The post Salone del Mobile.Milano 2026 | Fiera Milano, Rho, Italy was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

The post Nea Aigli Zappeion All-Day Café And Restaurant was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

The post Apartment in Lycabettus was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

The post Apartamento WT | São Paulo, Brazil was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

The post Milos Cove was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

The post SALONE DEL MOBILE.MILANO 2025 Fiera Milano, Rho, Italy was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

The post Pfizer Digital Hub | Digital Innovation Center in Thessaloniki was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

The post Offices in Syngrou Avenue was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

In this detached duplex of the Rosemont district in Montreal, the owners wanted to transform the ground floor and the semi-basement to make it their home. The second floor was preserved for their tenant. A garden was also to be laid out all around the building as well as a terrace in the back, connected to the living area.

The architects first sought to reorganize the partitions to obtain fluid circulations and spaces that are well-proportioned, clean, and uncluttered.

Several new openings have been made in the exterior walls to illuminate the space at any time of the day. They also opened the floor to create a large double-height space for the new staircase, thus reinforcing an impression of continuity between the two levels. A large piece of satin glass between the office and the stair allows these spaces to benefit from the light coming from the neighboring space while ensuring privacy.

The lighting has also been thought of from a functional point of view but also for the ambiance it can create and also for the beauty of the object itself in space.

For this project, the architects have designed several elements of integrated furniture that meet the needs of the clients in their daily activities. The built-in furniture also acts as a partition and defines the space.

Great care is taken in detail and in the choice of materials. In this project, white oak, polished concrete, and white or anthracite lacquered panels are the main materials used.

Continuity of materials throughout the house also contributes to an impression of fluidity between the spaces. The woodblock, made with white oak panels, which borders the corridor on the ground floor, turns into the living room and becomes a service cabinet for the dining table. Likewise, the white lacquered panels of the built-in kitchen furniture become the covering material of the staircase walls and descend to the basement.

Other materials are added to the palette of the project, such as the brass lighting fixtures or the Bianco Carrara marble mosaic that covers the surfaces of the bathroom on the ground floor.

Polished concrete is also found in several places in the project. It is used as a slab poured on-site but also as elements cast and polished in the workshop to make wall panels as well as steps and stair landings.

In the basement bathroom, these polished concrete wall panels are also used, as if the floor were rising on the walls. The bathroom is visually split in two: the concrete dry area with its white oak vanity, and the wet area covered with small white ceramic tiles.

Paul Bernier Architecte

The post 10th Avenue was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

Chemin des Carrières, the Quarries’ Track, is a lace undulating in the landscape, an invitation to travel as our ambition behind the reconquest of the Rosheim-St Nabor railway in Alsace, France. Ominous, sometimes hidden, the vestiges of the railway still mark the reading of the site. The desire to create a route to serve the quarries had to adapt to the undulating landscapes of the sub-Vosges hills and the very form of the tracing tells the history of the landscape and the men. The journey to discover forgotten landscapes or to take a different view on everyday landscapes is addressed to both local users and tourists. Like the old track that offered a dual function (industrial and passenger transport), the route has a double vocation where the functional must rub shoulders with the imaginary of travel. Along the 11km path goes a story, which the stops split into five chapters of different sequences of landscapes offering varied universes and highlighting remarkable sites. Unusual elements punctuate the way, aiming at awakening the visitor’s senses, and water is encountered repeatedly.

Rosheim tells the story of the past. Realized by intertwined circles in Corten steel, the pavilion has a labyrinthine character and play with irregular concave and convex interiors, which the visitors are free to roam. The train tracks are conserved in that area, benches are built, and openings are created to open or close the sculpture to chosen views of the surrounding landscape allowing for viewing, seating – reflexion and contemplation. 

Boersch tells the story of water. The river, which historically allowed connection to the world and tells about the true cleanliness of a place. It is a dynamic element in the landscape, running to the ocean. We enlarge the riverbed and build a large open space amphitheater to access the water.

