Which creative studio do you most admire right now, and why? This is a question we asked our community via an ongoing survey. With more than 700 responses so far, these are the top winners. What's striking about this year's results is the popularity of studios that aren't just producing beautiful work but are also actively shaping discussions and tackling the big challenges facing our industry and society. From the vibrant energy of Brazilian culture to the thoughtful minimalism of North European aesthetics, this list reflects a global creative landscape that's more connected, more conscious, and more collaborative than ever before. In short, these studios aren't just following trends; they're setting them. Read on to discover the 25 studios our community is most excited about right now. 1. Porto Rocha Porto Rocha is a New York-based agency that unites strategy and design to create work that evolves with the world we live in. It continues to dominate conversations in 2025, and it's easy to see why. Founders Felipe Rocha and Leo Porto have built something truly special—a studio that not only creates visually stunning work but also actively celebrates and amplifies diverse voices in design. For instance, their recent bold new identity for the São Paulo art museum MASP nods to Brazilian modernist design traditions while reimagining them for a contemporary audience. The rebrand draws heavily on the museum's iconic modernist architecture by Lina Bo Bardi, using a red-and-black colour palette and strong typography to reflect the building's striking visual presence. As we write this article, Porto Rocha just shared a new partnership with Google to reimagine the visual and verbal identity of its revolutionary Gemini AI model. We can't wait to see what they come up with! 2. DixonBaxi Simon Dixon and Aporva Baxi's London powerhouse specialises in creating brand strategies and design systems for "brave businesses" that want to challenge convention, including Hulu, Audible, and the Premier League. The studio had an exceptional start to 2025 by collaborating with Roblox on a brand new design system. At the heart of this major project is the Tilt: a 15-degree shift embedded in the logo that signals momentum, creativity, and anticipation. They've also continued to build their reputation as design thought leaders. At the OFFF Festival 2025, for instance, Simon and Aporva delivered a masterclass on running a successful brand design agency. Their core message centred on the importance of people and designing with intention, even in the face of global challenges. They also highlighted "Super Futures," their program that encourages employees to think freely and positively about brand challenges and audience desires, aiming to reclaim creative liberation. And if that wasn't enough, DixonBaxi has just launched its brand new website, one that's designed to be open in nature. As Simon explains: "It's not a shop window. It's a space to share the thinking and ethos that drive us. You'll find our work, but more importantly, what shapes it. No guff. Just us." 3. Mother Mother is a renowned independent creative agency founded in London and now boasts offices in New York and Los Angeles as well. They've spent 2025 continuing to push the boundaries of what advertising can achieve. And they've made an especially big splash with their latest instalment of KFC's 'Believe' campaign, featuring a surreal and humorous take on KFC's gravy. As we wrote at the time: "Its balance between theatrical grandeur and self-awareness makes the campaign uniquely engaging." 4. Studio Dumbar/DEPT® Based in Rotterdam, Studio Dumbar/DEPT® is widely recognised for its influential work in visual branding and identity, often incorporating creative coding and sound, for clients such as the Dutch Railways, Instagram, and the Van Gogh Museum. In 2025, we've especially admired their work for the Dutch football club Feyenoord, which brings the team under a single, cohesive vision that reflects its energy and prowess. This groundbreaking rebrand, unveiled at the start of May, moves away from nostalgia, instead emphasising the club's "measured ferocity, confidence, and ambition". 5. HONDO Based between Palma de Mallorca, Spain and London, HONDO specialises in branding, editorial, typography and product design. We're particular fans of their rebranding of metal furniture makers Castil, based around clean and versatile designs that highlight Castil's vibrant and customisable products. This new system features a bespoke monospaced typeface and logo design that evokes Castil's adaptability and the precision of its craftsmanship. 6. Smith & Diction Smith & Diction is a small but mighty design and copy studio founded by Mike and Chara Smith in Philadelphia. Born from dreams, late-night chats, and plenty of mistakes, the studio has grown into a creative force known for thoughtful, boundary-pushing branding. Starting out with Mike designing in a tiny apartment while Chara held down a day job, the pair learned the ropes the hard way—and now they're thriving. Recent highlights include their work with Gamma, an AI platform that lets you quickly get ideas out of your head and into a presentation deck or onto a website. Gamma wanted their brand update to feel "VERY fun and a little bit out there" with an AI-first approach. So Smith & Diction worked hard to "put weird to the test" while still developing responsible systems for logo, type and colour. The results, as ever, were exceptional. 7. DNCO DNCO is a London and New York-based creative studio specialising in place branding. They are best known for shaping identities, digital tools, and wayfinding for museums, cultural institutions, and entire neighbourhoods, with clients including the Design Museum, V&A and Transport for London. Recently, DNCO has been making headlines again with its ambitious brand refresh for Dumbo, a New York neighbourhood struggling with misperceptions due to mass tourism. The goal was to highlight Dumbo's unconventional spirit and demonstrate it as "a different side of New York." DNCO preserved the original diagonal logo and introduced a flexible "tape graphic" system, inspired by the neighbourhood's history of inventing the cardboard box, to reflect its ingenuity and reveal new perspectives. The colour palette and typography were chosen to embody Dumbo's industrial and gritty character. 