If you've ever experimented with gardening but were unsure where to start, head straight to this new London greenhouse pavilion, which has just launched within the Barbican Estate. Titled The Veggery and erected, not only to inspire the public to explore seeds and plant growing, but also to mark the closure of the 2026 London Festival of Architecture, the project was created by Studio Folk Architects and Raskl, with the help and support of NLA and the Culture Mile Business Improvement District.

Explore The Veggery, a new London greenhouse pavilion

The project was awarded to the architecture practice and the design-and-build studio through a competition. The fun structure appears as part-folly, part working allotment, featuring a playful structure, which is, however, practically minded and lined with shelves that hold a variety of plant pots for seed growing.

The greenhouse pavilion sits on a hexagonal footprint. It features a vaulted polytunnel roof, water butts that double as columns, and a turnip finial at its very top. The form is meant to straddle the worlds between the traditional greenhouse typologies often found in English countryhouse farms and estates, and the Barbican's brutalist architecture forms – in particular its barrel-vaulted roof.

Patrick O'Keffee, co-founder and director of Studio Folk Architects, said, 'We’re really excited to see The Veggery installed in its new home, and become an extension of the Barbican’s iconic public realm for the summer.

'We’ve worked hard with the project team to develop a programme of activation that aims to foster a sense of shared ownership. It’s a space that does a lot – a greenhouse, an event space, a classroom and a spot for lunch – so we hope everyone can find something they enjoy in it.'

Giant paper collages produced during workshops with students from the neighbouring City of London School for Girls adorn its translucent façade elements, nodding to historic stained glass motifs. The aim is for the pavilion to become a place for community and social gatherings as much as for plant knowledge.

Dan Rose, director of Raskl, said: 'Raskl has been proud to work alongside Studio Folk, LFA and Culture Mile BID to bring The Veggery to life at St Giles. Organisations like the Culture Mile BID set ambitious goals for the public realm, and projects like this only succeed when design and delivery are worked through together from the start.

'What makes it most exciting is the site itself – a working church, a school with its own growing programme, and a community that will actually use the space long after the festival ends. We're glad to have helped turn a strong idea into something they can all make their own.'

studiofolkarchitects.com

raskl.co.uk

More than 10,000 architects from 130 countries gathered for the UIA World Congress of Architects 2026, the profession's flagship event taking place in Barcelona this week, and held every three years. Under the theme Becoming. Architectures for a Planet in Transition, talks, exhibitions and debates unfolded across the International Convention Centre, the DHub Design Museum and the disused Tres Chimeneas thermal power plant. Record summer temperatures only sharpened the urgency of the conversations, as speakers called on architecture to respond to an increasingly unstable planet.

6 key takeaways from the UIA World Congress of Architects 2026

Organisers described the programme as 'purposefully overwhelming', and they delivered. Six thematic strands unfolded over three days, each curated by a team of Barcelona-based architects working across disciplines including housing, civic infrastructure and installation design. The result felt unusually democratic. Emerging practices, researchers and activists were given equal footing with established figures, including Shigeru Ban and Smiljan Radić, signalling a profession interested in ideas over hierarchy.

Becoming 'More Than Human' and 'Circular'

The opening sessions argued that architecture must move beyond designing solely for people. Becoming More Than Human explored models of coexistence between humans and wider ecological systems, with landscape architect Catherine Mosbach presenting projects that embed themselves within existing environments rather than dominate them.

Material scarcity and resourcefulness defined Becoming Circular. French practice Lacaton & Vassal joined Barcelona studio H Arquitectes to champion an architecture of restraint, arguing that careful resource management and circular construction can produce greater spatial, environmental and social generosity. Doing more with less has become less a design philosophy than a necessity.

Becoming 'Embodied' and 'Interdependent'

Becoming Embodied shifted the focus to architecture's social and cultural impact. Sri Lankan architect Palinda Kannangara demonstrated how Buddhist philosophy, adaptive reuse and a light environmental footprint can shape elegant contemporary homes. Aga Khan Award-winning architect Marina Tabassum presented a mobile bamboo housing system developed for Bangladesh's shifting river communities, where architecture is measured by adaptability rather than permanence.

The Congress repeatedly returned to architecture's civic responsibility. 'Space is never neutral. It shapes society. Everything is interconnected. Rethink architecture as a framework,' said Congress curator Mariona Bendito. Professor Juan Herreros echoed the sentiment, arguing that architecture must become 'a series of integrated systems' capable of addressing planetary challenges rather than isolated buildings.

Becoming 'Hyper Conscious' & 'Attuned'

Technology emerged as both an opportunity and a responsibility in Becoming Hyper Conscious. Eyal Weizman, founder of Forensic Architecture, outlined how advanced modelling and open source intelligence have been used to document the destruction of Gaza, arguing that architects have a role in preserving evidence and collective memory as much as designing new buildings.

The most quietly persuasive conversations came in Becoming Attuned, where architects defended the value of the ordinary. 'There is a raw beauty in the vernacular,' said Swiss architect Leopold Banchini. Jaume Mayol, of Mallorca-based studio Ted'A, questioned why contemporary housing has abandoned the everyday spaces that encourage neighbourly interaction. 'Where are the galleries and the alcoves in new residential apartments? Legislation is killing social acts.'

The venue: Tres Chimeneas

Each evening, the Congress moved to Tres Chimeneas, the decommissioned power station that in the coming years will be transformed into a civic and media hub. Grandstands overlooking Barcelona's once- industrial waterfront hosted open discussions between architects, residents and visitors, while installations, music and performances transformed the vast site into something closer to a cultural festival than an industry conference.

That shift in format may prove one of the Congress's most lasting ideas. Architecture often struggles to communicate beyond its own profession. Here, discussions around affordable housing, climate resilience and public space felt accessible, immediate and shared. If the discipline hopes to shape the future, it must continue to convince the public that it has a stake in it.

uia2026bcn.org

The Museum of Architecture's newest activity, a bonsai treehouse exhibition set in a leafy central London park, has something for everyone. There is delightful miniature architecture, reminiscent of a fun, adventurous dollhouse; green spaces to elevate the soul and provide some cool shade; and workshops for visitors of all ages, to both explore architectural model making and concepts, and bonsai tree growing. Opening this weekend (4 July – 31 August 2026), the show is the perfect antidote to the UK capital's current hot summer spell.

Tour this bonsai treehouse exhibition in a central London park

The display is arranged at the heart of a small park, a green square in a quiet corner off Connaught Village. The mini treehouses and their plant pairings are set on plinths, offering a breath of fun and fresh air to the lovely, traditionally laid out residents' patch.

It all started with an idea the Museum of Architecture was working on a few years back, centred on a giant treehouse. The idea soon evolved into a miniature version, and indeed, not one but many, the institution's director Melissa Woolford explains.

'The range of practices joining “Bonsai Treehouses” this summer is really exciting – from some of the most established names in architecture to brilliant younger studios, every one of them has embraced our brief. Each bonsai in the collection is unique, and we asked every architect to respond to that individuality: to design for the specific tree in front of them, not for a treehouse in the abstract. The results are surprising, thought-provoking, and genuinely fun to discover.'

Architectural participants include larger and established studios such as Foster + Partners, Haptic Architects and White Arkitekter as well as boutique and more emerging ones – among them EcoLogic Studio, McCloy + Muchemwa and Macro Micro Architects.

The variety in approaches to the treehouse designs is also wide and entertaining. Each practice was given a bonsai tree to work with, and Foster + Partners, for example, found inspiration in mycorrhizal fungi – 'the buried networks through which trees quietly sustain one another across a forest floor', they explain.

Nothing could have materialised, however, without the help of Peter Warren, founder of Saruyama Bonsai, who collaborated with Woolford and the architects and brought his valuable expertise in bonsai-growing to the table.

He said: 'I have brought trees from my own collection to this exhibition – each one shaped over many years, and every one with its own character. I was very curious to see which trees would be chosen, and how each architect would respond to the particular form in front of them. I hope visitors will be delighted by the pairing of tree and miniature built structure.'

The exhibition will be complemented by a programme of creative workshops for all ages. Offerings will include treehouse making, treehouse gardening, and a bonsai masterclass with Peter Warren himself.

Bonsai Treehouses Exhibition is on 4 July to 31 August, 9am-6pm, Oxford Square, a short walk from Connaught Village at Connaught Street and Albion Street.

Advanced booking strongly recommended

museumofarchitecture.org

Concéntrico 2026 launched in Logroño on a scorching hot summer’s day (18 June) – yet the crowds braved the 30-degree-plus temperatures, arriving in droves to stroll through its 22 installations and meet their creators, an international mix of architecture and design studios, who were present to discuss their concepts and issues around urban space and public access – the architecture festival's core concern. The growing engagement the festival gets from both visitors and locals every year (this, its 12 edition since it was founded in 2015, being the biggest ever) is a mark of success for any design fair.

The achievement feels all the more notable when when you factor in that this is not Venice, London or New York; Logroño is the capital of La Rioja, a small town of 150,000 core inhabitants, amid countryside just south of the Basque Country (the nearest airport is a 1.5-hour drive away).

Explore the 22 installations at Concéntrico 2026

The status of Concéntrico 2026 is particularly thanks to the drive and fortitude of a single man – its director, Javier Peña Ibañez. Tirelessly working with local authorities, sponsors, schools, creative councils and architecture and design practices across the world, the Logroño-born architect founded and runs the festival every year, his ambition fuelling its success.

'Concéntrico emerged from the desire to make architecture accessible again, not as an abstract discipline but as something real, physical and collective,' he told us in an interview previewing the festival, earlier in the month. 'One thing that still defines the festival today is that everything happens at a 1:1 scale. There are no models or speculative renderings; the projects are built directly in the city. People can enter them, touch them, play with them, ignore them or completely reinvent how they are used.'

Now, the festival takes over sites across town – from locations in established parks and sports grounds to in-between or neglected sites awaiting redevelopment, and even the ruins of existing structures. Every studio (or group of architects) is assigned a site each, proceeding to craft a pavilion or intervention, which are then erected for the town to explore and to instigate global conversation. This year's installations tick all the boxes – they are open and playful, colourful and thought-provoking. Importantly, they are available and accessible to all, and Logroño embraces them.

2026 participants, AAU Anastas' Elias and Yousef Anastas, highlight this accessibility and communal spirit as a key driver to the festival's success: 'What we really appreciated about Concéntrico is how unpretentious it feels. It feels connected to the city and its inhabitants. The installations have in common that they are all defined by their relationship to their surroundings- sometimes harmonious, challenging, unexpected, contradictory, or useful. It is the collectiveness of all these interventions that ultimately becomes Concéntrico. Together, they transform the experience of the city in a way that no single project could achieve on its own. Achieving this is both brilliant and incredibly difficult, so credit to the organisers for making it happen.'

Concéntrico 2026 trends

Concéntrico 2026's contributors include 2026 Pritzker Prize winner Smiljan Radić Clarke, AAU Anastas, 2050+, Future Firm, DC DF, PPAA and Taelon7 (whose past work includes the new Accra pavilion Limbo Engawa). We explored their efforts – and more – to bring you the trends and highlights of what the architecture world is thinking and feeling through the festival's output.

Architecture and the senses

Do you think architecture can be predominantly experienced through the eyes? Think again. In Concéntrico 2026, smell, touch and hearing played a key part, with installations expanding creatively to include all senses through a number of designs – making engaging with architecture through one's senses a big trend in this year's iteration.

The aforementioned team – AAU Anastas – are among them; their piece, Cathedral for One, explores not only building with stone – one of the studio's key fascinations at the moment – but also offers an intimate cocoon made of marble where visitors can enter and listen to an audio piece by Hania Rani. More aural delights across the festival include Sounds of Architecture Records' Concéntrico vinyl (the architectural label is producing an album dedicated to Logroño by recording sounds of the city).

A mature garden developed by IC 98 and Suomi/Koivisto Architects over a year in the ruins of a dilapidated house offers both blissful calm and a joyful blend of smells, from various floral and herb mixes throughout.

Meanwhile, while many of the designs on show invite the touch – Terroir by Boltshauser Architekten and Garbizu Collar, made of earth, is a key one – few bring the warmth and sense of participation quite the same way as Dancing on Architecture's El Plano Latente, which invites passersby to dance around it, proposing walking as urban choreography, and will eventually be set aflame to celebrate the summer solstice.

Nature and climate

No surprises that climate is at the forefront of the participating architects' minds. This is expressed through several projects focusing on nature and gardens – such as the IC 98 and Suomi/Koivisto Architects scheme mentioned above. The library garden by Sahra Hersi also touches on gardening but from a different angle - urging the local community to take part, but centred, undoubtedly, on nature and planting.

Hersi said at the opening: 'We workshoped with the local residents to see what community garden means to them. Some thought of it as a balcony, a garden for their mother, a play garden. So, I developed this idea of the shed. Some of the flora, the birds, the bees and the fish that were present in all of the gardens [in the workshop] were imagined here. There will be a seed library. The idea is that this space will be a space for people to come and get free seeds, and then the seeds will be spread out across the city or the town.'

Natural materials abound too. Apart from Terroir, there is also Raumlabor's Hot, Cool, Soft, which utilises a natural fabric roof to create its own climate zone within the dense city centre. Shade, Breeze, Cooling by Noof Group looks at similar issues, addressing the thermal vulnerability of public spaces by crafting a cool mini garden with its own micro-climate.

Play

Walking through and sitting are available and indeed necessary at most of the exhibits, a part of what makes Concéntrico a highly participatory, bodily festival. A strong group among the installations actively encourage pay within the displays too.

Smiljan Radic Clarke's Circus piece places the visitor into a miniature, typical circus tent, where a film showing performers doing their acts encourages guests to feel part of the activity. At Summer Shapes Memories by the Ebro River, boats on rollers invite visitors to climb on and imitate a boat ride in its waters – a typical summer memory of many of the local inhabitants in the region.

Frontones Danzantes (Dancing Pelota Walls) by 2050+ revives the collective spirit of Basque pelota, offering the space for contemporary players to take part and make their own games. A similar spirit appears at Sidelined: A Game To Rethink Togetherness by Amanda Pinatih and Gabriel Fontana, who use a series of exercises with local students to highlight the inclusive nature of sport.

Taelon7's Juergen Benson-Strohmayer, whose installation offers rest and respite to shoppers on a busy street, says of the festival's tactile and dynamic nature: 'Concéntrico is special because of the opportunity to realise something physical with a lot of interaction and engagement on the ground all the way from the production, engaging with the teams, the landscapes of Rioja but also, then in the setting up and then the city, how people work with and interact with the structures that we built. I have heard it's always different.'

More Concéntrico 2026 highlights

Standalone pieces across town took over anything from car parks and regular pavements to the plaza outside the Rafael Moneo-designed city hall. Looking beyond trends, these are some of the Concéntrico 2026 highlights.

Edge Assemblies by Taelon7

Architecture Ritual

Los Sabados by TŁO

Resonancia by PPAA

La Serrana de San Barnabe by Matilde Cassani Studio

Temblores de Superficie. Vino Y Smithson by Bear

Escalera de la Gigueña by Future Firm

Transtation by Parabase

Bayn by Farisalo-Saimi

Concéntrico 2026 runs 18-23 June 2026 in Logroño, Spain

concentrico.es

Shoreditch, buzzing with creatives and City workers alike, rarely pauses for breath. But head to the east London enclave this summer and you'll find a moment of respite amid the chaos: a new pavilion in Principal Place, imagined by Athens and New York-based design duo Objects of Common Interest. Commissioned by Brookfield Properties and co-curated with Alter-Projects, the installation runs from June through September as part of the London Festival of Architecture 2026, joining a lineage of ambitious temporary structures at the site by the likes of Simone Brewster, Foster + Partners and John Booth.

Objects of Common Interest co-founder Eleni Petaloti describes the installation, entitled ‘Colour Field’, as 'part landscape, part modern ruin, part meeting place'. The work is a series of geometric blocks arranged across the plaza, hewn from various types of stone. They sit at all angles, some low to the ground and others rising up to two metres. It is not a single object but a composition – one that shifts with the light and angle from which you approach. Pampas grass softens the edges and reinforces the sense that the structure has simply always been here, open to the elements.

What gives ‘Colour Field’ its particular resonance is the provenance of its materials. The installation is constructed entirely from unpolished marble, quartzite and travertine sourced from Solid Nature – surplus stock, offcuts and remnants of unrealised projects from Brazil and Iran to Italy, China, Spain and Turkey. Rather than concealing these origins, Objects of Common Interest celebrates them, reworking discarded pieces into a collage-like composition that feels simultaneously ancient and freshly assembled.

‘As designers, architects and artists, we fundamentally disagree with the idea of a “rejected” natural material. We don't accept the notion that a piece of stone can somehow be considered unworthy,’ says Petaloti. ‘So we went through the Solid Nature archives and created this composition based on what we found.

‘Working with salvaged materials did not feel like a limitation,’ she adds. ‘Instead, it became a process of composition, similar to that of a painter working with a palette of colours. Each stone contributed different qualities, and the way they were arranged shaped the final experience.'

At a formal level, the blocky massing of the work functions as an extruded cityscape – a scaled-down skyline brought to human proportion. 'If you imagine viewing a city from a helicopter, you see these large buildings and volumes. Here, those forms have been scaled down into something that feels welcoming and accessible,' explains Petaloti.

That accessibility is literal as well as conceptual. The blocks double as seating – and workers from the surrounding offices, residents from nearby buildings and passers-by are taking full advantage, making the structure genuinely usable rather than merely decorative. Throughout the summer, meditation sessions and other programming will take place around the pavilion, deepening engagement with the space.

'Whether you are taking a break from work in the nearby offices or simply stepping away from daily life, you can come and sit within the artwork. By touching these materials, you are momentarily reconnected with nature, even in the heart of London,’ Petaloti continues. ‘The main protagonist of the plaza is not the artwork itself; it is the visitor. The viewer becomes the central figure within the work.’

It is a philosophy that both Petaloti and Brookfield Properties adhere to: treating public space not as a backdrop, but as a cultural resource: ‘We never want visitors to stand in awe of our work from a distance. We want them to feel welcome within it,' she says. 'We are not seeking admiration; we are seeking inclusion.’

In a neighbourhood defined by its contradictions, ‘Colour Field’ makes a virtue of exactly that – disparate parts, brought together, forming an unlikely whole.

'Colour Field' is on display at Principal Place, Shoreditch, London EC2A until September 2026. Entry is free.

Read our full guide to London Festival of Architecture 2026

It's an exciting time at the London Festival of Architecture 2026 HQ, as the countdown to this year's celebration of the built environment has now officially ended - and LFA 2026 launches today to the public. Running annually in June, the highly anticipated event – the biggest festival centred on architecture in the country – spans the entire metropolis and calls on both architects and, very importantly, the wider public, to come, explore and take part.

The city-wide event features over 400 activities this year, providing a rich tapestry of responses that emerge from an open call a few months back. LFA director Rosa Rogina told us in an interview at the time: 'The festival is a chance to test ideas, learn in public and think differently about London’s ordinary and extraordinary everyday environments. We are hoping to see bold, imaginative ideas and submissions, including projects that take ownership of streets and shared spaces, that activate overlooked sites, or that propose new ways of working and living together. Whether that’s a temporary road closure, an installation, a communal meal, or simply a conversation, it’s less about what the event looks like, and more about the change it might spark.'

London Festival of Architecture 2026 – our guide

With hundreds of events on its register, this year's LFA iteration, themed around the notion of 'Belonging', promises to be bigger and better than ever. Some 100+ workshops, 100+ tours, 80+ exhibitions and installations, 70+ talks, and 10+ performances are on offer. Overwhelmed by choice? Worry not. We took it all in and crafted a handy guide for you – including a bespoke Wallpaper* highlights section – to help you navigate the London Festival of Architecture 2026's wealth of offerings.

The London Festival of Architecture 2026 theme

'Belonging is when a street, a scent, or a skyline becomes part of your own story – when the place begins to feel personal. It’s that alchemy between memory and space, where your narrative aligns with the shared life of a place,' Tanisha Raffiuddin, a member of the curation panel for the 2026 London Festival of Architecture, told us when we first reported on the theme announcement back in October 2025.

When the festival announced its return for 2026, its theme came naturally to its organisers, off the back of current affairs and thoughts voiced by the people of London and the event's own community over the past year. 'Belonging' brings to the fore a key topic for discussion, which is important to the built environment community but also beyond, flagging the festival as a powerful pulse-taker of the industry's movements and considerations.

The neighbourhoods

The heart of the festival lies firmly with its communities – people and places across the capital, rallying for their neighbourhoods to come alive through architectural events during June. This year, a total of 11 centres of activity will provide vibrant hubs, and a significant framework, for festival activity across London.

For 2026, these are: Chrisp Street; Canning Town and Leamouth; City of London; Colindale and Edgware; Fitzrovia; Royal Victoria; South Bank and Waterloo; South Kensington and High Street Kensington; Thames Road; Wandsworth Town and the Wandle Delta; and Wood Green and Alexandra Palace.

Rogina continued in her interview: 'What excites us about ‘Belonging’ is that it asks a fundamental question: who has the right to determine who belongs in this city and how might we reclaim belonging as something that is shared, rather than granted? At a moment of rapid change across London, that feels both urgent and full of possibility.'

The 11 neighbourhood hubs will all give their own answer to this question, no doubt sparking debate and architectural thinking – offering residents and visitors something to discover, and even possibly implement in the future in a more permanent way, too. The LFA 2026's full range of events is available to browse and book through the festival's main website - promising a fun and informative time in any and all parts of town.

The keynote events: Murray lecture and Young Voices

The Murray Lecture, which was set up by NLA a few years ago and returned as a festival staple in 2024 to mark LFA founder Peter Murray's retirement (Murray launched the festival in 2004 to wide acclaim), opens this year's festivities today. It's an exciting opening as the speaker this year is architect Jayden Ali, who, fresh off the opening of the permanent galleries at the V&A East Museum, has been called to talk about his hometown of London, its architecture and his experience.

Bookending the festival, right at the end of the month, the Young Voices lecture, delivered this year by Sam Elbahja, also promises an engaging talk. The Cambridge Architecture graduate, artist, and poet from East London offers a different take on building and cities, and gives us all food for thought.

The festival hub: The London Centre

For the first time this year, the LFA team's home, The London Centre in the City's Aldermanbury Street, will serve as a central hub for all activities during the month of June. Hosting the LFA and NLA team, the space is always a welcoming spot for all built environment professionals and the public, but now actively becomes a centre of the festival throughout its duration.

Ten talks, a variety of performances, the return of LFA's popular Lego Challenge and a TFL bus display exhibition are among the activations taking place here across the month. These events are in addition to the help the centre will provide to visitors in navigating the entire London Festival of Architecture 2026 programme. The aim is for the public to be able to explore, select and find their way through the city to their chosen activity in the easiest possible way.

The curation panel

Each year, the festival is enriched and steered by a dedicated Curation Panel, including key figures from across the built environment and beyond. The panel not only picks the theme and overall direction, but they also have input in event selection, and provide a voice that helps guide the visitor through bespoke highlight listings and essays surrounding key LFA topics.

