Speedata, a Tel Aviv-based startup developing an analytics processing unit (APU) designed to accelerate big data analytic and AI workloads, has raised a $44M Series B funding round, bringing its total capital raised to $114M. The Series B round was l

The highly anticipated $1,000 phone will make an appearance later this summer.

Heydar Aliyev Center | © Olivier Blanchette via Unsplash In contemporary architectural discourse, the building envelope is no longer a passive partition but a dynamic interface capable of interaction, regulation, and adaptation. Amid rising environmental complexity and performance demands, composite materials are emerging as enablers of this transformation. Their potential goes far beyond lightweight strength; composites are redefining what intelligence means in architectural materiality. As the industry pivots toward energy-conscious design, real-time responsiveness, and multi-functional skins, composites provide structural solutions and performative systems. In this context, the envelope becomes a site of intelligence. From Passive Shells to Active Systems For centuries, architectural skins served primarily as barriers, blocking weather, enclosing space, and symbolizing permanence. But the 21st century demands more. We require façades that filter air and light, mediate thermal flux, integrate sensors, and generate power. Traditional materials, limited by monolithic performance and weight, have struggled to adapt. Composites, by contrast, are inherently systemic. They are engineered layers rather than singular substances. Through the integration of fibers and matrices, composites enable architectural envelopes that perform structurally while accommodating embedded systems such as thermal insulation, acoustic control, impact resistance, and photoreactivity. These characteristics make them prime candidates for high-performance envelopes in buildings and infrastructure alike. In the Qatar Integrated Railway Project, composite roofing and FRP façade panels were employed to meet the demands of the harsh desert environment. This solution reduced structural loads and improved thermal performance while ensuring long-term durability in a climate defined by extremes. Performance Layering and Embedded Intelligence What distinguishes composites from conventional materials is their capacity to combine multiple performance layers in one unified system. Instead of applying insulation, waterproofing, and cladding in sequence, a composite panel can consolidate these into a single prefabricated, high-performance element. A compelling example is the Eco Casa in Australia, designed by Ian Wright, which used frameless DuFLEX composite panels. The result was an environmentally conscious home with significantly reduced material waste, enhanced thermal performance, and minimized emissions. These outcomes demonstrate how composites offer design efficiency and ecological responsibility. The capacity for prefabrication and integration is particularly valuable in settings where labor conditions, transportation logistics, or weather exposure make traditional multi-layered construction inefficient or impractical. Composites with a Nervous System: Sensing the Built Environment Recent innovations in smart composites extend these capabilities further. By embedding fiber-optic or piezoresistive sensors into composite assemblies, architects and engineers can develop building skins that sense stress, temperature changes, humidity, or vibration in real-time. These responsive façades can feed data into building management systems, enabling performance optimization or alerting maintenance teams to signs of wear or structural fatigue. This functionality has been successfully explored in transport infrastructure. The King Abdullah High-Speed Rail Station in Saudi Arabia used 27-meter composite sandwich panels to span vast distances with minimal support. The lightweight system reduced the need for extensive reinforcement while enabling thermal and mechanical performance in a climate that demands resilience. Such examples are foundational to a future in which architecture does not merely resist the environment but interprets it. Formal Freedom Meets Functional Responsiveness Guangzhou Opera House | © Scarbor Siu via Unsplash Beyond embedded intelligence, composites also expand formal expression. Their moldability, especially with parametric design and digital fabrication, allows for envelopes that curve, fold, and morph in unattainable ways with conventional rigid materials. The Guangzhou Opera House, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, is a defining example. Advanced composite assemblies that merged structural demands with formal ambition enabled its seamless curvatures and sharp transitions. These systems supported high-precision details and complex geometries while reducing material weight and installation complexity. This freedom extends to smaller-scale yet equally ambitious projects. At the Tilburg School for VAVO, translucent composite panels embedded with knitted textiles reference local craft while offering thermal performance and design cohesion. Such examples show that intelligence in architecture includes cultural sensitivity as well as technical adaptability. Toward Circular and Regenerative Envelopes The sustainability potential of composites is often overlooked. While early generations relied heavily on fossil-derived materials, newer systems use bio-based resins, natural fibers like flax and basalt, and recyclable matrices that fit into circular design models. Composite panels can now be designed for disassembly, repurposing, or reintegration into new construction, minimizing waste and conserving embodied energy. The Pasarela de Almuñécar in Spain exemplifies this ethos. As the world’s longest carbon-fiber walkway, it replaced heavier materials and extended structural lifespan while reducing maintenance. The project signals how composites can fulfill both technical and ecological ambitions. Efforts to embed digital tracking into panels, such as RFID tags, also support long-term monitoring and facilitate reuse planning. This vision aligns with emerging concepts like material passports, which will play a critical role in lifecycle accountability. Pasarela de Almuñécar in Spain | © Luis Garcia, CC by 3.0 Overcoming