• The Small Vacation Home on the Ahmen Farm by Atelier Sunder-Plassmann.Sponsored

    SponsoredBeyond the Welcome

    How do buildings create spaces for orientation, encounter and retreat? The Iconic Awards 2026 show how architecture shapes a stay - at the threshold, in material and light.

  • A city in a lifeboat as a response to climate change? OMA developed this vision back in 2013 for the Rebuild by Design initiative.

    No More New Builds - So What Next? 

    In his book Architecture Against Architecture, Reinier de Graaf calls for a moratorium on new builds and a different approach to climate change. He argues that artificial intelligence could lead to a split of the architectural profession.

  • Ziggurat for Education

    With its terraced roof landscape, Prestige University in Indore offers ample space for students to socialise. The five-storey central building by Sanjay Puri Architects is the first building block for the private university's new campus.

  • Nils Fischer founded the Computational Design Research Group at ZHA, but is also responsible for major projects at the firm, such as the Xi’an International Football Centre.

    "Nils Fischer, Has AI Made Anything Better?" 

    Zaha Hadid once set the benchmark for what digital technologies should be capable of in architecture. With the Computational Design Research Group, her successor firm, ZHA, remains at the forefront of the latest developments to this day. Nils Fischer founded the group and explains in this interview what can be achieved with AI - and where working with this tool reaches its limits.

  • "A White Box is the Most Aggressive Form Anyone Can Design"

    Known for its bold use of colour and material contrasts, the Porto-based practice fala is now bringing that same approach to social housing, says co-founder Filipe Magalhães.

  • At the last Detail Award in 2025, Esch Sintzel Architekten won one of the three main prizes for their conversion of a wine warehouse in Basel into flats. This year, Detail is introducing a separate category for affordable housing as part of the award.

    Great Architecture on a Small Budget 

    2027 brings a new edition of the Detail Architecture Award - and, for the first time, a prize for affordable housing. Entries close end of October.

The Lost Shtetl Museum in Lithuania

The Jewish Museum in Šeduva commemorates the culture of Eastern European towns before World War II. With their building, Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects from Finland reimagine the small-scale structure of one such village. Its residents were murdered in 1941 by Nazis and their local collaborators.
  • The new seven-storey building on Hohlstrasse in Zurich will comprise a ground floor with retail space and public service areas, and five upper floors with commercial space.

    Railway Tracks as a Supporting Structure - How Does That Work? 

    Around 180 kilometres of track are replaced every year on the Swiss rail network. Until now, all this scrap metal has been melted down. However, the first building with a steel framework made from recycled rails will soon be constructed in western Zurich.

  • Landscape architect Line Ramstad is the new chief curator of the Oslo Triennale.

    „One Size Does Not Fit All" 

    Facades made from waste wool, recycled steel from decommissioned ships, housing rather than investment property: Line Ramstad, chief curator of the Oslo Triennale, shows what happens when nature takes precedence.

  • Paul Van Ostaijen Culture Campus in Leuven

    Lava architecten transformed an old mission building in Leuven into a place where circus arts, music, theatre, and dance coexist under one shared roof. Effective soundproofing is the precondition for the shared use of the facility.

  • Even though the main exhibition pavilion in the Giardini was closed, the 2025 Architecture Biennale featured more exhibits than ever before.

    Self-Exploitation in the Celebrity Circus

    At every Architecture Biennale, the curators face the same obstacles: a lack of funding, a great deal of red tape, and an organisation that ignores collective achievements. Why do they put themselves through this? We speak to Albena Yaneva, who spent a year observing the development process of the 2025 Biennale.

  • A vision for the future of Barcelona: Boltshauser Architekten have designed demountable street furniture made from concrete blocks for the Catalan metropolis. The blocks are made from recycled lean-mix concrete layers under roads.

    An End to Downcycling  

    In its current form, concrete recycling does little to help climate protection. The CO₂-intensive cement is lost irretrievably in the process. Boltshauser Architekten are working with a consortium from the Netherlands, Switzerland and Spain on the Respira research project to investigate how this can be avoided.

DETAIL issues

Every issue of DETAIL in chronological order — from the current issue back to the early years.

  • Cultural Buildings
  • Prefabrication and Modular Construction
  • Solid Construction
  • The Art of the Joint
  • Climate-Adaptive Facades
  • Healthcare buildings
  • Natural Building Materials
  • Simply Well Built