For the London Festival of Architecture 2026, the panel comprises Black Females in Architecture (Neba and Selasi); urban designer and place-shaping consultant Rumi Bose; co-founder of IF_DO and IF/ Design Labs Thomas Bryans; head of the Design Unit at the Greater London Authority Sarah Considine; founder of Grow to Know Tayshan Hayden-Smith; and founder and creative director of Concept Culture Tanisha Raffiuddin.

The Wallpaper* highlights

The London Centre hub activities, as well as the two keynote events, the Murray Lecture and the Young Voices presentation, are all important elements in the London Festival of Architecture 2026 – and give a powerful taste of this year's atmosphere and open discussions. If you're after more tips, here we’ve picked nine events from the LFA 2026 programme's activities to curate our Wallpaper* highlights of the year for you.

The tour: Southbank at 75 – Architecture walk

We love London architecture, and we love modernist architecture, so what better excuse to celebrate both than joining this walking tour across Southbank? 2026 marks the 75-year anniversary of the Royal Festival Hall, and this is an opportunity to explore the history and future of one of the capital's best-loved sites.

When? Wednesday 10 June, 6pm – 7.30pm

The exhibition: Somers Town: A Photographic Exhibition

Explore an entire part of London – Somers Town – through this photographic show. Visitors will be able to not only explore a vibrant neighbourhood's history through the work of Camden-based photographer Anna Lerner, but also have the opportunity to meet the artist herself.

When? 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25, 26 and 27 June, 10am – 5pm

The workshop: Lego Challenge 2026

The popular Lego Challenge is back in the LFA programme. Bring nothing but your imagination to this vibrant event for all ages, where participants can construct innovative designs around the festival's theme and the subject of homes.

When? Saturday 20 June, 12pm – 2pm

The installation: Summer Pavilion

Made from off-cuts of reclaimed marble, onyx, and travertine fragments and designed by Objects of Common Interest, ‘Colour Field’ is a temporary pavilion set in 1 Principle Place. Organised by developers Brookfield Properties, the installation will be open to the public throughout the festival as a space of rest, ad hoc activity and contemplation.

When? 1-30 June

The launch: Thamesmead Tapestry

This community exhibition at Bow Arts focuses on the brutalist Lakeside Centre in Thamesmead. In a space warm with rugs and seating, the community can explore colourful hanging textiles in a display that will also serve as a hub for a programme of activities.

When? Wednesday 10 – Sunday 14 June, 12pm – 5pm

The mentoring opportunity: ‘Sessions’ One-to-One Mentoring

You are in great hands with these one-to-one mentoring sessions offered by Narrative Practice – its founder, Dhruv Gulabchande, has been leading similar (and more) programmes for years, and he has also been a member of the LFA curation panel in the past. This is open to all, from professionals to students.

When? Thursday 4 June, 6pm – 9pm

The Open Studio visit: Unknown Works Open Studio

Open Studios has always been an essential part of LFA – and plenty of the big practices participate this year. We'd warmly recommend paying a visit to the open day of RSHP and ZHA. However, for this guide, we'd also like to flag a smaller, but very dynamic studio's work and space – the east London-based Unknown Works, whose material experimentation and innovative solutions will be on display, along with curated snacks and a soundtrack.

When? Thursday 25 June, 6pm – 9pm

The performance: Windrush Day: Carrying the Flame

Carrying the Flame, curated by World Heart Beat's Ava Joseph and Ayo Vincent, was conceived to celebrate Windrush Day. This event nods to the important contribution of migrants who helped shape post-war Britain, especially recognising the African-Caribbean community.

When? Monday 22 June, 7.30pm – 9.30pm

The talk: Queering Space

This round table conversation between queer scholars and practitioners is set to bring important topics to the fore, concerning everything from everyday practices, activism, and policy to future research. Panellists will include Ben Campkin and Tarek Merlin.

When? Thursday 18 June, 7pm – 8.30pm

The London Festival of Architecture 2026 runs across London 1-30 June 2026. All events are available (and bookable as required) at londonfestivalofarchitecture.org

Today we bring you news not about buildings of concrete and glass, but ones made of gingerbread.

The Museum of Architecture is again welcoming The Gingerbread City in 2025. Opening on November 29 2025, the exhibition invites architects, engineers and designers to create urban landscapes entirely from baked goods – celebrating (and stretching) the creativity of professionals imagining the cities of tomorrow.

This year’s theme, ‘The Playful City’, challenges participants to explore how design can inspire joy – and to consider how curiosity and connection can shape our built environments. While the concept is whimsical, the underlying idea is perfectly serious: to champion ‘play’ as an architectural principle – and a catalyst for wellbeing, creativity and community.

Real-world examples of this include Copenhagen’s Superkilen Park – which celebrates cultural diversity through three colour-coded zones filled with more than 100 objects from around the world – and Bristol’s Hello Lamp Post, an interactive public art project inviting people to text everyday street objects like benches or lamp posts. At The Gingerbread City, architects bring these ideas to life through edible public squares, rewilded rooftops, and buildings that encourage interaction – from a train station that doubles as a skate park to a school where slides connect classrooms.

‘We love choosing themes that get architects dreaming big – and the public smiling. The Gingerbread City 2025 asks how fun, imagination and interaction can shape the future of our urban spaces. It’s about rethinking what cities are for – and reminding everyone that good design can be joyful, inclusive and fun,’ says Melissa Woolford, founder of the Museum of Architecture.

Beyond the exhibition, visitors can take part in workshops to build their own houses, following the theme by crafting a community centre in gingerbread form. There is also a ‘gingerbread button’, created by sponsor and AI design platform Gendo, which lets visitors transform themselves into gingerbread figures. Gendo has also collaborated with participating architects to create gingerbread versions of their real-life projects, blending creativity, technology and play in delicious form.

The Gingerbread City will run from November 29 2025 at The Museum of Architecture at Coal Drops Yard, King's Cross, London

The 2025 Lisbon Architecture Triennale has opened, themed around the question: ‘How Heavy is the City?’ Curators John Palmesino and Ann-Sofia Rönnskog of Territorial Agency say the question ‘addresses issues of magnitude, spatial organisation, form, technology, materiality, and the multiple relations that human spaces have with other entities’. In short, the triennale’s ambition covers the whole ’technosphere’ that humanity has created – our impact on the planet – which, the triennale organisers calculated, weighs a mind-blowing 30 trillion tonnes.

Explore the themes of the 2025 Lisbon Architecture Triennale

As part of the city-wide festival, as well as independent projects across the city (including in the Lisbon Architecture Triennale’s own headquarters in the atmospherically restored Palace of Sinel de Cordes), there are three major shows.

Lisbon’s old riverside power station, now part of MAAT, hosts ‘Fluxes’. We enter it through a black passage lined with enormous flowcharts mapping technological evolution from 1500 to today, conveying the sheer complexity of the technosphere. The show’s main part is presented on horizontal screens at knee height, suspended ingeniously by clear plastic bands from the cathedral-sized heights of the industrial space.

Subjects range from the cosmic dust constantly falling into our world, to the planetary cost of random numbers, essential to computing; Iwan Baan’s stunning photographic exploration of the vast oil shale extraction activities in Alberta, Canada; and Katherinne Fielder’s film Guardians, which takes us into a remote Peruvian desert facility, empty but for two healthy, wandering dogs (Chico and Uber). The last is a serene, charming and enigmatic work – and the monumental contemporary structure makes architecture as much its star as those dogs.

In the Belem district, famed for launching Portugal’s navigator-explorers and pastéis de nata, the CCB hosts ‘Lighter’. Palmesino and Rönnskog summarise its message as ‘more light, less mass’. The theme threads through this show, from photosynthesis to the technosphere’s albedo (reflective brightness). White, silky, ethereal drapes channel you through the exhibits, and ambient music fills the space. Green light filters through a beautiful screen by Alexandra Daisy Ginsburg.

In the adjacent Museum of Contemporary Art is a row of independent projects, including the film City + Dance, a dialogue between choreography and extraordinary Lithuanian and Estonian modernist architecture.

At MUDE, Lisbon’s design museum, the third major show, ‘Spectres’, offers 16 projects, mainly shown on another array of horizontal screens. They range from the plight of Tuvalu, the Pacific nation set to disappear under the waves, to Airbus’ global elevation investigation, which measures precisely those rising sea levels. Other subjects range far and wide, including digital twins, borders and barriers, and muons (sub-atomic particles) as a tool to see through buildings and rock.

MUDE’s highlight is Correspondences by Soundwalk Collective and Patti Smith, a film projected across two wide walls. Without explanatory text, it takes us across and under the oceans, into rocks, over ice flows, and circles over the tragic body of a beached whale. We see wildfires, and Smith’s voice lists their recent exponential spread with dates and numbers. As the imagery switches to purple trees, Smith delivers a haunting, delicate song that somehow bridges sadness and hope for the Earth.

Nowadays, environmental and social sustainability are embedded in architecture’s discourse, but with technology and more, the triennale goes further than ever. Architectural graphics and imagery remain woven into its offerings. And yes, there is even an actual building – and it may be the best independent project of all.

The Anthropocene Apartment by Lisbon-based Czech practice Atelier Holcnerová is a small duplex you can explore. Every element embodies sustainable principles, from a re-used ancient stone wall to lamps of tangled seaweed fibre and an animal trough adapted as a washbasin. The result is organic, contemporary, calm, and it looks refreshingly cool. To get a grip on the Anthropocene, we need to understand it. This Triennale is a tsunami of brilliantly presented insights. But we also need to be spiritually moved. Lisbon has projects that do that, from the sheer emotional intensity of Correspondences at MUDE to glimpses of a greener world we could make.

trienaldelisboa.com

With his new London exhibition, architectural photographer Max Creasy is inviting us to a timely conceptual exploration. Opening at the Architectural Association (AA) this week, the photographic exhibition 'Bad Language', featuring Creasy's art shot in conjunction with a series of architecture studios across Europe, poses a key question: where is contemporary architectural photography heading?

The Australian-Norwegian photographer zooms in on the shift currently experienced in the field and investigates new approaches, in particular, the role and aesthetic of the 'snapshot' in capturing architecture within 21st-century photography. We caught up with the artist, who is based between London and Berlin, to find out more.

Max Creasy on the 'snapshot' in contemporary architectural photography

Wallpaper*: Why 'Bad Language'? What inspired the title of the show?

Max Creasy: The idea is that within formal architectural photography, the snapshot would be considered ‘bad language’ – a type of profanity. The title also touches on what some have considered bad architecture in the past, which several of the young architects in the show reference in their work. But the actual inspiration for the use of ‘bad language’ comes from a conversation I had with the architect Job Floris (co-founder of studio Monadnock), where he told me he and David Kohn would say to each other, ‘Keep up the bad work!’

W*: How would you define a 'snapshot'?

MC: I think a snapshot is a photograph that is perceived as being amateur; it has a casual composition but has the potential to be more intimate as there is a casual relationship between the photographer and the subject.

What I find interesting about a snapshot, particularly in an architectural context, is that I see it as a form of vernacular photography that taps into a recognisable act of using flash, which suggests presence and our understanding of intimate family pictures. I am interested in bringing a more humane aspect to architectural photography.

W*: Could snapshots be seen as an act of rebellion?

MC: I think within the very staged world of architecture and its representation, yes. Historically, [this has] been very focused on the isolated representation of the architectural form itself. In this world, there is very little suggestion of context or human life, particularly in an everyday sense. But context and life are all things architecture contains and are a very important part of the whole, [the] story.

[Snapshots’] role has been mostly limited to just the travel reference photography of famous architects. I think the snapshot has mostly sat a little outside architectural photography in an art reference position – work like John Divola’s Zuma [series, of an abandoned building between 1977 and 1979] and Wolfgang Tilmans’ [2014 Venice Biennale installation] Book for Architects, for instance. Architectural photography is almost only understood to be taken with a tripod and thus staged.

W*: What is the role of the snapshot in your work as an architectural photographer?

MC: I see the snapshot as one of several tools within my toolkit that I can use as part of my conversations with architects and their work. Traditionally, there has been a lot of focus on the birth of a building, when it is conceived by the architect and nobody has moved in – a pristine state. The occupation of the building is largely overlooked.

So when I’m trying to discuss life, particularly the human one, I think it has the potential to be engaging. Modern camera technology allows you to hand-hold the camera and still get very detailed images that were once only reserved for shooting on large-format cameras.

W*: What is the subject’s role in this photographic approach? Does it differ (and how) from more traditional architectural photography?

MC: I think with this approach, there is a level of intimacy required between the photographer and subject, more akin to portrait photography. Architectural photography is generally voyeuristic – the photographer quietly stands from afar and does not engage with the subject, the architecture or its occupants. The snapshot requires more time to engage with the subject to build some type of trust that allows the photographs to seem more intimate.

W*: What are you hoping the visitor will take away from the show?

MC: That they can see the possibility to describe architecture in a different way.

'Bad Language' is on view 26 September – 6 December 2025 at the Front Members’ Room and AA Bar at the Architectural Association in London, UK

Copenhagen Architecture Biennial 2025 – the global event's inaugural edition – launches this September (running until 18 October) under the theme 'Slow Down'. Organised by CAFx (Copenhagen Architecture Forum) with support from a host of bodies, including LINA European Architecture Platform and the Obel Award among others, and led by Josephine Michau, curator of the Danish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023, the survey of work on show offers a spectrum of spatial responses to the ‘Great Acceleration’ – a period in history characterised by unprecedented growth and energy consumption. The projects displayed look at opportunities for deceleration and de-growth within the construction industry as a response to ecological collapse.

Copenhagen Architecture Biennial 2025 says: 'Slow Down'

A central group show underpins this thesis, exploring options and design solutions. It is located in the Halmtorvet 27 cultural hub, and from there, visitors are invited to explore the city through a series of additional installations, projects and activations around the main theme.

At one end of the scale, a 28 sq m pavilion – aptly titled Slow Pavilion – by emerging architects Slaatto Morsbøl at Søren Kierkegaard Plads reuses a palette of discarded materials – brick, timber and thatch – in a way that repackages them in a fresh way.

Sourced from various demolition sites in Greater Copenhagen, a simple timber frame structure is infilled with bricks to form both walls and floors. The perforated brick, a common and ubiquitous sight in the city, is cut in half. This not only doubles the quantity of material available but also reveals a textured interior which the architects deploy in various inventive ways. The flooring shows the brick mortared in a traditional way to create the effect of a tiled floor. The walls show the brick in use as infill in its natural state. There is an educational capacity to the pavilion in communicating the different expressions of a material.

The theme of slowness is embedded in both the pavilion’s construction and the intent for users to engage with it. Bricks were cut in half by hand, the thatching reed was sorted by length and sewn onto fabric strips, which were then fastened to the roof modules. The act of cutting to expose what is hidden extends to the reclaimed ventilation pipes, which are cut in half to form a scalloped roof profile.

All of this constitutes an interrogation of standard construction processes predicated on speed. The suspension of reed from the ceiling, contrary to its natural locus in the ground, and the unorthodox presentation of brick, engage the visitors in a sensory experience, challenging conventional industry aesthetics.

‘By highlighting the imperfections and inconsistencies of used materials, we aim to show that these qualities can be a strength, not a shortcoming. There is richness and character in what has already had a life, and we believe that can shape a more thoughtful, resource-aware architecture,’ explain Slaatto Morsbøl’s founders, Thelma Slaatto and Cecilie Morsbøl.

At the other end of the scale is Thoravej 29, a former 1967 factory building repurposed to house a mix of galleries, cafés and workspaces. Here, the concept of reuse is pushed with the added ambition that any excavation or demolition waste is to be reincorporated into the outcome as much as possible. The brief, which called for a vertical connection between existing floors, necessitated that cut-outs be fitted into the design. So, rather than discard the cut-out elements, the team retained and positioned them at angles to form supports for new staircases, embracing an architecture of subtraction.

There is a new energy created in this vocabulary where familiar building elements – walls, doors, floors – are adapted to perform new roles that are unfamiliar. The new stairs, clearly recognisable as the former ribbed slab, engage visitors to look again and refamiliarize themselves with a space they had grown accustomed to. Elsewhere, old façades are reinstated as pavement, and doors become furniture, continuing this material transformation of states.

‘Each layer of the structure, even those traditionally deemed insignificant, is regarded as an asset, culminating in 95 per cent of the existing material to be retained and repurposed within the building itself,' explains Søren Pihlmann, founder at Pihlmann architects, the practice behind the project.

What these projects – and more across town – offer is a compendium of approaches. From the incremental work of small-scale practitioners to large-scale commercial projects, the perception of limitation traditionally associated with reuse of existing materials, resources and structure is recast as a generative tool, unlocking the parameters of spatial possibility towards new architectural expressions.

The newest architecture biennale has hit the scene. Since the founding of the Venice Architecture Biennale in 1980, hundreds of similar events have sprung up around the globe, but what makes each one stand out? Rockbund Architecture Museum assembles (RAMa) was founded two years ago in a historic district of Shanghai, once subject to colonial British rule. First curated by David Chipperfield in 2023 on the architect's completion of an 18-year restoration of the neighbourhood, RAMa is back for a second cycle, mixing six new installations with a new answer to the big question: what are biennales designed to address?

Explore the 2025 RAMa, the architecture biennial at Rockbund Art Museum

Unlike many bigger and arguably more famous biennales, all of RAMa 2025 is taking place outdoors, in public and for free. This generosity isn’t simply altruism but part of a remarkably precise curatorial strategy conceived by Rachaporn Choochuey, this year’s RAMa artistic director and cofounder of studio all(zone). For the Bangkok-based architect, her festival has a very clear goal: coax the real-estate company responsible for the area to allow a richer suite of amenities in the public spaces they control.

'I am trying to persuade the owner,' she tells me bluntly, but explains that, for her, the best way to win round sceptics is to be diplomatic. Instead of lobbying the landowners up-front to allow benches, drinking fountains, street vendors and the like, Choochuey is using the biennale to provide pop-up proof that such things are boons to the Shanghai streetscape. 'Critique can never be direct,' she smiles, 'with a very simple gesture you can do a lot of things.'

The six installations Choochuey has curated all provide a public amenity currently missing from the vicinity – food stalls by Alkhemist Architects, for example, and a long blue bench by Tangent Essays. Choochuey herself has created a multicoloured polyethylene canopy, a riff on larger pavilions she’s made previously in Australia and Thailand (such as her design for the 2022 MPavilion in Melbourne).

Most successful is a gregarious yellow drinking fountain by WWWorks, serving thirsty passers-by by filtering rainwater from an adjacent roof. It’s charismatic and playful with water spouts at three heights to maximise accessibility, and proportions that cleverly relate to some nearby pipework. It’s exactly the kind of exuberant and useful public realm upgrade from which the whole world would benefit.

Less persuasive are some clumps of moss created by Beijing-based Studio Vapore in an attempt to provoke debate about the value of nature in urban space. They make a valid point in principle, of course, but the bumpy green hillocks, made from earth and florist foam sitting on plastic membranes, prove no match for Shanghai’s 35-degree heat. Even with regular watering, the clumps fail to root and are already starting to turn brown just a few days into the biennale.

At first glance, nothing in the RAMa programme might seem especially radical (of course, benches and drinking fountains are nice!); however, such a line of critique would miss the point. The exciting thing about RAMa 2025 is not the topics it raises or the objects it has commissioned, but the laser focus of its underlying ambition.

With the impact of so many architectural biennales undermined by ponderous esoteric themes, too diffuse to effect change in practice, RAMa 2025 stands out for its humility and realistic mission. Choochuey is not arrogant or naive enough to think her biennale can change the world, even a little. But maybe it can change one neighbourhood of one city a lot.

‘The world doesn’t just become better on its own – it’s made better:’ a fitting opening statement to the seventh edition of 'Designs for a Cooler Planet' (until 28 October 2025), an annual exhibition at Helsinki’s Aalto University that asks participants to create tangible solutions to pressing global issues. It comes as part of the Finnish capital’s design week, and invites submissions from students, staff, and researchers across the university’s subject departments.

‘We try to select a really diverse showcase that reflects the uniquely multi-disciplinary approach at Aalto,’ says Enni Äijälä, the exhibition’s art director. ‘The common denominator is the agency and determination to effect positive change for the planet.’

'Designs for a Cooler Planet': inside the show's pioneering exhibits

One project in the show has already been fully realised: Tiny House Shadow, the real-life residence of the university’s professor of sustainable construction, Matti Kuittinen. The black, timber-clad property (shown in the exhibition as a scale model) was designed by Kuittinen in a way that significantly minimises the material and carbon footprint of typical housing.

More than half of it is created out of recycled matter, while the rest is made from materials that were specifically chosen for their low emissions: the living room floor, for example, is crafted from old fishing nets, while the structural framework is forged from fossil-free steel. As a result, the house uses 85 per cent less material and 43 per cent less land compared to a traditional single-family house, leading to a 53 per cent smaller carbon footprint per resident

At the heart of the exhibition, there’s also a finished prototype of Kasvu, a 9.4 sq m living unit developed by Daniela Alatorre, Pekka Heikkinen, and Laura Zubillaga, a trio of educators from the university’s wood programme. Championing the possibilities of modular construction, the unit is created out of lightweight, flat-packable timber components that could be prefabricated in a factory and transported to a desired site without any need for heavy machinery. Its structural and non-structural elements have also been purposely separated so that, over time, they could easily be removed for maintenance or readaptation.

Tiina Nypelö, a professor from the university’s school of chemical engineering, has been working with academics from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden to cultivate what they call ‘myotecture’ – a sustainable form of construction that employs yeast biomass. So far, the group has been able to feed the biomass through a 3D printer to make building blocks and interior wall panels, swatches of which are displayed in glass cases.

Some of the projects presented in the show are more conceptual, such as the Beacon project by a team from Aalto University’s school of engineering. It proposes using biochar – a carbon-negative by-product of biofuel production – to stabilise the foundations of roads, bridges and other types of infrastructure erected on Finland’s soft, clay-rich soil. The team says that biochar would not only serve as an eco-friendly alternative to conventional strengthening materials like cement, but its carbon-sequestering abilities mean it could also turn sites into CO2 ‘sinks’.

Then there’s the ‘Ceci n’est pas une porte’ (‘This is not a door’) project by various members of the university’s art, design and architecture school. Together, they produced a series of ‘absurd’ storybooks that reveal the often ridiculous obstacles that architects and builders have to bypass to avoid wasting construction materials.

For Äijälä, showcasing these theoretical ideas is as imperative as presenting those that are already in the making. ‘The goal is to keep opening up research and education – making sure new ideas and findings do not stay behind closed doors, but are brought onto a public stage to spark dialogue and wider change,’ she says. ‘I believe that significant change begins when we dare to dream big and design alternative future visions – the exhibition gives us the freedom to imagine and demonstrate those possibilities. Before we can change anything, we need to know what “good” looks like.’

The exhibition runs until 28 October 2025 at Aalto University

When Germane Barnes, director of Miami-based Studio Barnes, was selected to create an installation for the 2025 edition of Exhibit Columbus in Indiana, he pursued a medium that draws people together like almost none other: music.

The project, which opens to the public on Saturday 16 August, is titled Joy Riding. Located at the Jackson Street Garage in downtown Columbus, Indiana, Joy Riding reimagines the humble parking garage as a series of larger-than-life sub-woofers – the bass-pumping speakers that you’ll find in the trunks of cars in the predominantly Black communities of Chicago, where Barnes was born and raised. At a party this evening (15 August), a DJ will spin tunes blasting through the fully functioning sub-woofers, while listeners can perch on speaker-shaped seating.

