Urban Transformation of San Salvador: Contemporary Placemaking in Central America

Historic center renewal has become a recurring strategy in Central American cities seeking to reassert the symbolic, economic, and functional relevance of their traditional cores. These processes often combine physical rehabilitation, institutional investment, and stricter control over public space. San Salvador offers a recent and instructive case, which allows for understanding of how interventions in inherited civic spaces balance infrastructure improvement with heritage conservation and social regulation. It also enables the assessment of how these choices resonate within broader debates on urban transformation in the region.

House of Knowledge / Christoph Hesse Architects

The House of Knowledge is part of the 20 Bookhouses Initiative, envisioned to enrich community life across the rapidly growing metropolis of Xinyang, a city of 12 million in Henan Province, central China. Located in Yangshan Park, the project consists of two buildings: a community library with an exhibition hall and a tea house. Between them stretch three small lakes, embedded in a biodiverse landscape and surrounded by the urban fabric.

Round House Estate Bungalow at Ahangama / Narein Perera

The conceptual form of the bungalow is one that was primarily generated by the unique site that was chosen. Located atop the highest point of a cinnamon estate that forms a 12-acre island among the otherwise flat paddy fields of the area. The 3600 views are equally exciting; therefore, needed significant consideration. Envisaged as a circular edge of a "forest clearing", the structure needed to merge with the dense plantation. The approach was to define the inner edge only and let the outer edge be randomly broken to organically amalgamate with the landscape.

Doors at Scale: Highlights from the Best Pivot Door Contest 2026

By shifting rotation away from traditional hinges and distributing weight vertically, pivot doors were developed to address a specific architectural challenge: how to move large, heavy door panels with precision, durability, and minimal visual interference. These systems allow doors to grow significantly in scale, weight, and material ambition, often blurring the line between door, wall, and architectural surface. Over time, this technical innovation has expanded the role of doors in architecture, allowing them to operate not only as points of access, but also as spatial thresholds, compositional devices, and expressive elements within the building envelope.

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Follow Us On