Leonardsau tells the story of the land. After a long green tunnel, two large corten steel plates amplify the opening effect at the end of the forest corridor to the open landscape, embodying a gate and opening a perspective towards Mont St-Odile, which develops the idea of discovery. Ottrott tells the story of travel. Former train station, the stop materializes the history of the railway and highlight the presence of the heritage (balance, bridge, crane, pump…). In a fabric of housing buildings, the reservoir, symbolizing water, and concrete crossings connect housing to historical elements and landscape.

Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter

Florent Michel @11h45

The post Chemin des Carrières was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

Junshan Cultural Center is located just outside of Beijing, in the midst of the undulating mountain ranges and meandering rivers near the Miyun Reservoir. Originally this was just a typical two-story sales building on the outskirts of Beijing; Neri&Hu was asked to transform this donut-shaped building into an iconic clubhouse and sales center. Neri&Hu took advantage of the existing courtyard typology by crafting two sequences of interlocking journeys, one for clubhouse members, and one for sales center guests. All programmed spaces are designed so that they are in proximity to nature. The layering of the primary courtyard and smaller gardens allow the architecture to merge harmoniously with nature.

Drawing inspiration from its context, the architecture combines traditional northern features with contemporary architectural language and is transformed into a new interpretation of architectural expression. The building quietly rises out of the water as a brick mass with carved out spaces for programs interlocked with gardens that blur the boundary between inside and outside. On the façade, warm-toned wood- patterned aluminum panels form a veil that softens the heaviness of the brick facade. Moments of the screen connects with each interior space, creating a façade that is spontaneous and different on every face. In terms of materiality, traditional gold brick tiles form the foundation of the building mass, extending from exterior landscape into the interior “in-between” spaces. With brick and wood panels as the primary backdrop for the interior, a common theme throughout the interior is the sculpted ceiling.

Programmatically, the cultural center provides a number of luxurious and spacious amenities for its members. It includes a 100-person multi-purpose hall for events, a spacious business lounge and bar, a feature library, children’s reading room, private function room, family media room, a red-wine and cigar lounge bar and a rooftop deck. Part of the cultural center is functioning as a sales center. A double-height reception welcomes potential buyers to embark on a journey through the media room, winter garden, then upstairs across a bridge over the courtyard to a generous sales presentation lounge complete with VIP rooms, bar and children’s playroom. One of the most prominent spaces in the clubhouse is an art gallery, equipped with a series of hanging moveable walls for a flexible display system. The sculpted ceiling above gives some visual connection to the upper level, while a large glass picture window allows the space to extend into the courtyard. On the second floor, a generous yet inviting private dining room, complete with a bar and show-kitchen allows members to rent out the space for special functions. The red-wine and cigar lounge bar and rooftop deck on the third floor has an uninterrupted view of the surrounding mountainous landscape to west. Space comes alive with the many different geometric cuts carved out to interact with the sky and daylight such that each space is ever-changing when light is reflected off of the rich texture of Venetian plaster. The layering of customized furniture, refined brass metal detail, natural veins of stone accents, softness of fabric, and delicate lighting elements work together to compose a sense of understated luxury.

Neri&Hu Design and Research Office

Pedro Pegenaute, Xia Zhi

The post Junshan Cultural Center was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

The former Lourcine barracks are located in Paris’ 13th district and comprise a parade ground with accompanying military buildings erected in 1875. The project calls for elements of the University of Paris I – library, lecture theatre, classrooms, offices – to be installed within the old buildings and in basement levels under the parade ground.

The project aims to make the most of this Parisian heritage, taking a precision approach that will as far as possible retain the existing spaces and preserve the historic character of the site. ChartierDalix is seeking to adapt the project and its new activities to the buildings without erasing their past. The parade ground retains its central, unifying and symbolic role, as a landscaped forecourt sloping down to frame the new access to the gallery and lecture theatre. Lecture and classrooms are inserted into the existing buildings, making the most of their spatial qualities (ceiling heights, noble materials).

