Month: December 2025

Jakarta has become the world’s most populous city, according to the World Urbanization Prospects 2025 released by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). Using an updated and harmonized method for defining urban areas, the report estimates Jakarta‘s population at nearly 42 million, placing it ahead of Dhaka, which is about 40 million, and Tokyo, 33 million. The revised ranking illustrates how updated measurement criteria and continued demographic growth are reshaping understandings of urban scale in Asia and globally.

Finland’s first hybrid football stadium was completed in spring 2024 in the Tammela district of Tampere. The new stadium has been eagerly anticipated in the city. The project, which is a collaborative effort between the City of Tampere, Pohjola Rakennus, and JKMM Architects as part of an alliance, was in design and construction for over a decade. The stadium project covers 13,500 square meters and provides high-quality facilities for both residents’ sports activities and top-level football experiences for 8,000 spectators. The stadium meets the main UEFA category 4 requirements, which means it can also be used for example UEFA Europa League and national team matches. Every seating position in the stadium offers an unobstructed view of the entire field. The stadium also accommodates 15,000 people for concerts and other larger events. The stadium is part of a nearly 50,000 square meter hybrid block, complementing the urban structure, which consists of eight interconnected plots, including the football stadium, five residential buildings, a commercial centre, and parking facilities.

MVRDV and SYNRG have received approval to construct Schieblocks, a 47,000-square-metre office building in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Designed for developer LSI, who markets the project as The Bluezone Offices, the building will occupy a narrow site along the railway line, reaching 61 metres in height and extending almost 150 metres in length. The programme includes commercial spaces at ground level, offices throughout, and a restaurant and event venue on the upper floors. Conceived as a “3D neighbourhood,” the design breaks the large volume into a series of colourful, distinct blocks that incorporate numerous references to Rotterdam’s architectural character.

Between the Andes, the coast, and the Amazon, Ecuador’s architecture has evolved as a reflection of its layered geography, a place where climate, topography, and culture unite. Throughout the territory, architecture has been an act of adaptation: from vernacular traditions rooted in collective labor and local materials to the colonial and modernist influences that reshaped its cities. This diversity has produced distinct constructive systems, from bamboo and cane structures along the coast to earth and stone constructions in the Andes, forming an archive of adaptive design that continues to influence contemporary practice.

MVRDV’s pixelated façade design brings variety and identity to prefabricated modular towers in Singapore. At Irwell Bank Road in Singapore, two 36-story residential towers have been completed, with a lively, pixelated façade design contributed by MVRDV. Taking as a base the highly efficient, prefabricated, modular building design by Singapore-based ADDP Architects, MVRDV’s variegated façade adds liveliness to the buildings’ external appearance and highlights the green communal spaces on the buildings’ 24th floor and roof. The design is the latest in MVRDV’s oeuvre to show that efficiency and cost-effectiveness can happily coexist with character and individuality.