Designing Streets Through the Lens of Care

Reflecting on the modern city, Walter Benjamin described the flâneur, a figure who walks without a defined destination, attentive to details, chance encounters, and the narratives that emerge from urban space. This way of being in the city, shaped by observation and openness to the unexpected, has long been in tension with the rationalist and functionalist ideals that came to guide urban planning throughout the twentieth century. Streets designed primarily for efficiency and flow rarely leave room for detours, pauses, or the coexistence of different rhythms of life.

The Douban Museum / CSWADI

The Douban museum is located in Ande Town, within the prime irrigation area of Dujiangyan, where traditional farming culture intersects with modern sauce production, echoing the organic texture of the Western Sichuan Linpan. Surrounded by woodlands and bamboo with dotted farmhouses, it possesses a strong ecological foundation. Protecting this ecology became the project's guiding principle.

A Responsible Addition: HIMACS Shapes Achieve SCS Certification for Recycled Content

In a balance of aesthetics, performance, and versatility, HIMACS shows a solid surface material of choice for many architects and designers. Taking a further step forward, the entire range of standard HIMACS sinks and basins is now officially SCS certified, containing a minimum of 8% pre-consumer recycled content. This certification enhances the material's technical and visual appeal by providing a more sustainable option without compromising quality or functionality.

"Full of People and Alive Once Again": In Conversation With Holcim Award Grand Prize Winner RIWAQ – Centre for Architectural Conservation

Qalandiya: the Green Historic Maze, developed by RIWAQ – Centre for Architectural Conservation, has been awarded the Grand Prize at the Holcim Foundation Awards 2025, recognizing its sensitive and deeply contextual approach to heritage conservation in Palestine, selected among the 20 winners of this year's edition. Located in Qalandiya, north of Jerusalem, the project reactivates a historic village center long affected by political fragmentation, neglect, and spatial disconnection. Through an incremental rehabilitation strategy, the project restores deteriorated structures using traditional knowledge, local stone masonry, and native materials, transforming abandoned fabric into active public spaces while reinforcing environmental resilience through passive climate strategies and landscape-based infrastructure.

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