Welcome to the Claylight Home, designed by Salma Khaled. In this sanctuary, soft neutrals and warm woods are design elements. The space is designed with intention and layered with natural light. As such, it celebrates calm, comfort, and quiet beauty. From tactile walls to curved furniture, every corner tells a story of understated elegance. If you’ve ever dreamt of living in a home that feels like a warm hug, this is your mood board come to life. The living room at the Claylight Home features curved, cloud-like seating wrapped in tactile boucle. This invites you to sink in and stay awhile, while the layered neutrals create a visual hush that feels grounding. Earthy textures, like the ribbed floor lamp, carved wooden tables, and textured art panels add depth without disrupting the calm. Sunlight filters through sheer drapes, dancing across the natural wood tones. This is not just a place to gather; it’s a place to exhale. The Claylight Home’s dining space is anchored by a solid wood table and surrounded by plush, sculptural chairs. The type that invites slow dinners and long conversations. A trio of pleated pendant lamps floats above (that feel much like candlelight). But what truly sets this space apart is the custom coffee and tea station tucked into a wood-lined niche. This is complete with open shelving, backlighting, and thoughtfully styled ceramics. The kitchen in the Claylight Home is a perfect expression of understated luxury. With its clean lines, matte cabinetry, and seamless stone backsplash, it proves that simplicity can be stunning. Warm wood details wrap around integrated appliances and open shelving. This creates visual continuity with the rest of the home. Every element in this kitchen feels intentional, from the black sink to the curated shelf styling. The bedroom at the Claylight Home is a retreat within a retreat… an intimate cocoon where layers of texture meet sculptural calm. A palette of warm neutrals flows from the ribbed wall panels to the low-profile bed. Frosted glass wardrobes and floating nightstands keep the visual weight minimal, while statement lighting adds style. In the Claylight Home, the nursery is designed as a multipurpose space. This cozy corner brings together baby essentials and adult serenity. The soft curves of the crib and changing station echo the design language of the entire home. The whimsical animal prints and plush toys add playfulness. Next to it, a generously sized sectional invites the whole family to snuggle in. It’s a space made for moments—reading books, sipping coffee, or simply watching your little one dream. The bathrooms at the Claylight Home channels spa-like serenity. Smooth stone tiles, warm wood accents, and ambient lighting set the tone for a tranquil escape. Fluted wall details bring depth without distraction, while the floating vanity and open shelving keep the space feeling light and grounded.

By Ananda Prayogi.

In our June issue Our June issue looks at the housing spectrum, with a particular focus on non-market and affordable housing. Odile Hénault starts our journey in Montreal, where two shelters—Le Christin by Atelier Big City and Les Studios du PAS by L. McComber in collaboration with Inform—offer dignity to people experiencing homelessness. We next travel to Beaverton Heights, a transitional housing project in the Region of Durham, Ontario. Designed by Montgomery Sisam Architects, the complex addresses the often-invisible homelessness of a rural area, and expands the aesthetic possibilities of modular construction. In Toronto, we visit Gerrard Healthy Housing by Atkinson Architect, which aims to add gentle density to an established neighbourhood. We also tour Anduhuaun, LGA Architectural Partners’ shelter for Indigenous women, which offers a place of nurture and grounding for its clients. LGA Architectural Partners is the coordinating firm behind the new Canadian Housing Catalogue, a repository of designs for multi-family homes. John Lorinc examines the catalogue’s potential for widespread uptake. Our long-read this month is a report by Yellowknife-based Kristel Derkowski on the driving factors behind the Northern housing crisis—and ways to start addressing it. In this month’s AIA Canada Society Journal, a quartet of Canadian educators explore how architecture schools are contributing to addressing the housing affordability crisis through research, studios, and hands-on initiatives. On the other end of the housing spectrum, Adele Weder visits Revery Architecture’s The Butterfly and First Baptist Church. She looks at how the striking landmark delivers tangible benefits for both residents and the wider public. Our issue is rounded out by an obituary for Dick Mah Sai-Chew (1928-2025), and reviews of books on the history of the barrack, James Strutt’s round houses, and sustainable housing in a circular economy. -Elsa Lam, editor The post June 2025 appeared first on Canadian Architect.

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.

