A polo legend and a businessman joined forces to copy the player’s greatest horse. But with a single clone worth $800,000, some technologies are a breeding ground for betrayal.

Gardenful / TAOASave this picture!© Tao LeiLandscape Architecture•Beijing, China Architects: TAOA Area Area of this architecture project Area:  227 m² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2024 Photographs Photographs:Tao LeiMore SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. This is an urban garden built for private use. As a corner of the city, I hope to fill the whole garden with abundant nature in this small space. The site is an open space in a villa compound, surrounded by a cluster of European-style single-family villas typical of Chinese real estate. Modern buildings greatly meet the requirements of indoor temperature and humidity comfort because of their complete facilities, but the building also has a clear climate boundary, cutting off the connection between indoor and outdoor, but also cut off the continuity of nature and life.Save this picture!Save this picture!There is no simple definition of the project as a garden or a building, too simple definition will only fall into the narrow imagination, the purpose is only to establish a place that can accommodate a piece of real nature, can give people shelter, can also walk in it. It is the original intention of this design to build a quiet place where you can be alone, a semi-indoor and semi-outdoor space, and re-lead the enclosed life to the outdoors and into the nature.Save this picture!Save this picture!The square site in the middle of the garden, which is a relatively independent space, the top shelter provides a comfortable life and cozy, the middle of the garden exposed a sky, sunshine and rain and snow will be staged here. With the corresponding land below, the trees and vegetation of the mountains are introduced into it, maintaining the most primitive wildness. To remain wild in this exquisite urban space, in this abstract geometric order, will naturally get rid of the wild gas of the original nature. A spatial transformation is made on both sides to the north, through the stairway and the upward pull of the roof space, extending the narrow auxiliary garden, which has no roof and is therefore bright, maintaining a different light and shade relationship from the central garden, which is filled with rocks and plants transplanted from the mountains.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The structure of the garden is thin and dense synthetic bamboo, and the cross combination of dense structures forms a partition of the space, like a bamboo fence, forming a soft boundary. The interior of the space is lined with wooden panels, and the exterior is covered with thin and crisp aluminum panels. The "bridge" made of stone panels passes through different Spaces, sometimes standing between the bamboo structures, sometimes crossing the rocks, walking between them. Moving between order and wildness.Save this picture!Nature is difficult to measure, and because of its rich and ever-changing qualities, nature provides richness to Spaces. This is from the mountains to large trees, rocks, small flowers and plants, as far as possible to avoid artificial nursery plants. The structure of the garden will geometrically order the nature, eliminating the wild sense of nature. The details of nature can be discovered, and the life force released can be unconsciously perceived. The nature of fragments is real, is wild, and does not want to lose vitality and richness because of artificial transplantation. The superposition of wild abundance and modern geometric space makes it alive with elegance and decency.Save this picture!Save this picture!The nature is independent of the high-density urban space, becoming an independent world, shielding the noise of the city. These are integrated into a continuous and integral "pavilion" and "corridor" constitute the carrier of outdoor life of the family, while sheltering from the wind and rain, under the four eaves also create the relationship between light and dark space, the middle highlights the nature, especially bright, and becomes the center of life. From any Angle one can see a picture of hierarchy and order, a real fragment of nature, built into a new context by geometric order. The richness of nature is therefore more easily perceived, and the changes of nature are constantly played out in daily life and can be seen throughout the year.Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less Project locationAddress:Beijing, ChinaLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeTAOAOffice••• Published on June 15, 2025Cite: "Gardenful / TAOA" 15 Jun 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1028408/gardenful-taoa&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save想阅读文章的中文版本吗?满园 / TAOA 陶磊建筑是否 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

Join the event trusted by enterprise leaders for nearly two decades. VB Transform brings together the people building real enterprise AI strategy. Learn more When DeepSeek released its R1 model this January, it wasn’t just another AI announcement. It was a watershed moment that sent shockwaves through the tech industry, forcing industry leaders to reconsider their fundamental approaches to AI development. What makes DeepSeek’s accomplishment remarkable isn’t that the company developed novel capabilities; rather, it was how it achieved comparable results to those delivered by tech heavyweights at a fraction of the cost. In reality, DeepSeek didn’t do anything that hadn’t been done before; its innovation stemmed from pursuing different priorities. As a result, we are now experiencing rapid-fire development along two parallel tracks: efficiency and compute.  As DeepSeek prepares to release its R2 model, and as it concurrently faces the potential of even greater chip restrictions from the U.S., it’s important to look at how it captured so much attention. Engineering around constraints DeepSeek’s arrival, as sudden and dramatic as it was, captivated us all because it showcased the capacity for innovation to thrive even under significant constraints. Faced with U.S. export controls limiting access to cutting-edge AI chips, DeepSeek was forced to find alternative pathways to AI advancement. While U.S. companies pursued performance gains through more powerful hardware, bigger models and better data, DeepSeek focused on optimizing what was available. It implemented known ideas with remarkable execution — and there is novelty in executing what’s known and doing it well. This efficiency-first mindset yielded incredibly impressive results. DeepSeek’s R1 model reportedly matches OpenAI’s capabilities at just 5 to 10% of the operating cost. According to reports, the final training run for DeepSeek’s V3 predecessor cost a mere $6 million — which was described by former Tesla AI scientist Andrej Karpathy as “a joke of a budget” compared to the tens or hundreds of millions spent by U.S. competitors. More strikingly, while OpenAI reportedly spent $500 million training its recent “Orion” model, DeepSeek achieved superior benchmark results for just $5.6 million — less than 1.2% of OpenAI’s investment. If you get starry eyed believing these incredible results were achieved even as DeepSeek was at a severe disadvantage based on its inability to access advanced AI chips, I hate to tell you, but that narrative isn’t entirely accurate (even though it makes a good story). Initial U.S. export controls focused primarily on compute capabilities, not on memory and networking — two crucial components for AI development. That means that the chips DeepSeek had access to were not poor quality chips; their networking and memory capabilities allowed DeepSeek to parallelize operations across many units, a key strategy for running their large model efficiently. This, combined with China’s national push toward controlling the entire vertical stack of AI infrastructure, resulted in accelerated innovation that many Western observers didn’t anticipate. DeepSeek’s advancements were an inevitable part of AI development, but they brought known advancements forward a few years earlier than would have been possible otherwise, and that’s pretty amazing. Pragmatism over process Beyond hardware optimization, DeepSeek’s approach to training data represents another departure from conventional Western practices. Rather than relying solely on web-scraped content, DeepSeek reportedly leveraged significant amounts of synthetic data and outputs from other proprietary models. This is a classic example of model distillation, or the ability to learn from really powerful models. Such an approach, however, raises questions about data privacy and governance that might concern Western enterprise customers. Still, it underscores DeepSeek’s overall pragmatic focus on results over process. The effective use of synthetic data is a key differentiator. Synthetic data can be very effective when it comes to training large models, but you have to be careful; some model architectures handle synthetic data better than others. For instance, transformer-based models with mixture of experts (MoE) architectures like DeepSeek’s tend to be more robust when incorporating synthetic data, while more traditional dense architectures like those used in early Llama models can experience performance degradation or even “model collapse” when trained on too much synthetic content. This architectural sensitivity matters because synthetic data introduces different patterns and distributions compared to real-world data. When a model architecture doesn’t handle synthetic data well, it may learn shortcuts or biases present in the synthetic data generation process rather than generalizable knowledge. This can lead to reduced performance on real-world tasks, increased hallucinations or brittleness when facing novel situations.  