground for a newborn - as the largest volume in South China, it is also the first TOD commercial complex in Shunde city. The staggered and dynamic open layout constructs Lingnan courtyards and skywells with different scenery, and the water town imagery of stream banks, fishing boats, boat canopies, mist and waves can be seen everywhere in the venue, which is skillfully reflected by light and shadow, giving visitors a confusing, real and imaginary symbiotic spatial perception. The reconstruction of Lingnan courtyard and water town culture here is a creative dialog..