For Barnes, Joy Riding dovetails perfectly with this year’s Exhibit Columbus theme, ‘Yes And’, a term borrowed from improv theatre that encourages shared, ongoing storytelling. ‘It's the joy that comes when you are in high school... getting your first car, passing driver's ed and taking the keys from your parents and saying, “I'll be back,”’ Barnes tells Wallpaper*. ‘That freedom from when you get to put your hands on the steering wheel and it's just you and the car.’

Joy Riding was the result of some site-specific serendipity. Studio Barnes, one of four 2025 J Irwin and Xenia S Miller Prize recipients, was instructed to rank four potential sites by preference: the historic Crump Theater, the former site of the Irwin Block Building, the First Christian Church Sunken Courtyard and the garage, which was actually the Studio’s third choice.

‘We were given the parking garage and ran with it,’ Barnes says. ‘The parking garage made us think about cars – about idling, what do you do in the car when you're with your friends. And there's already a very long history [in Indiana] with cars, with The Indy 500. There's also a very big car culture in the Black community. So, we thought this was a great way to blend all these different topics into one cohesive proposal.’

The custom speaker design was created with the help of Portland, Oregon-based fabricator Matchless Builds. It consists of a nine-foot by five-foot steel powder-coated frame base with a second frame that holds wood-panel doors that open to reveal the speakers, which are made of dense plywood to withstand the elements and the weight of people sitting on them. A state-of-the art sound system within the speakers is operable by both traditional wires and Bluetooth, Barnes says.

Though programming is still being finalised as we write, pop-up events are in the works at Joy Riding – including a car show in collaboration with local car clubs across the state, and an old-fashioned drive-in movie night.

'Our interpretation of “Yes And” was really around the performance of the car and how people either interact with that performance or are a part of that performance,' says Barnes.

‘[We hope to] make people understand what it means to just have that utter freedom, especially during this time when there are so many unfortunate things happening around the globe,’ he adds.

Joy Riding will make its debut during the Sunset Preview Party on Friday 15 August. Exhibit Columbus runs from 16 August through 30 November 2025.

Design has long derived inspiration from nature, but one of the most eccentric and captivating examples took the form of a 13-storey skyscraper in Tokyo composed of 140 prefabricated, 100 sq ft pods jigsawed around a concrete-and-steel structure. The Nakagin Capsule Tower, completed by the Metabolist architect Kishō Kurokawa in 1972, was meant to grow, adapt and evolve – just like a living organism.

‘If you replace the capsules every 25 years, it could last 200 years,’ Kurokawa said in a 2007 interview. ‘It’s recyclable. I designed it as sustainable architecture.’ Until 2022, when it was demolished, the tower’s distinctive interlocking grey cubes with porthole windows were iconic elements of the local skyline, drawing architecture buffs and Instagrammers alike to admire its form.

Now, the tower is the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Organised by assistant curator Evangelos Kotsioris and curatorial associate Paula Vilaplana de Miguel, ‘The Many Lives of the Nakagin Capsule Tower’ (until July 2026) celebrates the building’s inventive design and the impact it had on the people who lived in it. It is an exhibition about innovative ideas as well as post-occupancy. It includes a fully restored pod, an original display model, architectural drawings, archival marketing materials, films and photographs of residents showing how they inhabited their pods, as well as an interactive virtual tour of the building, showing the state of the structure in the twilight of its life.

‘We knew about the history of the project, but the more the two of us looked into the specifics, the reality of how things unfolded was a much more interesting story to tell than just the intentions of the architect,’ Kotsioris says.

Kurokawa’s building represented a new form of urban living during a time of rapid cultural, technological and economic change in Japan. As Kotsioris writes in a book accompanying the show, Kurokawa ‘envisioned the tower as the habitat of Homo movens, the modern individual in an increasingly mobile society’.

While the project was built over 50 years ago, the ideas still feel resonant for today. Cities around the world are contending with a worsening housing shortage and are struggling to build units that meet their changing demographics, including a rising rate of single people. Kurokawa’s idea anticipated the micro apartment, a type of building that today’s architects are exploring to solve the crisis.

The Nakagin Capsule Tower was originally billed as a pied-à-terre for businessmen who commuted to Tokyo for work and whose families lived elsewhere. The tiny pods, measuring just 8ft x 13ft, featured a bed; a wall unit with a built-in desk, television, closet and sink; and a bathroom. ‘In a way, it's also a showcase of Japanese technology: a Sony TV, Pioneer headphones, a Sharp calculator, a Sanyo refrigerator,’ Kostriosis says. ‘So it was this kind of combination between a device and a product and an architectural enclosure.’

The experience is ship-like efficiency. Nobuo Abe, an architect in Kurokawa’s firm who led the design and construction of the capsules, was also a sailor and came up with the idea to have all the furniture on the periphery.

Because the building was the first of its kind, Kurokawa also took great care in how it was positioned in the real estate market. The Nakagin company, with support from the firm, created pamphlets and instruction manuals that borrowed from automotive sales and even offered ‘deluxe’ versions of the pods that featured optional amenities, like a stereo system.

‘The capsule being a single-occupancy space was really meant to reinforce your personal perspective, which in the Japanese societal context was seen as an aberration,’ Kotsioris says. ‘They use language and graphics to construct a lifestyle; it’s not just about a building in the conventional sense.’ The curators digitised this ephemera so that visitors to the exhibition can flip through.

The tower is ‘a product of its time’, Vilaplana de Miguel adds. ‘When consumerism, TV and commercials started to circulate more widely, architects like Kurokawa decided to be part of it. He was a great businessman himself and he really embraced the commercial aspect.’

When the building’s units hit the market in 1972, they sold out in two days. Initially, businessmen moved in. Then in the 1980s, when Japan’s economy crashed, the prices plummeted and younger residents, students and artists moved in. Later, when the building’s demolition seemed imminent, it attracted people who were fans of the building and Kurokawa’s work. ‘All kinds of quirky people start to move in and become obsessed with actually preserving its memory or legacy or afterlife,’ Kotsioris says. ‘And it’s thanks to them that we, and other institutions, have fragments of its history.’ (The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama also acquired pods.)

Some recent residents included an anime cosplay DJ, who used her pod as a streaming booth for her shows; Kurokawa's own son, Mikio, who transformed one into a library; and an interior designer who renovated his space to have an industrial, Steampunk aesthetic. And, naturally, the last cohort who lived there included preservationists who restored units to Kurokawa’s original vision, down to the light switches. These various shifts reflect the core idea of the building: it can be refashioned again and again.

‘Metabolists have this idea of buildings evolving over time and reshaping as society changes,’ Vilaplana de Miguel explains. ‘Kurokawa based his project on Buddhist and Zen philosophies of cycles of life.’

Sadly, the building deteriorated. Kurokawa envisioned replacing the pods every 25 years, which did not occur. Their flat roofs collected water, making the units vulnerable to leaks and moisture damage. The bright pink and orange stairwells in the tower (which informed the hues of the exhibition’s gallery walls) were eventually painted over in grey. And there were asbestos concerns. It would have been cost-prohibitive to try to fully restore the building due to the deferred maintenance. But the residents who rallied for its preservation managed to save 23 capsules and fully restore 14 of them.

Normally, when a building is demolished, especially one with as rich a history as the Nakagin Capsule Tower, it is perceived as a tragic loss. But Kotsioris notes that the dismantling of the pods, their distribution to museums around the world, and reincarnation as the subject of exhibitions, aligns with the lifecycle concept that Kurokawa imagined for his tower – even if he didn’t predict its eventual outcome. In a 1972 promotional film for the tower that screens in the gallery, we see a pod loaded onto a ship with the narrator explaining a vision the architect had in which the pod’s resident could remove their unit from the building and have it travel with them.

Twelve of the tower’s former residents journeyed to MoMA to celebrate the exhibition’s opening last week. In remarks, Tatsuyuki Maeda, a former resident who led preservation efforts, said that he was ‘very grateful to everyone involved for allowing us to exhibit our beloved capsule’.

That Kurokawa was able to create a building that so many people cherished and felt deep personal connections to is perhaps his most enduring achievement, and one that will live on indefinitely.

‘The Many Lives of the Nakagin Capsule Tower’ is on view at MoMA through 12 July 2026.

moma.org

The Royal Academy summer show (aka the institution's Summer Exhibition) has a unique take on architecture this year. Co-ordinated by Farshid Moussavi – the first architect to do so since Eva Jiřičná in 2013 – the show is special for the way in which architecture has been mixed in with the artworks at this famous annual open event. Whereas media produced by architects have traditionally been granted a separate space, Moussavi took the decision to integrate architectural representations (models, drawings, sketches and reliefs) together with the display of prints, photographs and paintings produced by artists.

Walking through the Royal Academy summer show with Farshid Moussavi

The effect of mixing work at the Summer Exhibition, held every year without exception since 1769, certainly underlines the technical skills of the selected architects. It also shows how they are addressing similar ideas as artists, particularly about the evolving relationship between man, culture and nature. Although the show has always had an eclectic quality, due to its open submission process, it has generally kept architectural works separate from art. From 1811 architectural drawings were shown in the Library and from 1931 more or less onwards there was a dedicated architecture gallery. In 2025, with the work mixed together, each room has a greater character as its curator can be more thematically or aesthetically led, rather than simply grouping types.

It is successful, and Moussavi thinks that her approach should be undertaken not just as an ongoing strategy for the Summer Exhibition but also throughout the Royal Academy’s exhibition programme. 'It needs to be done at many levels. I think it is to do with the summer exhibition but it's also all exhibitions. Exhibitions should include architecture as part of the art exhibitions whenever possible,' she states. A Van Gogh exhibition might also feature the architecture of Arles, she offers as an example.

Nor is it just architecture that has been mixed in with art.  'Normally the print category and the print makers insist on being in a room of their own. And there is a predominance of them in a couple of places because they insisted, but I've intentionally put prints next to photographs in some places,' says Moussavi. The Large Weston Room, curated by Helen Sear is particularly striking for its thematic strength. Dedicated to images of the countryside both bucolic and threatening, one wall of the room is covered by Des Hughes’ chain-link-fence wallpaper, upon which are hung pictures like Anna Fox and Alison Goldfrapp’s photographs from the series Country Girls, night-time shots of isolation and unease. On the other side, Anthony Eyton’s double oil paintings, both called Outside The Door, offer an image of nature as consolation just out of reach.

The show is still dominated by art. The room that Stephanie McDonald from 6a Architects has curated with her partner Tom Emerson contains a higher number of architectural pieces compared to other rooms, a large model of their renovation of Tate Liverpool, for example. MacDonald says that of the 18,000 works submitted, only 300 were architectural and, in future, more should be encouraged. 'People need to know that they can and they should,' she says. As it stands, the big moments in the show, although curated by Moussavi and her team, are still produced by artists – Tim Shaw’s neo-pagan sculpture The Mummer, standing before Antonio’s Tarsis’ fiery red drape made from match boxes, for example.

The more subtle effect on the architectural works is to lend them even greater aesthetic authority, such as is the case with Henley Halebrown’s digital render of a detail from their De Roosenberg community centre hung above Eva Rothschild’s more whimsical screen prints. The architecture lends the artwork purpose and, in turn, the architect's work, surrounded by art, reveals itself to be communicating far more values than simple construction instructions.

With the cash-strapped Royal Academy effectively mothballing the position of architectural curator and diminishing the department to a single member of staff, Moussavi’s proposition imagines how architecture might continue to have a vivid, purposeful contribution to make at the Royal Academy. ' I don’t know how there is any going back to be honest,' she says.

The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition runs 17 June – 17 August 2025, book tickets at royalacademy.org.uk

In partnership with Porsche

Venice’s public transport system – ancient, predominantly aquatic, reliant on the gondola since the 11th century and last revolutionised by the city’s first steam-powered, mechanically propelled vaporetto (water bus) back in 1881 – is having a rare radical rethink.

Gateway to Venice’s Waterway is an urban mobility collaboration between the Norman Foster Foundation and Porsche and the star of the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale; architects from the foundation and designers from the German sports car manufacturer worked together on a construction that represents a visionary transportation hub for a Venice of the future.

Inspired by the network of 435 foot bridges that span the city’s 150 canals and connect its 121 islands, the project is a 37m-long, physical manifestation of the intersection between design and architecture and the latest iteration of Porsche’s The Art of Dreams initiative.

Resembling a 21st-century interpretation of a vaporetto dock, the installation’s sinuous aluminium space-frame/lattice-tube construction references classic Porsche race cars such as the 908. The kinetic surface, meanwhile, is inspired by the cube pattern of the new Porsche Macan Electric. Throughout construction, recycled materials and environmentally friendly systems have been used.

A practical, fully working and operational endeavour, the hub functions as a gateway to e-mobility on both land and water. Emission-free water bicycles by California’s Schiller Bikes and Frauscher x Porsche 850 Fantom Air sports boats equipped with the all-electric drive of the Porsche Macan provided alternative transport for attendees during the biennale’s opening week (10 May). Other alternative ideas for urban transportation developed by students from Style Porsche and Studio FA Porsche Zell am See are also on display.

With ‘Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective’ as the theme of this year's biennale, the Norman Foster Foundation and Porsche envisage their collaborative work as a response to transport challenges facing the Italian port city, a catalyst for a discourse on sustainable, urban change and a physical exercise in design reconciling the complex demands of modern urban infrastructure.

‘Design and architecture share the same attributes,’ says Michael Mauer, Vice President Style Porsche. ‘Both disciplines stand for an interplay of aesthetics and technology as well as functionality and realisability. The exchange with creative colleagues beyond the boundaries of classic automotive design is always enriching for us. Creativity thrives on communication and freely conceived ideas.’

Porsche and the Norman Foster Foundation believe that through the integration of technology, insights from nature and lessons from the past, cities can be reimagined as more sustainable, connected and efficient, a holistic approach bringing together experts from different fields to shape the future of mobility.

‘Gateway to Venice's Waterway is a testament to this vision,’ says Norman Foster. ‘It shows how innovation and tradition can co-exist to inspire new solutions for the urban landscapes of tomorrow.’

Gateway to Venice’s Waterway can be visited throughout the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, which runs until 23 November.

porsche.com/stories

There is always a level of sifting to do, when attempting to decipher the essence of a Chelsea Flower Show; determining the overarching zeitgeist of the event, and the legacy it might leave. Across the first 48 hours, for example, you must allow the dust of the frenzied build to settle, and the energy and emotion that follows the judges’ verdict – delivered always on the Tuesday of show week – which sees the designers, growers and floral exhibitors awarded medals from gold to bronze. You must peer awhile into the recesses of each plot, and blot out, if you can, the chorus of chatter and that swirls through the avenues and walkways of the show ground at London’s Royal Hospital Chelsea. Gardens, after all, are by their nature reposeful places, and are best interpreted – or felt – in moments of inward quiet.

Over the years, the spirit of each Chelsea Flower Show has been distilled through certain permeating qualities: a particularly pervasive colour scheme, for example, or indeed a recurring palette of plants – in 2023, notably, the championing of everyday ‘weeds’ like the dandelion and nettle, which cropped up in multiple exhibits. Other years, the lasting takeaways have included themes of biodiversity-increase, bold architecture, floral abundance, or, contrastingly, soothing green ‘naturalism’. These overarching trends often contrast year to year, and inevitably betray something of the wider culture, climate and concerns of the time.

If last year’s exhibits were united under a loose theme of ‘refuge’ – of gardens as vital sanctuaries for mental wellbeing – this year, the line of best fit reveals one of thoughtful readjustment, with many designers (including those behind the feature Show Gardens along Chelsea’s Main Avenue but also the smaller exhibits and ‘Balcony’ and ‘Container’ gardens) building into their show pieces a dimension of creative environmentalism, and exploring ways in which the gardens of the future might be made to weather – or indeed, actively combat – our rapidly changing climate.

‘Sustainability’, of course, has been a trend at Chelsea for a years now, with the RHS endeavouring to lessen the show’s environmental impact by banning single-use plastics, pushing exhibitors towards peat-free composts, relocating show gardens to ‘forever homes’ following the event and implementing a ‘Green Garden Audit’ intended to reduce the carbon footprint of the larger show garden exhibits.

In 2025, however, there is at last a sense that the subject has become almost implicit within the fabric of the gardens themselves, with so many designers responding to climatic and conservation concerns with thoughtful, experimental innovation. This year, there is a tantalising sense of Chelsea’s potential as a platform for new thinking – that it could couple horticultural and architectural artistry with genuine efforts to promote meaningful change: to question outdated practices, alter mindsets, present solutions for waste reduction and biodiversity increase and demonstrate how gardens can play a vital role in future public and environmental welfare.

We see this, for example, in the architectural ‘rain-scaping’ of Baz Grainger’s small ‘Save For a Rainy Day’ show garden – awarded gold yesterday – with its permeable pathways providing flood-water management and its cantilevered pavilion capturing runoff rainwater (all the more poignant in the context of a spring that, alarmingly, might prove the UK’s driest in over a century). We see it, too, in the great sand dunes of Nigel Dunnett’s Hospitalfield Arts Garden, promoting the use of inorganic aggregates as low-input alternatives to pampered topsoil.

We see matters of conservation expressed with deep creativity in exhibits such as Ryan McMahon’s ‘Seawilding’ garden, which has brought aquatic seagrass to Chelsea for the first time – grown in a saltwater pool surrounded with craggy sandstone – and which spotlights the importance of marine conservation. It’s seen in the carbon sequestering planters of Joshua Fenton’s ‘C6’ Container garden; in the provision for songbirds that underscores Nicola Oakey’s All About Plants-category garden; in the climate-resilient crops micro-farmed in Matthew Parker & Josh Butler’s ‘Garden of the Future’, and the mycelium-bonded panels of Tom Massey and Je Ahn’s pavilion.

This isn’t to say that Chelsea no longer comes at an environmental cost – the construction of temporary gardens is inescapably demanding of resources – but that there is an enticing sense of the show’s function beginning to morph. As ever, beautiful plants are in abundance this year (not least in the Great Pavilion, where I encountered blue Himalayan poppies and magnificent ferns like none I’d ever seen before), but they are no longer the sole message.

For me, if one exhibit sums up the zeitgeist of RHS Chelsea 2025 it is the garden designed by Allon Hoskin and Robert Beaudin for homeless charity Pathway. Representative of the journey made from homelessness to recovery and safety, the garden takes the form of a pathway through lush productive woodland, with metaphorical obstacles presented in the physical form of stone boulders, and fungal-structured pillars symbolising interconnectivity and the charity’s nurturing networks of health-provision. The garden is free of concrete footings and built with recycled materials, from its pergola made from wind-damaged redwood trees and up-cycled scrap steel to cut York stone pavers reclaimed from a cow barn. The pillars demonstrate the use of fungal mycelium as an innovative new biodegradable construction material, while at the same time highlighting fungal networks as the essential, historically undervalued building blocks of life on earth. The planting is refreshingly simple and garden-realistic, with bold brush strokes of geranium, rodgersia and baptisia only enhancing, rather than distracting away from, the resounding message of the garden. It is a deeply thoughtful garden that is inherently future-facing – not bad for a ‘flower show’.

Chelsea Flower Show 2025 runs until May 24th. Get tickets.

Historically, show gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show couple artful, high-end planting design with similarly ambitious architectural structures, from walls and waterways to shelters, bridges and pavilions. However, with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) striving towards greener credentials for its signature and world-renowned annual flower show – including reductions in carbon emissions and waste materials, and ensuring its short-lived exhibition gardens are relocated to lasting homes, post-show – more sustainable approaches to such hardscaping elements are integral to its future. Fresh this year (if ‘fresh’ is the word) is the ingenious use of architectural fungal material, with organic, ’root-like’ fungal mycelium strands providing the cladding for a pavilion within one of 2025’s standout Chelsea gardens.

For his gold medal-winning ‘Avanade Intelligent’ show garden this year – undoubtedly a centre of interest along the show’s prestigious Main Avenue – garden designer Tom Massey has collaborated with architect Je Ahn of Studio Weave (whose portfolio includes the striking Seosaeng House in South Korea and a transformed Devon cottage, Made of Sand) to conceive a low-carbon garden of predominately reused materials. Highlighting the vital importance of urban trees (in filtering air pollution, cooling streets and supporting wildlife), Massey and Ahn’s garden features attractive, architectural species of Chinese cedar and Sichuan pepper trees, but also a wooden pavilion with outer panels fabricated from mycelium-bonded wood shavings. ‘Part of the brief we set ourselves was to make the whole landscape from reused and low-carbon materials’, says Ahn. ‘Talking with Avanade [the garden’s sponsor], we decided we’d like to grow certain elements of the building itself, and mycelium was the perfect material’.

Explaining the fungal fabrication process, Chelsea gold-medalist Massey describes how waste pulp wood – including wood shavings resulting from the pavilion’s construction – was inoculated with mycelium, which grew and bonded the wood together like glue, creating the organically patterned panels. ‘The mycelium stops growing when you air-dry it, and fixes in place. It will slowly degrade over time and can be composted and replaced, offering a carbon-negative, nature-based material solution.’ Unlike plastic and composite materials, he says, this is a material that doesn’t outlive its useful life. ‘There’s nothing toxic in it – you just compost it, and it gives back to the soil.’

Massey and Ahn’s Chelsea garden also draws attention to the perils faced by trees planted in urban environments. ‘Around the world urban trees are under threat’, says Massey. ‘Three in ten die within the first year of planting, 50 per cent die within ten years. That’s because of a range of factors, including climate change.’ To combat this, the garden demonstrates innovative use of AI to monitor the health of its trees, with sensors recording elements such as growth, sap flow, air quality and soil conditions. The AI then analyses this data to provide nurturing advice. 'The AI has been trained with specific information on each tree – how it should be grown and its water requirements. It also accesses weather data, so it can say what you do and don’t need to keep an eye on. It gives gardeners insights into what’s going on, so they can devote resources to a particular tree.’

The Avanade Intelligent Garden, which also features layers of biodiverse and naturally resilient woodland plantings, including a range of edible species, will be permanently relocated to Manchester's Mayfield Park following its exhibition at the Chelsea Flower Show this week.

Also read: Innovative coastal garden turns heads at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Among the 31 show gardens conceived for this week’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Landscape Designer Nigel Dunnett’s ‘Hospitalfield Arts Garden’ – designed in partnership with Scottish arts charity Hospitalfield Arts – has been making waves today with its progressive approach to sustainable landscape and planting design. Taking inspiration from the coastal location of the Hospitalfield arts centre in Arbroath, Scotland, Dunnett’s highly sculptural garden on Chelsea’s ‘Main Avenue’ features striking sand dunes, an active ‘bothy’ art studio (created by contemporary cabin designer Bothy Stores) and a clay-lined ‘dune pool’ irrigated by rainwater harvested from these structures.

