From Austin to Tokyo: Architecture Now Highlights Global Projects Shaping Airports, Cities, and Cultural Destinations

This edition of Architecture Now brings together projects that explore how architecture is reshaping global gateways, cultural destinations, and urban living. SOM's design for a new Arrivals and Departures Hall in Austin and Scott Brownrigg's Heathrow West proposal highlight the airport as a civic threshold, while Kerry Hill Architects' three-tower precinct in Brisbane emphasizes public space and subtropical landscapes in high-density housing. Zaha Hadid Architects' beachfront tower in Florida extends Miami's sculptural coastal tradition, and Pharrell Williams and NIGO's Japa Valley Tokyo introduces a temporary cultural district blending art, hospitality, and retail. Together, these initiatives reflect how infrastructure, lifestyle, and design intersect to define contemporary urban experience.

William T. Cannady Hall / Karamuk Kuo + Kendall/Heaton Associates

William T. Cannady Hall for Architecture is a 22,000 square foot (2,044 square meters) addition to Rice School of Architecture, designed to foster architectural production, research, and exhibition. It is the first U.S. project by renowned Swiss architects Karamuk Kuo.

House of Nostalgia / PROJECT TERRA

In the quaint village of Khandiya in Gujarat's Panchmahal district, a new house stands rooted in land, memory, and the promise of change. Sloped tiled roofs, thick lime-plastered walls, earthen floors, and shaded plinths suggest a familiar rural home. Yet this dwelling is a deliberate architectural proposition—challenging the binary of tradition versus progress. Could rural architecture evolve rather than be abandoned? Could modular design bridge the widening gap between India's transitioning rural communities and the housing being built for them?

Yangjiang Cultural Center / Architectural Design & Research Institute of SCUT + Yifang Design Group

Located on the north side of Moyang Lake Park in Yangjiang City, the comprehensive cultural center enjoys a beautiful environment and wide view. The project integrates multiple institutions and functions such as the Archives Center, the Party History Museum, the Local Records Museum, Hall of Fame, museum, planning hall and the Workers' Cultural Palace. It injects vitality into the surrounding communities and has become a cultural landmark in the new urban area of Yangjiang City.

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