Architect Office: The Latest Architecture and News

Photographer Marc Goodwin has extended his Atlas of Architectural Atmospheres to Belgium, capturing the workspaces of architecture studios in Antwerp, Brussels, and Ghent. The series includes large offices such as B-architecten, POLO, and Binst Architects, alongside smaller-scale practices like Studio Okami, Stand Van Zaken, and Bruno Spaas Architectuur. Many of them occupy buildings with layered pasts from former workshops, to cinemas, and from storage facilities, to waterfront structures.

In addition to photographing the studios, Goodwin asked each practice the same question: "What makes for a good office space and office culture for you?" Their responses accompany the images, offering insight into how architects define the atmosphere of their workplaces. Studio Okami describes its workplace as a "home office away from home," while Brut highlights the role of shared meals and greenery in softening their penthouse space.

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Established in the UAE in 1989 by Chairman Brian Johnson and now led by Managing Director Jason Burnside, Godwin Austen Johnson draws on a British design lineage dating back to 1847 and has contributed to the development of the Middle East's built environment for over three decades. Its 110 multinational professionals, based in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and the United Kingdom, work across disciplines, combining technical rigor, contextual analysis, and digital methodologies within a collaborative design process.

Porto's architectural legacy has long been shaped by the weight of history and the clarity of form. From the work of Álvaro Siza to the dense network of studios emerging from the city's schools, Porto offers a unique blend of continuity and reinvention. Here, architecture is not only a matter of design but often one of endurance — of working within constraints, of drawing with precision, and of navigating a built environment marked by permanence and resistance to spectacle.

Yet within this persistent context, a new generation of architects has been reshaping the field with quiet determination. Often formed in shared spaces, these practices balance autonomy with collaboration and meticulous detailing with broader urban concerns. Their studios tend to reflect this ethos: modest in scale, defined by adaptive reuse, and rooted in the material reality of the city. In these workspaces, architecture unfolds as a process — sometimes speculative, sometimes grounded — but always reflective of a practice that is deeply local and increasingly global.

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Videos

Continuing his work exploring the office spaces of architecture studios from around the world, Archmospheres photographer Marc Goodwin has reached Japan, where he captured the workspace of architecture studios such as Kengo Kuma & Associates, Tato Architects, Akihisa Hirata, and Nori Architects. Collaborating with Marc Goodwin, architect, and writer Samuel Michaëlsson traveled to Japan in the autumn of 2019 to interview the participants, resulting in a series of videos that further developed the exploration.

The photographs reveal snippets of everyday life in these studios. While not all of the buildings were designed by their occupying architecture studios, each office has added a personal touch to their space, aligning them with their internal culture and traditions. One such example is Tato Architects, for whom the kitchen has become an important gathering space, as they take turns preparing lunch for each other and eating together is a significant part of their office story.

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Jean Nouvel's recently completed towers, Tours Duo, redefined the Parisian skyline. Captured by Paul Clemence in his latest photo series, the project by Ateliers Jean Nouvel creates a singularity in relation to the rails that lead into the city's heart and define the Avenue de France. Established as a landmark on the East side of Paris and considered to be the city's future, Tours Duo is a mixed-use project that completes and modifies the unfinished context of this part of the city.

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Videos

After noticing a huge inefficiency and disarticulation in their processes (working separately in design, modeling, and documentation), David Miller Architects (DMA) decided to immerse his company into the BIM (Building Information Modeling) world in 2008. Despite their success, this experience of trial and error gave them a series of lessons that are important to consider when rethinking the way we do architecture.

'BIM gave us an opportunity to reimagine the practice, in a much more structured and organized way. Then, it allowed us to have more quality control, [and be] more organized and thorough, which is really important for a small practice trying to grow. And that really increased the confidence in some of our clients,' says David Miller.

We spoke with the British architect at a conference in June 2018 in Santiago, Chile, which included the seminar "Why Implement BIM in 2020" organized by Planbim. This seminar identified 7 key points that can facilitate the implementation of this paradigm in an architecture office.

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