May 31: Dragon Boat Festival in China and Taiwan (2025); World No Tobacco Day Bessarion 455 – Petronius Maximus, the ruler of the Western Roman Empire, was stoned to death by a mob as he fled Rome ahead of the arrival of a Vandal force that sacked the city. 1223 – Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus': Mongol forces defeated a Kievan Rus' army at the Battle of the Kalka River in present-day Ukraine. 1468 – Cardinal Bessarion (pictured) announced his donation of 746 Greek and Latin codices to the Republic of Venice, forming the Biblioteca Marciana. 1935 – A magnitude-7.7 earthquake struck Balochistan in British India, now part of Pakistan, killing between 30,000 and 60,000 people. 2013 – A tornado struck Central Oklahoma, killing eight people and injuring more than 150 others. Albertino Mussato (d. 1329)Joseph Grimaldi (d. 1837)Dina Boluarte (b. 1962)Mbaye Diagne (d. 1994) More anniversaries: May 30 May 31 June 1 Archive By email List of days of the year About

These annual rankings were last updated on May 30, 2025. Want to see your firm on next year’s list? Continue reading for more on how you can improve your studio’s ranking. Ireland’s architecture is a rich tapestry of vernacular craft, foreign architecture, and, most importantly, good ol’ grit. Like any nation, Ireland’s complex history is easily contextualized through its urban makeup. Dublin and Cork, for example contain a wealth of Georgian and Victorian structures that directly speak to the republic’s past ties to Britain through churches, libraries and courthouses. In the 20th century, Irish designers turned to modernism and other international trends, this time on their own terms. Art Deco, Brutalism and sleek Modern structures began to appear around the country, generating an architectural expression to mirror the republic’s newfound independence. Ireland’s traditional architecture — specifically the thatched cottage — was again made popular by tourists seeking a quintessential ‘Irish experience.’ Today’s designers continuously engage with discourse surrounding nationalism. What is the quintessential ‘Irish experience’, and how does it inform today’s architecture? With a built environment rooted in pluralism, Irish architects have an incredible opportunity to recreate and rectify an architectural language that best represents today’s Irish folk. With so many architecture firms to choose from, it’s challenging for clients to identify the industry leaders that will be an ideal fit for their project needs. Fortunately, Architizer is able to provide guidance on the top design firms in Ireland based on more than a decade of data and industry knowledge. How are these architecture firms ranked? The following ranking has been created according to key statistics that demonstrate each firm’s level of architectural excellence. The following metrics have been accumulated to establish each architecture firm’s ranking, in order of priority: The number of A+Awards won (2013 to 2025) The number of A+Awards finalists (2013 to 2025) The number of projects selected as “Project of the Day” (2009 to 2025) The number of projects selected as “Featured Project” (2009 to 2025) The number of projects uploaded to Architizer (2009 to 2025) Each of these metrics is explained in more detail at the foot of this article. This ranking list will be updated annually, taking into account new achievements of Ireland architecture firms throughout the year. Without further ado, here are the 30 best architecture firms in Ireland: 30. Hussey Architects © Hussey Architects Hussey Architects was established in 2009 in Dublin. The practice has grown from working on small domestic projects then to large healthcare, housing and hospitality projects now. We are a small practice with experience completing large projects. Over the past decade we have completed seven Primary Care Centres, two hotels, a nursing home, ten masterplans and over one hundred houses. Our focus is on designing simple economical buildings that respect their context. Our style has evolved from our more angular early buildings and projects to a more classical simple architectural language in traditional materials. Some of Hussey Architects’ most prominent projects include: National Leprechaun Museum Cafe The Hendrick, Dublin, Ireland Navan Road Primary Care Centre, Dublin, Ireland Celbridge Primary Care Centre, Celbridge, Ireland Balbriggan Primary Care Centre, Balbriggan, Ireland The following statistics helped Hussey Architects achieve 30th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Total Projects 14 29. Donaghy & Dimond Architects © Donaghy & Dimond Architects Based in Dublin, Donaghy + Dimond Architects was established in 2001 by Marcus Donaghy and Will Dimond, two architects with extensive experience of working on urban and rural design projects in Ireland and abroad. The practice has developed a reputation for high-quality, innovative and sustainable design, and has been selected for numerous national and international awards for completed projects. Their work has been published and exhibited in Ireland, Europe and the USA. Some of Donaghy & Dimond Architects’ most prominent projects include: Laneway Wall Garden House, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped Donaghy & Dimond Architects achieve 29th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 1 28. ABK Architects © ABK Architects Established in 1961, ABK Architects is a design-led practice with an international reputation for the delivery of buildings of the highest quality. It is renowned for its work in many fields including master-planning, education, healthcare, housing and the arts. The practice offers skills in architecture and related fields such as urban design and planning, interior and furniture design and is one of the leading exponents of sustainability in the field of architecture. Implicit in the work of ABK is a search for quality, which concerns the character and atmosphere of spaces and a sense of place. Each building proposal is a unique response, integrating the general and the particular into a coherent whole. Some of ABK Architects’ most prominent projects include: Roscommon Civic Offices, Roscommon, Ireland The following statistics helped ABK Architects achieve 28th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 1 27. de Siún Scullion Architects © de Siún Scullion Architects We are a new Dublin-based Architecture practice offering a broad range of experience and specialist expertise in high quality, innovative and sustainable design to both public and private sector clients Some of de Siún Scullion Architects’ most prominent projects include: 5Cube, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped de Siún Scullion Architects achieve 27th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 1 26. TAKA architects © TAKA architects TAKA is an architectural practice based in Dublin, Ireland. Our practice is focused on creating buildings, places and moments which have a distinct character. Our approach involves a careful and economic approach to materials and construction and a first-principles approach to sustainability. We collaborate closely with clients, professional consultants, and expert makers to ensure the ambitions of projects are met and exceeded. A continuing level of excellence in the built work of the practice is recognized by multiple national and international awards and worldwide publication. Some of TAKA architects’ most prominent projects include: Merrion Cricket Club, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped TAKA architects achieve 26th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 1 25. NOJI Architects © NOJI NOJI Architects are a practice based in Sligo Town working on individual and collaborative projects throughout Ireland. NOJI architects have been in existence for 4 years, now with two staff and the principle architect being John Monahan. The practice has been primarily involved with residential work ranging from renovation extensions of period properties to one off houses and the possibility of community level buildings in the near future. In parallel to the mainly residential work there is an emphasis on the smaller scale design projects allowing an artistic expression and shorter build fruition periods. NOJI architects aim to have craft and innovative design solutions at the core of their work. Some of NOJI Architects’ most prominent projects include: Scale of Ply, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped NOJI achieve 25th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 1 24. Carr Cotter Naessens Architects © Dennis Gilbert, VIEW Box Architecture was created in 1997. Since conception, the company has been established as a leading design practice in the nation. Quality has remained the focus of Box throughout and this has been employed to a variety of projects including urban schemes, apartment units, award-winning private commissions, corporate offices, crèches and housing developments. The success of Box Architecture is achieved through a personal approach to understand client needs. With a hands-on approach, technical expertise, creative execution and a commitment to continued education, the company applies a philosophy of the highest principle in order to contribute to a sustainable future and maintain quality architecture. Some of Carr Cotter Naessens Architects’ most prominent projects include: dlrLexicon, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped Carr Cotter Naessens Architects achieve 24th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 1 23. Box Architecture Timber elements mark the transition between openness and enclosure - © Box Architecture Box Architecture was created in 1997. Since conception, the company has been established as a leading design practice in the nation. Quality has remained the focus of Box throughout and this has been employed to a variety of projects including urban schemes, apartment units, award-winning private commissions, corporate offices, crèches and housing developments. The success of Box Architecture is achieved through a personal approach to understand client needs. With a hands-on approach, technical expertise, creative execution and a commitment to continued education, the company applies a philosophy of the highest principle in order to contribute to a sustainable future and maintain quality architecture. Some of Box Architecture’s most prominent projects include: BALLYROAN PARISH CENTRE Ballyroan Library The following statistics helped Box Architecture achieve 23rd place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 2 22. Kingston Lafferty Design © Donal Murphy Kingston Lafferty Design are an award-winning, international multi-disciplinary design company run by Roisin Lafferty based in Dublin, Ireland. At KLD we think differently about design. Our designs take people on a journey, delivering fun and unexpected experiences. With a holistic approach, we study the way in which people live and work to create tactile and meaningful design, putting human