Still, DeepSeek’s engineering teams reportedly designed their model architecture specifically with synthetic data integration in mind from the earliest planning stages. This allowed the company to leverage the cost benefits of synthetic data without sacrificing performance. Market reverberations Why does all of this matter? Stock market aside, DeepSeek’s emergence has triggered substantive strategic shifts among industry leaders. Case in point: OpenAI. Sam Altman recently announced plans to release the company’s first “open-weight” language model since 2019. This is a pretty notable pivot for a company that built its business on proprietary systems. It seems DeepSeek’s rise, on top of Llama’s success, has hit OpenAI’s leader hard. Just a month after DeepSeek arrived on the scene, Altman admitted that OpenAI had been “on the wrong side of history” regarding open-source AI.  With OpenAI reportedly spending $7 to 8 billion annually on operations, the economic pressure from efficient alternatives like DeepSeek has become impossible to ignore. As AI scholar Kai-Fu Lee bluntly put it: “You’re spending $7 billion or $8 billion a year, making a massive loss, and here you have a competitor coming in with an open-source model that’s for free.” This necessitates change. This economic reality prompted OpenAI to pursue a massive $40 billion funding round that valued the company at an unprecedented $300 billion. But even with a war chest of funds at its disposal, the fundamental challenge remains: OpenAI’s approach is dramatically more resource-intensive than DeepSeek’s. Beyond model training Another significant trend accelerated by DeepSeek is the shift toward “test-time compute” (TTC). As major AI labs have now trained their models on much of the available public data on the internet, data scarcity is slowing further improvements in pre-training. To get around this, DeepSeek announced a collaboration with Tsinghua University to enable “self-principled critique tuning” (SPCT). This approach trains AI to develop its own rules for judging content and then uses those rules to provide detailed critiques. The system includes a built-in “judge” that evaluates the AI’s answers in real-time, comparing responses against core rules and quality standards. The development is part of a movement towards autonomous self-evaluation and improvement in AI systems in which models use inference time to improve results, rather than simply making models larger during training. DeepSeek calls its system “DeepSeek-GRM” (generalist reward modeling). But, as with its model distillation approach, this could be considered a mix of promise and risk. For example, if the AI develops its own judging criteria, there’s a risk those principles diverge from human values, ethics or context. The rules could end up being overly rigid or biased, optimizing for style over substance, and/or reinforce incorrect assumptions or hallucinations. Additionally, without a human in the loop, issues could arise if the “judge” is flawed or misaligned. It’s a kind of AI talking to itself, without robust external grounding. On top of this, users and developers may not understand why the AI reached a certain conclusion — which feeds into a bigger concern: Should an AI be allowed to decide what is “good” or “correct” based solely on its own logic? These risks shouldn’t be discounted. At the same time, this approach is gaining traction, as again DeepSeek builds on the body of work of others (think OpenAI’s “critique and revise” methods, Anthropic’s constitutional AI or research on self-rewarding agents) to create what is likely the first full-stack application of SPCT in a commercial effort. This could mark a powerful shift in AI autonomy, but there still is a need for rigorous auditing, transparency and safeguards. It’s not just about models getting smarter, but that they remain aligned, interpretable, and trustworthy as they begin critiquing themselves without human guardrails. Moving into the future So, taking all of this into account, the rise of DeepSeek signals a broader shift in the AI industry toward parallel innovation tracks. While companies continue building more powerful compute clusters for next-generation capabilities, there will also be intense focus on finding efficiency gains through software engineering and model architecture improvements to offset the challenges of AI energy consumption, which far outpaces power generation capacity.  Companies are taking note. Microsoft, for example, has halted data center development in multiple regions globally, recalibrating toward a more distributed, efficient infrastructure approach. While still planning to invest approximately $80 billion in AI infrastructure this fiscal year, the company is reallocating resources in response to the efficiency gains DeepSeek introduced to the market. Meta has also responded, With so much movement in such a short time, it becomes somewhat ironic that the U.S. sanctions designed to maintain American AI dominance may have instead accelerated the very innovation they sought to contain. By constraining access to materials, DeepSeek was forced to blaze a new trail. Moving forward, as the industry continues to evolve globally, adaptability for all players will be key. Policies, people and market reactions will continue to shift the ground rules — whether it’s eliminating the AI diffusion rule, a new ban on technology purchases or something else entirely. It’s what we learn from one another and how we respond that will be worth watching. Jae Lee is CEO and co-founder of TwelveLabs. Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured.

These annual rankings were last updated on June 6, 2025. Want to see your firm on next year’s list? Continue reading for more on how you can improve your studio’s ranking. Traversing the German nation, one will encounter a similar historic program to other European capitals — Romanesque churches, Renaissance monuments and more — blended with functionalist and modernist structures. Early twenty-first-century Germany gave rise to the thriving Bauhaus. Founded by Walter Gropius, this school introduced brand-new architectural thinking, an ideology rooted in function, clarity and mass production. Materials like concrete and glass were favored, socially progressive housing blocks were constructed, and a newfound appreciation for modernism emerged. The spirit of the great Bauhaus teachers — Mies van der Rohe, for example — vigorously lives on and inspires contemporary designers today. Additionally, modern industrial architecture took off post-war and has played a prominent role in the nation’s economic growth, continuing to do so today. The architectural devastation from WWII resulted in mass reconstruction efforts. The post-war restoration and rebuilding embraced a functional attitude, which continued the legacy of the Bauhaus movement despite its closing over a decade prior. Today, German architecture continues to champion the nation’s modernist brilliance through innovative designs that push technological boundaries and celebrate culture. With so many architecture firms to choose from, it’s challenging for clients to identify the industry leaders that will be an ideal fit for their project needs. Fortunately, Architizer is able to provide guidance on the top design firms in Germany based on more than a decade of data and industry knowledge. How are these architecture firms ranked? The following ranking has been created according to key statistics that demonstrate each firm’s level of architectural excellence. The following metrics have