ARCHITECTT

Journal

Daily Notes From the Built World.

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Modern building with concrete overhang and brick facade featuring perforated patterns, viewed from below against a clear sky.

Future Living

Kolumba Museum: Tactility and Light within a Ruin

The Kolumba Museum in Cologne, designed by Peter Zumthor, demonstrates a profound engagement with history and material. Its perforated brick facade envelops a bombed church ruin, orchestrating a unique dialogue between old and new.

15 Sept 2026

Modern timber stairwell with metal railings and rectangular windows casting shadows across wooden walls.

Built Intelligence

Catalonia's Stone Legacies: Three Architectural Journeys

A curated guide to three significant stone buildings in Catalonia, spanning from the 12th-century Romanesque to 20th-century postmodern forms.

14 Sept 2026

Modern interior concrete and white walls with timber stairs and a dark metal handrail from an elevated perspective.

Global Icons

Villa E-1027: Designing for the Body in Motion

Villa E-1027, designed by Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici, transcends typical architectural concerns by prioritizing the user's movement and interaction with its bespoke furnishings and systems. This pioneering work at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France, established a new paradigm for domestic space.

13 Sept 2026

White plastered walls and stone paving enclose a patio with a vivid blue window and potted tropical plants.

Architect Minds

Sítio Roberto Burle Marx: A Landscape Architect's Botanical Provenance

Sítio Roberto Burle Marx in Rio de Janeiro is a testament to landscape architecture as a synthesis of art, botany, and regional identity. This article examines the estate's design principles and the significance of its plant collection.

12 Sept 2026

Courtyard view of a textured stucco house with an enveloping, multi-level aluminum mesh and glass structure overhead.

Construction Diaries

Hill House: Portland Cement Failure and Enduring Form in Helensburgh

Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Hill House, a landmark in Helensburgh, Scotland, grapples with a century of moisture issues from its Portland cement render, now housed in a protective structure.

11 Sept 2026

Asphalt path with white markings, blue metal benches, a solar-paneled structure, and a tiled concrete fountain.

Transformation Logic

Superkilen: A Public Park Forged by Global Narratives

Superkilen in Copenhagen is a public park designed as a unique urban experiment. It collects objects from 60 countries, creating a dynamic landscape that encourages diverse interactions and reflects its multicultural neighborhood.

10 Sept 2026

Rooftop terrace with multi-level black timber walls, dark stone steps, wood decking, and lush green planters, cityscape backg

Places to Visit

The High Line: A Raised Walkway for Urban Reimagination

The High Line in New York City exemplifies adaptive reuse, converting a disused elevated railway into a celebrated linear park. This urban intervention redefines public space and landscape design.

9 Sept 2026

Bosco Verticale twin concrete and glass towers with hundreds of trees and shrubs on balconies, seen from a ground vantage.

Adaptive Reuse

Bosco Verticale: Cultivating Urban Hydrology

Bosco Verticale in Milan demonstrates how high-rise residential architecture can actively manage rainwater and greywater, transforming urban green infrastructure.

8 Sept 2026

Colorful modern concrete and timber apartment building against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains, viewed from a low angle.

Adaptive Reuse

Charlotte Perriand: Les Arcs 1600 and the Honest Module

Charlotte Perriand's work at Les Arcs 1600 exemplified modular prefabrication and a commitment to material honesty, directly influencing indoor environments.

8 Sept 2026

Moss-covered pebble and shell grotto interior with arched openings and a metal fixture, seen from within.

Biophilic & Wellness

Palais Idéal: The Postman's Patient Construction

Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval in Hauterives, France, is a testament to persistent, unengineered construction. Built over 33 years by a postman, it integrates natural forms and found materials into a unique architectural vision.

7 Sept 2026

Outdoor shower enclosure on a Hamptons beach house: silvered cedar shingle walls, whitewashed board screen, sun-faded teak duckboard floor and a stainless exposed-pipe shower, with dune grass and the Atlantic beyond.

Materials & Makers

The Outdoor Shower: Architecture Beyond a Fitting

Outdoor showers transcend mere utility, manifesting as deliberate architectural moments. This piece explores their design on the Atlantic coast, from the silvered cedar and stainless palette to drainage, threshold and sensory effect.

6 Sept 2026

Concrete pools and walls with bronze railings integrated into a rocky coastline at sunset.

