Kolberger 5 Residence / Studio Mark Randel + David Chipperfield

The area around the Herzogpark in Munich has retained a certain originality, despite the obvious prosperity of its residents. In addition to expensive del­icatessen shops, there are also long-established tailors, bakers, and butch­ers. Our client was able to purchase a double plot in a residential street, di­rectly along the Herzogpark. It sits in a row of four to five-story residential buildings, most of which were built in the early 20th century. The task was to design an apartment building that reflected the unique location and met the highest living standards.

The ArchDaily 2026 Building of the Year Awards is Now Open

A new year has begun, and with it, a new edition of the ArchDaily Building of the Year Awards. For 17 years, we have handed over the reins to you, our readers, to choose the best architectural projects of the year, and you have consistently delivered. With a brand new set of over 3,000 projects from around the globe, it is now time to get lost in our projects library and start making your selection.

Building with the “Blue Note”: Tension, Deviation, and Structure in Architecture

By operating with only five notes, the pentatonic scale establishes a stable and intuitive musical system in which structural clarity allows for variation without the risk of excessive dissonance. From this consolidated structure, which forms the basis of countless musical styles, especially popular music, the blues introduced a decisive inflection by incorporating additional notes into the scale. Without delving into excessive technicalities, these are subtle tonal deviations, small dissonances often associated with a more melancholic sound, known as blue notes. Played fleetingly rather than as emphatic accents, they briefly tension the system, adding expressiveness and depth while keeping the underlying structure intact.

Noon Repose Pavilion / CLAB Architects

Background — The Noon Repose Pavilion is located on the bank of a rural river in Huizhou, a city in southern China, along the scenic route encircling Nankun Mountain and Luofu Mountain. Huizhou was once a place of exile for the Northern Song scholar Su Shi. During his years there, exile did not result in withdrawal from life, but rather intensified his attention to its everyday rhythms. In his writings, he identified what he called the "sixteen pleasures of life," one of which he described as "resting at noon on a simple rattan pillow." The pavilion takes its name from this phrase. It is not intended as a nostalgic reference, but as a way of anchoring contemporary experience to a different understanding of time—one that allows for pause, slackening, and repose. What is recalled here is not a historical figure, but a mode of living that remains possible in the present.

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Follow Us On