Take the Speakers, Headphones, and Earphones SurveyTake other PCMag surveys. Each completed survey is a chance to win a $250 Amazon gift card. OFFICIAL SWEEPSTAKES RULESNO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. Readers' Choice Sweepstakes (the "Sweepstakes") is governed by these official rules (the "Sweepstakes Rules"). The Sweepstakes begins on May 9, 2025, at 12:00 AM ET and ends on July 27, 2025, at 11:59 PM ET (the "Sweepstakes Period").SPONSOR: Ziff Davis, LLC, with an address of 360 Park Ave South, Floor 17, New York, NY 10010 (the "Sponsor").ELIGIBILITY: This Sweepstakes is open to individuals who are eighteen (18) years of age or older at the time of entry who are legal residents of the fifty (50) United States of America or the District of Columbia. 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Griffith 624 Elm St. Ext.Ithaca, NY 14850-8786Mail Entries must be postmarked by July 28, 2025, and received by Aug. 4, 2025.Only one (1) entry per person is permitted, regardless of the entry method used. Subsequent attempts made by the same individual to submit multiple entries may result in the disqualification of the entrant.Only contributions submitted during the Sweepstakes Period will be eligible for entry into the Sweepstakes. No other methods of entry will be accepted. All entries become the property of Sponsor and will not be returned. Entries are limited to individuals only; commercial enterprises and business entities are not eligible. Use of a false account will disqualify an entry. Sponsor is not responsible for entries not received due to difficulty accessing the internet, service outage or delays, computer difficulties, and other technological problems.Entries are subject to any applicable restrictions or eligibility requirements listed herein. 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The Winner will be notified via email to the contact information provided in the entry. Notification of the Winner shall be deemed to have occurred immediately upon sending of the notification by Sponsor. Selected winner(s) will be required to respond (as directed) to the notification within seven (7) days of attempted notification. The only entries that will be considered eligible entries are entries received by Sponsor within the Sweepstakes Period. The odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received. The Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to choose an alternative winner in the event that a possible winner has been disqualified or is deemed ineligible for any reason.Recommended by Our EditorsPRIZE: One (1) winner will receive the following prize (collectively, the "Prize"):One (1) $250 Amazon.com gift code via email, valued at approximately two hundred fifty dollars ($250).No more than the stated number of prize(s) will be awarded, and all prize(s) listed above will be awarded. Actual retail value of the Prize may vary due to market conditions. The difference in value of the Prize as stated above and value at time of notification of the Winner, if any, will not be awarded. No cash or prize substitution is permitted, except at the discretion of Sponsor. The Prize is non-transferable. 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There is an inherent problem with the design of shower heads. Not some of them, all of them. The problem is that their very design creates the ideal circumstances for mold to thrive within them, internally, in areas that you cannot access for cleaning.A bathtub faucet or kitchen sink tap is simply just a shaped pipe that allows water to flow through them. When you turn the water off, the pipe mouths quickly dry, thanks to their relatively wide shape and local airflow.Showerheads, however, are complex workings of intricate inner channels and nozzles, designed to break the water flow into spray patterns that end users find desirable. These channels are all inside the showerhead and get little airflow. The channels can never really dry out completely, and over time, that interal dampness allows bacteria and mold—including the dreaded black mold--to thrive. In this shot of a showerhead that has been cut open by a saw, a lot of what you see is the detritus of the cut plastic, but you can also see the brown stuff. And deeper inside the head, you find this: The mother of Steve Sunshine, an inventor, was suffering from respiratory issues. Sunshine disassembled her showerhead and found it was filled with mold. He subsequently designed this ShowerClear: This ingenious design pops open, so that after a shower you can let the shower head's innards dry out. It also makes it easy to clean, so you can eliminate mineral build-up. (This eliminates the mild hassle that many of us undertake to clean our showerheads, which is soaking them in a vessel filled with vinegar for a few hours.) The ShowerClear heads come in a variety of finishes and run $140.

“I want to make a big announcement,” said Faryar Shirzad, the chief policy officer of Coinbase, to a nearly empty room. His words echoed across the massive hall at the Bitcoin Conference, deep in the caverns of The Venetian Expo in Las Vegas, and it wasn’t apparent how many people were watching on the livestream. Then again, somebody out there may have been interested in the panelists he was interviewing, one of whom was unusual by Bitcoin Conference standards: Chris LaCivita, the political consultant who’d co-chaired Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. “I am super proud to say it on this stage,” Shirzad continued, addressing the dozens of people scattered across 5,000 chairs. “We have just become a major sponsor of the America250 effort.” My jaw dropped. Coinbase, the world’s largest crypto exchange, the owner of 12 percent of the world’s Bitcoin supply, and listed on the S&P 500, was paying for Trump to hold a military parade.No wonder they made the announcement in an empty room. Today was “Code and Country”: an entire day of MAGA-themed panels on the Nakamoto Main Stage, full of Republican legislators, White House officials, and political operatives, all of whom praised Trump as the savior of the crypto world. But Code and Country was part of Industry Day, which was VIP only and closed to General Admission holders — the people with the $199 tickets, who flocked to the conference seeking wisdom from brilliant technologists and fabulously wealthy crypto moguls, who believed that decentralized currency on a blockchain could not be controlled by government authoritarians. They’d have drowned Shirzad in boos if they saw him give money to Donald Trump’s campaign manager, and they would have stormed the Nakamoto stage if they knew the purpose of America250. America250 is a nonprofit established by Congress during Barack Obama’s presidency with a mundane mission: to plan the nationwide festivities for July 4th, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. “Who remembers the Bicentennial in 1976?” the co-chair, former U.S. Treasurer Rosie Rios, asked the crowd. “I remember it like it was yesterday, and this one is going to be bigger and better.” But then Trump got re-elected, appointed LaCivita as co-chair, and suddenly, the party was starting earlier. The week before the conference, America250 announced that it would host a “Grand Military Parade” on June 14th to celebrate the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday, releasing tickets for prime seats along the parade route and near the Washington Monument on their website, hosting other festivities on the National Mall, and credentialing the press covering the event. (Their celebrations and events are a different operation from the U.S. Army, which had never planned for a parade to celebrate its 250th birthday, much less a military parade, but is now spending up to $45 million in taxpayer dollars to make the parade happen.) According to the most recent statements from Army officials, the parade will include hundreds of cannons, dozens of Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters, fighter jets, bombers, and 150 military vehicles, including Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Stryker Fighting Vehicles, Humvees, and if the logistics work out, 25 (or more) M1 Abrams tanks. Trump had spent years trying to get the government to throw a military parade — primarily because he’d attended a Bastille Day parade in France and became jealous — and now that he was back in office, he’d finally eliminated everyone in the government who previously told him that the budget didn’t exist for such a parade, that the tank treads would ruin the streets and collapse the bridges, that the optics of tanks, guns and soldiers marching down Constitution Avenue were too authoritarian and fascist. June 14th also happens to be Donald Trump’s birthday.And Coinbase, whose CEO once told his employees to stop bringing politics into the workplace, was now footing the bill — if not for this military parade