There's only one week left to nominate your favorite projects for the 2026 Building of the Year Awards! This is your chance to recognize the best architecture from around the world in 15 categories, from housing to educational projects, offices, interiors and more.
Commissioned in 2012 following an international design competition, Snøhetta's Busan Opera House is under construction on the city's North Port waterfront, with major works scheduled for completion in late 2026 and an opening planned for 2027. Conceived as the first opera house in South Korea's second-largest city, the project redefines the traditional opera house as an open and inclusive civic institution. Rather than operating solely as a venue for performance, the building is envisioned as a public destination that supports everyday use, collective experience, and long-term cultural engagement within Busan's evolving urban landscape.
Observed annually on February 2, World Wetlands Day marks the adoption of the Ramsar Convention in 1971 and provides an international framework for recognizing the role of wetlands in environmental protection and sustainable development. The 2026 edition is held under the theme "Wetlands and traditional knowledge: Celebrating cultural heritage," drawing attention to the long-standing relationships between wetland ecosystems and the cultural practices, knowledge systems, and governance structures developed by communities over centuries. The theme highlights how inherited ecological knowledge, often embedded in rituals, seasonal calendars, land-use practices, and spatial organization, has shaped resilient interactions between human settlements and water-based landscapes.
The 10th edition of the DAM Preis 2026 has been awarded to Peter Grundmann Architekten for the ZK/U Center for Art and Urbanistics, an adaptive reuse project in Berlin, Germany. The project transforms a former single-story warehouse at a freight station in Berlin-Moabit into a cultural meeting place. The jury recognized the practice's transformative approach, highlighting the use of an above-average amount of manual labor and a modest budget to encase the existing hall in a lightweight steel-and-glass structure and add an additional floor. Developed in close collaboration with the non-profit association KUNSTrePUBLIK e. V., the project supports a wide-ranging public program established at the former freight station since 2012, including exhibitions, performances, artist residencies, repair workshops, neighborhood markets, and public viewings. Peter Grundmann Architekten was selected through a Europe-wide tender process and commissioned to build the acclaimed extension in 2019.
Salone del Mobile.Milano has announced the framework for its 64th edition, scheduled to take place from April 21 to 26, 2026, at Fiera Milano, Rho. The upcoming edition will bring together more than 1,900 exhibitors from 32 countries across over 169,000 square meters of exhibition space, highlighting the fair's continued scale and international reach. Beyond its quantitative dimension, the 2026 Salone positions itself as an evolving cultural and economic infrastructure, increasingly structured around long-term strategies rather than isolated events. The program reflects a growing emphasis on accessibility, curatorial depth, and cross-sector dialogue, pointing at the Salone's role not only as a marketplace for the industry but also as a platform where architectural thinking, industrial production, and global dynamics intersect within a single, coordinated framework.
Nearly one week before the start of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, the organizing committee has released official information on the event's Cultural Olympiad: an arts and culture programme accompanying the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The programme is recognized by the IOC as one of the three pillars of the Olympic Movement, alongside sport and education. Conceived as a widespread platform involving territories, institutions, and communities across Italy, the Cultural Olympiad aims to highlight the Italian Alps and Milan's cultural heritage while promoting Olympic values through art, history, and participation beyond the official sports venues.
©OBEL Foundation
The OBEL Foundation has announced "Systems' Hack" as the focus of its 2026 cycle, setting the conceptual framework that will guide the foundation's activities and the selection of the next OBEL Award. Founded in 2019, OBEL recognises architecture's potential to act as a tangible agent of positive social and ecological change, supporting approaches that expand how the built environment is defined and shaped. The 2026 theme calls on architecture to critically engage with the systems that underpin contemporary society, including infrastructure, energy, food, water, education, and information, and to examine how these interconnected networks might be reconfigured in response to accelerating global challenges.
This week's news compilation opens with two international commemorations, the International Day for Clean Energy and the International Day of Education, alongside a major archaeological discovery in Fano, Italy, where excavations have revealed a basilica described by Vitruvius, linking contemporary architectural discourse with deep historical continuity. Across this week's broader architecture news landscape, a central theme emerges around the advancement of civic architecture conceived as open, publicly engaged infrastructure, with cultural and institutional projects increasingly designed to strengthen their relationship with the city and everyday urban life. At the same time, renewed global attention turns toward Africa, where large-scale transport infrastructure and the conservation of modernist landmarks reflect interests in the region and the reassessment of the continent's architectural heritage. Complementing these narratives, this week's highlights also include a new model for car-free urban districts, co-designed public landscapes grounded in indigenous knowledge, and a residential development responding to regional context, reflecting how architecture is negotiating public space, civic responsibility, and territorial identity across diverse geographies.
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced that Irish architect, educator, and writer Níall McLaughlin will receive the 2026 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture. Awarded on behalf of His Majesty the King, the Royal Gold Medal is among the significant international distinctions in architecture, recognizing a sustained contribution to the advancement of the discipline through built work, education, and critical discourse. In announcing the award, RIBA noted McLaughlin's long-standing influence across architectural practice and pedagogy, citing a career that spans more than three decades and reflects a consistent engagement with the cultural, environmental, and social dimensions of architecture.
Foster + Partners, in collaboration with Angola's Ministry of Transport, has unveiled the master plan for the Icolo e Bengo Aerotropolis, a large-scale development planned around the recently completed Dr. Antonio Agostinho Neto International Airport. The proposal organizes business, research, residential, and hospitality programs within a landscape-led framework structured around the airport. Development is planned to proceed in phases, beginning with the business and cultural district located to the north of the site.
