French Architect Marc Fornes reimagines The Architectural Folly – Like a mirage made solid, L’île Folie rises from the water in the heart of Downtown Cary Park – part pavilion, part sculpture, and entirely unexpected. More than a landmark, it is a playful reinvention of an old idea: the architectural folly.
A preserved space near a residential neighborhood, its contours shaped over the years by the passage of water that gradually carved out these sunken lanes. To access the site, one crosses the wooded edge and discovers the meadow: a protected landscape with trees as its horizon. All the classrooms benefit from an unobstructed view of the generous playgrounds, with this wooded edge as a backdrop. It is this clearing, this inner landscape, conducive to the establishment of a school, that we wanted to capture: a world apart, both a protected space and a place of learning, experimentation, and discovery.
This is a residence building designed for a multi-generational family. Due to the climate of northern China, this house adopts an introverted design strategy, with a central light well organizing the family space. Exterior windows on different facades, as well as large and small skylights create a soft, pleasant interior light experience. The floor plan is derived from the classic nine-square grid. This basic form contains closely related and independent components, which can well complete the ritual transition from public activity space to private residence. The spatial pattern of the nine-square grid is also very consistent with the Chinese cultural understanding of home and living space.
Nested within the layered folds of this mountain city, RICHAUS inserts itself as a contemporary geometric volume engaged in a dialogue with nature, embedded into the vast, complex terrain of Southwest China. Throughout the design process, Vari Architects persistently explored how to create an interlaced condition between architecture and nature, and among people—essentially, a relationship and an interface—within the context of urban regeneration. Through a new architectural order, we aimed to reinvest significance into an overlooked office building within the urban fabric, transforming it into a public cultural hub that connects culture, community, industry, and commerce—thereby pointing toward a more open, abundant, and continuously evolving community center.
The Station of Mons, one of the larger train stations in Belgium, is conceived as a monumental bridge spanning the tracks. The Gallery stands as a connector, uniting the historic heart of the city to the south and the emerging Grand Pres district to the north.
Carved into the Hejaz Mountains, Desert Rock Blends Architecture with Nature, Setting a New Standard for Immersive Travel
Carved into the Hejaz Mountains, Desert Rock Blends Architecture with Nature, Setting a New Standard for Immersive Travel
De Nederlandsche Bank (1968) is located on the historic ‘Utrechtse Poort’ site close to Amsterdam’s canal belt. Until 1929, this was the location of the Paleis voor Volksvlijt (Palace of Industry), designed by Samuel Sarphati, which was destroyed by fire that same year. Sarphati’s vision – uniting culture, economy, entrepreneurship, and science in one place for all people – was revolutionary at the time. De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) is the independent central bank of the Netherlands, committed to financial stability, a smooth and secure payment system, and the supervision of financial institutions. The DNB building, designed by architect Marius Duintjer, was modern and functional. However, it was not embraced by the people of Amsterdam, who found that it was unapproachable and contrasted with the historic architecture of the city centre. For the complex – consisting of a low-rise, square-shaped building (110 x 120 metres) and a 73-metre-high office tower – Duintjer drew inspiration from the mid-century modern architecture of Mies van der Rohe and SOM found in the United States. At the time, the design was pioneering due to its minimalist lines, restrained use of materials, and transparency. However, that sense of transparency was soon lost due to security requirements; the building became a fortress with fences, large boulders, and armed military police. In 1991, a circular tower was added in the courtyard, and a third floor was placed atop the low-rise square. With the decision to relocate the gold reserves and banknote operations to the Cash Centre in Zeist, the opportunity arose to transform this heavily secured and overdue-for-renovation building and open it up to the greater public in a more engaging way. The circular tower was no longer needed and could be dismantled in a modular manner.
Wave Imaginary — Whether in literature or science, waves are both ubiquitous and mysterious. In the everyday environment of Earth, only a few visible continuous media generate observable waves, such as water waves, while experiences at the human scale are even rarer, with surfers being among the few who can enter the interior of ocean waves. As a man-made structure, architecture is formed through static systems that create fixed spaces to meet human needs for activities and rest within flat surfaces. Consequently, it is challenging to draw direct comparisons with dynamic systems like waves. Only fixed locations such as skateboarding pools provide an experience of dynamic undulation. In recent works by Scenic Architecture Office, the focus has consistently been on three directions: “courtyard settlement,” “extension of homes,” and “free cell.” Among these, “free cell” explore new architectural forms through the integration of technology and spatial experience. The continuous undulation of mountains and waters, the traditional clustering of architectural rooftops, the reproduction of cells, and the transmission of information all share a morphological connection to waves. We have been continuously thinking whether the morphology of waves could offer further insights for the future of architecture. The “Wave Cube” project by Jin Hai Lake has provided us with a rare opportunity for exploration.
The site is located on the suburban edge of Kunshan High-Tech Zone, within an area planned as an industrial park. When we first visited, the area was still largely vacant land. A small canal along the western edge connects to the Wusong River a short distance to the south; downstream it becomes Suzhou Creek, which flows through Shanghai and joins the Huangpu River at the Bund.
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