For seasoned Chelsea designer Dunnett, who has long championed planting design as an impactful art form, creating this architectural ‘dune-scape’ for the show has been an exciting challenge. 'Chelsea is a place for new ideas, for experimentation, and to take risks', he commented, 'and that is certainly the spirit in which we have developed our garden'. Bordered by durable Scot’s pine trees, an exposed wooden framework of reinforcing ‘fins’ provides the backbone for Dunnett’s dramatic dunes, holding the sand in place and mimicking the natural ‘wind-blown’ appearance of Arbroath’s sand dune topography. Its rust-red, iron filing-infused paint chimes with the adjacent corrugated bothy – which throughout show week will be inhabited by activist-artist Bob and Roberta Smith – and supports a diverse range of evocative coastal plants.

But the dunes also highlight progressive gardening attitudes towards inorganic soil mediums, with repurposed aggregates such as gravels, sands and even crushed concrete increasingly employed as sustainable alternatives to ‘improved’ and unnecessarily pampered topsoils. Subverting the outdated adage that all garden plants prefer growing in ‘perfect’, nutrient-rich topsoil, Dunnett’s plants have been established in sand, a contemporary propagation technique pioneered by Swedish nurseryman Peter Korn. Sand-grown plants form deep roots and develop less flimsy top growth, demonstrating greater resilience and stability in the face of increasing climate extremes.

'We hope this garden will spark conversations about our changing gardening habits', says Dunnett, whose former ambitious public landscape projects include plantings for the 2012 Queen Elizabeth Olympic and 2022’s Tower of London ‘Superbloom’. 'The great benefit of these recycled aggregates is they provide drainage, allowing warmer climate plants to survive our wet winters – it’s a garden of the future', Dunnett explains. 'The dune structure itself also introduces a ranging topography within a small space – high and low areas, wet and dry, light and shade; transforming a low diversity situation into a high diversity one.'

Show-goers attending Chelsea’s opening day today will have noticed in Dunnett’s curated arrangement of resilient and notably silvery-leafed plantings an aesthetic departure from ‘traditional’ British planting schemes and indeed those of Chelsea Flower Shows past, with its hardwearing shrubs like germander and rock rose, and its feral dune grasses, chamomile and sea kale. ‘It’s a very different look’, suggests Dunnett, 'but it gives us a glimpse into a radical future where, as has happened in much of the UK over this spring, we will face extended rain-free periods and long spells of above-average temperatures'.

Elsewhere in the show, meanwhile, many of the gardens have similarly addressed contemporary environmental challenges, from sustainable water capture and the use of ‘biochar’ to preserving endangered ecosystems and micro-farming the crops of the future. This underscores the RHS’s endeavours to make Chelsea a platform for innovative ideas within horticulture.

Following Chelsea, the Hospitalfield Arts Garden — sponsored by ‘gardens for good causes’ charity Project Giving Back — is due to be relocated to a primary school in Arbroath close to Hospitalfield, where it will be adapted to provide a space for children and teachers to enjoy and foster creativity.

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show runs from 20 May 2025 – Sat, 24 May. Get tickets

A new AA show at the famed London architecture school has opened exploring the relationship between architecture and makers. On display on the ground and first-floor gallery spaces of the Architectural Association (AA) on Bedford Square, 'Distillation of Architecture' brings craft to the spotlight through the lens of the Japanese creative. It aims at a playful distilling of architectural thinking and design into furniture and objects.

Four pairings have made an equal number of collaborative groups between architecture practices and material and craft specialists in an exploration of a distinct, traditional method or matter. Participants include Schemata Architects with Ikuya Sagara; Studio MNM with Kittaka Brothers & Corp, Bansyo, iskw_sss and Imatoku Kogei; Suzuko Yamada with Yuki Murakami; and Tsubame Architects with Hidakuma Studio.

Tour the new AA show ' Distillation of Architecture'

Each group has been asked to 'rethink a piece of furniture', resulting in weird and wonderful interpretations of things such as a mobile pub to lanterns, rugs and even an entire thatched canopy. There are timber constructions made of wood offcuts and blue-dyed fabric used in flexible furniture items.

Shin Egashira, Head of the Koshirakura Landscape Workshop Visiting School and Diploma 11 Unit Tutor at the AA who has been central to the school’s Maeda collaboration, says: ‘The architects and makers in this exhibition challenge the conventions of mass-produced and mass-consumed furniture in their designs. They combine architectural elements with furniture, playfully echoing the diverse forms that contemporary lifestyles can take. These practitioners pursue mobility, connectivity and compactness in their work, sharing an affinity with makers who apply traditional techniques to modern materials to achieve an economy of means.’

The exhibition, which is open at the Architectural Association AA) on Bedford Square, London until 7 March 2025, was made possible with the support of the Maeda Corporation and celebrates its 30 years of collaboration with the AA.

aaschool.ac.uk

In Tyneside, traces of a dream to build a prosperous and egalitarian city through pioneering architecture and infrastructure still linger. These ambitious ideals that took hold of the area – which spans from Newcastle to the coast in England's north-east – in the 1960s and 1970s are etched into the landscape with projects like the Civic Centre and the Central Motorway in Newcastle. While the outcomes remain controversial, the dream is being re-explored at the Farrell Centre in Newcastle, in hopes of building on that legacy to confront the challenges the city faces today.

Running until June 2025, 'Concrete Dreams' is a programme comprising an exhibition, an immersive installation, and a wide range of events exploring the past and future of Newcastle's urban transformation.

The exhibition, ‘Brasilia of the North’ (until 1 June 2025), delves into Newcastle’s ambitious 1960s and 1970s urban planning projects, drawing parallels to the then-emerging, futuristic Brazilian capital of Brasília.

Exhibits include the remarkable 6m-long Newcastle city model, first created in the 1960s to envision the city's modern future; the original architectural model for Gateshead’s Trinity Square Carpark, an icon of brutalist architecture; and a Metro ‘cube’ featuring typography by Margaret Calvert, renowned for her work on Britain’s road signs. Visitors can also explore a selection of maps, books, drawings, photographs, and films that highlight the complex socio-political forces that shaped Newcastle’s transformation.

The immersive installation, 'Alison’s Room: An Extended Reality Archive', offers a unique journey into the mind and work of Alison Smithson, a pioneer of brutalist architecture who, along with her husband Peter Smithson, redefined British post-war design (with buildings such as London's Economist Plaza, for example). Created by artist and researcher Paula Strunden, this life-sized virtual reality installation blends elements from the Smithsons' most influential designs with interactive objects, furniture, and even a talking cat that visitors can ‘pet’. As visitors move through Alison’s study, they are invited to engage with the visionary world of a defining figure in Newcastle’s architectural history in a fun, imaginative, and educational way.

Alison's Room: An Extended Reality Archive runs until 20 December 2025; booking is required.

‘Brasilia of the North’ runs until 1 June 2025.

farrellcentre.org.uk

It is hard to believe this is the first solo Germane Barnes exhibition in a museum. The architect, designer and educator, who has widely exhibited and discussed his work to date – including temporary urban installations and a prominent presence at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023 – has been a strong voice in the American architecture and design world – and beyond – in particular through his research on identity and archaeology (his thesis on the ‘non-white contribution to Roman and Italian architecture' won him the Wheelwright Prize 2021).

It is this thread that the architect is also pulling with this newly launched solo show at the Art Institute of Chicago – titled 'Germane Barnes: Columnar Disorder'.

Inside the new Germane Barnes exhibition

The exhibition, which opened its doors this past weekend, offers a sculptural, critical reflection on 'the enduring architectural legacy of the Classical orders – the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian'. Creating an alternative to the existing styles, seen through the global Black experience, history, and values, Barnes crafts drawings, collages and physical representations of his subject.

'My research of African diasporic spatial legacies has only emboldened my pride in Black stories and the desperate need for their telling,' Barnes says. 'The opportunity to share this work in the city that shaped me is an incredible feeling.' The result is a powerfully captivating installation built around three column iterations – The Identity Column (celebrating the Black body and beauty), the Labor Column (and the role of slavery in American economic growth), and the Migration Column (nodding to water as a site of Black memory, loss, and selfhood).

'It’s crucial we support emerging architectural voices like Barnes, who is paving the way for the next generation of architects while also inviting new audiences to celebrate the architectural creativity and innovation of the African diaspora,' says Irene Sunwoo, the John H Bryan chair and curator of architecture and design at the Chicago institution. 'This exhibition serves as testament to Barnes’ ambition to radically transform the field.'

germanebarnes.com

artic.edu

The shortlist for the 2024 RIBA Reinvention Award has just been announced. It puts forward four exceptional projects for the country's top gong when it comes to ambition and excellence in the realm of reuse in architecture.

This accolade was specifically designed to recognise ‘achievement in the creative reuse of buildings to improve their environmental, social, or economic sustainability. It aims to shine a light on “retrofitting”, increasing the longevity and energy efficiency of existing buildings, and reducing the need for demolition and new construction,' the RIBA explains in its statement.

Muyiwa Oki on the 2024 RIBA Reinvention Award and reuse in architecture

With the spotlight on reuse in many ways today, given its critical role in our efforts towards sustainable architecture planning, as well as the UK's ageing, period housing stock, it becomes more timely than ever to talk about the role of building redesign. We caught up with RIBA President Muyiwa Oki to discuss more in an exclusive interview – plus, scroll further down to find out more about this year's shortlist.

W*: What excites you about this particular award? What makes it special?

MO: The shortlist is a spectrum of works across the UK, projects that vary in typology or scale – what speaks to me is that reinvention is not just about façade treatment. It’s about thinking how a building can be used. Look at Park Hill, a brutalist architecture landmark, which has stayed as such, but [the architects behind its reinvention] also looked at how it is used. This reworking has the community at heart so that people can enjoy space. Architecture is about making the built environment easier to use and more compelling.

The whole idea of reinvention is different from the idea of landmarks and listed buildings. Obviously, some buildings need to be protected for the future as heritage, but others are not protected, yet still need to be used for years to come. So, we need a way to bring them into the 21st century.

W*: The shortlist this year spans multi-family housing, community spaces, workspace and mixed-use buildings – can reinvention be applied to anything?

MO: Yes, anything and everything. My aim is partly to bring balance to this conversation about reinvention against new build. You can be a hugely successful architect if you do only reinvention projects, just as if you did only new projects. And all these important skills are worthy of celebration.

W*: Is this award about celebrating the old and our valuable heritage, or about looking to the future? I see some of the buildings on the shortlist are listed.

MO: It’s a balance. That’s why the criteria are fairly loose. It is about bringing buildings to modern or current use. It’s about how to bring a community, the end user, into the conversation, and reimagining how people will use the [buildings].

W*: Beyond the buildings on the shortlist for this year, what constitutes for you a great example of reinvention?

MO: One thing that pops into mind is The Standard in London. It is a hotel by Orms Architects. I like the way they added the extension to the top and completely transformed it into a centre for London, I go there quite often. It has been a successful way of breathing new life into an old brutalist architecture building and it doesn’t feel out of place either.

W*: Is there a building you’d like to see reinvented in the future?

MO: Obviously, our own headquarters at 66 Portland Place, so watch this space. We are working towards getting it done for our bicentenary in 2034.

W*: What would you like to see more of in the architecture world?

MO: Reinvention is necessary but it is not the silver bullet. I’d also like to see more reduction of carbon emissions and look into the different elements of the role of construction. In my day job [Oki works as a senior architectural manager at Mace], for example, we do a lot of research on prefab concrete cassettes and how they can help bring down the overall emissions in a building.

W*: Do you think architects need to be bolder when it comes to reinvention?

MO: Yes – but, for example, in Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings, the first iron frame building, the way Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios created a meadow around it increased its usage and [making] it an open-plan office is giving life to a historic building in a subtler way. It tells a story about its past.

It's again about the balance. Over the years and through my education and experience, the most sought-after commissions were about new buildings. But, for example, the reinvention of King’s Cross [London] made a huge difference to its area, and with these projects, you need to take the entire community with you. By having an award that looks specifically at that, we make it even more special and more meaningful than ever.

2024 RIBA Reinvention Award shortlist

Park Hill Phase 2

Park Hill is Europe's largest listed structure, sitting on a hill that overlooks Sheffield city centre. This project marks the completion of the ongoing regeneration programme's second phase by Mikhail Riches, which saw internal spaces modernised and the addition of balconies and energy efficiency strategies.

Croft 3

This new community dining hall was born of the transformation of an old barn into a restaurant and social centre on the picturesque hills of the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides, UK. Titled Croft 3, it was created by the emerging London-based architecture studio Fardaa, headed by founding architect Edward Farleigh-Dastmalch.

Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings

An existing historic structure in Shrewsbury received a full refurbishment by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios. The original building is celebrated as the world’s first iron-frame building, nicknamed the ‘grandparent of skyscrapers’. Now it contains a new leisure destination with a visitor centre and café.

The Parcels Building

The building originally on this Oxford Street site in London was an increasingly outdated 1957, mixed-use, office and retail structure in urgent need of reimagining. Now, a refresh by Grafton Architects has completely transformed it with a new façade and vibrant interior programme.

The 2024 RIBA Reinvention Award winner will be announced during the Stirling Prize ceremony on 16 October 2024 in London.

architecture.com

The 2024 RIBA Stirling Prize winner has just been announced, with London's Elizabeth Line crowned as the UK's best building project of the year. The prestigious accolade, widely considered one of the highest honours in its field, was presented tonight, 16 October 2024, in a formal ceremony in Camden's Roundhouse.

The state-of-the-art transport network, named in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, the Elizabeth Line runs from Reading and Heathrow to Essex and south-east London. It’s an extraordinarily complex architectural feat – a collaboration between Grimshaw, Maynard, GIA Equation and Atkins – masked by an elegant simplicity, the RIBA jury pointed out.

Importantly, the scheme embraces a sustainable architecture approach too, through its inclusive design and strategies such as passive cooling at platform level to reduce the need for mechanical heating, and escalator motion sensors that minimise energy waste.

Muyiwa Oki, RIBA president and jury chair, said: ‘The Elizabeth Line is a triumph in architect-led collaboration, offering a flawless, efficient, beautifully choreographed solution to inner-city transport. It’s an uncluttered canvas that incorporates a slick suite of architectural components to create a consistent, line-wide identity – through which thousands of daily passengers navigate with ease.

'Descending into the colossal network of tunnels feels like entering a portal to the future, where the typical commuter chaos is transformed into an effortless experience. This is architecture of the digital age – a vast scheme that utilises cutting-edge technology to create distinctive spatial characteristics and experiences. It rewrites the rules of accessible public transport, and sets a bold new standard for civic infrastructure, opening up the network and by extension, London, to everyone.'

The 2024 RIBA Stirling Prize winner: tour the Elizabeth Line

The Elizabeth Line is the most significant contribution to London’s transportation network in over 20 years – courtesy of Atkins, Grimshaw, GIA Equation and Maynard. All the stakeholders in this multi-billion-pound enterprise have played a very long game, whether they’re developers, architects, engineers, councils, or transport organisations.

Neill McClements, partner at Grimshaw, spoke to Wallpaper* on behalf of the winning team: 'When we first started we were struck by how the stations and platforms might feel claustrophobic. We wanted to make people’s journey as joyful as possible. Using lighting we wanted to celebrate that sense of scale and also a calm, accessible environment where people can feel safe and secure in their journey.'

The first plans for what became known as Crossrail (and was subsequently named the Elizabeth Line in 2016) were mooted back in 1974, although plans for major cross-capital train tunnels date back to the 1940s. The perseverance has paid off. The line, serving Londoners and visitors to the capital since its opening in May 2022, has now scooped the top spot in the 2024 RIBA Stirling Prize.

McClements continued: 'In our discussions with the engineering and tunnelling team, we realised how the tunnels were formed and that we can actually curve the routes between tunnels to ease the junctions, and let people see around corners - it makes it safer and helps people move. It ended up creating the Line’s distinctive design, the fluid lines of the tunnel but it came out of a desire to make the experience more comfortable. We spoke about frictionless, effortless movement. We hope it takes the stress out of moving for all.'

The Grimshaw architect underlined how important inclusivity was for the entire team, and how they worked extensively with accessibility groups, creating full-scale mockups of sections (which was possible thanks to the design’s modularity) to get feedback on their design during the process. Additionally, he highlighted the important collaboration element between the numerous engineers, consultants, station designers and architects involved - which makes The Elizabeth Line a truly collective feat.

2024 RIBA Stirling Prize: the shortlist

The winning design was among six shortlisted projects, which span a range of typologies, in London, Dorset and Sheffield. This list was born from the 26 2024 RIBA National Awards, which were revealed in July this year. Here are the five runners-up.

Chowdhury Walk, London, by Al-Jawad Pike 

Chowdhury Walk by Al-Jawad Pike is a development that repurposes under-used Hackney Council land to create new council homes for the community. 'Overall, Chowdhury Walk is an elegant piece of architectural and urban design, providing new homes that are successfully knit into their context – satisfying both resident and passer-by,' writes the jury in its citation.

King’s Cross Masterplan, London, by Allies and Morrison and Porphyrios Associates

This pioneering masterplan by Allies and Morrison and Porphyrios Associates set a new bar in city-making – King's Cross has been a contemporary exemplar of its typology. The jury wrote: 'The developer client was able to set goals for all the buildings and spaces, with reduction of energy demand, use of a district energy centre, decarbonisation, and energy procurement goals all embedded in the design briefs. Ten of the new buildings are BREEAM Outstanding. Combined with the carbon savings through retention and renovation of the historic buildings, it all makes for a robust sustainability narrative. King’s Cross Masterplan is a global exemplar in how to make a community of places which supports human activity, maintains an urban identity, and is supple enough to accommodate inevitable change.'

National Portrait Gallery, London, by Jamie Fobert Architects and Purcell

The summer 2023 reopening of London's National Portrait Gallery was one of the most highly anticipated relaunches of the year. The popular cultural attraction, set right in the heart of the capital, was reimagined by a team led by Jamie Fobert Architects and conservation specialist Purcell, with a new design that saw the institution's previously increasingly unfit quarters opened up in a generous and subtly luxurious new home. Architect and studio head Jamie Fobert said at the time: 'Hopefully, we have now achieved a much better balance between the building and its collection.'

Park Hill Phase 2, Sheffield, by Mikhail Riches

The ongoing regeneration of the much-discussed Grade II*-listed, brutalist Park Hill estate has completed its second phase, courtesy of Mikhail Riches. Writes the jury, in its citation for the project: 'The first phase of the project stripped the building back to its frame and used bright colours to create a distinctly modern appearance. In contrast, Phase 2 is a “lighter touch”, retaining more of the existing built fabric and employing more subtle colours to blend the complex into the landscape. These colours, referencing the nearby Peak District, are used on the balcony reveals and flat entrances, giving each flat its own identity while keeping the character of the overall building.'

Wraxall Yard, Dorset, by Clementine Blakemore Architects

A sensitively restored dairy farm offering inclusive holiday accommodation, a community space, and an educational smallholding, Wraxall Yard was created by Clementine Blakemore Architects. 'You could spend a long time here and keep finding new things. The touch of the designer feels light, the changes between materials are very natural, and the interfaces between buildings and landscaping are well considered. Most of the internal spaces are open to the rafters, but there are subtle changes in scale: from the two-storey elevation facing the car park, through a tall breezeway entrance porch, into the more intimate courtyard bounded by single-storey holiday cottages. Inside, the cottages retain a rustic feel with exposed trusses and glossy concrete floors,' reads the jury citation.

2024 RIBA Reinvention Award winner: Croft 3

Tonight’s Stirling Prize reveal also included the 2024 RIBA Reinvention Award announcement, scooped by Croft 3 – a new community dining hall born of the transformation of an old barn into a restaurant and social centre on the picturesque hills of the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides, by architects Fardaa.

This accolade was specifically designed to recognise ‘achievement in the creative reuse of buildings to improve their environmental, social, or economic sustainability. RIBA president Muyiwa Oki told us in an exclusive interview earlier this autumn: 'The whole idea of reinvention is different from the idea of landmarks and listed buildings. Obviously, some buildings need to be protected for the future as heritage, but others are not protected, yet still need to be used for years to come. So, we need a way to bring them into the 21st century.'

Fardaa founder, Edward Farleigh-Dastmalchi, spoke to Wallpaper* about the project, what he hopes for it, and what he learned from the process: 'So many of these wonderful structures are scattered around the landscape and they have been long disused, but they are so picturesque and they bring character. I like [the project's] ambiguity, I like it if people are not entirely sure without looking in a lot of detail about whether this is a new or old building, where that line is. I suppose it’s best if people don’t think about that much at all. I hope they go in and take in the incredible view and eat at the incredible restaurant that was already there, and not really think about the building at all.'

'In this project, we wanted to do as little to the landscape as we can, because there’s so much embodied carbon tied to groundworks. I am not sure we were that conscious of this when we started the process so now this is one of the things I have learned, and where I will start on in future projects.'

The 2024 RIBA Reinvention Award shortlist included Park Hill Phase 2; Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings; and The Parcels Building.

More awards revealed during tonight's event include: Wraxall Yard in Dorset by Clementine Blakemore Architects, winner of the 2024 Stephen Lawrence Prize; Chowdhury Walk in Hackney by Al-Jawad Pike, winner of the 2024 Neave Brown Award for Housing; and Shakespeare North Trust and Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council, winner of the 2024 Client of the Year Award for Shakespeare North in Prescot by Helm Architecture.

architecture.com

Remembered as one of his era's greats, IM Pei (Ieoh Ming Pei, 1917-2019) designed over 60 buildings across the world during a career spanning seven decades. The leading architect, whose work is characterised by sculptural and geometric visual expression, won every significant award in his field, including the 1983 Pritzker Architecture Prize and the prestigious 2010 RIBA gold medal.

IM Pei’s landmark projects read like a wish list of prestigious commissions. His designs for the National Gallery of Art East Building in Washington, DC, the Grand Louvre extension – which has become a beloved symbol of Paris – the Bank of China tower in Hong Kong’s central district, and Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art, firmly established Pei as one of the most iconic figures in architecture.

'IM Pei: Life is Architecture': the exhibition

Hong Kong’s museum of visual art, design and architecture, M+, has opened the first ever retrospective of the architect’s work. ‘IM Pei: Life is Architecture’ animates the life of the influential figure through film, original drawings, commissioned architectural models, photographs, and archival documentation, ranging from magazine covers and newspaper clippings to personal letters. It is fitting that the institution based in West Kowloon, the city’s cultural quarters, looks out across the waters of Victoria Harbour to the Bank of China’s blade-like tower – an exceptional example of Pei’s technical expertise.

The show's curators – architectural historian Shirley Surya and the artistic director of Rotterdam’s Nieuwe Instituut (and sometime Wallpaper* contributor) Aric Chen – were keen to challenge assumptions about an individual Surya describes as 'famous but understudied.'

'Pei’s practice is defined by principles that are consistent across different projects, but not a style,' Surya explains in response to the presupposition that he was a corporate architect or was governed by a predilection for geometric design. She points to his mastery of the classic architectural goal of creating a seamless movement through space, his engaged intervention on site, and his influence in shaping the surrounding environment – a recurrent theme explored throughout the show.

‘It's all about capturing views – capturing what is the strength of the site, and then bringing it into the building,' Surya says.

The exhibition takes a close look at Pei’s life and work through six areas of focus beginning with his transcultural foundations. Archive video footage contextualises the China of Pei’s youth, showing scenes of metropolitan Shanghai and Hong Kong in the 1920s and 1930s, and the landscaped walled gardens of Suzhou.

