Middle East: The Latest Architecture and News

Reclaimed land is often presented as new ground: flat, available, and ready for architecture. It promises cities more space where space is scarce, allowing them to extend waterfronts and build cultural districts. Sometimes, these newly claimed lands may also develop into financial centers, create parks, and imagine futures beyond the limits of existing land. Yet reclaimed land is never simply land. It is an engineered surface, produced through fill, seawalls, drainage, and soil stabilization — a long-term negotiation with the water it claims to have displaced.

This makes reclamation one of architecture's most powerful and ambiguous spatial fantasies. On one hand, it offers freedom: a tabula rasa where streets and buildings can be planned almost from scratch. On the other, this apparent freedom conceals dependency. Made land must constantly prove itself as ground. It has to resist flooding, support foundations, grow trees, and hold public life above a terrain that did not previously exist.

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Built across several hills, Amman has grown at a pace few Middle Eastern capitals have matched. The city has received successive waves of migration — Circassians in the late 19th century, Palestinian refugees in 1948 and 1967, the Iraqi population after 1990, and Syrians since 2011 — each reshaping its density and social profile. Locally quarried limestone, extracted from quarries across Jordan and required by law for façades since the 1970s, has become the city's only common visual denominator. Behind this material uniformity, however, lies a continuous dialogue between vernacular tradition and international ambition.

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For many communities across the Gulf, leaving home once formed part of inhabiting it. Families moved between desert pastures, coastal settlements, wells, fishing grounds, and pearling ports according to season and livelihood, returning repeatedly to places already known through use. In Qatar, historical accounts describe autumn and winter movement through al-barr, the desert, followed by a return toward coastal settlements as the summer pearling season began. The National Museum of Qatar represents this history through a yearly calendar of movement between desert and sea.

Home could extend between several places occupied at different points in the year. It extended across a larger geography of places that were left and returned to through the year. Many contemporary Gulf developments now attempt to bring contrasting climatic and spatial conditions into the same permanent urban system. 

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The history of Brutalism has largely been written from a Western perspective. Brutalist Asia by Blue Crow Media offers a different view, examining how architects across Asia adopted, questioned, and transformed the architectural language associated with the movement in response to radically different political, climatic, and cultural conditions. Spanning 28 countries, from Japan and Southeast Asia through South and Central Asia to the Middle East, Iran, and Lebanon, the book brings together 140 buildings and more than 150 photographs, placing internationally recognized works by architects including Kenzo Tange, Paul Rudolph, Balkrishna V. Doshi, Raj Rewal, Charles Correa, Kim Swoo Geun, Leandro V. Locsin, and Le Corbusier alongside important but lesser-known works that expand our understanding of post-war architecture across the continent.

Within this broader geography, one particular history unfolds in Lebanon, where the ambitions of Modernism became inseparable from a country undergoing profound social, political, and urban transformation. Read on for an excerpt from ArchDaily Editor-in-Chief Christele Harrouk's chapter in Brutalist Asia, tracing the rise of Brutalism in Lebanon, the architects and buildings that gave it a particular local expression, and the rupture that left this Modernist project unfinished.

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The Diriyah Biennale Foundation has revealed the four architecture studios shortlisted for the 2027 AlMusalla Prize, an international competition that commissions the design of a musalla, a space for prayer and contemplation, for the third edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale. Opening on November 1, 2027, at the Western Hajj Terminal in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the Biennale will feature a new prayer structure designed by one of the shortlisted teams: Al-Jawad Pike (United Kingdom), Civil Architecture (Bahrain/Kuwait), MILLIØNS (United States), or NEW SOUTH (France). The winning proposal will be announced in March 2027 and realized as part of the exhibition before being permanently relocated to JAX District in Diriyah.

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Step from the heat of Dubai into the lobby of a glass tower, and the desert seems to disappear. Outside, temperatures climb past 45 degrees Celsius; inside, the air is cold, sealed, and perfectly controlled. For decades, this contrast became the defining image of Gulf modernity. Architecture became less a negotiation with climate, and more a demonstration that climate could be overcome. Towers of reflective glass rose from the desert as symbols of arrival, projecting financial power, technological confidence, and global ambition. Beneath this urban image sat an infrastructure built on oil, cheap energy, and the continuous mechanical suppression of heat.

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Symbols of technological development and urban density, tall buildings as we know them today emerged in the late 19th century, primarily in the United States, in response to rapid growth in urban commerce and the need to expand cities without consuming more land. The term skyscraper, for instance, was coined in the 1880s and originally referred to buildings of about 10 to 20 stories—an impressive height at the time.

However, the idea of building vertically is far older than steel-and-glass skyscrapers suggest. Long before the Industrial Revolution, several societies were already experimenting with vertical urbanization as a solution to spatial constraints, territorial defense, or environmental adaptation.

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Architecture is often evaluated through finished forms, yet some practices operate in a different register, one where design unfolds through relationships, time, and use rather than through a single outcome. For CatalyticAction, participation is not a parallel social activity, but the means through which spaces are conceived, constructed, and sustained over time.

Based between Beirut and London, the practice has worked across the Middle East and Europe, developing public spaces, schools, playgrounds, and everyday urban infrastructures through long-term collaboration with local communities. Grounded in participatory research and collective decision-making, this approach was recognized through ArchDaily's 2025 Next Practices Awards, highlighting a mode of practice where architecture is understood as a shared, evolving process rather than a fixed object. In this context, architectural value is measured through continuity, use, and collective ownership, rather than through form alone.

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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.

