Community

The Luanda Waterpoints project improved and adapted three water access points on the outskirts of the city. The project aims to show how small-scale interventions and low-cost solutions can have an impact on the quality of life of disadvantaged populations. The interventions favour local labour and encourage the reuse of materials. With this in mind, we visited informal, open-air markets in Luanda and found a series of metal modules that were originally used in guardrails on urban elements in the city centre. These modules were purchased and adapted for use in the waterpoints project.

In the densely built-up area of Jingumae, where workers and residences are intermingled, we designed a complex facility open to the public with a series of marble floors. The circular slabs create a generous gap between the building and the adjacent properties, allowing maximum light and wind to enter from the outside.

Centro DIF is a community center in the heart of San Pedro Comitancillo, a small town in Oaxaca in the Istmo de Tehuantepec region. This intervention replaces a deteriorated single-level facility where care was provided to the community in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. 

Children from Prague now have one more reason to play outside: among the apartment blocks stands the circular Nami Play Pavilion – an experimental playground full of free elements. Created as one of the installations for the Prague Landscape Festival, its goal is not only to expand play options for local residents but also to spark discussion about the current state of children’s play in the city. ‘Today’s playgrounds are standardized and composed just of colorful, fixed equipment on a rubber surface. We have nothing against swings, but we believe children deserve a bit more, both functionally and aesthetically,’ says Eduard Herrmann, one of the duo behind Nami ñami studio, the creators of the project.

“The Veil” City Lounge captures the essence of its surroundings at Sungang, Shenzhen, and showcases unique design concepts to create a harmonious blend of contrasts. Situated in a vibrant yet running down, rough, and masculine neighborhood, our building embodies the metaphor of a beautiful entity patiently biding its time, waiting to reveal its true allure. Much like a delicate veil being unveiled, it is a captivating structure in its environment.

The site is located next to Dosan Park in Gangnam, one of Seoul’s most heavily trafficked neighborhoods. As Seoul expanded in the 1960s, the area around the site was laid out in a grid-like urban plan with wide streets and has recently become denser. The site faces a narrow road compared to the surrounding roads, but many people use it.

Located between the Mae Rim-Samoeng Road and the Mae Sa River, the project envisions a small café where customers can enjoy the natural surroundings. The aim is to keep the buildings as compact as necessary, prioritizing outdoor spaces under the shade of existing trees, avoiding any encroachment on the river, and preserving the original large trees. The site’s unique features include a low-lying valley significantly below road level, gently sloping down to the riverbank.

An architectural complex adapting to its natural surroundings – The entrance to Dragon Mountain’s natural tourist site is marked by a view of the mountain within the axis of the site’s entrance alley. This alley splits into two separate lanes once entered the site: one lane climbs up towards the mountain and the other descends slightly towards two small ponds, situated on a lower level and surrounded by trees. Aiming to adapt the complex to this natural site, the main architectural stance was to fragment the 3000 m² surface into five architectural elements adapting to the topography and the natural context of the site. The five architectural elements are situated and organized around a small square.