Barriers to Adoption Despite the clear advantages, composite adoption in architecture still faces notable hurdles. First is the challenge of integration with legacy materials such as concrete, stone, or steel. Connection detailing requires careful coordination to ensure structural continuity and thermal performance. Second is the perception of cost. While composites may require a higher upfront investment, their lower maintenance demands, improved energy performance, and reduced structural requirements often result in favorable long-term economics. Finally, regulatory frameworks continue to evolve. Building codes have been slow to reflect the unique properties of composites, although this is changing as standardization increases and successful pilot projects proliferate. A Vision for the Future: Architecture as Adaptive Intelligence Composites are not merely substitutes for traditional materials. They represent a paradigm shift in how we understand performance, integration, and the role of material in space-making. As architecture becomes increasingly data-driven, climate-responsive, and energy-conscious, the intelligent envelope will become the norm rather than the exception. Composites make this future feasible by offering structural capability, aesthetic freedom, environmental stewardship, and embedded intelligence within a single engineered solution. From high-speed rail terminals to cultural landmarks, these materials are shaping a new kind of architecture that listens, learns, and evolves. It is no longer sufficient for architecture to stand still. The next generation of buildings must adapt, interact, and perform. Composites make that future tangible. Learn More Explore how composite materials are redefining the building envelope in the construction sector and beyond: Visit Composites.Archi by ArchEyes Team Leave a comment

Nichols Canyon cuts through the south side of the Hollywood Hills, stretching from Hollywood Boulevard in the south up to Mulholland Drive in the north. Made famous by David Hockney, whose 1980 painting of the canyon sold for just over $41M in 2020, the area remains a thriving artist's community. What better place for Elle Decor A-List designer Oliver Furth to build a "creative cottage" for his partner, The Culture Creative founder Sean Yashar?Furth and Yashar, who've been together 14 years, met in the industry and purchased their home 7 years ago. When the lot next door—a pines-filled acre with a tiny house on it—came up for sale, the couple jumped at the chance to buy. "Anyone else would've torn it down and built something bigger," says Furth. "We replaced the windows and redid the kitchen and bathrooms, but we leaned into its size." Now drenched in Yashar's signature "eau de nil" pastel tones, the cottage embraces the character of its original 1940s structure while serving as a cutting-edge space for creativity.Kort HavensIn the sitting room, a Philippe Starck chrome side table from the original Royalton Hotel, from 1988, holds a place of pride with a group of Peter Shire and Ron Arad vintage chairs and a Rachel Shillander pyramidal lamp. Art includes greats of LA’s past and present: a Laddie John Dill mixed media, a Sam Falls tapestry, a Tom Holland metal relief, and a Strauss Bourque-LaFrance painting."All of my work is really portraiture." —Oliver Furth"My clients are all muses to me," says Yashar, who provides consulting services for designers. "I have to be a good listener and understand who the client is and how they connect to decorative arts history, so I spend a lot of time researching. How else can I be an authority?"To that end, the space is designed to provide a moment to reflect and the fodder to rev into high gear in equal measures; to facilitate rest as much as the chance to recharge. Following in the footsteps of Albert Hadley and Tony Duquette (who once declared malachite a neutral), Furth color-drenched the space in a mint green. "That color is the envelope—that's what I call it," says Furth. "We kept it very tight by lacquering the floors, the walls, and the ceiling in that color. Even the cabinetry and the appliances are in that mint. It allows us to have this object-driven interior space by unifying everything with color."Kort HavensA vintage Joe D’Urso for Knoll desk, Sam Maloof desk chair, Christopher Prinz stool and felt-clad speaker by Studio AHEAD create a sleek composition under an Ingo Mauer chandelier in the office. Art includes a triptych of photographs by David Benjamin Sherry, and framed magazine ads from Yashar’s parents’ furniture store, Moda Italia, from 1990.The seafoam hue unites not only the interior, but also decades of decorative history: Yashar found that the architect Paul Williams, who worked in LA in the 1940's and 50's, used a similar shade in many projects. "There's a lot of history and narrative within this color that maybe not everyone will be able to know, but hopefully everyone can feel," says Yashar. Clocking in at roughly 1,000-square-feet, the interior is now a mixture of millennial aesthetics, showcasing Yashar's love for design culture icons like Mario Buatta and Saul Bass. The entry sets the tone with its metal-and-glass Dutch door. A mixed-use meeting room offers a blend of contrasts, from Buatta-inspired shades in a Dickies-esque khaki twill to antique Chippendale chairs juxtaposed with 1990s Marc Newson tables. "All of my work is really portraiture," says Furth, "so this was an opportunity to help create this sort of portrait of Sean and his business." "Sometimes things just resonate...you just know when it's right." —Sean YasharThe sitting room features iconic design pieces, including a worn black leather sofa from the 1980s and a Philippe Starck table from the Royalton Hotel. Peter Shire and Ron Arad chairs are paired with conceptual furniture inspired by Dan Friedman. The kitchen celebrates postwar and ’80s influences with Smeg appliances and works by Soft Baroque and Patrick Nagel, grounded by a custom table from Studio MUKA. "A lot of people know me for my interest in eighties and nineties design culture," says Yashar. "But when I think eighties or nineties, I don't think of one thing. I don't want to choose. So I want to have Joe D'Urso high-tech track lighting, and I want it against these Mario Buatta-style balloon shades. I like that