This project encompassed a remodel and a small addition to an existing two-story family home in San Francisco’s Cow Hollow neighborhood. Originally designed in 1917 by architect Elizabeth Austin – one of a small handful of American women architects working in the early 20th century – it was an honor to be tasked with protecting her vision, while ushering the residence into a new époque.
As a historically significant building, it is protected under a landmark preservation scheme that demanded special planning review. The team meticulously restored the facade (during the construction process, every piece of external ornament was removed, labelled, and reinstated) and conceived a series of thoughtful interventions and additions that would enrich the existing. Inside, the architects reimagined the layout to facilitate a more contemporary way of life for their clients.
As well as converting existing crawl space to habitable square footage and making additions at the first and second levels, they completely opened up the central part of the U-shaped plan and removed most of the second floor, creating a double-height dining space at the heart of the home.
Located in a low-rise residential neighbourhood in Toronto, this six-unit rental housing project spans two lots and explores the architectural potential of incremental density through a carefully composed group of buildings. The development consists of two semi-detached multiplexes facing the street and two semi-detached laneway houses at the rear of the site, oriented towards Bickford Park.
The street-facing buildings are conceived as a single gabled form, drawing from the character of the surrounding residential context. The pitched roof acts as a regulating device, accommodating additional program within a familiar silhouette while maintaining the rhythm and scale of neighbouring houses.
Belgian buff brick wraps the primary elevations, creating material continuity and a sense of permanence. Window openings are carefully proportioned and detailed with limestone sills, while patterned brickwork between the main openings introduces depth and shadow across the façades. Entrances are clearly defined, yet restrained, reinforcing a calm residential presence along the street.
At the rear of the site, the laneway houses complete the composition. Though smaller in scale, their massing and proportions closely align with those of the street-facing buildings, allowing the project to read as a unified architectural ensemble. Their orientation toward the laneway reimagines it as a shared front-yard condition connected to the park, rather than as a residual service space shaped primarily by vehicles.
The interior spaces, designed in collaboration with Unison Group, are defined by a reductive and warm material palette of light oak flooring and full-height millwork. Large floor-to-ceiling sliding doors dissolve the boundary between living spaces and outdoor terraces, bringing natural light deep into the open-plan interiors. A central staircase enclosed with glass balustrades anchors the plan and enhances visual continuity between levels. On the second floor, the full volume of the gabled roof is used to create a double-height library. This contemplative space incorporates a custom built-in desk and upper shelving accessed by a rolling ladder, transforming the building’s profile into a distinct spatial experience.
The project takes shape within a shifting policy framework that has expanded the capacity of Toronto’s low-rise neighbourhoods to accommodate additional density. Rather than treating these changes simply as a matter of compliance, the design uses the flexibility of contemporary planning and zoning regulations to test a more nuanced architectural response. Density is integrated through continuity of form and material, demonstrating how regulatory change can be translated into built work that reinforces neighbourhood character, while broadening the range of housing types available in the city.
Award-Winning Biophilic Lighting Innovation with WOHA
MAERICH, a global leader in LED lighting innovation, in collaboration with acclaimed architectural practice WOHA, has unveiled the G-Spot Recessed Grow-Light Series — an award-winning breakthrough designed for Zero Sunlight spaces. This pioneering system proves that lush, multi-layered gardens can flourish even underground, opening bold new possibilities for biophilic design and the future of sustainable cities.
Future cities, naturally alive
G-Spot reimagines the potential of underground environments and future cities. It illustrates a vision where people and nature coexist harmoniously ANYWHERE, while delivering the ecosystem services only thriving greenery can provide.
Natural, not pink
Unlike conventional grow lights with harsh pink or magenta hues, the G-Spot growth spectrum is carefully pre-calibrated to feel natural (CRI >90, R9 >90), allowing plants to absorb most light for photosynthesis, while the rest reflects as a soft, luminous glow — turning underground gardens into living works of art.
Sustainability in every beam
Beyond illumination, G-Spot empowers sustainability. It supports the ecosystem services of healthy growing plants, from air purification to psychological well-being, embedding nature as a central component of sustainable architectural design. This dual-purpose solution saves energy while helping compensate for the loss of natural greenery, creating thriving indoor biophilic environments.
A game changer for biophilic designs
One of the most compelling demonstrations of this technology is its effectiveness in this enclosed basement greenery thriving indoors without sunlight, unlocking the potential of any interior space, emphasizing the efficacy, versatility, and impact of this grow light solution that enhances human well-being and promotes environmental sustainability simultaneously.
The latest conversion by Phuket-based Studio Locomotive for Banyan Tree Hotel Bangkok has returned the former rice barge Apsara Cruise to the Chao Phraya River as a dining cruise.
