Architecture
Interviews with architects on contemporary built structures.
A Design Lover’s Guide To Portugal: 5 Must-See Hotels
With its rich history, miles of scenic sandy beaches, and fast-tracked European visas, Portugal is well established as a global hotspot for travelers and digital nomads alike. In 2023, a record 26.5 million international tourists visited the southern European country, and most of these visitors require a place to stay. Whether it’s a once crumbling historic landmark, now tastefully restored, or an avant-garde structure taking advantage of sweeping coastal views, the hospitality market is stepping up to the demand and stylish, design-forward Portugal hotels and short-term housing options continue to emerge.
From a sumptuous villa influenced by a fashion icon to a 17th-century convent and a cliffside surf retreat, here are five Portugal hotels to visit on a future trip. Photography by Francisco Nogueira. More in Interior Design.
A Cubic Structure in Berlin Belies a Highly Advanced Design
In the center of Berlin, a cubic office building reacts to its urban setting, the triangular facets of its fully glazed double-skin facade mirroring adjacent buildings, passersby, and a capricious sky.
Situated near the southern entrance of Berlin Hauptbahnhof, the German capital’s main train station, the 210,000-square-foot, 11-story Cube Berlin is one of dozens of buildings composing Europacity Berlin—a new urban development project revitalizing the city’s Moabit district that’s been under way since 2009. Photography by Adam Mørk. More in Metropolis.
Carlo Ratti Renovates a Farmhouse Around a 33-Foot-Tall Ficus
Following the renovation and expansion of a historic farmhouse in Parma, Italy, its residents now dine beneath the leafy boughs of a towering indoor tree.
Rising almost three stories, the 33-foot-tall ficus sends a burst of green over the open-plan living, dining, and kitchen areas of the 5,400-square-foot house, owned by Francesco Mutti, CEO of international tomato sauce brand Mutti, and his family. Photography courtesy of Delfino Sisto Legnani and Alessandro Saletta from DSL Studio. More in Metropolis.
In France’s Loire Valley, Les Bordes Estate Offers More Than Golf
The luxury vacation home market is a fickle one. What’s the best way to entice it? Perhaps with a parcel of newly built homes boasting an architectural pedigree, world-class golf, a private castle, horseback-riding, and frolicking goats. To set the stage, there’s an illustrious history that begins with a baron behind a pen empire. This is the recently transformed Les Bordes Estate, an internationally recognized golf course founded in 1986 by Baron Marcel Bich in France’s scenic Loire Valley.
Les Bordes Estate’s new ambition to become a community for second homeowners is aided by a prime location. Celebrated for picturesque landscapes and a copious amount of vineyards to pause for a glass of wine along the Loire River, the Loire Valley is accessible as a weekend getaway from Paris. The 1,400-acre property (90 minutes by car) also resides in a region packed full of Michelin star restaurants (20, the Estate’s marketing material touts). Photography by Diego Ravier. More in Interior Design magazine.
Show-Stopping Installations at Milan Design Week 2023
“What have you seen that’s really, really fabulous?” Each year, Interior Design is asked this question during Milan Design Week, when countless design events coincide with Salone del Mobile. The answer changes by the day but often involves an installation—a temporary immersive experience that captures the senses and sends us into another realm of feeling: perhaps joy, perhaps excitement, or perhaps curiosity.
At Alcova, the offsite exhibition, an Italian cocktail emerged from a steampunk sculpture—and that wasn’t the only installation that grabbed us. In the Porta Romana district, a restored swimming complex with two large pools dominated Instagram for the week. In the Fashion district, towering trees and a secret garden at a Milanese villa made us wonder if we were still in the center of Milan. From a seemingly endless banquet spread on natural and semi-precious stone to an interactive scent laboratory and a plane made of denim, here are 10 of our favorite installations from Milan Design Week 2023. Photography by Diego Ravier. More in Interior Design magazine.
In Bright Pink, A Temporary Roof Structure Transforms a Rotterdam Museum
Construction tends to be unsightly and logistically challenging. At the Rotterdam cultural center Het Nieuwe Instituut (HNI), a clever temporary alternative entrance in bold, Pink Panther-pink by MVRDV bypassed an earthworks construction and paving project and created a striking new idyllic rooftop perch for the summer. Rendered in steel and standard wood scaffolding, the installation – dubbed The Podium and open to the public and for select events June 1 through August 17 – consisted of a 143-step outdoor staircase ascending 95 feet to a 6,460-square-foot open-air platform on the roof of the six-story HNI building, a 1993 structure by Dutch architect Jo Coenen. Photography by Ossip van Duivenbode. More in Metropolis.
This Oaxacan Wellness Retreat Designed by Taller de Arquitectura X Preserves the Local Landscape
Hotel Terrestre not only restores visitors but also has a minimal carbon footprint. The Oaxacan wellness retreat is entirely solar-powered and made from and by local materials and artisans—a trend in vacation properties throughout Mexico, this one from Grupo Habita and designed by Taller de Arquitectura X, based in Mexico City. “We didn’t want to disturb the landscape,” TAX founder and architect Alberto Kalach says of the 10-building complex, which features 14 suites and a hammam. Photography by Fabian Martinez. More in Interior Design.