Materials & Makers

Water as the Building Material: Siza's Tidal Pools at Leça da Palmeira

At Leça da Palmeira, Álvaro Siza's Piscina das Marés exemplifies an architecture intrinsically linked to its environment, where the Atlantic ocean defines the pools' operation.

6 Sept 2026

Modern concrete interior with a deep blue reflective water feature and tall vertical windows.

Materials & Makers

SANAA: Water, Light, and the Fluidity of Form in Tokyo

SANAA challenges conventional architectural boundaries by dissolving solid forms into fluid spaces. Their work in Tokyo explores water and light as integral building elements.

6 Sept 2026

Modern room with white concrete walls, a marble bench, and a glass window overlooking a blue sea.

Sustainability & Climate

Three Destinations for Art and Architecture in the South of France

Explore three distinct architectural and artistic landmarks in Provence and the Côte d'Azur: Eileen Gray's Villa E-1027, Henri Matisse's Chapelle du Rosaire, and the art-focused Château La Coste estate.

5 Sept 2026

Concrete modernist house with green roof and planted terraces, viewed from a stone wall foreground.

Light & Atmosphere

Fondation Maeght: Concrete Sails for Light and Art

Explore the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, a 1964 masterwork by Josep Lluís Sert where architecture and art converge, illuminated by strategically captured natural light.

4 Sept 2026

Brutalist concrete staircase with black handrails and blue inlaid floor, viewed from the bottom looking up.

Colour & Palette

Lina Bo Bardi: Orchestrating Sound at SESC Pompéia

Lina Bo Bardi’s SESC Pompéia complex in São Paulo demonstrates a deliberate integration of material, space, and auditory design within an industrial framework.

3 Sept 2026

Rammed earth buildings with corrugated metal roofs provide shade over open courtyards under a clear sky.

Living Typologies

Francis Kéré: Crafting Thermal Comfort with Earthen Materiality in Gando

Francis Kéré demonstrates how regional building traditions and readily available earth can deliver thermal comfort and significantly reduce embodied carbon in architecture.

2 Sept 2026

An open timber door with brass hinges framed by rough stone blocks, leading to a dark wood floor interior.

Landmark Stories

Northern Italian Adaptive Reuse: Three Architectural Destinations

A curated guide to three significant adaptive reuse projects in Northern Italy, spanning Verona and Milan, showcasing thoughtful interventions.

1 Sept 2026

Vals Thermal Baths, a concrete building with textured layered stone walls, seen from a low angle on a grassy hill.

ARCHITECTT Cases

Thermal Baths Vals: A Haptic Architecture of Stone and Water

Peter Zumthor's Thermal Baths Vals, completed in 1996, are renowned for their monolithic structure of Valser quartzite, creating a deeply haptic architectural experience.

31 Aug 2026

Close-up of a reddish-brown terrazzo floor with multicolored stone chips, partially shaded by a dark furniture leg.

Daily Line

Gio Ponti: Tactility in the Milanese Interior

Exploring Gio Ponti's enduring influence on interior design through his meticulous attention to surface tactility and the haptic experience of space in his Milanese projects.

30 Aug 2026

White concrete seaside structure with an open doorway and low wall, overlooking a rocky coast and blue ocean.

Visual Essay

Álvaro Siza: Leça Pools and the Provenance of Form

Álvaro Siza's Leça swimming pools integrate architecture with the Atlantic coast through precise material selection and a site-responsive design approach.

29 Aug 2026

Stained glass window in shades of blue set into a deep concrete recess, illuminated by sunlight.

Architecture Travel

Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence: Light as a Designed Material

The Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence, designed by Henri Matisse, demonstrates how light, color, and material can be integrated to form a singular architectural experience.

28 Aug 2026

Modern concrete, tile, and stucco building with corten steel details by a lake with mountains in the background.

Field Notes

Mjøstårnet: Crafting Height with Engineered Timber

Mjøstårnet in Brumunddal, Norway, stands as a prominent example of tall timber construction, utilizing glulam and CLT to achieve significant height without a conventional concrete core.

27 Aug 2026

Long, narrow interior hallway with textured red concrete walls, wooden built-ins, a glass door, and a vibrant pink partition

Stories of Place

Museum of Modern Literature: Choreographing Darkness and Light

The Museum of Modern Literature in Marbach am Neckar, designed by David Chipperfield Architects, carefully manages daylight

26 Aug 2026