David Chipperfield Architects has released new images of the Ice Hockey Arena in Milan, one of the host sports venues for the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. The project, currently in its testing phase, was commissioned to Arup and David Chipperfield Architects in 2021. The first images of the elliptical amphitheatre arena were released in 2022, ahead of the start of construction in 2023, which was scheduled for completion in 2025. The new sports and cultural events venue has a capacity of 16,000 spectators, 12,000 seated and 4,000 standing, and is a centrepiece of a broader urban redevelopment project originally designed by Foster + Partners for Milano Santa Giulia, a district in the south-east of Milan, just a few kilometres from the city centre and connected to the high-speed rail network and motorway.
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.
Archaeological excavations in Fano, Italy, have revealed the basilica described by Vitruvius in De Architectura, a finding of major architectural significance, as it represents the only structure that can be attributed with certainty to the Roman architect. Identified during redevelopment works in Piazza Andrea Costa, the discovery provides rare physical evidence of Vitruvian theory translated into built form and offers new insights into Roman architectural design, proportions, and construction practices. The announcement was made during a press conference at the Montanari Media Library, attended by representatives of local, regional, and national institutions, including Italy's Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli.
January 26 marks the International Day for Clean Energy, an initiative aimed at raising awareness and mobilizing action for an inclusive transition from fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, to power generation systems with lower greenhouse gas emissions and fewer pollutants. The term "clean" signals a fundamental shift away from extractive, finite, and exhaustible energy sources toward systems based on renewable resources or on capturing energy embedded in natural processes. In a world grappling with climate change, clean energy plays an important role in reducing emissions and expanding access to reliable power. However, being labeled "clean" does not exempt these systems from the impacts associated with their production, deployment, and commercialization. In this context, architectural knowledge related to space, materiality, and habitation becomes relevant for supporting a transition toward energy systems that are sustainable over time. As stated by the United Nations, the science is clear: to limit climate change, reliance on fossil fuels must end, and buildings must be heated, lit, and electrified through clean, accessible, affordable, sustainable, and reliable power sources.
Education has long been understood as a cornerstone of social development, shaping not only individual futures but also the collective capacity of societies to respond to change. Observed annually on 24 January, the International Day of Education invites reflection on the role education plays in addressing global challenges and sustaining social progress. As the world confronts overlapping challenges, from technological transformation to deepening inequalities, the question of how education is imagined, governed, and experienced has become increasingly urgent.
During a presentation to the press held at Paris City Hall on January 7, 2026, architect and Pritzker Prize laureate Renzo Piano released the first images of the transformation of Montparnasse's emblematic shopping center and CIT Tower into a pedestrian-focused district in Paris, France. The project, commissioned to Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) in 2022 by the co-owners of the commercial complex, proposes both a visual and functional transformation of the 1970s low-rise retail development into a more traversable space characterized by transparency and openness. The design was developed in parallel with the redevelopment of the Montparnasse Tower, led by Nouvelle AOM, to reshape the broader tertiary complex into a contemporary Parisian block oriented toward public life, environmental performance, and everyday use. The project reopens the site to the city, reconnecting streets and restoring continuity between Montparnasse and its surrounding neighborhoods through new public spaces.
World Monuments Fund (WMF) is an independent organization dedicated to safeguarding significant places that enrich people's lives and foster mutual understanding across cultures and communities. Since 2008, the World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize has been a biennial award recognizing outstanding achievements in the conservation of buildings emblematic of the modernist architectural movement. The prize honors individuals and organizations that revitalize modern built heritage through innovative and sensitive architectural interventions.
On January 22, 2026, WMF and Knoll announced the Australia-based architecture firm Architectus as the recipient of the 2026 World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize for its conservation of the United Nations' Historic Africa Hall in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The jury recognized the project for reestablishing a significant work of African modernism as an active venue for diplomacy and cultural exchange. In addition to the main prize, the jury also awarded Paul Rudolph's Umbrella House in Sarasota, Florida, United States, with the Stewardship Award for Modernist Homes.
Architecture's public role emerges as a central theme across recent announcements, institutional projects, and professional programs. The selection of the 2026 Serpentine Pavilion designer foregrounds architecture as a space for public encounter and material inquiry, while major civic and cultural projects point to renewed investment in institutions that support education, exchange, and urban continuity. Alongside these developments, international award programs and policy-aligned initiatives continue to situate architecture within broader conversations on sustainability, social responsibility, and long-term impact, highlighting how design decisions at both intimate and monumental scales respond to shared environmental and civic challenges.
Danish architecture studio Henning Larsen has been selected to redesign and expand Glyvra School in the Faroe Islands, proposing a landscape-driven educational campus that responds directly to the region's topography and climate. Conceived as a "learning village," the project rethinks the role of the school in a small coastal community, positioning architecture and outdoor space as integral parts of everyday learning. Commissioned by Runavík Municipality and developed in collaboration with engineering firm Ramboll, the project will be delivered in multiple phases to ensure the school remains fully operational throughout construction, with new facilities completed and occupied before existing structures are renovated or removed.
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.
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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From building codes to mobility restrictions and new diplomatic roles within city governments, climate policy is increasingly being shaped at the local level through a widening range of legislative and institutional tools. Cities as varied as Sydney, Boston, New York, Paris, Miami, and dozens across Latin America are adopting targeted strategies that reflect their distinct environmental pressures and governance structures. These initiatives range from all-electric and net-zero construction requirements, to traffic-control measures designed to curb the social costs of private vehicle use, to emerging forms of urban diplomacy that coordinate responses to rising temperatures and biodiversity loss. Together, these approaches illustrate how territorial management is evolving in response to the accelerating climate crisis, and how local governments are experimenting with regulation and collaboration to confront challenges that are at once global and deeply place-specific.