been accumulated to establish each architecture firm’s ranking, in order of priority: The number of A+Awards won (2013 to 2025) The number of A+Awards finalists (2013 to 2025) The number of projects selected as “Project of the Day” (2009 to 2025) The number of projects selected as “Featured Project” (2009 to 2025) The number of projects uploaded to Architizer (2009 to 2025) Each of these metrics is explained in more detail at the foot of this article. This ranking list will be updated annually, taking into account new achievements of Germany architecture firms throughout the year. Without further ado, here are the 30 best architecture firms in Germany: 30. Format Elf Architekten © Format Elf Architekten Simple and touching. Format Elf Architekten is an architecture firm that focuses on residential architecture. Some of Format Elf Architekten’s most prominent projects include: Longhouses, Bad Birnbach, Germany FORMSTELLE, Töging am Inn, Germany House B, Munich, Germany Die Basis, Munich, Germany The following statistics helped Format Elf Architekten achieve 30th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 4 29. Bruzkus Batek Architects © Jens Bösenberg | Whitelight Studio GmbH BRUZKUS BATEK Since 2007, this internationally active office specialised in designing hotels, offices, shops, restaurants and private housing – and particularly in the detailing of high-quality interiors. After 10 successful years, it is time for a change. As of 2018, Bruzkus Batek is splitting into BATEK ARCHITECTS and ESTER BRUZKUS ARCHITECTS. Some of Bruzkus Batek Architects’ most prominent projects include: Razorfish, Berlin, Germany Office Ester Bruzkus Architekten, Berlin, Germany Colette Tim Raue Munich, Munich, Germany Apartment PP, Berlin, Germany Dean, Berlin, Germany The following statistics helped Bruzkus Batek Architects achieve 29th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Finalist 1 Featured Projects 3 Total Projects 28 28. Ester Bruzkus Architekten © Ester Bruzkus Architekten Founded in 2002 in Berlin, Ester Bruzkus Architekten is an architecture and interior design practice with global ties: Berlin, New York, Paris, Tel Aviv, Boston, Dubai, Moscow, Vladivostok, Tenerife. We have extensive experience with design at many scales: from the design of tables and furniture to exquisite residences and workspaces to international theaters, restaurants and hotels. Straight lines, precise planning, material contrasts – and plenty of surprises. The architecture of Ester Bruzkus and her team makes use of contrasts of thick and thin, sharp and soft, curved and straight, rough and smooth, common and opulent, colorful and restrained, playful and well-resolved. Special projects result from a dialogue of space and light, materiality and color, existing constraints and new opportunities – and especially a synergy between the needs of the client, the space and the aspirations of great design. Some of Ester Bruzkus Architekten’s most prominent projects include: Razorfish, Berlin, Germany Office Ester Bruzkus Architekten, Berlin, Germany Colette Tim Raue Munich, Munich, Germany Apartment PP, Berlin, Germany Dean, Berlin, Germany The following statistics helped Ester Bruzkus Architekten achieve 28th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Finalist 1 Featured Projects 3 Total Projects 34 27. Architekten Wannenmacher + Möller © Architekten Wannenmacher + Möller GmbH Architects Wannenmacher + Möller, based in Bielefeld Germany, has been in practice for almost 60 years. Today the office is run by second generation Andreas Wannenmacher and Hans-Heinrich Möller. It was founded by Gregor Wannenmacher in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1955. Over the years the office grew continuously and became one of the largest architectural firms in the German region Eastern Westfalia. Most of the activities were focused in this region. During the last years, however, the office had the opportunity to design buildings and control their realization outside this region, some of them in foreign countries throughout Europe, Asia, and the USA. Some of Architekten Wannenmacher + Möller’s most prominent projects include: Ford Hagemeier Halle , Germany Wohnhaus Möllmann, Bielefeld, Germany House P+G, Weinheim, Germany House in Paderborn, Paderborn, Germany Borchen Sports Hall, Borchen, Germany The following statistics helped Architekten Wannenmacher + Möller achieve 27th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Finalist 1 Featured Projects 4 Total Projects 14 26. Design.Develop.Build – GA Tech | PBSA | RWTH © Design.Develop.Build - GA Tech | PBSA | RWTH Students from the Georgia Institute of Technology, RWTH Aachen University and PBSA Düsseldorf design, develop and build civic architecture. Some of Design.Develop.Build’s most prominent projects include: Guga S’Thebe Children’s Theatre, Cape Town, South Africa The following statistics helped Design.Develop.Build achieve 26th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Winner 2 A+Awards Finalist 1 Featured Projects 1 Total Projects 1 25. Ecker Architekten © Ecker Architekten Ecker Architekten is an architecture and design firm based in Germany. Ecker Architekten’s design portfolio includes a variety of architectural projects, such as cultural, commercial, government and health, educational, and more. Some of Ecker Architekten’s most prominent projects include: The Forum at Eckenberg Gymnasium, Adelsheim, Germany Field Chapel, Buchen (Odenwald), Germany Kindergarten Dandelion Clock, Germany Kanzlei Balkenhol, BW, Germany Branch Bank in Hettingen, Hettingen, Germany The following statistics helped Ecker Architekten achieve 25th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 4 Total Projects 8 24. Sehw Architektur © Helin Bereket “Sehw stands for meaningfulness, emotion, attitude and change.” Our mission: building architecture sustainably, thinking innovatively and creating social added value. “Sehw stands for an aesthetic of sustainability in architecture.” // Sustainability // Acting sustainably We are not just planning for today but for the generation of tomorrow and beyond. For us, sustainable architecture means forward-looking planning and the development of future-proof utilization concepts. In times of rapid climate change, we are committed to resource-conserving construction methods and the use of renewable energies. Recyclable building materials and circular economy are the basis for a long life cycle and corresponding sustainability certifications of our buildings. We value and protect existing structures and materials. Some of Sehw Architektur’s most prominent projects include: KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany Weitblick Innovation Campus, Augsburg, Germany Inclusive School Centre Döbern, Döbern, Germany The Copper Coil, Rostock, Germany Around the Corner – Student Apartment Building, Berlin, Germany The following statistics helped Sehw Architektur achieve 24th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 5 Total Projects 18 23. PHILIPPARCHITEKTEN Anna Philipp © PHILIPPARCHITEKTEN Anna Philipp A passion for houses. There’s nothing more significant to describe what our architecture office is about: houses — simple, yet complex. The archetype of all construction is our passion. That’s what we stand for. On this we work holistically with a team of architects and engineers. Center of our designing is the human being. We understand architecture as a second skin, which must be tailored. At the same time it’s essential to reflect the unique character of the location. The goal is a harmonious triad of mankind, nature and architecture. The focus and specialization on houses and villas is faced by a wide diversification in the range of services offered. Some of PHILIPPARCHITEKTEN Anna Philipp’s most prominent projects include: Villa Philipp, Waldenburg, Germany Villa Lombardo, Lugano, Switzerland A monastery of modernity, Augsburg, Germany Villa Schatzlmayr, Passau, Germany Villa Mauthe, Bahlingen, Germany The following statistics helped PHILIPPARCHITEKTEN Anna Philipp achieve 23rd place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 5 Total Projects 22 22. KRESINGS © Roman Mensing KRESINGS is a studio for architecture, interior design, urban planning and product design with offices in Munster and Dusseldorf. Since its founding by Rainer Maria Kresing in 1985 four further partners joined the management: Kilian Kresing, Christian Kawe, Matthias Povel and André Perret. More than 60 employees — architects, designers, planners and engineers — guarantee a broad range of creative and qualified services. Experience meets creative ease. The studio has been awarded with national awards like those of the BDA (Bund Deutscher Architekten) and the DAM (Deutsches Architektur Museum). KRESINGS: Experts and team players in areas of office and industrial buildings, facilities for research, education and culture as well as individual designs for residential buildings. Some of KRESINGS’ most prominent projects include: Student Residence Boeselagerstraße, Münster, Germany Headquarters Mitsubishi Electric Europe, Ratingen, Germany Petting Zoo, Öhringen, Germany Freiherr-vom-Stein-High-School, Münster, Germany Residential Building Hoher Heckenweg, Münster, Germany The following statistics helped KRESINGS achieve 22nd place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 5 Total Projects 33 21. 