The show does not shy away from Pei’s early career as a commercial architect at New York-based property development firm Webb and Knapp, despite the field's historical disdain for such profit-driven collaborations. It highlights how the commissions provided a training ground, shaping Pei’s outlook on what buildings should mean for the landscape of a city and the architect’s commitment to strengthening the community through design.

Seven years in the making, the exhibition is an expansive take on the international figure that includes small and almost forgotten projects, such as the groundbreaking Sunning Plaza development in Hong Kong. Completed in 1982, it became a ‘prototype’ for the city’s office buildings in the 1980s.

The team at M+ realised that most texts on Pei were by European and American historians and writers. 'We thought that projects that were in Asia were not so much on their radar,' Surya says. 'We wanted to find projects that are by Pei in this part of the world that may not seem as important as the Louvre but were important to the cities here.'

Despite this, the high-profile Grand Louvre project unsurprisingly takes centre stage with the print media surrounding the project, alongside material documenting its conception and construction. Despite his fame, Pei existed on the margins due to his underrepresentation in academia.

Instead of producing theoretical research and writing, he chose his enduring passion – to build. The curators at M+ sought to reorient how he is evaluated by foregrounding the vibrant discussion commissions like the Louvre scheme generated – shifting the focus to his far-reaching cultural influence and the impact of the built work as architecture of public interest.

mplus.org.hk

Philip Jodidio’s Stakhanovite proficiency in architectural publishing continues with the arrival of Shigeru Ban. Complete Works 1985 – Today, another hefty tome in the time-honoured Taschen tradition of over-sized and XXL works.

This time, your bookshelves will be given a thorough work out by the works of legendary Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. Perhaps the country’s best-known contemporary designer, largely down to the global spread and sheer diversity of his work, Ban’s oeuvre is traced in grand style by Jodidio’s newest monograph.

The format works especially well for Complete Works 1985 – Today for Ban’s approach frequently brings monumentality to buildings of conventional scale, often by exaggerating or over-emphasizing a particular element. This is aptly demonstrated in his early Curtain Wall House project in Tokyo (1995), a pun on the dominant technical feature of international style architecture by way of removing the conventional façade altogether in favour of a literal curtain.

It wasn’t long after this that Ban’s association with cardboard began. His fascination with the structural possibilities of this prosaic material ushered a whole new era of demountable design, used to great effect in disaster zones where it could be used as the core component of shelter and refuge.

The book offers up stark juxtapositions as a result – a Manhattan penthouse versus a dormitory shelter built for the Ukraine Refugee Assistance Project in Paris, or the precision of the Swatch/Omega campus in Switzerland compared to Post-Tsunami Rehabilitation Houses built in Sri Lanka in 2007.

Ultimately, Ban’s work showcases how architecture can be both veil and shelter. The former relies on the translucent and ephemeral, whereas the latter is all about raw materiality. In a world where basic shelter is the most valuable commodity of all, this approach pays instant humanitarian dividends, as well as provide a vital revaluation of how to make the most of materials in an age of finite resources.

Shigeru Ban. Complete Works 1985 – Today, Philip Jodidio, £200, Taschen.com, @Taschen

The book is also available as 200 numbered art editions, each with a signed Shigeru Ban print custom-built 3D laser-cut wooden cover, £1,750, Taschen.com.

See more of our favourite architecture books.

The Activism Award 2024 has just been announced, crowning London-based Studio Bark as its overall winner, for the practice’s work in response to the climate crisis, and towards inclusivity in construction, and regenerative building processes. Argentine initiative The Colectivo de Arquitectas (CdA) from Buenos Aires, received a high commendation for its protest against the redevelopment of public land. 

The top gong was drawn from a six-strong shortlist of nominees chosen for their role in taking action and championing change in the field when it comes to key, current issues within the built environment. The annual accolade, which is organised by the digital architecture platform Archiboo and supported this year by Heatherwick Studio, recognises work covering topics such as the use of public land, safety on our streets, the climate emergency and gender and disability rights. 

Meet the Activism Award 2024 winners: Studio Bark

Set up by co-founders Wilf Meynell, Nick Newman and Steph Chadwick, Studio Bark has its base in east London, and is guided by a pledge to ‘create positive disruption, show compassion, take responsibility’. These are values the small team displays in spades and applies in their work daily – which caught the eye of the judges. 

Their projects span from housing to installations and office space, all imbued with the practice’s sustainable ethos and passionate advocacy. Called ‘Bark’, the studio uses its name as both a verb (‘speaking loudly’) and a noun (‘the protective life support system of trees’), they have explained. We caught up with them, to hear more about their thoughts on architecture activism and the award.

Wallpaper*: What motivates you to be an activist? 

Studio Bark: Architecture's ability to effect change is limited by the socio-economic context within which we practise. Activism helps us to change that context, which in turn magnifies the impact of our work.

W*: What does winning mean to you?

SB: We really love that an award for activism exists in the first place. Winning it helps us to improve our visibility in this area and connect with others interested in creating change. 

W*: Who inspires you? 

SB: Those who have sacrificed careers and personal freedoms for the belief in a better profession. In particular, to civil engineer Morgan Trowland, who was sentenced to three years in prison for a peaceful occupation of the QE2 bridge, London. 

Activism Award 2024: the shortlist

This year's list cast a net far and wide across different missions and parts of the world. The rest of the nominees were:

• Deaf Architecture Front (DAF), London, for acting to support the deaf community in architectural practice;
• The Colectivo de Arquitectas (CdA), Buenos Aires, for its protest against the redevelopment of public land;
• Part W, London, for championing women in the built environment;
• New Practice, Glasgow, for its data gathering campaign for street safety in its home town;
• Sarah Ackland, London, for its efforts towards gender equality;

‘Colectivo de Arquitectas is a group of over 200 women architects who came together to oppose the Buenos Aires government selling the city's public land to developers,’ said Archiboo’s Amanda Baillieu of the group’s high commendation. ‘As an alternative, it proposes the land be used for a new city park. Judges felt the Colectivo shows what is possible when architects come together and apply their skills as urbanists, lobbyists and advocates.’ 

Bailleu added of Studio Bark: ‘We felt the winner is pushing at the very boundaries of what it means to be an activist and everything from its name and the rationale for its name through to the connections it's making with community groups and other campaigners takes activism in architecture to a different level.’

The winners were announced at a dedicated ceremony in London this evening (22 May 2024). Past Activism Award winners include Amy Francis-Smith in 2021, and Transition by Design in 2022. 

archibooawards.com

Exploring skateboarding in swimming pools, a series of exhibitions is opening this weekend at the Aalto2 Museum Centre in Jyväskylä, Finland. The shows zoom into the enduring – and possibly unexpected – legacy of Finnish modernist architecture master Alvar Aalto on the culture of skateboarding. 

In 1939, Aalto – in collaboration with his wife, Aino – designed Villa Mairea, an experimental private home in rural southwestern Finland. In its grounds, he integrated a kidney-shaped concrete swimming pool that has since become iconic – both as a precursor to the rise of similar midcentury pool designs, and as a structure that would be unexpectedly adapted by skateboarders in the US as a perfect basin to skate in.  

‘The Pool’: skateboarding in swimming pools, Alvar Aalto, and more

The exhibitions, under the banner ‘The Pool’, start with ‘From the Surf to the Sidewalk – When Skateboarding Culture and Architecture Meet’. Tracing how this pool design became synonymous with skateboarding culture in California, it aims to place Aalto’s architectural output in a broader cultural and social context. 

The pool at Villa Mairea is thought to be the first kidney-shaped pool in the world. It was unusual for its free-flowing form, curved bowl basin, and lack of any sharp angles or corners. Almost a decade later, a similar design was adopted by US landscape architect Thomas Church, who was friends with Aalto, for the swimming pool of the Donnell Garden in Sonoma, California, which he designed in 1948 with architects Lawrence Halprin and George Rockrise. 

Taking a radically new shape to the prevalent rectilinear style, the Donnell Garden pool influenced a wave of architects, soon becoming a symbol of the leisure-focused modernist suburban architectural garden. ‘It was one of the key projects of California modernism,’ says exhibition curator Juho Haavisto.

By the 1970s, gardens across the state were dotted with similar pools, and when the drought of 1976 hit, many of them were left empty. Skateboarders soon realised these concrete basins were perfect for skating and developing tricks in, birthing a culture of skateboarding in which bowls – and their related half-pipes – are core components of practising and skatepark design. 

‘The built environment is physically crucial to skateboarding,’ says Haavisto. ‘You need concrete, asphalt or similar solid flat ground just to be able to push forward. Some skate spots do have remarkable architecture and design – but some great places can be quite utilitarian designs.’

Another exhibition in ‘The Pool’ series is ‘Colors’, which explores the inclusivity of skateboarding culture through the eyes of American-Finnish Olympic skateboarder Lizzie Armanto – a long-time admirer of Aalto and his pool design. ‘Pools before Aalto’s had hard edges where the floor and the walls met, whereas Aalto added curvature,’ says Armanto. ‘This created the transition that made it perfect to ride up the wall.’ 

Armanto believes skateboarders and architects see the world in similar ways. ‘They’re always looking at their surroundings for new possibilities,’ she says. ‘I feel like skateboarders are constantly pushing the boundaries of how to interact with their surroundings. Pools were made for swimming and yet, in a perfect storm of events, they were emptied and skateboarders found them, and learned how to fly in the air.’

‘Concrete Currents’, also at Aalto2, showcases photographic work from Finnish skateboarder and photographer Arto Saari – including shots of skaters in Aalto-inspired kidney-shaped pools across California. ‘It has been amazing to see how Aalto’s design has broken down barriers and created a new living organism,’ says Saari. The pool at Villa Mairea, he adds, ‘ultimately became much more than just a swimming pool’.  

aalto2.museum

'Shigeru Ban: The Paper Log House' opens at The Glass House – Philip Johnson’s Connecticut estate turned museum – as part of its 75th anniversary program. On view through December 15th, the 4.1 by 4.1 sq m model home was constructed collaboratively by 39 students from New York architecture school Cooper Union over the course of five weeks. 

The design champions the efficient, sustainable architecture and cost-effective use of readily sourced paper tubes as a building material. Over the past 30 years, different iterations of the structure have been assembled throughout the world, especially as an easily deployed temporary shelter for displaced populations. Unsurprisingly, the project is featured in the Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect’s new Complete Works 1985–Today monograph, released by Taschen in June.

'Shigeru Ban: The Paper Log House' at The Glass House

'When the Glass House was completed in 1949, Philip Johnson was just at the beginning of what would become an expansive campus filled with structures that continually pushed boundaries in design and materials,' says Kirsten Reoch, museum executive director. 'The Paper Log House continues this ethos of experimentation and innovation, turning Ban’s creative energy toward the solution of urgent social problems with recyclable and easily available materials.'

Configured as a traditional gabled roofed home, the Paper Log House concept stemmed from Ban’s desire to reduce waste. He began experimenting with the idea of using paper tubes – harnessed by locally sourced wood – in 1985. He has since developed iterations like the 24 metre-high Cardboard Cathedral completed in 2013 after an earthquake devastated Christchurch, New Zealand. Though clad in polycarbonate panels, the A-frame structure remains intact and is still supported by the tube material. 

The project challenges the preconceived notions of permanence and material strength. In hosting the latest Paper Log House, The Glass House confronts its visitors with the complexities of historic preservation; the contrast of seemingly sturdier glass and brick with otherwise taken-for-granted cardboard.

Located in sightline of the actual Glass House, this version of the Paper Log House is fully operational and insulated. While recycled plastic milk crates form the home’s foundation, steel cables keep its roof in place. The overall project puts a fine point on Ban’s career-defining commitment to humanitarian architecture, which he’s also been able to achieve in the renewed implementation of responsibly extracted and processed mass-timber. 

theglasshouse.org

'Bio-Spaces: regenerative, resilient futures' asks: could hemp, seaweed, algae and mycelium make buildings more environmentally friendly? These natural products are cropping up in furniture and even construction materials, as the latest exhibition at Roca London Gallery demonstrates.

The 'Bio-Spaces' show is 'a call to action to stop designing nature out and start to usher it back into our spaces', says Deborah Spencer. Co-founder of environmentally focused media and events platform Planted, Spencer curated the show with Oliver Heath Design, which has specialised in biophilic design for 20 years. 

‘Bio-spaces: regenerative, resilient futures’ draws on nature

The 70 exhibits are laid out on six ‘islands’ that sit on a modular grid system in the curvaceous, white, Zaha Hadid-designed space. There’s multisensory input from smells and sounds from the natural world, plus video, tactile material samples and plenty of planting.

Each island introduces a different aspect of biodesign. 'These strands have often been thought of in isolation, with designers aligning themselves with one specialism or another,' Spencer says. But she’s now seeing a consolidation of these approaches, leading to 'a more holistic, bio-inspired view of the built environment'.

The biodesign islands include biophilic design, which it about enhancing wellbeing by fostering humanity's affinity with nature. On display here is progressive fashion brand Lestrange’s Coal Drops Yard store. Designed by Fred Rigby Studio following Oliver Heath Design’s biophilic guidelines, there is natural timber and dried flower planting.

The bio-based materials on the island have their origins in nature and are renewable. Erthly makes corrugated construction panels from hemp, a robust, fast-growing crop. They sit alongside TySml’s lamps of mycelium and seaweed.

The bio-diversity island promotes the idea of designing for the needs of flora and fauna, including humans. Henning Larsen’s Biotope building, home to the Métropole Européenne de Lille, has terraced gardens, balconies and bridges. These provide a breeding ground for over 65 species of plants, and a home to birds, insects and lizards.

The bio-morphic island has projects which mimic natural structures, patterns and shapes, including Heatherwick Studio’s cancer support centre, Maggie’s Leeds, with its skeletal-like interior structure.

Biomimcry involves emulating nature’s biological processes, systems and structures to design buildings, products and technologies. Orga Architect’s der Verwondering primary school in The Netherlands has supporting columns and seating made out of rough tree logs.

According to Spencer, as the world only has finite resources, biodesign is the right direction of travel. 'These businesses [in the exhibition] are at the forefront of tackling this.'

The accompanying talks will explore biophilic design (16 May), biodiversity (6 June) and material future (18 September).

'Bio-Spaces: regenerative, resilient futures' runs from 19 April to 30 September at Roca London Gallery

rocalondongallery.com

Announced today (18 April), the Sony World Photography Awards 2024 explores the newest and finest international artists and trends in its field. This year's selection of nominees for the Architecture & Design category spans ten talents from as far afield as Canada, Malaysia and Finland. The winner, Ireland's Siobhán Doran, scooped the top gong with her series Sala Mayor (Living Room).

Sony World Photography Awards 2024: the winner and shortlist

The Architecture & Design category winner's work focuses on the majestic documentation of historic mansions and is part of a book project by Doran, titled Houses that Sugar Built: An Intimate Portrait of Philippine Ancestral Homes.

'I largely set about photographing the houses against a spoken “backdrop”, as my colleague interviewed the owner or custodian, but sometimes worked in complete silence. The sala mayor (main living room) typically showcases the character of the architecture and the lifestyle of the people, but also leaves room for the viewer’s interpretation of these unique residences,' wrote the artist.

Notable entries among the finalists are Germany's Albrecht Voss’ series Enlighten, which 'presents modern alpine architecture as surreal man-made sculptures'; and Malaysia's Nick Ng’ Blue Boy, a visual exploration of a 1962, seven-floor residential haven in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, designed by the architecture firm TY Lee and Sons. 

The Architecture & Design entries of the Sony World Photography Awards 2024, alongside the prize's other categories, will be presented and celebrated in a dedicated photography exhibition that launches at Somerset House in London this spring. 

'Sony World Photography Awards 2024' will be on show at Somerset House in London, UK, 19 April – 6 May 2024

worldphoto.org

Don't Move, Improve 2024, the annual competition celebrating residential extensions and redesigns in London has returned for its 14th edition, revealing today (14 May) its winners - and crowning Aden Grove by Emil Eve Home of the Year. 

Announced at a dedicated ceremony in London tonight, the best home gong was accompanied by winners in eight more prestigious categories, celebrating from sustainable architecture to compact and affordable designs. All were selected from a shortlist of 16 residences, which spanned the width and breadth of the capital. The accolades also included the competition’s first-ever People’s Choice Award, which was scooped by Heyford Avenue by Manuel Urbina Studio. 

The designs on the list represent a wide variety of residential solutions – from homes in immaculate, minimalist architecture, to reworked modernist marvels, boutique and cost-effective dwellings, and abodes using innovative, sustainable materials. The shortlist was selected from 60 longlisted projects, which in turn were picked out of a total of over 150 submissions. 

The final selection was deliberated by a jury panel consisting of Ed Jarvis, Urban Design Manager, London Borough of Camden; Ellie Stathaki, Architecture & Environment Director, Wallpaper* magazine; Jennifer Dyne, Associate, David Kohn Architects; and Marie-Louise Schembri, Sustainability Director, Hilson Moran. Scroll down, to learn more about the winners. 

The winner of Don't Move, Improve 2024

Don't Move, Improve 2024 Home of the Year and Materiality & Craftsmanship Winner: Aden Grove by Emil Eve

London Fields-based architects Emil Eve have completed the renovation and extension of a period home in Newington Green that wraps up a dynamic material palette, energy efficiency and personality all within its tight 19th-century footprint. 

Look inside Aden Grove.

Don’t Move, Improve 2024: more awards

Compact Design: The Green Machine by SUPRBLK Studio

This ingenious compact design slots a multipurpose piece of furniture which can transform an east London studio's single room into living space, dining room and bedroom, in different configurations. 

Urban Oasis: Chelsea Brut by Pricegore 

This robust and handsome 1960s Chelsea townhouse has been given a modern makeover by London architects Pricegore, preserving the tough character of the original architecture and adding functionality, texture, colour and even an element of brutalist charm.

People's Choice Award: Heyford Avenue by Manuel Urbina Studio

Heyford Avenue was a Victorian terraced flat in poor condition in South London. Manuel Urbina Studio reworked the interiors to make the most of the existing space, working with minimalist surfaces and materials such as washed-plaster and micro-cement finishes. 

Environmental Leadership: House Made by Many Hands by Cairn

Few homes are as forward thinking-ly sustainable as this compact home extension in east London. The Hackney property uses a variety of warm, earthy textures with a pioneering, new low-carbon concrete in a London first.  

Unique Character: Hillside House by Mike Tuck Studio 

Bold and colourful, this transformation is a family home in Waltham Forest. Now, its small and dark kitchen has been enlarged, the living space is a flowing, multi-level, functional and bright space, and bonus areas include a pantry and ample storage. 

Best Project Under 100K: Triangle House by Brown Urbanism

This inspiring and unusual, self-build, 40 sq m home fits perfectly in its triangular plot, making the most of its size while punching above its weight in both comfort and style in West Hampstead. It even includes its own green patio. 

Transformation Prize: Two-Up Two-Down House by Khan Bonshek

Two-Up Two-Down House exemplifies just how the typical London terrace can be a blank canvas for the adventurous architect. For the project, husband and wife architectural practice Khan Bonshek took on a substantial project to completely overhaul a Victorian house in east London. The resulting home radically rearranges the interior volumes, pushing the space right to the limit of what's possible, while adding a modest brick rear and rooftop extension.

The shortlist

Apartment with a Mezzanine by Office Ten Architecture 

Office TEN crafted a clever loft conversion and internal reconfiguration at a first and second-floor apartment of an existing building in northwest London, combining Japanese and Scandinavian sensibilities, while drawing on the capital's urban context. 

Flitch Cottage by Whittaker Parsons 

Whittaker Parsons led the design transformation in this Walthamstow home. The scheme included opening up the living space to a flowing, garden-facing interior, as well as bringing lots of light in. 

House extension in Stoke Newington by VATRAA 

This Hackney project elegantly reconfigures the interior of a period home, extending towards the rear and adding a green roof, ASHP and PV panels to boost its environmental credentials along the way. 

A House in East London by Charles Holland Architects 

Clients Will Wiles and Hazel Tsoi-Wiles took on the restoration of a Victorian house of ill-repair in the Mile End area of east London, committed to a sensitive but spirited intervention, rather than simply plugging on a rear-end oblong box. Charles Holland, co-founder of Ordinary Architecture, ex-director of FAT and founder of his own practice in 2016, is known for his post-modernish play with colour, shape and architectural details. 

Jacob's Flat by Paul Archer Design

This generous Edwardian flat in Haringey has been brought to the 21st century by Paul Archer Design. The design includes a colour pop of a yellow kitchen in the living space, new rooftop vistas, and a bold red loft extension. 

Perforated House by Novak Hiles Architects 

What used to be a 1960s bungalow in south London has been brought to the 21st century by Novak Hiles Architects, who added modernist charm and a sense of luxury and comfort through an array of updates – including the perforated brick walls that give the home its name. 

Tin Hat by nimtim architects

Nimtim, a prolific architecture practice in the residential sector, have sprinkled their magic on a tired home in Forest Gate with Tin Hat, a scheme that united two separate flats into a single, modern dwelling set in a Victorian end-of-terrace house.

Wimbledon Villa by Gundry + Ducker

Set near the greenery of Wimbledon Common, this is a project that reimagines a simple white-box home from the early 2000s. Residential experts Gundry + Ducker redesigned the space aiming to create a 'country house in miniature'.

dontmoveimprove.london

The Bruges Triennial 2024, centred on the theme 'Spaces of Possibility', opened to the public this weekend (13 April). Spanning from the Belgian city's centre to the nearby beach at Zeebrugge, the cultural festival encompasses art and architecture installations by local and international talent, which will remain in place for the next five months. This is the festival's fourth edition and its organisers, headed by co-curators Shendy Gardin and Sevie Tsampalla, are looking firmly to the future.

Bruges Triennial 2024: the highlights

'How can we safeguard the liveability of Bruges, and cities more generally, in a protective way? How do we approach concepts such as sustainability and change in a Unesco-protected environment where preservation is central? And how can contemporary art and architecture create a new framework for these issues?' are some of the questions the triennial event's participants are called to address. 

Participants and their installations at the Bruges Triennial 2024 include creatives from as far and wide as the USA, Thailand, South Africa and The Netherlands, including leading and emerging voices, such as Sumayya Vally, Bangkok Design Studio, and Studio Ossidiana.  

• Iván Argote with 'Who?'
• Bangkok Project Studio's 'The tower of balance'
• 'Firesong for the bees, a tree of clay' by Mariana Castillo Deball
• 'Full Swing' by Mona Hatoum
• 'Star of the Sea' by Ivan Morison
• 'Raamland' by Norell/Rodhe
• 'empty drop' by Shingo Masuda + Katsuhisa Otsubo Architects
• 'Common Thread' by SO–IL
• 'Earthsea Pavilion' by Studio Ossidiana
• 'Under the carpet' by Adrien Tirtiaux
• 'The Joyful Apocalypse' by Traumnovelle
• 'Grains of Paradise' by Sumayya Vally

'The 12 art and architectural installations not only provide a different view of Bruges but also illustrate how we can deal with space and materials differently in the future. They challenge and encourage dialogue about how things can be done. Together, they tell the story of a city in the throes of change: Spaces of Possibility,' said Shendy Gardin, co-curator of Bruges Triennial 2024. 

