Interior Design

The magic of Indian architecture lies in an invisible order amidst visceral chaos. When an uncertain future knocks on the doors of local practitioners, one might begin to look within the four walls they occupy to discover an opportunity for reinterpretation.

Once a Najdi settlement defined by mudbrick walls and courtyard houses, Riyadh has undergone one of the most radical urban transformations of the 20th and 21st centuries. The discovery of oil reserves, the consolidation of political power, and the rapid expansion of infrastructure reshaped the city from a regional capital into a sprawling metropolis almost within a single generation. As a result, Riyadh’s urban fabric is marked by discontinuities, fragments of vernacular architecture coexist with mid-century institutional modernism, and a rapidly evolving contemporary skyline.

Strategically placed in the forest is a base made of stone native to the site. Emerging in a stereotomic manner, this solid block also comprises the foundation of the project.

The Zando Central Market redevelopment in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, designed by THINK TANK architecture, has been selected among the 20 winning projects of the 2025 Holcim Foundation Awards in the Middle East and Africa region. Originally designed for 3,500 traders and now accommodating more than 20,000 vendors, the market has long operated under conditions of severe overcrowding and infrastructural strain. The project stands out for its large-scale public ambition, its reliance on locally available materials and skills, and its capacity to accommodate both formal and informal economies within a rapidly transforming urban context.

The building is located in the Alazani Valley, a centuries-old, traditional cradle of the region’s winemaking, set against the backdrop of the Caucasus Mountain range and vineyards.

Zhu Pei is a Chinese architect born in 1962 in Beijing. He studied at Tsinghua University and UC Berkeley, and founded Studio Zhu Pei in 2005. The studio’s experimental work and research focus on contemporary architecture, art, and cultural projects. With an artistic and exploratory approach, it investigates the relationship between the roots that anchor architecture in specific natural and cultural contexts and the innovation that drives architecture as a form of artistic revolution. In his interview with Louisiana Channel, Zhu Pei describes architecture as an artistic discipline that, like poetry, relies on openness, imagination, and the creation of new experiences. He argues that great architecture goes beyond functional problem-solving by generating a sense of wonder through its ability to “invent” and “create some new thing, new experience,” positioning architectural practice as cultural and sensory exploration rather than purely technical production.

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Historic center renewal has become a recurring strategy in Central American cities seeking to reassert the symbolic, economic, and functional relevance of their traditional cores. These processes often combine physical rehabilitation, institutional investment, and stricter control over public space. San Salvador offers a recent and instructive case, which allows for understanding of how interventions in inherited civic spaces balance infrastructure improvement with heritage conservation and social regulation. It also enables the assessment of how these choices resonate within broader debates on urban transformation in the region.