In the bustling heart of Bangkok, the Chao Phraya River and its countless waterways continue to serve as vital arteries for the capital’s daily commutes and cargo transport to this day. In contrast to the city’s innovative skyscrapers, historical monuments—such as the Temple of Dawn, The Grand Palace, and Fort Phra Sumen —preserving three centuries of water-laced heritage stand along the riverbanks.
The riverboat now known as Apsara Cruise once journeyed the Chao Phraya River as a rice barge from the ancient Ayutthaya era, before Bangkok became the capital, transporting rice, sugar, and other trade goods between large ships and riverside warehouses.
The ambitious remaking by Studio Locomotive preserves its heritage wooden cargo hull—as a below deck for motorization, full commercial kitchen, and guest restrooms—and resonates the shape of vernacular bamboo canopy in a new superstructure, modified for all-season restaurant service. The new configuration comprises three decks, with a total usable area of 245 square meters, including a 90-square-meter indoor dining.
Evocative elements of Thai fine arts and architecture—such as wall murals reinterpreting Buddhist legends, auspicious Prajamyam floral motifs believed to offer protection and good fortune, and historical color palettes from glazed terracotta roof tiles on Thai temples—are reflected through fresh execution on contemporary materials, including mirror, mosaic tiles, and wooden beads.
Sharing the main dining deck are a beverage bar and a wheelhouse—disguised within a decorative green-tinted glass booth—featuring glass wall murals portraying the stories of the Rice Goddess and other mythical deities associated with agricultural abundance, redefined in modern narratives by a collage illustrator Nakrob Moonmanas.
The dining cruise was recently named Bar & Restaurant of the Year at the World Architecture Festival Interiors, marking a reflective and meaningful adaptive reuse that responds to its modern value in hospitality.
Inspired in part by the homeowner’s bright, bold, colourful, and extensive art collection, Picnic Design sets out to instill key design elements throughout the Wallace Emerson area home that inspire the imagination, while maintaining practicality. In the process, a 1920s Toronto house with a rear extension in urgent need of structural rebuilding is transformed into a visually bold, unified, and functionally comfortable home.
In the early stages of planning for the project, the client’s extensive collection of modern and other artworks became the north star. The aim was to create a cohesive space by connecting design ‘zones’ on the ground floor using unifying elements, while maintaining a sense of playfulness and levity, and referencing the intersecting lines found in modern art.
A series of contrasting transition areas, or zones, introduce intense blocks of colour – deep blue and teal tiles in the bathrooms, earthy terracotta in the kitchen – with pleasing shifts in material or texture that elevate the interior. Framed vistas create continuity between spaces in the home, and fully exploited natural lighting, including the addition of a skylight on the second-floor hallway, adds an airy spaciousness to a formerly cramped home.
The previously small entrance area is now expanded into a five-foot-deep vestibule zone that spans the width of the house, demarcated by a dark-hued tile floor. This area incorporates Picnic Design’s signature nook – a large, picturesque window bench with storage. This also acts as a focal point for the living and dining areas. Wide-plank, muted white oak flooring in the living area creates a sharp dark-to-light contrast moving from the vestibule to the living space.
A long wall feature in thermo-fused, detailed woodgrain laminate, nicknamed the Black Strip, acts as a functional and unifying element between living area and kitchen, main house and rebuilt rear addition. Near the front of the house, the Black Strip conceals a powder room with hidden hardware and flush panelling, before segueing into seamless tall cabinets, a built-in fridge, and a wall oven in the kitchen.
The strip terminates in a white oak bench adjacent to glazed doors leading out to the back patio. A black, perforated metal, open shelving unit playfully peeks beyond the large arched frame of the kitchen entrance, mirrored by a peninsula beneath it, as viewed from the living area. This peninsula is topped by a crisp, bright porcelain slab that completes the kitchen countertop. The base of the peninsula facing the living area is wrapped in a solid white oak, half-round tambour, adding an intriguing graphical texture for a visual pause before entering the kitchen. A slim strip of window acts as a linear block of light nestled between matte grey laminate overhead cabinets and the sink.
The previously unfinished basement is now eighteen inches taller and houses a guest bedroom, bathroom, laundry closet, utility room, storage closet, and recreation room. The entire refinished basement is heated with an energy-efficient in-floor hydronic heating system.
With the extensive renovation infused with colour and boldness, the owner gets to inhabit a home that has become a piece of functional art.
House for an Art Lover is a winner in the Architecture Master Prize Award in the Houses Interior category.
Award-winning design studio FUTUREFORMS has established a distinctive reputation for transforming public spaces through installations that blur the traditional boundaries between public art and architecture. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the studio explores how emerging technologies and computational processes can shape new kinds of urban experiences. Their work demonstrates how art, architecture, and digital tools can come together to create environments that are both visually striking and deeply interactive.