I do not consider myself a very woo-woo person, someone who's in touch with their spirituality, or even someone particularly sentimental. The concept of meditating, like so many other things I regard "too mystical," has never appealed to me, but I'll tell you what does: Working out, being physically healthy, and staying on top of my goals. That's why Peloton's approach to meditation sessions appealed to me more than others have before.I'm always browsing the Peloton app for new workout options and recently stumbled across the guided meditation classes it offers alongside cycling, walking, yoga, strength training, and more. At first, I didn't see the appeal. I use the app and its classes to get sweaty, burn calories, and enhance my body's performance, after all. But as it turns out, these are really cool and can put you in a better mental space, which clears the way for you to do all that other stuff. Since discovering them, I've been streaming them quite a bit. Here's why you should, too.What are Peloton's meditation classes all about?Using Peloton's app—which is included on the touchscreens of its at-home workout equipment, can be downloaded to your phone, or even streamed on devices like a Roku—you can access a variety of class types. Tap Meditation from the home screen and you'll be shown hundreds of meditation options that range in length from five minutes to 30. As with any Peloton offering, they're led by a number of different instructors; if you take enough of them, you'll find a favorite or two, but what really stands out is that there are different categories available, such as:sleep mindfulness anxiety focus recoverygratitudehappinessrelaxingEach class is designed for a specific purpose, so you can choose if you want to "flow and let go," embrace a bright morning, or even take one designed for use on your evening commute. You can filter by class type, which lets you break down the classes by categories like "Daily Meditation," "Meditation Basics," "Emotions," "Theme," or "Walking Meditation." There are even some for pre- and post-natal meditation. You don't need any special equipment; the instructors usually lead off simply by suggesting how you should position your body. Meditations can be added to class Stacks, which are Peloton's version of playlists that cycles through pre-selected classes, allowing you to customize your entire workout before it begins. If you have your Apple Watch linked up to your Peloton account (and you should!) the app will track your heart rate and input the meditation into your Apple Health tracker, listing it as "Mind & Body" under your sessions. Why I like Peloton's meditationsAs I said, I'm not a very spiritual or soulful person, so I appreciate that the meditation classes I've taken through the app aren't overly mushy. Rather, they're pretty straightforward: The instructors speak clearly and plainly, don't rely too much on frivolous imagery, and instead, draw your attention to your breathing and body in a way that actually helps you feel more connected to both. For as much energy as I put into working out and strengthening my body, I do struggle with things like the "mind-muscle connection" or just identifying how different parts of my body are feeling, so these sessions, where I'm asked to focus intently on certain areas and connect to how I'm feeling in a given moment, are actually pretty beneficial to my quest to become stronger and healthier overall.I first tried the Peloton meditations a few weeks ago while waiting for the bus. I was having a very busy day and had had absolutely no time to work out, not even on my Peloton bike, which was adding to my stress while I waited for the bus to pull up and take me to more busy activities. I didn't want to lose my Peloton streak, so I opened the app to see if there was a quick walking workout I could get in, maybe by strolling to the next-farthest bus stop, and saw the meditations option. I picked a five-minute meditation and listened to it while I stood on the sidewalk—and it did chill me out, help me focus, and reinvigorate me a little, almost the same as a traditional workout would have, but without taking up as much time or making me a sweaty mess. I tried a few others over the next few days and found them really useful, especially during long hours in the car on my Memorial Day road trip or earlier this week and when my team was losing a baseball game and I was not enjoying the experience of watching. Obviously, these classes are a lot different from Peloton's usual offerings. I'm not sweating, straining myself, or enhancing my cardiovascular or respiratory function. Instead, I'm strengthening my mind, training myself to focus on my breathing and feelings. Those abilities translate really well to being able to continue my fitness journey as well as just handle whatever is going on in an average day. I think these are especially useful as a pick-me-up, a kickstart for the day, or a post-workout wind-down. I also appreciate how accessible the classes are. You can toggle on closed captions, for instance, and the audio and video components are high-quality, making the instructors easy to understand. The background music never muffles the instructors' voices, there is a diverse selection of instructors and class types, and there really does seem to be something for everyone, whether you want to walk and listen or only have five minutes to devote to grounding yourself.

