Architecture Article

When developing an architectural project, there are multiple possible points of departure. Some architects begin with volume, gradually carving form in dialogue with its context. Others start from the longitudinal section, while some organize the project around the functional layout of the plan. There is no right or wrong method, but rather distinct approaches that reflect different ways of thinking about and making architecture. Since the widespread adoption of solar panels and photovoltaic energy, however, a recurring pattern has emerged: these systems are almost always introduced later in the process, framed as technical optimizations or responses to regulatory and energy-efficiency requirements. As a result, they tend to be treated as secondary elements, often relegated to rooftops or less visible areas and detached from the architectural language of the building.

Designed by MVRDV in collaboration with Buro Happold, the new Lampegiet Theatre in Veenendaal, the Netherlands, is scheduled to replace the existing theatre building from 1988. Approved by the Veenendaal City Council in January 2026, the project is expected to begin construction in 2027 and reach completion in 2029. Conceived as a contemporary cultural venue that responds to both current performance requirements and the city’s historical identity, the new theatre introduces a compact, multi-volume composition wrapped in a porous ceramic facade that allows the building to act as an illuminated urban landmark.

Pritzker Prize-winning architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron has released new images showing construction progress on the Memphis Art Museum, set to open in December 2026. Currently operating as the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, the institution is both the oldest and largest art museum in Tennessee, United States, with a collection of more than 10,000 works spanning from ancient to contemporary art. Commissioned in 2019, the project marks the museum’s relocation to a new site in Downtown Memphis along the Mississippi River bluff. The first images of the new cultural campus, designed by Herzog & de Meuron with architect of record archimania and landscape design by OLIN, were released in 2021. The 123,500-square-foot museum will expand gallery space by 50 percent and introduce extensive free, publicly accessible areas conceived as an open invitation to the city.

Residential architecture remains one of the most active fields for unbuilt architectural exploration, offering a lens through which architects rethink how domestic space can respond to landscape, climate, and contemporary patterns of living. In this Unbuilt edition, submitted by the ArchDaily community, the selected proposals bring together a range of residential projects that engage with houses, villas, and retreats as sites of withdrawal, mediation, and everyday inhabitation. Rather than treating the home as a fixed or isolated object, these projects approach it as a spatial framework that negotiates exposure, privacy, and connection to place.

Ojo de Nila is a home shaped by the rhythms of the landscape in Bahía Ballena. Designed for a Swiss couple seeking a deeper connection to the environment, the house invites a lifestyle centered on living outdoors in comfort without air conditioning. Set on a secluded mountain with expansive ocean views and surrounded by abundant biodiversity, the home is completely open toward the Pacific so its inhabitants remain in constant dialogue with light, air, and the forest canopy.

The International Guest House is part of the comprehensive campus development of the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH). It is among the six core buildings defined in the master plan and was designed through a distinctive framework of international collaboration.

This architectural project represents a sanctuary of tranquility, an escape from everyday chaos, which forms the fundamental intention of the project owner to establish a long-term retreat for family members. A peaceful and undisturbed environment became the essential premise in the search for a site that could respond both to family living and to the potential for a complementary business. This vision ultimately gave rise to the café and future villa nestled within a lychee orchard, conceived as a place for rest, reflection, and quiet enjoyment.