watch party, then for the one inevitably happening next year, when America actually turns 250, or any other festivities between now and then that may or may not fall on Trump’s birthday. (This wasn’t the first party they helped fund, though. Earlier this year, Coinbase wrote a $1 million check to Trump’s inauguration committee. One month later, the SEC announced that it was dropping an investigation into Coinbase.) I had to keep reminding myself that I was at the Bitcoin Conference. I’d been desperately looking for the goofy, degenerate party vibes that my coworkers who’d covered previous crypto conferences told me about: inflated swans with QR codes. Multimillionaires strolling around the Nakamoto Stage in shiba inu pajamas. Folks who communicated in memes and acronyms. Celebrity athletes who were actual celebrities. “Bitcoin yoga,” whatever that was. Afterparties with drugs, lots of drugs, and probably the mind-bending designer kind. And hey, Las Vegas was the global capital of goofy, degenerate partying. But no, I was stuck in a prolonged flashback to every single Republican event I’ve covered over the past ten years – Trump rallies, conservative conferences, GOP conventions, and MAGA fundraisers, with Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” playing on an endless loop. There was an emcee endlessly praising Trump, encouraging the audience to clap for Trump, and reminding everyone about how great it was that Trump spoke at the Conference last year, which all sounds even stranger when said in an Australian accent. In addition to LaCivita, there were four GOP Congressmen, four GOP Senators, one Trump-appointed SEC Commissioner, one Treasury Official, two senior White House officials (including David Sacks, the White House crypto and A.I. czar), and two of Trump’s sons. All of them, too, spent time praising Trump as the first “crypto president.” (Vice President J.D. Vance would be speaking the next day to the general admission crowd, but he was probably going to praise Trump, too.) The titles of the panels seemed to be run through some sort of MAGA generative AI system: The Next Golden Age of America. The American Super Grid. Making America the Global Bitcoin Superpower. The New Declaration of Independence: Bitcoin and the Path Out of the U.S. National Debt Crisis. (Speaker: Vivek Ramaswamy.) Uncancleable: Bitcoin, Rumble & Free Speech Technology. (Speaker: Donald Trump Jr.) The only difference was that this MAGA conference was funded by crypto. And if crypto was paying for a MAGA conference, and they had to play “God Bless the USA,” they were bringing in a string quartet.Annoyed that I had not yet seen a single Shiba Inu — no, Jim Justice’s celebrity bulldog was not the same thing — I left Nakamoto and went back to the press area. It hadn’t turned into Fox News yet, but I could see MAGA’s presence seeping into the world of podcasters and vloggers. A Newsmax reporter (great blowout, jewel-toned sheath dress, heels to the heavens, very camera-ready) was interviewing White House official Bo Hines (clean-cut, former Yale football player and GOP congressional candidate, nice suit), right before he was hustled onstage for a panel with a member of the U.S. Treasury. Soon, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) was doing an interview gauntlet while his senior aides stood by, one wearing a pink plaid blazer that could have easily been Brooks Brothers. Over on the Genesis Stage, the CEO of PragerU, a right wing media company that attacks higher education, was interviewing the CEO of the 1792 Exchange, a right-wing nonprofit that attacks companies for engaging in “woke business practices” such as diversity initiatives. (Leveraging Bitcoin’s Values to Shift the Culture in America.) I walked into the main expo center, past a crypto podcaster in a sequined bomber jacket talking to a Wall Street Journal reporter. For some reason, his presence was a relief. Even though he was clearly a Trump supporter — his jacket said TRUMP: THE GOLDEN AGE on the back — there was something more janky and homegrown, less corporate, about him. But the moment I looked up and saw a massive sign that said STEAKTOSHI, the unease returned. A ghoulish-looking group of executives from Steak ‘n Shake, the fast food company with over 450 locations across the globe, had gathered under the sign in a replica of the restaurant. They were selling jars of beef tallow, with a choice of grass-fed or Wagyu, and giving out a MAKE FRYING OIL TALLOW AGAIN hat with every purchase an overt embrace of the right-wing conspiracy that cooking with regular seed oils would lower one’s testosterone. (Relevant to the conference: they were also advertising that their restaurants now accepted Bitcoin.)Andrew Gordon, the head of Main Street Crypto PAC, had been to five previous Bitcoin Conferences and worked on crypto tax policy since 2014. He’d seen Trump speak at the last conference in Nashville during the election, and the audience – not typically unquestioning MAGA superfans – had melted into adoring goo in Trump’s presence. But now that Trump was using his presidential powers to establish a Bitcoin reserve, roll back federal investigations into crypto companies, and order massive changes to financial regulatory policies — in short, changing the entire market on crypto’s behalf with the stroke of a pen — Gordon clocked a notable vibe shift this year. “There are people wearing suits at a Bitcoin conference,” he told me wryly back in the press lounge. (He, too, was wearing a suit). The change wasn’t due to a new breed of Suit People flooding in. It was the Bitcoin veterans the ones who’d been coming to the conference for years, dressed in loud Versace jackets or old holey t-shirts – who were now in business attire. “They’re now recognizing the level of formality and how serious it is.”According to the Bitcoin Conference organizers, out of the 35,000-plus attendees in Vegas this year, 17.1 percent of them were categorized as “institutional and corporate decision-makers” — a vague way to describe politicians, corporate executives, and the rest of the C-suite world. Whenever they weren’t speaking onstage, they were conducting interviews with outlets hand-selected from dozens of media requests that had been filtered through the conference organizers, or in Q&A sessions with people who’d bought the $21,000 Whale Pass and could access the VIP Lounge. (Yes, the industry-only day of the conference had an even more exclusive tier.) They were sidebarring with crypto CEOs outside the conference for round tables, privately meeting Senators for lunch and White House officials for dinner. Gordon himself had just held a private breakfast for industry insiders, with GOP Senators Marsha Blackburn and Cynthia Lummis as special guests. And for the very, very wealthy, MAGA Inc., Trump’s primary super PAC, was holding a fundraising dinner in Vegas that night, with Vance, Don Jr., and Eric Trump in attendance. That ticket, according to The Washington Post, cost $1 million per person.It was the kind of amoral, backroom behavior that would have sent the General Admission attendees into a rage — and they did the next day, when the convention opened to them. During one extremely packed talk at the Genesis Stage called Are Bitcoiners Becoming Sycophants of the State?, a moderator asked the four panelists what they’d like to say to Vance and Sacks and all the politicians who’d been there yesterday. And Erik Cason erupted.“‘What you’re doing is actually immoral and bad. You hurt people. You actively want to use the state to implement violence against others.’ 
That’s like, fucked up and wrong,” said Cason, the author of “Cryptosovereignty,” to a crowd of hundreds. “If you personally wanna like, go to Yemen and try to stab those people, that’s on you. But asking other people to go do that – it is a fucked up and terrible thing.” He grew more heated. “And also fuck you. You’re not, like, a king. You’re supposed to be liable to the law, too. 
And I don’t appreciate you trying to think that that you just get to advance the state however the fuck you want, because you have power.”“These are the violent thugs who killed hundreds of millions of people over the last century,” agreed Bruce Fenton of Chainstone Labs. “They have nothing on us. All we wanna do is run some code and trade it around our nerd money. Leave us alone.”The audience burst into cheers and applause. Bitcoin was the promise of freedom from the government, who’d murdered and stolen and tried to control their lives, and now that their wealth was on the blockchain, no one could take their sovereignty. “Personally, I don’t really care what they [the politicians] think,” said American HODL, whose title on the conference site was “guy with 6.15 bitcoin,” the derision clear in his voice. “They are employees who work for us, so their thoughts and opinions on the matter are irrelevant. Do what the fuck we tell you to do.