Esch 2022 Celebrates One of Europe’s Most Stunning Industrial Turnarounds
For quaint riverfront views, historical fortifications, and castles, head to Luxembourg. For sky-high remnants of the steel industry, there’s the country’s second largest city, Esch-sur-Alzette. Suffering, until recently, from the 1970’s steel manufacturing exodus, Esch, 10 miles to the northeast of the border of France, is emerging as an unexpected cultural mecca, where industrial infrastructure is being converted en masse into cultural and learning space. This rebirth is being celebrated thanks to a generous flow of cash via its designation as Esch2022: Esch-sur-Alzette European Capital of Culture 2022 (Kaunas, Lithuania and Novi Sad, Serbia, also named European Capital of Cultures this year, share the designation for 2022). For Esch, the title comes with $54.8 million in funds from EU, national, local, and private sources. Photography copyright Claude Piscitelli. More in Metropolis.
Milan’s Furniture Fair is Pared-Down and Revamped
Two and a half years is an interminable pause for a global design event that has been running every year since 1961. Yet, the Milan furniture fair returned in early September, delayed and reformatted due to Covid-19. Once again, architecture had a strong presence, thriving in both installations and architectural furnishings unveiled for the first time. Luxury fashion house Hermès was behind the most dazzling installation this year. Photography by Maxime Verret/courtesy of Hermès. More in Architectural Record.
Kéré Architecture Builds Upon the Educational Ecosystem of Burkina Faso
“Let the structure grow.” This was the unique brief for a West African university, the Burkina Institute of Technology. Rising from a barren desert landscape in a region with limited access to higher education, the 2,100-square-metre school entices prospective students with its compelling and expandable architecture. Photography by Iwan Baan. More in Azure.
Lunar Phases Inspire Onion’s Design of Sala Samui Chaweng Beach Resort in Thailand
The pandemic may have shut down the world-famous Full Moon Party, a monthly beach rave on Thailand’s Ko Pha Ngan island. But the lunar phases still get celebrated—albeit in less a hedonistic, more luxurious style—on neighboring Ko Samui. A recently completed hotel there, the 137-room Sala Samui Chaweng Beach Resort by Onion, draws design inspiration from the waxing and waning of Earth’s nearest celestial companion, which can appear close enough to touch in the region’s limpid night sky. Photography by Wison Tungthunya/W Workspace. More in Interior Design.
A Noah’s Ark–Themed Children’s Museum Lands at the Jewish Museum Berlin
In 2015, Germany met a refugee crisis with open arms. Around that time, Seattle-based design practice Olson Kundig was working on a proposal for a Noah’s Ark–themed addition to the Jewish Museum Berlin dedicated to children’s programming. “We were inspired by Germany’s act of generosity in response to the refugee crisis,” says the firm’s principal and owner Alan Maskin. “Compared to a traditional ark with distinct front and back sides, our ark has no back or front; instead, it is democratic and unbiased.” Photography courtesy of Hufton + Crow. More in Metropolis.
Waldkliniken Eisenberg Hospital by Matteo Thun
"The food is horrible, the rooms are ugly, and your pajamas are terrible!" I laughed when architect Matteo Thun – who is on a mission to change the healthcare experience – told me this about hospitals, but SO TRUE! Photography copyright Gionata Xerra. More in Architecture Record.
Department of Architecture Co. Takes a Fresh Look at Shingles For a Northern Thailand Inn
What makes a shingle a shingle? That was the question Amata Luphaiboon and Twitee Vajrabhaya Teparkum, Department of Architecture Co. principals, asked themselves for Little Shelter, an inn in Chiang Mai, Thailand, that the firm designed and which Luphaiboon co-owns. Wanting to be sensitive to the region’s centuries-old architecture, they decided to take a fresh look at the venerable building material. Photography by Wison Tungthunya/W Workspace Company. More in Interior Design.
Man Lays Egg: Artist Lives in Egglike Boat
Stephen Turner might never have moved into an egg if he hadn’t nearly stepped on one. The installation artist was exploring an environmentally protected estuary on the Beaulieu River near Lymington, U.K., when his heavy boot came within inches of crushing the pale blue shell of a herring gull’s egg. Photography by Nigel Rigden. More in Interior Design.
Gallery House, Bansberia, India by Abin Design Studio
Asked to design a stand-alone garage for the private residence of a childhood friend, architect Abin Chaudhuri not only produced an astonishing brick-and-concrete structure but also significantly enlarged the building’s simple program. Aesthetically, the 4,100-square-foot, two-story facility is a contemporary take on the terra-cotta facades of traditional Bengali temples. Photography by Edmund Sumner. More in Interior Design.
Soft Curves
It’s not often you find a functioning historical vineyard in a suburb, but that’s what adjoins one new family house located on a craggy hillside on the outskirts of Stuttgart. Well-cultivated rows of grapevines fill the nearby lot, while in another direction the site offers sweeping views of rooftops and distant city lights. The newly built, 920-square-metre cast concrete home, designed by UNStudio, fits into the landscape like a glove, with both volume and roofline responding to the rising terrain. Photography by Iwan Baan. More in Azure.