behavior at the centre of every project. Some of Kingston Lafferty Design’s most prominent projects include: Dublin Residence, Dublin, Ireland Ballsbridge Residence, Dublin, Ireland Ranelagh Residence, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped Kingston Lafferty Design achieve 22nd place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 3 21. Architecture Republic © Architecture Republic Architecture Republic with offices in Dublin (Ireland)and Lyon (France) operates in the fields of architecture, urbanism and landscape design. We engage with engineers, artists, researchers, policy-makers, and other professionals through research, analysis and cross disciplinary collaboration. We find the seeds of our inspiration in the rich and complex realm of ordinary everyday life. We believe in the social engagement and spatial power of architecture more than its visual or plastic expression. We believe in architecture that creates public spaces and democratic cities. An architecture that revitalizes redefines and strengthens existing buildings and neighbourhoods. Some of Architecture Republic’s most prominent projects include: The Plastic House, Dublin, Ireland Formwork Studio Brick a Back, Gordon Street, Dublin, Ireland Orla Kiely’s New York Store, New York, New York The following statistics helped Architecture Republic achieve 21st place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 4 20. Conneely Wessels Architects © F22 PHOTOGRAPHY Conneely Wessels Architects is an Award Winning Architectural Practice, established in 2008 and based in Kinsale, County Cork. Our practice provides a responsive, imaginative and professional service, tailored to the aspirations of each of our clients, and to deliver quality results, regardless of commission size or type. Some of Conneely Wessels Architects’ most prominent projects include: Three Pavilions, House Clancy, Kinsale, Ireland Peek-a-Boo!, Kinsale, Ireland Cardinal Point, Kinsale, Ireland Ardgwee House, Kinsale, Ireland The following statistics helped Conneely Wessels Architects achieve 20th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 4 19. ARCHITECTSTM © Ros Kavanagh ARCHITECTSTM is a design practice founded by Tom Maher. Based in Dublin, Ireland the firm boasts a portfolio of residential, cultural and commercial designs. Some of ARCHITECTSTM’s most prominent projects include: K HOUSE, Ranelagh, Ireland GARDENER’S WORLD (FUTURE), Callan, Ireland SLATE STOREY EXTENSION, Dublin, Ireland COTTAGE, County Kilkenny, Ireland 8BY4, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped ARCHITECTSTM achieve 19th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 5 18. Paul Dillon Architects © Paul Dillon Architects In 1999, architect Paul Dillon established his full-service practice in Galway, which quickly earned a reputation for combining design sensitivity with professional management and delivery. Each year, paul dillon architects complete a small number of challenging everyday projects, ranging from domestic extensions and garden designs to large commercial, retail, industrial and public projects. This commitment to the process of building, has been recognized with numerous national and international publications and awards. The completed work, both public and private, is receiving growing understanding and appreciation from those who take responsibility for their built environment. Some of Paul Dillon Architects’ most prominent projects include: Carnaun Primary School, Athenry, Ireland Extension to Secondary School, County Galway, Ireland Kilrickle Primary School, Kilreekill, Ireland Art Room, Secondary School, Aran Islands, County Galway, Ireland Art Room, Inis Mór, County Galway, Ireland The following statistics helped Paul Dillon Architects achieve 18th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 5 17. Isabel Barros Architects © Robert Mullan Photography isabel barros architects are driven by a passion for creating high quality contemporary architecture. Our goal is to make good design available to the general public while maintaining a strong focus on the energy efficiency and sustainability of our designs. Some of Isabel Barros Architects’ most prominent projects include: Seaview House, Wexford, Ireland Conservation Works at Brandon House Hotel, New Ross, Ireland Extension to House Over 100 Years Old, Ireland River House Kilkenny, Kilkenny, Ireland Shaolin Cottage, Ireland The following statistics helped Isabel Barros Architects achieve 17th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 6 16. Solearth Architecture © Solearth Architecture Solearth Architecture specialise in design that is both beautiful and deeply sustainable. We have for 15 years been Irelands leading green design firm and now provide architecture, design and consulting services further afield. All projects and client types are of interest to us but our key experience to date lies in hospitality, visitor, environment, wellness and buildings for spirituality as well as housing and private houses. We also have expertise in sustainable masterplanning and urban design. We are Europes only Living Building accredited practice. Some of Solearth Architecture’s most prominent projects include: Airfield Evolution, Dublin, Ireland Castle Espie, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom The Daintree Building, Dublin, Ireland Ballybay Wetland Centre, Ballybay, Ireland Dechen Shying, Cork, Ireland The following statistics helped Solearth Architecture achieve 16th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 7 15. Foley Architects © Foley Architects, CAMPUS Foley Architects is an architectural practice based in Dublin led by Stephen Foley and Marta Lopez driven by creating sustainable buildings and considered spaces that connect to their physical and social contexts. Our mission is to uncover what is special about each project to create unique spaces and buildings which can inspire communities. The concept of our first built project, the Eastbourne Beach Hut took inspiration from a local story involving fossils and was developed using digital fabrication tools. The pavilion’s translucent skin allows it to transform at night, emitting light and expressing its structure. The Cork Butter museum involved the adaptive reuse of an existing space, it’s remodelling and installation of elements for a collection of artefacts, using economic materials like mild steel and birch plywood. Some of Foley Architects’ most prominent projects include: The Lark Theatre, Dublin, Ireland Eastbourne Beach Hut, Eastbourne, United Kingdom Rossaveel Small Craft Harbour, Galway, Ireland 12th Lock Area Masterplan, Lucan, Ireland Killybegs Small Craft Harbour, Donegal, Ireland The following statistics helped Foley Architects achieve 15th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 9 14. David Flynn Architects © David Flynn Architects Ltd We are award-winning Architects in Dublin specializing in residential projects, including newbuild houses, reconstruction and significant refurb / extension / transformation of existing. We are currently engaged as Architects in a small number of projects across Dublin with construction values ranging from €400,000 up to €1.5m. The majority of our houses will end up as highly efficient A-rated homes for life. We have a track record in delivering highly bespoke residential architecture projects which run smoothly through design, planning and construction stages, many of which have received awards and been widely published. We use highly detailed 3D Digital models to plan, visualise and clearly communicate from early in the design process to ensure a successful outcome. Some of David Flynn Architects’ most prominent projects include: Garden Retreat, Blackrock, Ireland Mount Merrion, Dublin, Ireland 1930s Extension Renovation, Booterstown, Ireland 1870s period house extension, Sandymount, Ireland Rebuild & Renovation, Clonskeagh, Ireland The following statistics helped David Flynn Architects achieve 14th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 10 13. ODKM Architects & Designers © ODKM Architects & Designers ODKM are highly experienced award-winning architectural practice, with accolades and publications both in Ireland and abroad. We love design, how it makes us feel, and what it offers us every day, and we are passionate about how important this is in creating new spaces, identities and places that exceed our clients expectations. Ultimately, buildings are about people, and we believe in quality driven design to create environments with a sense of place. Our team each bring unique and diverse skills to the practice, all stemming from a common holistic design philosophy; that design can improve the quality of our lives, and make us happier. Some of ODKM Architects & Designers’ most prominent projects include: Ranelagh House, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped ODKM Architects & Designers achieve 13th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: A+Awards Finalist 1 Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 1 12. Architectural Farm © Ste Murray | Photography & Design Architectural Farm is a design focused architectural studio based in Dublin. The studio has been led by Shane Cotter and Kathryn Wilson since 2010. To date the practice has worked on a variety of projects specializing in residential and public commissions in both urban and rural settings but also have collaborated on retail, commercial and landscaping projects. Some of Architectural Farm’s most prominent projects include: Walled Garden, Ballsbridge, Ireland St Declans Terrace, Saint Declan’s Terrace, Ireland The following statistics helped Architectural Farm achieve 12th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 2 Total Projects 2 11. GKMP Architect © GKMP Architect GKMP Architects is a Dublin-based practice that designs high quality modern architecture. Our recent projects include house design, domestic extensions, public spaces and tourist facilities. Some of GKMP Architect’s most prominent projects include: Hedge House at Leeson Walk, Dublin, Ireland House Extension at Silchester Park, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped GKMP Architect achieve 11th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 2 Total Projects 2 10. Aughey O’Flaherty Architects © Aughey O'Flaherty Architects Since the start, in 1999, we have been blessed with great clients. We work closely with them to understand their needs and create buidings to fit those needs. By 2003, the practice had won the first of many awards and in 2005, we won the prestious RIAI award, best building in the landscape.As conservation architects, we have Grade II RIAI Conservation Accreditation. Some of Aughey O’Flaherty Architects’ most prominent projects include: Fethard House on Mount Anville, Goatstown, Ireland New House The following statistics helped Aughey O'Flaherty Architects achieve 10th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 2 Total Projects 3 9. BRENNAN | FURLONG Architects & Urban Planners © BRENNAN | FURLONG Architects & Urban Planners BRENNAN | FURLONG Architects, founded in 2015 by Gareth Brennan and Séamus Furlong, is an award-winning RIAI-registered practice based in Clontarf, Dublin. The practice is accredited in Conservation (Grade III), can act as Project Supervisors for the Design Process (PSDP) and holds full Professional Indemnity Insurance. The work of the practice – a mix of residential and commercial projects — centers on the principle that the well-considered and carefully developed design of buildings and spaces we use every day helps to enrich and enliven our experience and interaction with the built environment. Some of BRENNAN | FURLONG Architects & Urban Planners’ most prominent projects include: GLENTORA, Howth, Dublin, Ireland FOUR WINDS, Dublin, Ireland STRAND ROAD, Dublin, Ireland LERRIG, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped BRENNAN | FURLONG Architects & Urban Planners achieve 9th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 2 Total Projects 4 8. Ambient Architecture © Ambient Architecture At Ambient Architecture we design exclusive residences for private clients in new builds, renovation and conservation projects. For our commercial partners, we develop innovative, sustainable, and sound feasibility and planning solutions. As architects we focus on providing the best outcome for our clients, in terms of design, costs, and buildability. Some of Ambient Architecture’s most prominent projects include: New house in Malahide, Malahide, Ireland Rathgar Redbrick, Dublin, Ireland Loreto Abbey Dalkey Sportshall, Dalkey, Ireland Rathmines Redbrick, Dublin, Ireland 2SEMIS, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped Ambient Architecture achieve 8th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 2 Total Projects 5 7. Coady Architects © Coady Architects Coady Architects is an award winning practice of highly skilled professionals, specializing in healthcare, residential, workplace and education design. We are passionate about understanding our clients’ and end users’ needs. We understand commercial drivers and add value at every opportunity. We enjoy design, we listen and explore, we innovate and challenge to deliver better environments and better buildings. Some of Coady Architects’ most prominent projects include: Scholen van Morgen. VIIO, Tongeren, Belgium Eolas, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland Clinical Education and Research Centre, Limerick, Ireland Scholen van Morgen. Heilig Hart van Mariainstituut, Berlaar, Belgium Scholen van Morgen, Virga Jessecollege, Hasselt, Belgium The following statistics helped Coady Architects achieve 7th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 2 Total Projects 5 6. Architecture 53seven © Architecture 53seven Architecture 53seven is focussed on the delivery of inventive architecture and urban design, with a particular interest in developing new programmatic forms that reflect the complexities of the contemporary city. Established by Jason O’Shaughnessy in 2000, Architecture 53seven has developed a series of acclaimed projects in Ireland and overseas and was nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – the Mies van der Rohe Award in 2009. Some of Architecture 53seven’s most prominent projects include: Egans Juice Bar and Roof Terrace, Main Street, Portlaoise, Ireland Tullow Ciivic Offices and Library Montenegro Villa, Dobra Voda, Montenegro Villa Petrovic, Dobra Voda, Montenegro Renaasance day hospital The following statistics helped Architecture 53seven achieve 6th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 2 Total Projects 37 5. FKL architects © FKL architects FKL architects is committed to contemporary design with a focus on the application of abstract ideas to built form. Each project is approached from first principles by responding to the specifics of site and program and formulating a singular concept that informs all aspects of the design. This individual concept is firmly rooted in the pragmatics of the project. We seek to condense ideas to their essentials, from the building form to the detail of junctions between materials with all decisions re-affirming and complementing the primary concept. The form and language of each project grows out of this approach leading to a diversity in the work, within a framework given by enduring interests; in space, atmosphere, assemblage, pattern, hierarchy, texture and materiality. Some of FKL architects’ most prominent projects include: A House, Rathmines, Ireland A house, Rathmines, Ireland St John’s House Nursing Home, Dublin, Ireland Brick House Reuben Street Apartments, Dolphins Barn, Ireland The following statistics helped FKL architects achieve 5th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 3 Total Projects 17 4. Heneghan Peng Architects © Iwan Baan heneghan peng architects is a design partnership practicing architecture, landscape and urban design. The practice was founded by Shih-Fu Peng and Róisín Heneghan in New York in 1999 and in 2001 opened an office in Dublin, Ireland. We take a multi-disciplinary approach to design and have collaborated with many leading designers and engineers on a range of projects which include larger scale urban masterplans, bridges, landscapes and buildings. Current projects include the Canadian Canoe Museum, The Old Library refurbishment at Trinity College Dublin, the Visitors’ Centre at the Berlin Botanic Gardens and the Grand Egyptian Museum. Some of Heneghan Peng Architects’ most prominent projects include: The Palestinian Museum, Bir Zayt Air BnB European Operations Hub, Dublin, Ireland School of Architecture and Design/Library at the University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom The following statistics helped Heneghan Peng Architects achieve 4th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 3 Total Projects 3 3. Scullion Architects © Scullion Architects SCULLION ARCHITECTS are a Dublin-based Architectural Studio established by Declan Scullion MRIAI, providing architectural services for both the public and private sector. The practice’s work is characterized by a particular attention to user experience supported by an interest in things well-made. Our ambition is to provide a dedicated and professional service delivering exceptional buildings. Some of Scullion Architects’ most prominent projects include: Grand Canal Street, Dublin, Ireland Glass Ribbon, Dublin, Ireland Blackrock House, Dundalk, Ireland Churchtown, Dublin, Ireland The Liberties, Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped Scullion Architects achieve 3rd place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 4 Total Projects 5 2. ODOS © ODOS The constant questioning of how people work, rest and play in today’s society is the fundamental driving force behind the practice. We strongly believe our clients deserve to be challenged and that buildings need to inspire their occupants. As architects we have a duty to expose such possibilities. We hope to instill a sense of curiosity and excitement, stimulating a response, confronting and challenging traditional conceptions of architecture Some of ODOS’s most prominent projects include: Flynn Mews House, Dublin, Ireland Dwelling at Maytree, Wicklow, Wicklow, Ireland 3 Mews Houses, Dublin, Ireland Grangegorman, Dublin 7, Dublin, Ireland 31 Carysfort Road, Dalkey, Ireland The following statistics helped ODOS achieve 2nd place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: A+Awards Finalist 1 Featured Projects 4 Total Projects 9 1. McCullough Mulvin Architects © McCullough Mulvin Architects McCullough Mulvin Architects is an architecture and urban design practice based in Dublin. Much of our work has been in the design of cultural and civic buildings around Ireland, projects working to define a new public realm in a changing society, dealing with Ireland’s diffuse light and stark materiality. The work is based around an idea of experimentation – from small domestic work through to larger civic projects – testing at all scales, the work is original and the response to each brief particular. There is no house style, rather a concern for improving the lives of people by designing public and private spaces where life is played out. Some of McCullough Mulvin Architects’ most prominent projects include: Medieval Mile Museum, Kilkenny, Ireland Featured image: Trinity Long Room Hub, Dublin, Ireland Z Square House, Temple Gardens, Dublin, Ireland Beaufort Maritime Research Building, Cork, Ireland one up two down , Dublin, Ireland The following statistics helped McCullough Mulvin Architects achieve 1st place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Ireland: Featured Projects 4 Total Projects 6 Why Should I Trust Architizer’s Ranking? With more than 30,000 architecture firms and over 130,000 projects within its database, Architizer is proud to host the world’s largest online community of architects and building product manufacturers. Its celebrated A+Awards program is also the largest celebration of architecture and building products, with more than 400 jurors and hundreds of thousands of public votes helping to recognize the world’s best architecture each year. Architizer also powers firm directories for a number of AIA (American Institute of Architects) Chapters nationwide, including the official directory of architecture firms for AIA New York. An example of a project page on Architizer with Project Award Badges highlighted A Guide to Project Awards The blue “+” badge denotes that a project has won a prestigious A+Award as described above. Hovering over the badge reveals details of the award, including award category, year, and whether the project won the jury or popular choice award. The orange Project of the Day and yellow Featured Project badges are awarded by Architizer’s Editorial team, and are selected based on a number of factors. The following factors increase a project’s likelihood of being featured or awarded Project of the Day status: Project completed within the last 3 years A well written, concise project description of at least 3 paragraphs Architectural design with a high level of both functional and aesthetic value High quality, in focus photographs At least 8 photographs of both the interior and exterior of the building Inclusion of architectural drawings and renderings Inclusion of construction photographs There are 7 Projects of the Day each week and a further 31 Featured Projects. Each Project of the Day is published on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram Stories, while each Featured Project is published on Facebook. Each Project of the Day also features in Architizer’s Weekly Projects Newsletter and shared with 170,000 subscribers.     We’re constantly look for the world’s best architects to join our community. If you would like to understand more about this ranking list and learn how your firm can achieve a presence on it, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at editorial@architizer.com. The post 30 Best Architecture and Design Firms in Ireland appeared first on Journal.

