Foster + Partners   China   This recently opened Apple store is in the heart of Shanghai’s Jing’an District. Generating a public space for encounters, a new circular plaza connects different walkways through several curving levels featuring vegetation and tiered seating from wh

Cabrera Arqs   Mexico   Meant to be a place for reflection, silence, and prayer, and for a community whose members practice different religions, this underground chapel disappears in the landscape of San Antonio Baspul, a locality within the municipality of Chicxulub Pueblo

Junya Ishigami + associates   Japan   In Ube, a city in Yamaguchi Prefecture, stands this cave house with a small restaurant included that was built for a chef. When the restaurant is closed, its dining area doubles as a family room and the owners’ children can do their homework there.

DnA_Design and Architecture   China   The fact that what we call ‘nature’ or looks like ‘nature’ is often a human-made construction is demonstrated by sceneries like this one in the Chinese province of Zhejiang, a carpet of hills that conceals more than 3,000 quarries exploited in the co

CEBRA Architecture   Denmark   Skamlingsbanken is a lateral moraine that was formed during the last ice age (22,000-25,000 years ago). Belonging to the Danish municipality of Kolding, this visitor center is embedded in the ground, forming another hill in the rolling landscape. Mea

Foster + Partners   China   The firm of Norman Foster has built the new Datong Art Museum. On the outside, the building is like an erupting landscape. Only the upper part is visible, with a steel-clad roof rendered in earthy tones. Embedding the museum onto the square reduced i

Junya Ishigami + associates   Japan   Taking inspiration from the dark and humid atmosphere of wineries, this cave-house evokes the passage of time reflected through the process of sedimentation and erosion; it is also evocative of the world of labyrinthine galleries excavated by worms;

Werner Tscholl   Italy   Literally carved in the rock, the house nevertheless arises from ecological and sustainable criteria. First: occupy unproductive land, in such a way that the construction continues the local tradition of making the most of available fertile ground. S

David Chipperfield Architects   Italy   Located in the hills close to the city of Vicenza, the Cavea Arcari was the quarry that provided the precious Pietra Bianca di Vicenza that was used to build, among other buildings, the famous villas of Andrea Palladio. The contour of the exploitatio

Studio Anne Holtrop   Netherlands   Fort Vechten is the second largest of 48 fortresses that were erected along the New Dutch Waterline, a military barrier that started to go up back in the 18th century, consisting of an 85-kilometer-long ring that could be flooded to keep the enemy at

BIG Bjarke Ingels Group   Denmark   Some time into World War ii, the Germans began to fortify the coasts of continental Europe and Scandinavia as a defence against an anticipated Allied invasion that eventually took place in Normandy. Stretching hundreds of kilometers, this military ba

Ian Ritchie   United Kingdom       Existen referencias escritas a este lugar desde que en el año 700 se fundó un pequeño priorato. En el siglo XVIII, el descubrimiento de un manantial lo hizo popular, y en el siglo pasado llegó a convertirse en un área industrial. Las fincas y jar

Michael Hopkins   United Kingdom   Como punto de partida, el esquema elegido busca mostrar la función de cada elemento constructivo. Debido a su situación, junto a los muros de contención del río Támesis y adyacente a hitos singulares como el Big Ben o el Tower Bridge, la cimentación

Dominique Perrault   Frédéric Migayrou   Our relationship with the ground keeps us continually attached to what is the essence of a truly geographic approach, to our cultural tendency to accept the idea of making a mark, of a foundation, of geography in the literal sense, the one of rootedn

Luis Fernández-Galiano   The dark light of hidden spaces is fascinating and confusing. On one hand, it is hard not to succumb to the oneiric attraction of enigmas, and the descent to the depths of the earth is a symbolic itinerary of initiation that captures us with its mine