Stacked Architecture: Five Vertical Projects Piling Up Homes
Five architects, one shared idea: the stacked house, reinvented as hotel, gallery, tower and neighbourhood in miniature.
Snøhetta’s Shanghai Grand Opera House Is nearing completion
The Shanghai Grand Opera House “will become a cross-generational destination.” Its striking helical roof forms a spiralling staircase that also functions as a stage and a public meeting space.
BIG completes the Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art
BIG – Bjarke Ingels reveals the first look at the completed Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art, a 60,000 sqm constellation of 12 linked pavilions that celebrates the city’s garden heritage and takes visitors on a journey through art, nature, and water.
OPEN Architecture’s Sun Tower is a giant sundial on the Yellow Sea
“Sun Tower is about turning invisible natural forces—light, air, sound—into tangible form. And perhaps more importantly, about reconnecting us with a deeper respect for the planet and its rhythms.”
CLOU Architects’ CapitaMall Skyview shopping centre draws from Chongqing’s dynamic streetscape
Inspired by Chongqing’s vibrant urban landscape, CapitaMall Skyview by CLOU Architects welcomes visitors to explore a blend of bold colours and street-inspired patterns.
2025 Pritzker Prize: Eight Projects by Liu Jiakun
“First you need to be a person, then an architect,” believes Liu Jiakun. We round up eight seminal projects, highlighting the Pritzker Prize winner’s approach to architecture. From a mixed-use community building focused on dignified living in crowded cities to a campus merging ancient Chinese architecture with contemporary lifestyle.
Liu Jiakun Wins the 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize
The projects of the 2025 Pritzker Prize laureate forge community, inspire compassion and elevate the human spirit, celebrating the lives of ordinary citizens.
Snøhetta’s Shanghai Grand Opera House is taking shape
The Shanghai Grand Opera House “will become a destination for all.” Its striking helical roof surface creates a spiral staircase that will double as a stage and meeting space.
Fun Connection creates a Gen-Z fun park and sports centre in Shanghai
Giant slides, transparent tunnels, a zip-line, trampolines, and more. This Gen-Z fun park is a creative and imaginative wonderland with an exquisite industrial, street culture and space-age style.
WAFX 2024 Prize: Eight Future Projects Tackling Global Issues
The World Architecture Festival announced the winners of the WAFX 2024 Prize. We selected seven human-based projects, including a gasometer turned into a green residential tower and a stacked vertical neighbourhood.
Design Shanghai 2024: highlights from the Chinese metropolis
Emerging talents, international brands, and a special focus on Japanese and Chinese connections. Design Shanghai 2024 explored the collaborative synergy between Eastern and Western design philosophies.
Design celebrates the Year of the Dragon
From Burning Man’s steampunk dragons on wheels to a mesmerising chandelier by Lasvit and Jean-Paul Gautier’s soft coils. Happy Chinese New Year of the Dragon, 新年快乐!
XISUI Design deploys digital technologies to develop the ‘Dunes Playtopia’ playground in Guangzhou
The ‘Dunes Playtopia’ project by XISUI Design invites kids to venture into a concrete playground with undulating red dunes evoking the charm of a mountain nest or a jungle treehouse.
The Pingtan Book House is a new village library paradigm in rural China
At the Pingtan Book House by Condition_Lab, kids can read and play at the same time. The project draws on a typology of traditional Dong Houses and is primarily composed of two interwoven spiral staircases.
The Chamber Church is made up of sixty spaced-out white aluminium fins
Büro Ziyu Zhuang’s Chamber Church in China blends archetypical church architecture with contemporary design, divinity, and ritual.
MAD Architects nests Quzhou Stadium under a gentle green slope
Architecture should merge with the natural landscape instead of standing out against it, believe at MAD Architects. Their Quzhou Stadium submerges itself into nature to welcome everyone to gather and share the sports spirit.
Populous’ Ice Ribbon stadium lights up Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Games
Populous has inaugurated the National Speed Skating Oval in the Chinese capital. Dubbed the ‘Ice Ribbon’, the oval-shaped stadium features 22 huge light strands which flow around it to create the impression of fast motion.
6 quirky designs celebrating the Chinese Year of the Tiger
Happy 2022, happy Year of the Tiger! A denim fashion collection co-designed by tigers, a wallcovering paying tribute to an extinct feline and artificial animal parts for Chinese Medicine that save big cats’ lives.
Beijing sub-centre library by Snøhetta is inspired by a ginkgo tree forest
The Beijing sub-centre library by Snøhetta features an amphitheatre-like space promoting interaction and exchange of knowledge. Extended from the sculpted reading landscape are columns that support the roof creating a ginkgo forest-like canopy.
Digital shopping experience inspires the interior design of the Qpokee store in Beijing
CUN Design created the interiors of Qpokee’s flagship store in the Chinese capital blurring the lines between the physical and digital shopping experience.
The Capsule Hostel and Bookstore nests rooms in a ‘floating’ readers’ community
Atelier tao+c conceived and created the interior design of the Capsule Hostel and Bookstore in Qinglongwu, China, as “a building inside a building.” The project has been named the World Interior of the Year for 2021.
Banu restaurant by Studio Link-Arc mesmerises with a dramatic latticed ceiling
Minimal interiors contrast and dialogue with a sinuous ceiling and a bold facade at the Banu restaurant by Studio Link-Arc in Zhengzhou.
Design Shanghai 2021 focuses on regenerative design
Leading Chinese and international brands go on show at Design Shanghai 2021. The fair returns to the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center with a program of talks and a range of exhibitions exploring how design can have a positive impact on people and the environment.
Herzog & de Meuron completes the M+ Museum building in Hong Kong
Located in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District on the Victoria Harbour waterfront, the M+ Museum building comprises a semi-transparent tower housing a research center, shops, and restaurants which intersects a horizontal slab filled with exhibition galleries. The museum is set to open at the end of 2021.
Wormhole Library by MAD Architects is nearing completion in China
The sensuously curved and multi-functional organic concrete structure of the Wormhole Library is punctured, creating voids of varying sizes that let the light into the interiors.
Pinterest – Get pinspired by some of the best images from DesignShanghai2020
The best of DesignShanghai2020 is on Pinterest. Explore our dedicated board… And do not forget to read our special report!
Design Shangai 2020 celebrates Chinese creativity with the bigger show ever
From 26 to 29 November, Design Shangai 2020 returns in a bigger location showcasing leading and emerging Chinese design as well as international furniture brands.
Zaha Hadid Architects unveil Xi’an International Football Centre
A translucent roof and verdant terraces define the massive Xi’an International Football Centre by Zaha Hadid Architects conceived as a temple for sport lovers.
Shenzhen Bay Culture Park by MAD Architects features giant pebbles-like buildings
Present and future encounter in MAD Architects’ masterplan for Shenzhen Bay Culture Park. The 51K sqm site comprises cultural and entertainment venues and green spaces dotted by buildings resembling monumental stones.
Tao’s poetry inspires Shanxiao Pavilion by aoe studio in China
The Shanxiao Pavilion by architecture firm aoe is a glass cube wrapped by a cloud-like grid running across the facades. The building appears to raise from misty waters and merges into the surrounding nature to almost disappear.