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Visible layers of time
Renovation and Extension of the Stralsund Maritime Museum by Reichel Schlaier
Reichel Schlaier Architekten have accomplished a complex task involving monument preservation, functional renovation and contemporary museum architecture with the careful transformation of the German Maritime Museum's headquarters in St. Catherine's Monastery.
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Advertorial
Architecture as the Infrastructure of Knowledge
The duality of technical precision and architectural openness: Two research facilities by Tongji Architecture Design combine highly specialized infrastructure with spaces for exchange and innovation.


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“We just wanted to have fun”
Illa Glóries in Barcelona by Cierto Estudio
In eastern Barcelona, a residential building stands out with its flexible floor plans and a design concept centered on community spirit. What inspired the architects to rotate all the wet rooms in the building 45 degrees off-axis?
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A duo of rammed earth and wood
Gässli 5 in Grabs by Allen + Crippa
A new building made of prefabricated rammed earth elements has been constructed to complement a historic 17th-century half-timbered building, breathing new life into it.
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An energy-efficient behemoth
Schwarzman Centre in Oxford by Hopkins Architects
For the first time, Oxford University has brought together its seven humanities faculties under one roof. The new building, which has a glass dome, is the largest passive house in the UK to date, spanning 25,000 m².
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Structure and finish as one
Moabiter Kinderhof in Berlin by Kersten Kopp Architects
Using just one type of material for an entire building – the Moabiter Kinderhof comes very close to this ideal. Its timber structure and interior fit-out consist largely of laminated timber in two different thicknesses.
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Interview with Ralf Pasel
“Radical Simplification Really Does Work”
In northern Thuringia, Pasel-K Architekten have built four healthcare kiosks using an economical timber-frame construction method. Here, we speak to the founder of the practice, Ralf Pasel.
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Pritzker Prize: The Devil's Advocate
The 2026 Pritzker Prize – A Nightmare and the End of an Era?
The world is watching the architecture world: The Pritzker Prize has been awarded to Smiljan Radić Clarke, and the debate could hardly be more heated. Unfortunately, however, this is not primarily due to Radić’s architecture, but to the recently alleged connection between Tom Pritzker and Jeffrey Epstein. When a lifetime achievement and global morality come knocking at your door at the same time, the dream turns into a nightmare.
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Focus on natural materials
HEMAA Builds Children's and Sports Centre from Rammed Earth and Timber
HEMAA Architectes has constructed a children's and sports centre at Parc des Loges, to the east of Paris. The deliberate use of natural building materials creates a harmonious balance between nature, functionality, and materiality.
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Interview with Mariam Issoufou
„We Have Forgotten the Proper Techniques for Building with Earth”
Mariam Issoufou began early on to make earthen architecture socially acceptable in West African cities. An interview about her experience with natural materials, climate change in Africa, and what she has learned from software engineering for her career as an architect.
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Checkerboard facade made of solid limestone
Design College near Paris by SAME
The thick limestone walls protect the design faculty of the University of Cergy-Paris in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The new building, designed by the architectural practice SAME, is part of a campus that mainly houses technology start-ups.
Healthcare Buildings
Good design has the power to influence and support the human healing process. Because recovery is a process rather than a static state, it requires transitional spaces that foster transformation and facilitate social interaction. In this context, space does not merely serve as a form of complementary medicine; it is an environment with an agency of its own. Often, it is only the absence of health that prompts us to truly examine it.
This issue presents exemplary special-purpose buildings from the health-care sector that achieve exactly this. The mental health clinic by C. F. Møller in London, Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter’s healthcare centre in Copenhagen, and the Children’s Hospital in Zurich by Herzog & de Meuron are contrasted with smaller-scale pilot projects, such as the health kiosks designed by Pasel-K Architects as rural primary care infrastructure in Thüringen. Healing, it seems, knows no scale. The complex correlations between architecture and life are far from fully understood. As a young discipline, this field of architecture remains in constant flux. Jeanette Kunsmann
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Enveloping wooden roof
Renovation of a Market Hall near Lisbon by REDO Architects
REDO Architects carefully preserved the social and cultural character of the market hall in the Padre Cruz district on the outskirts of Lisbon.
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A beacon for modern timber construction
Sawa Residential Building in Rotterdam by Mei Architects and Planners
Sawa is a timber building that makes a statement: 55 m tall, comprising more than 100 apartments that permit flexible conversion, and intended to contribute to species diversity. A new trailblazer for contemporary residential construction?
Interiors & Design
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Abstract waffle pattern
Loacker Galaxy by MoDusArchitects
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Loacker wafer, MoDusArchitects completely redesigned the flagship store in Heinfels, Austria.
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Metal workshop becomes gourmet temple
Camaraderie Restaurant in Houston by Schaum Architects
Schaum architects have converted a former metal workshop in the Houston Heights district into a 75-seat restaurant. While retaining the corrugated iron aesthetic and supporting structure of the old building, the space has been given a completely new atmosphere.
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Building for children in Canadian style
School and Kindergarten in the Czech Republic by SOA Architekti
SOA Architekti are designing the Czech Republic's first Maple Bear School in Brno, which is located in a converted industrial building as part of a larger neighbourhood project.