8. Hey Studio Founded by Verònica Fuerte in Barcelona, Spain, Hey Studio is a small, all-female design agency celebrated for its striking use of geometry, bold colour, and playful yet refined visual language. With a focus on branding, illustration, editorial design, and typography, they combine joy with craft to explore issues with heart and purpose. A great example of their impact is their recent branding for Rainbow Wool. This German initiative is transforming wool from gay rams into fashion products to support the LGBT community. As is typical for Hey Studio, the project's identity is vibrant and joyful, utilising bright, curved shapes that will put a smile on everyone's face. 9. Koto Koto is a London-based global branding and digital studio known for co-creation, strategic thinking, expressive design systems, and enduring partnerships. They're well-known in the industry for bringing warmth, optimism and clarity to complex brand challenges. Over the past 18 months, they've undertaken a significant project to refresh Amazon's global brand identity. This extensive undertaking has involved redesigning Amazon's master brand and over 50 of its sub-brands across 15 global markets. Koto's approach, described as "radical coherence", aims to refine and modernize Amazon's most recognizable elements rather than drastically changing them. You can read more about the project here. 10. Robot Food Robot Food is a Leeds-based, brand-first creative studio recognised for its strategic and holistic approach. They're past masters at melding creative ideas with commercial rigour across packaging, brand strategy and campaign design. Recent Robot Food projects have included a bold rebrand for Hip Pop, a soft drinks company specializing in kombucha and alternative sodas. Their goal was to elevate Hip Pop from an indie challenger to a mainstream category leader, moving away from typical health drink aesthetics. The results are visually striking, with black backgrounds prominently featured (a rarity in the health drink aisle), punctuated by vibrant fruit illustrations and flavour-coded colours. Read more about the project here. 11. Saffron Brand Consultants Saffron is an independent global consultancy with offices in London, Madrid, Vienna and Istanbul. With deep expertise in naming, strategy, identity, and design systems, they work with leading public and private-sector clients to develop confident, culturally intelligent brands. One 2025 highlight so far has been their work for Saudi National Bank (SNB) to create NEO, a groundbreaking digital lifestyle bank in Saudi Arabia. Saffron integrated cultural and design trends, including Saudi neo-futurism, for its sonic identity to create a product that supports both individual and community connections. The design system strikes a balance between modern Saudi aesthetics and the practical demands of a fast-paced digital product, ensuring a consistent brand reflection across all interactions. 12. Alright Studio Alright Studio is a full-service strategy, creative, production and technology agency based in Brooklyn, New York. It prides itself on a "no house style" approach for clients, including A24, Meta Platforms, and Post Malone. One of the most exciting of their recent projects has been Offball, a digital-first sports news platform that aims to provide more nuanced, positive sports storytelling. Alright Studio designed a clean, intuitive, editorial-style platform featuring a masthead-like logotype and universal sports iconography, creating a calmer user experience aligned with OffBall's positive content. 13. Wolff Olins Wolff Olins is a global brand consultancy with four main offices: London, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Known for their courageous, culturally relevant branding and forward-thinking strategy, they collaborate with large corporations and trailblazing organisations to create bold, authentic brand identities that resonate emotionally. A particular highlight of 2025 so far has been their collaboration with Leo Burnett to refresh Sandals Resorts' global brand with the "Made of Caribbean" campaign. This strategic move positions Sandals not merely as a luxury resort but as a cultural ambassador for the Caribbean. Wolff Olins developed a new visual identity called "Natural Vibrancy," integrating local influences with modern design to reflect a genuine connection to the islands' culture. This rebrand speaks to a growing traveller demand for authenticity and meaningful experiences, allowing Sandals to define itself as an extension of the Caribbean itself. 14. COLLINS Founded by Brian Collins, COLLINS is an independent branding and design consultancy based in the US, celebrated for its playful visual language, expressive storytelling and culturally rich identity systems. In the last few months, we've loved the new branding they designed for Barcelona's 25th Offf Festival, which departs from its usual consistent wordmark. The updated identity is inspired by the festival's role within the international creative community, and is rooted in the concept of 'Centre Offf Gravity'. This concept is visually expressed through the festival's name, which appears to exert a gravitational pull on the text boxes, causing them to "stick" to it. Additionally, the 'f's in the wordmark are merged into a continuous line reminiscent of a magnet, with the motion graphics further emphasising the gravitational pull as the name floats and other elements follow. 15. Studio Spass Studio Spass is a creative studio based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, focused on vibrant and dynamic identity systems that reflect the diverse and multifaceted nature of cultural institutions. One of their recent landmark projects was Bigger, a large-scale typographic installation created for the Shenzhen Art Book Fair. Inspired by tear-off calendars and the physical act of reading, Studio Spass used 264 A4 books, with each page displaying abstract details, to create an evolving grid of colour and type. Visitors were invited to interact with the installation by flipping pages, constantly revealing new layers of design and a hidden message: "Enjoy books!" 16. Applied Design Works Applied Design Works is a New York studio that specialises in reshaping businesses through branding and design. They provide expertise in design, strategy, and implementation, with a focus on building long-term, collaborative relationships with their clients. We were thrilled by their recent work for Grand Central Madison (the station that connects Long Island to Grand Central Terminal), where they were instrumental in ushering in a new era for the transportation hub. Applied Design sought to create a commuter experience that imbued the spirit of New York, showcasing its diversity of thought, voice, and scale that befits one of the greatest cities in the world and one of the greatest structures in it. 17. The Chase The Chase Creative Consultants is a Manchester-based independent creative consultancy with over 35 years of experience, known for blending humour, purpose, and strong branding to rejuvenate popular consumer campaigns. "We're not designers, writers, advertisers or brand strategists," they say, "but all of these and more. An ideas-based creative studio." Recently, they were tasked with shaping the identity of York Central, a major urban regeneration project set to become a new city quarter for York. The Chase developed the identity based on extensive public engagement, listening to residents of all ages about their perceptions of the city and their hopes for the new area. The resulting brand identity uses linear forms that subtly reference York's famous railway hub, symbolising the long-standing connections the city has fostered. 