3deluxe © 3deluxe The interdisciplinary design collective 3deluxe, consisting of about 30 individuals centered around Dieter Brell, Peter Seipp and Andreas and Stephan Lauhoff, has been creating groundbreaking impulses in the fields of architecture and interior design, graphic and media design. In creative synergy hybrid forms of two and three dimensional design are created: graphic works develop a spatial impact, while architectural drafts are based on communication principles. In this way, complex collages are contrived, so called ‚multilayered atmospheres‘, that foster multiple sensory experiences and allow for a multitude of potential interpretations. Paramount is the broadening of an absolute understanding of space and image towards a dynamic, processual approach. Some of 3deluxe’s most prominent projects include: V- Plaza Urban Development, Kaunas, Lithuania Kaffee Partner Headquarters, Osnabrück, Germany Butterfly Pavilion, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates Leonardo Glass Cube, Bad Driburg, Germany Cyberhelvetia The following statistics helped 3deluxe achieve 21st place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Finalist 2 Featured Projects 3 Total Projects 20 20. Christoph Hesse Architects © Deimel und Wittmar Christoph Hesse Architects was founded in 2010 by Christoph Hesse, has offices in Korbach and, since 2018, in Berlin. The architectural practice currently employs an international team of 15 people and has won numerous awards. Some of Christoph Hesse Architects’ most prominent projects include: VITOS Outpatient psychiatric clinic for traumatized refugees, Korbach, Germany Villa F / the off-the-grid house in the central highlands of Germany, Medebach, Germany StrohTherme, Medebach, Germany Room of Silence, Korbach, Germany The following statistics helped Christoph Hesse Architects achieve 20th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Winner 2 Featured Projects 2 Total Projects 4 19. Zeller & Moye © Zeller & Moye Zeller & Moye is a design studio based in Mexico City and Berlin that works at the intersection of architecture, arts, design and latest technology through an experimental, multidisciplinary and collaborative working culture. Some of Zeller & Moye’s most prominent projects include: HAUS KÖRIS, Brandenburg, Germany SANDRA WEIL Store, Mexico City, Mexico TROQUER FASHION HOUSE, Mexico City, Mexico CASA VERNE, Mexico City, Mexico CASA HILO, Mexico The following statistics helped Zeller & Moye achieve 19th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 5 Total Projects 12 18. Ippolito Fleitz Group – Identity Architects © Ippolito Fleitz Group - Identity Architects Ippolito fleitz group is a multidisciplinary, internationally operating design studio based in Stuttgart.We are identity architects. We work in unison with our clients to develop architecture, products and communication that are part of a whole and yet distinctive in their own right. This is how we define identity.With meticulous analysis before we begin.With animated examination in the conceptional phase. With a clarity of argument in the act of persuasion.With a love of accuracy in the realisation.With a serious goal and a lot of fun along the way. Working together with our clients.As architects of identity, we conceive and construct buildings, interiors and landscapes; we develop products and communication measures. Some of Ippolito Fleitz Group – Identity Architects’ most prominent projects include: Das GERBER, Stuttgart, Germany Hunke – Jewellers and Opticians, Ludwigsburg, Germany Bella Italia Weine, Stuttgart, Germany ippolito fleitz group | Residential Building, Denkendorf, Germany WakuWaku Dammtor, Hamburg, Germany The following statistics helped Ippolito Fleitz Group - Identity Architects achieve 18th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Finalist 1 Featured Projects 4 Total Projects 26 17. VON M © Zooey Braun VON M is an architecture and design firm based in Germany. VON M’s design portfolio includes a variety of architectural projects, such as cultural, residential, educational, commercial, hospitality and sport, and more. Some of VON M’s most prominent projects include: Museum Luthers Sterbehaus, Eisleben, Germany BHM Pavillon, Wolfegg, Germany Kinder- und Familienzentrum, Ludwigsburg, Germany Hotel Bauhofstrasse, Ludwigsburg, Germany HS77, Stuttgart, Germany The following statistics helped VON M achieve 17th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 6 Total Projects 11 16. Plastique Fantastique © Plastique Fantastique Plastique Fantastique is a collective for temporary architecture that samples the performative possibilities of urban environments. Established in Berlin in 1999, Plastique Fantastique has been influenced by the unique circumstances that made the city a laboratory for temporary spaces. Plastique Fantastique’s synthetic structures affect surrounding spaces like a soap bubble does: Similar to a foreign body, it occupies and mutates urban space. Their interventions change the way we perceive and interact in urban environments. By mixing different landscape types, an osmotic passage between private and public space is generating new hybrid environments.Regardless the way people view a bubble, walk around its exterior or move inside it, the pneumatic structure is a medium to experience the same physical setting in a temporary extraordinary situation. Some of Plastique Fantastique’s most prominent projects include: LOUD SHADOWS, Terschelling, Netherlands Blurry Venice, Venice, Italy Aeropolis, Copenhagen, Denmark superKOLMEMEN, Helsinki, Finland MOBILE PPS (Personal Protective Space) for Doctors The following statistics helped Plastique Fantastique achieve 16th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 5 Total Projects 5 15. 4a Architekten © 4a Architekten GmbH Shaping atmosphere, lending identity, creating quality of space — these are the values that characterize the buildings of 4a Architekten. The starting point and guiding principle of our work is the concept of architecture as living space. Our buildings come into being through intensive team work shaped by interdisciplinary thinking and action. What characterizes a location in terms of its culture and history? What are the client’s expectations and objectives? What is viable within the budget and what are the benefits for users? These questions and this approach bring us to solutions with an individual character — and they apply just as much to the planning of buildings as to the design of interior spaces. Some of 4a Architekten’s most prominent projects include: Therme Lindau on Lake Constance, Lindau, Germany Balingen Civic Hall, Balingen, Germany Emser Thermal Baths, Bad Ems, Germany Spreewald Spa Hotel, Burg, Germany Stegermatt Aquatic Centre, Offenburg, Germany The following statistics helped 4a Architekten achieve 15th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 7 Total Projects 15 14. schneider+schumacher © schneider+schumacher / Frankfurt - Vienna - Tianjin Our architectural approach is characterized by the enjoyment we have in finding solutions to the complex demands of today’s buildings. We adapt our buildings to fit into their surroundings, yet we also create landmarks. Pragmatic poetry, nurtured not only by design clarity and a conscientious attitude towards the task in hand, but also by a delight in fine details. This design process is constantly informed by the dialogue that takes place on a daily basis between the various professional disciplines in all our specialized divisions – architecture, construction and project management, design, a.o. — and international offices. schneider+schumacher is headquartered in Frankfurt (GE), and has two branches in Vienna (AU) and Tianjin (CN). Some of schneider+schumacher’s most prominent projects include: Autobahn Church, Wilnsdorf, Germany Oil Harbour Bridge, Raunheim, Germany DOXX – Quayside Development at Mainz Customs Port, Mainz, Germany Städel Museum Extension, Frankfurt, Germany Siegerland Motorway Church, Wilnsdorf, Wilnsdorf, Germany The following statistics helped schneider+schumacher achieve 