Until We Meet in Tirana
We had been looking forward to gathering at the Pyramid of Tirana on 22 October. Following recent developments in the city, we explored every possible option to hold the event as planned, including alternative
The Social Life of Bars and Cafés
People rarely walk into a bar or café to experience architecture. They come to meet someone, to wait, to eat and drink, to work, to watch the street, or simply to pass the time. Yet
Urban Houses Finding Room to Breathe
Building a house in an urban setting often means working with what is already close at hand: neighbouring walls, narrow plots, inherited structures, streets, noise and limited access to open space. These
E-VOLUTION PLUS: A Continuous Surface for Wet Areas
In wet areas, technical requirements often determine how a surface is divided and finished. E-VOLUTION PLUS approaches performance and appearance as part of the same continuous surface. Represented by LUXORA, VALPAINT E-VOLUTION PLUS
Meet the Studios Joining Us in Tirana
On 22 October, BIG SEE In Tirana brings together nine Albanian architecture practices at the Pyramid of Tirana. These young and accomplished studios are working across very different scales and programmes, from schools and
Infrastructure Buildings That Serve the City
Car parks, depots, control centres and energy plants keep a city running, yet they are usually closed boxes placed wherever there is room. The six projects in this selection treat them as architecture with
Flat Roof Houses Extending Outdoors
A flat roof can do more than define the silhouette of a house. Extended beyond the glazed enclosure, it becomes a canopy, terrace or horizontal frame that allows domestic space to continue outward without
Apartment Renovations in Old Buildings
An older apartment rarely arrives as a blank page. Decades of partitions, false ceilings and quick repairs tend to hide the floors, mouldings and structure that gave it character in the first place.
Galleries and Museums at Every Scale
A space for art has to hold the work and leave room for the people who come to see it. These eight galleries, museums and cultural houses, from a single room on Santorini to
Spaces for Care and Wellbeing
A visit to a clinic or a salon starts before any treatment: at the entrance, in the waiting area, in the light and the materials around the chair. These seven projects, from a hospital
Colour Accents That Give Houses Character
Colour does not need to dominate a house to define it. A painted frame, a door, a ceiling or a small added volume can be enough to change the way architecture is
Small Apartments
In a small apartment, every decision about a wall, a floor or a piece of furniture carries more weight. These nine homes, from a 26-square-metre holiday house in Naples to a reorganised family flat
Concrete Houses Between Mass and Openness
Concrete gives a house weight, permanence and a strong physical presence, yet some of its most compelling uses emerge when that solidity is interrupted. Openings, courtyards, cantilevers and glazing turn heavy walls
Black Houses in Green Landscapes
A black exterior does two apparently opposite things in a landscape: it sharpens the outline of a building against vegetation and, in shade, allows its volume to recede. Charred timber, stained wood
Material Facades in Contemporary Housing
The facade is where a building meets the city. In collective housing, it has to negotiate repetition and individuality, enclosure and openness, technical performance and public presence. Material plays a decisive role in how these
Sociable Office Design
The row of desks is no longer the only way to plan an office. In these nine interiors, lounges, shared tables, galleries and reception spaces do much of the organising. The shift
STOREY: Designing a Home Battery for the Interior
A home battery is usually defined by what it does. With STOREY, Propeller Design also considered how a highly technical object should live within the home. Designed by Propeller Design for Sunology, STOREY
Old Houses, New Architecture
Renovation gives a house the possibility of accommodating new ways of living without erasing the architecture that preceded them. Existing walls, structures, materials and spatial sequences become a framework
Building Within the Existing City
Residential architecture within an established city is rarely an autonomous object. Its scale, façade order, material weight, entrances, courtyards and roofline are read against structures that were already there. The question is therefore not simply
Houses Beyond the Familiar
A house is usually recognised through a familiar set of elements: walls, roof, windows and an entrance arranged around domestic life. In these projects, that recognisable language is deliberately unsettled. Geometry, structure
Community Spaces Made for Gathering
A place to gather needs surprisingly little: shade, somewhere to sit, a reason to stop. These seven community spaces, from Accra to Suzhou, are built around those basics. None of them is
Philipp Broinger
In a world of change - demographic, digital and climatic - certainties we once took for granted are falling away. This makes places where people come together more important than ever. Such spaces must
Brick Houses Between Tradition and Innovation
Brick carries an unusual continuity in architecture: one of its oldest building materials remains capable of producing distinctly new spatial and constructive solutions. Its basic unit is familiar and repetitive, but the
Museums Revived
A museum does not have to start from an empty site. In these six projects, a museum is made or remade from what was already there: a chapel, a warehouse, a row of medieval
Bathing, Heat and Public Life
Bathing architecture is defined by thresholds: between exposure and privacy, heat and cold, enclosure and landscape, individual retreat and collective use. In the projects gathered here, these conditions are not treated as secondary aspects of
Contemporary Learning Environments as Social Infrastructure
Educational institutions are commonly defined by programme: kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, vocational school or university. Yet the architecture of learning increasingly has to accommodate much more than instruction. These buildings are also places of
Facades: How Buildings Face the Street
A façade is the part of a building that belongs to everyone who walks past it. These ten projects, from a small commercial building in Seoul to a residential tower in Le Havre, show
The Visual Presence of Wood in Houses
Wood becomes architecturally significant when it extends beyond individual elements and begins to operate as a continuous surface. Across façades, ceilings, walls, screens and built-in elements, its grain, colour and directional pattern
Textures in Interior Design
In these eight interiors, colour and material do more than finish a room. They set its mood, help organise its plan and tie it to the place outside. Interior design is easily
Rethinking Familiar Furniture
Few furniture typologies have been interpreted as persistently as the stool, chair, sofa and table. Their functions are established, their proportions familiar, and their design histories already contain countless variations. Yet this familiarity also makes