Unlike many industrial programs traditionally concealed behind neutral façades and hermetic spaces, contemporary distilleries often expose their production processes as an essential part of the architectural experience. The heat of the stills, the vapors of distillation, and the paths traced by raw materials cease to function merely as technical operations and instead assume spatial prominence.
Although they produce different spirits, the projects selected below share similar architectural challenges. All must organize industrial flows, control specific conditions of temperature, ventilation, and storage, and reconcile technical areas with public visitation routes. At the same time, each distillery develops particular responses to its territory, revealing different ways of relating production to landscape.
Landscape and urban design studio SLA has unveiled the design for the public realm and streetscapes of Toronto's new 39.8-hectare waterfront community. The urban landscape project "Ookwemin Minising" is located in the Port Lands, an industrial and recreational district southeast of downtown Toronto, currently undergoing urban revitalization to transform the area from a former industrial zone into a naturalized river valley, mixed-use neighbourhoods, and public parkland. The overall transformation is being led by Waterfront Toronto, a publicly funded, not-for-profit corporation established in 2001 to oversee the regeneration of the area, as part of a broader government initiative to renaturalize urban areas and increase housing density. The redevelopment of Ookwemin Minising is expected to be completed in phases between 2031 and 2040.
Battersea Power Station is a former coal-fired power station located on the south bank of the River Thames in London, originally designed by architects J. Theo Halliday and Giles Gilbert Scott. Notable for its appearance on the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 studio album Animals and in Alfred Hitchcock's 1936 film Sabotage, the station is one of the world's largest brick buildings and is known for its Art Deco interior fittings and décor. Recognized today as part of modern industrial heritage, the site's transformation into a commercial development began in 2012, with the adaptive reuse guided by a masterplan designed by Rafael Viñoly. On February 16, Battersea Power Station announced the appointment of the strategic urban design practice Studio Egret West to evolve the original masterplan for the remaining 16 acres of the 42-acre riverside neighbourhood in the southwest London.
Coldefy, in collaboration with Relief Architecture, has completed the Robert Badinter Secondary School, the first timber-framed school in northern France. Designed to accommodate 650 students, the project is situated on a former railyard adjacent to the city's train station and within walking distance of the town center. The new school forms part of a wider urban renewal strategy aiming to consolidate transportation links and introduce new civic amenities to the area.
Across China, a legacy of vast industrial structures stands decommissioned, as a direct result of the nation's economic shift to different forms of industry. These buildings are defined by their colossal height and deep structural capacity. Today, they present an architectural challenge for contemporary urban renewal and a new topic for heritage preservation. As they become absorbed by growing urban developments, architects are tasked with translating them into functional, public-facing assets. Thus, recent interventions are capitalizing on defining elements such as furnaces and chimneys to help reposition these massive complexes as critical urban landmarks.
The Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF) has announced the transformation of a 1912 industrial building in Tashkent into the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA), set to become the first permanent institution dedicated to contemporary art and research in Central Asia. Designed by the French architecture practice Studio KO, led by Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty, the project integrates preservation of the city's industrialheritage with a new cultural identity for the historic site. The building, originally designed by Wilhelm Heizelmann, known for the Treasury Chamber, was constructed as a diesel station and depot for Tashkent's first tram line. After decades of serving the city's electricity network, the structure was transferred to the Foundation in 2019 as part of Uzbekistan's long-term cultural development strategy. Under the leadership of Gayane Umerova, the project now represents a major step in shaping a contemporary cultural infrastructure for the region.
Once the largest coal mine in Europe, the Zollverein complex in Essen, Germany, has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past twenty-five years. What was once a landscape of abandoned industrial facilities is now a laboratory of contemporary architecture, featuring works by Rem Koolhaas, Norman Foster, and SANAA. Their interventions bridge the site’s industrial past with its imagined future. Spanning 100 hectares, the UNESCO World Heritage site has become a global model of adaptive reuse, redefining what it means to preserve industrial heritage. Within this context stands the Ruhr Museum and its enigmatic art repository, the Schaudepot. Located in the complex’s former salt factory, the museum impresses not only with its collection but also with its architecture, which transforms a 1960s industrial building into a vibrant cultural venue.
Because of its historical and architectural relevance, the project is featured in the 2025 edition of Open House Essen, under the theme “Future Heritage.” The initiative explores which spaces might shape our future architectural legacy and asks pressing questions: What should we preserve? What should we adapt? And how can we design a future that is both livable and fair?
The 2025 Pritzker Prize has been awarded this year to Chinese Architect Liu Jiakun. Born in Chengdu in 1956, he grew up in the densifying city, before attending and graduating from the Chongqing Architecture and Engineering College (Chongqing University) in 1982 with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Architecture, and becoming one of the first college graduates to be tasked with rebuilding the country during the Chinese transition period. However, it wasn't until many years later that the architect understood that "the built environment could be used as a medium for personal expression". It was then that his endeavors and career took off, with Liu Jiakun starting his practice in 1999, and participating in more collaborative works across China and Europe. Based on his experiences, his works are anchored in his understanding of reality and a respect towards China's multi-traditional history and internal diversity; all while achieving a seamless balance between architecture and nature, tradition and modernity.
