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We are proud to present a global survey, as exhaustive as possible, of design that represents and expresses the new understanding of humanity – or harmony. Ideas of Community; Energy; Infrastructure; Tradition and Modernity; Work, Leisure and Home; Culture; Wellbeing; Retail, the Digital Revolution, Machine Intelligence, Materials … the list goes on and on.
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In an elegant progression of scale, legacy and application to key turning points in people's lives, MAD Associate Partner Fu Changrui explores and explains the now celebrated startling interventions in Beijing's traditional Hutong residential communities, the conversion of an 18th-century Beijing courtyard building into a colourful kindergarten which sits among the city's historic urban fabric, the massive 4000-household Baiziwan Social Housing project, and, most recently, the ZGC International Innovation Center in the Zhongguancun area of Beijing's Haidian District, blending nature and history with modernity and technological advancements.
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"Pixel, Abu Dhabi, was designed to challenge the typology that prioritises luxury over community," say designers MVRDV. Instead of isolated towers made palatable by a veneer of luxury finishes, Pixel makes it possible for residents to spend time outdoors and become friends with their neighbours, encouraging an enjoyable, environmentally and socially sustainable way of life.
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The C40 Cities Green and Thriving Neighbourhoods report focuses on the two pillar goals of sustainable development: 'green', ie net-zero carbon emissions, and 'thriving' - people-oriented, resilient, and vibrant - in other words, both human and humane. The report explores 10 key elements: green buildings and energy, clean construction, people-centered mobility, connected places, circular resources, green and nature-based solutions, green economy, sustainable lifestyles, and a place for everyone.
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The Easyhome Huanggang Vertical Forest City complex defines a new type of green architecture, characterised by alternating open balconies and closed loggias accentuated by trees and shrubs that can grow freely in height.
The Vertical Forest transforms the quality of living spaces, giving people the opportunity to experience urban space but feel the comfort of being surrounded by nature.
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"This looks like the beginning of the future" said a visitor to The Phoenix, a sustainable neighbourhood development in Sussex, UK. Constructed primarily in sustainable timber, powered by renewable energy and designed to encourage a culture of sharing, The Phoenix is a new and regenerative way to make a place, build a community and create a productive, circular local economy.
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"Architecture's essence lies in weaving time, space, human connections, and inner harmony," say Xian Architects.
"Courtyard House're-imagines the traditional Zheng Fang courtyard-based layout to engage with landscape and community, while 'Riverside House' poses the questions: "We used to live with the field – now with no fields, we lean on heaven and earth. When we vaguely own a small plot of land, is it for survival and life? How shall our souls live? "
The architecture becomes the eyes of the landscape, the ears of the environment, and the horn of signals.
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The bookshop as a personal space - as a cathedral, as a rural retreat, as a piece of history. TAO's mountaintop bookstore overlooks the Nujiang Grand Canyon, while their Weishan Chongzheng Academy Bookstore repurposes a 500-year old academy. X-Living's Tianjin Zhongshuge bookstore uses 400,000 custom-designed bricks to create a rising succession of spaces. "The design aims to blur the physical boundaries of the architecture," says principal Li Xiang, "suggesting that the boundaries of knowledge and cognition are vague, yet the spiritual core is clear and resolute."
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AIM Architecture' spectacular Spine Resort emerges onto its rural site like a cluster of ecosystems. Grandiose and intimate at the same time, the biophilic design dynamically balances architecture, nature and people, creating localized connections while framing panoramic views.
The core of Safdie Architects’ design for the new Singapore EDITION hotel, blending luxury with modernism, is its seamless integration with nature. Sweeping vistas and lush greenery, from the sky park to the sunken garden, are everywhere. At the hqeart is a timber-decked garden courtyard, framed by shallow, black-tiled pools and tropical foliage. Light floods the corridors, plant-filled conservatory, and public spaces, creating a serene escape.
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1. The 185,000 sqm OPPO HQ in Shenzhen works both for the city and the employees of China's leading smartphone manufacturer. Large atrium spaces, obstruction-free floors, abundant natural light and social spaces all generate engagement and spontaneity; the building also addresses the city with a public walkway, shops and galleries.
2. The Shanghai HQ for CECEP, China's leading renewnable energy company, sets new benchmarks for the city in energy efficeny and sustainability. Three towers are linked with a park connecting directly with the city, creating new public spaces in a natural environment.
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The Shenzhen Wave, the new hq for ZTE: The distinctive design is imagined as a dynamic, living organism that generates innovation, cutting-edge ideas and new ways of working and living together. A sinuous diagonal "Wave" cuts through the building and links its multiple levels, lifting the structure off the ground and cresting up through the roof. This key element becomes an open and experiential pathway through the building for light, views and circulation, encouraging spontaneous encounters between users throughout the structure.
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Embodying TOD principles, the award-winning Chengdu Tianfu New Station makes the traffic hub the centre of urban life, laying out the functions in 3D so that the rail hub and the city blend into one. Local ecological resources are used to integrate the hub with nature; "building a nest to attract phoenixes", the project forms an urban living room for people.