The qualities of the existing site are magnified by the complete freeing up of the spaces: the simple application of flocking on the underside of the arches (acoustics and fire prevention), as well as the complete absence of false ceilings, thus revealing the technical installations, helps to maintain the existing volumes.

A certain “brutalism”, linked to the visibility of all the utility networks, contrasts with the fine details of the made-to-measure furniture and the nobility of the raw materials (steel, solid oak, floorboards).

For the interior design of the reading rooms in the library, we have chosen to position the aisles along the façades to allow the light to freely enter the building and thus free up the view of the succession of windows.

A monumental winding staircase marks the entrance to the library at both the garden level and the ground floor up to the first floor. Its size makes it a remarkable architectural feature and reveals the volume of the building and the height of a whole section.

The eastern end of the connecting gallery of the Lourcine site leads to a section that opens onto the Rue Broca. The reception level thus provides a direct link with the outside and the street at garden level.

In the upper floors, a wide and generous walkway filled with natural light provides the opportunity to create a meeting place over several floors: each floor is thus linked by the main, open staircase that provides direct access to the classrooms without taking the closed staircases.

The garden level gallery, linked to these walkways, transforms them into places to share and exchange in which a number of alcoves have been built for working: building 2 thus becomes a sort of “learning centre” perfectly adapted to new ways of learning and teaching.

The 500-seat amphitheatre, a major feature of the Lourcine campus, is installed at the lowest point of the parade ground where the old car park was and along the north / south axis of the site. It is accessed through a gallery entirely covered with self-weathering steel that provides a continuity with the central esplanade.

The self-weathering steel, a warm, vibrant and changing material, accompanies the visitor throughout all the outside public areas and extends right into the interior. It is a skin that shows the marks of time and embodies the new face of the Lourcine campus.

Chartier Dalix Architects

Sergio Grazia

The post Lourcine Barracks Rehabilitation was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

In the historic center of a well-preserved village, opposite the church, a wine barn and its adjoining house were to be restructured in order to create an intimate and special living environment.

Features of heritage and prestige remained in the existing house: the stone staircase, the cement tiles, and the wooden roof framing, while the barn’s large volume and minimalist forms have turned into an open-plan and fluid living space, opening right up to the exterior through a square patio at the rear.

The existing house space is given over to the bedrooms, whereas the old wine barn welcomes the everyday family life activities. The archetypal barn form, all in one long structure, successively provides the kitchen, living room, and large table leading out onto the patio and the swimming pool. The position of the pool, adjoining the building, creates various atmospheres for each moment of life, allowing to experience the seasonal rhythms throughout the natural vibrations of air and matter.

On the outside, part of the roof of the original barn was removed to design the open-air patio. The composition of this space – within four walls – echoes the Mediterranean lifestyle. Furthermore, the choice was made to keep one of the gable stone walls of the barn, a vestige of the past, to ensure the thermal efficiency of the building. The limestone retains the right humidity level throughout the night, especially in summer, keeping the place cool and pleasant to use.

The patio also features half of the lap pool. The “half-pool half-patio” pattern gives this water slice its fundamental posture: it is the pivot of the overall outdoor composition and connects it with the indoors.

The three dimensions of architecture, history, and technicity are in dialogue and this project writes a “tailor-made” narrative in each and every detail, giving the place its own unique spirit.

(ma!ca) architecture

Julien Kerdraon

The post House in a City Center was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

In the house, space is used but has yet to be lived in. The family, who has recently moved in, is settling in, capturing sensations and sequences which will soon become the pillars of the upcoming project.

The owners wanted to renovate and adapt this house in Courdimanche, France, to their way of life, a more comfortable one, and above all, in accordance with their tastes. This project gave us time to think about spaces in a new light, with new use, especially for children.