In an increasingly digital world, the definition of public art and architecture is rapidly evolving. Contemporary cities are no longer shaped solely by physical materials like concrete, steel, and glass. Instead, they are increasingly influenced by the invisible systems of data, algorithms, and digital infrastructure that guide everyday life. Within this context, a new design philosophy—often described as Digital Craft—is emerging. Digital Craft treats computation not as a replacement for human creativity but as an extension of it. By using algorithms as tools similar to those of traditional artisans, designers can create highly customized, site-specific works that move beyond the standardized forms produced by industrial manufacturing.
Through this approach, architecture becomes more dynamic and responsive. Rather than existing as static monuments, structures can behave like living participants in the urban environment—reacting to light, weather, movement, and human interaction. The result is a new kind of built environment that encourages exploration, curiosity, and public engagement.
Inside, however, the experience transforms dramatically. Visitors step into a glowing, immersive interior space that the designers describe as a “Creature of the Garden.” This inner chamber provides a quiet, almost otherworldly refuge within the dense urban setting, demonstrating how digital design can produce environments that are both monumental and intimate.
Another notable project, Weatherscape, was recently completed in El Paso, Texas, as part of the new El Paso Children’s Museum—known locally as “La Nube.” Measuring approximately 70 by 40 feet, the installation functions as a sculptural canopy that goes far beyond the role of a typical shade structure. Instead, Weatherscape operates as an interactive environmental system designed.
The title Metaxis comes from a Greek word that describes a state of “in-betweenness”—belonging to two realms at the same time. The exhibition reflects this concept by presenting a wide range of experimental artifacts created by the studio between 2015 and 2025. More than twenty models, 3D-printed prototypes, and conceptual studies fill the gallery, offering insight into how FUTUREFORMS moves from early speculation to built reality.
By showcasing prototypes alongside completed works, METAXIS reveals how FUTUREFORMS integrates knowledge from multiple disciplines—including art, architecture, and computational design—to imagine new possibilities for the built environment. The exhibition ultimately highlights how digital tools, when combined with artistic vision, can reshape the way we conceive, design, and experience the cities of the future.
Singapore’s journey from a Garden City to a City in Nature finds bold expression in the Mandai Eco-Resort. Conceived through a government-initiated competition, the winning design proposed a regenerative resort that is sensitively inserted into Singapore’s nature reserve around the Mandai Wildlife Parks.
The architecture not only blends into the jungle—but enhances it. By inverting the traditional Zoo paradigm, rather than separating guests from nature and wildlife, the resort reimagines the relationship: humans become part of the jungle ecosystem, learning to coexist harmoniously with native flora and fauna.
The 4.6-hectare site for the 338-key resort previously housed the Singapore Zoo’s back-of-house facilities. The building mass is carefully integrated into the site, enriched through the replanting of native tree species felled during construction. Inspired by the Liana vine, the branching building form meanders through the forest, designed with no fixed façade, blending architecture and ecology into one living, breathing organism.
The 4.6-hectare site for the 338-key resort previously housed the Singapore Zoo’s back-of-house facilities. The building mass is carefully integrated into the site, enriched through the replanting of native tree species felled during construction. Inspired by the Liana vine, the branching building form meanders through the forest, designed with no fixed façade, blending architecture and ecology into one living, breathing organism.
The resort achieves a 40% reduction in energy consumption compared to typical benchmarks. This was made possible through an integrated environmental strategy that includes naturally ventilated corridors and lobbies, mixed-mode air conditioning in guestrooms, solar panel integration, and the use of Passive Displacement Ventilation (PDV) in the Treehouses—where chilled air circulates silently and efficiently without the need for conventional compressors.
The resort achieves a 40% reduction in energy consumption compared to typical benchmarks. This was made possible through an integrated environmental strategy that includes naturally ventilated corridors and lobbies, mixed-mode air conditioning in guestrooms, solar panel integration, and the use of Passive Displacement Ventilation (PDV) in the Treehouses—where chilled air circulates silently and efficiently without the need for conventional compressors.
Architecture and landscape
The concept is sympathetic to the existing vegetation and tree lines, as well as natural topography. Wherever possible, the resort is elevated several meters above the ground, allowing native wildlife to move across the site. It is also designed to be unobtrusive, sitting below the upper canopy layer of the surrounding trees.
The branching form of the 4-5 storey main guest wings meander through the jungle, while treehouses shaped like seed pods are tucked neatly in between existing trees and are linked by jungle pathways or an elevated walkway.
In addition to extensive planting at the roof and façade of the resort buildings, more than half the trees on the site will be retained, of which 40% are of conservation value. The re-greening effort will enhance the site’s biodiversity through thoughtful planting strategies that will both promote native species on the site of the resort and double the number of trees from today.
Interior design
The interior design continues the journey of adventure and discovery through the layers of the jungle. The interior spaces and furnishing offer new paradigms of comfort and coexistence with the outdoor and tropical climate, inviting guests to discover and adapt to be intriguingly closer to nature.