duality."Outside, a Persian-inspired courtyard nods to Yashar's heritage while offering dining and lounging areas that showcase rare 1980s furniture, including a Peter Lane ceramic table and one-off mint-colored Richard Schultz seating. The courtyard’s natural and faux vine murals create a satirical trompe-l’oeil effect, celebrating real-versus-virtual artistry. "I think we're both big believers in feeling," says Yashar. "Sometimes things just resonate. You can't really put your finger on it, but you just know that it's right."Sean SantiagoDeputy EditorSean Santiago is ELLE Decor's Deputy Editor, covering news, trends and talents in interior design, hospitality and travel, culture, and luxury shopping. Since starting his career at an interior design firm in 2011, he has gone on to cover the industry for Vogue, Architectural Digest, Sight Unseen, PIN-UP and Domino. He is the author of The Lonny Home (Weldon Owens, 2018), has produced scripted social content for brands including West Elm and Streeteasy, and is sometimes recognized on the street for his Instagram Reels series, #DanceToDecor

In the centre of the building, a ceremonial room is a calming space that invites community meetings and healing.   TEXT Elsa Lam PHOTOS doublespace photography Fifty years ago, four grandmothers founded the organization Anduhyaun—Ojibwe for “Our Home”—to respond to the needs of the city’s Indigenous women. The organization used a city-owned heritage house in the Annex to offer shelter to women and children suffering from the traumas of violence and homelessness. Last year, they moved to a building designed by LGA Architectural Partners.  The architects took the organization’s name to heart, aiming to provide not just basic shelter, but a place of nurture and grounding. The organization’s long-time executive director, Blanche Meawassige, told the designers that the building needed to feel like it was alive. “From Blanche, we understood that a shelter is a place where rehabilitation—growth and healing—begins,” says architect Brock James, partner at LGA. “Yes, it’s a roof over your head and safety, but it’s also where that spiritual part starts; it has to be about growth and life.” A curved ceiling-to-wall transition brings a unique quality to the bedrooms This thinking shows in the bedrooms, 16 of which are compact, single-occupancy rooms and two of which are designed for families with up to three kids. (Some rooms can also be interconnected, to accommodate larger families or to provide a physical link between friends.) Each room has its own bathroom, a wooden desk, adjustable lighting, and a curved ceiling-to-wall transition that reflects daylight through the space. The curve, says James, “makes the room very ‘here’. It’s only here. It’s not generic.” Curved, tiled walls define the circulation areas on the ground floor Curves recur on the main floor, where seafoam-coloured tiles sweep along flowing walls, adding to the building’s sense of aliveness and alluding to Indigenous teachings about water. The curves lead to a large communal kitchen and a central ceremonial space, currently known as Nookomis, or “grandmother.” The interior of Nookomis, the building’s main ceremonial space Many details illustrate LGA’s commitment to creating specialness with economical means. Nookomis, for instance, is clad with cedar shingles that came in pre-cut profiles. (“It’s just a matter of coming up with a pattern, which I did in my living room during the pandemic,” says James.) The burgundy walls of Nookomis’s interior are made, in part, with a simple foam in a custom colour. (“It’s a straightforward product that’s not good if you were touching it—but up high, controlling the sound, it works.”) A skylight caps the space, like a full moon casting a soft glow from above. Meawassige originally asked for the outside of the building to be anonymous, but later decided that the Indigeneity of the interior should be expressed outside, too. The architects created a design with a similarly elevated attention to detail. They achieved a high level of airtightness in the envelope, and composed a façade made out of standard Vicwest metal, applied in a pattern that ensures that the 300-mm width of the panels would stay intact, with no cuts.   “Good design, an elevated section, beautiful tiles: it’s things like that that makes it feel like somebody cares,” says James. “When I think about aesthetics, we can have lots of stories about them, but I know that it’s communicating that Anduhyaun cares. This is their building, and it’s emoting that they care.”  As appeared in the June 2025 issue of Canadian Architect magazine  The post Our Home, Toronto, Ontario appeared first on Canadian Architect.

The tower takes shape as two sets of overlapping cylinders, clad with prefabricated panels intended to evoke clouds. PROJECT The Butterfly + First Baptist Church Complex ARCHITECT Revery Architecture PHOTOS Ema Peter When you fly into Vancouver, the most prominent structure in the city’s forest of glass skyscrapers is now a 57-storey edifice known as the Butterfly. Designed by Revery Architecture, the luxury residential tower is the latest in a string of high-rises that pop out of the city’s backdrop of generic window-wall façades.  The Butterfly’s striking form evolved over many years, beginning with studies dating back to 2012. Revery principal Venelin Kokalov imagined several options, most of them suggesting a distinct pair of architectural forms in dialogue. Renderings and models of the early concepts relay a wealth of imagination that is sorely missing from much of the city’s contemporary architecture, as land economics, zoning issues, and the profit motive often compel a default into generic glass-and-steel towers. The earliest concepts look starkly different—some evoke the Ginger and Fred building in Prague (Frank Gehry with Vlado Milunić, 1996); others the Absolute Towers in Mississauga (MAD with Burka Varacalli Architects, 2009). But one consistent theme runs through the design evolution: a sense of two Rilkean solitudes, touching.  