In recent decades, this layered condition has been further intensified by large-scale development strategies and cultural investment programs that position architecture as a tool for redefining national identity. International practices have played a decisive role in shaping key institutions, infrastructures, and landmarks, while local studios increasingly contribute projects that reinterpret climate, materiality, and social space within a contemporary framework.

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Qalandiya: the Green Historic Maze, developed by RIWAQ – Centre for Architectural Conservation, has been awarded the Grand Prize at the Holcim Foundation Awards 2025, recognizing its sensitive and deeply contextual approach to heritage conservation in Palestine, selected among the 20 winners of this year's edition. Located in Qalandiya, north of Jerusalem, the project reactivates a historic village center long affected by political fragmentation, neglect, and spatial disconnection. Through an incremental rehabilitation strategy, the project restores deteriorated structures using traditional knowledge, local stone masonry, and native materials, transforming abandoned fabric into active public spaces while reinforcing environmental resilience through passive climate strategies and landscape-based infrastructure.

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As 2025 concludes, we look ahead to 2026, a year scheduled to deliver a diverse range of significant architectural projects across the world. The year is particularly notable for the completion of new infrastructure and cultural buildings, including long-term projects. Europe will be in the spotlight of the new year with the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. This event will feature projects such as the Olympic Village by SOM and the Winter Olympics Arena by David Chipperfield Architects. Also in Milan, BIG is set to complete construction of the City Wave project as part of a new business district in the city. At the same time, after more than 140 years of its establishment, the architects around the world will also be watching for the long-awaited completion of Antoni Gaudí's La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, announced for 2026.

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The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction has announced the Grand Prize Winners of the 2025 Holcim Awards, selecting one project from each global region to represent the most impactful approaches to sustainable design in this cycle. This edition marks the introduction of the Grand Prize format, replacing the previous tiered distinctions to better acknowledge diverse regional contexts and avoid hierarchical rankings. Evaluated by juries chaired by Sou Fujimoto (Asia Pacific), Kjetil Trædal Thorsen (Europe), Sandra Barclay (Latin America), Lina Ghotmeh (Middle East and Africa), and Jeanne Gang (North America), the winning projects reflect the Foundation's principles of holistic, transformational, and transferable design.

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Watch live the Holcim Foundation Awards 2025 Ceremony on November 20, broadcast from Venice, Italy, during the closing week of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition, to discover the regional Grand Prize winners. The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction has announced the 20 winning projects of this cycle, selected across five regions: Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and North America. This edition introduces a new Grand Prize format, replacing the Gold, Silver, and Bronze distinctions to highlight excellence without comparison and reflect the varied contexts in which sustainable design operates.

The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction has announced the 20 winning projects of the 2025 Holcim Foundation Awards, recognizing contributions to sustainable design and construction across five regions: Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and North America. This year's selection spans a broad range of scales, from a 200-square-meter semi-permanent school in a Kenyan forest to major urban regeneration initiatives in Madrid, Dhaka, and Shenzhen, reflecting the diversity and reach of sustainable architecture today. This year introduces a new Grand Prize format, replacing the traditional Gold, Silver, and Bronze rankings. Each region will now honor one Grand Prize winner, emphasizing excellence without comparison and acknowledging the diverse approaches to sustainability.

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Hormuz Island, located in Iran, was a strategically significant port in the Persian Gulf, characterized by its landscape of colorful mountains. Despite its tourist appeal, the island faces significant socio-economic problems, with the local population having historically faced economic hardship. In response, the Majara Complex by ZAV Architects was conceived not merely as a building but as a deliberate architectural intervention designed to give control, opportunity, and economic benefit directly to the local community. To do this, the project channeled investment into local human resources and prioritized accessible construction techniques, creating a pathway for localized wealth creation. This allowed the Majara Complex to be one of the recipients of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2025.

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When architects are still students, a moment often marks a turning point: their first encounter with software. It's not just about learning a tool but discovering a space where ideas transcend physical models, taking shape in a digital environment and beginning a relationship many will carry throughout their careers. What happens next? Software keeps evolving, and with it, the design experience. In recent years, this evolution has accelerated—machine learning, AI, prompts, and integrated workflows have moved from the periphery to the core of design practice, becoming part of the shared language between software and users. As these tools take hold, a key question emerges: How will this reshape our experience of designing architecture in the future?

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The idea of transforming water into land has captivated humanity for centuries. The Netherlands, for example, is a pioneering nation in this field, where approximately 20% of the territory has been reclaimed from the sea or lakes using dikes to control water flow and dry the surfaces. As technology has advanced, this practice has become more widespread. Today, China leads the way, joined by urban centers in the global south, such as cities in West Africa, East Asia, and the Middle East.

These megalomaniacal land reclamations are primarily undertaken in areas with extensive coastlines but insufficient landmass to meet their needs. In this regard, the newly reclaimed areas serve many purposes, ranging from the development of luxury residential complexes to an entertainment archipelago featuring hotels, restaurants, theaters, and shops.

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A series of recently announced projects across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and North America reflects an ongoing shift in architectural thinking toward approaches that integrate buildings with their landscapes, programs with public life, and design with long-term environmental goals. In Nantes, France, a healthcare campus redefines medical education through climate-conscious planning, while in San Antonio, Texas, a new arboretum transforms a former golf course into a research-driven public landscape. Residential towers are rising beside Bangkok's Lumphini Park, a new coastal community is underway in the UAE, and an expansion to the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City reconsiders how cultural institutions connect with their surroundings. Together, these announcements point to a growing interest in projects that embed architecture within broader ecological and civic systems, proposing new models of spatial integration, accessibility, and resilience.

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