18. A Practice for Everyday Life Based in London and founded by Kirsty Carter and Emma Thomas, A Practice for Everyday Life built a reputation as a sought-after collaborator with like-minded companies, galleries, institutions and individuals. Not to mention a conceptual rigour that ensures each design is meaningful and original. Recently, they've been working on the visual identity for Muzej Lah, a new international museum for contemporary art in Bled, Slovenia opening in 2026. This centres around a custom typeface inspired by the slanted geometry and square detailing of its concrete roof tiles. It also draws from European modernist typography and the experimental lettering of Jože Plečnik, one of Slovenia's most influential architects.⁠ A Practice for Everyday Life. Photo: Carol Sachs Alexey Brodovitch: Astonish Me publication design by A Practice for Everyday Life, 2024. Photo: Ed Park La Biennale di Venezia identity by A Practice for Everyday Life, 2022. Photo: Thomas Adank CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian identity by A Practice for Everyday Life, 2024. Photo: Sanda Vučković 19. Studio Nari Studio Nari is a London-based creative and branding agency partnering with clients around the world to build "brands that truly connect with people". NARI stands, by the way, for Not Always Right Ideas. As they put it, "It's a name that might sound odd for a branding agency, but it reflects everything we believe." One landmark project this year has been a comprehensive rebrand for the electronic music festival Field Day. Studio Nari created a dynamic and evolving identity that reflects the festival's growth and its connection to the electronic music scene and community. The core idea behind the rebrand is a "reactive future", allowing the brand to adapt and grow with the festival and current trends while maintaining a strong foundation. A new, steadfast wordmark is at its centre, while a new marque has been introduced for the first time. 20. Beetroot Design Group Beetroot is a 25‑strong creative studio celebrated for its bold identities and storytelling-led approach. Based in Thessaloniki, Greece, their work spans visual identity, print, digital and motion, and has earned international recognition, including Red Dot Awards. Recently, they also won a Wood Pencil at the D&AD Awards 2025 for a series of posters created to promote live jazz music events. The creative idea behind all three designs stems from improvisation as a key feature of jazz. Each poster communicates the artist's name and other relevant information through a typographical "improvisation". 21. Kind Studio Kind Studio is an independent creative agency based in London that specialises in branding and digital design, as well as offering services in animation, creative and art direction, and print design. Their goal is to collaborate closely with clients to create impactful and visually appealing designs. One recent project that piqued our interest was a bilingual, editorially-driven digital platform for FC Como Women, a professional Italian football club. To reflect the club's ambition of promoting gender equality and driving positive social change within football, the new website employs bold typography, strong imagery, and an empowering tone of voice to inspire and disseminate its message. 22. Slug Global Slug Global is a creative agency and art collective founded by artist and musician Bosco (Brittany Bosco). Focused on creating immersive experiences "for both IRL and URL", their goal is to work with artists and brands to establish a sustainable media platform that embodies the values of young millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha. One of Slug Global's recent projects involved a collaboration with SheaMoisture and xoNecole for a three-part series called The Root of It. This series celebrates black beauty and hair, highlighting its significance as a connection to ancestry, tradition, blueprint and culture for black women. 23. Little Troop New York studio Little Troop crafts expressive and intimate branding for lifestyle, fashion, and cultural clients. Led by creative directors Noemie Le Coz and Jeremy Elliot, they're known for their playful and often "kid-like" approach to design, drawing inspiration from their own experiences as 90s kids. One of their recent and highly acclaimed projects is the visual identity for MoMA's first-ever family festival, Another World. Little Troop was tasked with developing a comprehensive visual identity that would extend from small items, such as café placemats, to large billboards. Their designs were deliberately a little "dream-like" and relied purely on illustration to sell the festival without needing photography. Little Troop also carefully selected seven colours from MoMA's existing brand guidelines to strike a balance between timelessness, gender neutrality, and fun. 24. Morcos Key Morcos Key is a Brooklyn-based design studio co-founded by Jon Key and Wael Morcos. Collaborating with a diverse range of clients, including arts and cultural institutions, non-profits and commercial enterprises, they're known for translating clients' stories into impactful visual systems through thoughtful conversation and formal expression. One notable project is their visual identity work for Hammer & Hope, a magazine that focuses on politics and culture within the black radical tradition. For this project, Morcos Key developed not only the visual identity but also a custom all-caps typeface to reflect the publication's mission and content. 25. Thirst Thirst, also known as Thirst Craft, is an award-winning strategic drinks packaging design agency based in Glasgow, Scotland, with additional hubs in London and New York. Founded in 2015 by Matthew Stephen Burns and Christopher John Black, the company specializes in building creatively distinctive and commercially effective brands for the beverage industry. To see what they're capable of, check out their work for SKYY Vodka. The new global visual identity system, called Audacious Glamour', aims to unify SKYY under a singular, powerful idea. The visual identity benefits from bolder framing, patterns, and a flavour-forward colour palette to highlight each product's "juicy attitude", while the photography style employs macro shots and liquid highlights to convey a premium feel.

