Kéré Architecture   Benin   In the wake of decolonization in Africa, Benin achieved full independence from France on 1 August 1960, then under the name of Dahomey. The building in which the declaration was signed at the time has until now served as the headquarters of the Parli

Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra   Italy   The Seville-based firm Vázquez Consuegra has won the competition to build the town hall of Montegiorgio, Italy, on the remains of the old Convent of San Francisco. The project includes refurbishing one of the elements left of the monastic complex, th

Kauffmann Theilig & Partner   Germany   The new Town Hall building of Unterschneidheim, a municipality in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, is split into two offset blocks, forming spaces in between for lingering and holding outdoor events. The symmetrical gable roofs and attic forms

Óscar Miguel Ares   Spain   Up in the Torozos Mountains, in the comarca of Tierra de Campos, the small municipality of Valverde de Campos in Valladolid province has a population of slightly over a hundred. The surpluses produced by wind farms were invested in this building with

Ignacio Laguillo   Spain   The town of Fuentes is nestled in the Sevillian countryside, in the Guadalquivir valley. Settlements from different periods have left a rich cultural and monumental heritage, further enhanced by its landscape and agricultural history. Within the Prog

Happel Cornelisse Verhoeven architecten   Netherlands   Although senates are, in general, bodies made up of elected citizens, they have not managed to shake off a certain elitist whiff. At least by etymology, the senex (the elders of the tribe) and the patricians, peers, and heroes congregate in them. Sen

COBE Architects Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter   Belgium   The renovation wraps up the Rue du Luxembourg axis and establishes an essential connection between city and nature. The building breaks up into smaller scale elements, each with its own logic and appearance, that culminate in the public roof garden..

Rafael Moneo   Spain   The plot that the City Council had reserved for its new hall was that of the former barracks of Alfonso XII, raised – in part at least – on the grounds of the old convent of the Carmelites. It would have been hard to find a more appropriate site in L

Belgium   Images of the project that has won the international competition, organized by the European Parliament, to renovate the Paul-Henri SPAAK Building in Brussels have been unveiled. Officially announced in July 2022, the winner is Europarc, a collective

NULA.STUDIO   Spain   Selected from a pool of 29 entries, the project Pati-Oh! – drawn up by NULA-STUDIO, the Madrid practice of Laia Cervelló and Miguel Fernández-Galiano, in collaboration with the A Coruña firm Fernández Carballada y Asociados (FCA) – won the public com

Kéré Architecture   Benin   The scheme drawn up by the Berlin firm of Francis Kéré for Porto-Novo, the capital of Benin, takes inspiration from the ‘word tree,’ the western African tradition by which the community gathers under a tree to make collective decisions. Facing the

Studio Lotus   India   In the capital of the Indian state of Odisha, the New Delhi-based firm Studio Lotus has built new offices for the Department of Agriculture. As a government building it was conceived at the outset strictly for official use, but the architects propose

Sou Fujimoto Architects   France   The proposal for the New High Court of Lille, designed by Sou Fujimoto Architects with Coldefy, welcomes citizens beneath a tent-like, transparent canopy that fills the interior spaces with natural light... [+]

Foster + Partners ArchitectsHafeez Contractor   India   Designed with the highest sustainability standards, the new administrative capital of Andhra Pradesh is organized by an urban grid with a green spine running through its length. The project includes the Legislature Assembly and the High Court complex

Atelier Lorentzen Langkilde   Norway   Located in the Arctic Circle, the project transforms and connects the two existing buildings, and dialogs with them through color and the pattern of the faceted facades of Jura Stone of the new volume, whose angles capture the changing northern light

IDOM   France   The firm Idom —Inés López, Iñaki Garai y Gohar Manrique— has won a competition for a complex encompassing a town hall, a local police station, a panoramic restaurant, and two parking levels. The location is Saint Pierre, in the south of Reunión, one

Bonell & Gil   Switzerland   The new parliament of the Canton of Vaud melds into a complex historical context, replacing the old building destroyed by fire in 2002 and refurbishing the existing structures. 

Lux Architect   Germany   The German firm of Manfred Lux was commissioned to renovate the town hall building of Burtenbach, a Bavarian municipality first mentioned in a 1558 document. The building was subjected to modifications over time, and significantly renovated in 1972.

Aulets   Spain   Like just another house in the old quarter of Felanitx, a locality in the southeast of the island of Majorca, stands this construction that houses the municipal archives, a work of the Majorcan firm Aulets Arquitectes, led by Francisco Cifuentes, Seb

LAN Architecture   France   The project tries to create a city hall that avoids the usual monumental codes of institutional buildings and gives citizens a new civic center. This compact volume is conceived to be not only an administrative center, but also a symbol for the commu

Jørn Utzon   Kuwait   Up to the 1930s, Kuwait was still a compact city with one and two-story buildings within the boundaries of the old city wall, but the discovery of oil spurred an explosive growth. When in 1961 it declared total independence from the British protector

Kéré Architecture   Burkina Faso   After 31 years of dictatorial rule, the people of Burkina Faso rose up and ousted their former president following a violent revolt in 2014. In protest of the old regime, the former National Assembly was attacked and destroyed by the citizens. Aside

Foster + Partners   Argentina   Initially conceived for the Banco Ciudad, the building was transformed into a city hall thanks to its functional and symbolic versatility. The project uses the free distribution of the Climatroffice, evoking the hospital designs of Amancio Williams w

One of the first decisions taken by the new Federal Republic of Germany on June 20, 1991, after reunification, was the re-establishment of Berlin as the capital of the entire nation, which implied the relocation of all central government offices from

The municipal government house of Foios, located in the region of Valencia, will be renovated by Madrid-based NULA.STUDIO, in collaboration with A Coruña firm Fernández Carballada Arquitectos. Organized around an inner courtyard that serves as an ext

In the capital of the Indian state of Odisha, the New Delhi-based firm Studio Lotus has built new offices for the Department of Agriculture. As a government building it was conceived at the outset strictly for official use, but the architects propose

OMA, con Rem Koolhaas y Reinier de Graaf a la cabeza, se ha alzado con la victoria en el concurso para la ampliación del Ayuntamiento de Rotterdam, en colaboración con Werner Sobek y los ingenieros ABT. Los ciudadanos fueron invitados a participar en

Tras ganar la Academia de Música en Dilbeek (véase AV Proyectos 27), el estudio de Carlos Arroyo ha resultado vencedor de un nuevo concurso en Bélgica, en la localidad de Oostkamp (Flandes), para la realización del llamado OostCampus, un nuevo ayunta

El Ayuntamiento de Manresa, en Barcelona, necesitaba un nuevo núcleo de comunicaciones y mejorar tanto sus accesos como su ruinosa fachada posterior, con vistas al río y al macizo de Montserrat. Manuel Bailo y Rosa Rull acoplaron las funciones requer

The eventful history of the Reichstag building, built in 1894 according to a design by Paul Wallot (see Arquitectura Viva 30), is closely linked to the vicissitudes of the Spreebogen area where it is located. The latest episode in this story is the c