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Moving from a large villa into a 1300-square-foot apartment might seem like a loss, but this apartment in Stavanger, Norway, designed by interior architect Gudbjørg Simonsen for a couple in their early 50s, treats the reduction as a design opportunity rather than a constraint. The result is an interior organized around subtraction, where the discipline of limitation becomes the design language itself.

Photography by Arne Bru Haug

The clearest evidence is in how storage is handled. Rather than furnishing the rooms with cabinets and wardrobes, Simonsen absorbed storage into the architecture, running integrated volumes along the central circulation so that the corridor doubles as infrastructure. The approach recalls Danish designer Kaare Klint’s emphasis on storage tailored to everyday use, though here the idea is expressed through sleek Poliform joinery. The wardrobe becomes less an object in the room than an extension of the walls.

Photography by Arne Bru Haug

The living room, dining area, and kitchen occupy a single open volume along the park-facing facade, while the two bedrooms and bathrooms sit deeper in the plan. What makes it work is that the apartment carries no visual debt: There is no freestanding bookcase, no sideboard, no accumulation of the containers a larger house permits. Every object that remains earns its place.

Photography by Arne Bru Haug

Simonsen describes the apartment as “suite-like,” drawing on the hotel suite’s carefully considered balance of comfort and restraint. Having recently downsized from a large villa, the owners embraced an interior that prioritizes atmosphere over abundance, with lighting and furnishings by Bocci, Ochre, and Apparatus contributing to its calm, residential feel.

Photography by Arne Bru Haug

In Studio City, a Los Angeles neighborhood known for its blend of privacy and lush greenery, sits a modern sanctuary. Here, architecture, landscape, and interiors were conceived to strengthen the connection between nature and residential space. Designed by Shlomi Sfadia of SLS Properties with architecture by Avi Galili and landscape design by Studio Elico, the home evokes the feeling of a private retreat—despite being a full-time residence.

Photography by Nils Timm

A two-level home with roughly 5,550 square feet of interior space, Obsidian House was conceptualized to maximize the relationship between interior living and the surrounding landscape. Its showstopping kitchen is anchored by an impressive 24-foot indoor planter, while the open-plan main living area flows seamlessly between the kitchen, dining, and lounge spaces. Large glazing panels and sliding doors reinforce the home’s spatial flow, allowing natural light and greenery to extend deep into the interior.

Photography by Nils Timm

For Sfadia, the 24-foot planter shaped the early stages of the design process. “I wanted nature to be more than something you looked at through a window; I wanted it to become part of the architecture itself,” he says. “It became the heart of the house, reinforcing the feeling that you’re living within a garden rather than simply next to one.” Once the central planter was established, it influenced every subsequent design decision.

Photography by Nils Timm

In direct contrast to the bright hues typical of Southern California properties, Obsidian House’s color story aptly reflects its name. Deep charcoals and muted wood tones lend the residence a quiet drama, while limestone and layered greenery add livability and warmth. The palette creates depth and permanence, complemented by rich materials and textured finishes suited to the surrounding climate.

Photography by Nils Timm

Charred wood cladding, lava stone, limestone, and textured finishes were selected for their raw, tactile qualities, helping connect the home to its natural setting. Prioritizing material resilience and the ability to develop visual richness over time, the design team opted for organic finishes and climate-appropriate materials.

“Throughout the day, the house changes with the light,” Sfadia says. “It’s a home that reveals itself over time, rather than all at once.”

Photography by Nils Timm

Studio Elico founder Eli Bahar led the landscape design, helping transform the house into an inviting oasis where nature is not merely decorative but seamlessly extends into the architecture. Vegetation and landscape elements are woven throughout the property, refining the home’s sculptural forms and contributing to the space’s sensory dialogue.

Photography by Nils Timm

Bahar says that the collaboration between Avi Galili and SLS Properties was continuous from the earliest stages of the project. “We carefully coordinated planter locations, tree placements, views, lighting, and circulation so that the landscape became an extension of the architecture,” he explains. “Every space was designed to be experienced as one unified environment rather than separate disciplines.”

Photography by Nils Timm

The challenge was to create impact through atmosphere and material consistency rather than through spectacle. From conception to completion, the project took 18 months, resulting in a two-level residence with five bedrooms and six baths.

Obsidian House prioritizes fluidity and connection through its open-plan living areas. Outdoor patios create a seamless dialogue between exterior and interior spaces, while the kitchen’s indoor planter transforms a functional environment into a living tableau. Outfitted with a floating sink and a mirror positioned against a floor-to-ceiling window, the powder room integrates greenery directly into its material composition. A dedicated media room adds a sense of quiet intimacy to the home.