On each floor, semi-private sky gardens offer an outdoor place for residents to socialize. Client feedback, engineering studies, and simple pragmatics led to the final form: two sets of overlapping cylinders linked by a common breezeway and flanked by a rental apartment on one side and a restored church doubling as a community centre on the other. The contours of the floorplan are visually organic: evocative of human cells dividing. The roundness of the main massing is complemented by curvilinear balustrades that smoothly transform into the outer walls of each unit. It’s an eye-catching counterpoint to the orthogonality of the city’s built landscape. The two adjacent buildings—built, restored, and expanded as part of a density bonus arrangement with the city—help integrate this gargantuan structure with the lower-rise neighbourhood around it.  The Butterfly is a high-end, high-priced residential tower—one of the few typologies in which clients and communities are now willing to invest big money and resources in creative, visually astonishing architecture. That leads to a fundamental question: what is the public purpose of a luxury condo tower?  A public galleria joins the renovated First Baptist Church to the new building. Serving as a welcoming atrium, it allows for community access to the expanded church, including its daycare, full gymnasium, multi-purpose rooms, overnight emergency shelter, and community dining hall equipped with a commercial kitchen. Whatever one feels about the widening divide between the haves and have-nots in our big cities, this building—like its ilk—does serve several important public purposes. The most direct and quantifiable benefits are the two flanking buildings, also designed by Revery and part of the larger project. The seven-storey rental apartment provides a modest contribution to the city’s dearth of mid-priced housing. The superbly restored and seismically upgraded First Baptist Church has expanded into the area between the new tower and original church, and now offers the public a wider array of programming including a gymnasium, childcare facility, and areas for emergency shelter and counselling services for individuals in need.  The church’s Pinder Hall has been reimagined as a venue for church and community events including concerts, weddings, and cultural programming. The Butterfly’s character is largely defined by undulating precast concrete panels that wrap around the building. The architects describe the swooping lines as being inspired by clouds, but for this writer, the Butterfly evokes a 57-layer frosted cake towering above the city’s boxy skyline. Kokalov winces when he hears that impression, but it’s meant as a sincere compliment. Clouds are not universally welcome, but who doesn’t like cake?  Kokalov argues that its experiential quality is the building’s greatest distinction—most notably, the incorporation of an “outdoors”—not a balcony or deck, but an actual outdoor pathway—at all residential levels. For years the lead form-maker at Bing Thom Architects, Kokalov was responsible for much of the curvilinearity in the firm’s later works, including the 2019 Xiqu Centre opera house in Hong Kong. It’s easy to assume that his forte and focus would be pure aesthetic delight, but he avers that every sinuous curve has a practical rationale.  The breezeways provide residents with outdoor entries to their units—an unusual attribute for high-rise towers—and contribute to natural cooling, ventilation, and daylight in the suites. Defying the local tower-on-podium formula, the building’s façade falls almost straight to the ground. At street level, the building is indented with huge parabolic concavities. It’s an abrupt way to meet the street, but the fall is visually “broken” by a publicly accessible courtyard.   The tower’s layered, undulating volume is echoed in a soaring residential lobby, which includes developer Westbank’s signature—a bespoke Fazioli grand piano designed by the building’s architect. After passing through this courtyard, you enter the building via the usual indoor luxe foyer—complete with developer Westbank’s signature, an over-the-top hand-built grand piano designed by the architect. In this case, the piano’s baroquely sculpted legs are right in keeping with the architecture. But after taking the elevator up to the designated floor, you step out into what is technically “outdoors” and walk to your front door in a brief but bracing open-air transition.  The main entrance of every unit is accessed via a breezeway that runs from one side of the building to another. Unglazed and open to the outside, each breezeway is marked at one end with what the architects call (a little ambitiously) a “sky garden,” in most cases consisting of a sapling that will grow into a leafy tree in due course, God and strata maintenance willing. This incorporation of nature and fresh air transforms the condominium units into something akin to townhouses, albeit stacked exceptionally high.  The suites feature a custom counter with a sculptural folded form. Inside each unit, the space can be expanded and contracted and reconfigured visually—not literally—by the fact that the interior wall of the secondary bedroom is completely transparent, floor to ceiling. It’s unusual, and slightly unnerving, but undeniably exciting for any occupants who wish to maximize their views to the mountains and sea. The curved glass wall transforms the room into a private enclave by means of a curtain, futuristically activated by remote control. The visual delight of swooping curves is only tempered when it’s wholly impractical—the offender here being a massive built-in counter that serves to both anchor and divide the living-kitchen areas. It reads as a long, pliable slab that is “folded” into the middle in such a way that the counter itself transforms into its own horseshoe-shaped base, creating a narrow crevice in the middle of the countertop. I marvel at its beauty and uniqueness; I weep for whoever is assigned to clean out the crumbs and other culinary flotsam that will fall into that crevice.  A structure made of high-performance modular precast concrete structural ribs arcs over a swimming pool that bridges between the building’s main amenity space and the podium roof. The building’s high-priced architecture may well bring more to the table than density-bonus amenities. On a broader scale, these luxe dwellings may be just what is needed to help lure the affluent from their mansions. As wealthy residents and investors continue to seek out land-hogging detached homes, the Butterfly offers an alternate concept that maintains the psychological benefit of a dedicated outside entrance and an outrageously flexible interior space. Further over-the-top amenities add to the appeal. Prominent among these is a supremely gorgeous residents-only swimming pool, housed within ribs of concrete columns that curve and dovetail into beams.   