No Mow May encourages homeowners to stash the lawn mower each spring and let flowers and grass grow for pollinators and water retention. And if your neighbor’s lawn already looks like a wildflower field most of the time, it could be more intentional than passersby might assume.The movement has expanded to “Let It Bloom June” and the fall version: “Leave the leaves.” Conservation and horticulture groups say year-round low-mowing while selectively leaving native plants to grow can save huge amounts of drinking water and lead to lasting and impactful ecological changes.When Amanda Beltramini Healan moved into her Nashville ranch house in 2016, the yard had been manicured for sale: a walnut tree, roses from a home improvement store and short grass. So she experimented, first with a 10-by-10-foot patch where she dug up the grass and sowed native seeds. Then she planted goldenrods in the culvert near the street, and let more of her yard grow tall without mowing.Local authorities apparently didn’t appreciate her natural look: “I got a letter from the city saying that I had to mow it,” she said.But then, a friend told her about No Mow Month signs, provided by the Cumberland River Compact, a local water conservation nonprofit. Soon she was signaling to the city that she’s no derelict, but a participant in an international movement.These days, every month is No Mow May in parts of her property. While she keeps the growth shorter near the culvert and street, her backyard is filled with native grasses and plants up to her knees or waist. There’s a decomposing tree trunk where scores of skinks and bugs live, birds nest under her carport and she regularly finds fawns sleeping in the safety of the high grasses.“I have a lot of insects and bugs and that’s protein, so the birds and the bird’s nests are everywhere. Cardinals and wrens and cowbirds and robins,” she said. “I wake up to them, especially during spring migration right now. It’s just a cacophony in the morning and in the evening, especially when the mulberries come in.”The movement is popularized by groups such as Plantlife, a conservation organization based in England.American lawns, based on English and French traditions, are increasingly seen as a wasteful monoculture that encourages an overuse of pesticides, fertilizer and water. Outdoor spraying and irrigation account for over 30% of a U.S. household’s total water consumption, and can be twice that in drier climates, according to the EPA.Some criticize No Mow campaigns as a fad that could invite invasive plants to spread unchecked without helping pollinators much, if only done for a month.A guide outlining No Mow pros, cons and limitations, written by consumer horticulture extension specialist Aaron Steil at Iowa State University, says reducing mowing to every two weeks and replacing turf with plants that pollinate all year long can offer more benefits without risking a citation or complaints.The No Mow effort does encourage people to think more about biodiversity in their yards, and many local nature organizations advise provide guidance on picking noninvasive plants that fit each region’s climate and precipitation levels.Reducing mowing encourages longer-rooted native grasses and flowers to grow, which breaks up compacted soil and improves drainage, “meaning that when it rains, more water is going to be captured and stored in lawns versus being generated as a runoff and entering into our stormwater system,” said Jason Sprouls, urban waters program manager for the Cumberland River Compact.Beltramini Healan isn’t just letting just anything grow — she learned which plants are invasive, non-native or not beneficial to the ecosystem and carefully prunes and weeds so the keepers have room to thrive.Nashville homeowner Brandon Griffith said he was just tired of mowing when he decided years ago wait and see what comes up. Then he consciously added flowering plants to attract bees and bugs. Now he sees so many insects and pollinators all over his garden that the neighbors’ kids come over to look for butterflies.It’s about giving them the time “to come out of their larva or their egg stage and be able to grow,” said Griffith. He said he’s never heard a complaint — in fact, some of his neighbors also stopped mowing for a month each spring. His four-year-old son catches lizards, digs for worms and hunts for bugs in the yard.“I just enjoy coming out and walking around,” said Griffith. “And looking at it, it’s kind of peaceful. It’s kinda relaxing.”__This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Amanda Beltramini Healan’s name and to correct that Aaron Steil works at Iowa State University, not the University of Iowa. —Kristin M. Hall, Associated Press

HBO’s version of The Last of Us is pretty good at maintaining fidelity to the lauded Naughty Dog games, especially when it comes to the blocking of major scenes. But in a way, that exactitude only magnifies the ways in which the show deviates from the games. While viewers expected changes — a good adaptation needs to justify a reason to exist — some of the creative changes have been met with mixed reactions from the audience. As the showrunners tell it, these creative liberties weren’t done thoughtlessly. In a recent press event for The Last of Us, showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin dove deep into season 2 as a whole over the course of an hour. Discussions often circled back to the wider topic of what’s possible in games versus film, and how these strengths guided their decisions for what the show would explore and how. On the cliffhanger ending By the time season 2 ends, the show is ambiguous about what happens to Ellie. The last we see of her, it seems as if she gets shot dead by Abby — only for the show to then transition to a totally different day, before any of that happens. Apparently, other endings to the season were considered but nothing stuck. “This always felt like the natural end point for the season,” Druckmann says. Mazin went even further, noting that the choice was made to balance out the changes to the story up until that point. He says, “we have to take risks as a television show, and HBO is to back us taking risks. But then again, we just did kill Pedro Pascal. They understand that this show is going to be a different show every season, which is a sort of a tricky thing to do when you’re a hit show. You keep asking people like, ‘I know you love this, we’re taking it away and giving you this now.‘ And then, hopefully they go, ‘Oh, well, you know what, we actually really like this.’ ‘Oh, that’s nice. Now we’re giving you this now because that’s how the story works.’” On adding Gail as a character Druckmann revealed that they have a “running list” of things that are easier to do in each medium, and changes in perspective are categorized under the TV list. Unlike games, television doesn’t lock you into the perspective of the person you’re controlling; it can be natural for a show to jump around in storylines from scene to scene. “And obviously in the game, perspective shifts in cut scenes, but they are limited by design, they have to be,” Mazin says. “[TV is] nothing but cut scenes.” The ease afforded by TV for different perspectives is partially how the pair arrived at the character of Gail, a therapist in the show who lends Joel an ear. Joel has trouble opening up to Gail, because that would mean admitting that he mowed down a hospital to keep Ellie alive. Gail emphasizes the importance of vocalizing difficult thoughts, which she illustrates by telling Joel that deep down, she hates him. As it turns out, Joel killed Gail’s husband Eugene after he got infected, and it’s something she has never been able to fully get over. “So, Gail in particular, gave us a moment to figure out, not only where is Joel now emotionally, but what’s the story he’s telling himself?,” Mazin says. “What is the thing he’s most afraid of? And what is his opinion about his actions? And all of that is setting up, ultimately, a moment where he, a) has to finally confront the truth, and then b) has to pay the price.” As players know, the start of The Last of Us Part 2 focuses on Abby, the daughter of a doctor killed by Joel in the first game. This was meant as a surprise for players. Naughty Dog went to such lengths to contain this piece of information that in an extended preview of the game, a trailer made it look like Joel was still alive during the journey Ellie embarks on. Pulling off something like that, Maizin says, is way harder on TV because “what we can’t do is reproduce the shock of becoming another person. “In games, you are Joel, you are Ellie, you are Abby, and when that shift happens it’s jarring because you have been someone. But here, we are watching everybody equally on a screen. We may identify with time to time in different ways and we may be conflicted but we’re not them.” On Alice the dog In the season 2 finale of TLOU, Ellie arrives at the aquarium in search of Abby. In the games, there’s a dark moment when Ellie kills a dog named Alice at the aquarium — but it doesn’t happen in the show. In the interactive version, the death is particularly brutal because you also spend some of Abby’s storyline with Alice at your side. The valiant pup saves you from danger and is well-loved, and at least one scene depicts playtime with Alice. Why leave something like that out? Well, Mazin wrote Chernobyl, and in that show, there’s a segment where pets left behind in the nuclear disaster are culled in an effort to prevent further spread of radiation. “I think you get like one dog murdering episode a lifetime,” Mazin says. “There are two cardinal rules in Hollywood, one, don’t spend your own money, two, don’t kill a dog.” That’s the jokey reason, anyway. He continues, “Plus, because it’s live action, the nature of violence becomes much more, well, graphic. It’s more graphic because…it’s not like there’s an animation between you and it, [and] it’s very disturbing.” Druckmann also notes that the timeline of events during the show, the aquarium is sandwiched between a string of heavy moments. Ellie almost dies in one scene, Mel and Owen are killed, and later on, Jessie meets his end as well. “And in our conversation, we’re like this [is] probably one too many,” Druckmann says. On Joel’s last words In the games, the player does not find out that Ellie spoke to Joel the night before he died until well into the story. The show, on the other hand, parades this pivotal moment right away. Except in this version of events, Joel tells Ellie that he killed all those people at the hospital because he loves her in a way she can’t understand. “It also speaks to the adaptation process, which is Pedro’s Joel is more articulate, more outwardly vulnerable than Troy Baker’s Joel, and therefore there are these tiny differences that felt appropriate,” Druckmann says. “It’s harder for me to imagine that line coming out of the game Joel.” The writers wanted to help viewers tie that exchange with the one we see Joel have with his dad earlier in the season. In that episode, Joel confronts his father about his tendency to beat his children. Joel’s dad breaks down and says he’s doing the best he can, and that hopefully, Joel can do a little bit better than he did when he has kids of his own. Legacy and what we inherit from our parents is a more overt theme in the show. Ellie remarks that she’s going to be a father in one scene that doesn’t happen in the games, and later on, she’s shown picking up a book for Dina’s baby. On Tommy’s absence The circumstances surrounding Joel’s death are a tad different in the source material. In the games, Tommy and Joel come across Abby during a patrol. On TV, Dina and Joel collide with Abby’s group while Tommy is seen back in Jackson, defending the town from a wave of infected. In the games, Tommy is the first one to leave for Seattle in search of revenge after Ellie fails to get Jackson’s blessing. For some viewers, this change was frustrating because it made Tommy less active in the story. As the showrunners see it, Tommy isn’t lessened by these changes. Both Mazin and Druckmann point out that Tommy still sees plenty of action, as we watch him defend Jackson and take down a massive infected monster. “We thought it would be interesting if, rather than him going, ‘I’m just going to run out there and kill whoever did this,’ especially without a lot of information, that we would give Ellie and Dina that agency. “But now we know that Tommy is somewhere in there in Seattle, because he and Jesse went after them to save them. And what Tommy does now, once he is outside the confines of Jackson, remember, he’s a veteran. He’s been in war, and we also know that for some time he and Joel were doing some pretty bad things. So, there is the potential of seeing this other side of Tommy, and that is now about him delivering on his promise to his brother, ‘I’m not going to let anything bad happen to that kid’.” For those keeping track, this list of five changes hardly covers every difference between the show and the games. One of the most controversial changes for the fandom lies with Abby. In the games, Abby sports a buff, imposing frame. Kaitlyn Dever, who depicts Abby on-screen, has a much more svelte silhouette. For some, this casting choice felt too “Hollywood.” We’re told that Abby has been obsessing over Joel since the death of her father, and that she spends years getting ready for that moment. Presumably, this motivates Abby to undergo intense physical training — so viewers attach a lot of meaning to that specific character design. If you’re wondering why the show didn’t follow suit, though, that’s a topic that Druckmann and Mazin explored a month ago, in the inaugural podcast that accompanies the show. Dever, they said, was initially in the running to be Ellie when the games were being adapted to a movie. “It was very easy to close your eyes and see her as this character and see that– because this character, going back to what Craig was saying earlier, just has this drive, this passion, this intensity, this intense pursuit of justice, and has to be, like, extremely vulnerable at the same time,” Druckmann said at the time. “And have all these other facets that we haven’t even seen yet. It didn’t take much imagination to view her in that role.” Here, too, Mazin emphasized the differences between TV and movies. During the podcast, Mazin said that the reason Abby is so muscular in the games is because designers have to think about player experiences. When players change perspective, they expect that their actions will feel different in some way too. An effective way of getting there is by giving characters different ranges in physicality. TV, though, doesn’t have that constraint. This allowed the showrunners to focus on other aspects of Abby’s character. “So, to me,” Mazin said, “the key was to find a certain ferocity and a relentlessness. And I think you’ll see some of that as the season goes on and certainly as we go forward with the show.”