Climate & Resources
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Interview with Mariam Issoufou
„We Have Forgotten the Proper Techniques for Building with Earth”
Mariam Issoufou began early on to make earthen architecture socially acceptable in West African cities. An interview about her experience with natural materials, climate change in Africa, and what she has learned from software engineering for her career as an architect.
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Checkerboard facade made of solid limestone
Design College near Paris by SAME
The thick limestone walls protect the design faculty of the University of Cergy-Paris in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The new building, designed by the architectural practice SAME, is part of a campus that mainly houses technology start-ups.
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Enveloping wooden roof
Renovation of a Market Hall near Lisbon by REDO Architects
REDO Architects carefully preserved the social and cultural character of the market hall in the Padre Cruz district on the outskirts of Lisbon.
Books
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Refurbishment Manual student priceSpecial Price €30.00 Regular Price €79.90Incl. 7% VAT , excl. Shipping Cost
Current Topics Detail 12.2024
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Fired and unfired clay
Hotel Leo in St. Gallen by Boltshauser Architects
The Hotel Leo in the garden of the Villa Wiesental is clad in greenish and white-grey clinker brick. The interior walls are made of clay bricks and earth blocks.
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Provisional as a concept
House 14a in Copenhagen by Pihlmann Architects
From the outside, the house from the 1950s has changed very little. Inside, Pihlmann Architects and art historian Marianne Krogh have created open, flowing spaces.
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Sculptural monolith
Performing Arts Centre in Brighton by krft
For the Performing Arts Centre at Brighton College, Krft and Nicholas Hare Architects designed a solitaire with a shell of flint blocks and light grey Seeton bricks.
Natural Building Materials
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In the midst of nature
Student-Built Observatory near Barcelona
The Flora observatory built near Barcelona for observing nature was developed and erected by a team of students and researchers at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia.
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Interview with Sarah Wigglesworth
Creative Solutions to Combat the Climate Crisis
British architect Sarah Wigglesworth drew international attention with her Straw Bale House in London. In this interview with Heide Wessely, she describes how to design cities more sustainably.
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Sustainable and single-origin
London’s Tallest Circular-Design Office Building Made of Wood
With the Black & White Building, Waugh Thistleton have not only created London’s tallest solid-wood office building, but have also made a significant contribution to the circular economy.
Sustainable Construction
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Repurposing
Wilkinson Eyre Overhaul Battersea Power Station in London
On behalf of an investor from Malaysia, Wilkinson Eyre have transformed London’s Battersea Power Station into a shopping mall featuring offices and flats. For the most part, the interiors of the impressive turbine halls have been preserved.
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Theatre factory in old foundry
The Mercury Store in New York by CO Adaptive Architecture
Assigned the task of repurposing an industrial building into a performing arts centre, the architects consistently set their focus on retaining and opening its historical structure.
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Pivoting walls
The Plato Art Gallery in the Czech Republic by KWK Promes
In the Czech city of Ostrava, KWK Promes have transformed an old slaughterhouse into an art gallery. The dilapidated condition of the exposed-brick building represented both challenge and inspiration for the planners.
Videos & Podcasts
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Hotels, hostels, resorts
Where’s the Journey Headed? – Editorial Detail 3.2023
The current issue of Detail takes a look at new beginnings. Few sectors of the economy were so battered during the corona years as the hotel industry.
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Meet the Architects
DIIIP, Loft M in Cologne
In our video series #Meet the Architects, architects present current projects from their offices. Jochen Reetz from DIIIP explains the design for the Loft M project in Cologne.
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Refurbishment
Taking Stock – Editorial Detail 1/2.2023
Apart from the ecological, social, and economic necessity to do so, adaptive reuse often raises unforeseen structural and detailing issues, which we address at the start of the year. We document seven selected projects energy-efficient renovations, the addition of new functions to existing buildings, the densification of inner-city areas, and conversion.
Videos
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Ecological resistance
The Rambla Climate House in Spain
In a suburb of the Spanish city of Molina de Segura, Andrés Jaque and his office Offpolinn have created the Rambla Climate House, a single-family dwelling conceived as a climate- and eco-house. The project won the 2022 Simon Architecture Prize.
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Structural fire protection
Frame House in California
Mork-Ulnes are designing a single-family house that will withstand future disasters.
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Surrounded by nature
Modular House in Madrid
The DelaVegaCanolasso architecture studio specialize in small houses using modular techniques. In this video, Ignacio de la Vega and Pilar Cano-Lasso shed light on their latest project, the Fresnos house in Madrid.
Products & References
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Interior and property
The Role of Furniture in Architecture
Karimoku Case developed project-specific furniture for the Vinhuset reception and wellness building at the Ästad Vingård winery. Tailored to the spatial conditions and responding to usage and materiality, the furniture is integrated into the architectural structure designed by Norm Architects.
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Linear lighting for workspaces
Light as a Line
The Omniliner by Deltalight is a linear profile system designed for use in architecture. Its range of lighting functions, optics and mounting types enables it to be precisely adapted to complex floor plans in commercial buildings.