Like many countries, the Netherlands currently faces a housing crunch. Unlike many countries, the Dutch have a history of working with water to build out their environment. This ambitious Spoorweghaven Floating Community, a proposal for Rotterdam, thus aims to float affordable housing in an underutilized canal.The proposal was designed by Maritime Architecture Studio (MAST), a Copenhagen-based architecture firm that specializes in floating construction. It calls for a multitude of buildings housing more than a hundred low-cost apartments, as well as commercial and recreational space. "The Spoorweghaven floating community would connect to the city's already expansive bicycle infrastructure and also create new possibilities for transportation by boat. Public pathways would link the two sides of the harbour and allow bicycle access directly to the apartment buildings and to public bicycle parking facilities at each access bridge to the community. Recreational boat moorings are also provided between floating buildings and a continuous `blue ribbon´ around the community allows access from the city centre directly to the apartment buildings and public spaces." "Floating public walkways and green spaces provide new flexible spaces for residents in the new apartments and the surrounding area. Rooftop terraces and roof gardens also provide more private outdoor spaces for residents at the same time as preserving the view from surrounding apartments." "In order to improve the water quality in the harbour MAST worked with Scottish company Biomatrix to incorporate over 900m2 of floating reed beds around the perimeter of the site. Reedbeds like these have been installed in cities across Europe where they have been effective at reducing nutrients in water and providing habitat for waterbirds and fish." "The floating buildings would be constructed off site from CLT and towed into the dock for a short installation period. This would mean minimal impact on the community and a more efficient build process in a working dock outside of the city centre. It also permits the buildings to be repurposed on another site at the duration of a long term lease. This opportunity, to move buildings rather than demolish them when they cease to make financial sense in a given location, could dramatically increase the life span of floating buildings and give them a significant edge in sustainability over traditional apartment buildings." "These floating communities could also provide a far more sustainable alternative to large land reclamation projects which are underway around the globe." The proposal has received the support of Rotterdam officials, though no date for breaking ground—er, water—has yet been announced. That may change as pressure increases: The Netherlands has set a target of building one million new homes by 2030, and the country is famously short of land to build them on.

At the entrance to Victoria and Albert Museum’s (V&A) historic home in South Kensington, wide stone steps rise toward an ornate facade of carved Portland stone, with heavy wooden doors set beneath an archway that declares culture as cathedral. It’s built to inspire, yes, but also to intimidate—to display the spoils of a national collection shaped by colonial reach. On the other side of London, the same institution has opened its doors to V&A East Storehouse, with access to over 250,000 objects. The facility designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) transforms the obscure world of museum storage into a public experience of collecting, conserving, and storytelling. Like the South Kensington museum, Storehouse also leaves its imprint, inspiring wonder at a moment when public trust in cultural space feels so thin. As Tim Reeve, deputy director of the V&A, put it: “Creative industries are one of the very few success stories of the UK economy.” That creativity is being unpacked. V&A East Storehouse is located inside the London 2012 Olympics Media Centre. (© Hufton+Crow) The 262-by-262-foot (80-by-80-meter) cultural warehouse—once the London 2012 Olympics Media Centre—now welcomes visitors through a plain, functional entrance. Its galvanized steel doors are a modest update on the flexible shell designed by Hawkins\Brown. A plain, functional lobby hosts a new outpost of e5 Bakehouse, softened by new plywood interiors by Thomas Randall-Page. Upstairs, into a brief airlock, and onto a narrow walkway lined with classical busts in crates and on palettes, as if not fully unpacked, you glimpse the ladders, forklifts and shelving below, before you are shot into the dramatic central atrium—a towering scaffold of steel walkways and shelving. The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a place still learning what it wants to be. A surplus of sports venues and a scatter of freshly minted towers jostle for identity, and somehow, the V&A opening up its innards fits right in. Storehouse isn’t a museum—there are no labels, no curation, no interpretation. It’s a working storage facility, a peek behind the curtain. Instruments hang beside rows of chairs, statues stand among ceramics, building fragments, archival boxes, and garments—some visible, others swaddled after reaching their “light quota.” It’s a new idea for museum storage, one that began in Rotterdam in 2021 with MVRDV’s Depot and is put on steroids here, but DS+R are not new to shifting paradigms. “It’s an idea whose time has come,” said architect Liz Diller. She notes that the firm’s work on the High Line has been used—perhaps overused—as a reference point ever since it opened: “It becomes a kind of model for others. I think people will interpret the idea in their own ways,” she added. The central atrium is a towering scaffold of steel walkways and shelving. (© Hufton+Crow) “The Storehouse defies the logics of conventional taxonomies,” said Diller. “Where else would you encounter suits of armor, stage cloth, biscuit tins, building fragments, puppets, thimbles, chandeliers, motorcycles in one place next to each other?” These objects were previously hidden away in Blythe House, Olympia, alongside collections from the British Museum and the Science Museum—until the government announced plans to sell the Edwardian bank. This prompted a conversation about what its storage can and could be. The space spans approximately 172,000 square feet (16,000 square meters)—a fraction of the V&A’s over 850,000 square feet (80,000 square meters) at South Kensington—but it’s dense with meaning. It now houses 250,000 objects and has been designed with five years of growth in mind, with plenty of empty shelving still in view. Patrons can request up to five objects from the collection and make an appointment to view them. (© Hufton+Crow) The object collocations feel accidental but profound. What is a Frankfurt Kitchen, with its strict Bauhaus order, doing just down the walkway from the ornate, gilded Torrijos ceiling from Toledo? Why does a safety curtain control panel share a shelf with a bamboo wind instrument? Everyday objects aren’t elevated so much as exposed—invited to speak on new terms, next to things they were never meant to meet. There are smaller, curated exhibits too—some behind glass—assembled using a modular “kit of parts” display system designed by IDK. There are opportunities for the public to view conservators at work. (© Hufton+Crow) Anyone can request up to five objects from the collection and make an appointment to view them. If the objects are small enough, they’ll be brought to you at a table. If they’re big, you go to them in the darker parts of the museum. As Diller put it, the Storehouse is designed with “an inside-out logic,” where the center is public, the middle semi-private, and the outer edge reserved for conservation, research, and protected storage. There are moments where private and public parts interact, for instance in the “conservation overlooks,” where you can watch the conservators at work from public galleries. It quietly teaches that the arts are an industry too; there are opportunities besides being an artist. Instruments hang beside rows of chairs, statues stand among ceramics, building fragments, archival boxes, and garments. (© Hufton+Crow) Some of what Storehouse allows you to see is uncomfortable. The colonial overtones are hard to miss. These are objects taken from across the world—beautiful, rare, complex—and now stored in a warehouse in East London. The Agra Colonnade, from a 17th-century Mughal building, is on the ground floor where visitors can walk on the glass floor above it, breathtaking and fraught. This is a first step—a way of airing our institutional laundry in public, and inviting interrogation, reinterpretation, and hopefully reckoning. The Agra Colonnade, from a 17th-century Mughal building, is among the objects on view. (© Hufton+Crow) Hanging inside is the 1924 Le Train bleu stage cloth for the Ballets Russes in 1922. (© Hufton+Crow) Mostly, there is a sense of happy chaos, but there are moments that stop you. Down a quiet corridor sits a towering black-box space, spanning two floors. Hanging inside is the 1924 Le Train bleu stage cloth for the Ballets Russes in 1922—a reproduction of Picasso’s Two Women Running Along the Beach. “This is the largest space,” said project architect David Allin. “It lets you see oversized objects from two levels and even watch the conservators at work.” This cloth will later be replaced by the one that the tall space was designed around: the larger Firebird—Natalia Goncharova’s 10-by-16-metre stage backdrop. Here is where you can feel the V&A talking to itself across the city: South Kensington in its lofty register of imperially reaching cast courts, and the Storehouse answers with its mirror image. I catch my breath in front of Le Train bleu, first at its vastness, but then at the hulking crate parked behind it. The Storehouse is rewriting the story and showing us its workings. Ellen Peirson is a London-based writer, editor, and designer.

Fenix Art Museum / MAD ArchitectsSave this picture!© Iwan BaanMuseum, Refurbishment•Rotterdam, The Netherlands Architects: MAD Architects Area Area of this architecture project Area:  8000 m² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2025 Photographs Photographs: Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers:  Goppion Project Contractors: Products translation missing: en-US.post.svg.material_description More SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. Fenix is a major new museum that explores migration through the lens of art, opening on a landmark site in Rotterdam's City Harbor, developed by internationally acclaimed architects MAD. With a rapidly expanding collection of historic and contemporary objects, Fenix tells the story of migration through a series of encounters with art, architecture, photography, food, and history. Located in what was once part of the world's largest transshipment warehouse, on a peninsula in Rotterdam's historic port district, Fenix overlooks the docks where millions of migrant journeys began and ended. The monumental 16,000 square meter warehouse has been transformed to become Fenix by MAD Architects with restoration consultation by Bureau Polderman. This is MAD Architects' first commission for a public cultural building in Europe, as well as the first museum to be built by a Chinese firm in Europe. The project was initiated by the Droom en Daad Foundation, founded in 2016. The Foundation is helping redefine Rotterdam for the 21st century - developing new kinds of arts and culture institutions and fostering new creative talent that reflects the city's diversity, its spirit, and its historySave this picture!Restoration of the 172-meter-long façade of the former shipping and storage warehouse began in 2018, led by Bureau Polderman, and took a year and a half to complete. Some architectural details date back to 1923 when the warehouse opened, while others were part of the 1948-1950 reconstruction plan. In the past 60 years, many additions were made and the building's function changed many 4mes. The façade lacked uniformity. Fronts and frames were rusty. All elements along the façade have now been restored, refurnished, or rebuilt. The characteristic windows were restored to reflect the style of 1923. The 2,200 sqm expanse of the south façade was blast-cleaned and cement stucco was reapplied. The characteristic sliding doors at street level have been restored to their original post-war state, with doors and frames repainted in their original green color. A serene rhythm of columns, windows, and fronts has emerged that emphasizes the horizontal quality of the building.Save this picture!Save this picture!A defining new feature of the building is the Tornado - a double helix staircase evocative of rising air that climbs from the ground floor and flows up and out