Few issues in the U.S. today are as controversial as diversity, equity, and inclusion—commonly referred to as DEI. Although the term didn’t come into common usage until the 21st century, DEI is best understood as the latest stage in a long American project. Its egalitarian principles are seen in America’s founding documents, and its roots lie in landmark 20th-century efforts such as the 1964 Civil Rights Act and affirmative action policies, as well as movements for racial justice, gender equity, disability rights, veterans, and immigrants. These movements sought to expand who gets to participate in economic, educational, and civic life. DEI programs, in many ways, are their legacy. Critics argue that DEI is antidemocratic, that it fosters ideological conformity, and that it leads to discriminatory initiatives, which they say disadvantage white people and undermine meritocracy. Those defending DEI argue just the opposite: that it encourages critical thinking and promotes democracy—and that attacks on DEI amount to a retreat from long-standing civil rights law. Yet missing from much of the debate is a crucial question: What are the tangible costs and benefits of DEI? Who benefits, who doesn’t, and what are the broader effects on society and the economy? As a sociologist, I believe any productive conversation about DEI should be rooted in evidence, not ideology. So let’s look at the research. Who gains from DEI? In the corporate world, DEI initiatives are intended to promote diversity, and research consistently shows that diversity is good for business. Companies with more diverse teams tend to perform better across several key metrics, including revenue, profitability, and worker satisfaction. Businesses with diverse workforces also have an edge in innovation, recruitment, and competitiveness, research shows. The general trend holds for many types of diversity, including age, race, and ethnicity, and gender. A focus on diversity can also offer profit opportunities for businesses seeking new markets. Two-thirds of American consumers consider diversity when making their shopping choices, a 2021 survey found. So-called “inclusive consumers” tend to be female, younger, and more ethnically and racially diverse. Ignoring their values can be costly: When Target backed away from its DEI efforts, the resulting backlash contributed to a sales decline. But DEI goes beyond corporate policy. At its core, it’s about expanding access to opportunities for groups historically excluded from full participation in American life. From this broader perspective, many 20th-century reforms can be seen as part of the DEI arc. Consider higher education. Many elite U.S. universities refused to admit women until well into the 1960s and 1970s. Columbia, the last Ivy League university to go co-ed, started admitting women in 1982. Since the advent of affirmative action, women haven’t just closed the gender gap in higher education—they outpace men in college completion across all racial groups. DEI policies have particularly benefited women, especially white women, by expanding workforce access. Similarly, the push to desegregate American universities was followed by an explosion in the number of Black college students—a number that has increased by 125% since the 1970s, twice the national rate. With college gates open to more people than ever, overall enrollment at U.S. colleges has quadrupled since 1965. While there are many reasons for this, expanding opportunity no doubt plays a role. And a better-educated population has had significant implications for productivity and economic growth. The 1965 Immigration Act also exemplifies DEI’s impact. It abolished racial and national quotas, enabling the immigration of more diverse populations, including from Asia, Africa, southern and eastern Europe, and Latin America. Many of these immigrants were highly educated, and their presence has boosted U.S. productivity and innovation. Ultimately, the U.S. economy is more profitable and productive as a result of immigrants. What does DEI cost? While DEI generates returns for many businesses and institutions, it does come with costs. In 2020, corporate America spent an estimated $7.5 billion on DEI programs. And in 2023, the federal government spent more than $100 million on DEI, including $38.7 million by the Department of Health and Human Services and another $86.5 million by the Department of Defense. The government will no doubt be spending less on DEI in 2025. One of President Donald Trump’s first acts in his second term was to sign an executive order banning DEI practices in federal agencies—one of several anti-DEI executive orders currently facing legal challenges. More than 30 states have also introduced or enacted bills to limit or entirely restrict DEI in recent years. Central to many of these policies is the belief that diversity lowers standards, replacing meritocracy with mediocrity. But a large body of research disputes this claim. For example, a 2023 McKinsey & Company report found that companies with higher levels of gender and ethnic diversity will likely financially outperform those with the least diversity by at least 39%. Similarly, concerns that DEI in science and technology education leads to lowering standards aren’t backed up by scholarship. Instead, scholars are increasingly pointing out that disparities in performance are linked to built-in biases in courses themselves. That said, legal concerns about DEI are rising. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Justice have recently warned employers that some DEI programs may violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Anecdotal evidence suggests that reverse discrimination claims, particularly from white men, are increasing, and legal experts expect the Supreme Court to lower the burden of proof needed by complainants for such cases. The issue remains legally unsettled. But while the cases work their way through the courts, women and people of color will continue to shoulder much of the unpaid volunteer work that powers corporate DEI initiatives. This pattern raises important equity concerns within DEI itself. What lies ahead for DEI? People’s fears of DEI are partly rooted in demographic anxiety. Since the U.S. Census Bureau projected in 2008 that non-Hispanic white people would become a minority in the U.S by the year 2042, nationwide news coverage has amplified white fears of displacement. Research indicates many white men experience this change as a crisis of identity and masculinity, particularly amid economic shifts such as the decline of blue-collar work. This perception aligns with research showing that white Americans are more likely to believe DEI policies disadvantage white men than white women. At the same time, in spite of DEI initiatives, women and people of color are most likely to be underemployed and living in poverty regardless of how much education they attain. The gender wage gap remains stark: In 2023, women working full time earned a median weekly salary of $1,005 compared with $1,202 for men—just 83.6% of what men earned. Over a 40-year career, that adds up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost earnings. For Black and Latina women, the disparities are even worse, with one source estimating lifetime losses at $976,800 and $1.2 million, respectively. Racism, too, carries an economic toll. A 2020 analysis from Citi found that systemic racism has cost the U.S. economy $16 trillion since 2000. The same analysis found that addressing these disparities could have boosted Black wages by $2.7 trillion, added up to $113 billion in lifetime earnings through higher college enrollment, and generated $13 trillion in business revenue, creating 6.1 million jobs annually. In a moment of backlash and uncertainty, I believe DEI remains a vital if imperfect tool in the American experiment of inclusion. Rather than abandon it, the challenge now, from my perspective, is how to refine it: grounding efforts not in slogans or fear, but in fairness and evidence. Rodney Coates is a professor of critical race and ethnic studies at Miami University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Outlets 8, Conghua | © Wu Siming In the landscape of contemporary Chinese urbanism, few typologies encapsulate the contradictions of late-capitalist development more vividly than the pseudo-European commercial complex. These replicated enclaves, constructed en masse in the early 2000s, were once marketed as symbols of international sophistication. Over time, however, many were abandoned, becoming architectural vestiges of speculative urbanism. Outlets 8 in Conghua, Guangzhou, is one such project that has undergone a radical architectural reinterpretation. Originally completed in 2018 but long dormant, it has been reimagined by E Plus Design in collaboration with URBANUS/LXD Studio. Through a precise, light-touch intervention, the project avoids wholesale demolition and reprograms space through color, rhythm, and landscape strategy. Outlets 8, Conghua Technical Information Architects1-14: E Plus Design Central Plaza Design: URBANUS / LXD Studio Location: Conghua District, Guangzhou, China Gross Area: 80,882 m2 | 870,000 Sq. Ft. Project Years: 2022 – 2023 Photographs: © Wu Siming This approach is like a contemporary remix of classical music. The four blocks correspond to four movements. Without extensive demolition or altering the European-style architectural rhythm, we reinterpreted the emotional tones, chords, and cadenzas. Through a blend of color and modern gestures, the outdated and disproportionate ‘faux-antique’ complex has been reorchestrated into a contemporary architectural symphony. – Li Fu, Chief Architect at E Plus Design Outlets 8, Conghua Photographs Aerial View | © Wu Siming © Wu Siming © Wu Siming © Wu Siming © Wu Siming © Wu Siming © Wu Siming © Chen Liang Liu Shan © Chen Liang Liu Shan © Chen Liang Liu Shan Outlets 8 Context and Typological Challenge Outlets 8 was initially conceived as a 110,000-square-meter faux-European outlet village. Despite its scale and investment, it struggled to resonate with local cultural dynamics and remained idle. The typology itself, rooted in nostalgic mimicry, was already facing obsolescence. The challenge, then, was not only architectural but also conceptual: how to resuscitate a typology that had become both spatially and culturally inert. The design team chose a strategy of minimal physical intervention coupled with maximal perceptual impact. Rather than demolish or drastically reconstruct, they aimed to re-signify the existing structures. This approach reflects a growing trend in urban renewal across China, where sustainability, cost-efficiency, and cultural specificity take precedence over spectacle. Spatial Transformation Through Chromatic Reprogramming After | © Wu Siming Before | Original Facade, © E+ At the intervention’s core is using color as a spatial and psychological agent. The ornament-heavy facades were stripped of their polychromatic excess and repainted in low-saturation hues. This chromatic cleansing revealed the formal rhythms of the architecture beneath. By doing so, the design avoids mimicry and opts for abstraction, reintroducing clarity to the site’s visual language. The design framework is structured as a musical metaphor, with each of the four blocks conceived as a separate movement in a visual symphony. The street-facing facades, now unified through a golden “variation,” establish a new urban frontage that is both legible and symbolically rich. A ribbon-like golden band traces across the main elevations, creating continuity and contrast between old and new volumes. In contrast, the sports block adopts a cooler, blue-toned palette, offering a different spatial and functional rhythm. New architectural insertions are rendered in transparent materials, signaling temporal and programmatic distinctions. At the center, the elliptical plaza becomes a spatial crescendo, defined by a sculptural intervention inspired by Roman aqueducts. This feature functions as a landmark and a temporal break, juxtaposing historical references with performative landscape elements. Rewriting Landscape as Urban Ecology After | © Wu Siming Before | Original Facade, © E+ Water, derived from the nearby Liuxi River, serves as the thematic and material backbone of the landscape design. Its integration is not symbolic but functional. Water flows through constructed channels, interactive fountains, and sculptural cascades that encourage observation and participation. These elements create a multisensory environment that enhances the spatial experience while reinforcing ecological awareness. The planting strategy emphasizes native species capable of withstanding Guangzhou’s subtropical climate. The design maximizes greenery wherever regulatory conditions allow, particularly along the main entrance, central corridors, and arcaded walkways. The result is a layered landscape that balances visual density with ecological resilience. Integrating landscape and architecture as a singular design operation, the project shifts away from ornamental greening toward environmental synthesis. This approach foregrounds interaction and immersion, aligning with broader shifts in landscape architecture toward performative and participatory ecologies. Programmatic Rebirth and Urban Implications After | © Wu Siming Before | Original Facade, © E+ Beyond formal and material considerations, the project redefines the programmatic potential of large-scale retail environments. Positioned as a “micro-vacation” destination, Outlets 8 is a hybrid typology. It combines retail, leisure, and outdoor experience within a cohesive spatial narrative. This reprogramming responds to changing patterns of consumption and leisure in Chinese cities, particularly among younger demographics seeking experiential value over transactional efficiency. Statistical metrics underscore the project’s social impact. In its first nine days, the outlet attracted over half a million visitors and became a trending location across multiple digital platforms. While not the focus of architectural critique, these figures reflect a successful alignment between spatial renewal and public resonance. More importantly, the project offers a replicable model for dealing with the vast inventory of misaligned commercial developments across China. The