The ultimate public purpose for the architecturally spectacular condo tower: its role as public art in the city. The units in any of these buildings are the private side of architecture’s Janus face, but its presence in the skyline and on the street is highly public. By contributing a newly striking visual ballast, the Butterfly has served its purpose as one of the age-old Seven Arts: defining a location, a community, and an era. Adele Weder is a contributing editor to Canadian Architect. Screenshot CLIENT Westbank Corporation, First Baptist Church | ARCHITECT TEAM Venelin Kokalov (MRAIC), Bing Thom (FRAIC, deceased 2016), Amirali Javidan, Nicole Hu, Shinobu Homma MRAIC, Bibi Fehr, Culum Osborne, Dustin Yee, Cody Loeffen, Kailey O’Farrell, Mark Melnichuk, Andrea Flynn, Jennifer Zhang, Daniel Gasser, Zhuoli Yang, Lisa Potopsingh | STRUCTURAL Glotman Simpson | MECHANICAL Introba | ELECTRICAL Nemetz & Associates, Inc. | LANDSCAPE SWA Group (Design) w/ Cornelia Oberlander & G|ALA – Gauthier & Associates Landscape Architecture, Inc. (Landscape Architect of Record) | INTERIORS Revery Architecture | CONTRACTOR Icon West Construction (new construction); The Haebler Group (heritage) | LIGHTING ARUP (Design) & Nemetz (Engineer of Record) | SUSTAINABILITY & ENERGY MODELlING Introba | BUILDING ENVELOPE RDH Building Science, Inc. | HERITAGE CONSERVATION Donald Luxton & Associates, Inc.| ACOUSTICS BKL Consultants Ltd. | TRAFFIC Bunt & Associates, Inc. | POOL Rockingham Pool Consulting, Inc. | FOUNTAIN Vincent Helton & Associates | WIND Gradient Wind Engineering, Inc. | WASTE CONSULTANT Target Zero Waste Consulting, Inc. | AREA 56,206 M2 | BUDGET Withheld | COMPLETION Spring 2025 ENERGY USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 106 kWh/m2/year | WATER USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 0.72 m3/m2/year As appeared in the June 2025 issue of Canadian Architect magazine The post The Butterfly takes flight: The Butterfly, Vancouver, BC appeared first on Canadian Architect.

Gerrard Healthy Housing replaces a single-family home in a walkable Toronto neighbourhood with 10 rental housing units. Photo by Alexandra Berceneau Gerrard Healthy Housing, at Gerrard and Main in Toronto, delivers exactly the kind of “gentle density” that has been much discussed and desired in the city. The eight-unit walk-up rental building with two laneway houses replaces a single-family home, while carefully integrating with its walkable neighbourhood. But achieving this outcome was no easy matter. To streamline approvals, TMU professor Cheryl Atkinson, of Atkinson Architect, aimed to design with no variances. “Everything’s to the minimum in terms of distance between the attached four-plexes and the laneway units,” says Rolf Paloheimo, of P&R Development, who also acted as project manager. “We built to the maximum height within 100 millimetres.” Atkinson had designed a panellized, net-zero missing middle housing unit exhibited at DX’s EDIT festival as part of a TMU research project; Paloheimo was the client and developer behind the 1996 CMHC Riverdale Healthy House, a model sustainable development designed by Martin Liefhebber. For Gerrard Healthy Housing, they set out to create as close to Passive House as possible, specifying all-electric heat pumps and ERVs, using wood framing, and deploying blown-in-cellulose insulation to achieve a quiet and airtight R45-R65 envelope—although stopping short of installing triple-glazed windows. “We wanted to make it reproducible and affordable,” says Paloheimo. “Part of my argument for doing this scale of development is that if you stay in part 9 [of the building code], the construction is a lot lighter, the consultant load is lighter. You’re stuck with higher land costs, but costs are quite a bit lower to build,” he adds. The construction costs for the project tallied up to $300 per square foot, and the all-in cost for the project was $650 per square foot—about half the square-foot cost of condo construction. Atkinson’s sensitive design provides natural light on three sides of all but two units, ample cross-ventilation and closet space, and office nooks that overlook entry stairs—as well as façades detailed to fit in with the scale of neighbourhood. Details like bespoke mailboxes add polish to the composition. The financial success of the project depended largely on government incentives for housing: just before construction started, the province waived HST on rental developments, and the City exempted four-plexes from development charges.  Paloheimo’s project management of the endeavour ensured the project stayed on track. He kept a close eye on the prices tendered by the general contractor, and ended up finding some of the trades on his own—developing such a good rapport that he bought them cakes from a nearby patisserie at the end of the project. Both Atkinson and Paloheimo also befriended the neighbours, one of whom provided temporary power from her home when the hydro connection was delayed.  Can this kind of success be replicated at scale? Paloheimo is cautiously hopeful, and plans to continue with small-scale development projects in Toronto. But he acknowledges that it’s not an endeavour for the faint of heart. “You have a house that used to be just four walls and a roof,” he says. “And then we’re gradually adding complexity. If you’re doing sustainable housing, it’s got to have a certain R-value, a certain airtightness. So it creates headwinds if you want to make affordable housing.” The bigger problem, he says, is the financialization of housing—unlike a car, which you expect to lose value and cost money each year, we expect our homes to continually increase in value. “If we could get away from that, we could focus on what’s really important about housing: which is comfort, space, light, services.” As appeared in the June 2025 issue of Canadian Architect magazine The post Editorial: Gentle Density in Action appeared first on Canadian Architect.