of the rooftop onto an outdoor platform offering spectacular panoramic views across Rotterdam and the Maas River, 24 meters above ground level. The dynamic structure is cladded in 297 polished stainless-steel panels, made in Groningen, Netherlands. The canopy that sits at the top of the structure is 17m in length and was transported by boat from Groningen to Rotterdam in pieces before being assembled and lifted into place. Inside the Tornado is a 550m long double-helix wooden staircase which emerges onto the platform, which can also be accessed via a central shaft.Save this picture!Inside the building are a series of vast gallery spaces spread over two floors, housing Fenix's growing art and historical collection, as well as a series of commissions by emerging artists from across the world. The ground floor contains exhibition and programming spaces, while the upstairs galleries are dedicated to the Fenix Collection. The museum is accessed via entrances in the centre of the north façade on the riverfront and the south façade. On arrival, visitors are immediately drawn to the base of the Tornado, whose dynamic, twisting form is lit by the glass roof above the central atrium that allows natural light to filter into the lobby. The entrance atrium features a welcome desk, museum shop, and café. At 2,275 sqm, Plein is a vast, flexible space for events and performances and will host a constantly changing programme of activity curated for and with Rotterdam's communities. Located on the ground floor on the Eastern side of the building, it features doors on three sides which can be opened out to create a welcoming covered public space. Fenix offers a number of dining options located throughout the building where visitors can encounter food cultures that have travelled the world.Save this picture!The top of the warehouse features a 6,750 sqm 'green roof', featuring sedum plants arranged in a concentric pattern, in line with the shape of the Tornado. As well as supporting biodiversity, green roofs provide insulation and store rainwater in the plants and substrate, releasing it back into the atmosphere through evaporation. This significantly reduces the burden on the sewerage system, reducing the risk of flooding and the burden on water treatment. The building uses a Thermal Energy System (TES), which stores excess heat from the building in the soil. A heat pump is connected to the TES to produce the correct temperature for the building. The aquifer serves as the source for the heat pump. By using the heat pump and passive cooling, it is possible to save up to 60 percent in heating energy and 80 percent in cooling energy. The staircase of the Tornado is made from sustainable Norwegian wood called Kebony, a leading modified wood brand established in Oslo, Norway, that uses a proven, innovative, patented technology to enhance traditional 4mber. Biobased modified wood is a sustainable building material with a significantly lower environmental impact than other building materials. Fenix repurposes a 100-year-old warehouse, restored as much as possible to its original state in the 1950s, with interventions in line with the original architecture from 1923.Save this picture!Save this picture!The building has been designed in consultation with VGR, an association specializing in making buildings as accessible and welcoming as possible. Plein and the Atrium will be publicly accessible spaces that are free to enter.Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less Project locationAddress:Rotterdam, The NetherlandsLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeMAD ArchitectsOffice••• MaterialsSteelConcreteMaterials and TagsPublished on May 21, 2025Cite: "Fenix Art Museum / MAD Architects" 21 May 2025. ArchDaily. 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How to Design Residential Urban Terraces: Strategies for Living Well in High PlacesSave this picture!Phoenix Rooftop / BENT Architecture. © Dianna SnapeIn today’s dense, vertical cities, terraces—often overlooked as mere technical rooftops—are emerging as key spaces for reconnecting with nature, expanding residential functions, and offering moments of collective relief. Particularly in single-family homes located in compact urban areas, these elevated surfaces represent valuable opportunities to increase usable living space without occupying more land. By lifting daily life above street level, terraces open new ways of inhabiting the city, enabling a range of uses from leisure and contemplation to food production and social gathering. In contexts marked by limited green space and strained infrastructure, they hold the potential to generate what landscape architect Catherine Mosbach calls "additional layers of urbanity." Whether imagined as hanging gardens, gathering spots, edible landscapes, or wellness zones, terraces challenge the idea that the city ends at the top floor—inviting us to see the roof as a new kind of ground.As early as the 1920s, Le Corbusier recognized both the symbolic and functional power of rooftops through his concept of the “fifth façade”—a dynamic, accessible upper surface capable of hosting gardens, leisure spaces, and new forms of urban life. This forward-thinking vision resonates strongly today in the face of environmental and social challenges. Landmark projects such as MVRDV’s monumental temporary staircase in Rotterdam, giving public access to a rooftop, or large-scale initiatives like Toronto’s Green Roof program, Paris’s green roof mandate, and New York’s rooftop community gardens show how these spaces are being reimagined as infrastructure—by both public authorities and private actors alike. Save this picture!Although many rooftop activation projects focus on multifamily buildings or public facilities, growing attention is now being directed at terraces in single-family homes—especially on tight urban lots where the traditional backyard is being replaced by an active roof. In the context of increasing climate extremes and urban heat islands, these surfaces also gain ecological significance: they help regulate temperature, retain rainwater, and foster biodiversity. Still, their use remains limited by technical, legal, and cultural barriers, requiring targeted architectural solutions to truly integrate them into urban life—particularly at the domestic scale. Related Article The History of Useful Flat Roofs Varied Uses: How Climate and Context