Month: March 2026

The 2400 sf Hillside House sits comfortably on a forested slope strewn with enormous boulders. The owners entrusted us with their dream of a comfortable home for an active family of five. At our first meeting, one of the owners shared a sketch of a u-shaped floor plan that literally hugged the largest, most prominent boulder. Although practicalities intervened, embracing the boulder was the seed of the design and we kept it in mind as the project developed.

How heavy is a house? In his 1965 essay A Home Is Not a House, Reyner Banham observed that modern American dwellings were becoming structurally lighter while growing heavier in mechanical services, such as plumbing, wiring, heating, and cooling. The true weight of architecture, he argued, was no longer in walls and roofs, but in the energy-intensive systems that sustained comfort.

Before the digital turn, architecture’s memory was largely tangible. It lived in the weight of drawings, the patina of models, and the thickness of books. To preserve architecture meant to preserve its traces, the documents, sketches, and photographs through which buildings could be remembered long after their material form had changed or disappeared. The modern architectural archive, as it developed in the 20th century, was both a refuge and a device of legitimacy. Institutions such as the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Casa da Arquitectura, or the Deutsches Architekturmuseum were built upon the conviction that to preserve architecture was to preserve its documents.

Fragrance of Earth is a 1,800 sq. ft. bungalow gently elevated on a natural mound within a 12-acre mango orchard, surrounded by an abundance of fruit-bearing trees. Conceived as an extension of the landscape rather than an imposition upon it, the home emerges with quiet restraint, allowing architecture and nature to exist in continuity. Its name reflects the project’s guiding ethos — a tactile relationship with the land, expressed through natural textures, locally sourced materials, and a design language shaped by earth, climate, and context.

Hariri Pontarini Architects and Snøhetta have been selected to design the new Ontario Science Centre in Toronto. Announced in February 2026, the 400,000-square-foot facility will anchor the site’s ongoing transformation through a 220,000-square-foot building defined by a series of scalloped, modular volumes. A central component of the proposal is the physical integration of the existing Pods and the historic Cinesphere via elevated connections and a continuous public promenade. Construction is expected to begin in Spring 2026, with completion anticipated in 2029 as part of a broader waterfront redevelopment strategy.

The Contemporary Art Museum of Kumamoto and the Shoei Yoh Archive at Kyushu University are honoring the late Japanese architect Shoei Yoh with an exhibition on view at the museum through March 9. The architect, who passed away on January 8, 2026, was born in Kumamoto in 1940 and, throughout his career, worked across product design, interiors, and architecture. He is recognized as a pioneer of contemporary timber construction and for his early contributions to computational design. The exhibition revisits his projects in Kumamoto through drawings and models from the Shoei Yoh Archive at Kyushu University.

Shift, a company offering digital programs to reduce carbon emissions through individual behavior change, has announced the five finalist teams advancing to Stage Two of its international architecture competition. Launched in January 2025, the Shift International Architecture Competition called for proposals to design “the Shift Landmark”: a 25,000 to 30,000 m² building in Waterkant, a new waterfront district in southern Rotterdam. The project includes a hotel, a conference and meeting center, and a sustainable food court. Its objective is to set a new standard for a purpose-driven destination that turns circular living into “something individuals, companies, and organisations can feel, experience, and act on.” The five shortlisted design concepts reflect different visions of sustainability and climate action, developed by teams led by the European offices of MVRDV (Netherlands), Heatherwick Studio (United Kingdom), Office for Political Innovation (Spain), Mecanoo (Netherlands), and Ecosistema Urbano (Spain).

Shift, a company offering digital programs to reduce carbon emissions through individual behavior change, has announced the five finalist teams advancing to Stage Two of its international architecture competition. Launched in January 2025, the Shift International Architecture Competition called for proposals to design “the Shift Landmark”: a 25,000 to 30,000 m² building in Waterkant, a new waterfront district in southern Rotterdam. The project includes a hotel, a conference and meeting center, and a sustainable food court. Its objective is to set a new standard for a purpose-driven destination that turns circular living into “something individuals, companies, and organisations can feel, experience, and act on.” The five shortlisted design concepts reflect different visions of sustainability and climate action, developed by teams led by the European offices of MVRDV (Netherlands), Heatherwick Studio (United Kingdom), Office for Political Innovation (Spain), Mecanoo (Netherlands), and Ecosistema Urbano (Spain).