Gironda Residence | © Simone Bossi Located just steps from Piazza del Popolo in Ravenna, the Renaissance-era Casa Guaccimanni holds centuries of architectural and historical weight. Constructed in the fifteenth century for the Venetian podestà Nicolò Giustinian, the building evolved through noble ownership and later became home to Vittorio and Alessandro Guaccimanni, sons of Risorgimento figure Luigi Guaccimanni. Architecturally, the structure is characterized by a tripartite plan with a central corridor flanked by large rooms, an interior courtyard with a double loggia, and decorative elements spanning Renaissance to Neoclassical periods. Once concealed beneath plaster, its frescoed veranda and exposed wooden ceilings speak to a layered history of intervention, concealment, and rediscovery. Gironda Residence in Casa Guaccimanni Technical Information Architects1-13: Giovanni Mecozzi Architetti Location: Casa Guaccimanni, Via Armando Diaz, Ravenna, Italy Client: Emanuela Docimo Project Years: 2022 – 2024 Original Structure: 15th Century Photographs: © Andrea Sestito, © Simone Bossi, © Omar Sartor The new and the old never touch, but gently brush against each other, maintaining a distance capable of generating tension. – Giovanni Mecozzi Gironda Residence in Casa Guaccimanni Photographs © Omar Sartor © Andrea Sestito © Andrea Sestito © Andrea Sestito © Omar Sartor © Simone Bossi © Simone Bossi © Simone Bossi © Omar Sartor © Omar Sartor © Omar Sartor © Andrea Sestito © Omar Sartor Design Intent: Reversibility and Temporal Tension The recent architectural project by Giovanni Mecozzi Architetti centers on the noble floor of the palazzo, reinterpreted as a contemporary residence named Gironda. Rather than imposing a new visual regime onto the historic shell, the intervention operates with restraint, foregrounding the building’s original character while establishing new spatial and material conditions. At the core of the project lies a design philosophy rooted in reversibility. Mecozzi’s intervention resists permanence. The furnishings and spatial devices introduced into the historic rooms are self-supporting and detached from the structure. No new element makes physical contact with the floors, ceilings, or walls, preserving the integrity of the original surfaces. This strategy avoids irreversible alterations and allows the architecture to remain temporally flexible. Architect Giovanni Mecozzi articulates this approach succinctly: “The new and the old never touch, but gently brush against each other, maintaining a distance capable of generating tension.” This spatial tension is not decorative but conceptual, prompting occupants to consider the relationship between historical continuity and contemporary transformation. The design does not attempt to erase time but rather exposes its layers through careful juxtaposition. The project draws conceptual and chromatic inspiration from Ravenna’s early Christian and Byzantine mosaics. Rather than replicate ornamental motifs, Mecozzi extracts abstract qualities such as color, luminosity, and surface texture, integrating them as subtle spatial references throughout the residence. Gironda Residence Material Strategy Access to the residence is organized through a longitudinal hallway that bisects the plan, connecting a balcony on the north façade with a loggia overlooking the garden to the south. This corridor becomes a spine for circulation and orientation, punctuated by entries into five main rooms: the kitchen, veranda, and three independent suites. Each suite functions as a self-contained spatial environment. The original large rooms have been reimagined with integrated volumes housing diverse domestic functions: bathrooms, saunas, walk-in closets, reading nooks, and home cinemas. These new programmatic layers are embedded within freestanding furniture structures, which operate more as inhabitable objects than architectural partitions. Color becomes an operative tool for spatial differentiation. The three principal suites, the Gold Room, the Blue Room, and the Green Room, are introduced chromatically through thresholds that face the main corridor. This prelude of color sets the tone for each room’s unique interior experience. Within, glossy glass tiles, gilded surfaces, and a reduced palette of materials establish a scenographic yet restrained environment. The flooring, a Venetian terrazzo installed during earlier restoration work in the 2000s, has been retained. Its beveled borders and rounded corners respond to the proportions of each room, reinforcing a visual continuity that binds the new interventions with the inherited context. In contrast to the historical envelope, the furniture and spatial devices employ a language of monochromatic forms and minimal detailing, occasionally verging on neoplastic abstraction. This tension between old ornament and new abstraction is one of the project’s defining features. Furnishings curated by Atelier Biagetti, known for their theatrical and ironic sensibility, further enrich the atmosphere. These pieces do not mimic the historical setting but create moments of visual friction and playful ambiguity, enhancing the multi-temporal character of the interiors. Architectural Significance and Cultural Dialogue The Gironda residence exemplifies a growing discourse in contemporary architecture around adaptive reuse that neither mimics nor erases the past. Rather than treating heritage as a constraint or an aesthetic to be curated, Mecozzi engages it as an active agent in spatial transformation. The project is a case study in reversible architecture, where temporality is embedded in the design, not just its historical references. This intervention prompts broader questions about the role of preservation in contemporary practice. Can architectural interventions occupy historic contexts without becoming parasitic or nostalgic? Mecozzi’s project suggests that they can adopt a posture of critical distance and conceptual clarity. Gironda does not attempt to restore Casa Guaccimanni to a previous state or impose a singular vision of modernity. Instead, it crafts a dialogue between past and present, structured through spatial strategies, material choices, and chromatic cues. In doing so, it opens a new chapter in the building’s ongoing life, one that is fully contemporary yet deeply rooted in architectural memory. Gironda Residence in Casa Guaccimanni Plans Floor Plan | © Giovanni Mecozzi Architetti Golden Room Layout | © Giovanni Mecozzi Architetti Door Detail | © Giovanni Mecozzi Architetti Gironda Residence in Casa Guaccimanni Image Gallery About Giovanni Mecozzi Giovanni Mecozzi is an Italian architect based in Ravenna, Italy, and the founder of Giovanni Mecozzi Architetti (GMA), a multidisciplinary studio specializing in architecture, interior design, and landscape projects. After graduating from the University of Ferrara with an architecture degree, Mecozzi gained international experience working in Spain, including collaborating with Mendaro Arquitectos in Madrid. Upon returning to Italy, he co-founded GMA, focusing on projects emphasizing the relationship between architecture, the client, and the context, with a particular interest in renovating and transforming historical buildings.  Credits and Additional Notes Design Team: Giovanni Mecozzi, Cecilia Verdini, Filippo Minghetti Construction: Edilcostruzioni (Leoni Andrea) Electrical Systems: Elektra Service (Andrea Baiardi) Mechanical and Hydraulic Systems: Nuova OLP Structural Alterations: Not applicable (intervention is fully reversible) Custom Furniture: Idea Legno (Paolo Berdondini) Curtains and Fabrics: Selezione Arredamenti, Ravenna Lighting: Viabizzuno (via Tutto Luce, Cesena) Resin Coatings and Flooring: Kerakoll Rugs and Carpeting: Centro Moquette, Rimini Bathroom Furnishings: Salaroli, Ravenna Furniture, Artwork, and Design Objects Selected by: Atelier Biagetti (Milan) Furniture Designers: Alberto Biagetti and Laura Baldassarri