14th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Winner 1 A+Awards Finalist 2 Featured Projects 5 Total Projects 12 13. ingenhoven associates © ingenhoven associates Celebrating 40 years of excellence since 1985, the studio is pioneer in sustainable architecture, designing and delivering projects of all sizes and typologies across nearly every region of the world, adhering to the highest green building standards, including LEED, Green Star, Minergie, BREEAM, DGNB and CASBEE. With a tailored approach to each location, the multinational, interdisciplinary team creates nuanced architectural solutions with added value and positive social impact. Some of ingenhoven associates’ most prominent projects include: Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Düsseldorf, Germany Freiburg Town Hall, Freiburg, Germany Kö-Bogen 2, Düsseldorf, Germany Marina One, Singapore, Singapore Daniel Swarovski Corporation, Männedorf, Switzerland The following statistics helped ingenhoven associates achieve 13th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Finalist 2 Featured Projects 5 Total Projects 28 12. gmp · Architects von Gerkan, Marg und Partner © HG Esch Photography The architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) are an architectural practice that was founded in Hamburg and has branches worldwide. With our generalist approach and more than 50 years of experience, we complete projects in dialogue with our clients and the participating planning disciplines, at all scales and cultural contexts, covering all design phases and working on all continents. The range of our projects extends from family residences to high-rise buildings, from stadiums to concert halls, from office buildings to bridges, and from door hardware to urban planning. With holistic sustainability in mind, we aim to create new and refurbished architecture that is long-lasting and goes beyond temporary fashions, taking into account the global challenges and issues of urbanization, digitalization, and mobility. Some of gmp · Architects von Gerkan, Marg und Partner’s most prominent projects include: Guna Villa, Jūrmala, Latvia Universiade 2011 Sports Center, Shenzhen, China Olympic Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine Olympic Stadium, Berlin, Germany Twin Towers, Commodity Exchange Plaza, Dalian, China The following statistics helped gmp · Architects von Gerkan, Marg und Partner achieve 12th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 8 Total Projects 36 11. kadawittfeldarchitektur © kadawittfeldarchitektur We are kadawittfeldarchitektur. Originally founded in Aachen in 1999, we today stand for more than just architectural design. The interdisciplinary approach of our work, linking architecture, interior and product design on the one hand and at the interface of town planning and urban projects on the other hand, reflects the full range of our creative output. kadawittfeldarchitektur develops added value space. In a team of more than 170 persons, we create architecture with added value space for living, communication and work environments. In the way we deal with volumes, materials, structures and functions, we strive to integrate our schemes into their surroundings with the objective of creating contemporary and sustainable architecture and meeting the needs of both the users and the general public. Some of kadawittfeldarchitektur’s most prominent projects include: CELTIC MUSEUM, Glauburg, Germany ADIDAS LACES, Herzogenaurach, Germany SPZ, HALLEIN, Hallein, Austria SENIOR CITIZENS RESIDENCE ALTENMARKT, Altenmarkt im Pongau, Austria SALZBURG CENTRAL STATION, Salzburg, Austria The following statistics helped kadawittfeldarchitektur achieve 11th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 8 Total Projects 32 10. GRAFT © GRAFT What is graft? The English word ‘graft’ provokes a variety of meanings and multiple readings. It stands for transplants in the field of medicine, for cheating, but also for hard work.  In the terminology of botany, grafting is described as the addition of one shoot onto a genetically different host. Some of GRAFT’s most prominent projects include: Ice Stadion “Arena Schierke”, Wernigerode, Germany Show Palace Munich, Munich, Germany Autostadt Roof and Service Pavilion, Wolfsburg, Germany Eiswerk, Berlin, Germany Villa M , Berlin, Germany The following statistics helped GRAFT achieve 10th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Finalist 2 Featured Projects 7 Total Projects 17 9. HENN © HENN HENN is an international architecture studio with over 75 years of experience in designing innovative work environments across office, science, healthcare, industry, education, and culture. An interdisciplinary team of 400 professionals works from offices in Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, and Shanghai. The design process is collaborative and driven by curiosity. HENN draws from the rich expertise of three generations and a global network of partners. All three generations share a common mindset: openness and curiosity. This spirit drives the studio to continuously question and redefine architectural typologies. HENN was founded in 1947 by Walter Henn in Dresden. Early on, he specialized in industrial buildings and played a key role in establishing the Braunschweig School through his academic work. Some of HENN’s most prominent projects include: Porsche Pavilion, Wolfsburg, Germany Zalando Headquarters Berlin, Berlin, Germany Bugatti Atelier, Molsheim, France MobileLife Campus, Wolfsburg, Germany The CUBE, Dresden, Germany The following statistics helped HENN achieve 9th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Winner 2 A+Awards Finalist 2 Featured Projects 6 Total Projects 30 8. Auer Weber © Aldo Amoretti Photography Founded in 1980, we are an internationally active architectural firm with offices in Stuttgart and Munich. We employ around 150 people from 20 countries and work on projects of various sizes and tasks from initial design through to completion. Each year, we create entries for between 30 and 40 competitions in our two offices, from which we generate a large proportion of our orders. These range from buildings for the community to educational and administrative buildings, sports and leisure facilities and large infrastructure projects. The diversity of our architecture is the result of in-depth study of the building tasks and where these tasks originate. Some of Auer Weber’s most prominent projects include: Aquatic Centre “Aquamotion” Courchevel , Saint-Bon-Tarentaise, France Arena du Pays d’Aix, Aix-en-Provence, France Extension of the District Office in Starnberg, Starnberg, Germany ESO Headquarters Extension, Garching, Germany Olympic Aquatics Stadium, Route de Torcy, France The following statistics helped Auer Weber achieve 8th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Winner 2 A+Awards Finalist 1 Featured Projects 9 Total Projects 24 7. Peter Ruge Architekten © Peter Ruge Architekten GmbH Identity+Sustainability=Architecture Peter Ruge Architekten is a locally and internationally active planning office based in Berlin. Our mission is simple: to develop and build sustainable architecture of the future. The agenda of the team along with three partners Peter Ruge, Kayoko Uchiyama and Matthias Matschewski includes new buildings, optimization of existing properties and urban planning designs. The projects are holistic, i.e. adapted to the climate, culture and needs of the users, and have received numerous awards and certifications. Our detailed understanding of sustainable design processes supports the decisions of our clients. In education field, Prof. Ruge shares our knowledge with a global design community at DIA, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences in Dessau, Shenyang Jianzhu University in China and Kyoto Seika University in Japan. Some of Peter Ruge Architekten’s most prominent projects include: Busan Opera House, South Korea, Busan, South Korea Congress Center Hangzhou, Hangzhou, China House O, Germany, Potsdam-Mittelmark, Germany LTD_1 Hamburg, Germany, Hamburg, Germany Muzeum Lotnictwa Krakow, Poland The following statistics helped Peter Ruge Architekten achieve 7th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 12 Total Projects 18 6. HPP Architects © Christa Lachenmaier Photography HPP Architects is one of Europe’s leading architectural partnerships with a full range of architectural and master planning services. Since its foundation by Professor Hentrich, the 4th generation of HPP partnership today includes a global team of more than 25 nationalities and 480 architects, engineers, urban designers and specialists. Today it comprises 13 offices including 8 regional offices in Germany and 5 international branches