The main asset of the house was its light, and the double-height volume in the living room, unexploited until then. As a result, a mezzanine net came to life in this space, allowing the outdoor light to come through, yet offering another way to take over this area.

The white floor on the ground floor, beyond its high reflective potential, brings out all the elements that are put down on it. The flooring shade also highlights an inversion of sensations with the shuttered concrete ceiling. This change upsets the habits to reinforce the notion of the void at the center of the net.

The integrated furnishings, mostly oak with some black spots, bring warm fragments to the place, structuring the clear and infinite space. The goal was to reorganize these living spaces developed upon two floors, in order to create a general coherence in the project, while at the same time creating distinct areas dedicated to a specific use.

The central area links both levels as a backbone. It is a huge sculpted wooden volume, in which several functions and usages are articulated: it is, on the one hand, the stairs that lead to the other floors but also access the basement, the toilets, the bar, the library, the storage for vinyl records, and the television unit. The whole is materialized with games of solids and voids, punctuated by numerous spaces hidden by door curtains or small trap doors.

In parallel, a piece of furniture going through the front entrance of the house welcomes us, inviting us to sit down and take our shoes off before coming in. This piece goes up to the living room wall, facing the central block. This pathway made of wood throughout conceals numerous Hi-Fi storage units.

In front of it, a line develops along the wall, on each side of the stove, with on one side a bench seat with integrated storage for parents, welcoming relaxation, and on the other, toys storage for children to play with. The whole is topped by large shelves, as a ribbon unrolling on the wall, sheltering books, and subdued lighting.

The mezzanine net becomes, depending on the time of day, a space for children to play, a place to relax in family, or a movie room.

Bordering the net, along the wall, a wooden strip inhabits the residual space under the sloping roof, offering a number of storages, and integrating a video projector and home cinema, concealed behind sliding doors once the showing is over. This strip continues on the next wall with a different shape, where the structure of the net is wrapped by wood and allows for a sequence of tiny trap doors, with some more storage spaces.

Like a theatrical production, the light falls onto the walls and the furniture, as such creating a warm atmosphere throughout the day, making these spaces pleasant and soothing. The result is a true call for relaxation in this area, where everybody finds their own space without cluttering the available space.

Martins | Afonso atelier de design

Mickaël Martins Afonso

The post Around the Net was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.

Neri&Hu is an inter-disciplinary architectural practice, operative since 2004 by partners Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, based in Shanghai, China with an additional office in London, UK. The multiple award-winning practice (their most recent awards being the 2014 Designer of the year by Wallpaper* Magazine, London UK and the Hall of Fame 2013 by Interior Design Magazine, New York, USA) has undertaken projects in architecture, master planning, interior, graphic and product design at an international level. Composed of a multi-cultural staff speaking over 30 languages, Neri&Hu’s vision is to respond to a global worldview incorporating overlapping design disciplines for a new paradigm in architecture.

Both of you qualified architects, you have taught at the University of Hong Kong Graduate School of Architecture, often invited as critics in several design US schools, and you have both worked in large projects in the US and Asia for a number of architectural practices prior to establishing your own, additionally developing your own lighting, furniture and decoration product line. Your plethora of received awards could mean you have stricken that very sought-after balance between theoretical and practical experience?

We consider ourselves very lucky and blessed to be able to do what we love and still make a living and create a business (platform) for other designers to work on what they love as well. We don’t know if we have achieved the sought after balance, as we feel that there are many things we are not able to do and we would like to do better. The business and practice side of architecture is shifting from traditional models and we are looking for ways to accommodate those changes.

Refined is another way to characterise your designs. How would you describe your design process, as a duo?

Interdisciplinary research is part of our design process. It is intrinsically intertwined with every project from the start.