​​In a quiet residential pocket of Southwest Portland, a mid-century ranch house has been transformed into a family home that embraces its landscape, celebrates material craft, and amplifies the Pacific Northwest’s nuanced natural light. Led by Jeff and Jenny Guggenheim of Guggenheim Architecture and Design Studio, the project reimagines a dated layout with a new architectural clarity — one defined by intimate volumes, warm materials, and integrated moments of delight. “This project began with the desire to create a more functional kitchen and a larger living room that did a better job embracing the backyard,” said Jeff Guggenheim. From that foundational brief, the design grew into a full reorganization of the home, centered on spatial flow, daylight, and a connection to nature. A House That Unfolds The original home, while structurally sound, lacked visual and spatial cohesion. The design team addressed this by establishing a new living room addition as the project’s anchor. “We used the living room as the anchor point,” Guggenheim explained, “and brought similar materials throughout the house to create a consistent aesthetic.” This strategy informed every subsequent design move, from the cabinetry details to the new openings created through Marvin doors and windows. “We didn’t want the house to feel like one part was remodeled and the other wasn’t,” Guggenheim said. “We wanted it to feel like it was all built at the same time.” Cohesion was therefore prioritized in the spatial layout, with a focus on subtle transitions between rooms. “When we’re designing a home, we think about flow and cohesiveness — how you might pass through different spaces and ensuring that those spaces all relate to each other,” he said. “There are threads of similarity that hold it together.” The Joy of Whimsical Architecture Though grounded in modernism, the house also reflects the spirit of the young family that lives there. “Early on in our design process, our client requested spaces that were modern yet warm, and also contained an element of whimsy,” Guggenheim explained. “They have two younger kids and this is a family home.” Whimsy is introduced through unexpected spatial gestures and opportunities for interaction, such as the inclusion of the Marvin Skycove, an innovative glass alcove that extends beyond the envelope of the home. “It’s a window that you can occupy,” Guggenheim said. “You can imagine curling up and reading a book in it, or just looking out at the clouds and daydreaming.” The Skycove supports what the client described as “moments of delight” — an idea that became a conceptual touchstone throughout the design process. “That was the first design meeting I’ve ever been in where we had a client request moments of delight,” he recalled. “How do you create that? Sometimes it’s as simple as a place to sit and read or a dining space that opens to the outdoors.” Windows That Frame Experience Daylight and ventilation played a pivotal role in shaping the home’s interior experience. The kitchen features a Marvin Awaken Skylight positioned directly above the island and sink. The Awaken Skylight is designed to enhance both natural and artificial light in the home, pairing venting capabilities with built-in, tunable lighting that adjusts throughout the day to mirror the changing color temperature of daylight. “We recognized right away that natural light was going to be very important,” Guggenheim said. “We put the skylight front and center, as it gets great morning daylight. When you wake up, you want to make your coffee and be greeted by the rising sun.” In other areas of the home, Marvin’s range of products allowed for functional variation while maintaining a unified aesthetic. “One thing that our office really appreciates about the Marvin product lines is that they all work so well together,” he noted. “We can pick and choose depending on the use of that window, and people can move through the space and feel like they belong to the same design language.” For Guggenheim, windows and doors are more than just architectural components—they are instruments for memory and belonging. “These are the apertures to time and experience,” he said. “You see the sun rise through them and the sunset through them. You see the moon, the stars. Those are the touchpoints that bring delight into a space.” Rooted in the Pacific Northwest While the home’s interiors were comprehensively reimagined, its relationship to the street and neighborhood was handled with care. “We didn’t really make any large changes to the street-facing side,” Guggenheim explained. “The house feels very appropriate to the neighborhood. It doesn’t stick out. That was really important to us.” The home’s exterior scale and material palette allow it to blend naturally into its surroundings while hinting at something more refined within. “I was driving away from here recently and I thought, it’s really nice that the house can be this high level of design but still respectful to its neighbors,” he added. Natural materials, from white oak cabinetry to cast concrete fireplaces, reinforce the project’s grounding in place. “Everything was meticulously crafted,” said Guggenheim. “Everyone who came to the site cared deeply about what they were creating — and that included the window systems.” The ability to match that craftsmanship through Marvin was essential. “It would have been inappropriate to spec a window that didn’t rise to the same level,” he said. “We wanted doors and windows that could complement our cabinetry and its details and also meet the expectations we had for all the other trades on our site.” For Guggenheim, that trust in product is paramount. “Our clients have a lot of trust in us and what we do for them,” he concluded. “And with this in mind, I like to specify Marvin products because I trust that they’re going to be quality, function well, and be well supported through their lifetime.” For architects seeking to create these kinds of connections for their clients, visit Marvin.com. Project photography by 22 Waves. The post Portland Renewal: A Modern Family Home Defined by Light, Craft and Connection appeared first on Journal.

