Month: February 2026

This week began with the World Day of Social Justice, foregrounding urgent questions of labor rights, spatial equity, and resource governance, and framing architecture as both a product of and a response to the social systems that shape access to land, housing, and opportunity. The announcement of the 15 winning projects of the 2026 ArchDaily Building of the Year Awards highlighted a global cross-section of built works recognized for their architectural quality, innovation, and social impact, offering a snapshot of contemporary practice across scales and geographies. This week’s news prompts a broader reflection on architecture’s civic responsibility, with heritage and community-building through cultural architecture emerging as central themes. Housing, meanwhile, anchors another critical strand of the discussion with three highlighted initiatives: a manifesto reframing housing not as a market commodity but as a civic right and collective project grounded in care; a large-scale waterfront regeneration masterplan responding to regional housing demand through coastal transformation; and a timber residential project that explores the potential of wood in medium-density housing.

In Hong Kong, where interiors and small buildings are routinely caught between two extremes—high-gloss “luxury” finishes on one end, and budget-cautious industrial roughness on the other—a third attitude has emerged through the calibration of both: a uniquely precise, relevant, and materially honest execution that is not dependent on price point. This is calibrated rawness. Calibrated rawness describes an architecture that retains the directness of matter and materiality—concrete, metal, blockwork, exposed structure, visible services—while subjecting it to rigorous control.

colored patterned modules accommodate stages, tribunes, bleachers, and kiosks.

The post alpine garden installation by BUREAU emerges in milan’s urban fabric for winter olympics appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

This is a private house in Jakarta, Indonesia, for a dentist couple with 2 kids. The site is a typical rectangular shape, with both sides and the rear of the house closed off from the neighboring houses, and no ventilation or sunlight can be expected from the side openings. The front façade faces neighboring houses. Despite these challenges, homeowners desire a home that feels open and lush with greenery.

the site launches its programming with barragán en barragán alongside a parallel presentation of works by felix gonzalez-torres.

The post luis barragán’s la cuadra san cristóbal reopens to the public with two exhibitions in mexico appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

The design and construction of a project on a steeply sloped terrain in Shandiz, adjacent to a seasonal river, with mandatory boundary consideration and a weekend villa program, was assigned to the Abar office. According to regulations, the project was permitted to construct two stories above ground and one basement level. This perpetual regulation has led to repetitive typologies that, on one hand, due to the relentless villa development in the region (in a situation similar to apartment typology), obstruct the view of the valley and distort the natural landscape, and on the other hand, result in stereotypical programs that sometimes have no connection to the user’s lifestyle and creating “possibilities” in their experience. Despite having previously prepared complete plans, the client requested a redesign due to unmet needs; a matter we analyzed as the “Difference between In-Town and Out-of-Town Housing”.