intervention avoids nostalgia and cynicism by foregrounding perceptual clarity, ecological integration, and cultural recontextualization. Instead, it offers a clear path forward for reimagining the built remnants of a prior urban paradigm. Outlets 8, Conghua Plans Elevations | © E Plus Design Floor Plan | © E Plus Design Floor Plan | © E Plus Design Floor Plan | © E Plus Design Floor Plan | © E Plus Design Sections | © E Plus Design Outlets 8, Conghua Image Gallery About E Plus Design E Plus Design is a multidisciplinary architecture studio based in Shenzhen, China, known for its innovative approaches to urban renewal, adaptive reuse, and large-scale public space transformations. The firm emphasizes minimal intervention strategies, spatial clarity, and contextual sensitivity, often working at the intersection of architecture, landscape, and urban design to create integrated environments that are both socially responsive and experientially rich. Credits and Additional Notes Chief Design Consultant: Liu Xiaodu Master Plan, Architecture, and Landscape Schemes: E Plus Design Lead Architects: Li Fu, Coco Zhou Project Managers (Architecture): Guo Sibo, Huang Haifeng Architectural Design Team: Wang Junli, Zhang Yan, Cai Yidie, Zhu Meng, Lin Zhaomei, Li Geng, Stephane Anil Mamode, Liu Shan, Zhou Yubo Central Plaza Design: URBANUS / LXD Studio Architect of Central Plaza: Liu Xiaodu Project Manager: Li An’hong Facade Design: Song Baolin, Li Minggang Lighting Design (Concept): Fang Yuhui Lighting Consultant: Han Du Associates Client: Guangzhou Outlets 8 Commercial Management Co., Ltd. Client Design Management Team: Yin Mingyue, Zhao Xiong Landscape Area: 29,100 m² Chief Landscape Architect: Gao Yan Project Manager (Landscape): Zhang Yufeng Landscape Design Team: Yu Xiaolei, Li Zhaozhan, Liu Chenghua Landscape Construction Drawings: E Plus Design Project Manager: Wang Bin Design Team: Wang Bin (Landscape Architecture). Huang Jinxiong (Greening Design). Li Gen (Water & Electricity Design) Structural Design Team: Wang Kaiming, Yang Helin, Wu Xingwei, Zhuang Dengfa Electrical Design Team: Sun Wei, Yang Ying Interior Design Concept Design: Shenzhen Juanshi Design Co., Ltd. Chief Interior Designer: Feng Feifan Project Manager: Liu Hongwei Design Team: Niu Jingxian, Shi Meitao Construction Drawings: Shenzhen Shiye Design Co., Ltd. Project Manager: Shen Kaizhen Design Team: Yao Yijian, Yang Hao, Liu Chen Wayfinding Design Studio: Hexi Brand Design Co., Ltd. Curtain Wall Design Firm: Positive Attitude Group (PAG)

Shelving can say so much about us – what we choose to hide, what we choose to show. Personality and utility collide, creating a necessary and usually static solution to an age-old problem: storage. N. Shook, led by designer Natalie Shook, offers a more flexible solution with the Ledoux Prêt, with trunk-like central towers that house large notches, perfect for shelves to fit into. With two distinct variations: one with draped steel shelf tops, one with beautiful perforated cabinet doors. Install the shelves at regular or irregular intervals, the choice is yours. Perforations are an elegant way to reduce weight, increase airflow, and maintain privacy within cabinetry. These perforations bisect a solid piece of cherry wood to form the shelves, marbling creating depth of color and a unique luminosity. Perforation also reduces the weight significantly, and making the changing of the shelf heights less cumbersome. The shelves are draped with a sheet of steel, to protect the top from damage. The steel looks as if it were just placed on and left out in the sun, melting gently on to the wood shelves. Satisfyingly thick yet light enough to move, the shelves create horizontal delineations within the vertical axis of the central piece, and offer a rare level of customization. Ledoux Prêt carries forward form sensibilities and tiered composition while offering just as much functionality and accessibility as its custom counterparts. Ledoux Custom features site specific, one of a kind pieces – Ledoux Prêt embraces the utility and essence of considered, custom work. “Ledoux Custom has always been about creating singular, sculptural pieces… With Ledoux Prêt, I wanted to celebrate the strength and clarity of the central column on its own. These designs offer a more immediate take: clean compositions that allow the form to stand confidently in space without elaborate intervention,” says Shook. Natalie Shook is a Brooklyn-based artist and designer, fitting in neatly to the intersection between fine art and design. Cooper Union graduate, process and precision are two grounding factors within her work, a deep respect for the material present in all her pieces. To learn more about the Ledoux Prêt collection, please visit nshook.com. Photography courtesy of N. Shook.