Architect: PPAALocation: Santiago de Querétaro, MexicoCompletion Date:2024Sometimes all it takes to deliver a successful project is a client who is willing to take a chance. When a past residential customer approached Pablo Pérez Palacios, principal of his eponymous firm, Pérez Palacios Arquitectos Asociados (PPAA), about an expansion of an office for the premium dairy company Lyncott in Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico, the architect suggested something unusual: a modular structure made entirely of cross-laminated timber (CLT). In Mexico, as Pérez Palacios explained to AN, concrete is considered the de facto building material. In fact, when the client asked for examples of similar wood construction in Mexico, there simply weren’t any. Adding to the complexity, the architect advocated to use a polycarbonate system by the manufacturer Danpal as the facade. Essentially, Pérez Palacios was proposing a never-used (in Mexico) structure clad in a translucent envelope that would obscure most views from the interior offices. In theory, it sounded crazy. The building’s exterior is clad entirely in Danpal, a polycarbonate system, and connected to a cross-laminated timber frame. (Fabian Martínez) Fortunately, the client, who had recently risen to the top spot in the family-owned company, engaged with Pérez Palacios. At first, the executive told him, “I’m sure you won’t take this project, because it’s in an industrial park with zero budget,” recalled the architect, a past AN Interior Top 50 honoree. “I told him I’d take the project, without telling him that in the back of my mind, I knew I was going to do it out of wood.” Pérez Palacios had to overcome two hurdles from the outset: how to keep costs down despite CLT being a more expensive material than concrete and finding workers who could deliver on the construction. Fortunately, Vigalam, a company that manufactures prefabricated wood structures was located in the same office park as Lyncott, virtually eliminating shipping costs and simplifying the contracting. The team enlisted representatives from Danpal to install the facade system. The company sent a team to place and attach the panels, an exacting process that involves a clip to which a frame is attached and which then receives the polycarbonate pieces. Inside, the framing systems of the CLT and Danpal meet. (Fabian Martínez) Pérez Palacios is either a sly salesman or an eccentric designer—or both—but he managed to pull off one of Mexico’s first all-CLT projects and one of the most striking industrial buildings in recent memory. PPAA connected the thin 10,900-square-foot office expansion to an existing structure. Here the light, efficient addition contrasts the heavy, inefficient existing conditions; Pérez Palacios explained that the original steel and concrete building operates 24 hours a day to support the dairy plant and relies on artificial light. As PPAA captioned an Instagram post about the project, “This new intervention addresses the challenge of balancing the industrial character of the context with a serene and conscious environment focused on connecting with nature.” The translucent facade allows light into the offices and exposes the wood frame from the exterior. (Fabian Martínez) One of the most intriguing aspects of the facade is its lack of transparent glass, though Pérez Palacios noted that there are windows along the side of the building facing the dairy plant. “When you’re in an office, you’re not looking at the view. You are looking at a screen,” he said. “To create an atmosphere with natural light, it’s super nice if you’re going to be sitting at a computer for eight hours a day.” Besides, he added: “There’s nothing to see outside. It’s an industrial park.” The offices are bathed in light via the translucent facade. (Fabian Martínez) PPAA has completed two translucent projects previously: a now-finished office building in China that employed fabric and a housing prototype for a 2022 exhibition at Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas. “It was our interpretation of an affordable housing project—and we used Danpal!” Pérez Palacios exclaimed. Still, the dairy building project is the first time he put his theories about Danpal into practice. “We created this translucent envelope that allows people to work in natural light all day long,” Pérez Palacios explained. “It has solar capacities; it blocks the sun rays. It requires zero maintenance and protects the interior structure.” PPAA used wood for the entire structure, including beams, columns, and ceilings. (Fabian Martínez) Efficiency was part of the selling point to Lyncott, whose leader worried about the building’s lightness. “I had to tell him, ‘Don’t worry, it won’t blow away,’” Pérez Palacios recalled with a laugh. He went on to connect the agricultural aspects of the client’s business to the sustainability of building with these methods. The wood reduces the structure’s carbon footprint, and an all-glass facade would have run up the air-conditioning bills. Instead, Lyncott’s new building redirects the sun, part of the reason it has become something of an attraction in Mexico. Pérez Palacios foresees bringing students for site visits, and Danpal has shown the site to potential clients. PPAA has even sold the idea of mass timber construction to a skeptical audience: Now the firm has two more wood projects in the pipeline. Project Specifications Architect: PPAA Structural engineering: Vigalam Electrical engineering: ROA Civil engineering: Consulta Urbana Lighting design: PPAA Facade system: Danpal Glass: Consulta Urbana Roofing: Aircrete Interior finishes: Alfombras de Mexico Fixtures: Biticino Lighting: Magg Furniture: PM Steele, Vipp