Building with Communities: Rural Schools That Integrate Local Techniques and Materials in Latin AmericaSave this picture!Jerusalén de Miñaro Primary School / Semillas. Image © Eleazar CuadrosIn an effort to foster a sense of belonging among its inhabitants, to value ancestral cultures, and to preserve identity, the Latin American region embraces an architecture rich in nuances and regional characteristics. The use of local materials and construction techniques, or the dialogue between modular and vernacular approaches, among other aspects, reflect the intention to promote the involvement of native communities, students and their families, Iindigenous peoples, and local builders in the design and construction processes of a wide variety of rural schools throughout Latin America.According to the World Bank report, "Indigenous Latin America in the Twenty-First Century", it is estimated that around 42 million people belonging to indigenous communities live in Latin America. Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, and Bolivia are among the countries with the largest Indigenous populations, together accounting for over 80% of the regional total. From an architectural perspective, maintaining a dialogue that understands and respects the cultural and spiritual particularities of Indigenous peoples enables projects that preserve their identity and reflect their cultural heritage. La Piedra School by Correa 3 Arquitectos in Chile, for example, is designed for the Mapuche community of Galvarino, incorporating elements such as the circle, the cardinal points, and orthogonality, along with the integration of the sun, moon, and earth, and a space dedicated to ceremonies with the sacred Canelo tree. Beyond fulfilling educational needs, the aim is to promote equality and a connection with nature and spirituality, reflected in the circular arrangement of the classrooms and the admission of the first ray of sunlight. In this way, the fundamental elements of their worldview are embedded in the project's conception. Save this picture!Continuing within the educational context, practices such as the Semillas association in the Peruvian jungle combine community engagement and participation with the implementation of bioclimatic strategies and the use of local resources, aiming to create an architecture that is connected to its natural environment and cultural history. Understanding the role of educational infrastructure as more than just school buildings, but as versatile and multifunctional spaces with a meaningful impact on community learning and development, collective collaboration practices seek to transmit concepts and knowledge about vernacular architecture while also meeting essential needs. The use of earth, wood, bamboo, brick, caña brava, and other materials reflects the diversity of construction methods and local identities found throughout Latin America’s varied geographies. Related Article Inhabited Landscapes: 20 Cultural and Community Centers in Rural Areas Save this picture!Below, discover a selection of six rural schools located in Mexico, Peru, and Brazil that have developed initiatives to involve local communities, along with their students and families, at different stages of the design and construction process. Lightweight structures, sloped roofs, flexible enclosures, and open-plan layouts are common elements shared among these six case studies, which demonstrate a broad range of community-driven responses and interventions suited to different conditions and environments. In fact, the use of wood and bamboo stands out in both interior and exterior spaces for its application in structures, furnishings, and finishes.Rural School in Oaxaca / Territorio EstudioSan Andrés Huayapam, MexicoSave this picture!After reflecting on the nature of contemporary educational spaces, the Rural School in Oaxaca uses recycled construction materials or materials sourced from within the local community in an effort to strengthen the bond between students, their environment, and the surrounding landscape. Additionally, the program becomes entirely educational by involving students in the regenerative processes taking place in the school’s open areas, such as a wetland for water treatment, a community garden, composting, and enclosures for sheep and chickens, all of which are part of the educational approach. In this way, the mostly local teaching staff aims to promote a closer social relationship between the local population and the school space.Save this picture!El Huabo Primary and Secondary School / SemillasPeruSave this picture!In the jungle of northern Peru, the primary and secondary school for the village of El Huabo was developed through a participatory design and construction process involving the community and students. Through a carpentry workshop, students built school furniture during “Education for Work” classes (a course in the national curriculum), while landscaping workshops were held to improve the school gardens in cooperation with the La Agencia Agraria de San Ignacio. Moreover, an educational coffee farm was established thanks to collaboration with the company Volcafe. All these actions enabled multiple educational projects to run in parallel with the school’s construction, resulting in what the project team calls a “living school,” where the beneficiaries are also the creators.Save this picture!Ecoara Waldorf School / Shieh Arquitetos AssociadosValinhos, BrazilSave this picture!The Waldorf Ecoara School is an associative school where parents play an active role. As a result, a construction activity was created to foster a sense of belonging within the group. The walls were built using the traditional taipa de mão technique, which involves weaving vertical and horizontal wooden slats into the main structure to form large panels that are then filled with compacted clay. This activity, carried out by both parents and children, was both playful and symbolic. In addition, specialists in rammed earth provided hands-on training for the Ecoara community and construction workers. The idea was to promote the use of this technique, largely forgotten in its traditional form and still rarely used in its modern variant, while incorporating appropriate technological controls for the material mix.Save this picture!Jerusalén de Miñaro Primary School / SemillasSan Martín de Pangoa, PeruSave this picture!In the district of Pangoa, the project proposes an integrated work methodology involving cooperation among various national and international institutions and the community’s participation in every phase. During the diagnostic and design stages, workshops were held with students, parents, and teachers to identify the community’s needs, daily dynamics, and aspirations for the future school. Construction was guided by master builders and local workers, enabling the transfer of knowledge through on-site experience as well as training workshops throughout the process. In this way, the project initiates processes that foster knowledge exchange, revalue local material and human resources, and promote flexible spaces aligned with new educational approaches.Save this picture!Grow your School / Lucila Aguilar ArquitectosTuzantán, Chiapas, MexicoSave this picture!Aiming to improve the conditions of a school in the Unión Mexicana community in Tuzantán, Chiapas, the project combined pre-existing elements with new additions. Community volunteer participation was fundamental, as many of the construction tasks were carried out by locals. Children also took part in the rehabilitation activities by painting a mural on one of the facades. The goal was to nurture the children’s potential while fostering a sense of unity among community members, who were actively involved from the planning phase through to construction.Save this picture!Children Village / Rosenbaum + Aleph ZeroFormoso do Araguaia, BrazilSave this picture!The Children Village project advances efforts toward transformation, cultural preservation, the promotion of local building techniques, Indigenous beauty and knowledge, and the construction of a sense of belonging, vital for the development of the children at the Canuanã School. Interactive spaces such as a TV room, reading areas, balconies, patios, and hammocks make up the complementary facilities co-designed with the students to enhance quality of life and strengthen their connection to the school. In addition to housing more children, the new “villages” aim to boost the children’s self-esteem through the use of local techniques, building a bridge between vernacular methods and a new model of sustainable living.Save this picture! This article is part of an ArchDaily curated series that focuses on built projects from our database grouped under specific themes related to cities, typologies, materials, or programs. Every month, we will highlight a collection of structures that find a common thread between previously uncommon contexts, unpacking the depths of influence on our built environments. As always, at ArchDaily, we highly appreciate the input of our readers. If you think we should mention specific ideas, please submit your suggestions. Image gallerySee allShow less About this authorAgustina IñiguezAuthor••• Cite: Iñiguez, Agustina. "Building with Communities: Rural Schools That Integrate Local Techniques and Materials in Latin America" [Construir con las comunidades: escuelas rurales que integran técnicas y materiales locales en Latinoamérica] 24 May 2025. ArchDaily. (Trans. Piñeiro, Antonia ) Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1030260/building-with-communities-rural-schools-that-integrate-local-techniques-and-materials-in-latin-america&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

One of the best elements of Stardew Valley is that, despite being easy to pick up and accessible to a wide variety of gamers, it's surprisingly robust, with a lot of room for deeper engagement. In other words, Stardew Valley is a casual game, but it's also one with a lot of depth beneath its surface, giving players room to strategize and experiment with different techniques and playstyles.

