Architecture

Fallingwater, the iconic residence designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, has reopened to the public following the completion of a three-year preservation project. The reopening coincides with the building’s 90th anniversary and the start of its 63rd tour season, marking a key moment in the ongoing conservation of one of the most widely recognized works of modern architecture. The intervention, led by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, focused on addressing structural and environmental challenges while maintaining the integrity of Wright‘s original design.

At the northern edge of Kössen’s settlement core, where the road leads toward the triple sports hall and the residential and nursing home for the elderly, everyday village life becomes particularly concentrated. Between the town hall, the church, and the local theatre – the familiar center of communal life – a new building is emerging that quietly seeks to connect all these places: the Kössen Education Center.

Between 2023 and 2024, photographers Francesco Russo and Luca Piffaretti documented architecture and landscapes across Ecuador’s coast, the Andes Mountains, the Amazon rainforest, the Galápagos Islands, and cities such as Quito, Guayaquil, and Cuenca. The photographic documentation explores Ecuador’s evolving identity through its contemporary architecture, examining how it engages with natural surroundings, urban conditions, and social contexts. The resulting archive includes more than 40 projects by renowned local practices such as Al Borde, Durán & Hermida, Emilio López, José María Sáez, La Cabina de la Curiosidad, MCM+A, Natura Futura, and RAMA Estudio, among many others. The selection demonstrates how architecture can create high-quality spaces that respond to contemporary demands for sustainability and environmental responsibility by combining creativity and technology with renewable resources, despite ongoing economic, climatic, and political challenges in Latin America and beyond.

The flood does not arrive as a surprise. It returns, following the same swollen rivers and monsoon skies, loosening the ground and entering homes that were never meant to resist it. Walls are untied before they are lost, materials are gathered before they drift, and structures are rebuilt with a familiarity that suggests this is not destruction, but sequence. In landscapes where water returns each year, survival is defined by the ability to begin again.

On the Island of Combu, about 15 minutes by boat from Belém, the Popopô Gallery transforms the riverside crossing into architecture. Located in the Combu Island Environmental Protection Area, amidst the forest and water, the project arises from listening to the territory and its ways of life, converting the everyday memory of river crossings into built space. More than just hosting exhibitions, the gallery inaugurates a symbolic landmark for the territory by asserting itself as the first art gallery on the island—a place where artistic production meets the social and emotional repertoire of riverside life.