Articles by Reyyan Dogan

The European Cultural Centre (ECC) has announced the winners of the ECC Awards 2025, selected from participants of the seventh edition of Time Space Existence and unveiled during the exhibition’s Closing Day on 23 November 2025 in Venice. Bringing together 207 practices from more than 52 countries, this year’s edition highlighted a broad spectrum of architectural and design approaches responding to the themes of Repair, Regenerate, and Reuse. The awards recognise four projects that stood out for their originality, execution, narrative clarity, and forward-looking engagement with questions of sustainability, community, and the future of the built environment.

The 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, “Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.,” curated by Carlo Ratti, closed on 23 November 2025 as the most visited Architecture Biennale to date. The exhibition recorded 298,000 visitors, in addition to 17,584 preview attendees, surpassing previous editions despite the temporary closure of the Central Pavilion for restoration. Bringing together 303 projects and 758 invited architects, along with 66 National Participations and 11 Collateral Events, the edition extended across the Giardini, Arsenale, and multiple sites throughout Venice.

Heatherwick Studio and MANICA Architecture have released the design for Birmingham City Football Club’s new stadium, set to anchor the forthcoming Birmingham Sports Quarter in East Birmingham, England. The 62,000-seat venue, planned for Bordesley Green, forms part of a wider redevelopment strategy and coincides with the club’s 150th anniversary. Developed through a competition led by filmmaker Steven Knight, the project aims to introduce a multifunctional sports and cultural venue integrated into its urban context.

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.

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.

Across cultural districts and civic centers, this week’s architectural developments highlight how institutions and city governments are reshaping their futures amid shifting environmental, social, and economic pressures. New museum and opera projects signal ongoing commitments to expanding public cultural infrastructure, while the debate surrounding Dallas’ modernist City Hall illustrates the tensions that arise when questions of heritage meet rising maintenance demands and redevelopment pressures. At the same time, municipalities are advancing new regulatory tools to confront climate challenges, from electrification standards in Sydney and Boston to mobility restrictions and emerging forms of urban diplomacy. These developments reflect an increasingly complex landscape in which architectural environments evolve through a combination of cultural ambition, environmental targets, and shifting models of public decision-making.

Snøhetta has revealed new images of their winning design for the new Düsseldorf Opera House. First launched in 2017, the “Opera House of the Future” competition experienced several interruptions over the years due to shifts in the planned construction site, extending the decision-making process for this significant cultural project. The new building is set to accommodate the Deutsche Oper am Rhein alongside the City of Düsseldorf‘s Music Library and the Clara Schumann Music School, forming a consolidated cultural venue. The proposal aims to establish a contemporary opera house that strengthens the city’s cultural infrastructure and public life.

Coldefy, in collaboration with Relief Architecture, has completed the Robert Badinter Secondary School, the first timber-framed school in northern France. Designed to accommodate 650 students, the project is situated on a former railyard adjacent to the city’s train station and within walking distance of the town center. The new school forms part of a wider urban renewal strategy aiming to consolidate transportation links and introduce new civic amenities to the area.

As the 19th International Architecture Exhibition enters its final week before closing on November 23, the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale offers a lens through which to revisit the ideas and experiments that have shaped this year’s global architectural conversation. Curated by Carlo Ratti under the theme “Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.”, the Biennale brings together more than 750 participants across national pavilions, collateral events, and city-wide installations. Framed around interconnected forms of intelligence, this edition examines architecture‘s role in navigating climatic instability, evolving technologies, and emerging forms of collaboration.

BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group has been selected as the winner of the international competition to design the new Hamburg State Opera, a major cultural project planned for the Baakenhöft peninsula in HafenCity, Hamburg, Germany. The building will consolidate the city’s opera and ballet companies under one roof, introducing new performance spaces, production facilities, and public amenities along the Elbe. The project replaces the mid-20th-century opera house on Dammtorstraße, responding to the city’s call for a venue that reflects contemporary standards in acoustics, stagecraft, and audience experience.