Anita Hofschneider & Ayurella Horn-Muller, Grist Published May 18, 2025 | Comments (0) | Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Robert Prevost arrives on the main central loggia balcony of the St Peter's Basilica for the first time. © ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images On a sweltering January day in 2018, Pope Francis addressed 100,000 of the faithful in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, not far from where gold mining had ravaged an expanse of Amazon rainforest about the size of Colorado. “The native Amazonian peoples have probably never been so threatened on their own lands as they are at present,” he told the crowd. He simultaneously condemned extractive industries and conservation efforts that “under the guise of preserving the forest, hoard great expanses of woodland and negotiate with them, leading to situations of oppression for the native peoples.” Francis denounced the insatiable consumerism that drives the destruction of the Amazon, supported those who say Indigenous peoples’ guardianship of their own territories should be respected, and urged everyone to defend isolated tribes. “Their cosmic vision and their wisdom have much to teach those of us who are not part of their culture,” he said. To Julio Cusurichi Palacios, an Indigenous leader who was in the stadium that day, the words from the head of the Catholic Church — which claims 1.4 billion members and has a long, sordid history of violence against Indigenous peoples worldwide — were welcome and momentous. “Few world leaders have spoken about our issues, and the pope said publicly the rights of Indigenous peoples were historically violated,” he said after Pope Francis died last month. “Let us hope that the new pope is a person who can continue implementing the position the pope who passed away has been talking about.” During his 12 years as pontiff, Francis radically reshaped how the world’s most powerful religious institution approached the moral and ethical call to protect the planet. Beyond his invocations for Indigenous rights, Francis acknowledged the Church’s role in colonization, and considered climate change a moral issue born of rampant consumption and materialism. As the Trump administration dismantles climate action and cuts funding to Indigenous peoples around the world — and far-right politics continues to rise globally — experts see the conclave’s selection of Robert Francis Prevost, or Pope Leo XIV as he is now known, as a clear beacon that the faith-based climate justice movement his predecessor led isn’t going anywhere. In 2015, Pope Francis released his historic papal letter, or encyclical, titled Laudato si’. In the roughly 180-page document, he unequivocally identified planet-heating pollution as a pressing global issue disproportionately impacting the world’s poor, and condemned the outsize role wealthy countries like the U.S. have in contributing to the climate crisis. With it, Francis did what no pope had done before: He spoke with great clarity and urgency about human degradation of the environment being not just an environmental issue, but a social and moral one. Laudato si’ established the definitive connection between faith, climate change, and social justice, and made it a tenet of Catholic doctrine. The lasting influence of Francis’ encyclical would be buoyed by his other writings, homilies, and his direct appeals to world leaders. He was, for example, credited with helping rally nearly 200 countries to sign the 2015 Paris Agreement, regularly urged cooperation at international climate summits, and released a follow-up to his pioneering encyclical in 2023 that sounded the alarm in the face of the climate crisis. “Pope Francis routinely said that we have a throwaway society. We throw away people, we throw away nature … and that we really need a culture that’s much more based in care,” said Christopher Cox, executive director of the Seventh Generation Interfaith Coalition for Responsible Investment and a former priest. “That means care for people, especially the most poor, the most vulnerable, the most marginalized. And we also need much greater care for creation. We’ve been given a beautiful earth and we’re consuming it at a rate that goes far beyond what will be able to sustain life for the long term.” The first Latin American pope, Francis was unique in implicitly embracing some elements of liberation theology, a Catholic social justice movement that calls for the liberation of marginalized peoples from oppression. Although Francis was occasionally critical of the doctrine’s Marxist elements and never fully supportive of it, many observers see his statements regarding poor and Indigenous peoples as reflective of the doctrine’s central values. “Right from the beginning of his papacy, that outreach, that recognition of Indigenous ways of being Catholic and Indigenous language in Catholicism, heralded — up to that point — the most expansive official recognition of Indigenous contributions to Catholicism thus far,” said Eben Levey, an assistant professor of history at Alfred University who has studied the relationship between Catholic Church and Indigenous peoples in Latin America. In the centuries since conquistadores arrived in the Americas and forced Indigenous peoples to accept their religion, many Indigenous communities have made Catholicism their own, and a growing number of church leaders have embraced the idea that there are multiple ways of being Catholic and that Catholicism and Indigenous cultures can coexist. A year after becoming pope, Francis approved the use of two Mayan languages, Tzotzil and Tzeltal, in mass and sacraments like baptism and confession. In 2015 he expanded that list to include the Aztec language Nahuatl, and in 2016, during a visit to Mexico, he celebrated mass in Tzeltal, Tzotzil and Chol. In 2022, Francis officially apologized to Canada for the residential schools that ripped Indigenous children from their families, leading to the deaths of many who were later buried in unmarked graves. The following year, he rejected the Doctrine of Discovery, a religious concept that colonizers used to justify the illegal seizure of land from Indigenous peoples and became part of an 1823 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that described Native Americans as “savages.” “The Doctrine of Discovery is not part of the teaching of the Catholic Church,” Pope Francis said, adding that he strongly supports the global implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He also drew a clear connection between those rights and climate action: In 2023, he made clear that Indigenous peoples are critical to fighting climate change when he said, “Ignoring the original communities in the safeguarding of the Earth is a serious mistake, not to say a great injustice.” But Pope Francis’ progressivism had its limits. In 2019, he called for a meeting of church leaders, known as the Synod of Bishops, for the Pan-Amazon region to address issues affecting the Amazon Basin. Indigenous Catholics who attended brought up illegal logging and violence against land defenders and proposed reforms. “The ancestral wisdom of the aboriginal peoples affirms that mother earth has a feminine face,” reads the document that emerged from the gathering and urged the church to give women more leadership roles and allow married deacons to be ordained as priests. In his response, Francis condemned corporations that destroy the Amazon as committing “injustice and crime,” yet refused to embrace the proposals to make church leadership more inclusive of women and married men. Francis’ climate activism was also riddled in constraint. He transformed how religious institutions viewed the climate crisis, framing a failure to act on it as a brutal injustice toward the most vulnerable, but could have implemented “more direct institutional action,” said Nadia Ahmad, a Barry University School of Law associate professor who has studied faith-based environmental action. Though the former pontiff publicly supported renewable energy adoption, called for fossil fuel disinvestment, and prompted churches across the world to go solar, he did not mandate what he deemed a “radical energy transition” across dioceses, schools, and hospitals. The work he accomplished “could have been amplified a bit more and had more accountability,” said Ahmad. But that limitation, she noted, likely stemmed from contradictory politics playing out within the church — many traditional, conservative Catholics, particularly in the United States, resisted Francis’ progressive teachings. A 2021 study found that over a period of five years, most U.S. bishops were “nearly silent and sometimes even misleading,” in their official messaging to parishioners about climate change and the pope’s famed encyclical. Though Pope Leo XIV has been lauded for his advocacy in defense of immigrants and worker rights — his namesake, Leo XIII, who reigned from 1878 until 1903 is known as a historical Catholic champion of social justice and equality — the new pope’s track record on engaging directly with climate change is sparse. Still, Mary Evelyn Tucker, co-director of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, sees comments the new pope made last year on the need to move “from words to action” as a promising sign that he will continue Francis’ commitment to communicating the urgency of a warming world. The timing of the conclave’s unprecedented decision to select the first pontiff from the United States, coming amid the Trump administration’s sweeping dismissal of climate action, elimination of environmental protections, and attacks on Indigenous rights, isn’t lost on her. “It may be a signal to say ‘America, come back into the world community, come back into a planetary future where we collectively have been working to create a future worthy of our children and our children’s children,’” she said. Leo grew up in Chicago and is a citizen of both the U.S. and Peru, where he spent decades serving as a missionary and bishop before Francis made him a cardinal in 2023. He speaks five languages fluently and some Quechua, an Indigenous Incan language. While he was working in Peru in the 1990s, Leo was critical of the government’s human rights abuses — though he refrained from explicitly taking sides in the political fight between Maoist rebels and the government of then-dictator Alberto Fujimori, according to Matthew Casey, a historian and clinical associate professor at Arizona State University based in Lima. Still, his reaction to the country’s authoritarianism could provide a glimpse of what stances he might take as pope, Casey said. “It doesn’t matter who was abusing human rights, he was on the side of the people,” he said. In 2016, the would-be pontiff spoke at a conference in Brazil where attendees talked about threats to the Amazon rainforest and Indigenous peoples who lived there. He praised Francis’ encyclical, describing the document as “very important,” and representing “something new in terms of this explicit expression of the church’s concern for all of creation.” To Casey, that suggests Pope Leo XIV, like his predecessor, has an awareness of the issues affecting Indigenous peoples, such as the rampant degradation of the environment. “Both Francis and Prevost are attuned to Indigeneity in ways that they couldn’t have been if they worked in Europe or the United States, because the politics of Indigeneity in Latin America are just so different,” Casey said. More than a week after the conclave that named him pope, communities across Peru are still celebrating the selection of Pope Leo XIV. Francis and Leo’s shared experiences working with marginalized communities harmed by colonialism and climate change, and their commitment to the social justice aspects of the church’s mission, are particularly meaningful in this political moment, said Levey, the Alfred University historian. “We are seeing a resurgence of ultra right wing politics globally, and the Catholic Church next to the United Nations is one of the few multilateral organizations perhaps capable of responding in some form or fashion to the questions of our modern age or contemporary moment,” he said. This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/international/pope-leo-climate-catholic-indigenous-francis/. Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org. Daily Newsletter You May Also Like By Matt Novak Published February 18, 2025