Guest rooms are designed to be comfortable shelters from which to observe the jungle and be very close to nature. Sliding doors, verandas, and balconies blend indoors with outdoors, with material continuity from interior to exterior.
A Visionary Architectural Strategy for Coastal Living
Canarsie Pier, Brooklyn, New York
As coastal cities confront accelerating sea-level rise, City on the Loop proposes a radical rethinking of the relationship between architecture, infrastructure, and water. Set along Brooklyn’s Canarsie Pier, the project reimagines the Belt Parkway waterfront as a phased, flood-adaptive urban loop—one that transforms a hard infrastructural edge into a living, evolving shoreline.
Rather than treating climate resilience as a defensive measure, the project positions it as a generative architectural strategy. The loop functions simultaneously as housing, transit infrastructure, and public space, offering a new model for coastal urbanism that grows with environmental change rather than resisting it.
A Phased Urban System
The proposal unfolds across three temporal phases, each aligned with projected sea-level rise scenarios derived from FEMA 100-year flood data for 2025, 2050, 2100, and beyond.
Phase One retrofits the Belt Parkway—long a physical and psychological barrier between neighborhood and water—by inserting an elevated housing and transit spine above the roadway. This move reclaims the infrastructure as a connective civic armature while establishing a resilient datum above future flood levels.
Phase Two extends the loop with additional residential density, light rail infrastructure, and water-based transit, reinforcing the system’s role as both a mobility corridor and a continuous urban edge.
Phase Three activates the waterfront with a hotel and commercial district, introducing new public destinations while drawing attention to long-term coastal conditions. Here, architecture becomes an interface for awareness, occupation, and adaptation rather than a static object at the water’s edge.
Across all phases, the structure grows vertically over time, incorporating green roofs, terraced landscapes, and elevated pedestrian networks that respond to rising water levels while expanding public access to the shoreline.
Living With Water
At its core, City on the Loop rejects the paradigm of singular flood barriers. Instead, it imagines infrastructure as a system of cohabitation—one in which wetland buffers, elevated gardens, and public platforms allow natural and urban ecologies to overlap. The loop operates not as a wall, but as a flexible, continuous, and inhabited threshold between land and sea.
“We wanted to treat sea-level rise not just as a threat, but as a prompt to reimagine how we live, move, and relate to the coast,” says designer Ruxuan Zheng. “Architecture can act as a mediator between land, water, and people—adapting over time rather than remaining fixed.”
Toward a Future Shoreline
Though speculative, City on the Loop engages deeply practical questions of housing, transportation, and environmental risk. It demonstrates how long-term thinking and architectural imagination can converge to propose new spatial identities for coastal cities.
Rather than a singular solution, the project is conceived as a replicable system—one capable of extending along the Belt Parkway to form a new urban shoreline for New York, and potentially for other vulnerable coastal regions worldwide. In this sense, the loop is less a finished form than an evolving framework: a city edge designed for uncertainty, growth, and change.
Photography / Renderings Ruxuan Zheng Haoyuan Wang
Australian Architecture captures the heart and imagination of awards programs globally
Upper House (South Brisbane, Australia) is a 33-storey multi-residential project by Koichi Takada Architects that has been honoured by many global awards programs in 2024. Both juries and the public have commended Upper House for its conscious choices, introduction of natural materials, biodiverse plantings, respect for people and planet, as its shapely form.
“Highrise lifestyle has become detached and disconnected – from the community, from nature, from one another,” says Koichi Takada. “With Upper House, we are looking to challenge that and establish a new model for vertical living that is about connection.”
The building delivers 188 luxury apartments inside expressive architecture that references the Moreton Bay Fig treea 5-storeyartwork on the façade shares a message about Australia’s indigenous people, the world’s oldest known living civilization.
Upper House is the first completed collaboration between Aria Property Group and Koichi Takada Architects and the architecture is designed to celebrate Brisbane’s natural beauty, relaxed urban lifestyle and mild sub-tropical climate. Punctuating the city skyline with a timber pergola and tropical rooftop oasis, Upper House has 1,000m² of progressive wellbeing amenities that bring residents together.
“Throughout the development, a thoughtfully curated artwork strategy showcases the work of emerging and established artists, with a collection that gifts sublime beauty and enjoyment to residents and a sound investment to the body corporate. The five-storey high façade features the artwork ‘Bloodlines Weaving String and Water’, by renowned Waanyi artist Judy Watson, while the backlit folded metal façade comes to life at night with mesmerising references to memory and cultural practices, orienting the building to Country and contributing authentic stories of place to the surrounding urban context. This project shows what can be achieved when an ambitious architect, art curator, and developer work in alignment.” Photos credit: Mark Nilon, Scott Burrows, Tom Ferguson
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