In a densely populated district, a narrow alleyway leads to an irregularly contoured parcel of land in the heart of the city block. Once occupied by thirteen nondescript garage boxes, this space has undergone a transformative metamorphosis, giving rise to a contemporary ensemble – a single-family dwelling harmoniously integrated with a yoga studio and a cozy café.
Set in the hills near Essaouira, Morocco, DDAR is a modern rustic villa that embodies a dialogue between tradition and contemporaneity, craftsmanship and landscape. Designed collaboratively by architect Othmane Bengebara and the owner, the house is conceived as a living structure rather than a fixed object — a place where architecture becomes a vessel for creation, exchange, and cultural transmission. Built by hand using ancestral techniques, the villa draws from the vernacular forms of rural Morocco, merging local know-how with an environmentally conscious approach to design. Its irregular rhythm, tactile surfaces, and sculptural volumes blend seamlessly into the surrounding terrain, giving the impression that the house has grown organically from the land itself.
Designed to provide a living and learning environment tailored to children while maintaining a direct connection to the outdoors, the expansion of the school includes the addition of five preschool classrooms, a learning hub, and a new entrance hall leading to the schoolyard. The original building, constructed in 1959, exhibits typical features of a primary school from that era: a two-story building with a sloped roof and red brick cladding.
A School in the Trees – Located at one of the entrances to the town, the school heralds the renewal of Marly. The merger of the Nelson Mandela and Louise Michel schools is a powerful political act, embodied by a unifying and emblematic school facility. The green landscape is the foundation of the project. A school focused on nature, surrounded by trees.
Studio VAARO’s Rathnelly House is a comprehensive and formally expressive renovation of an Edwardian-era semi-detached house in midtown Toronto. The project not only enhances functionality and spatial fluidity but also expands the home significantly from within while respecting its existing footprint. The clients, a professional couple with a young child, sought both a pragmatic and aesthetic transformation: to increase usable floor area, raise ceiling heights, and expand storage, all within a welcoming and distinctive design mediating between openness and seclusion. Extensive structural interventions enabled a fundamental reordering of space. The result is an expansive plan that adds 140 m² (1,500 ft²), increasing the functional area of the home by almost 60%.
Situated near a sparse forest with intriguing vistas over the suburbs of Nicosia, this house stands in a deliberately ambiguous way: Rather than adopting a conventional residential typology that opens outward to offer uninterrupted views of the surrounding landscape, it rises as an austere, introverted box. Is it a building, a sculpture, or a container? The proposal constitutes an elaboration of the primordial dwelling-box and its reinterpretation in relation to contemporary modes of domestic living.
Situated near a sparse forest with intriguing vistas over the suburbs of Nicosia, this house stands in a deliberately ambiguous way: Rather than adopting a conventional residential typology that opens outward to offer uninterrupted views of the surrounding landscape, it rises as an austere, introverted box. Is it a building, a sculpture, or a container? The proposal constitutes an elaboration of the primordial dwelling-box and its reinterpretation in relation to contemporary modes of domestic living.
A heterogeneous working-class neighborhood from the 1960s receives a new social meeting point: Stadtteiltreff Augustin. The site lies between a secondary school, a church, and cooperative housing. The aim was to create an open, low-threshold space, free of hierarchies, accessible to all, regardless of age, background, or social status.
Preamble – This 18th-century vernacular farmhouse in Naxxar’s historic core had been abandoned for over 50 years. Once a working farm and family dwelling, it had fallen into serious disrepair. Organised around a central courtyard and divided into three wings, the property retained significant heritage features, stone slab ceilings, timber beams, xulliel walls, arches, and a large mill room, but its fragmentation and poor condition made it unsuitable for modern family life.
The project layers industrial premises on the first two levels and two penthouse apartments above.
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