Higher power Do these Buddhist gods hint at the purpose of China’s super-secret satellites? Until recently, China's entries in the realm of spaceflight patches often lacked originality. Stephen Clark – May 17, 2025 1:00 pm | 14 This illustration of Chíguó, protector of the east in Buddhism's Four Heavenly Kings, shows the divine being strumming a pipa, a traditional Chinese musical instrument. Credit: Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology This illustration of Chíguó, protector of the east in Buddhism's Four Heavenly Kings, shows the divine being strumming a pipa, a traditional Chinese musical instrument. Credit: Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Mission patches are a decades-old tradition in spaceflight. They can range from the figurative to the abstract, prompting valuable insights or feeding confusion. Some are just plain weird. Ars published a story a few months ago on spaceflight patches from NASA, SpaceX, Russia, and the NRO, the US government's spy satellite agency, which is responsible for some of the most head-scratching mission logos. Until recently, China's entries in the realm of spaceflight patches often lacked the originality found in patches from the West. For example, a series of patches for China's human spaceflight missions used a formulaic design with a circular shape and a mix of red and blue. The patch for China's most recent Shenzhou crew to the country's Tiangong space station last month finally broke the mold with a triangular shape after China's human spaceflight agency put the patch up for a public vote. But there's a fascinating set of new patches Chinese officials released for a series of launches with top secret satellites over the last two months. These four patches depict Buddhist gods with a sense of artistry and sharp colors that stand apart from China's previous spaceflight emblems, and perhaps—or perhaps not—they can tell us something about the nature of the missions they represent. Guardians of the Dharma The four patches show the Four Heavenly Kings, protector deities in Buddhism who guard against evil forces in the four cardinal directions, according to the Kyoto National Museum. The gods also shield the Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha, from external threats. These gods have different names, but in China, they are known as Duōwén, Zēngzhǎng, Chíguó, and Guăngmù. Duōwén is the commander and the guardian of the north, the "one who listens to many teachings," who is often depicted with an umbrella. Zēngzhǎng, guardian of the south, is a god of growth shown carrying a sword. The protector of the east is Chíguó, defender of the nation, who holds a stringed musical instrument. And guarding the west is Guăngmù, an all-seeing god usually depicted with a serpent. The patches for a quartet of Chinese satellites launched since March each portray one of the Four Heavenly Kings. We know little about these satellites, other than their names and locations, and they were reportedly manufactured by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, a division of China's main state-owned aerospace contractor. They are part of a series of Chinese missions known as Tongxin Jishu Shiyan (TJS), or what China calls communication technology test satellites. But that's likely a cover for their real purpose. This artwork released by one of China's state-run space companies shows the Four Heavenly Kings. Clockwise, in order of launch from the upper left: TJS-15 as King of the West, TJS-16 as King of the East, TJS-17 as King of the North, and TJS-19 as King of the South. Credit: Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology China launched TJS-15, the first satellite with a Heavenly King mascot, on March 9 aboard a Long March 3B rocket. A Long March 7A rocket launched the TJS-16 satellite March 29, and another Long March 3B deployed the TJS-17 payload April 10. Finally, on Monday, a Long March 3C rocket sent China's TJS-19 satellite into orbit, skipping TJS-18 in the sequence. All four satellites are on their way to, or already operating in, geosynchronous orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator. At that altitude, a satellite's orbital velocity matches the speed of Earth's rotation, allowing it to remain over the same part of the planet. Notably, ground-based trackers have detected unexpected objects that appear to have separated from TJS-15 and TJS-17 in geosynchronous orbit. These may be remnant rocket engines that helped inject the satellites into their operating orbits, but a handful of earlier Chinese satellites also released smaller spacecraft to perform their own maneuvers. Orbital intrigue US officials believe China uses many of the TJS satellites for missile warning or spy missions. In the first instance, some of the TJS satellites may be similar to the US Space Force's fleet of early warning satellites, on guard with heat sensors to detect the thermal signature of a ballistic missile launch. TJS satellites filling the role of a reconnaissance mission might have enormous umbrella-like reflectors to try and pick up signals transmitted by foreign forces, such as those of the United States. It's not difficult to start making connections between the Four Heavenly Gods and the missions that China's TJS satellites likely carry out in space. A protector with an umbrella? An all-seeing entity? This sounds like a possible link, but there's a chance Chinese officials approved the patches to misdirect outside observers, or there's no connection at all. All of the TJS satellites are parked in geosynchronous orbit over the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, or the Western Pacific, except for one—TJS-7—positioned over the Eastern Pacific, with good visibility over the entire United States. A Long March 7A rocket carrying the TJS-16 satellite lifts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on March 30, 2025, in Wenchang, Hainan Province of China. Credit: Liu Guoxing/VCG via Getty Images Mike Dahm, a researcher at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies and a former naval intelligence officer, told the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission last year that TJS-7 is probably a missile warning satellite, but it could be spying on signals coming from the US homeland. Some of the TJS satellites might also be capable of maneuvering near other satellites for closeup inspection. The US military has its own inspector satellites, known as GSSAP, to get a closer look at interesting things happening in geosynchronous orbit. And the Space Force is using them. One of these GSSAP platforms, designated USA-324, approached within about 10 miles of China's new TJS-16 and TJS-17 satellites on April 26 and April 29, according to COMSPOC, a commercial satellite tracking company. A video animation released by COMSPOC, embedded below, shows how the USA-324 satellite maneuvered close to each of the Chinese satellites last month over the Western Pacific Ocean. It seems the Space Force is intrigued by China's flurry of new top secret satellites missions, too. Stephen Clark Space Reporter Stephen Clark Space Reporter Stephen Clark is a space reporter at Ars Technica, covering private space companies and the world’s space agencies. Stephen writes about the nexus of technology, science, policy, and business on and off the planet. 14 Comments

Decision trees are a popular supervised learning algorithm with benefits that include being able to be used for both regression and classification as well as being easy to interpret. However, decision trees aren’t the most performant algorithm and are prone to overfitting due to small variations in the training data. This can result in a completely different tree. This is why people often turn to ensemble models like Bagged Trees and Random Forests. These consist of multiple decision trees trained on bootstrapped data and aggregated to achieve better predictive performance than any single tree could offer. This tutorial includes the following:  What is Bagging What Makes Random Forests Different Training and Tuning a Random Forest using Scikit-Learn Calculating and Interpreting Feature Importance Visualizing Individual Decision Trees in a Random Forest As always, the code used in this tutorial is available on my GitHub. A video version of this tutorial is also available on my YouTube channel for those who prefer to follow along visually. With that, let’s get started! What is Bagging (Bootstrap Aggregating) Bootstrap + aggregating = Bagging. Image by Michael Galarnyk. Random forests can be categorized as bagging algorithms (bootstrap aggregating). Bagging consists of two steps: 1.) Bootstrap sampling: Create multiple training sets by randomly drawing samples with replacement from the original dataset. These new training sets, called bootstrapped datasets, typically contain the same number of rows as the original dataset, but individual rows may appear multiple times or not at all. On average, each bootstrapped dataset contains about 63.2% of the unique rows from the original data. The remaining ~36.8% of rows are left out and can be used for out-of-bag (OOB) evaluation. For more on this concept, see my sampling with and without replacement blog post. 2.) Aggregating predictions: Each bootstrapped dataset is used to train a different decision tree model. The final prediction is made by combining the outputs of all individual trees. For classification, this is typically done through majority voting. For regression, predictions are averaged. Training each tree on a different bootstrapped sample introduces variation across trees. While this doesn’t fully eliminate correlation—especially when certain features dominate—it helps reduce overfitting when combined with aggregation. Averaging the predictions of many such trees reduces the overall variance of the ensemble, improving generalization. What Makes Random Forests Different In contrast to some other bagged trees algorithms, for each decision tree in random forests, only a subset of features is randomly selected at each decision node and the best split feature from the subset is used. Image by Michael Galarnyk. Suppose there’s a single strong feature in your dataset. In bagged trees, each tree may repeatedly split on that feature, leading to correlated trees and less benefit from aggregation. Random Forests reduce this issue by introducing further randomness. Specifically, they change how splits are selected during training: 1). Create N bootstrapped datasets. Note that while bootstrapping is commonly used in Random Forests, it is not strictly necessary because step 2 (random feature selection) introduces sufficient diversity among the trees. 