in Turkey, China and Netherlands. HPP Architects’ headquarter is located in the Düsseldorf Media Harbor, further offices are located in Amsterdam, Beijing, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Istanbul, Leipzig, Munich, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Stuttgart. HPP completed more than 1200 buildings worldwide and aspires to create architectural quality of lasting value beyond the here and now: timeless and yet clearly part of their time, innovative and equally grounded in history. Some of HPP Architects’s most prominent projects include: LVM 5 , Münster, Germany Medical Library Oasis (O.A.S.E.), Düsseldorf, Germany Hochschule Ruhr West, Mülheim, Germany Henkel Asia-Pacific and China Headquarters, Shanghai, China Dreischeibenhaus, Düsseldorf, Germany The following statistics helped HPP Architects achieve 6th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Finalist 3 Featured Projects 12 Total Projects 25 5. Behnisch Architekten © David Matthiessen The Stuttgart-based practice known today as Behnisch Architekten was founded in 1989 under the leadership of Stefan Behnisch. Originally established as a branch office of Günter Behnisch’s practice Behnisch & Partner, it became independent in 1991 and has subsequently developed into an international practice with offices in Stuttgart, Munich, Los Angeles/California (1999 – 2011), and Boston. These offices are directed by Stefan Behnisch and his partners in varying combinations. The Partners are Robert Hösle, Robert Matthew Noblett and Stefan Rappold. Stefan Behnisch is involved in all three offices. From the outset, the social dimension of architecture has been a fundamental aspect of the firm’s design philosophy. Some of Behnisch Architekten’s most prominent projects include: SC Workplaces, California City of Santa Monica Public Parking Structure #6, Santa Monica, California Primary School Infanteriestrasse, München, Germany Harvard University Science and Engineering Complex, Boston, Massachusetts John and Frances Angelos Law Center, University of Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland The following statistics helped Behnisch Architekten achieve 5th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Finalist 9 Featured Projects 8 Total Projects 24 4. wulf architekten © Tobias Vollmer wulf architekten emerged from the architecture practice established 1987 in Stuttgart by Tobias Wulf. Currently the office is managed by Tobias Wulf, Jan-Michael Kallfaß, Ingmar Menzer and Steffen Vogt. From 1996 to 2018, Kai Bierich and Alexander Vohl were partners of Tobias Wulf at wulf architekten. Currently, the company has about 140 employees, nine of them being senior architects. With three office locations – Stuttgart, Berlin and Basel (CH) – wulf architekten is also working on projects abroad. Some of wulf architekten’s most prominent projects include: Parking Garage Facade P22a at the Cologne Exhibition Centre, Cologne, Germany Four primary schools in modular design, Munich, Germany School Center North, Stuttgart, Germany Canteen and Media Center for North vocational school center, Darmstadt, Germany Chamber of Industry and Commerce, headquarters, Stuttgart, Germany The following statistics helped wulf architekten achieve 4th place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Winner 1 A+Awards Finalist 1 Featured Projects 11 Total Projects 18 3. TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten © TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten GmbH TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten design, plan and build for national and international clients in the public and private sectors. The company, with offices in Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden, is named after Sergei Tchoban, architect BDA, and his partner Ekkehard Voss, architect BDA (1963-2024). With over 150 highly qualified, interdisciplinary employees and many years of experience, it offers architecturally and functionally sustainable solutions for a wide range of building projects in Germany and abroad. TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten is member of the Association of German Architects (BDA), the Chambers of Architects in Hamburg, Berlin and Saxony, the Förderverein Bundesstiftung Baukultur e.V. as well as of the European Architects Network (EAN). Some of TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten’s most prominent projects include: EDGE Suedkreuz Berlin, Berlin, Germany SKF Test Centre for large-scale bearings, Schweinfurt, Germany Seestraße, Berlin, Berlin, Germany Koenigstadt-Quartier, Berlin, Germany EMBASSY – Living alongside Koellnischer Park, Berlin, Berlin, Germany The following statistics helped TCHOBAN VOSS Architekten achieve 3rd place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Winner 1 A+Awards Finalist 6 Featured Projects 12 Total Projects 29 2. Barkow Leibinger © Barkow Leibinger The scope of Barkow Leibinger’s work spans from cultural projects to industrial ones. Their focus on industrial architecture includes master planning and building representational and functional buildings for production, logistical and office spaces. Some of Barkow Leibinger’s most prominent projects include: Production Hall Trumpf, Hettingen, Germany Stadthaus M1 – Green City Hotel, Freiburg, Germany Harvard ArtLab, Boston, Massachusetts Production Hall, Grüsch, Switzerland Fraunhofer Research Campus, Waischenfeld, Germany The following statistics helped Barkow Leibinger achieve 2nd place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: Featured Projects 12 Total Projects 17 1. J.MAYER.H © J.MAYER.H J. MAYER H’s studio, focuses on works at the intersection of architecture, communication and new technology. From urban planning schemes and buildings to installation work and objects with new materials, the relationship between the human body, technology and nature form the background for a new production of space. Some of J.MAYER.H’s most prominent projects include: MIAMI MUSEUM GARAGE, Miami, Florida n.n. Residence, Moscow, Russia Hasselt Court House , Hasselt, Belgium Highway Rest Stops, Tbilisi, Georgia Rest Stops, Gori, Georgia Featured image: Tram Stops, Kehl, Germany The following statistics helped J.MAYER.H achieve 1st place in the 30 Best Architecture Firms in Germany: A+Awards Winner 5 A+Awards Finalist 3 Featured Projects 19 Total Projects 30 Why Should I Trust Architizer’s Ranking? With more than 30,000 architecture firms and over 130,000 projects within its database, Architizer is proud to host the world’s largest online community of architects and building product manufacturers. Its celebrated A+Awards program is also the largest celebration of architecture and building products, with more than 400 jurors and hundreds of thousands of public votes helping to recognize the world’s best architecture each year. Architizer also powers firm directories for a number of AIA (American Institute of Architects) Chapters nationwide, including the official directory of architecture firms for AIA New York. An example of a project page on Architizer with Project Award Badges highlighted A Guide to Project Awards The blue “+” badge denotes that a project has won a prestigious A+Award as described above. Hovering over the badge reveals details of the award, including award category, year, and whether the project won the jury or popular choice award. The orange Project of the Day and yellow Featured Project badges are awarded by Architizer’s Editorial team, and are selected based on a number of factors. The following factors increase a project’s likelihood of being featured or awarded Project of the Day status: Project completed within the last 3 years A well written, concise project description of at least 3 paragraphs Architectural design with a high level of both functional and aesthetic value High quality, in focus photographs At least 8 photographs of both the interior and exterior of the building Inclusion of architectural drawings and renderings Inclusion of construction photographs There are 7 Projects of the Day each week and a further 31 Featured Projects. Each Project of the Day is published on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram Stories, while each Featured Project is published on Facebook. Each Project of the Day also features in Architizer’s Weekly Projects Newsletter and shared with 170,000 subscribers.     We’re constantly look for the world’s best architects to join our community. If you would like to understand more about this ranking list and learn how your firm can achieve a presence on it, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at editorial@architizer.com. The post 30 Best Architecture and Design Firms in Germany appeared first on Journal.