Photography by Nils Timm

The transitions throughout the house, from intimate spaces to light-filled courtyards, were designed by Avi Galili with great intention. “I’m most proud of the restraint,” he says. “It’s easy to create dramatic architecture by adding more, but much harder to create it through proportion, materiality, and carefully choreographed spaces.” The architecture creates moments where nature is not observed from a distance but experienced as part of daily life.

Photography by Nils Timm

Together, the interiors, architecture, and landscape design create a stunning oasis for Southern California living, creating a quiet retreat from the surrounding city. From the moment of arrival, natural materials, filtered light, water, and lush planting create an immediate sense of calm. As Sfadia says: “If someone walks in and immediately feels like they’re on vacation without knowing exactly why, then the design has done its job.”

Photography by Nils Timm

Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism has announced that Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will open to the public on December 11, 2026, on Saadiyat Island. The museum, designed by the late Frank Gehry, becomes the fourth institution in the Guggenheim's global network, joining outposts in New York, Venice, and Bilbao.

La Negrilla House is a vacation home located in Matanzas, Chile, approximately two and a half hours south of Santiago. Situated 164 feet (50 meters) above sea level, the house overlooks the Pacific Ocean and the surrounding coastal landscape.

Território-Parque Project
The Território-Parque (Park-Territory) project stems from the immense challenge of re-establishing and creating the urban, architectural, and landscape conditions for the community of Córrego do Feijão—the main group impacted by the dam collapse in January 2019—to remain and reconnect with their place of origin and history.

There was an old house and beyond it, the much older Fossil Ridge Park. Alive with lizards, deer, snakes, coyotes, birds, butterflies, bees, moths, dragonflies, and more. Don't forget the heritage trees. Oaks springing from ancient granite outcrops surrounding the site still retained a vestige of grandeur in their clusters.

Enfants Rouges area is the starting point and centerpiece of this Parisian apartment.

Displacement is usually understood through movement: the moment people are forced to move from one place to another. Yet from an architectural perspective, that movement is only the beginning of what comes next. A house may need to be rebuilt, an entire community relocated, or everyday life reestablished somewhere completely new. What is lost through displacement is not always something architecture can simply replace.

Located in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, the project occupies the terminus of a narrow dead-end alley, enclosed on three sides by neighboring residences and a school. With only a single point of access, the site is constrained by limited accessibility, daylight, and natural ventilation. In contrast, its adjacency to the school's sports field introduces an unexpected visual openness, providing a rare spatial relief within the dense urban fabric and becoming the project's primary environmental asset.

The White Bay Power Station precinct and Glebe Island, two key sites in one of the last major redevelopment sites on Sydney's inner harbour, are the focus of a new international design competition launched by the New South Wales Government. The open, two-stage Bays West International Design Competition seeks a design-led Urban Framework that will guide the transformation of the precinct into a new waterfront neighbourhood.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has inscribed Aalto Works, a collection of thirteen buildings and architectural ensembles across Finland designed by Aino Marsio-Aalto, Elissa Aalto, and Alvar Aalto, on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The designation recognizes the international significance of a body of work that helped redefine modern architecture through a human-centered approach, emphasizing the relationship between buildings, everyday life, nature, and social well-being. Spanning projects completed between the late 1920s and the 1980s, the series represents Finland's contribution to the Modern Movement while acknowledging the collaborative practice of the Aaltos and their studio.

Where the Haussmannian and Faubourg urban fabrics meet, the project at 206 Rue Lafayette transforms a diverse site comprising eight buildings arranged around a central courtyard.

The European Cultural Centre Italy has announced the finalists of the ECC Awards, presented as part of Personal Structures – Confluences, the eighth edition of its international contemporary exhibition, running in parallel with the Venice Art Biennale. Running in Venice from 9 May to 22 November 2026 across Palazzo Bembo, Palazzo Mora and the Marinaressa Gardens, the exhibition provides the backdrop for the awards, which celebrate artistic practices engaging with the show's theme, Confluences, through research, interdisciplinarity and dialogue with place. The winners will be announced on 22 November 2026, during the exhibition's closing event.

Central America's nations occupy a narrow land bridge between Mexico and Colombia, but they were not born as separate countries. They emerged from a single entity: the Federal Republic of Central America in 1823. That federation collapsed, yet the ideal of a unified region never fully died. In 1951, the governments signed the Charter of San Salvador, creating ODECA, the Organization of Central American States. Four decades later, the 1991 Protocol of Tegucigalpa replaced it with SICA, the Central American Integration System, the framework guiding regional cooperation today. Within this integration process, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE) was founded in 1960 by Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, establishing its headquarters in Tegucigalpa. On the surface, it is a conventional late-20th-century office complex, but look closer at its façade, and the building becomes an argument about identity. One written in pink quarry stone from the very hills that surround the Honduran capital.