Shape TerracesBecause terraces are inherently outdoor spaces, their use and design are shaped by regional climates and cultural habits. In dry, sunny areas like the Mediterranean or the Middle East, terraces naturally extend the home and are often used for outdoor dining, sleeping under the stars, growing herbs and vegetables, or fostering intergenerational social interaction.Save this picture!In humid tropical regions such as Southeast Asia or Brazil, terraces require specific adaptations—like pergolas or awnings for shade, efficient drainage, and dense vegetation for thermal control. Even with these adjustments, they remain versatile and are commonly adapted as gourmet areas or compact urban gardens.Beyond these familiar uses, other forms of appropriation highlight the symbolic and practical flexibility of terraces. In dense cities where land is scarce, they can serve entirely new functions: as elevated playgrounds with safe, lightweight structures for children, or as pet-friendly zones with artificial turf, agility circuits, and shaded resting spots.Save this picture!More unexpected uses also emerge—retractable screens for family movie nights, quiet spaces for reading or meditation, sensory gardens filled with aromatic and medicinal plants, or small home observatories for stargazing that blend leisure with education. Some people even transform terraces into creative studios—spaces for painting, sculpture, or interactive installations. These varied possibilities reveal the terrace as an intimate, adaptable setting that reflects the evolving stages, routines, and identities of its inhabitants.Save this picture!Access and Integration: Connecting Indoors and OutdoorsA key factor in how terraces are used is their connection to the rest of the house. In single-family homes, the ease and quality of access largely determine how integrated and frequently used a terrace becomes. When access is limited to technical stairs or routed through service areas, the terrace tends to be seen as secondary and remains underused. By contrast, when access is direct, comfortable, and embedded in the domestic routine—through well-placed internal staircases, terraced gardens, or generous openings that link social spaces to the roof—the terrace becomes a natural extension of the home and is activated in everyday life.Save this picture!Contemporary architecture increasingly explores this sense of spatial continuity. Sculptural staircases, operable skylights, interior walkways, and large sliding glass doors enable smooth transitions between inside and out, blurring the boundaries between living space and rooftop. In narrow urban plots, well-designed compact solutions can link the upper floor to the terrace while enhancing light and ventilation—turning the journey upward into a deliberate part of the architectural experience.Save this picture!Form and Volume: The Terrace as an Architectural GestureFar from being flat, utilitarian surfaces, terraces can play a defining role in the architectural expression of single-family homes. Their volumetric configuration—whether as a full rooftop, half-terrace, stepped platform, or garden balcony—directly shapes the building’s silhouette and its dialogue with the urban context. Instead of defaulting to untreated concrete slabs, the terrace can continue the language of interior spaces through multilevel platforms, built-in planters and benches, reflecting pools, or pergolas that bring depth and texture to the composition. On sloped lots, they may cantilever outward or serve as scenic urban lookouts, expanding both visual and functional space. From a design standpoint, terraces allow for experimentation that breaks away from conventional single-story or stacked house typologies—creating compositions that play with mass and void, opacity and light, surface and shadow—making the terrace a true architectural gesture.Save this picture!Materials: Safety, Comfort, and Aesthetics at the TopMaterial choices are critical to the function, durability, and comfort of terraces. Exposed to sun, rain, and temperature shifts, these areas demand robust and safe materials. Common flooring options include non-slip porcelain tiles, treated wood decking, permeable concrete pavers, and other high-performance surfaces that balance durability with effective drainage. Structures like pergolas, brise-soleils, or tensioned fabric canopies help create shade and thermal comfort, using materials such as wood and steel.Save this picture!Waterproofing is equally essential—typically achieved through asphalt sheets, liquid membranes, or thermoplastic coatings—always combined with efficient drainage systems and, ideally, rainwater harvesting for reuse. Planters and gardens also require specific setups: at least 30 cm of depth for herbs and grasses, more than 60 cm for larger plants, with reinforced waterproofing. Pools, if planned, must be structurally accounted for from the start, given the weight and load implications. Safety is non-negotiable: guardrails over 1.10 meters high and edge barriers are vital to ensuring the secure use of rooftop spaces.Save this picture!Expanding Limits: The Micropolitics of Urban AirspaceAltogether, these examples point to the rise of a new urban paradigm: recognizing terraces and rooftops as open-air spaces with vast, yet often untapped, potential. It is important, however, to acknowledge that not all homes have access to such spaces—which makes it even more urgent to explore inclusive, collective, and accessible ways of activating rooftops. Expanding domestic life upward—whether individually or communally—opens the door to new spatial narratives within the city.Save this picture! Image gallerySee allShow less About this authorCamilla GhisleniAuthor••• Cite: Ghisleni, Camilla. "How to Design Residential Urban Terraces: Strategies for Living Well in High Places" [Como Projetar Terraços Urbanos Residenciais: Estratégias para Viver nas Alturas] 21 May 2025. ArchDaily. (Trans. Simões, Diogo) Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1030258/how-to-design-residential-urban-terraces-strategies-for-living-well-in-high-places&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