 I don’t work for you. I’m not underneath you. You’re underneath me.” But the politicians weren’t going to listen to them, much less talk to them. The politicians spent the conference surrounded by aides and security who stopped people from approaching – I’m sorry, the Senator has to leave for an engagement now – or safely inside the VIP rooms with the $21,000-dollar Whale Pass holders and the million-dollar donors. By the time American HODL said that the politicians worked for him, they were on flights out of Vegas, having gotten what they wanted from Code and Country, an event that was closed to General Admission pass holders.Coinbase’s executives were at Code and Country, however. Coinbase held over 984,000 Bitcoin, more coins than American HODL could mine in a lifetime. And Coinbase was now a sponsor of Donald Trump’s birthday military parade. The Nakamoto Stage during Code + Country at the Bitcoin Conference.After David Sacks and the Winklevoss twins finished explaining how Trump had saved the crypto industry from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (or as one Winklevoss called her, “Pocahontas”), I was jonesing for a drink. A few other reporters on the ground had told me about “Code, Country and Cocktails,” the America250 afterparty held at the Ayu Dayclub at Resort World, and I signed up immediately. Reporters at past Bitcoin Conferences had promised legendary side-event depravity, and I hoped I would find it there. As I entered the lush, tropical nightclub, I saw two white-gloved hands sticking out the side of the wall, each holding a glass of champagne at crotch level. I reached out for a flute, thinking it was maybe just a fucked-up piece of art, and gasped as the hand let go of the stem, disappeared into the hole, and emerged seconds later with another full champagne glass. Past the champagne glory hole wall — there was really no other way to describe it — was a massive outdoor swimming pool, surrounded by chefs serving up endless portions of steak frites, unguarded magnums of Moët casually stacked in ice buckets, the professional Beautiful Women of Las Vegas draped around Peter Schiff, the famous economist/podcaster/Bitcoin skeptic. When not booked for private events, the crescent-shaped pool at Ayu would be filled with drunk people in swim suits, dancing to DJ Kaskade. No one was in the pool tonight. Depravity was not happening here. In fact, there was more networking going on than partying, and it was somehow more engaging than Bone Thugs-N-Harmony suddenly appearing onstage to perform. And it was distinctly not just about making money in crypto. A good percentage of this crowd wore some derivative of a MAGA hat, and anyone who could show off their photos of them with Trump did so. This, I realized, was how crypto bros did politics — a new game for them, where success and influence was not necessarily quantifiable. “Crypto got Trump elected,” Greg Grseziak, an agent who manages crypto influencers, told me, showing me his Trump photo opp. “In four years, this is going to be the biggest event in the presidential race.”Grzesiak walked off to do more networking, I finished my glory hole champagne, and in the meantime, Bone Thugs had started performing “East 1999”. A fellow reporter leaned over. “Who do you think those guys are?” he asked, pointing to a group of extremely tall white men in suits and lanyards, standing behind a velvet rope to the left of the stage.I walked over to investigate. They looked like the group of Steak ‘n Shake executives I met at the Expo Hall — the ones with the beef tallow jars and derivative MAGA hats — and they were lurking next to the stage, watching the rappers like vultures but barely moving to the music. This scene was too preposterous to actually be real: Steak ‘n Shake executives, at the Bitcoin Conference, attending a party for America250, in the VIP section, during a Bone Thugs-n-Harmony set? “Shout out to Steak ‘n Shake for being the first fast food restaurant to accept Bitcoin!” announced one of the Bones. The company logo appeared on a screen above his head.No flashy Vegas magic (or dancers in cow costumes, now shimmying onstage with Steak ‘n Shake signs) could mask what I just saw. This party was co-sponsored by a MAGA-branded fast-food chain owned by Sardar Biglari, a businessman who had purchased Maxim, became its editor-in-chief, and used the smutty magazine to endorse Trump in 2024. So was Frax, the stablecoin exchange, and Exodus, one of the biggest crypto wallet companies in the market. Bitcoin Magazine’s logo flashed across the stage at one point, as editor-in-chief David Bailey, in his own derivative MAGA hat, tried to hype up the crowd for J.D. Vance’s speech the next day. (“You only get to live history once,” he said, to faint cheers.)For some unknown reason, these companies were all putting their money into America250, and as I had to keep reminding myself, America250 — the government nonprofit in charge of planning the country’s celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration’s signing — was currently working to get tanks in the streets of Washington DC for Donald Trump’s birthday. I went for one last champagne flute from the glory hole, just for the novelty, and as the hand disappeared back into the wall, I caught something I’d missed earlier: above the hole was a logo for TRON, the blockchain exchange run by billionaire Justin Sun. He had faced several fraud investigations from the SEC that magically disappeared after he invested $75 million in a Trump family crypto company, and seemed more than happy to keep throwing crypto money at Trump. Recently, he won the $TRUMP meme coin dinner, spending over $16 million on the token in exchange for a private and controversial dinner with the president.TRON was also cosponsoring the America250 party.Earlier, I’d run into the Australian emcee in the elevator of The Palazzo. She’d spent the day teetering across the Nakamoto Stage in dainty kitten heels, a pinstriped blazer and miniskirt suit set, and given the gratuitous Trump praising and the fact she was blonde, I had stereotyped her as MAGA to the core. But the program was over and she was holding her heels by their ankle straps, barefoot and sighing in relief. This was not her usual style, she told an attendee. She’d take a pair of sneakers over heels if she could. But the conference organizers had told her to dress up because there were senators in attendance. “Tomorrow, the real Bitcoiners are coming,” she said, and she’d get to wear flat shoes. And the next morning, on the day of Vance’s speech, I found myself stuck outside the conference with the “real Bitcoiners.” In spite of all the emails that the conference had sent me reminding me of how strict security measures would be, possibly to overcorrect from last year’s utter shitshow around Trump’s appearance, I’d woken up too late, eaten my bagel too leisurely, got sidetracked by a police officer-turned-Bitcoin investor excited I was wearing orange (whoops), and barely missed the cutoff for the Secret Service to let me in. But the conference had set up televisions with a live feed of Vance’s speech, and the rest of the general admission attendees were remarkably chill about it, opting to mingle in the hallways until the Secret Service left. I found myself in a smaller crowd near the expo hall door, next to a young man carrying a live miniature Shiba Inu (“It’s a tiny doge!” he said proudly), and the podcaster I’d seen earlier in the sequined bomber jacket. He introduced himself as Action CEO, and with nothing else to do but wait — “You can watch the [Vance] replay,” he reassured me, “these events are mainly about networking” — we got to talking. “I’m actually excited that Trump isn’t even here, I’ll be honest with you,” he said, speaking with a rapid cadence. Trump was ultimately just one guy, and the fact that he sent his underlings and political allies — the ones who could actually implement his grand promises for the crypto industry — proved he hadn’t just been paying lip service. That said, it had come with some uncomfortable changes, including the re-emergence of Justin Sun. “It’s a little bit concerning when you say, All right, we don’t care what you did in the past. Come on out, clean slate,” he continued. “That’s the concern right now for most people. Seeing people that did wrong by the space coming back and acting like nothing happened? That’s a little concerning.” And not just that: Sun was back in the United States, having dinner with Trump, and giving him millions of dollars. “If you’re sitting in a room and having a conversation, people are literally gonna go, yeah, it’s kind of sketch that this guy is back here after everything that’s happened. You’re not gonna see it published, because it’s not a popular opinion, but we’re all definitely talking about it.” If Action’s friends weren’t comfortable talking about it openly, that fraudsters with enough money were suddenly back in the mix, it was certainly not the kind of conversation the CEOs were going to have in front of the General Admission crowd. (Though it did mean that the emcee, looking much happier than she did the day before, got to wear low-heeled boots and shorts.) But behind closed doors — or at least at the Code and Country panels, where the base pass attendees couldn’t boo them — they gave a sense of what their backroom conversations with the Trump administration did look like.“I was actually at a dinner last night and one of the things that someone from the admin said was, What if we give you guys everything you want and then you guys forget? Because there’s midterms in 2026, and hopefully 2028, and beyond,” said Sam Kazemian, the founder and CEO of Frax, which had sponsored the America250 party. “But one of the things I said was: We as an industry are very, very loyal. The crypto community has a very, very, very strong memory. And once this industry is legalized, is transparent, is safe, all of the big players understand that this wasn’t possible without this administration, this Congress, this Senate. We’re lifelong, career-long allies.”