'The exhibition takes Bruges as a vantage point from which to imagine other possible cities and futures. Drawing inspiration from Rebecca Solnit’s writings, it invites artists and architects to engage with the city as a “repository of possibilities”. Practising the possible is about challenging dominant paradigms and proposing that things can be done otherwise,' said Sevie Tsampalla, co-curator of Bruges Triennial 2024. 

Alongside the main series of pavilions and artworks spread across town, a rich partner programme unfolds in parallel across Bruges, in collaboration with four cultural partners with local roots, including Cultuurcentrum Brugge, De Republiek | Dertien12, The Entrepot and Musea Brugge.

'Bruges Triennial 2024: Spaces of Possibility' runs from 13 April to 1 September 2024

triennalebrugge.be

Spatial immersion, bold gestures and the evocative; the 3XN exhibition 'Aware: Architecture and Senses' has just opened its doors in Copenhagen's Danish Architecture Center. The new show focuses on leading practice 3XN's rich architectural output and unique approach, with a multi-layered takeover that makes the most of the generous proportions of OMA partner Ellen van Loon's landmark building in the Nordic capital.  

3XN exhibition: 'Aware: Architecture and Senses'

The exhibition's concept discusses the effect that architecture has upon us – the feelings it summons and its intangible power to alter experiences and, therefore, lives. To emphasise this, 3XN's curated display doesn't showcase the studio’s ever-growing body of work; rather, the exhibition invites visitors to an immersive journey through six site-specific installations. 

'Design choices are never merely aesthetic – they fundamentally influence our lives and affect our experiences,' said Kim Herforth Nielsen, 3XN founder and creative director. 'Architecture shapes our behaviour. Are you – are we – aware of how?'

He continues: 'These intangible, fleeting qualities have long been a driving force of 3XN GXN’s work. We are fascinated by how people and space interact and have a hunger to understand and work with the innate, universal dimensions that make up experience. Why? Because experience is how we all understand architecture.'

Each of the installations is calibrated by the studio to inspire a different response – offering variety in the context they create. They span from organic forms to structured, crisper shapes, and from subtle, natural hues to the twisting staircase's powerful red environment. 

Harnessing architecture's power to move us is key in planning our future homes, cities and communities, the team behind the newly opened show proposes. 

'In Denmark and throughout Scandinavia, there is a very strong sense of responsibility for the collective,' said Kasper Riisholt, programme manager for culture at the Danish Architecture Center. 'This responsibility is also about our wellbeing – that our society and space must nurture, support, and facilitate a good quality of life for everyone. For architecture to contribute positively to our wellbeing, we must understand its core: What is our relationship with architecture, what does it do to us?'

'Aware: Architecture and Senses' will be open at the Danish Architecture Center from 22 March to 15 September 2024

dac.dk

3xn.com

A new Richard Rogers exhibition, celebrating the ideas and oeuvre of the late, great architect has just launched at Chateau La Coste in France. The show was not only fittingly created by Ab Rogers, a designer and founder of the London studio Ab Rogers Design as well as the architect’s son; it is also staged at Rogers’ last project, the gravity-defying Drawing Gallery within the French destination’s expansive, leafy estate. 

Richard Rogers exhibition: the architect's work and ideas

The exhibition focuses on ‘Rogers’ buildings as manifestations of his ideas’. It spans ten projects, all pivotal in his career, but not all built – from Zip-Up House (1967-69) and Centre Pompidou (1977) to Industrialized Housing (1992), The Millennium Dome (1999) Tree House (2016), and of course the vessel of the show itself, the Richard Rogers Drawing Gallery (2020). 

A bold approach when it comes to the exhibition design underlines the architect's strong ideas, drawing parallels to his ‘electric personality’. The walls in the single-space gallery pavilion have been painted bright pink. The architect’s own voice is ever present, echoing in the space, as the show includes the film ‘Exposed’, which was commissioned for the Pompidou exhibition that celebrated the building’s 40th anniversary in 2007. 

Ab Rogers says: ‘This is a portrait of a man who never stopped being curious and never wanted to stop learning. His buildings were the physical manifestation of his beliefs, driven by social, environmental, ethical, and political passions.’

'Richard Rogers at the Drawing Gallery' runs 22 October 2023 - 7 January 2024 at Chateau La Coste

rshp.com 

chateau-la-coste.com

abrogers.com 

Lost in the capital’s rich offering of London architecture exhibitions? Worry not; we have checked out the cream of the crop and created a guide for the finest architecture shows to visit this month. There is something for everyone, with a wide-ranging set of approaches and topics on display, to cover some of the most critical issues of our times. Here is what occupies the mind of the architecture world right now; and how architects talk about it. 

THIS MONTH’S BEST LONDON ARCHITECTURE EXHIBITIONS

Building Contemporary China

Set at the RIBA headquarters in London, a new exhibition has been launched to celebrate contemporary Chinese architecture and foster networking among representatives of leading practices from China.  Models, artwork, photographs, and drawings are employed to tell stories from 11 exhibited studios from the Asian country. 'Landscapes range from open plains to steep valleys and sizeable cities to remote villages, the 33 projects shown here tackle challenging questions including the climate crisis, urban regeneration, rural revival, and rapid natural disaster rebuild responses,' the RIBA writes of the show. 

Until November 2023

Village Stories

Architecture studio Jestico + Whiles has launched an exhibition, 'Village Stories', celebrating the firm's work in the community sphere with their masterplan project at Greenwich Millennium Village. The show, which is on display at the practice's Clerkenwell headquarters, features audio visual pieces including work by audio producer and photographer Flo Lines. The exhibition aims to span architecture and overall design intentions and strategies as well as personal stories that bring to life this riverside London community. Jude Harris, Director at Jestico + Whiles said: 'For us residential architecture will always be about the people who live within the homes that we design and forming new communities. People are the beating heart of any development while the buildings act only as a backdrop. It has been fantastic to hear directly from residents who have lived within the Greenwich Millennium Village, particularly because they were so positive about the sense of community the development has helped to foster. At a time when there is a lot of negativity about city living, it is encouraging to hear first-hand about the true community spirit and sense of place that has been created from this former industrial wasteland over the past 25 years.'

Until November 2023

Wide-Angle View

The new exhibition, Wide-Angle View, which opened at the RIBA this autumn, zooms in on 60s magazine series Manplan. The publication, which ran 1969-1970, analyzed the condition of architecture and the urban realm in Britain at the time - and many of its themes are still relevant today. Through harsh critique and beautiful, original art and design, the magazine challenged the profession at its time. Valeria Carullo, exhibition lead curator and RIBA Photographs Curator said: 'This exhibition, with the raw power of its photographs, brings us back to a time of challenges, disparities, disillusionment, but also a time of questioning, protesting, campaigning – in many ways, much like our here and now. It is a timely reminder of the importance of citizens’ participation in the decisions that affect their communities and the role architects can play in creating a fairer society.'

Until 24 February 2024

Small Spaces in the City: Rethinking inside the Box

Small Spaces in the City: Rethinking inside the Box brings the focus back to compact sites and dense urban conditions, celebrating small spaces. This autumn Clare Farrow Studio celebrates a collection of such case studies to Roca London Gallery - tiny homes across the world can be joyful and appropriate, this show's contributors highlight through a selection of models, illustrations and film. Associate Professor at The Bartlett School of Architecture, Richard Beckett, who occupied a small booth inside the exhibit for three days as part of an experiment on indoor forests, said: 'Exposure to microbes associated with natural environments plays a fundamental role in shaping immunoregulatory health.  We’re trying to develop biologically active materials for buildings, using a novel soil material rich in microbial communities that can ‘rewild’ the indoor environment – bringing microbial diversity associated with nature.'

Until 27 January 2024

How to Build a Low-Carbon Home

A new, free display at the Design Museum tackles sustainable architecture and how this approach can translate to the humble, everyday typology of the home. Zooming into the work of three architecture studios pioneering environmentally friendly attitudes and methods to building, the show spans displays by Waugh Thistleton Architects, Material Cultures and Groupwork. Justin McGuirk, director of Future Observatory at the Design Museum, said: 'If the UK were to build the quantity of housing expected by government it would quickly use up the national carbon budget, and so clearly any new housebuilding needs to use low-carbon materials. This display explores the possibilities of natural materials in a way that engages not just professionals but the general public, because popular perception can play a key role in shifting industry standards. The result is a fun and sometimes surprising look at the homes of the future.'

Until March 2024

Serpentine Pavilion 2023 by Lina Ghotmeh

As the Serpentine Pavilion 2023 completes and prepares to open its doors to the public later this week, there's hope that this spring's few, timid days of sunshine in London will make for a slow-burn, warmer summer. And once temperatures rise - and even if not - the latest iteration of the Serpentine Galleries' Kensington Garden annual summer special will be there to provide not only shelter (from the hot sun - or drizzle), but also a place to sit, socialise, relax and appreciate public architecture. And this is exactly what the French-Lebanese architect behind it, Paris-based Lina Ghotmeh, was hoping for, when she first conceived of her design. Titled 'À table,' the Serpentine Pavilion this year is envisioned as an open and democratic invitation for everyone to come together and enjoy nature, architecture, serenity, and each other's company. 

Until 29 October 2023

Exhibit Columbus 2023, the architecture festival’s fourth edition, is aptly named ‘Public by Design’ – and opened this past weekend (25-26 August 2023), featuring a total of 13 public art and architecture installations in and around downtown Columbus, Indiana. A range of different groups – architecture practitioners, academics, students, artists, designers and more – have created the pieces, around the festival's key pillars, which span community, education, interdisciplinarity, cities and the architecture realm. 

Exhibit Columbus 2023: Public by Design

The festival's prestigious J Irwin and Xenia S Miller Prize recognises national and international practices whose work reflects the Millers’ commitment to the transformative power of design within public spaces. This year’s four recipients, and their respective pieces, are: 

– Tatiana Bilbao Estudio of Mexico City with community curator Jason Hatton for Designed by the Public, installed at Library Plaza and the Bartholomew County Public Library

– Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU) of New York City with community curator Dave Hayward's InterOculus set at The Commons

– Port of Philadelphia and Chicago with community curator Dan Mustard for their The Plot Project at Mill Race Center

– Studio Zewde of Harlem, New York City with community curator Mark Jones, who created Echoes of the Hill at Mill Race Park.

The festival also announced seven University Design Fellows, who were tasked with activating the historic core of downtown Columbus, based on recommendations from the 2021 Downtown Activation Study, developed by James Lima Planning and Development (JLP+D) and supported by the City of Columbus and a National Endowment for the Arts 'Our Town’ grant.

These participants span institutions across the country – such as the University of Illinois, Syracuse University School of Architecture, and Iowa State University School of Design in Columbus – and bring together teams selected via an open-call exhibition. Here, university professors drew on their research-based practice to craft installations spread across select town sites – from Hotel Indigo to Ovation Plaza.

Cummins Parking Garage, East is the site for Machi, a piece designed by the High School Design Team, a group of students that composed a streetscape of movable chairs, tables and other furniture to enrich the open space. 'In Japanese, 街 (Machi) signifies a busy downtown area or main street,' they explained.

On the morning of Saturday 25 August, a tour of all the exhibition sites allowed residents and visitors from across the country and around the world to interact with the participants. Communication designer Chris Grimley of Signals from Boston, MA, who designed the graphic design and wayfinding system for the Public by Design installations, was also present.

Later in the day, activations featuring exhibition participants energised various installations, including a saxophone set at Side Effects and a game day at Ground Rules – inviting the crowds to take part in the action. 

Columbus’ icon of modernist architecture First Christian Church served at the site for the mid-afternoon programme of Curatorial Conversations, featuring the entire curatorial team of Paola Aguirre of Borderless Studio; Chris Merritt, landscape architect at Merritt Chase; Lauren M Pacheco, civic and cultural artist at Steel Studio Foundation; designer, writer and educator Bryony Roberts; Raymund Ryan, curator at large at The Heinz Architectural Center at Carnegie Museum of Art; and Holly Warren, assistant director for the Arts, Economic and Sustainable Development Department at the City of Bloomington, Indiana. 

The city's past, present and future were discussed, alongside a broader debate around planning and placemaking in the 21st-century urban space.

Rock the Block, a block party and dance show held near InterOculus at the intersection of 4th Street and Washington Street, capped off the opening of the Exhibit Columbus 2023 exhibition on Saturday night.

'This exhibition shows how working together in the public realm with art and architecture allows us to achieve a purpose much greater than we can alone,' said Richard McCoy, executive director of the Landmark Columbus Foundation, the non-profit organisation behind Exhibit Columbus. 'Our curatorial team has taken a unique approach to get here, one that combines deep connections within our community with international expertise to shepherd this exhibition into existence.'

Public by Design is free and open to the public, and installations will remain in place through 26 November 2023. More events are scheduled for the remainder of the year, with information available at exhibitcolumbus.org

Take a deep dive into Hamptons modernism by joining the upcoming 20th Century Modern Home Tour 2023. Scheduled for Sunday 13 August 2023, this celebration of American modernist architecture is a summer staple for one of the country's most coveted resort spots. 

Exploring Hamptons modernism

Exploring the region's striking 20th century homes, the tour spans six iconic modernist properties in the Hamptons. All are private residences, so not typically available for public viewings, meaning guests will get a rare peek inside a series of architectural gems. A VIP ticket option also includes a tour of Onna house, 'a historic 1960s home restored by fashion icon Lisa Perry'. 

The special-access event also offers attendance to an intimate panel discussion with Caroline Zalensky, author of Long Island Modernism; acclaimed architect Viola Rouhani of Stelle Lomont Rouhani; and Perry, moderated by Liz Waytkus from Docomomo. 

Hamptons 20 Century Modern was founded by interior designer Timothy Godbold in early 2020 with a mission to raise awareness in order to help preserve the Hamptons' modernist architecture gems found in the region. 

‘I first became aware of Hamptons modernism casually, over many years of living there. From time to time, you come across a Jaffe or Gwathmey, and they immediately strike you,’ recalls Godbold. ‘After I was given the book The Houses of the Hamptons [by Paul Goldberger, 1986] last year, I posted some images of homes on Instagram, including a Norman Jaffe house on Meadow Lane in Southampton. It was then that someone mentioned that it had been torn down just a year before, and that really struck me. I went online to see what preservation societies were doing to protect these houses. I assumed there was a society for everything out here, but it turns out there was nothing.’

hamptons20centurymodern.org

Join the Hamptons 20th Century Modern Home tour 2023

Herzog & de Meuron has been active in architecture for the last four decades, but while the work of Swiss studio’s founders Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron undoubtedly has a signature twist, you don’t always know their buildings when you see them. The pair has an intuitive and creative approach which has aided them in creating an international company and brand, the legacy of which will last long into the indefinite future. Their research and concept-based approach to architecture sets them apart from their peers and their global reach is impressive; they truly are one of the most famous contemporary architecture firms in the world. 

From London’s era-defining Tate Modern and its celebratory extension to the highly complex Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing, their projects span zeitgeist-shaping cultural moments. They have also been shaping the future of care with the REHAB clinic in their native Basel and their upcoming children’s hospital in Zurich. Additionally, they have long had an eye on sustainable architecture. Herzog & de Meuron are architects with a great deal of foresight. How do they do it? 

Herzog & de Meuron: into the mind of the studio's founders

The eponymous exhibition at the Royal Academy in London, opening this week, sheds light on the practice, its methods and ethos. One of the most fascinating details to know about Herzog and de Meuron is that having met in 1957 at primary school, they have known each other for almost their entire lives. 

'What I think this means is while we have, as Jacques says, different agendas, Jacques does his thing, and I do my thing and we trust each other blindly,' Pierre de Meuron explains. 

Sitting in their offices in Basel, de Meuron reminisces about bonding over a model rollercoaster, crediting the intuitive relationship they have on the deep sense of kinship that one has with a lifelong friend. They are still based in the arty Swiss city of Basel, host to multiple museums and collections as well as one of the world’s most important art fairs, Art Basel. 

‘I didn't know what architecture was, I was never inspired by the idea, ideology or beliefs,’ says Herzog, who started out interested in fine art and exhibited as an artist before switching to architecture. 

They are famous for their collaborations and friendships with artists from Ai Weiwei to Rémy Zaugg and Thomas Ruff and the way they execute ideas speaks to an artistic approach and is something Herzog is leaning into in some of his most recent projects like the Motorway Chapel near Andeer in Grisons, Switzerland. 

‘Our work is architecture, it often has something conceptual that reminds you of an artwork, but it’s so interesting because it’s this conceptual basis that makes it so architectural,’ Herzog explains. ’There are other projects, very small ones that I work on… They are more like art projects because nothing is given, you know, no brief, not a precise site, no budget, no zoning. So how do you do something if nothing is given? These are normally more the conditions under which an artist is working rather than an architect and these things are very rare.’

Each project is foregrounded by a huge amount of research encompassing the local area from the bottom up, its people, its buildings, zoning and how the built environment works and doesn’t work for the people who use it. This benefits not only the planning and competition process but aids their results which although they can stand out from their surroundings also seem to meld into them. 

One example of this is their work on the concert hall Stadtcasino Basel, one of many projects in their home city. It blends seamlessly into the Basel city centre on the outside and offers us up into a Lynchian dream world once in the foyer, readied for the transporting power of the music performed in the concert hall which they restored to its original design. 

This long process is archived going back to the first projects Herzog & de Meuron ever worked on. This archive is held in Kabinett, Basel, a studio, high-concept storage facility and charitable foundation in Helsinki Dreispitz, a building by the architects sat at the juncture of two Swiss cantons. Elements of this feature in the Royal Academy show, revealing the selective process of archiving, which they see as essential to the way they realise buildings and execute town planning. This is, according to exhibition curator and head of architecture and Heinz curator at Royal Academy of Arts Vicky Richardson, unique. 

‘It’s very difficult to think of another practice you could say that they are like, apart from in the most obvious sense of their size and their global scope – and of course, we’ve become used to these sort of global practices, like Foster and Partners and Bjarke Ingles Group and others – but I think there’s definitely more to it than that, she says. 

Herzog & de Meuron at the Royal Academy: explore the show

This unique approach to working is reflected in their approach to exhibiting, as the newly launched exhibition shows us their process, including a film and a AR aspect, which seeks to put the people and their experience of the buildings first. A strong focus of this is the idea of ‘care’ in the shape of a film by Bêka and Lemoine, and a room dedicated to an in-progress children’s hospital in Zurich. It reflects the practice's focus going forward.

The displays are organised in three sections. A room full of architectural models greets the visitors, as they step into a part of the studio's archive, with models, tests and mock ups spread across rows of timber shelves. This is also where the AR experience begins, by downloading a specially designed app and exploring different projects with an enhanced view, following graphic prompts next to the selected schemes to be 'augmented'. 

The Bêka and Lemoine produced film follows, as the bustle of the first room, full of shapes and information, is swapped for a darker room and a more quiet, screening experience. The filmmakers transport guests to the halls of Herzog and de Meuron's rehab clinic in Basel, as it is seen through the eyes of its users - patients and staff. It's powerful and moving, and sets the mood for the last section, which is dedicated to a big, current project by the firm - the Zurich children's hospital. Here, models, interactive video elements and more AR allows the public to delve into not only the thinking behind the design, but the design itself, as the building, currently in construction (and set to complete in 2024), can be explored thoroughly as both an in-progress piece, and a finished, virtual space. The idea of care is central - healthcare, but also caring, and support as a whole. 

‘Ultimately, what I think architecture and planning should do is open up potentials,’ Herzog mused. ‘Potentials are sometimes obvious, but they are not discovered, they are not excavated, they are not being used. You cannot do anything about this as an architect, but with the money that you’re given, the site and the materials that you use you can both maximise these potentials and make something beautiful.’

Herzog & de Meuron will run 14 July - 15 October 2023 at The Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries at Burlington Gardens, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK.

royalacademy.org.uk 

herzogdemeuron.com 

‘The Anthropocene Museum’ by Cave Bureau is the sixth and final instalment in the family of exhibitions titled ‘The Architect’s Studio’ held at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. Since the series’ inception in 2017, visitors have been able to get to know international architects who are challenging the field at its core. Over the years, this has opened up a discussion, not only about where building culture is heading, but also what architects are able to work with, and how. 

The final iteration of this theme, by the Kenya-based practice, is no different. Working at the boundaries of architecture, it is a quiet presentation of model, print and visual media loaded with social and cultural iconography; presenting a real cross-sectional view of the African condition as it begins to disseminate an approach towards a decarbonised and decolonised mode of operation.

Cave Bureau at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

Taking nature as its starting point, ‘The Anthropocene Museum’ searches for an understanding of ‘Origin’ – or a return to origin. It begins by recording and analysing natural structures that are millions of years old; specifically, Mount Suswa in Kenya. The studio’s interest in an undocumented past (the mountain itself had never been documented through architectural drawings before) sets in motion thoughts about what merits recording in the history of architecture, and about the coexistence of architecture and nature. This new learning is then re-presented as a way of rethinking architectural discourse. 

Using the cave as a springboard to narrate unrepresented histories of their own people and compatriots, Cave Bureau takes learnings from this research to reveal African notions of custodianship and care. The projects presented are gentle interventions in the landscape that support Indigenous people and the rhythms of nature while intending to relate to a modern Africa, and to heal fissures in the culture. The ‘Cow Corridor’, for example, is a restoration piece that seeks to reestablish the Maasai grazing routes through the capital Nairobi, which has been forbidden territory for cows since the British partition of the country.

Not simply a passive act of recording, many of the objects on display present an unavoidable confrontation with an uncomfortable past. The installation ‘The Door of No Return’ for example, is a version of the gate through which West African slaves passed before departing by ship to the Danish West Indies. Using stone sourced from a limestone quarry in Faxe, Denmark, it references the limestone found in the Shimone Caves of eastern Kenya. 

The exhibition culminates in an ambitious full-size attempt to reproduce the spatiality and materiality of the caves. Titled ‘Cave’ woven in rattan, it is inspired by pre-colonial craftsmanship and building techniques and is the result of a collaboration with The Centre for Information Technology and Architecture at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen.

According to Cave Bureau founders, architects Kabage Karanje and Stella Mutegi, the architecture of the future must rely on knowledge of geology and connection to nature, as it traditionally has done in Africa. The architecture through which we have built our society in modern times and the way we view space, borders, cities and collective ties have to be reassessed by taking a critical stance towards anthropocentrism – the epoch within which our activity as humans on this planet has bred near irreversible shifts in our ecology.  

‘Geology provides us with a tool to re-inscribe, to re-orientate and to relate to new ways of being on this planet; to realise that we are background,' says Karanje, director at Cave Bureau.

With re-orientation comes the potential for collective healing, and the potential of the continent to imagine its own future – to rewind in order to unpick and return with the appropriate knowledge that informs the now, and next.

cave.co.ke 

louisiana.dk 

The Royal Institute of British Architects' architecture film screenings, ‘RIBA Film Nights’, has launched, exploring, during the summer, the relationship between architecture and film. Showing at the RIBA headquarters at 66 Portland Place in London, the series launched on 29 June 2023 as one of the final events of the London Festival of Architecture (LFA) 2023, the annual month-long celebration of architecture that takes place every June and this year explored the theme ‘In Common’.

