Reader’s Choice: Top 10 Architecture Projects on Architizer in January 2023
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Architizer’s journal is fueled by the creative energy of the thousands of architects from around the world who upload and showcase their incredible work. From conceptual designs to projects under construction to completed buildings, we are proud to serve as a platform for showcasing global architectural talent and the brilliance of visualizers, engineers, manufacturers, and photographers who are crucial members of the industry. A stellar drawing, rendering or photo, as well as a detailed project description, can go a long way in making a project stand out, as does indicate the stellar contributors on a project.
Firms who upload to Architizer share their work with professionals and design enthusiasts through our Firm Directory and Projects database. They also gain exposure by having their projects shared on our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages, as well as in our Journal feature articles. Indeed, through these various channels, hundreds of thousands of people in the global design community have come to rely on Architizer as their architectural reference and source of inspiration. In 2022, we’re rounding up our database’s top 10 most-viewed, user-uploaded architecture projects at the end of each month.
By CEBRA, Kolding, Denmark
Skamlingsbanken has long been a point for gather: the protective shelter of the rolling hills seemingly invited gatherings. Now, this natural landscape’s remarkable history as a civic landscape — one that hosted debates about women’s suffrage, democracy and more — is home to an architectural landmark that will continue this legacy, with little impact on the natural landscape. Indeed, The visitor centre is an architectural interpretation of the local topography and a representation of the local history; it is seeded with native species, selected in collaboration with biologies Mette Keseler, which shows optimal conditions for the local herbs and biodiversity.
By The One (Hong Kong) Design, Guangzhou, China
Moody lighting, textured walls and interlocking linear elements all come together to create a dynamically flowing space. Four principal moving lines are used to connect the apartment’s various zones, ensuring that the open space feels connected while its functions are differentiated. This tension between who and parts, static volumes and dynamic movement, amount a significant challenge to more traditional private homes. Based on the “unconventional” living space needs of the two owners, designers want to create a sense of privacy and closure that can break the traditional private house space for the owners.
By Signum Architecture, Paso Robles, California
Set on a 100 acre site in Paso Robles, this the architects of this project were faced with a complex task: to design a building with a unique identity that would invite visitors without detracting from the picturesque landscape — a contention at the heart of winemaker Eric Jensen’s minimalist philosophy of interfering with the land as little as possible. Thius the architects began with a typology familiar to the place: a trellis and terrace. Next, the visible fractures in the area’s chalky limestone soil helped to make out the buildings’ walls, in direct relation to the land and views.
By AB design studio, inc., Montecito, California
Popular Choice, 10th Annual A+Awards, Private House (M 2000 – 4000 sq ft)
Mies van der Rohe seems a likely inspiration for this modernization project in the foothills of Santa Barbara; however, this modernize project is deeply rooted in its source material — a simple 1950s wood cabin set in a rock quarry. The single-story residence takes into account the surrounding boulders and oak forest; the design sought to maintain original elements and to reuse stone found onsite.
By Myrto Kiourti, Athens, Greece
Many cities can claim hybrid identities as contemporary metropolises with ancient, historic pasts; however, Athens is one of those cities where this duality is ever-present, and the city’s legacy continues to inform designs of the present. Epitomizing this relationship to the past are those homes that Greek families literally build on top of their older residences. Known as “panosikoma,” these “upper-level extensions” are rooted in a traditional building practice that implicitly negotiates these identities. The Flying Box exemplifies this approach.
By Mario Cucinella Architects, Mormanno, Italy
Jury Winner, 10th Annual A+Awards, Religious Buildings & Memorials
One first glance, the flowing lines of this iconic floor plan is unlike any other ecclesiastical structure (actually, it’s safe to say they’re quite distinct from any other structure, period). Yet, the organic footprint of this monumental building was inspired by the curvilinear geometries of Baroque churches in Rome. Natural light — long an important element and symbol of Christian places of worship — floods the interior space, and is filtered through a memorable canopy of translucent veils.
By Beef Architekti, Balearic Islands, Ibiza
Mallorca is famous for its sapphire blue beaches and picturesque craggy cliffs; however, architects would be interested to learn more about the vernacular techniques long used in local construction on this mediterranean island. Using stones sourced from a nearby quarry, Beef Architekti pay homage to the traditional dry construction technique known as ‘pedra en sec’ used to express a typical design that can be found all over the island — one that was named an intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2018.
By bkp GmbH, Düsseldorf, Germany
The future of office culture hangs by a thread, and architects are increasingly seen as the heroes capable of coaxing a reluctant workforce out of their homes. Charged with strengthening employee’s identification with their employer, this multispace strives to integrate their patron’s long company history and state-of-the-art production techniques with the comforts of home offices, which allow employees to retreat when needed, and therefore to be fully present when needed in the work community.