“Loyalty” is a dangerous concept with this president, who’s cheated on his three wives, stopped paying the legal fees for employees who’d taken the fall for him, ended the careers of sympathetic MAGA Republicans for insufficiently coddling him, withdrew security for government employees experiencing death threats for the sin of contradicting him in public by citing facts. It was only weeks ago that he and Vance were publicly screaming at Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who was at the White House to request more aid in the war against Russia, for not saying “thank you” in front of the cameras. It would be less than a week before he began threatening to cancel all of Elon Musk’s government contracts when the billionaire criticized the size of Trump’s budget, even though Musk had given him millions and helped him purge the government. And if you were to find a photo of any political leader, billionaire or CEO standing vacant-eyed next to Trump and shaking his hand, the circumstances are practically a given: they had recently made him unhappy, either for criticizing him, making an imagined slight, or simply asserting themselves. The only way they could avoid public humiliation, or their businesses being crushed via executive order, was to go to Mar-a-Lago, tell the world that the president was wonderful, and underwrite a giant party for his birthday military parade. Maybe Kazemian knew he was being tested, or maybe the 32-year old Ron Paul superfan had no idea what the administration was asking of him. Either way, he responded correctly. At least one person at the conference was thinking about ways that the government could betray the Bitcoin community. As the panel on Bitcoiners becoming sycophants of the state wrapped up, and the other panelists finished telling the government pigs to go fuck themselves and keep their hands off their nerd money, the moderator turned to Casey Rodarmor, a software engineer-turned-crypto influencer, for the last question: “Tell everyone here why Bitcoin wins, regardless of what happens.”“Oh, man, I don’t know if Bitcoin wins, regardless of what happens,” he responded, frowning. He had already gamed out one feasible situation where Bitcoin lost: “If we all of a sudden saw a very rapid inflation in a lot of fiat currencies, and there was a plausible scapegoat in Bitcoin all over the world, and they were able to make a sort of marketing claim that Bitcoin is causing this — Bitcoin is making your savings go to zero, it’s causing this carnage to the economy — 
If that happens worldwide, I think that’s really scary.” The moderator froze, the crowd murmured nervously, and I thought about the number of times Trump had blamed a group of people for problems they’d never caused. An awful lot of them were now being deported. “I take that seriously,” Rodarmor continued. “I don’t know that Bitcoin will succeed. I think that Bitcoin is incredibly strong, it’s incredibly difficult to fuck up. But in that case… man, I don’t know.” I had asked Action CEO earlier if Kazemian, the Frax CEO, was right — if the crypto world was unquestioningly loyal to Trump, if their support of him was unconditional. “Oh, it’s definitely conditional,” he said without hesitation, as his Trump jacket glittered under the fluorescent lights. “It’s a matter of, are you going to be doing the right things by us, by the people who are here?” We walked down the expo hall, past booths promising life-changing technological marvels, alongside thousands of people flooding into Nakamoto Hall, ready to learn how to become unfathomably rich, who paid $199 to be there.The audience of “Are Bitcoiners Becoming Sychophants of the State?”, Day Two of the Bitcoin ConferenceSee More:

These annual rankings were last updated on June 6, 2025. Want to see your firm on next year’s list? Continue reading for more on how you can improve your studio’s ranking. Traversing the German nation, one will encounter a similar historic program to other European capitals — Romanesque churches, Renaissance monuments and more — blended with functionalist and modernist structures. Early twenty-first-century Germany gave rise to the thriving Bauhaus. Founded by Walter Gropius, this school introduced brand-new architectural thinking, an ideology rooted in function, clarity and mass production. Materials like concrete and glass were favored, socially progressive housing blocks were constructed, and a newfound appreciation for modernism emerged. The spirit of the great Bauhaus teachers — Mies van der Rohe, for example — vigorously lives on and inspires contemporary designers today. Additionally, modern industrial architecture took off post-war and has played a prominent role in the nation’s economic growth, continuing to do so today. The architectural devastation from WWII resulted in mass reconstruction efforts. The post-war restoration and rebuilding embraced a functional attitude, which continued the legacy of the Bauhaus movement despite its closing over a decade prior. Today, German architecture continues to champion the nation’s modernist brilliance through innovative designs that push technological boundaries and celebrate culture. 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 Germany 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 Germany architecture firms throughout the year. Without further ado, here are the 30 best architecture firms in Germany: 30. Format Elf Architekten © Format Elf Architekten Simple and touching. Format Elf Architekten is an architecture firm that focuses on residential architecture. Some of Format Elf Architekten’s most prominent projects include: Longhouses, Bad Birnbach, Germany FORMSTELLE, Töging am Inn, Germany House B, Munich, Germany Die Basis, Munich, Germany The following statistics helped Format Elf Architekten achieve 30th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 4 29. Bruzkus Batek Architects © Jens Bösenberg | Whitelight Studio GmbH BRUZKUS BATEK Since 2007, this internationally active office specialised in designing hotels, offices, shops, restaurants and private housing – and particularly in the detailing of high-quality interiors. After 10 successful years, it is time for a change. As of 2018, Bruzkus Batek is splitting into BATEK ARCHITECTS and ESTER BRUZKUS ARCHITECTS. Some of Bruzkus Batek Architects’ most prominent projects include: Razorfish, Berlin, Germany Office Ester Bruzkus Architekten, Berlin, Germany Colette Tim Raue Munich, Munich, Germany Apartment PP, Berlin, Germany Dean, Berlin, Germany The following statistics helped Bruzkus Batek Architects achieve 29th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Finalist 1 Featured Projects 3 Total Projects 28 28. Ester Bruzkus Architekten © Ester Bruzkus Architekten Founded in 2002 in Berlin, Ester Bruzkus Architekten is an architecture and interior design practice with global ties: Berlin, New York, Paris, Tel Aviv, Boston, Dubai, Moscow, Vladivostok, Tenerife. We have extensive experience with design at many scales: from the design of tables and furniture to exquisite residences and workspaces to international theaters, restaurants and hotels. Straight lines, precise planning, material contrasts – and plenty of surprises. The architecture of Ester Bruzkus and her team makes use of contrasts of thick and thin, sharp and soft, curved and straight, rough and smooth, common and opulent, colorful and restrained, playful and well-resolved. Special projects result from a dialogue of space and light, materiality and color, existing constraints and new opportunities – and especially a synergy between the needs of the client, the space and the aspirations of great design. Some of Ester Bruzkus Architekten’s most prominent projects include: Razorfish, Berlin, Germany Office Ester Bruzkus Architekten, Berlin, Germany Colette Tim Raue Munich, Munich, Germany Apartment PP, Berlin, Germany Dean, Berlin, Germany The following statistics helped Ester Bruzkus Architekten achieve 28th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Finalist 1 Featured Projects 3 Total Projects 34 27. Architekten Wannenmacher + Möller © Architekten Wannenmacher + Möller GmbH Architects Wannenmacher + Möller, based in Bielefeld Germany, has been in practice for almost 60 years. Today the office is run by second generation Andreas Wannenmacher and Hans-Heinrich Möller. It was founded by Gregor Wannenmacher in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1955. Over the years the office grew continuously and became one of the largest architectural firms in the German region Eastern Westfalia. Most of the activities were focused in this region. During the last years, however, the office had the opportunity to design buildings and control their realization outside this region, some of them in foreign countries throughout Europe, Asia, and the USA. Some of Architekten Wannenmacher + Möller’s most prominent projects include: Ford Hagemeier Halle , Germany Wohnhaus Möllmann, Bielefeld, Germany House P+G, Weinheim, Germany House in Paderborn, Paderborn, Germany Borchen Sports Hall, Borchen, Germany The following statistics helped Architekten Wannenmacher + Möller achieve 27th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Finalist 1 Featured Projects 4 Total Projects 14 26. Design.Develop.Build – GA Tech | PBSA | RWTH © Design.Develop.Build - GA Tech | PBSA | RWTH Students from the Georgia Institute of Technology, RWTH Aachen University and PBSA Düsseldorf design, develop and build civic architecture. Some of Design.Develop.Build’s most prominent projects include: Guga S’Thebe Children’s Theatre, Cape Town, South Africa The following statistics helped Design.Develop.Build achieve 26th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Winner 2 A+Awards Finalist 1 Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 1 25. Ecker Architekten © Ecker Architekten Ecker Architekten is an architecture and design firm based in Germany. Ecker Architekten’s design portfolio includes a variety of architectural projects, such as cultural, commercial, government and health, educational, and more. Some of Ecker Architekten’s most prominent projects include: The Forum at Eckenberg Gymnasium, Adelsheim, Germany Field Chapel, Buchen (Odenwald), Germany Kindergarten Dandelion Clock, Germany Kanzlei Balkenhol, BW, Germany Branch Bank in Hettingen, Hettingen, Germany The following statistics helped Ecker Architekten achieve 25th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 4 Total Projects 8 24. Sehw Architektur © Helin Bereket “Sehw stands for meaningfulness, emotion, attitude and change.” Our mission: building architecture sustainably, thinking innovatively and creating social added value. “Sehw stands for an aesthetic of sustainability in architecture.” // Sustainability // Acting sustainably We are not just planning for today but for the generation of tomorrow and beyond. For us, sustainable architecture means forward-looking planning and the development of future-proof utilization concepts. In times of rapid climate change, we are committed to resource-conserving construction methods and the use of renewable energies. Recyclable building materials and circular economy are the basis for a long life cycle and corresponding sustainability certifications of our buildings. We value and protect existing structures and materials. Some of Sehw Architektur’s most prominent projects include: KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany Weitblick Innovation