Architecture film screenings at the RIBA this summer

The evenings invite viewers into the uniquely personal perspectives of three separate contemporary practitioners (Clara Kraft Isono, Jim Stephenson and Elettra Fiumi, each present for a post-screening director’s Q&A or panel discussion). The trio have used the immersive medium of film in different ways to share and communicate their own stories, viewpoints and experiences of architecture. Their work shows how film is vital to understanding and thinking about architecture, through documentary, in-person interviews, archival footage, artistic reflections or conceptual expression – and how film brings people together and starts conversations. 

The opening evening presented Bawa’s Garden, a film which follows protagonist director Clara Kraft Isono, a filmmaker, architect, AA alumna and former RIBA Council member, on her search for Tropical Modernist architect Geoffrey Bawa’s ‘lost’ garden of Lunuganga in Sri Lanka, whilst telling the story of his life and work. Described as a ‘docudrama’ and ‘travelogue’, the film – which premiered at Raindance Film Festival in the UK in October 2022 – combines dreamlike narratives with conversations with Bawa’s collaborators and scenes of his rarely visited buildings. 

For the second evening (6 July 2023), Jim Stephenson, architectural filmmaker and photographer, curates a series of short films exploring observation and travelogues. This evening is linked to the RIBA’s current London architecture exhibition of film work by Stephenson, titled ‘The Architect has Left the Building’, which presents a dual-screen film installation of Stephenson’s archives over 15 years, documenting the everyday reality of people using architecture in the UK in projects by the likes of Grafton, Carmody Groarke and Jamie Fobert. 

Another very personal approach to film, Radical Landscapes (screening 11 July 2023 and originally premiering 15 June 2023 at Biografilm festival, Bologna) explores director Elettra Fiumi’s father Fabrizio Fiumi’s role in the 9999 group, a collective of radical architects based in Florence working in the 1960s and 1970s alongside Archizoom and Superstudio. Following her father’s death, Fiumi discovered ‘reels of mysterious Super 8 film footage among his possessions’, which prompted her to explore his life and work and revive the 9999 group’s avant-garde philosophy through archival footage, contemporary interviews and actualisations of unmade projects. 

architecture.com 

The London Festival of Architecture (LFA) 2023 kicked off on the 1 June 2023, launching its month-long celebration of the built environment and all things city- and building-focused. The annual festivity, a landmark in the capital's cultural calendar, is centred this year on the theme 'In common'. This is an LFA edition about sharing, common ground and togetherness – and the city, any city, is a good example of spaces where this approach can manifest itself. A plethora of events and activities, from exhibitions, one-off installations and tours, to talks and discussions, populates the ever-growing programme of the much-loved festival. Scroll down, for our highlights. 

LFA 2023: THE HIGHLIGHTS

Surfacing Stories, V&A South Kensington

Although the V&A+RIBA Architecture Gallery has been open for nearly twenty years, this year’s London Festival of Architecture brings a fresh but vital intervention to the space. Led by Elizabeth Darling, activists, architects, historians and writers alike have been invited to offer fresh interpretations for objects on display, reflecting on important political and cultural shifts since the Architecture Gallery’s opening in 2004. In a move reminiscent of post-it-note protests, contrasting pink labels sit aside originally curated museum cards, offering wider contexts, and thought provoking questions that explore 'issues of provenance, exploitation of people and planet, inclusion, and diversity of race, gender and sexuality.' Reflective moments include Claire Madge’s label, 'Measure of a man,' interrogating architecture’s traditional scale figures of a man’s silhouette, asking, 'What about all the other bodies that use a building?'; and Sarah Akigbogun’s 'An Empty Space,' highlighting the absence of any African architecture in the room. 'Why are these stories absent?,' 'But who decides what is architecture and who is an architect?' she asks. Rocking the inertia common in museum spaces, 'Surfacing Stories' is a much-needed moment of introspection at the Architecture Gallery, and well worth visiting this summer.

Until 31st August 2023

Barnet Council installations in Edgware and Colindale

LFA 2023 and Barnet Council have joined forces to spearhead two re-greening projects in the North London neighbourhoods of Edgware and Colindale. Working with local communities, the organisers have created playful, plant filled installations in various spots while an accompanying programme 'will see over 80 LFA events take place, showcasing Barnet’s local history, cultural infrastructure and inclusive place-based projects.' Among them, ‘Let’s Meet on the Edge’ has been designed by local creative group The Edgy Collective, while ‘Connecting Colindale: A Flight Path Folly’ was conceived by a design team formed of Andre Kong Studio and Wayward. Cllr Barry Rawlings, Barnet Council leader, said: 'Barnet is embracing its architectural heritage while working with local artists, residents, and community groups to create a new feel for the borough through art and architecture. There are over 80 events this month, as well as creative installations, which are helping us move toward being a borough of fun and a place where art, culture and colour come into our lives.'

Until 13 July 2023

Co-creAIte : AI everywhere all at once

Seldom are the general public brought into the fold of a thriving urban design studio, and rarer still, encouraged to be active participants within the space. It’s precisely this that a team of architects, designers and artists at Studio Egret West are doing with their latest exhibition 'Co-creAIte: AI everywhere all at once.' Motivated by a curiosity and optimism for AI’s potential in design processes, the exhibition explores the 'not-so-distant futures where designers seamlessly collaborate with AI.' Visitors are guided through eight playfully alliterated principles the studio have named as important for successful human-AI co-creation, from Prediction to Phantasy, Play to Pause. Visitors are invited to interact with a series of installations developed in collaboration with computational artist Freddie Hong; from using AI to turn playing with children’s building blocks into realistic architectural visualisations, to experimenting with a facial recognition camera that requires a smile in order to open a door. The experience is fun yet provocative, playing with the potential of AI in design and architecture processes, while still pausing to reflect on the inherent biases, consequences and responsibilities of using new AI systems.Through this exhibition, Studio Egret West spark important conversations on how AI is revolutionising the way we think, live and co-create.

Until 1st September 2023

 RA Summer Exhibition Architecture Room 

As a long established harbinger for the arrival of warmer days, The Royal Academy of Arts faithfully presents its Summer Exhibition's 255th edition. As ever, the show is a unique celebration of contemporary art and architecture, sharing an extensive collection of work from artists at all stages in their career. This year’s Architecture Room, curated by Royal Academician Peter Barber, centres on the theme of 'making is thinking,' honing in on the process of construction and craft through a series of analogue and handmade works. Upon entering the Large Weston Room, attention is immediately drawn to a totemic tower of textured stones, an installation by the late Phyllida Barlow. Nearby is a large structure of a truss and a found tree that stretch overhead and dissect the room, made by students of the Architectural Association’s Design + Make MA programme. Visitors navigate through islands of bold green plinths, displaying intricately crafted architectural models, and observe walls layered with textiles, delicate ceramics and detailed hand drawn illustrations. Leaving visitors with a resounding sense of architecture as more than just finished builds, this year’s Architecture Room is a welcome moment of reflection to contemplate the process of construction and appreciate the multidimensionality of the craft of architecture.

Until 20th August 2023, with a special afternoon focused on the Architecture Room on the 16 June 2023, 13:30 -18:00

Virtual as Vilnius: Imaginaries and Technologies Shaping the City

Vilnius based architecture studio Architektūros fondas is organising a symposium for LFA 2023 in collaboration with Bartlett School of Architecture and Lithuanian Cultural Attaché to the United Kingdom - and its theme? 'Virtuality.' The discussions that form part of the event are set to investigate topics arising from it, including collective imagination and digital technologies and how they affect the development of cities, such as Vilnius and London. Moderated by regular Wallpaper*  contributor Will Jennings, the symposium features speakers including Lithuanian architects Justinas Dūdėnas and Povilas Vincentas Jankūnas, artist Adomas Žudys and historian and director of the Vilnius Museum Rasa Antanavičiūtė, among others. 

12 June 2023

15:00 -18:00

Craft Not Carbon Pavilion

A new pavilion has made its appearance on Crystal Palace Park's extensive green grounds. The light, timber and bamboo structure is part of LFA 2023's celebrations, designed by UK-based multi-disciplinary engineering practice Webb Yates Engineers, with Anglo-Indian architecture practice Studio Saar and timber specialists Xylotek. Sporting an elegant, slim frame and a woven bamboo canopy, the pavilion will provide shelter and a hub for the local community throughout the month of June. The piece draws on a project titled Third Space, which is a new learning and cultural centre in Udaipur, India, also designed by Studio Saar and Webb Yates Engineers (and set to open later this year). 

'Our Third Space project was inspired by the local architectural heritage of Rajasthan. Similarly with the Craft not Carbon Pavilion, we have drawn inspiration from the area’s heritage – looking at Paxton’s structure that formerly sat in the park. Third Space is all about promoting learning, collaboration and inclusivity and we’re delighted to have collaborated with Webb Yates Engineers and Xylotek to bring a small part of that project to South London, to demonstrate the ways in which we can use traditional building materials for the benefit of people and planet,' says Studio Saar's managing director Ananya Singhal. 

Until 30 June 2023

Common Grounds: The Opportunities and Challenges of Community-Led Development

Join Hastings Commons and the London Interdisciplinary School as they celebrate community-led regeneration with a talk featuring some of the capital's most active architecture studios in the field. IF_DO, Archio and Assemble are going to share experiences and discuss sustainable communities and their future, in London, and beyond. 

13 June

The Architect Has Left The Building

What happens after a project's delivery? When the architecture team steps back, and life takes over? It's exactly this that photographer Jim Stephenson and artists Sofia Kathryn Smith and Simon James are exploring in their immersive showcase that opens at the RIBA this week. The exhibition, featuring recent projects by Grafton Architects, Henley Halebrown, Carmody Groarke, Jamie Fobert Architects and more, blends expert photography and film to highlight how users populate and use buildings. 'We wanted to celebrate film’s capacity to show the power of the building,' said curator Pete Collard at the opening. 'The documentation of architecture has a long history of omitting people,' Stephenson adds. 'I’m seeing architecture as a backdrop. I think the film [on display] is a reflection of the way we work. It’s all about capturing the little everyday interactions, making connections.' On top of its topic, which is beautifully aligned with LFA 2023's overall theme, the show also reuses the installation structure from the previous RIBA exhibition on site – Long Life, Low Energy.

Until 12 August 

British Cooling Towers – Sculptural Giants

Margaret Howell in association with the Twentieth Century Society (C20) is launching an exhibition at the brand's space on Wigmore Street, focusing on the historic legacy of industrial cooling towers. Bold, beautiful and brutalist, these architectural elements have had a powerful impact on the British landscape – and this show aims to celebrate and discuss it, as C20 is undertaking a campaign to raise awareness of the immediate threat British cooling towers face. 

3 – 18 June

Seats at the Table

Organised by Re-Fabricate and The DisOrdinary Architecture Project and located at Postman's Park, this LFA 2023 entry consists of a series of installations – co-designed with disabled and non-disabled artists and architects, Special Educational Needs (SEN) and mainstream schools, as well as makers from The Bartlett, UCL Here East – and a programme of events. Discussing issues around accessibility in public spaces, the piece considers street furniture – and there's even a table design, which visitors can use.

Until 30 June

Deaf Architecture Front launches at RIBA

Accessibility is the key theme in this event too – although with a different focus. Architectural designer and activist Chris Laing officially launches Deaf Architecture Front at the RIBA during LFA 2023. His is a campaigning platform and collective aiming to unite the Deaf community and the architecture world and wider built environment industry. The launch event features a panel discussion featuring Zetteler founder Sabine.

6 June

Climate Migrants: Self-reliant communities after natural disasters

RIBA Gold Medal 2023 winner Yasmeen Lari is delivering a keynote speech as part of the Ecocity World Summit 2023. The humanitarian architect is going to delve into a discussion around climate refugees, sanitation infrastructure, and community facilities in today's climate emergency. How can a community and its architecture resist climate disasters? The talk is going to be followed by a conversation with Professor Hanif Kara OBE, co-Founder and design director, AKT II. 

8 June

Penge and Palace trail

Did you know there are dinosaurs in Crystal Palace? Tours and trails are a staple of the London Festival of Architecture every year, and this is no different. The Penge and Palace trail is one of them, allowing visitors to explore the unique part of London that is Crystal Palace. ‘“Penge” is one of the few Celtic place names to be found in London. Believed to mean the 'edge of wood' the name refers to the fact that the surrounding area was once covered in a forest. Today, Penge sits on the south edge of Bromley’s largest greenspace, Crystal Palace Park. With a long and rich history, the development of Penge is intimately linked to the arrival of the Crystal Palace Exhibition building in 1854, whose legacy and design innovation can be seen today in the surrounding creative communities,' write the event's organisers. You can download the trail map from the LFA 2023 website, and one of the stops includes indeed visiting Crystal Palace Park, and its 1854 dinosaur sculpture display. 

Until 31 August

OFF-Grid by Richard Chivers

Artist Gareth Gardner's gallery presents OFF-Grid, showing a series of photographs by Richard Chivers focusing on the nation's 'disappearing gas holders.' Chivers' work on the industrial architectural icons has never been exhibited before, and here visitors can experience both colour and black and white visuals in an enticing mix. 'My dad used to work on the Gas Holders so I always held a bit of a fascination for them,’ said Chivers. He was prompted into action after reading an article in a newspaper about their imminent demolition. I love industrial architecture and find the gas holders with their lattice steel frames visually really interesting. The fact that the structures were a massive part of the UK skyline for years and had become landmarks for people was also intriguing.'

16 June - 7 July

londonfestivalofarchitecture.org 

Professor Yasmeen Lari, the architect who scooped the RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2023, one of her field’s most prestigious honours, has been honoured with a celebratory dinner this week in London. Lari, who was announced as the award recipient about a month ago, is globally respected for her ongoing work on zero-carbon self-build concepts for displaced populations. 

The accolade, which was personally approved by His Majesty The King, recognises outstanding contribution to the architecture profession worldwide. Past Royal Gold Medallists include Balkrishna Doshi (2022), Sir David Adjaye OBE (2021), Dame Zaha Hadid (2016), Frank Gehry (2000), Lord Norman Foster (1983), Frank Lloyd Wright (1941) and Sir George Gilbert Scott (1859). 

Yasmeen Lari: RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2023 

Lari's work and professional trajectory are remarkable. The first registered female architect in her home country of Pakistan, she studied in the UK before going back to work in Karachi in 1964, establishing her studio, Lari Associates. She went on to develop a range of contemporary buildings, from single-family houses (including her own) to large-scale schemes that define the country’s urban landscape to this day. Examples include several government, business, and financial institutions, such as the Pakistan State Oil headquarters. 

The architect retired, before returning to practice in 2000, focusing her efforts on sustainability and housing in the realm of humanitarian work. The Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, which Lari co-founded with her husband, Suhail Zaheer Lari, in 1980, is a pioneer in designing housing for disaster relief, creating some 50,000, mostly self-build, dwellings. 

'I was so surprised to hear this news and of course totally delighted! I never imagined that as I focus on my country’s most marginalised people – venturing down uncharted vagabond pathways – I could still be considered for the highest of honours in the architectural profession,' said Lari, when she heard the news about the RIBA Gold Medal 2023. 

‘RIBA has heralded a new direction for the profession, encouraging all architects to focus not only on the privileged but also humanity at large that suffers from disparities, conflicts and climate change. There are innumerable opportunities to implement principles of circular economy, de-growth, transition design, eco-urbanism, and what we call Barefoot Social Architecture (BASA) to achieve climate resilience, sustainability and eco justice in the world.’

Part W, the action group championing gender equity in the built environment, were heavily involved in Lari's nomination for the 2023 award – with Alisha Morenike Fisher from Migrant’s Bureau writing the documentation, and Hilary Satchwell, founding member of Part W putting it forward. Their contribution was part of their The Alternative List campaign, striving for ‘greater recognition of the contribution of women to the field of architecture.’

‘As one of my mentors since 2018 and one of the reasons environmental needs have been at the forefront of how I hope to design, Yasmeen Lari continues to inspire, advocate and design for our changing climates and land. It has been a privilege from day one to learn from Lari, her work through barefoot social architecture and I hope more recognition for her work enables further attention of what is currently happening with housing issues, displacement and natural disasters in Pakistan,’ says Fisher. 

‘It was an honour to chair the committee that selected Yasmeen Lari. An inspirational figure, she moved from a large practice centred on the needs of international clients to focussing solely on humanitarian causes. Lari’s mission during her “second” career has empowered the people of Pakistan through architecture, engaging users in design and production. She has shown us how architecture changes lives for the better,' stated RIBA president Simon Allford, when the award was announced. 

‘Lari’s work in championing zero carbon and zero waste construction is exemplary. She has reacted imaginatively and creatively making affordable projects that address the real and often urgent need for accommodation, and basic services, but with generosity and an eye for the potential of everyday materials and crafts to make architecture at all scales. Her way of working also sets out to address the physical and psychological damage caused by major natural disasters – disaster that sadly inevitably will be ever more prevalent in our densely populated and climate challenged planet.'

architecture.com 

'British Cooling Towers - Sculptural Giants,' an exhibition focusing on the architectural value and historic legacy of this industrial typology and piece of brutalist architecture, is opening to the public this weekend. Launched by Margaret Howell in association with the Twentieth Century Society (C20), the show is located at the brand's space on Wigmore Street and forms part of the London Festival of Architecture (LFA) 2023, which kicked off this week.

'British Cooling Towers - Sculptural Giants': a brutalist exploration

Bold and beautiful, these mesmerising architectural structures have had a powerful impact on the British landscape – and this show aims to celebrate and discuss it, as C20 is undertaking a campaign to raise awareness of the immediate threat British cooling towers face. 

'The Twentieth Century Society have been at the forefront of protecting modern heritage for more than 40 years, but saving cooling towers is perhaps our biggest challenge yet. These ‘Sculptural Giants’ have a presence unlike any other structures in the British landscape, yet within just a couple of years all the surviving examples are scheduled to be decommissioned and demolished. This new exhibition celebrates their engineering and artistic bravura, the impact they’ve had on all our lives, and looks at how these are relics of the carbon age,' says C20 director Catherine Croft. 

The exhibition features captivating photography by Luke O'Donovan, mixed with historic imagery from the RIBA archives - offering context of past and present, in the hopes to inform the cooling towers' future. To that end, a panel discussion chaired by Catherine Croft, Director of C20 on the 14 June in the space aims to provide more food for thought and instigate conversation. 

'British Cooling Towers - Sculptural Giants' is on at the Margaret Howell flagship shop, 34 Wigmore Street, 3 - 18 June

c20society.org.uk 

margarethowell.co.uk

londonfestivalofarchitecture.org

A new interactive exhibition has been developed by The Human Safety Net Foundation, part of the Generali Group, in Procuratie Vecchie, its 500-year-old heritage building headquarters in St Mark’s Square, Venice. Launching during the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023, 16 installations and the surrounding spaces have been designed by architecture studio Migliore+Servetto. The considered interiors reflect the foundation’s aims of collaboration, supporting vulnerable families with young children and providing assistance to refugees.

Inside the interactive exhibition at Procuratie Vecchie

Spanning approximately 3,000 sq m, the spaces ‘focus on inclusion and accessibility in equal measure – central themes in the development of the project’, say the studio’s Ico Migliore and Mara Servetto. Migliore+Servetto worked to establish an interior scheme and family-friendly exhibition that doesn’t dominate or interfere, but works with the existing structure, which has been recently restored by David Chipperfield Architects Milan. 

A continuous run of arches flows naturally from the exhibition through to the library/café and beyond. Furnishing such as the bespoke suspended shelving system highlights the brickwork detail rather than distracts from it. Lighting, too, has been designed not to obscure the fabric of the building by employing a combination of treatments, which include floor-mounted fittings, track lighting and suspended linear units. 

The company’s private co-working space known as ‘The Hub’ hosts furniture designed to encourage collaboration and then there’s ‘The Hall’, Generali Group’s state-of-the-art auditorium designed for international symposiums, congresses and events.

‘Art and culture allow us to get to know ourselves better, so the new home of The Human Safety Net and its interactive exhibition space are based on this fundamental concept,’ say Migliore and Servetto. ‘The result is a space designed to welcome the viewer in an empathetic way, with different rhythms and times, reinterpreting key symbols while making a constant reference to materials, design and environments. Within this, the richness of Venetian culture and territory remains a wide-ranging heritage to draw from and echo within the Procuratie.’ 

Visitors can go back in history with a ‘Time Telescope’ installation that encourages them to explore famous Venetian landmarks such as Giudecca, Rialto Bridge, Arsenale, Burano and Murano in 3D as they would have been in the 16th century.

The chosen materials and the shapes employed celebrate the Generali Group’s Venetian heritage and the Procuratie Vecchie’s enviable position. The wave-like form of the reclaimed timber benches in the café reflect the ubiquitous waterways, while glass is used in the accompanying tables – softened by an orange hue. The tables can be raised and lowered so visitors can come together in the spirit of collaboration. Low-level porthole windows offer glimpses out to the famous square establishing a continuous reconnection to the heart of Venice.

architettimiglioreservetto.it 

'A World of Potential Interactive Exhibition' at Procuratie Vecchie, Piazza San Marco, 107, 30124 Venezia VE, Italy

Open daily from 10am to 7pm from 1 April to 31 October 

10am to 6pm from 1 November to 31 March

Closed Tuesdays

The Don't Move Improve 2023 winners have been revealed - crowning The Secret Garden Flat by Nic Howett Architect House of the Year, alongside seven more category gongs for amazing residential design in the UK capital. The announcement follows hot on the heels of its shortlisted and longlisted projects’ unveiling, which offered valuable insights into the concerns, challenges and opportunities that surround private house design in London. Organised by NLA, a key presence among London's independent, built-environment organisations, the competition was conceived to celebrate home improvement and creative solutions in the realm of domestic architecture. Scroll down for the full list of winners... 

Don't Move, Improve 2023 winners

The longlist's 50 or so projects got whittled down to a compact 15 shortlisted schemes by a panel of judges including Anna Beckett, engineer at Buro Happold; Marie-Louise Schembri, sustainability director at Hilson Moran; Phil Coffey, architect and past winner; and Wallpaper’s own architecture editor Ellie Stathaki. The winners' announcement came following growing anticipation up till the big reveal in a dedicated ceremony in London this evening. 

Home of the Year: The Secret Garden Flat by Nic Howett Architect

This truly unique project was a labour of love for its owner – also the architect of the home, for a family of three. The brief outlined the remodelling of an existing, awkward, ground-level flat in Southwark. The architect employed self-building skills and a material palette that feels at home in the garden setting. The scheme adds a bedroom and a private studio, increasing liveable space considerably while injecting much-needed design quality. 

Environmental Leadership Prize: Low Energy House by Architecture for London 

Transforming a modest, Edwardian house into a design championing minimalism and sustainable architecture is no mean feat; and it's exactly what Architecture for London has achieved with its recent rework of a humble semi-detached property in north London’s residential neighbourhood of Muswell Hill. The structure has been cleverly redesigned into a low-energy home brimming with character and minimalist architecture style. In improving the building’s eco credentials, the architects worked hard to insulate, triple-glaze and improve airtightness. Meanwhile, a clever air circulation and filtering system ensures low energy use and a healthy living environment for the residents. New additions to the rear and loft expand the living space, but are done sensibly and respectfully to the original architecture, using an environmentally friendly timber structure. ‘Walls were insulated externally at the side and rear, and internally at the front with wood fibre. Insulating internally at the front has allowed the original Edwardian façade to be preserved,’ the architects explain.