For every project, we always start with a concept and we also do a lot of research. We are still too young to have a distinct language. We think it is important to experiment and explore different design ideas. Of course there are issues that we always explore such as layering, transparency, texture, framing and materiality. So in essence some of these issues are always part of our projects. Questions of culture and aesthetic philosophy concern us deeply and we also want to relate what we do to the everyday and the public.

One perceives other ethnic characteristics in your work, yet the result emits a distinct and delicate geometry that strikes as very Chinese. Is designing with roots in history a conscious approach, based on your experience?

The western architectural tradition forms the basis of our architectural education, but culturally we are very much Chinese, and there are Influences particularly in our work that’s located in China. We also like to examine local culture of where our work is so that depends on where the project is located.

We are conscious of who we are, in terms of our personal identity and how it informs our design, but we are not trying to be “Chinese” in our design at all. Any cultural element should come from a natural surfacing beneath rather than forced application.  Cultural identification is a natural result of work by anyone.  We now shy away from cultural referencing, even more than before, hoping to establish who we are as distinctive designers with our own voice.  Rooted in culture, but not defined by culture.

Your interiors appear precisely engineered in terms of view and focal points as if you are determined to present the user with a very specific sequence of visual experiences. Could you elaborate on this strict, almost surgical method?

It’s a result of being very disciplined on developing our ideas into every detail and considering different points of reference when experiencing the space. Focusing on the details is key to making the design appear refined. Also paying attention to procession, as one moves through the space we design, as opposed to seeing it from above as an object. Experiencing space is what we are obsessed about.

The discreet simplicity of lines and the manipulation of mass in your body of built work set it apart from its surroundings, giving it a serene, ethereal notion. Is this part of your design aim?

We never thought about it in that light.  Every project is different, but we do want to strike a balance between our context and what we build.  To also do just enough, not too much, is a difficult equilibrium to strike.  Sometimes we are more successful than others.  There are times we look at a finished project and say, oh we wish we had done it this way or that way…etc. We are always looking for a better way to achieve harmony with differentiation.

Not withstanding your tactful use of historical elements, you are not averse to bold statements- be they insertions, colours, patinas or ascension levels, such as in your Chengdu Opera house and Gallery proposal, or your Venice architecture Biennale 2014 participation. Is there a particular kind of atmosphere that you intend for your buildings?

There isn’t anything that is appropriate universally in architecture.  Each project has different sets of considerations and deals with different issues, so we don’t try to find the same mood or atmosphere in every building.  However, there are personal tastes that drive our design decisions, so maybe these shape the overall work and make them look like there are similarities for comparison.

Mr Neri, you majored in Fine Arts, initially aspiring to become a painter and switching to architecture to reconcile between your passion and your father’s Asian pragmatic realism. What is your current view of the eastern art world, would you say this pragmatism has somehow softened? I suspect any personal regrets over your career choice must have somehow softened too?

Times are very different now and the society’s view on artists has dramatically changed. There is truly a renaissance of art coming out of Asia and not just from China and Korea but also from Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand. I am however troubled by this phenomena, as the only reason behind the acceptance of artists in our mainstream society today is still very much associated to its economic returns as opposed to art as a piece of work to provoke, question and hopefully change our lives.

In a world where we are constantly encouraged, even urged by social media to reveal everything about ourselves and our daily routine, can you define the importance of transparency? How selective should that be in architecture, and where should the blurring of private/public space stop?

There is neither one answer, nor a right answer. We see transparency in buildings as separate from transparency in life. In spaces, the transparency serves a purpose, and if used in a suitable application, it can reveal things that bring about interesting experiences or challenge social order. These cases make the result intellectually stimulating, and therefore create value in architecture or interior design. In life, it is completely a personal thing. We think that soon people will realize all this transparency is too much and privacy will be much more valued and sought after. In the future privacy may become the ultimate luxury.

Maria Kalapanida, Architect MA AADipl

The post Neri & Hu Interview was originally published on ek magazine | Architectural Publications | ek magazine – Architectural Publications.