Campus, Augsburg, Germany Inclusive School Centre Döbern, Döbern, Germany The Copper Coil, Rostock, Germany Around the Corner – Student Apartment Building, Berlin, Germany The following statistics helped Sehw Architektur achieve 24th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 5 Total Projects 18 23. PHILIPPARCHITEKTEN Anna Philipp © PHILIPPARCHITEKTEN Anna Philipp A passion for houses. There’s nothing more significant to describe what our architecture office is about: houses — simple, yet complex. The archetype of all construction is our passion. That’s what we stand for. On this we work holistically with a team of architects and engineers. Center of our designing is the human being. We understand architecture as a second skin, which must be tailored. At the same time it’s essential to reflect the unique character of the location. The goal is a harmonious triad of mankind, nature and architecture. The focus and specialization on houses and villas is faced by a wide diversification in the range of services offered. Some of PHILIPPARCHITEKTEN Anna Philipp’s most prominent projects include: Villa Philipp, Waldenburg, Germany Villa Lombardo, Lugano, Switzerland A monastery of modernity, Augsburg, Germany Villa Schatzlmayr, Passau, Germany Villa Mauthe, Bahlingen, Germany The following statistics helped PHILIPPARCHITEKTEN Anna Philipp achieve 23rd place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 5 Total Projects 22 22. KRESINGS © Roman Mensing KRESINGS is a studio for architecture, interior design, urban planning and product design with offices in Munster and Dusseldorf. Since its founding by Rainer Maria Kresing in 1985 four further partners joined the management: Kilian Kresing, Christian Kawe, Matthias Povel and André Perret. More than 60 employees — architects, designers, planners and engineers — guarantee a broad range of creative and qualified services. Experience meets creative ease. The studio has been awarded with national awards like those of the BDA (Bund Deutscher Architekten) and the DAM (Deutsches Architektur Museum). KRESINGS: Experts and team players in areas of office and industrial buildings, facilities for research, education and culture as well as individual designs for residential buildings. Some of KRESINGS’ most prominent projects include: Student Residence Boeselagerstraße, Münster, Germany Headquarters Mitsubishi Electric Europe, Ratingen, Germany Petting Zoo, Öhringen, Germany Freiherr-vom-Stein-High-School, Münster, Germany Residential Building Hoher Heckenweg, Münster, Germany The following statistics helped KRESINGS achieve 22nd place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 5 Total Projects 33 21. 3deluxe © 3deluxe The interdisciplinary design collective 3deluxe, consisting of about 30 individuals centered around Dieter Brell, Peter Seipp and Andreas and Stephan Lauhoff, has been creating groundbreaking impulses in the fields of architecture and interior design, graphic and media design. In creative synergy hybrid forms of two and three dimensional design are created: graphic works develop a spatial impact, while architectural drafts are based on communication principles. In this way, complex collages are contrived, so called ‚multilayered atmospheres‘, that foster multiple sensory experiences and allow for a multitude of potential interpretations. Paramount is the broadening of an absolute understanding of space and image towards a dynamic, processual approach. Some of 3deluxe’s most prominent projects include: V- Plaza Urban Development, Kaunas, Lithuania Kaffee Partner Headquarters, Osnabrück, Germany Butterfly Pavilion, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany Cyberhelvetia The following statistics helped 3deluxe achieve 21st place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Finalist 2 Featured Projects 3 Total Projects 20 20. Christoph Hesse Architects © Deimel und Wittmar Christoph Hesse Architects was founded in 2010 by Christoph Hesse, has offices in Korbach and, since 2018, in Berlin. The architectural practice currently employs an international team of 15 people and has won numerous awards. Some of Christoph Hesse Architects’ most prominent projects include: VITOS Outpatient psychiatric clinic for traumatized refugees, Korbach, Germany Villa F / the off-the-grid house in the central highlands of Germany, Medebach, Germany StrohTherme, Medebach, Germany Room of Silence, Korbach, Germany The following statistics helped Christoph Hesse Architects achieve 20th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Winner 2 Featured Projects 2 Total Projects 4 19. Zeller & Moye © Zeller & Moye Zeller & Moye is a design studio based in Mexico City and Berlin that works at the intersection of architecture, arts, design and latest technology through an experimental, multidisciplinary and collaborative working culture. Some of Zeller & Moye’s most prominent projects include: HAUS KÖRIS, Brandenburg, Germany SANDRA WEIL Store, Mexico City, Mexico TROQUER FASHION HOUSE, Mexico City, Mexico CASA VERNE, Mexico City, Mexico CASA HILO, Mexico The following statistics helped Zeller & Moye achieve 19th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 5 Total Projects 12 18. Ippolito Fleitz Group – Identity Architects © Ippolito Fleitz Group - Identity Architects Ippolito fleitz group is a multidisciplinary, internationally operating design studio based in Stuttgart.We are identity architects. We work in unison with our clients to develop architecture, products and communication that are part of a whole and yet distinctive in their own right. This is how we define identity.With meticulous analysis before we begin.With animated examination in the conceptional phase. With a clarity of argument in the act of persuasion.With a love of accuracy in the realisation.With a serious goal and a lot of fun along the way. Working together with our clients.As architects of identity, we conceive and construct buildings, interiors and landscapes; we develop products and communication measures. Some of Ippolito Fleitz Group – Identity Architects’ most prominent projects include: Das GERBER, Stuttgart, Germany Hunke – Jewellers and Opticians, Ludwigsburg, Germany Bella Italia Weine, Stuttgart, Germany ippolito fleitz group | Residential Building, Denkendorf, Germany WakuWaku Dammtor, Hamburg, Germany The following statistics helped Ippolito Fleitz Group - Identity Architects achieve 18th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Finalist 1 Featured Projects 4 Total Projects 26 17. VON M © Zooey Braun VON M is an architecture and design firm based in Germany. VON M’s design portfolio includes a variety of architectural projects, such as cultural, residential, educational, commercial, hospitality and sport, and more. Some of VON M’s most prominent projects include: Museum Luthers Sterbehaus, Eisleben, Germany BHM Pavillon, Wolfegg, Germany Kinder- und Familienzentrum, Ludwigsburg, Germany Hotel Bauhofstrasse, Ludwigsburg, Germany HS77, Stuttgart, Germany The following statistics helped VON M achieve 17th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 6 Total Projects 11 16. Plastique Fantastique © Plastique Fantastique Plastique Fantastique is a collective for temporary architecture that samples the performative possibilities of urban environments. Established in Berlin in 1999, Plastique Fantastique has been influenced by the unique circumstances that made the city a laboratory for temporary spaces. Plastique Fantastique’s synthetic structures affect surrounding spaces like a soap bubble does: Similar to a foreign body, it occupies and mutates urban space. Their interventions change the way we perceive and interact in urban environments. By mixing different landscape types, an osmotic passage between private and public space is generating new hybrid environments.Regardless the way people view a bubble, walk around its exterior or move inside it, the pneumatic structure is a medium to experience the same physical setting in a temporary extraordinary situation. Some of Plastique Fantastique’s most prominent projects include: LOUD SHADOWS, Terschelling, Netherlands Blurry Venice, Venice, Italy Aeropolis, Copenhagen, Denmark superKOLMEMEN, Helsinki, Finland MOBILE PPS (Personal Protective Space) for Doctors The following statistics helped Plastique Fantastique achieve 16th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 5 Total Projects 5 15. 4a Architekten © 4a Architekten GmbH Shaping atmosphere, lending identity, creating quality of space — these are the values that characterize the buildings of 4a Architekten. The starting point and guiding principle of our work is the concept of architecture as living space. Our buildings come into being through intensive team work shaped by interdisciplinary thinking and action. What characterizes a location in terms of its culture and history? What are the client’s expectations and objectives? What is viable within the budget and what are the benefits for users? These questions and this approach bring us to solutions with an individual character — and they apply just as much to the planning of buildings as to the design of interior spaces. Some of 4a Architekten’s most prominent projects include: Therme Lindau on Lake Constance, Lindau, Germany Balingen Civic Hall, Balingen, Germany Emser Thermal Baths, Bad Ems, Germany Spreewald Spa Hotel, Burg, Germany Stegermatt Aquatic Centre, Offenburg, Germany The following statistics helped 4a Architekten achieve 15th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 7 Total Projects 15 14. schneider+schumacher © schneider+schumacher / Frankfurt - Vienna - Tianjin Our architectural approach is characterized by the enjoyment we have in finding solutions to the complex demands of today’s buildings. We adapt our buildings to fit into their surroundings, yet we also create landmarks. Pragmatic poetry, nurtured not only by design clarity and a conscientious attitude towards the task in hand, but also by a delight in fine details. This design process is constantly informed by the dialogue that takes place on a daily basis between the various professional disciplines in all our specialized divisions – architecture, construction and project management, design, a.o. — and international offices. schneider+schumacher is headquartered in Frankfurt (GE), and has two branches in Vienna (AU) and Tianjin (CN). Some of schneider+schumacher’s most prominent projects include: Autobahn Church, Wilnsdorf, Germany Oil Harbour Bridge, Raunheim, Germany DOXX – Quayside Development at Mainz Customs Port, Mainz, Germany Städel Museum Extension, Frankfurt, Germany Siegerland Motorway Church, Wilnsdorf, Wilnsdorf, Germany The following statistics helped schneider+schumacher achieve 14th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Winner 