In the editorial, “Architecture as Narrative,” Germane Barnes explains why for her practice, Studio Barnes, architecture is not just a form or technique but an anthropological and narrative practice. By listening to communities and highlighting untold stories, architecture becomes a tool of identity, memory, and cultural justice.
The Masters column recounts a meeting with Eduardo Souto de Moura at the Praemium Imperiale. Through his awards, memories, and personal reflections, the portrait that emerges shows an architect whose life and work are guided by attention to detail and the spaces shared by architecture, memory, and contemporaneity.
Michael Webb discusses Blue Works, the new LUMCON campus by EskewDumezRipple in Houma, Louisiana. Conceived as a dynamic, resilient space able to respond to future environmental challenges, this symbolic and functional building integrates research, teaching, and public engagement on marine sustainability.

Still in the United States, Andrea Steele Architecture’s L10 Center for Arts and Culture in Brooklyn, New York, was envisioned as social infrastructure intended to bring together historic institutions and public spaces. The project promotes inclusion, collaboration, and urban regeneration through culture.

In Philadelphia, MGA Partners’ design of the Academic Research Building for the Wharton School prioritizes urban continuity over simple stylistic imitation. The building integrates history, materials, and circulation in a dialogue that reflects the Philadelphia School tradition.

In Rome, Studio Transit has designed Camilluccia 535, a home that reinterprets the 20th-century Roman tradition, blending rationalism and organic expressiveness in a harmonious dialogue between architecture and nature.
Béchu & Associés approached its design of the new Institut Supérieur de Management, Dakar, as a vertical campus inspired by the symbolic Palaver Tree. It combines local identity, bioclimatic strategies, and social gathering spaces in an urban and cultural hub for the Senegalese capital.

Philip Jodidio examines the Naoshima New Museum of Art, Tadao Ando’s tenth design for the Benesse Art Site. Partly subterranean, the building weaves local tradition with contemporary language to create a space for dialogue between architecture and art. The building’s form reflects both the exhibits and the shared vision of patron Soichiro Fukutake.

In Toronto, Limberlost Place, designed by Moriyama Teshima Architects and Acton Ostry Architects at George Brown College, is a new engineered-timber building conceived as a living laboratory of sustainability and innovation that combines research, teaching, and advanced technologies in flexible, light-filled, low-impact architecture.

Heading to Mexico, El Encino, by Práctica Arquitectura, is a residence rooted in the mountain landscape. Built using local materials and with its volumes calibrated to blend with nature, the dwelling offers an essential and very human experience.

Studio VDGA’s Brick House in Pune reflects a picturesque aesthetic in contemporary architecture through attention to space and atmosphere. The home pairs a monomaterial façade with a multi-spatial interior to transform both function and tradition into a poetic and intimate perceptual experience.

Lever Architecture and Field Operations have updated Universal City, transforming a functional but fragmented complex into a coherent urban campus. At its heart, the new One Universal and The Commons buildings engage with the landscape and collective spaces, such as The Green and the Paseo, to create a sustainable environment that fosters creativity, interaction, and a sense of community.

THE PLAN 165, the sixth issue of 2025, opens with the editorial “Architecture as Narrative” by Germane Barnes. The featured projects include institutes, campuses, corporate headquarters, residential complexes, and homes. The issue also includes A... Read More