2). For each tree, at each node, a random subset of features is selected as candidates, and the best split is chosen from that subset. In scikit-learn, this is controlled by the max_features parameter, which defaults to 'sqrt' for classifiers and 1 for regressors (equivalent to bagged trees). 3). Aggregating predictions: vote for classification and average for regression. Note: Random Forests use sampling with replacement for bootstrapped datasets and sampling without replacement for selecting a subset of features.  Sampling with replacement procedure. Image by Michael Galarnyk Out-of-Bag (OOB) Score Because ~36.8% of training data is excluded from any given tree, you can use this holdout portion to evaluate that tree’s predictions. Scikit-learn allows this via the oob_score=True parameter, providing an efficient way to estimate generalization error. You’ll see this parameter used in the training example later in the tutorial. Training and Tuning a Random Forest in Scikit-Learn Random Forests remain a strong baseline for tabular data thanks to their simplicity, interpretability, and ability to parallelize since each tree is trained independently. This section demonstrates how to load data, perform a train test split, train a baseline model, tune hyperparameters using grid search, and evaluate the final model on the test set. Step 1: Train a Baseline Model Before tuning, it’s good practice to train a baseline model using reasonable defaults. This gives you an initial sense of performance and lets you validate generalization using the out-of-bag (OOB) score, which is built into bagging-based models like Random Forests. This example uses the House Sales in King County dataset (CCO 1.0 Universal License), which contains property sales from the Seattle area between May 2014 and May 2015. This approach allows us to reserve the test set for final evaluation after tuning. Python"># Import libraries # Some imports are only used later in the tutorial import matplotlib.pyplot as plt import numpy as np import pandas as pd # Dataset: Breast Cancer Wisconsin (Diagnostic) # Source: UCI Machine Learning Repository # License: CC BY 4.0 from sklearn.datasets import load_breast_cancer from sklearn.ensemble import RandomForestClassifier from sklearn.ensemble import RandomForestRegressor from sklearn.inspection import permutation_importance from sklearn.model_selection import GridSearchCV, train_test_split from sklearn import tree # Load dataset # Dataset: House Sales in King County (May 2014–May 2015) # License CC0 1.0 Universal url = 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mGalarnyk/Tutorial_Data/master/King_County/kingCountyHouseData.csv' df = pd.read_csv(url) columns = ['bedrooms',             'bathrooms',             'sqft_living',             'sqft_lot',              'floors',              'waterfront',              'view',              'condition',              'grade',              'sqft_above',              'sqft_basement',              'yr_built',              'yr_renovated',              'lat',              'long',              'sqft_living15',              'sqft_lot15',              'price'] df = df[columns] # Define features and target X = df.drop(columns='price') y = df['price'] # Train/test split X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X, y, random_state=0) # Train baseline Random Forest reg = RandomForestRegressor(     n_estimators=100,        # number of trees     max_features=1/3,        # fraction of features considered at each split     oob_score=True,          # enables out-of-bag evaluation     random_state=0 ) reg.fit(X_train, y_train) # Evaluate baseline performance using OOB score print(f"Baseline OOB score: {reg.oob_score_:.3f}") Step 2: Tune Hyperparameters with Grid Search While the baseline model gives a strong starting point, performance can often be improved by tuning key hyperparameters. Grid search cross-validation, as implemented by GridSearchCV, systematically explores combinations of hyperparameters and uses cross-validation to evaluate each one, selecting the configuration with the highest validation performance.The most commonly tuned hyperparameters include: n_estimators: The number of decision trees in the forest. More trees can improve accuracy but increase training time. max_features: The number of features to consider when looking for the best split. Lower values reduce correlation between trees. max_depth: The maximum depth of each tree. Shallower trees are faster but may underfit. min_samples_split: The minimum number of samples required to split an internal node. Higher values can reduce overfitting. min_samples_leaf: The minimum number of samples required to be at a leaf node. Helps control tree size. bootstrap: Whether bootstrap samples are used when building trees. If False, the whole dataset is used. param_grid = {     'n_estimators': [100],     'max_features': ['sqrt', 'log2', None],     'max_depth': [None, 5, 10, 20],     'min_samples_split': [2, 5],     'min_samples_leaf': [1, 2] } # Initialize model rf = RandomForestRegressor(random_state=0, oob_score=True) grid_search = GridSearchCV(     estimator=rf,     param_grid=param_grid,     cv=5,             # 5-fold cross-validation     scoring='r2',     # evaluation metric     n_jobs=-1         # use all available CPU cores ) grid_search.fit(X_train, y_train) print(f"Best parameters: {grid_search.best_params_}") print(f"Best R^2 score: {grid_search.best_score_:.3f}") Step 3: Evaluate Final Model on Test Set Now that we’ve selected the best-performing model based on cross-validation, we can evaluate it on the held-out test set to estimate its generalization performance. # Evaluate final model on test set best_model = grid_search.best_estimator_ print(f"Test R^2 score (final model): {best_model.score(X_test, y_test):.3f}") Calculating Random Forest Feature Importance One of the key advantages of Random Forests is their interpretability — something that large language models (LLMs) often lack. While LLMs are powerful, they typically function as black boxes and can exhibit biases that are difficult to identify. In contrast, scikit-learn supports two main methods for measuring feature importance in Random Forests: Mean Decrease in Impurity and Permutation Importance. 1). Mean Decrease in Impurity (MDI): Also known as Gini importance, this method calculates the total reduction in impurity brought by each feature across all trees. This is fast and built into the model via reg.feature_importances_. However, impurity-based feature importances can be misleading, especially for features with high cardinality (many unique values), as these features are more likely to be chosen simply because they provide more potential split points. importances = reg.feature_importances_ feature_names = X.columns sorted_idx = np.argsort(importances)[::-1] for i in sorted_idx:     print(f"{feature_names[i]}: {importances[i]:.3f}") 2). Permutation Importance: This method assesses the decrease in model performance when a single feature’s values are randomly shuffled. Unlike MDI, it accounts for feature interactions and correlation. It is more reliable but also more computationally expensive. # Perform permutation importance on the test set perm_importance = permutation_importance(reg, X_test, y_test, n_repeats=10, random_state=0) sorted_idx = perm_importance.importances_mean.argsort()[::-1] for i in sorted_idx:     print(f"{X.columns[i]}: {perm_importance.importances_mean[i]:.3f}") It is important to note that our geographic features lat and long are also useful for visualization as the plot below shows. It’s likely that companies like Zillow leverage location information extensively in their valuation models. Housing Price percentile for King County. Image by Michael Galarnyk. Visualizing Individual Decision Trees in a Random Forest A Random Forest consists of multiple decision trees—one for each estimator specified via the n_estimators parameter. After training the model, you can access these individual trees through the .estimators_ attribute. Visualizing a few of these trees can help illustrate how differently each one splits the data due to bootstrapped training samples and random feature selection at each split. While the earlier example used a RandomForestRegressor, here we demonstrate this visualization using a RandomForestClassifier trained on the Breast Cancer Wisconsin dataset (CC BY 4.0 license) to highlight Random Forests’ versatility for both regression and classification tasks. This short video demonstrates what 100 trained estimators from this dataset look like. Fit a Random Forest Model using Scikit-Learn # Load the Breast Cancer (Diagnostic) Dataset data = load_breast_cancer() df = pd.DataFrame(data.data, columns=data.feature_names) df['target'] = data.target # Arrange Data into Features Matrix and Target Vector X = df.loc[:, df.columns != 'target'] y = df.loc[:, 'target'].values # Split the data into training and testing sets X_train, X_test, Y_train, Y_test = train_test_split(X, y, random_state=0) # Random Forests in `scikit-learn` (with N = 100) rf = RandomForestClassifier(n_estimators=100,                             random_state=0) rf.fit(X_train, Y_train) Plotting Individual Estimators (decision trees) from a Random Forest using Matplotlib You can now view all the individual trees from the fitted model.  rf.estimators_ You can now visualize individual trees. The code below visualizes the first decision tree. fn=data.feature_names cn=data.target_names fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows = 1,ncols = 1,figsize = (4,4), dpi=800) tree.plot_tree(rf.estimators_[0],                feature_names = fn,                 class_names=cn,                filled = True); fig.savefig('rf_individualtree.png') Although plotting many trees can be difficult to interpret, you may wish to explore the variety across estimators. The following example shows how to visualize the first five decision trees in the forest: # This may not the best way to view each estimator as it is small fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=1, ncols=5, figsize=(10, 2), dpi=3000) for index in range(5):     tree.plot_tree(rf.estimators_[index],                    feature_names=fn,                    class_names=cn,                    filled=True,                    ax=axes[index])     axes[index].set_title(f'Estimator: {index}', fontsize=11) fig.savefig('rf_5trees.png') Conclusion Random forests consist of multiple decision trees trained on bootstrapped data in order to achieve better predictive performance than could be obtained from any of the individual decision trees. If you have questions or thoughts on the tutorial, feel free to reach out through YouTube or X. The post Understanding Random Forest using Python (scikit-learn) appeared first on Towards Data Science.

May 16: Global Accessibility Awareness Day (2024); Malcolm X Day in some parts of the United States (2025) Junko Tabei 1426 – Mohnyin Thado captured Sagaing to become the king of Ava, in present-day Myanmar. 1605 – After a scuffle in which one cardinal received broken bones, a papal conclave convened in Rome elected Camillo Borghese as Pope Paul V. 1929 – The first Academy Awards ceremony was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, California. 1975 – Japanese climber Junko Tabei (pictured) became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Pietro da Cortona (d. 1669)William H. Seward (b. 1801)Amanda Asay (b. 1988) More anniversaries: May 15 May 16 May 17 Archive By email List of days of the year About