1 A+Awards Finalist 2 Featured Projects 5 Total Projects 12 13. ingenhoven associates © ingenhoven associates Celebrating 40 years of excellence since 1985, the studio is pioneer in sustainable architecture, designing and delivering projects of all sizes and typologies across nearly every region of the world, adhering to the highest green building standards, including LEED, Green Star, Minergie, BREEAM, DGNB and CASBEE. With a tailored approach to each location, the multinational, interdisciplinary team creates nuanced architectural solutions with added value and positive social impact. Some of ingenhoven associates’ most prominent projects include: Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Düsseldorf, Germany Freiburg Town Hall, Freiburg, Germany Kö-Bogen 2, Düsseldorf, Germany Marina One, Singapore, Singapore Daniel Swarovski Corporation, Männedorf, Switzerland The following statistics helped ingenhoven associates achieve 13th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Finalist 2 Featured Projects 5 Total Projects 28 12. gmp · Architects von Gerkan, Marg und Partner © HG Esch Photography The architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) are an architectural practice that was founded in Hamburg and has branches worldwide. With our generalist approach and more than 50 years of experience, we complete projects in dialogue with our clients and the participating planning disciplines, at all scales and cultural contexts, covering all design phases and working on all continents. The range of our projects extends from family residences to high-rise buildings, from stadiums to concert halls, from office buildings to bridges, and from door hardware to urban planning. With holistic sustainability in mind, we aim to create new and refurbished architecture that is long-lasting and goes beyond temporary fashions, taking into account the global challenges and issues of urbanization, digitalization, and mobility. Some of gmp · Architects von Gerkan, Marg und Partner’s most prominent projects include: Guna Villa, Jūrmala, Latvia Universiade 2011 Sports Center, Shenzhen, China Olympic Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine Olympic Stadium, Berlin, Germany Twin Towers, Commodity Exchange Plaza, Dalian, China The following statistics helped gmp · Architects von Gerkan, Marg und Partner achieve 12th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 8 Total Projects 36 11. kadawittfeldarchitektur © kadawittfeldarchitektur We are kadawittfeldarchitektur. Originally founded in Aachen in 1999, we today stand for more than just architectural design. The interdisciplinary approach of our work, linking architecture, interior and product design on the one hand and at the interface of town planning and urban projects on the other hand, reflects the full range of our creative output. kadawittfeldarchitektur develops added value space. In a team of more than 170 persons, we create architecture with added value space for living, communication and work environments. In the way we deal with volumes, materials, structures and functions, we strive to integrate our schemes into their surroundings with the objective of creating contemporary and sustainable architecture and meeting the needs of both the users and the general public. Some of kadawittfeldarchitektur’s most prominent projects include: CELTIC MUSEUM, Glauburg, Germany ADIDAS LACES, Herzogenaurach, Germany SPZ, HALLEIN, Hallein, Austria SENIOR CITIZENS RESIDENCE ALTENMARKT, Altenmarkt im Pongau, Austria SALZBURG CENTRAL STATION, Salzburg, Austria The following statistics helped kadawittfeldarchitektur achieve 11th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 8 Total Projects 32 10. GRAFT © GRAFT What is graft? The English word ‘graft’ provokes a variety of meanings and multiple readings. It stands for transplants in the field of medicine, for cheating, but also for hard work.  In the terminology of botany, grafting is described as the addition of one shoot onto a genetically different host. Some of GRAFT’s most prominent projects include: Ice Stadion “Arena Schierke”, Wernigerode, Germany Show Palace Munich, Munich, Germany Autostadt Roof and Service Pavilion, Wolfsburg, Germany Eiswerk, Berlin, Germany Villa M , Berlin, Germany The following statistics helped GRAFT achieve 10th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Finalist 2 Featured Projects 7 Total Projects 17 9. HENN © HENN HENN is an international architecture studio with over 75 years of experience in designing innovative work environments across office, science, healthcare, industry, education, and culture. An interdisciplinary team of 400 professionals works from offices in Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, and Shanghai. The design process is collaborative and driven by curiosity. HENN draws from the rich expertise of three generations and a global network of partners. All three generations share a common mindset: openness and curiosity. This spirit drives the studio to continuously question and redefine architectural typologies. HENN was founded in 1947 by Walter Henn in Dresden. Early on, he specialized in industrial buildings and played a key role in establishing the Braunschweig School through his academic work. Some of HENN’s most prominent projects include: Porsche Pavilion, Wolfsburg, Germany Zalando Headquarters Berlin, Berlin, Germany Bugatti Atelier, Molsheim, France MobileLife Campus, Wolfsburg, Germany The CUBE, Dresden, Germany The following statistics helped HENN achieve 9th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Winner 2 A+Awards Finalist 2 Featured Projects 6 Total Projects 30 8. Auer Weber © Aldo Amoretti Photography Founded in 1980, we are an internationally active architectural firm with offices in Stuttgart and Munich. We employ around 150 people from 20 countries and work on projects of various sizes and tasks from initial design through to completion. Each year, we create entries for between 30 and 40 competitions in our two offices, from which we generate a large proportion of our orders. These range from buildings for the community to educational and administrative buildings, sports and leisure facilities and large infrastructure projects. The diversity of our architecture is the result of in-depth study of the building tasks and where these tasks originate. Some of Auer Weber’s most prominent projects include: Aquatic Centre “Aquamotion” Courchevel , Saint-Bon-Tarentaise, France Arena du Pays d’Aix, Aix-en-Provence, France Extension of the District Office in Starnberg, Starnberg, Germany ESO Headquarters Extension, Garching, Germany Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Route de Torcy, France The following statistics helped Auer Weber achieve 8th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Winner 2 A+Awards Finalist 1 Featured Projects 9 Total Projects 24 7. Peter Ruge Architekten © Peter Ruge Architekten GmbH Identity+Sustainability=Architecture Peter Ruge Architekten is a locally and internationally active planning office based in Berlin. Our mission is simple: to develop and build sustainable architecture of the future. The agenda of the team along with three partners Peter Ruge, Kayoko Uchiyama and Matthias Matschewski includes new buildings, optimization of existing properties and urban planning designs. The projects are holistic, i.e. adapted to the climate, culture and needs of the users, and have received numerous awards and certifications. Our detailed understanding of sustainable design processes supports the decisions of our clients. In education field, Prof. Ruge shares our knowledge with a global design community at DIA, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences in Dessau, Shenyang Jianzhu University in China and Kyoto Seika University in Japan. Some of Peter Ruge Architekten’s most prominent projects include: Busan Opera House, South Korea, Busan, South Korea Congress Center Hangzhou, Hangzhou, China House O, Germany, Potsdam-Mittelmark, Germany LTD_1 Hamburg, Germany, Hamburg, Germany Muzeum Lotnictwa Krakow, Poland The following statistics helped Peter Ruge Architekten achieve 7th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 12 Total Projects 18 6. HPP Architects © Christa Lachenmaier Photography HPP Architects is one of Europe’s leading architectural partnerships with a full range of architectural and master planning services. Since its foundation by Professor Hentrich, the 4th generation of HPP partnership today includes a global team of more than 25 nationalities and 480 architects, engineers, urban designers and specialists. Today it comprises 13 offices including 8 regional offices in Germany and 5 international branches in Turkey, China and Netherlands. HPP Architects’ headquarter is located in the Düsseldorf Media Harbor, further offices are located in Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Istanbul, Leipzig, Munich, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Stuttgart. HPP completed more than 1200 buildings worldwide and aspires to create architectural quality of lasting value beyond the here and now: timeless and yet clearly part of their time, innovative and equally grounded in history. Some of HPP Architects’s most prominent projects include: LVM 5 , Münster, Germany Medical Library Oasis (O.A.S.E.), Düsseldorf, Germany Hochschule Ruhr West, Mülheim, Germany Henkel Asia-Pacific and China Headquarters, Shanghai, China Dreischeibenhaus, Düsseldorf, Germany The following statistics helped HPP Architects achieve 6th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Finalist 3 Featured Projects 12 Total Projects 25 5. Behnisch Architekten © David Matthiessen The Stuttgart-based practice known today as Behnisch Architekten was founded in 1989 under the leadership of Stefan Behnisch. Originally established as a branch office of Günter Behnisch’s practice Behnisch & Partner, it became independent in 1991 and has subsequently developed into an international practice with offices in Stuttgart, Munich, Los Angeles/California (1999 – 2011), and Boston. These offices are directed by Stefan Behnisch and his partners in varying combinations. The Partners are Robert Hösle, Robert Matthew Noblett and Stefan Rappold. Stefan Behnisch is involved in all three offices. From the outset, the social dimension of architecture has been a fundamental aspect of the firm’s design philosophy. Some of Behnisch Architekten’s most prominent projects include: SC Workplaces, California City of Santa Monica Public Parking Structure #6, Santa Monica, California Primary School Infanteriestrasse, München, Germany Harvard University Science and Engineering Complex, Boston, Massachusetts John and Frances Angelos Law Center, University of Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland The following statistics helped Behnisch Architekten achieve 5th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Finalist 9 Featured Projects 8 Total Projects 24 4. wulf architekten © Tobias Vollmer wulf architekten emerged from the architecture practice established 1987 in Stuttgart by Tobias Wulf. Currently the office is managed by Tobias Wulf, Jan-Michael Kallfaß, Ingmar Menzer and Steffen Vogt. From 1996 to 2018, Kai Bierich and Alexander Vohl were partners of Tobias Wulf at wulf architekten. Currently, the company has about 140 employees, nine of them being senior architects. With three office locations – Stuttgart, Berlin and Basel (CH) – wulf architekten is also working on projects abroad. Some of wulf architekten’s most prominent projects include: Parking Garage Facade P22a at the Cologne Exhibition Centre, Cologne, Germany Four primary schools in modular design, Munich, Germany School Center North, Stuttgart, Germany Canteen and Media Center for North vocational school center, Darmstadt, Germany Chamber of Industry and Commerce, headquarters, Stuttgart, Germany The following statistics helped wulf architekten achieve 4th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Winner 1 A+Awards Finalist 1 Featured Projects 11 Total Projects 18 3. TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten © TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten GmbH TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten design, plan and build for national and international clients in the public and private sectors. The company, with offices in Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden, is named after Sergei Tchoban, architect BDA, and his partner Ekkehard Voss, architect BDA (1963-2024). With over 150 highly qualified, interdisciplinary employees and many years of experience, it offers architecturally and functionally sustainable solutions for a wide range of building projects in Germany and abroad. TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten is member of the Association of German Architects (BDA), the Chambers of Architects in Hamburg, Berlin and Saxony, the Förderverein Bundesstiftung Baukultur e.V. as well as of the European Architects Network (EAN). Some of TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten’s most prominent projects include: EDGE Suedkreuz Berlin, Berlin, Germany SKF Test Centre for large-scale bearings, Schweinfurt, Germany Seestraße, Berlin, Berlin, Germany Koenigstadt-Quartier, Berlin, Germany EMBASSY – Living alongside Koellnischer Park, Berlin, Berlin, Germany The following statistics helped TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten achieve 3rd place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Winner 1 A+Awards Finalist 6 Featured Projects 12 Total Projects 29 2. Barkow Leibinger © Barkow Leibinger The scope of Barkow Leibinger’s work spans from cultural projects to industrial ones. Their focus on industrial architecture includes master planning and building representational and functional buildings for production, logistical and office spaces. Some of Barkow Leibinger’s most prominent projects include: Production Hall Trumpf, Hettingen, Germany Stadthaus M1 – Green City Hotel, Freiburg, Germany Harvard ArtLab, Boston, Massachusetts Production Hall, Grüsch, Switzerland Fraunhofer Research Campus, Waischenfeld, Germany The following statistics helped Barkow Leibinger achieve 2nd place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 12 Total Projects 17 1. J.MAYER.H © J.MAYER.H J. MAYER H’s studio, focuses on works at the intersection of architecture, communication and new technology. From urban planning schemes and buildings to installation work and objects with new materials, the relationship between the human body, technology and nature form the background for a new production of space. Some of J.MAYER.H’s most prominent projects include: MIAMI MUSEUM GARAGE, Miami, Florida n.n. Residence, Moscow, Russia Hasselt Court House , Hasselt, Belgium Highway Rest Stops, Tbilisi, Georgia Rest Stops, Gori, Georgia Featured image: Tram Stops, Kehl, Germany The following statistics helped J.MAYER.H achieve 1st place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Winner 5 A+Awards Finalist 3 Featured Projects 19 Total Projects 30 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 Germany appeared first on Journal.

Upcoming (serious) Web performance boostBy: Adam Scott5 June 2025Progress ReportSometimes, just adding a compiler flag can yield significant performance boosts. And that just happened.For about two years now, all major browsers have supported WASM (WebAssembly) SIMD. SIMD stands for “Single instruction, multiple data” and is a technology that permits CPUs to do some parallel computation, often speeding up the whole program. And that’s exactly why we tried it out recently.We got positive results.The need for performance on the WebThe Web platform is often overlooked as a viable target, because of its less-than-ideal environment and its perceived poor performance. And the perception is somewhat right: the Web environment has a lot of security-related quirks to take into account—the user needs to interact with a game frame before the browser allows it to play any sound1. Also, due to bandwidth and compatibility reasons, you rarely see high-fidelity games being played on a browser. Performance is better achieved when running software natively on the operating system.But don’t underestimate the potential of the Web platform. As I explained in broad terms at the talk I gave at the last GodotCon Boston 2025, the Web has caught up a lot since the days of Flash games. Not only are there more people playing Web games every year, but standards and browsers improve every year in functionality and in performance.And that’s why we are interested in using WASM SIMD.WASM SIMD BenchmarksOur resident benchmark expert Hugo Locurcio (better known as Calinou) ran the numbers for us on a stress test I made. We wanted to compare standard builds to builds with WASM SIMD enabled.Note: You may try to replicate his results, but be aware that he has a beast of a machine. Here are his PC’s specifications:CPU: Intel Core i9-13900KGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090RAM: 64 GB (2×32 GB DDR5-5800 CL30)SSD: Solidigm P44 Pro 2 TBOS: Linux (Fedora 42)I built a Jolt physics stress test from a scene initially made by passivestar. By spawning more and more barrels into the contraption, we can easily test the performance difference between the WASM SIMD build and the other.Without WASM SIMDWith WASM SIMDImprovement (approx.)Test linksLinkLink-Firefox 138(“+100 barrels” 3 times)2×Firefox 138(“+100 barrels” 6 times)10.17×*Chromium 134(“+100 barrels” 3 times)1.37×Chromium 134(“+100 barrels” 6 times)14.17×**Please note that once the physics engine enters a “spiral of death”, it is common for the framerate to drop to single digits, SIMD or not. These tests don’t prove 10× to 15× CPU computing speed improvements, but rather that games will be more resilient to framerate drops on the same machine in the same circumstances. The 1.5× to 2× numbers are more representative here of the performance gains by WASM SIMD.What it means for your gamesStarting with 4.5 dev 5, you can expect your Web games to run a little bit more smoothly, without having to do anything. Especially when things get chaotic (for your CPU). It isn’t a silver bullet for poorly optimized games, but it will help nonetheless. Also, note that it cannot do anything for GPU rendering bottlenecks.Be aware that the stress tests are meant by nature to only test the worst case scenarios, so you may not see such large improvements in normal circumstances. But it’s nice to see such stark improvements when the worst happens.AvailabilityFrom here on out, the 4.5 release official templates will only support WebAssembly SIMD-compatible browsers in order to keep the template sizes small. We generally aim to maintain compatibility with the oldest devices we can. But in this case, the performance gains are too large to ignore and the chances of users having browsers that are that far out of date is too small relative to the potential benefits.If you need to use non-SIMD templates, don’t fret. You can always build the Godot Editor and the engine templates without WebAssembly SIMD support by using the wasm_simd=no build option.What’s next?As I wrote in my last blog post, we’re currently working very hard to make C#/.NET exports a reality. We do have a promising prototype, we just need to make sure that it’s production-ready.I also mentioned in that article that I wanted to concentrate on improving our asset loading game. Preloading an entire game before even starting it hinders the ability to use Godot for commercial Web games. Once something is implemented to improve that issue, count on me to share the news with you.It’s either that, or we return to the old days of spam-webpages using the “Congratulations, you won!” sound effect when you least expect it. ↩

The murder of John Forde was the culmination to years of political, social, and criminal intrigue.   Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Researchers have uncovered handwritten letters, court documents, and a coroner’s report related to the nearly 700-year-old cold case murder of a medieval priest. Published on June 5 in the journal Criminal Law Forum, the investigation draws on direct archival evidence from Cambridge University that is helping fill in the gaps to a high-profile true crime scandal that would make headlines even today. But despite a mountain of firsthand accounts, the murder’s masterminds never saw justice. The ‘planned and cold-blooded’ crime On Friday, May 3, 1337, Anglican priest John Forde began a walk along downtown London’s Cheapside street after vespers (evening prayers) shortly before sunset. At one point, a clergyman familiar to Forde by the name of Hasculph Neville approached him to begin a “pleasant conversation.” As the pair neared St. Paul’s Cathedral, four men ambushed the priest. One of the attackers then proceeded to slit Forde’s throat using a 12-inch dagger as two other assailants stabbed him in the stomach in front of onlookers. The vicious crime wasn’t a brazen robbery or politically motivated attack. It was likely a premeditated murder orchestrated by Ela Fitzpayne, a noblewoman, London crime syndicate leader—and potentially Forde’s lover. “We are looking at a murder commissioned by a leading figure of the English aristocracy. It is planned and cold-blooded, with a family member and close associates carrying it out, all of which suggests a revenge motive,” Cambridge University criminology professor Manuel Eisner explained in a statement. The location of the murder of John Forde on May 