Grid: The Latest Architecture and News

Two 36-storey residential towers have been completed on Irwell Bank Road in Singapore, featuring a pixelated facade designed by MVRDV. The scheme builds on the modular system developed by ADDP Architects, who designed the buildings using Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC). MVRDV's facade introduces variation across the elevations and marks the locations of the communal green spaces on the 24th floor and the rooftop. Irwell Hill Residences, developed by City Developments Limited (CDL), is MVRDV's debut collaboration on a building in Singapore's urban core.

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The UK Pavilion, designed by London-based Woo Architects, in collaboration with Japanese contractor ES Global, has been completed at the Expo 2025 in Osaka. Built on the principles of a circular economy, the pavilion features a modular, 10-by-10-meter gridded structure designed that prioritizes ease of assembly, disassembly, and relocation. Ultimately, the pavilion's design reflects the Expo's theme, "Come Build the Future," embodying sustainability and reuse.

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In the 1920s, Dutch-born artist Piet Mondrian began painting his iconic black grids populated with shifting planes of primary colors. By moving beyond references to the world around him, his simplified language of lines and rectangles known as Neo Plasticism explored the dynamics of movement through color and form alone. Though his red, yellow and blue color-blocked canvases were important elements of the De Stijl movement in the early 1900s, almost a century later Mondrian’s abstractions still inspire architects across the globe.

But, what is it about these spatial explorations that have captivated artists and designers for so long?

Dutch firm de Architekten Cie, in collaboration with Felixx Landscape Architects and Planners, has won an international competition to transform the historic Russian city of Chelyabinsk. The winning masterplan, chosen by the City Administration of Chelyabinsk from five proposals, seeks to activate the city’s existing grid structure and to use it as a vehicle for spatial transformation.

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