By Feldman Architecture, Los Altos Hills, California
Photos by Adam Rouse
California’s leading place in avant-garde architecture of the 1960s is well established; however, homes with circular floor plans, which were experimented with during this period, remain absent from the canon of modern. Though challenging from a layout perspective, the many benefits and intrigues of designing homes with soft edges remain under explored. Feldman Architects were given the change to reconsider this residential layout in a recent commission to reimagine and modernize just such a home — and the result is truly mesmerizing.
By TYRANT Inc., Koizuka, Kumagaya, Japan
How to elevate a suburban box store into an intriguing and enjoyable space? This Japanese firm complicates the typical elongated rectangular in plan in several key way. First, the building appears to float thanks to a level difference, which helps it to stand out. Next, a small patio is carved into the front center of the building, not only enhancing the appearance from the outside, but also providing greenery on the interior, since the planted tree is visible from all sides of the commercial space. In this way a simple architectural design provides a rich presence for visitors.
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At the University of Kansas School of Architecture, graduate students have the option to enroll in Studio 804, which recently received a donation of a dozen shipping containers. The students worked to convert this gift into tiny homes for families who needed isolate during the pandemic. (The alternative was congregate housing.) Three solar collectors were placed on top of each unit to provide some electricity for inhabitants on the four beds inside.
This project joins a growing movement towards architecture that blends in rather than standing out by acting as an extension of the existing landscape. Following the natural movement of the site, this design responds to crowds moving by through and around the building by raising up the green space of the original landscape and incising it with terrazzo paths.
Perched on the most remote edge of the Las Vegas Valley, this scheme aims to immerse the client in the isolated landscape while maximizing unobstructed views of the surrounding desert and canyons. Like a stronghold in the desert, the site also inspired the design and materiality, which pays homage to the historic forts, hand forged from site-sourced materials, that dotted the fringes of the Southwest frontier.
Reworking and remodeling this 1960’s house also involved integrating a new and unconventional workshop for the owner, a university professor. Yet, as the architects explain, “inherent in [the] work was a questioning of the suburban vernacular,” which manifested as a raw and tough space that is ready for anything. While an angled industrial frame, wrapped in wood and glass, offers a clever reply to local pitched-roof mandates, the connecting breezeway emphasizes a parti about flow, both creative and spatial.
On one aspect the house seeks to express the laid-back nature of the seaside town; yet, because the surroundings are quite cramped, the architect had to carefully study the massing placement. This resulted in a sort of inside-out house, with an arrival courtyard penetrating to the central living deck that creates an in-between area that is convertible to be either indoor or outdoor living area.
This house is home to family members across generations, meaning that it requires spaces that accomodate differences in family members’ lifestyles, ages and personal needs. While the grandparents are used to the traditional Vietnamese lifestyle, the married couple and their children are familiar with the modern way of living in foreign countries. Faced with designing a massive structure, the architects needed to find a way to ensure that it blended in well with its surroundings.
Set on the second floor of a building in a mixed-use office park designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop in 2020, this store is inspired by its immediate surroundings. The space with floor to ceiling high curtain wall windows and an enclosed center core is the perfect platform to explore a place closely related to our day-to-day environment, the office. Representing a 70’s romanticized image of what an office life looks like, consumers experience this illusion of time wandering between the past and present. Working with bright color tones, soft carpets, and different textures creates a mood of future positivism.
The cinema is located in the area of a former Jewish quarter destroyed by the Nazis during the WWII. In the aftermath, the area was rebuilt using rubble from the former buildings. The designer of the cinema, the excellent pre-war architect Bohdan Lachert, faced a choice: either to design in the socialist realist style or not to design at all. It was only decades later that his ideas were appreciated. Seventy years later, these stories from the past had a strong influence on Piotr Hardecki Architekt’s refurbishment project.
A Primary Care Center (CAP) is an ideal public facility to consider the health of people from the construction itself, minimizing the generation of CO2 in the life cycle of materials and ensuring a healthy environment in the interior. This project introduces the surrounding landscape inside the building through a linear courtyard related to the waiting rooms. The use of the structure with microlaminated wood (CLT) for the first time in a CAP in Catalonia, generates a conceptual dialogue with the forests of Montseny (biosphere reserve) visible from the building, reduces the execution deadlines and waste and allows to achieve the highest energy rating A.
The complete redesign of the corporate image of the 15-year-old offices of a real estate company in Barcelona. The interior has been designed in a Nordic style, expressed through the use of wood that brings warmth, along with the minimalism of white. The structures made with wooden slats also function as spatial divides that simultaneously imbue the space with character and personality.