Matthew Barnett Howland CSK   United Kingdom   Resorting to simplicity and sustainability, this residential project is a creative response to the particular complexities and conventions of contemporary housing. Instead of the traditional construction with layers of walls incorporating a variety o

MVRDV   Germany   An interactive facade of fritted glass with photovoltaic cells features a pixel map of the city and contains information on its history and its people. The office building opens up to the square with a restaurant, cafeteria, and meeting areas... [+]

Vietnam   With their simple thatched roofs and intricate bamboo structures shaped like baskets, the pavilions together evoke the image of a traditional Vietnamese village.

RAW Architecture   Indonesia   The warped roofs formed by braiding innumerable sticks and stems of bamboo together are supported by steel pilotis that raise the building over a swamp and paddy field. 

Gabinete de Arquitectura   Paraguay   Built with prefabricated components made with bits of ceramic and recycled glass mixed with mortar, the lattice stretches the whole breadth of the lot without touching the ground. 

Diébédo Francis Kéré Kéré Architecture   Burkina Faso   Located on the outskirts of Koudougou, the third most populated city of Burkina Faso, the new Lycée Schorge building draws inspiration from traditional settlements in this part of West Africa, offering reinterpretations of vernacular building materia

Shigeru Ban   New Zealand   Levantada tras un terremoto, la iglesia está construida con 86 tubos de cartón envainados en vigas de madera y 8 contenedores de transporte colocados en la base a modo de estribos. 

CUAC Arquitectura   Spain   The project for an architectural studio at Calle San Jerónimo 17, just a few meters from the church of the same name, in the city of Granada, involved a radical transformation of a commercial space that had served different purposes in the course of

T_ADS-Advanced Design Studies Yusuke Obuchi So Sugita Toshikatsu Kiuchi Hironori Yoshida   Japan   The pavilion’s construction materials are Chinese chopsticks and glue, with bespoke hand-held dispensers to enable consistent feeding of the material composite, and a printing guidance system for workers, with a depth camera and projector... [+]

Vo Trong Nghia Architects   Vietnam   The light frame, made of precast concrete modular elements to which the users bolt on Nipa palm tree panels and polycarbonate, makes it possible to do without complex foundations, allowing for transportation in small boats.

Studio Arte   Portugal   A reused container serves as sustainable model for nomad housing: windows are cut out of the surface and a porticoed porch is added to the original volume to build a dwelling space that is reduced but has a great programmatic flexibility. 

Rural Studio   United States   This greenhouse is part of Rural Studio Farm, a project which was launched back in 2010 to bring back into use the systems of planting organic foods that had been largely abandoned in industrialized countries, especially in the United States. The bui

NLÉ   Nigeria   Unlike traditional water structures, where the posts dig into the bottom of the lake or river, this school floats. It was built with sustainability strategies by a poor community of Lagos.

Superuse Studios   Netherlands   The windmill blades, with soft curves due to their aerodynamic shape, are transformed into a playground, and by integrating the trees on the plot it is possible to build a labyrinth with four towers, a net, and a panna-cage...

Haugen/Zohar Arkitekter (HZA)   Norway   Inspired in natural caves, the project creates a space of 50m3 in a piece of 1,5 tons of waste hollowed via subtractive manufacturing technology; the cave is exposed to sunrays and to rain, it can be climbed and has a number of hiding places. The mat

Anna Heringer   Zimbabwe   This project that has the ability to turn to compost, leaving no remains, is formed by a multifunctional room, a surrounding bench and a timber structure that has enough depth to form niches, an alcove and colorful windows with solid frames...

Li Xiaodong   China   The library is a small facility for the small locality of Huairo, situated on the outskirts of Beijing, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Distancing from the noise and stress of the huge metropolis is reinforced by the particular choice of

Churtichaga + Quadra-Salcedo arquitectos   Spain   Esta dotación alberga, además del archivo cinematográfico Documenta Madrid, un plató de televisión y cine, dos salas de proyecciones, vestíbulos, taquillas, oficinas, una cantina y un patio para cine de verano. El proyecto parte de la combinación de

Felix Jerusalem   Switzerland   La paja, material utilizado desde la antigüedad en la construcción, sobre todo en cubiertas y en muros —a partir del apilamiento de fardos—, ha encontrado una nueva forma de posicionarse en el exigente mercado inmobiliario del siglo XXI. La fabricaci

Selgascano   Spain   Le Corbusier wanted the empty courtyard of La Tourette to be naturally filled with vegetation, birds and the wind. The project for this house in Madrid’s residential area of La Florida takes the opposite idea as point of departure: the vegetation lea

Masaki Endoh Mashiro Ikeda   Japan   A wide range of artifacts give shape to the city of Tokyo, from freeways crossing the city center to high-rise parking lots, shops under the railway lines or towers that house karaokes. In this urban jungle, the dwellings tend to search for their pla

Today there are several kinds of organic materials that are being developed in search of options to replace petroleum-derived plastic. MycoBond is an example of this innovative type of product. Developed by the New York-based company Ecovative, MycoB

Organic materials are renewable and have excellent hygrothermal properties, and in the medium-term are bound to become an alternative to traditional composites. Today there is an increasing interest in agricultural residues or those spontaneously gen

Eduardo Prieto   The term cyborg was coined in 1960 – a time marked by the challenge of exploring outer space – to define a human being that has been improved by technology, and with the ability to survive in extreme or extraterrestrial environments. Since then, the

Because they grow quickly, and are evidently sustainable and furthermore easy to cultivate, microalgae are becoming an alternative to the use of fossil fuels in the field of construction (see Arquitectura Viva 140). The upcoming challenge seems to be

Marta Álvarez Tirado   Polymeric foams can be commercialized in a relatively large number of sectors – from architectural and naval construction to food and packaging, etc. – but without a doubt one of the most important applications of these products is in the building in

Consuelo Acha   Javier Neila   Isabel Cerón   En climas con grandes diferencias térmicas estacionales y diarias los edificios necesitan almacenar energía (calor o frío) para mantener estable la temperatura interior y reducir el consumo. Es decir, necesitan dotarse de inercia térmica. Generalment