One of the key use cases for generative AI involves answering questions over private datasets, with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) as the go-to framework. As new RAG techniques emerge, there’s a growing need to benchmark their performance across diverse datasets and metrics.  To meet this need, we’re introducing BenchmarkQED, a new suite of tools that automates RAG benchmarking at scale, available on GitHub (opens in new tab). It includes components for query generation, evaluation, and dataset preparation, each designed to support rigorous, reproducible testing.   BenchmarkQED complements the RAG methods in our open-source GraphRAG library, enabling users to run a GraphRAG-style evaluation across models, metrics, and datasets. GraphRAG uses a large language model (LLM) to generate and summarize entity-based knowledge graphs, producing more comprehensive and diverse answers than standard RAG for large-scale tasks.  In this post, we walk through the core components of BenchmarkQED that contribute to the overall benchmarking process. We also share some of the latest benchmark results comparing our LazyGraphRAG system to competing methods, including a vector-based RAG with a 1M-token context window, where the leading LazyGraphRAG configuration showed significant win rates across all combinations of quality metrics and query classes. In the paper, we distinguish between local queries, where answers are found in a small number of text regions, and sometimes even a single region, and global queries, which require reasoning over large portions of or even the entire dataset.  Conventional vector-based RAG excels at local queries because the regions containing the answer to the query resemble the query itself and can be retrieved as the nearest neighbor in the vector space of text embeddings. However, it struggles with global questions, such as, “What are the main themes of the dataset?” which require understanding dataset qualities not explicitly stated in the text.   AutoQ: Automated query synthesis This limitation motivated the development of GraphRAG a system designed to answer global queries. GraphRAG’s evaluation requirements subsequently led to the creation of AutoQ, a method for synthesizing these global queries for any dataset. AutoQ extends this approach by generating synthetic queries across the spectrum of queries, from local to global. It defines four distinct classes based on the source and scope of the query (Figure 1, top) forming a logical progression along the spectrum (Figure 1, bottom). Figure 1. Construction of a 2×2 design space for synthetic query generation with AutoQ, showing how the four resulting query classes map onto the local-global query spectrum.  AutoQ can be configured to generate any number and distribution of synthetic queries along these classes, enabling consistent benchmarking across datasets without requiring user customization. Figure 2 shows the synthesis process and sample queries from each class, using an AP News dataset. Figure 2. Synthesis process and example query for each of the four AutoQ query classes.  About Microsoft Research Advancing science and technology to benefit humanity View our story Opens in a new tab AutoE: Automated evaluation framework  Our evaluation of GraphRAG focused on analyzing key qualities of answers to global questions. The following qualities were used for the current evaluation: Comprehensiveness: Does the answer address all relevant aspects of the question?  Diversity: Does it present varied perspectives or insights?  Empowerment: Does it help the reader understand and make informed judgments?  Relevance: Does it address what the question is specifically asking?   The AutoE component scales evaluation of these qualities using the LLM-as-a-Judge method. It presents pairs of answers to an LLM, along with the query and target metric, in counterbalanced order. The model determines whether the first answer wins, loses, or ties with the second. Over a set of queries, whether from AutoQ or elsewhere, this produces win rates between competing methods. When ground truth is available, AutoE can also score answers on correctness, completeness, and related metrics. An illustrative evaluation is shown in Figure 3. Using a dataset of 1,397 AP News articles on health and healthcare, AutoQ generated 50 queries per class (200 total). AutoE then compared LazyGraphRAG to a competing RAG method, running six trials per query across four metrics, using GPT-4.1 as a judge. These trial-level results were aggregated using metric-based win rates, where each trial is scored 1 for a win, 0.5 for a tie, and 0 for a loss, and then averaged to calculate the overall win rate for each RAG method. Figure 3. Win rates of four LazyGraphRAG (LGR) configurations across methods, broken down by the AutoQ query class and averaged across AutoE’s four metrics: comprehensiveness, diversity, empowerment, and relevance. LazyGraphRAG outperforms comparison conditions where the bar is above 50%. The four LazyGraphRAG conditions (LGR_b200_c200, LGR_b50_c200, LGR_b50_c600, LGR_b200_c200_mini) differ by query budget (b50, b200) and chunk size (c200, c600). All used GPT-4o mini for relevance tests and GPT-4o for query expansion (to five subqueries) and answer generation, except for LGR_b200_c200_mini, which used GPT-4o mini throughout. Comparison systems were GraphRAG (Local, Global, and Drift Search), Vector RAG with 8k- and 120k-token windows, and three published methods: LightRAG (opens in new tab), RAPTOR (opens in new tab), and TREX (opens in new tab). All methods were limited to the same 8k tokens for answer generation. GraphRAG Global Search used level 2 of the community hierarchy. LazyGraphRAG outperformed every comparison condition using the same generative model (GPT-4o), winning all 96 comparisons, with all but one reaching statistical significance. The best overall performance came from the larger budget, smaller chunk size configuration (LGR_b200_c200). For DataLocal queries, the smaller budget (LGR_b50_c200) performed slightly better, likely because fewer chunks were relevant. For ActivityLocal queries, the larger chunk size (LGR_b50_c600) had a slight edge, likely because longer chunks provide a more coherent context. Competing methods performed relatively better on the query classes for which they were designed: GraphRAG Global for global queries, Vector RAG for local queries, and GraphRAG Drift Search, which combines both strategies, posed the strongest challenge overall. Increasing Vector RAG’s context window from 8k to 120k tokens did not improve its performance compared to LazyGraphRAG. This raised the question of how LazyGraphRAG would perform against Vector RAG with 1-million token context window containing most of the dataset. Figure 4 shows the follow-up experiment comparing LazyGraphRAG to Vector RAG using GPT-4.1 that enabled this comparison. Even against the 1M-token window, LazyGraphRAG achieved higher win rates across all comparisons, failing to reach significance only for the relevance of answers to DataLocal queries. These queries tend to benefit most from Vector RAG’s ranking of directly relevant chunks, making it hard for LazyGraphRAG to generate answers that have greater relevance to the query, even though these answers may be dramatically more comprehensive, diverse, and empowering overall. Figure 4. Win rates of LazyGraphRAG (LGR) over Vector RAG across different context window sizes, broken down by the four AutoQ query classes and four AutoE metrics: comprehensiveness, diversity, empowerment, and relevance. Bars above 50% indicate that LazyGraphRAG outperformed the comparison condition.  AutoD: Automated data sampling and summarization Text datasets have an underlying topical structure, but the depth, breadth, and connectivity of that structure can vary widely. This variability makes it difficult to evaluate RAG systems consistently, as results may reflect the idiosyncrasies of the dataset rather than the system’s general capabilities. The AutoD component addresses this by sampling datasets to meet a target specification, defined by the number of topic clusters (breadth) and the number of samples per cluster (depth). This creates consistency across datasets, enabling more meaningful comparisons, as structurally aligned datasets lead to comparable AutoQ queries, which in turn support consistent AutoE evaluations. AutoD also includes tools for summarizing input or output datasets in a way that reflects their topical coverage. These summaries play an important role in the AutoQ query synthesis process, but they can also be used more broadly, such as in prompts where context space is limited. Since the release of the GraphRAG paper, we’ve received many requests to share the dataset of the Behind the Tech (opens in new tab) podcast transcripts we used in our evaluation. An updated version of this dataset is now available in the BenchmarkQED repository (opens in new tab), alongside the AP News dataset containing 1,397 health-related articles, licensed for open release.   We hope these datasets, together with the BenchmarkQED tools (opens in new tab), help accelerate benchmark-driven development of RAG systems and AI question-answering. We invite the community to try them on GitHub (opens in new tab).  Opens in a new tab