These concepts do not obstruct his consciousness of human needs and the importance of community spaces. Through his projects, Liu Jiakun proves that spaces can affect human behavior and become positively evocative. A public space such as those he's created can be conducive to a benevolent atmosphere that provides rest and collaboration. "such as my pursuit of narrative and poetry in design." The comprehensiveness of Liu Jiakun's works makes it easy not to be constrained by stylistic or aesthetic limitations or requirements. He just follows what the site, natural landscape, pre-existing urban frame, and citizen needs might require. The physical result is a mix of all of these with the predominant vernacular traditions.
As we close the chapter on 2024, a review of ArchDaily's extensive database projects highlights a few standout interior design trends that defined the year. Among these is the use of stainless steel, often paired with concrete and shades of grey, creating interiors with a refined, industrial elegance. This article delves into the increasing prominence of stainless steel as an interior element, exploring its applications, pairings, and growing appeal despite lingering perceptions of its cold, industrial nature.
Landscape architecture firm SCAPE together with Bjarke Ingels Group have announced plans to transform Connecticut's ManresaIsland into a public-oriented development as a hub for learning, exploration, and community engagement. Originally slanted for private waterfront housing, the new scheme aims to open up the area as a public park with ample waterfront access, a project led by SCAPE. Additionally, the decommissioned coal-fired power plant is set to be converted by BIG into a community hub for multiple activities including swimming, small and large-scale events, research, and educational rooms. Supported by a private philanthropic investment from Austin McChord, the project is set to open in 2030 through a phased development.
How have architecture and building design adapted to unforeseen future uses? As cities evolve, their needs for buildings inevitably change. Buildings may transition between cultural, commercial, industrial, and office functions depending on a city's identity and economic activity. In a world that is becoming increasingly dynamic and fast-paced, it's essential to consider the challenges static structures face when required to meet new demands. Cities have repurposed these static structures in ways not anticipated during their original design, with many successes in repurposing industrial buildings. Unlike structures designed with flexibility in mind, most manufacturing facilities were not initially intended for multiple uses. Yet, how have cities, communities, and occupants used these spaces, and what are the challenges of transforming a building’s existing uses?
RSHP’s design proposal for the Bromley-By-Bow Gasworks regeneration project has just been approved by the London Borough of Newham’s Strategic Development Committee. The 23-acre site dates back to the 1870s, housing the largest collection of Victorian gasholders worldwide, making the project one of the largest regeneration proposals in the Lower Lea Valley in London. After three years of design development, the scheme reimagines the gas holders into a mixed-use development offering new high-quality residential architecture.
In response to the Czech Republic's soaring real estate prices, architecture firm KOGAA has transformed a former storage facility in Brno into DADA Distrikt, an affordable and diverse housing development. The project's economic approach, achieved through shared funding and direct sales, bypasses extra costs associated with developers while refurbishing a part of the city’s industrial heritage, transforming it into an active urban district. The project also features sustainability measures aimed at lowering its maintenance costs, further exemplifying the intersection of affordable housing, heritage restoration, and sustainable urban living.
The project is now part of Open House Brno, a free weekend festival held annually that allows visitors to enter and explore various locations across the city and discover their stories and architectural narratives. This year, the festival follows the curatorial concept of “Inclusion and Accessibility”, showcasing barrier-free integration of urban locations and the societal impact of buildings. A total of 58 locations will be available to visitors, exploring a variety of programs and scales demonstrating
Domino Sugar Refinery / PAU - Practice for Architecture and Urbanism
In the same way that societies transform, times change, and cities evolve, industrial architecture modernizes and technifies, sometimes reaching a state of abandonment or ruin. Understanding its value as a built legacy and being vestiges of technological, social, and cultural changes, the renovation and/or conversion of numerous factories and industrial warehouses can lead to the revitalization, recovery, or growth of various areas in large cities, incorporating new uses and spaces for the enjoyment of their citizens.
Christopher Payne’s fascination with factories goes back decades. As an architecture student at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1990s, Payne had the good fortune to find a summer job with an agency inside the National Park Service called the Historic American Buildings Survey. “They sent teams of architecture students, historians, and photographers to document all kinds of projects,” he says. “We documented grain elevators in Buffalo, cast iron bridges in Ohio, a power plant in Alabama, and national parks in Utah. That experience instilled a deep appreciation for industrial architecture.” After graduation, he worked for several years as an architect in New York City before transitioning full-time to photography. His previous books include New York’s Forgotten Substations: The Power Behind the Subway; Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals; North Brother Island: The Last Unknown Place in New York City; and Making Steinway: An American Workplace. Last month, Payne gave the School of Visual Art’s Ralph Caplan Memorial Lecture, and shortly afterward I reached out to him to talk about his most recent book, Made in America (Abrams), his long love affair with factories, and the photographic process.
