Located in the heart of the Pont district in Marcq-en-Barœul, the new Youth Center is set within a dense fabric of terraced brick houses with narrow, colorful façades. This domestic landscape, composed of plots barely five meters wide, forms a subtle palette of orange and brown tones. Within this intimate context, the challenge was to establish a dialogue between a 600 m² public building and the delicate scale of the neighborhood.
The site is located in Xialang Village, and the village lives up to its name – the Lanshi River meanders down from the folds of Luofu Mountain, flowing past the site and stirring up layers of waves. Our first site visit took place at the end of the Spring Festival, but winter is not the “wave season” for Xialang. Both the water volume in the dry season and the number of visitors in the off-season seemed to still be rousing from their winter slumber. From snippets of conversations with local residents, we learned that unlike the loneliness we saw before, every summer, thousands of tourists flood here to wade in the stream and escape the heat – Xialang Village truly “lives off the waves”.
Cosmocité, the new science center in Pont-de-Claix, stands as a cultural landmark where architecture, science, and landscape meet. The building was imagined as a journey of discovery, a place where visitors can explore the mysteries of the universe while reconnecting with the history of the site and the surrounding city.
Set against the wild limestone cliffs and dense coastal forest of Punakaiki, Punangairi redefines what a visitor centre can be. Designed by Sheppard & Rout Architects, in collaboration with Ngāti Waewae, the project moves beyond tourism infrastructure to become an act of cultural and ecological restoration.
The newly built lookout tower is located in the southern part of the village of Vysoké Pole in the Zlín region near Díly Hill and is accessible via a recently built cycle path. It does not stand on a significant mountain peak, nor is it overwhelming in height or complexity. Instead, its size and location are linked to the construction of a new dam, the Vlachovice Waterworks. Due to be completed in 2030, the waterworks will flood the surrounding valley. The 15 m high structure attracts visitors with captivating views of the surrounding landscape and provides a splendid view of the construction of the Vlachovice Waterworks, due to be completed in 2030.
An iconic visitor center draws inspiration from nature. The Missouri Botanical Garden is a global leader in plant science research and the nation’s oldest botanical garden in continuous operation. Entering a new era, the Garden engaged Ayers Saint Gross and Michael Vergason Landscape Architects to design an iconic visitor center and complementary gardens as the primary gateway for more than one million annual visitors. The state-of-the-art Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center represents a bold, transformative vision for the Garden and its mission to discover and share knowledge about plants and their environment in order to preserve and enrich life.
Renmin Road is one of the important streets in Gusu District, Suzhou, featuring multiple public cultural venues along its route, including the Suzhou Public Cultural Centre. The Suzhou Public Cultural Centre (hereinafter referred to as the Cultural Centre) is a comprehensive cultural facility, comprising institutions such as Suzhou Art Museum; Suzhou Cultural Centre; Suzhou Celebrity Museum; Suzhou Woodcut Printing Academy; Suzhou Seal Cutting Art Academy; Suzhou Oil Painting Academy; and Suzhou Powder Painting Art Academy.
In 2018, OPEN was commissioned to transform a commercial complex under construction located in central Beijing into an art center. The client had chosen to proceed with the construction—the basement was halfway through—while OPEN completely redesigned how the building functions and its interior fit out.
Elevating Education: A sustainable campus in Vienna
The northernmost district of Vienna, Floridsdorf, has a new architectural highlight: the educational campus on Hinaysgasse, designed by “Kronaus Mitterer Architekten”. The campus was named after the famous Viennese singer Willi Resetarits and it combines kindergarten, elementary school, high school, music school, and a youth center under one roof, impressing with its innovative architecture and sustainable construction.
Dr. Gholamali Beski (1931 – 2019) was an Iranian physician and environmentalist known as the “father of nature”. The Dr. Beski Science Foundation is an educational platform in Gonbad-e Kavus, a remote city near Iran’s north-eastern border with Turkmenistan. “The city needs versatile public and cultural spaces to support the development of its present and future urban life,” says ZAV Architects. To fulfill this need, the Dr. Beski Science Foundation offers adaptable spaces supporting various functions.
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