VTN Architects   Vietnam   The architecture firm’s own offices incorporate modular concrete planters that do much to create a comfortable microclimate and provide a laboratory for the testing of ecological seeds. The experimental character of the building showcases the practic

BIG Bjarke Ingels Group   United States   On West 34th Street, between Hudson Boulevard and 10th Avenue, the office tower called The Spiral stands 314 meters tall and is a vertical prolongation of High Line Park nearby, in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards neighborhood. The Spiral gradually tapers of

G8A Architects rollimarchini architects   Vietnam   With vegetation-coated facades, this factory of the Swiss company Jakob Rope Systems, which specializes in rope and stainless-steel cable products, is located in an industrial area of the Vietnamese city of Thuận An, 50 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh C

Tadao Ando   United States   The Upper East Side in Manhattan is known since the early 20th century as the luxury residential area of culture. The project, located on the southeast corner of Lexington Avenue with Gramercy Park, remodels a penthouse gallery on the top floor of a

CSO Arquitectura   Spain   Designed by CSO Arquitectura, headed by Antón Freile, this expansion of the elderly residence which the same Madrid firm built in 2005 in Camarzana de Tera (Zamora), at kilometer 127 of the road linking Benavente to Vigo, has been shortlisted in the

VTN Architects   Vietnam   Located just 16 kilometers away from one of the main airports in Vietnam and half-way between Danang city and Hoi An old town, this retreat-resort is a center for the recovery of the body and mind, a getaway where long-stay guests can relax in a peac

AAN (Arquitectura Anna Noguera) J2J architects   Spain   Anna Noguera and José Javier Fernández Ponce carried out this project that involved building a new multisport center for Barcelona’s Turó de la Peira neighborhood and fitting out the interior of one of its city blocks. The facilities are housed in a

BIG Bjarke Ingels Group   Denmark   The Amager Resource Center (ARC) is located in a port and industrial area of Copenhagen which has undergone several reconversion plans over the past years. The port area has turned into an extreme sport destination for thrill seekers. Different sport

SUMA Arquitectura   Spain   Play-time is a project for seven short-term rental apartments in the Madrid district of Ciudad Lineal. The developer chose the place with the idea of searching for ‘an oasis in the middle of the city,’ and the project intends to intensify that condit

VTN Architects   Vietnam   Vietnam is historically an agricultural country, but accelerated economic changes in the last decades are sending young people out of the countryside and into the cities, which have become increasingly polluted ecosystems. To address the situation th

Masaki Ogasawara Keisuke Tsukada Erika Mikami   Japan   The tsunami of 2011 razed the coast of Tohoku in Japan and the subsequent nuclear crisis dramatically threw light on the fragility of conventional construction and energy generation infrastructures. Since then several initiatives have been made to ac

University of Stuttgart   South Africa   This house for children in need and volunteers helping them is part of a larger project: the masterplan that, under the name Village of Hope and on the initiative of the NGO Thembalistha, a group of students from the University of Stuttgart has been

Harquitectes   Spain   On the same plot where the Vallès School of Architecture goes up, the project won a competition in which three challenges were posed: to provide accommodation for architecture students, to achieve the Minergie Swiss energy certification (staying belo

Herzog & de Meuron   Spain   Conceived as a new magnet attracting art-lovers, within the triangle formed by the Prado, Reina Sofía and Thyssen-Bornemisza museums, the new CaixaForum is located on a privileged site of Madrid’s Paseo del Prado, and takes up an old power station –

EM2N Architekten   Switzerland   Founded in Zurich in 1997 by Mathias Müller and Daniel Niggli, the studio EM2N has gradually shifted its attention from a sober, rational design based on stylistic simplification – heir to the Dutch avant-garde and characteristic of Swiss contemporar

Javier de Antón   Spain   El edificio se funde con el terreno como un suelo vivo que se pliega para albergar distintos usos y conseguir luz natural en todos los espacios. Paneles prefabricados con plantas tapizantes pixelan la cubierta evocando los campos de cultivo mientras

Édouard François   France   This buiding, a nine-story block covered with vegetation, overlooks a park in the northern area of Paris. It is part of the ZAC of Porte d’Asnières – an area of subsidized development –, which has been coordinated by the studio of Christian de Portza

Consuelo Acha   Esteban Domínguez   One of the aspirations of contemporary architecture is to get close to the model of the ‘sustainable city’: the city that supplies itself with energy through renewable sources; the city whose wastes can be recycled and reused, where mobility is clean

Energy flows everywhere but is invisible, as generally are the buildings where it is produced. One exception is the power plant of Wedel, near the city of Hamburg, which is soon to undergo transformation in accordance with a project drawn up by the L

Reinforced concrete is the most commonly used material in contemporary construction. Its use adds up to 5% of the total emissions of greenhouse gas, so one of the main challenges today when using reinforced concrete is that of improving its environme

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

Un tapiz verde de césped artificial cubre el nuevo Centro de Educación Infantil y Primaria de Roldán, una pedanía del municipio de Torre Pacheco situada cerca de Cartagena. Resultado de un concurso celebrado en 2008 y ganado por el murciano Estudio H