Contemporary architecture has learned to celebrate living matter. Mycelium panels, algae systems, living walls, life is now welcomed into buildings, framed as innovation. Yet the same discipline that celebrates these organisms treats mold as contamination. Both are biological. Both respond to moisture, temperature, and material conditions. The difference is not scientific. It is about which forms of life architecture is willing to accept, and which it prefers to remove.

Mold is not limited to abandoned buildings or poorly maintained interiors. It appears in homes, schools, offices, historic structures, and new construction, across different climates and contexts. This makes it harder to ignore as a minor or isolated problem. If mold keeps returning, what is it telling us about the environments buildings create?

• architects: Kerry Kounnapis Architecture Practice
• Location: 22 Ridgeway Place, Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia
• Project Year: 2024
• Photographs: Tom Ross
• Area: 43.0 m2

• architects: Chenin Studio
• Location: Shiraz, Iran
• Project Year: 2022
• Photographs: Arash Akhtaran
• Area: 120.0 m2

• architects: Perkins&Will
• Location: Shenzhen, China
• Project Year: 2026
• Photographs: RAWVISION studio
• Area: 59000.0 m2

• architects: Sher Maker
• Location: Tambon Si Phum, Chiang Mai, Thailand
• Project Year: 2025
• Photographs: Rungkit Chareonwat
• Area: 285.0 m2

• architects: Luís Loureiro Arquiteto
• Location: Adeganha, Portugal
• Project Year: 2023
• Photographs: Nelson Garrido
• Area: 2700.0 m2

• architects: Poik Stanley Wilcox Architects
• Location: 1590 Evermore Way Orlando, FL 32836, United States
• Project Year: 2024
• Photographs: Timothy Hursley
• Photographs: Chad Baumer
• Area: 31000.0 ft2

• architects: W O V E N Architecture and Design
• Location: Salt Spring Island, BC , Canada
• Project Year: 2023
• Photographs: Genevieve Graham
• Area: 3166.0 ft2

Architecture continues to draw cities as though humans occupy them alone. Plans trace circulation routes, zoning maps assign functions, and buildings are evaluated according to human comfort, safety, and efficiency. Walking through cities across India and Southwest Asia reveals something much more complex. Dogs sleep beneath market stalls, monkeys move across rooftops, birds nest in temple towers and mosque façades, and insects pollinate urban landscapes hidden in plain sight. These species are woven into daily urban life as consistently as human occupants. Streets, courtyards, roofs, drainage systems, markets, and vacant lots are already occupied by multiple species simultaneously. Architectural thinking has been slower to account for this reality.

• architects: MVRDV
• Location: Eindhoven, The Netherlands
• Project Year: 2026
• Photographs: Ossip van Duivenbode

Produced on an industrial scale since the 19th century, steel has profoundly transformed the way we build. The combination of iron and small amounts of carbon has given rise to a material capable of combining mechanical strength, relative lightness, and constructive precision, making possible some of the major achievements of modern engineering and architecture. From skyscrapers and bridges to facades, roofs, and industrialized systems, few materials have had such a significant impact on shaping the built environment.

However, the quality of a material cannot be measured solely by its initial structural performance or its appearance at the time of delivery. Although buildings are often evaluated when they are completed, their true performance only reveals itself over time. Photographs record impeccable facades, newly installed surfaces, and spaces ready for use. The following decades, however, expose these constructions to solar radiation, rain, humidity, salinity, air pollution, and thermal variations. It is in this continuous contact with the environment that material choices are effectively put to the test.

Heatherwick Studio and SPPARC have unveiled the first phase of the transformation of Olympia, a historic exhibition complex in West London, into a mixed-use cultural destination. Originally opened in 1886, the Victorian landmark is undergoing a large-scale redevelopment that aims to reconnect the 14-acre site with the surrounding city through new public spaces, cultural venues, hospitality programs, and commercial facilities. The opening is marked by the completion of a new public canopy, which introduces elevated pedestrian circulation and serves as a gateway into the broader master plan while framing new views across Olympia's historic roofscape. The intervention forms part of a broader master plan that will be implemented through 2026 and 2027.

• architects: Obranegra Arquitectos
• Location: Retiro, Colombia
• Project Year: 2025
• Photography: Mauricio Carvajal
• Area: 655.0 m2

Shamballa, an 8-hectare open-air laboratory and research site dedicated to sustainable living and advanced architectural 3D printing, was inaugurated on June 8, 2026, in the hills of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. The project is a collaboration between WASP, a 3D printing technology company, and Olfattiva, an aromatherapy and botanical perfumery company, hosting a makers laboratory, a medicinal botanical garden, and "Itaca," a self-sufficient farm built using 3D printing. The building was designed as a model for 3D-printed construction, representing a certified and replicable structure. The outdoor areas host research and development centers, forming an experimental "ecosystem" to develop new ideas in bio-construction and sustainable living, along with automated gardens, rainwater harvesting systems, and initiatives focused on micro circular economies.

After Artemis II's return to Earth, NASA unveiled a new phased plan to establish a Moon Base. Although most of the media's attention went to rockets, budgets, and geopolitical competition, a quieter question was lingering for architects in the background: How can a human being actually live on the surface of the Moon, and for how long? The establishment of a permanent human presence on the Moon marks a fundamental shift in space exploration that requires a new architectural paradigm. In their presentation, NASA officials suggested the strategy would drift away from highly constrained, vehicle-dependent environments toward autonomous, site-adaptive, and eventually permanently habitable structures.

• architects: Arhitekti Počivašek Petranovič
• Location: , Slovenia
• Project Year: 2024
• Photographs: Urban Petranovič
• Area: 135.0 m2

• architects: Kerstin Thompson Architects
• Location: Healesville, Australia
• Project Year: 2024
• Photographs: Leo Showell
• Area: 2375.0 m2

• architects: OLI Architecture
• Location: Eryuan, Dali, China
• Project Year: 2024
• Photographs: Fangfang Tian
• Photographs: YunTuo
• Photographs: Yilong Zhao
• Photographs: Courtesy of OLI
• Area: 18726.0 m2