Hyangrindongsan in Dongbaek-dong, Yongin, is an established residential enclave where detached houses are scattered along the edge of forested slopes. Positioned according to the natural topography, the houses, retaining walls, trees, and level changes overlap to create layered visual connections, guiding the eye from intimate gardens toward the distant landscape. Located midway up the hillside, the site naturally frames views of the surrounding village and woodland.

The Melody House, designed by Ar. Arpan Shah, is a residence designed for a Gujarati family whose lives are deeply intertwined with art and music. Located on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, the house draws inspiration from the spatial richness of the city's traditional havelis while reinterpreting these principles through a contemporary architectural language.

Recorded live at Milan Design Week 2026 in partnership with INDX|GLOBAL, the tenth episode of the Room For Dreams podcast looks at how buildings outgrow their original blueprints. Architects Parvez Alam and Priyanka Arjun, alongside interior designer Aditi Sharma, discuss why the best architecture is never truly finished.

This project centers on an innovative interplay between two contrasting materials: felt and metal. Connected by custom triangular fasteners, these disparate materials are integrated and recontextualized. This juxtaposition softens the cold, austere quality of metal while unleashing the sculptural, three-dimensional potential of felt. By introducing felt as a modular element within the spatial narrative, the design transcends conventional material boundaries, achieving a balanced, symbiotic relationship.

In the rapidly densifying landscape of Toronto, where a growing array of boisterous architectural statement pieces compete for attention, a new home designed by interior designer Gillian Gillies stands as a welcome reprieve. Sustainability, so often associated with clinical engineering, soaring towers, expansive campuses, and stark, performance-driven aesthetics, is here reimagined as a “warm embrace.” Located in the upmarket “urban village” neighborhood of Leaside, the Net Zero Ready Home project proves that advanced environmental stewardship and joyful, idiosyncratic interiors can coexist.

Photography by Doublespace Photography

The project is the result of a tight collaboration between Gillian Gillies (the designer’s eponymous practice), Dewson Architects, and builders Cliff & Evans. While the technical foundation is rooted in passive house principles—featuring meticulously tested air and moisture control layers to ensure a consistent year-round temperature—the sensory quality of the home is defined by texture, color, and family connection. “Comfort was paramount,” Gillies says, “and that meant a home that was properly constructed as well as [comfortable furniture].”

Photography by Doublespace Photography

Gillies, originally from Edinburgh, brings a sensibility rooted in the permanence of neoclassical and Georgian architecture, translated here through a palette of natural materials including white oak, walnut, and wool. Each room is tailored to its intended function, while bold floral wallcoverings and textured tile add personality. Rather than the sterile “newness” typical of contemporary high-performance homes, the interiors embrace deliberate juxtaposition.

Photography by Doublespace Photography

“We don’t perfectly match textiles,” Gillies explains. “Instead, we like a little bit of tension, a little bit of a mismatch that makes the home feel more settled.”

This philosophy is most evident in the communal spaces, where the design explicitly fosters human interaction. A double-sided sofa in the living room invites simultaneous yet distinct modes of engagement. A floating box window seat in the foyer provides a quiet nook for reflection. The color story—a grounding base of greens and blues punctuated by vibrant flashes of yellow and red—mirrors the family’s love of travel and the natural world.

Photography by Doublespace Photography

Throughout the four-story structure, strategically placed architectural and decorative lighting shapes the mood. A Lutron HomeWorks system seamlessly transitions the atmosphere from energetic to intimate. Sculptural pendants from Montreal-based boutique producers Lambert & Fils and Gabriel Scott add a layer of contemporary craft. Vintage Brazilian furniture and Oaxacan woven baskets reinforce the space’s warm, tactile quality.

Photography by Doublespace Photography

Ultimately, this Toronto home stands as a testament to the idea that thoughtful architecture can improve everyday life. By prioritizing the wellbeing of both the planet and a specific family, Gillies created a structure that does more than just store carbon; it’s a space that holds life in all its complexity.

“We create homes to be lived in and not simply looked at,” she says. In striking this careful balance, the designer has created a home that will undoubtedly last through the generations.

Photography by Doublespace Photography

Casa Sabina transforms a family home into a residential complex that preserves the memory of an existing house while adapting it to new ways of living.