Remember that time when good ol’ Peter Parker called a drone strike on his classmates because another guy was flirting with MJ? Well, the artificial intelligence that made it happen is back, this time in snarky Canadian form! Deadline is reporting that Schitt’s Creek alum Emily Hampshire has been cast as E.D.I.T.H. in Vision Quest, the upcoming Disney+ series starring Paul Bettany as the synthezoid Avenger. E.D.I.T.H., of course, made her debut as a pair of ugly, gaudy sunglasses the late Tony Stark bequeathed to Peter in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Through E.D.I.T.H., Peter had access to vast technological resources, resources that Mysterio wanted to use for himself. At the end of Far From Home, Peter reclaimed the E.D.I.T.H. glasses and in Spider-Man: No Way Home, a screen readout assured us that they were inactive. Moreover, No Way Home ends with Peter having his secret identity wiped from everyone’s memory and a closing shot of him hand-stitching his own costume in a dingy New York apartment, suggeting that the MCU experiment of making working-class Peter Parker into the scion of a tech bro was done. That may still be true, in which case Vision Quest is a much better place for E.D.I.T.H. to exist. Created by Terry Matalas, showrunner of the Twelve Monkeys TV series and the third season of Star Trek: Picard, Vision Quest will follow the next phase in the life of the synthezoid Vision, who was killed in Avengers: Infinity War and resurrected as an initially evil clone in WandaVision. The title Vision Quest comes from a 1989-1990 arc of West Coast Avengers, written and penciled by John Byrne, in which the U.S. government dismantles Vision and recreates him into a mindless and easily controllable form, signified by his new bleach white look. Fans of the MCU will recognize that storyline from the last episodes of WandaVision, in which S.A.B.E.R. did the same thing to Bettany’s character. However, the Vision Quest comics continued to tell the story of Vision attempting to recover the humanity and personality he’d previously gained over the years, which will presumably be the plot of Vision Quest. However, E.D.I.T.H.’s casting is just the latest in a host of synthetic characters who will appear in the show. James Spader will return as Vision’s creator Ultron, and T’Nia Miller has joined the show as Jocasta, a female synthezoid originally created as Ultron’s bride. A few humans will show up as well, including the return of Faran Tahir as Raza, the leader of the Ten Rings terrorist cell, last seen in Iron Man, and frequent Matalas collaborator Todd Stashwick as a mystery man hunting Vision. That’s a packed cast, but as anyone who recalls the Picard season 3 episode in which androids Data and Lore merged, Matalas knows how to tell an interesting story about artificial intelligence. That episode also showed that Matalas knows how to add levity to heavy conversations about existence, making Hampshire’s casting as E.D.I.T.H. a wise choice. Just don’t let her anywhere near another school bus full of teenagers. Vision Quest is slated to appear on Disney+ in 2026.

Text embedding and reranking are foundational to modern information retrieval systems, powering applications such as semantic search, recommendation systems, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). However, current approaches often face key challenges—particularly in achieving both high multilingual fidelity and task adaptability without relying on proprietary APIs. Existing models frequently fall short in scenarios requiring nuanced semantic understanding across multiple languages or domain-specific tasks like code retrieval and instruction following. Moreover, most open-source models either lack scale or flexibility, while commercial APIs remain costly and closed. Qwen3-Embedding and Qwen3-Reranker: A New Standard for Open-Source Embedding Alibaba’s Qwen Team has unveiled the Qwen3-Embedding and Qwen3-Reranker Series—models that set a new benchmark in multilingual text embedding and relevance ranking. Built on the Qwen3 foundation models, the series includes variants in 0.6B, 4B, and 8B parameter sizes and supports a wide range of languages (119 in total), making it one of the most versatile and performant open-source offerings to date. These models are now open-sourced under the Apache 2.0 license on Hugging Face, GitHub, and ModelScope, and are also accessible via Alibaba Cloud APIs. These models are optimized for use cases such as semantic retrieval, classification, RAG, sentiment analysis, and code search—providing a strong alternative to existing solutions like Gemini Embedding and OpenAI’s embedding APIs. Technical Architecture Qwen3-Embedding models adopt a dense transformer-based architecture with causal attention, producing embeddings by extracting the hidden state corresponding to the [EOS] token. Instruction-awareness is a key feature: input queries are formatted as {instruction} {query}<|endoftext|>, enabling task-conditioned embeddings. The reranker models are trained with a binary classification format, judging document-query relevance in an instruction-guided manner using a token likelihood-based scoring function. The models are trained using a robust multi-stage training pipeline: Large-scale weak supervision: 150M synthetic training pairs generated using Qwen3-32B, covering retrieval, classification, STS, and bitext mining across languages and tasks. Supervised fine-tuning: 12M high-quality data pairs are selected using cosine similarity (>0.7), fine-tuning performance in downstream applications. Model merging: Spherical linear interpolation (SLERP) of multiple fine-tuned checkpoints ensures robustness and generalization. This synthetic data generation pipeline enables control over data quality, language diversity, task difficulty, and more—resulting in a high degree of coverage and relevance in low-resource settings. Performance Benchmarks and Insights The Qwen3-Embedding and Qwen3-Reranker series demonstrate strong empirical performance across several multilingual benchmarks. On MMTEB (216 tasks across 250+ languages), Qwen3-Embedding-8B achieves a mean task score of 70.58, surpassing Gemini and GTE-Qwen2 series. On MTEB (English v2): Qwen3-Embedding-8B reaches 75.22, outperforming other open models including NV-Embed-v2 and GritLM-7B. On MTEB-Code: Qwen3-Embedding-8B leads with 80.68, excelling in applications like code retrieval and Stack Overflow QA. For reranking: Qwen3-Reranker-0.6B already outperforms Jina and BGE rerankers. Qwen3-Reranker-8B achieves 81.22 on MTEB-Code and 72.94 on MMTEB-R, marking state-of-the-art performance. Ablation studies confirm the necessity of each training stage. Removing synthetic pretraining or model merging led to significant performance drops (up to 6 points on MMTEB), emphasizing their contributions. Conclusion Alibaba’s Qwen3-Embedding and Qwen3-Reranker Series present a robust, open, and scalable solution to multilingual and instruction-aware semantic representation. With strong empirical results across MTEB, MMTEB, and MTEB-Code, these models bridge the gap between proprietary APIs and open-source accessibility. Their thoughtful training design—leveraging high-quality synthetic data, instruction-tuning, and model merging—positions them as ideal candidates for enterprise applications in search, retrieval, and RAG pipelines. By open-sourcing these models, the Qwen team not only pushes the boundaries of language understanding but also empowers the broader community to innovate on top of a solid foundation. Check out the Paper, Technical details, Qwen3-Embedding and Qwen3-Reranker. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also, feel free to follow us on Twitter and don’t forget to join our 95k+ ML SubReddit and Subscribe to our Newsletter. Asif RazzaqWebsite |  + postsBioAsif Razzaq is the CEO of Marktechpost Media Inc.. As a visionary entrepreneur and engineer, Asif is committed to harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence for social good. His most recent endeavor is the launch of an Artificial Intelligence Media Platform, Marktechpost, which stands out for its in-depth coverage of machine learning and deep learning news that is both technically sound and easily understandable by a wide audience. 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