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

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Alibaba Group has introduced QwenLong-L1, a new framework that enables large language models (LLMs) to reason over extremely long inputs. This development could unlock a new wave of enterprise applications that require models to understand and draw insights from extensive documents such as detailed corporate filings, lengthy financial statements, or complex legal contracts. The challenge of long-form reasoning for AI Recent advances in large reasoning models (LRMs), particularly through reinforcement learning (RL), have significantly improved their problem-solving capabilities. Research shows that when trained with RL fine-tuning, LRMs acquire skills similar to human “slow thinking,” where they develop sophisticated strategies to tackle complex tasks. However, these improvements are primarily seen when models work with relatively short pieces of text, typically around 4,000 tokens. The ability of these models to scale their reasoning to much longer contexts (e.g., 120,000 tokens) remains a major challenge. Such long-form reasoning requires a robust understanding of the entire context and the ability to perform multi-step analysis. “This limitation poses a significant barrier to practical applications requiring interaction with external knowledge, such as deep research, where LRMs must collect and process information from knowledge-intensive environments,” the developers of QwenLong-L1 write in their paper. The researchers formalize these challenges into the concept of “long-context reasoning RL.” Unlike short-context reasoning, which often relies on knowledge already stored within the model, long-context reasoning RL requires models to retrieve and ground relevant information from lengthy inputs accurately. Only then can they generate chains of reasoning based on this incorporated information.  Training models for this through RL is tricky and often results in inefficient learning and unstable optimization processes. Models struggle to converge on good solutions or lose their ability to explore diverse reasoning paths. QwenLong-L1: A multi-stage approach QwenLong-L1 is a reinforcement learning framework designed to help LRMs transition from proficiency with short texts to robust generalization across long contexts. The framework enhances existing short-context LRMs through a carefully structured, multi-stage process: Warm-up Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT): The model first undergoes an SFT phase, where it is trained on examples of long-context reasoning. This stage establishes a solid foundation, enabling the model to ground information accurately from long inputs. It helps develop fundamental capabilities in understanding context, generating logical reasoning chains, and extracting answers. Curriculum-Guided Phased RL: At this stage, the model is trained through multiple phases, with the target length of the input documents gradually increasing. This systematic, step-by-step approach helps the model stably adapt its reasoning strategies from shorter to progressively longer contexts. It avoids the instability often seen when models are abruptly trained on very long texts. Difficulty-Aware Retrospective Sampling: The final training stage incorporates challenging examples from the preceding training phases, ensuring the model continues to learn from the hardest problems. This prioritizes difficult instances and encourages the model to explore more diverse and complex reasoning paths. QwenLong-L1 process Source: arXiv Beyond this structured training, QwenLong-L1 also uses a distinct reward system. While training for short-context reasoning tasks often relies on strict rule-based rewards (e.g., a correct answer in a math problem), QwenLong-L1 employs a hybrid reward mechanism. This combines rule-based verification, which ensures precision by checking for strict adherence to correctness criteria, with an “LLM-as-a-judge.” This judge model compares the semanticity of the generated answer with the ground truth, allowing for more flexibility and better handling of the diverse ways correct answers can be expressed when dealing with long, nuanced documents. Putting QwenLong-L1 to the test The Alibaba team evaluated QwenLong-L1 using document question-answering (DocQA) as the primary task. This scenario is highly relevant to enterprise needs, where AI must understand dense documents to answer complex questions.  Experimental results across seven long-context DocQA benchmarks showed QwenLong-L1’s capabilities. Notably, the QWENLONG-L1-32B model (based on DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32B) achieved performance comparable to Anthropic’s Claude-3.7 Sonnet Thinking, and outperformed models like OpenAI’s o3-mini and Qwen3-235B-A22B. The smaller QWENLONG-L1-14B model also outperformed Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking and Qwen3-32B.  Source: arXiv An important finding relevant to real-world applications is how RL training results in the model developing specialized long-context reasoning behaviors. The paper notes that models trained with QwenLong-L1 become better at “grounding” (linking answers to specific parts of a document), “subgoal setting” (breaking down complex questions), “backtracking” (recognizing and correcting their own mistakes mid-reasoning), and “verification” (double-checking their answers). For instance, while a base model might get sidetracked by irrelevant details in a financial document or get stuck in a loop of over-analyzing unrelated information, the QwenLong-L1 trained model demonstrated an ability to engage in effective self-reflection. It could successfully filter out these distractor details, backtrack from incorrect paths, and arrive at the correct answer. Techniques like QwenLong-L1 could significantly expand the utility of AI in the enterprise. Potential applications include legal tech (analyzing thousands of pages of legal documents), finance (deep research on annual reports and financial filings for risk assessment or investment opportunities) and customer service (analyzing long customer interaction histories to provide more informed support). The researchers have released the code for the QwenLong-L1 recipe and the weights for the trained models. 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