The Dutch startup ecosystem has slipped to 10th place globally and sixth in Europe, according to the newly released Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2025.  The annual report, compiled by research platform StartupBlink, benchmarks the startup strength of over 1,400 cities and 110 countries worldwide.  The US took the top spot globally, with the UK coming in second. Among the European nations, Britain was followed by Sweden (sixth), Germany (seventh), and France (eighth). Switzerland claimed ninth place, pushing the Netherlands down one spot.   However, it’s not all bad news for the Dutch startup ecosystem, which saw an above-average growth rate of over 26% this year.  The country’s top-performing sector was ecommerce and retail, where it ranks fifth globally and first in the EU. Prominent companies in this space include grocery delivery unicorn Picnic, designer brand marketplace Otrium, and fresh food platform Crisp. Grab that deal However, the Netherlands’ overall growth was outpaced in Europe by France, Sweden, and Switzerland — all of which grew by over 30% this year.  Amsterdam holds steady On the city scale, Amsterdam remains the undisputed engine of the Dutch tech scene. The capital rose two global spots to 26th and held firm at fifth in Europe — trailing only London, Paris, Berlin, and Stockholm. It performed best in fintech, where it now ranks 15th worldwide and third in the EU, with scaleups like neobank Bunq and payments platform Mollie playing a central role.  “A key trend we observe in the Netherlands is Amsterdam’s rapid growth, with its startup ecosystem expanding by over 30% in 2025,” Eli David Rokah, CEO at StartupBlink, told TNW. “While the city remains fifth in Europe and fourth in the EU, this strong momentum is helping it close the gap with top-tier European ecosystems like Stockholm and Berlin.”  Outside the capital, the national picture is more mixed.  While Amsterdam remains the standout Dutch ecosystem globally, four more cities in the Netherlands entered the top 1000 this year (up from 20 the previous year ). That’s the highest-ever city count in this index. Rotterdam is the big riser, overtaking Utrecht to claim the number four spot among Dutch cities. It also scored the highest growth rate in the country (over 50%) and climbed 30 positions globally in just two years.  Eindhoven, meanwhile, slipped two spots to 106th globally but posted a standout result in sustainability, ranking 10th worldwide. Supporting Dutch tech is a key mission of TNW Conference, which takes place on June 19-20 in Amsterdam. Tickets are now on sale — use the code TNWXMEDIA2025 at the checkout to get 30% off. Story by Siôn Geschwindt Siôn is a freelance science and technology reporter, specialising in climate and energy. From nuclear fusion breakthroughs to electric vehic (show all) Siôn is a freelance science and technology reporter, specialising in climate and energy. From nuclear fusion breakthroughs to electric vehicles, he's happiest sourcing a scoop, investigating the impact of emerging technologies, and even putting them to the test. He has five years of journalism experience and holds a dual degree in media and environmental science from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. When he's not writing, you can probably find Siôn out hiking, surfing, playing the drums or catering to his moderate caffeine addiction. You can contact him at: sion.geschwindt [at] protonmail [dot] com Get the TNW newsletter Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week. Also tagged with

A new architecturally expressive, adaptive reuse project has been completed at Katendrecht, a historic Rotterdam port neighborhood. MAD Architects is behind the design for Fenix, an art institution founded in 2016 that centers migration. The venue is contextual: Rotterdam is today home to over 170 nationalities, thanks in part to its status as a port city. Fenix is sited inside an old warehouse from 1923 by architect Cornelis Nicolaas van Goor. The former San Francisco Warehouse was bombed during World War II, but rebuilt in the 1950s as two separate buildings: Fenix I and Fenix II. MAD Architects transformed the Fenix II building into the museum. The 172,000-square-foot hub marks the first major culture project in Europe by the international office. The ground floor was conceived as an indoor city square, the architects said. The venue is sited in Katendrecht, a historic Rotterdam port neighborhood. (© Iwan Baan) Fenix offers space for connection and exchange for communities all throughout Rotterdam, the museum said. The ground level will host large scale events, food gatherings, community meetings, performances, and also a kiosk with newspapers from around the world, much like the former Newseum in Washington, D.C. Likewise, Fenix has retail and dining options like cafes, bakeries, gelato and espresso bars. The multivalent artworks are spread throughout Fenix’s upper levels. Ground level view of the double-helix stair (© Iwan Baan) Rooftop view of the double-helix stair (© Iwan Baan) Among Fenix’s standout features is what MAD calls the Tornado, a double-helix staircase connecting visitors from the ground to a viewing platform high up above the city. This amenity affords views of the River Maas, Hotel New York, and former headquarters of the Holland America Line. Its metallic exterior reflects the buildings and people around it, and glimmers in the sun. The gallery walls were left untouched, revealing exposed concrete. Exhibition materials are staged in this industrial context, set up on partitions, or hung from ceilings. The building contains more than 150 artworks by Francis Alÿs, Max Beckmann, Sophie Calle, Honoré Daumier, and many others. Narrow windows draw natural light into the galleries. Tall ceiling heights allow for large artworks, like this one by Alle Richtingen. (© Iwan Baan) The Family of Migrants installation view (© Iwan Baan) The ephemera on view speaks to the peripatetic migratory experience: Personal mementos from people who immigrated to Rotterdam, a sliver of the Berlin Wall, a migrant boat from Lampedusa, and a passport from Nansen circa 1923, to name but a few examples. There are also travel documents issued to stateless refugees after World War I. Geographies by Francis Alÿs (Courtesy Fenix) “Migration stories are the heartbeat of Fenix,” museum director Anne Kremers said in a statement. “We’ve woven them into every element—whether it’s the magic of Ma Yansong’s architecture, the memories evoked by the artworks on display, the freely accessible Plein, or the gelateria by the Granucci family. We want everyone to feel welcome.”