Morelia in Mexico’s Michoacán State is both a colonial city of exceptional architectural value and the capital of a domestic narco state. Within this context, a local firm recently completed a much-needed community resource: a women’s shelter for victims of violence. The temporary-housing facility can accommodate up to 36 women in a communal-living setting that […]

Located about 15 kilometres outside of Beijing’s core, this first landmark tower for a new central business district recalls a Chinese paper lantern. Its diagrid, faceted facade is both exoskeleton and the building’s primary structure. Two layers of windows address air quality and temperature extremes. At each end of the building’s footprint, the floor plates […]

An extension to a public administrative institution that archives documents for both the Bibliothèque nationale de France and Paris’ universities and research centres provided Antonini Darmon an applied opportunity to perfect the cube. Instead of building a single monolith, the firm chose to break the program into two identical volumes connected by a narrow, glass […]

There are currently over 1,100 boil-water advisories across Canada, with First Nations communities the most affected. Ben Kaufmann realized the most efficient way to provide clean water to these remote areas, rather than flying or trucking in bottles, would be to distill it on-site. His BIO modular distiller was engineered for maximum efficiency, especially when […]

Miaoxia, a rural village in Sichuan Province, exemplifies the casualties of China’s rapid urbanization: It’s impoverished and hollowed out, with an aging population and dwindling farming revenues. The Miaoxia Community Guest House, renovated and expanded to accommodate an additional 20 people in six rooms, was constructed with the participation of more than 70 local elders […]

Disproportionately afflicted by end-stage renal disease, Indigenous Australians in the town of Fitzroy Crossing were once faced with a choice between seeking treatment in Perth – more than 2,500 kilometres away – or dying at home. The town’s new hostel provides in-patient treatment and hosts visitors, keeping families together. Though simply constructed, outlying guest buildings […]

Slated for delivery in the spring of 2019, neo-brutalist GROW is a four-storey, 20-unit condo development to be located in Calgary’s Bankview neighbourhood. Channelling earlier brutalist masters, the architects at MoDA have specified a wood-frame structure and untreated-cedar-plank envelope for the building. Once it’s built, these materials will masquerade as monumental concrete formwork and – […]

When it’s finished, this ascetic residence – imagined by Trahan Architects for an ultra-challenging site in New Orleans – should exemplify the theory that the greatest designs often emerge from the tightest constraints. Currently under construction, the 515-square-metre, one-bedroom townhouse is intensely private, set back from its property lines in both the front and the […]

Few can match the concept-driven formality of Montreal’s Jean Verville for sheer rigour. In this 160-square-metre Montreal apartment, a trio of palettes – the sparkling white of the quartz-composite kitchen countertops, ceramic bathroom fixtures and marble tiles; the opulent brushed brass of the monolithic floor-to-ceiling cabinets and wall panels; the muted grey of the painted […]

This Shanghai lane house – long of site, short of daylight – began as little more than a stack of enclosed boxes. RIGI Design completely remapped the interior plan, tearing out a dark, narrow staircase relegated to one corner and replacing it with a central open stair that wanders across all three levels and acts […]