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China's rapid development over the past 30 years has brought about wealth and a huge consumer society, but at the same time, the unique and tasteful handcrafted culture that remained in the countryside is being rapidly engulfed by the wave of mass production. Through the design of the UCCA Ceramic Museum, we will consider
1. mass production and handicrafts
2. identifying regional cities in inter-city competition
3. the Bilbao Effect and sustainable cities.
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Inspired by the ceremonial jade bi of Liangzhu culture—a 5,000-year-old symbol of cosmic reverence—Yohoo Museum reinterprets ancient rituals through contemporary architectural language. The dual-ring structure, resembling nested jade discs, weaves together the heritage of Liangzhu and the Grand Canal, creating a timeless bridge between past and present.
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The long awaited Beijing City Library is just about as iconic as it gets. The glass-lined building, filled with towering tree-like columns and rooms disguised as hills, is designed to "reinstate the library's relevance in the 21st century" and aims to offer a "new vision" for the typology. "The terraced landscape and tree-like columns invite visitors to lift their gaze and focus at a distance, taking in the bigger picture," says Snøhetta Asia Pacific director Robert Greenwood. "This is a place where you can be sitting under a tree, reading your favorite book."
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Our "Design Triple" session places three museums together, each one of which pushes the boundaries of the accepted functions of a cultural institution. Muda Architects' Tianfu Museum of Chinese Medicine is designed as a giant Taiji diagram, or yin-yang symbol, to represent the philosophy of holistic traditional Chinese medicine; Aurora Design's HumShan Ding You Feng photography museum draws from the local landscape, the architecture reflecting harmony between mountains, water, and the built environment; and UN Studio's Chungnam Art Museum turns itself "inside out" to address the community with vibrant interactive spaces.
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In contemporary architectural design, materials have transcended their basic functional attributes to become one of the core factors driving creation.Materials are the embodiment of the times; building materials are solidified samples of history.Materials are the essence of sensation; the building envelope, as the interactive interface between the human body and space, is undergoing a transformation from structural enclosure to sensory medium.The lecture revolves around a series of architectural practices related to material innovation, exploring the multiple dimensions of materials.
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Antistatics conceived the façade of the Beijing Vicutu store as an array of interwoven interlaced aluminium forms, generated to suggest the structure of cloth fabric. "A respite from the digital realm", says the promotional text – delivered by the highly advanced, digitally driven design and fabrication techniques. Do projects like this lead to the next step – AI-driven "responsive buildings"? And is it the retail sector that will drive these advances?
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Embodying the principles of Thomas Heatherwick's groundbreaking and provocative 'Humanise' philosophy, the massive mixed-use Xi'an CCBD development – a neighbourhood of 155,000 sq m - blends a retail podium with walkable streets, terraces and open plazas, offices, apartments, accommodation, green spaces, and a vertical park. Local craftspeople produced over 100,000 tiles, giving a tactile as well as a visual experience, while the spectacular 'Xi'an Tree' rises in a 57m-high sequence of cascading gardens following the biomes of the ancient Silk Route.
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The biggest question facing creative in all disciplines all over the world. Put simply: will the machines take over and put us out of a job? As the technical development of AI races far ahead of the ethical and human issues it impacts, architects and designers tussle with the key differences between machine and human Intelligence – and "ideation".
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The 3-to-1 Pavilion design is the integration of time, space, and people, with a focus on "in-between" or interstitial spaces, say the designers. It is a serene sanctuary for tea drinking, contemplation, and social gatherings in a Shanghai garden setting.
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Metal-Woven Thin-Shell Pavilion
Digital Weaving · Structural Realization · Meditative Space · Zero-Waste Sustainability
Concrete Thin-Shell Activity Space
Monolithic Structure · Terrain Integration · Playful Interaction
3D-Printed Boulder Park
Concrete 3D Printing · Child-Centric Installations · Environmental Synergy
World Tree
Immersive Environments · Green Coexistence · Blurred Real-Virtual Boundaries -
The Cloud Retreat Hotel Ganzhou uses contemporary spatial forms and material colours – the red of local Ganzhou pigment - to reconstruct the living memory of Hakka Enclosed houses. "With a geometric processing of the spaces, collaging and overlapping, we create a living experience linking local memory and contemporary quality," say the designers.
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The speech will focus on the importance of sound and acoustics within spatial design. Unknown Works is fascinated by how our perception of sound impacts our experience of the built environment, especially when it comes to crafting spaces for introspection and calm. The talk will contextualise the studio's research through the development and construction of The Armadillo, a groundbreaking experimental CLT pavilion designed and built for both personal and collective enjoyment of sound. The talk will also discuss the importance of sustainability in construction and showcase how the structure has been designed with adaptability and reuse in mind.
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The four previous speakers discuss the intangible quality of 'uplift' in the creation of architectural and social space, and the different approaches to achieving it.
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