3, 1337. Credit: Medieval Murder Maps / University of Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology / Historic Towns Trust. A longstanding feud To understand how such a brutal killing could take place in daylight on a busy London street, it’s necessary to backtrack at least five years. In January 1332, the Archbishop of Canterbury sent a letter to the Bishop of Winchester that included a number of reputation-ruining claims surrounding Fitzpayne. In particular, Archbishop Simon Mepham described sexual relationships involving “knights and others, single and married, and even with clerics in holy orders.” The wide-ranging punishments for such sinful behavior could include a prohibition on wearing gold and other precious jewelry, as well as large tithes to monastic orders and the poor. But the most humiliating atonement often came in the form of a public walk of shame. The act of contrition involved walking barefoot across Salisbury Cathedral—England’s longest nave—in order to deliver a handcarried, four-pound wax candle to the church altar. What’s more, Archbishop Mepham commanded that Fitzpayne must repeat this penance every autumn for seven years. Fitzpayne was having none of it. According to Mepham’s message, the noblewoman chose to continue listening to a “spirit of pride” (and the devil), and refused to abide by the judgment. A second letter sent by the Archbishop that April also alleged that she had since absconded from her husband, Sir Robert Fitzpayne, and was hiding in London’s Rotherhithe district along the Thames River. Due to this, Archbishop Mepham reported that Ela Fitzpayne had been excommunicated from the church. Image of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s letters to the Bishop of Winchester on the subject of Ela Fitzpayne, from the register of John de Stratford. Credit: Hampshire Archives and Hampshire County Council. Raids and rats But who tipped the clergy off to her indiscretions? According to Eisner’s review of original documents as part of the Cambridge University Institute of Criminology’s Medieval Murder Maps project, it was almost certainly her ex-lover, the soon-to-be-murdered John Forde. He was the only alleged lover named in Archbishop Mepham’s letters, and served as a church rector in a village located on the Fitzpayne family’s estate at the time of the suspected affair.  “The archbishop imposed heavy, shameful public penance on Ela, which she seems not to have complied with, but may have sparked a thirst for vengeance,” Eisner said. “Not least as John Forde appears to have escaped punishment by the church.” But Forde’s relationship with the Fitzpaynes seems to have extended even more illicit activities. In another record reviewed by Eisner, both Ela Fitzpayne and John Forde had been indicted by a Royal Commission in 1322. The crime–assisting in the raid of a Benedictine priory alongside Sir Fitzpayne. They and others reportedly assaulted the priory a year earlier, making off with around 18 oxen, 30 pigs, and 200 sheep. The monastery coincidentally served as a French abbey’s outpost amid increasing tensions between France and England in the years leading up to the Hundred Years’ War. Archbishop Mepham was almost certainly displeased after hearing about the indictment of one of his own clergy. A strict administrator himself, Mepham “was keen to enforce moral discipline among the gentry and nobility,” added Eisner. He theorizes that Forde copped to the affair after getting leaned on by superiors, which subsequently led to the campaign to shame Ela Fitzpayne as a means to reassert the Church’s authority over English nobility. Forde, unfortunately, was caught between the two sides. “John Forde may have had split loyalties,” argued Eisner. “One to the Fitzpayne family, who were likely patrons of his church and granted him the position. And the other to the bishops who had authority over him as a clergy member.” Archbishop Mepham ultimately wouldn’t live to see the scandal’s full consequences. Fitzpayne never accepted her walk of shame, and the church elder died a year after sending the incriminating letters. Eisner believes the Fitzpaynes greenlit their hit job on Forde only after the dust had seemingly settled. It doesn’t help their case three bystanders said the man who slit the rector’s throat was none other than Ela Fitzpayne’s own brother, Hugh Lovell. They also named two family servants as Forde’s other assailants. Archbishop Mepham died four years before Forde’s murder. Credit: ampshire Archives and Hampshire County Council Turning a blind eye Anyone waiting for justice in this medieval saga will likely be disappointed. “Despite naming the killers and clear knowledge of the instigator, when it comes to pursuing the perpetrators, the jury turn[ed] a blind eye,” Eisner said. Eisner explained the circumstances surrounding an initial lack of convictions were simply “implausible.” No one supposedly could locate the accused to bring to trial, despite the men belonging to one of England’s highest nobility houses. Meanwhile, the court claimed Hugh Lovell had no belongings available to confiscate. “This was typical of the class-based justice of the day,” said Eisner. In the end, the only charge that ever stuck in the murder case was an indictment against one of the family’s former servants. Five years after the first trial in 1342, Hugh Colne was convicted of being one of the men to stab Forde in the stomach and sentenced to the notorious Newgate Prison. As dark and sordid as the multiyear medieval drama was, it apparently didn’t change much between Ela Fitzpayne and her husband, Sir Robert. She and the baron remained married until his death in 1354—when she subsequently inherited all his property. “Where rule of law is weak, we see killings committed by the highest ranks in society, who will take power into their own hands, whether it’s today or seven centuries ago,” said Eisner. That said, the criminology professor couldn’t help but concede that Ela Fitzpayne was an “extraordinary” individual, regardless of the era. “A woman in 14th century England who raided priories, openly defied the Archbishop of Canterbury, and planned the assassination of a priest,” he said. “Ela Fitzpayne appears to have been many things.”

Meta has published the first of its quarterly integrity reports since Mark Zuckerberg walked back the company's hate speech policies and changed its approach to content moderation earlier this year. According to the reports, Facebook saw an uptick in violent content, bullying and harassment despite an overall decrease in the amount of content taken down by Meta. The reports are the first time Meta has shared data about how Zuckerberg's decision to upend Meta's policies have played out on the platform used by billions of people. Notably, the company is spinning the changes as a victory, saying that it reduced its mistakes by half while the overall prevalence of content breaking its rules "largely remained unchanged for most problem areas." There are two notable exceptions, however. Violent and graphic content increased from 0.06%-0.07% at the end of 2024 to .09% in the first quarter of 2025. Meta attributed the uptick to "an increase in sharing of violating content" as well as its own attempts to "reduce enforcement mistakes." Meta also saw a noted increase in the prevalence of bullying and harassment on Facebook, which increased from 0.06-0.07% at the end of 2024 to 0.07-0.08% at the start of 2025. Meta says this was due to an unspecified "spike" in violations in March. (Notably, this is a separate category from the company's hate speech policies, which were re-written to allow posts targeting immigrants and LGBTQ people.) Those may sound like relatively tiny percentages, but even small increases can be noticeable for a platform like Facebook that sees billions of posts every day. (Meta describes its prevalence metric as an estimate of how often rule-breaking content appears on its platform.) The report also underscores just how much less content Meta is taking down overall since it moved away from proactive enforcement of all but its most serious policies like child exploitation and terrorist content. Meta's report shows a significant decrease in the amount of Facebook posts removed for hateful content, for example, with just 3.4 million pieces of content "actioned" under the policy, the company's lowest figure since 2018. Spam removals also dropped precipitously from 730 million at the end of 2024 to just 366 million at the start of 2025. The number of fake accounts removed also declined notably on Facebook from 1.4 billion to 1 billion (Meta doesn't provide stats around fake account removals on Instagram.) At the same time, Meta claims it's making far fewer content moderation mistakes, which was one of Zuckerberg's main justifications for his decision to end proactive moderation."We saw a roughly 50% reduction in enforcement mistakes on our platforms in the United States from Q4 2024 to Q1 2025," the company wrote in an update to its January post announcing its policy changes. Meta didn't explain how it calculated that figure, but said future reports would "include metrics on our mistakes so that people can track our progress." Meta is acknowledging, however, that there is at least one group where some proactive moderation is still necessary: teens. "At the same time, we remain committed to ensuring teens on our platforms are having the safest experience possible," the company wrote. "That’s why, for teens, we’ll also continue to proactively hide other types of harmful content, like bullying." Meta has been rolling out "teen accounts" for the last several months, which should make it easier to filter content specifically for younger users. The company also offered an update on how it's using large language models to aid in its content moderation efforts. "Upon further testing, we are beginning to see LLMs operating beyond that of human performance for select policy areas," Meta writes. "We’re also using LLMs to remove content from review queues in certain circumstances when we’re highly confident it does not violate our policies." The other major component to Zuckerberg's policy changes was an end of Meta's fact-checking partnerships in the United States. The company began rolling out its own version of Community Notes to Facebook, Instagram and Threads earlier this year, and has since expanded the effort to Reels and Threads replies. Meta didn't offer any insight into how effective its new crowd-sourced approach to fact-checking might be or how often notes are appearing on its platform, though it promised updates in the coming months.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/facebook-sees-rise-in-violent-content-and-harassment-after-policy-changes-182651544.html?src=rss