Materiality and Craftsmanship Prize: Brückenhaus, R2 Studio Architects

A combination of practical needs and some inspiration from the early 20th century expressionist art group Die Brücke (the owner's favourite), this south London home is generous and filled with colour and architectural indulgence. It features ample living space infused with the moodiness and flair of a colour scheme especially designed for this home, as well as a wellness area on the first floor, complete with an outdoor sauna and shower, hidden behind screens. 

Unique Character Prize: CLT House by Unknown Works

Set in a sleepy east London road within a residential corner of Leyton, CLT House by Unknown Works is a renovation and extension project that transforms a fairly modest midcentury terrace through sustainable architecture. The design, for a private client, makes extensive use of cross-laminated timber (CLT) construction, wrapping the interiors in warm, eco-friendly wood (which was fabricated off-site and assembled in a matter of days). At the same time, its exterior is painted a bright yellow, which marks a departure from the context’s norm, also clearly distinguishing between old and new. ‘CLT considers how each element of a project can expose its true materiality, patina, method of fabrication and structural integrity,’ say the architects. ‘Every part of this family home has purpose and speaks honestly of its origin, coming together as a practical and flexible set of spaces.’ A staggered composition of structural planes ensures openings on the roof bring in plenty of natural light. Woodfibre insulation and a natural lime-render skin also play a key part in creating a sustainable and breathable family home. 

Urban Oasis Prize: Kitchen in the Woods by A Small Studio

Set within protected woodland in south London's Dulwich Estate, this smart but respectful extension consists of a single, simple move – the relocation of a kitchen – but offers maximum impact to its residents, a family of four. Light and seamless, the new addition takes care to avoid disturbing existing wildlife and flora, while providing a meaningful redesign that improves the owners' day-to-day life. 

Compact Design Prize: Lubetkin Apartment by Studio naama

A compact, highly detailed design, this is also one of the few apartment entries in this year's competition. This interior, designed by emerging architecture studio Naama, completely reimagines an existing unit in Berthold Lubetkin’s Grade II-listed Sivill House. Bespoke cabinetry, clever spatial solutions, and a respect for the building's original intention result in a space that feels perfectly fitting for its owners' specific needs. 

Best Project Under £100K: Colour Casing by District. Architects

This compact design was conceived to improve an existing ground floor flat – the home of a couple, both architects. With its name inspired by its bright green window frames, the domestic extension features refreshed, expanded spaces, new openings that bring in plenty of natural light, and a neat garden. That everything was done within a particularly tight budget is a credit to its architects' ingenuity and skill. 

Transformation Prize: Elizabeth Mews by Trewhela Williams 

A compact mews house in north London has been transformed into a haven of minimalist architecture and calm by emerging practice Trewhela Williams. The project involved redesigning a ground-floor garage space as part of the living area and creating a serene courtyard at the rear, which also acts as a lightwell, bathing the interiors with daylight. A bespoke, finely crafted oak-finned composition marks an elegant, contemporary frontage, while inside, clean lines, more timber and neutral colours compose an interior that soothes and relaxes. 

More projects in the Don't Move, Improve 2023 shortlist

Meanwhile, in the rest of the shortlist, creativity, character and detailed design prevail too. This year, sustainability has been very high on the agenda, in line with the 2023 awards' overall theme of 'Green Ambitions’. As a result, the jury panel looked carefully at the schemes on offer, narrowing down their choices to designs that put sustainable architecture front and centre. Scroll down for more amazing London homes.

Banya and Garden Studio by Cooke Fawcett 

Tucked away behind a residential property in leafy north London, this wooden cabin offers welcome respite from city life, while allowing the owners space in which to decompress among the trees. With a layout designed to weave between existing mature greenery on site, it comes with all the elements of a traditional Russian banya, such as a sauna, a bucket shower and an outdoor plunge pool. The project was created in collaboration with interior designers Black and Milk. 

Breathable House by Mike Tuck Studio

The transformation of a typical Victorian terrace house into a modern, breathable home that places sustainable architecture and materials at its heart, this project was the result of a close collaboration between owners and architects. The design celebrates natural materials such as timber and cork, while its generous openings and clever insulation plan means it's now a far cry from its previous dark and damp existence. 

DB Apartment by Studio Hallett Ike

The minimalist architecture that has slowly but surely become a recognisable staple in the work of dynamic emerging studio Hallett Ike feels ever present in this ground and lower ground apartment extension in Islington. The duo employed clean surfaces and natural materials, and paired them with playful touches, such as metal detailing, to create a refreshed, light and airy interior. 

Graphic House by Office S&M

S&M's signature colourful approach shines through this new design in north London. The home is brimming with vibrant patterns and bespoke details that make its name – Graphic House – entirely fitting. At the same time, the design acknowledges the house's period character and it's a design executed elegantly and efficiently using only the existing square footage. 

Walled Garden by Nimtim Architects

This two-storey apartment in a Victorian conversion in south London has been transformed into a culture-rich haven of calm to a design by Nimtim Architects. Layered references and a synergy between its design- and art-loving owners and the architects produced a home that feels every bit the serene urban sanctuary, complete with a fully redesigned, lush garden with a pond. 

White Patio House in Camberwell by Pashenko Works

An existing period house has been gutted and entirely opened up by young studio Pashenko Works – it now houses the husband-and-wife team's own home and studio. Openness, industrial materials and clean, white surfaces define the design. Exposed concrete and blockwork add a roughness, while the abundant sunlight that flows in makes this a warm and welcoming home. 

Rotherfield Street by Atelier Baulier

This project dramatically changed this one bedroom home by extending the kitchen into the garden and completely changing its living spaces. Set in the Canonbury East Conservation area, the project added a total of 20 sq m, leading out to a redesigned, leafy garden that has now become home to local wildlife and lots of new plants. 

dontmoveimprove.london 

When 'The Laboratory of the Future' was announced as the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale’s main theme, it brought with it enthusiasm and anticipation. No other biennale had tackled creativity and Africa in this way, and many of the participants had never exhibited at the renowned global showcase before. The result, born of curator Lesley Lokko's vision to put the continent of Africa in the spotlight does not disappoint. Opened in the Italian city on 20 May (and running till 26 November, so plan your Venice trip now), the 18th edition of La Biennale di Venezia's architecture exhibition delivers amply on its expectations, offering a mix of imagination, deep research and a sense of discovery, doing exactly what every international festival of its kind should – instigating conversation, widening the profession's horizons, and inviting more ideas, people and territories into its fold.

Venice Architecture Biennale 2023: ‘The Laboratory of the Future’

'The Laboratory of the Future' is, as per the biennale's usual arrangement for its main show, spread across two sites – the Arsenale's vast halls and exterior grounds, and the Giardini's generous Central Pavilion. Lokko's curation plays carefully on each location’s strengths, offering site-appropriate displays, as well as a curatorial rhythm that takes the visitor on a journey that blends intensity and respite; looks towards past, present and future; and includes 'traditional' architectural elements (models, drawings, maps) and pieces that appear more abstract, yet are no less powerful or informative. 

The curatorial team smartly calculated a pace that caters to the visitor's need for occasional pause and addresses the biennale exhibition's large scale and nature, while working with 89 contributors this year (a healthy number – for context, the 2018 Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara-curated biennale had 71 entries, and the 2016 one by Alejandro Aravena had 88). True to its bid to offer a platform to under-represented groups and in particular populations related to the continent, over half of the participants are from Africa or the African Diaspora; the overall gender balance is 50/50; and most of the studios taking part are small ones – no big starchitecture or corporate practices here.

Underscoring that something well begun is half done, the entry and initial sequences to both the Arsenale and Giardini sites feel impactful, engaging and set the scene well for what's to come. The former launches with a captivating video piece by artist and poet Rhael 'LionHeart' Cape greeting visitors, followed by striking drawings and sculpture by Germane Barnes, of Studio Barnes, that examine Western notions of classical antiquity and the idea of a column. Similarly, the Central Pavilion also kicks off with film, this time by David Adjaye – while a room off it, full of large-scale, impressively detailed and immaculately executed architectural models of various new and ongoing projects by the practice, complements the moving image (more models and a life-size pavilion by Adjaye and his team can be found at the Arsenale). 

Lokko's show comprises six sections, all of which have impressively obtained a sustainability credential, flagging the importance of rethinking the festival model towards a more environmentally friendly future. In Giardini, there's 'Force Majeure', which looks at 16 key practices of African or Diasporic identity – alongside Adjaye, it includes Cote D'Ivoire's Koffi & Diabaté, Berlin-based Burkinabé Kéré Architecture, and South Africa's Sumayya Vally's Counterspace. Most of these are well-known names that have graced the pages of global publications for years and have lots of completed work under their belt. Here, they flex their creative muscle to Lokko's theme – some putting a spotlight on their ongoing work, and some crafting new pieces inspired by the biennale. 

Artist Olalekan Jeyifous' installation, a room set up as the model 'All-Africa Protoport (AAP)', offers a glimpse into a potential future: a travel complex built on and pioneering Indigenous African renewable energy and green technologies. It won the Silver Lion for a promising young participant in the 18th biennale. RCA tutor, architectural designer and researcher Thandi Loewenson's 'The Uhuru Catalogues', a series of large-scale drawings etched into graphite blocks, is also here, examining geopolitical context and powers on Earth alongside ways of seeing the universe. It was awarded a special mention (alongside two more displays, by Twenty Nine Studio and Sammy Baloji, and Wolff Architects respectively). 

At the Arsenale, 'Dangerous Liaisons' looks at works that blur the boundaries between architecture and other disciplines. These span from Flores & Pratts' roomful of models and Neri & Hu's explorations on liminality (a couple of the more conventional biennale rooms, where building projects take centre stage), to Gbolade Design Studio's deep dive into the game of dominoes and its role in the South London Windrush generation communities. 

Meanwhile, the 'Curator’s Special Projects' span topics including sustainability, gender and memory, as well as emerging practitioners. 'Guests from the Future' represents younger practitioners breaking into the scene with strong theses and captivating visuals. The work is rich and extremely varied, from London-based community Black Females in Architecture, to the mesmerising tapestries of architecture student Arinjoy Sen (created in collaboration with Indian craftspeople), Juergen Strohmayer and Glenn DeRoché's Surf Ghana Collective building, and the sculptures of artist Ibiye Camp. It underlines once more Lokko's intent on flagging new points of view and offering a platform to those who often don't have one at the biennale. 

While the opening celebrations are now behind us, there is more to come, keeping up the pace and interest around the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale's themes. Launching for the first time, the Biennale College Architettura will run from 25 June to 22 July 2023, and throughout its duration, 15 renowned international tutors – such as Marina Otero, Nana Biamah-Ofosu, Sarah de Villiers and Manijeh Verghese – will work with 50 students, early-career practitioners and academics from around the world during a four-week teaching programme.

Meanwhile, a new Venice Architecture Biennale feature titled 'Carnival', including lectures, discussions, film and performances, will accompany the displays, seen by the curatorial team as crucial in drawing in the public and enhancing the dialogue between architecture and the world. 

Lokko described the biennale as 'an agent of change', saying that in architecture, the dominant voice has historically been from one perspective only, and ‘the “story” of architecture is therefore incomplete. Not wrong, but incomplete. It is in this context particularly that exhibitions matter.’ 

Through its uncovering of fresh perspective, challenge to existing systems and acceptance of multiple viewpoints, 'The Laboratory of the Future' is here to herald a much-needed shift in the architecture realm. It is a show that will no doubt be remembered for its talent and energy, as well as its thought-provoking content, a biennale that spearheads optimism and, hopefully, evolution. 

labiennale.org 

At the newly opened Venice Architecture Biennale, the 2023 British Pavilion’s exhibition, 'Dancing Before the Moon,' stood out for the clarity and directness of its message. 

Under the curatorship of Lesley Lokko, the 18th international architecture exhibition pushed hard against the prevailing orthodoxy of architecture culture, eschewing rosters of starchitects and glossily rendered megaprojects in favour of a more considered examination of the systems and structures, both physical and societal, that underpin the modern world. 

Within this context, the pavilion's exhibition, 'Dancing Before the Moon,' stood out for the clarity and directness of its message, exploring the way in which the overlooked rituals and practices of a multicultural island nation have become deeply embedded in the fabric of day-to-day life in the UK. 

2023 British Pavilion: 'Dancing Before The Moon'

Curated by Meneesha Kellay, Joseph Henry, Jayden Ali, and Sumitra Upham, the project was commissioned by a British Council team led by Sevra Davis. ‘I was quite unequivocal about challenging what we think about architecture,’ Davis recalls, explaining how many of the responses to the brief made this shift. The chosen curation team, however, went one step further, promising to engage with the physical fabric and form of the building. 

‘Dancing Before the Moon’ comes from a quote from the American writer James Baldwin: ‘There is a reason, after all, that some people wish to colonize the moon, and others dance before it as an ancient friend.’ The curators assembled a group of practitioners to explore the way in which imported cultural practices adapt and evolve into integral components of British life, even as they sometimes occupied unfriendly and hostile spaces. 

The neo-classical British Pavilion was completed in 1909 to designs by Edwin Alfred Rickards of Lanchester, Stewart and Rickards, a practice that designed several buildings in British colonies. The various artistic interventions are laden with multiple meanings; not only are they very literally occupying the corridors of power, but they are deliberately large and imposing to make an impact on the space.

‘Scale was really important from the beginning,’ says Jayden Ali. As well as his curatorial role, the London-based artist and architect is responsible for the vast giant steel pan-inspired sculpture, 'Thunder and Şimşek,' that hangs inside the entrance portico. Ali describes how these objects ‘challenge’ the building, while at the same time they are held up by a clever system of steel braces that in turn uses the columns for support; a metaphor of the support and intersection that his own Trinidadian and Cypriot heritage has with British culture.

The main entrance hall hosts the specially commissioned film, a travelogue around the UK, exploring the various rituals that have become part of British life, from dance to car culture, religion to carnival. The soundtrack permeates through the galleries, starting on the left with Shawanda Corbett’s ‘A Healing is Coming’, eight ceramic vessels that celebrate the variety, imperfections and beauty of the female form and rituals around healing. Symbolising eight imagined women embarking on different spiritual healing journeys, the vessels imbued with character and magic. 

Mac Collins’s ‘Runout’ greets the visitor in the next room. This vast wooden assemblage is essentially a giant domino, perched atop an upholstered plinth that evokes the social clubs and pubs where this ever-popular Jamaican game is played. ‘Runout’ is one of many domino games, especially popular in the Midlands, near where the Nottingham-born designer grew up. The sculpture itself is character, part imp, part friendly alien, beamed down into this austere environment and impossible to ignore. 

Although none of the installations encroach on one another, the tall doors and openings ensure they all have a visual connection. Sandra Poulson’s Sabão Azul e Água’, a striking blue assemblage of objects, is simultaneously diaphanous and weighty. Poulson has used fabric and textile waste to build her installation, fashioning a parade of stone balustrades, a cascade of lace, a concrete washing tank and a traditional Angolan costume. All are coated in blue soap, Sabão Azul, a symbol of cleanliness but also frequently used to smuggle embedded diamonds out of the country.

‘Bardo’, by Madhav Kidao takes the architect’s ‘Between Forests and Skies’ pavilion, installed at the V&A in 2021, melts its down and creates another form altogether. Inspired by his own heritage of Hindu and Buddhist philosophies, Kidao has transformed the molten aluminium into a pock-marked surface, scoured and shaped by the sand it was cast in. Bardos are transitional states that exist between birth, life and death in Buddhist philosophy, and this piece represents a moment of change, as opposed to the finality of traditional Western perceptions of death. 

Yussef Agbo-Ola’s ‘Muluku: 6 Bone Temple’, dominates the final room in the sequence. Agbo-Ola, founder of Olaniyi Studio, divides his time between London and the Amazon rainforest in French Guiana. An inverted tent of stretched organic cotton, tethered to a frame and the building itself, this ‘temple’ of woven fabric evokes the nomadic animal skin structures of the Cherokee culture, and traditional Yoruba architecture.

Dancing Before the Moon represents ‘layers and layers of history,’ according to Ali, ‘it’s not about erasure, it’s about depth,’ he adds. ‘My work is about occupation. It’s a reflection of Britain – all of these people who live and work here. All of these rituals and customs are a part of British life.’ One of Lokko’s guiding principles for the Biennale is that ‘dominant voices [have] ignored huge swathes of humanity.’ 'Dancing Before the Moon' successfully occupies, transforms and engages with space, mirroring society’s ongoing transformation and its effect on art, design and architecture.

Dancing Before the Moon is at the British Pavilion, La Biennale Architettura 2023 is open in Venice until Sunday 26 November 2023, LaBiennale.org

The Brazilian Pavilion has been announced as the 2023 Golden Lion winner for national participation at the Venice Architecture Biennale, which launched to the public this weekend. The South American country's win came alongside several more honours revealed for more national contributions as well as individual installations in curator Lesley Lokko's main show, and of course the Golder Lion for Lifetime Achievement 2023 which went to Nigerian artist, designer and architect Demas Nwoko. 

2023 Golden Lion: Brazilian Pavilion

Co-curators of the Brazilian Pavilion Gabriela de Matos and Paulo Tavares look at notions of decolonisation, national identity, diaspora, indigenous knowledge systems, as well as around Brasília and modernism, while connecting to Lokko's main theme through the vector of the African diaspora. Titled 'Terra', the exhibit draws on the past to compose 'possible futures, focusing on the role of land in shaping our understanding of heritage and identity.' 

The pavilion features projects born of Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian knowledge about land and territory, as well as bespoke commissions such as an audio-visual piece by Brazilian filmmaker Juliana Vicente, archival photographs complied by historian Ana Flávia Magalhães Pinto, the ethno-historical map of Brazil by Curt Nimuendajú, and the Brasília Quilombola map.  

The biennale's international jury panel this year was composed of Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli (president, Italy); Nora Akawi (Palestine); Thelma Golden (US); Tau Tavengwa (Zimbabwe); and Izabela Wieczorek (Poland). More awards included a special mention for the British Pavilion, titled 'Dancing Before The Moon'; the Golden Lion for the best participant in the 18th Exhibition 'The Laboratory of the Future', which went to DAAR's Alessandro Petti and Sandi Hilal; the Silver Lion for a promising young participant in the 18th Exhibition 'The Laboratory of the Future' to Olalekan Jeyifous; and three further special mentions to Twenty Nine Studio / Sammy Baloji, Wolff Architects, and Thandi Loewenson. 

labiennale.org 

The V&A's 'Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Power in West Africa' is located at the heart of the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale’s revolutionary re-framing. Organised by the museum and the Architectural Association (AA) in London, along with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), in Kumasi, Ghana, the show focuses on the legacy of the British architects Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, and the development of what they called ‘Tropical Modernism’. It is an exploration of modern architecture in newly independent Ghana, and a fascinating insight into the shape-shifting interplay between modern architecture and colonialism.

V&A's Tropical Modernism

Drew and Fry were archetypal modernists, the power couple of inter-war British architecture. In the UK, Fry had worked with Walter Gropius, and after the war, both moved to India to collaborate with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret on the plans for Chandigarh. They were also involved in designs for Nigeria and Ghana, then both part of the British Empire (when the latter was known as the Gold Coast). 

In 1956, Fry and Drew published Tropical Architecture in the Humid Zone, an influential book that used their considerable experience to show how the Corbusian five point of architecture could be applied to equatorial conditions. So far, so predictable – a classic example of the International Style bulldozing its way towards global cultural hegemony. But Africa was in the throes of massive change, and one of those at heart of the independence movement was Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah. 

The structures of colonialism across Africa made modern architecture more of an imposition than a collaboration, but Fry and Drew’s experience, as well as the benevolent support of Nkrumah, saw Tropical Modernism briefly flourish as the newly independent state's de facto style, as much a counterpoint to the fortifications and other colonial institutions that were indelibly linked to first the slave trade and then economic subjugation. How these post-Corbusian ideals became a strong symbol of pan-Africanism is the subject of this exhibition, curated by the V&A’s Dr Christopher Turner, and Nana Biamah-Ofosu and Bushra Mohamed from the AA.

The show is defined by an exhibition wall shaped like a brise-soleil, a typically Corbusian architectural device that screened and shaded a façade; Fry and Drew used these large-scale screens in many of their Ghanian projects. Into the gaps of this 35m long wall goes a host of archive imagery, tracing the story of this new architecture and its role in the changing political landscape of the country. In the UK, Fry and Drew founded the AA’s Department of Tropical Architecture, ostensibly for European architects to learn how to design for the colonies, but also a place for the new generation of post-colonial architects to study. 

Here the waters are muddied. Architectural intervention in Ghana was both benevolent and cynical, a way of mollifying a populace that was increasingly agitating against colonial rule. Nkrumah was an instrumental figure, and after his inevitable accession to the country’s presidency following independence in 1957, he made full use of funding from London to build educational infrastructure for the country. This quid pro quo arrangement not only involved Fry and Drew, as well as links with the AA’s educational programme, but also architects from Eastern Europe and China, driven by Nkrumah’s socialist leanings; even Buckminster Fuller, who was invited to contribute to the Ghana International Trade Fair Centre in Accra. 

The exhibition culminates in a film installation, three screens showing a mixture of unseen archive footage, contemporary views of the key buildings, and interviews with Samia Nkrumah, politician and Nkrumah’s daughter, as well as Ghanaian architects who worked alongside Drew, Fry and the AA’s John Lloyd, thanks to Nkrumah’s insistence on local involvement at all levels. Through this blend of co-operation and misaligned interests, Tropical Modernism emerged as a symbol of a new Afro-centrism, shaping not just universities and administrative buildings, but also monumental structures that celebrated independence.

The exhibition showcases some of the key buildings of the era, including the Wesley Girls’ Senior High School, Cape Coast, the George Padmore Library in Accra and the extensive KNUST campus, a ‘Bauhaus city within the forest. In 1966, a military coup overthrew Nkrumah, damaged by the new country’s plummeting economic prospects and increasingly autocratic rule (‘He was a very good African, but a poor Ghanian’, as one of the interviewees notes in the film). It was also the end of Tropical Modernism, and the AA closed its department in 1971.

Ultimately, the imported modernists of all political persuasions never quite grasped the social and spiritual aspects of Ghanian culture, even though Lloyd – a younger generation from Fry and Drew – had a more open and inclusive attitude towards vernacular architecture and tradition. 

The UK and Ghana remain intertwined both socially and culturally. The Biennale’s curator, Lesley Lokko, is Ghanaian-Scottish, whilst one of the most prominent contemporary architects showing in Venice is Ghanaian-British David Adjaye, whose office is currently working on 100 hospitals in the country, amongst many other projects. The buildings and histories presented in Tropical Modernism are a vivid slice of cross-cultural pollination, a social and political pinch point where, amongst other things, aspects of the Afro-futurist aesthetic took root. 

Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Power in West Africa is at the Applied Arts Pavilion, 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, LaBiennale.org