The practice has designed the world's largest dedicated astronomy museum in Shanghai, China, with a composition of sweeping concentric lines mimicking planetary orbits.
A sequence of curving paths and bridges form a route between courtyards surrounded by water at this landscaping project created by Qidi Design Group for a development in Danyang, China.
The Sunac Yunyang in Huanan project was created by landscape design firm Qidi Design Group as part of a sales centre commissioned by property developer Sunac China Holdings Limited.
The landscape project by Qidi Design Group surrounds a sales centre building
The design creates a quiet and welcoming space for visitors to the sales office building, which is situated in a busy urban setting. The project features on the shortlist in the landscape project category of Dezeen Awards 2021.
The Sunac Yunyang development is located within the Danyang High-Tech Zone – a new government-planned district to the south of the city centre.
Water flows across the site between paved and landscaped areas
The landscaping comprises a sequence of six zones connected by the presence of water, which flows across the entire site to emphasise the importance of water in Danyang's history.
From the street outside, a wall clad in stone panels offers glimpses of the gardens through narrow vertical openings. A curved surface made from shimmering glass tiles draws the eye towards the main entrance at one end.
Low-lying footbridges cross bodies of water and connect different areas of the gardens
Steps at the entrance connect with a sheltered path where light penetrates through the openings in the external wall, creating a pattern of light and shadow on the floor.
The path extends around the edge of a mirror pool that creates an effect of stars reflecting on the water at night. A sunken planter incorporated into the pond contains a tree, and a curved bridge passes a sculpture made from metal rings and glass disks.
The path leads to an entrance at the centre of the two-storey sales pavilion before re-emerging on the other side to connect with a larger landscaped garden.
This area is reminiscent of traditional Chinese gardens and features a series of leaf-shaped planted platforms that jut out into a stepped waterscape.
The Sunac Yunyang in Huanan takes cues from traditional Chinese gardens
"The multi-level stacking of waterscapes is both ornamental and playful," the designers suggested. "When the light is sprinkled, the shadows of the green trees are mottled and vividly nostalgic."
The path connects with terraces where meetings and events can be held among trees overlooking the water. It continues over a bridge, passing a water feature comprising two stacked troughs that allow water to trickle down before reaching the pools below.
Paved areas are adjoined to landscaped areas for meeting and socialising
At the far end of the garden, a pair of model houses provide a vision of life in the new development, with each building looking out onto the adjacent water and greenery.
Other landscape projects with winding paths include Piet Oudolf's garden at the Vitra Campus in Germany that aims to complement the site's architecture.
This minimalist chapel outside of Monterrey in northern Mexico by WRKSHP was designed with a limited palette of materials that allow natural light to define the spacious interiors.
Fuego Nuevo chapel was completed earlier this year, after the firm was commissioned directly by the congregation of El Uro, on the outskirts of Monterrey. The area is set at a high altitude, surrounded by the Sierra Madre mountain range.
The chapel is reached via an elevated plaza
WRKSHP was initially engaged for the project in 2014, and spent the subsequent years working closely with the community to design the 1,265-square-metre chapel.
"Many of the church's resources have come from donations from parishioners and some foundations, so we also aimed to work with low-maintenance materials that could age with dignity," explained the Monterrey-based architects. "When the project was presented to the community, it was very well received."
It is located on the outskirts of Monterrey
The project is laid out on two levels. A partially sunken lower floor is accessible directly from the street, and contains a multi-purpose room and the ossuaries at the back of the space, which are meant to be the most private areas of the building.
Above the multi-purpose room, the architects created an elevated plaza that worshippers reach via a long ramp along the facade. "Here, an evergreen oak was planted that was donated by the community," they explained.
The facade is made from board-formed concrete
The entrance to the chapel is from this new plaza. The main facade is made of board-formed concrete, a material that references Monterrey's industrial heritage.
The nave is a double-height space that is defined by the deep structural beams that span the width of the chapel. This design allows for a layout without intermediate columns.
"[The structure] remains as bare and heavy elements [that] are constantly repeated, generating a rhythm of solids and voids that allows natural light to play its role as a protagonist," said WRKSHP.
Between each column, tall glass walls offer views of the surrounding mountainous landscape.
Structural beams span the width of the chapel
The beams, meanwhile, also integrate clerestory windows that bring even more light to the interiors.
The altar was designed in collaboration with local craftsman Alfredo Zertuche. A large black slab of Monterrey marble was sourced from a nearby quarry in Cerro del Topo Chico, and is backed by a curved wall of wooden slats made of walnut.
A marble altar is positioned at one end of the nave
A report titled Social Mobility in the Creative Economy by the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre reveals that 73 per cent of workers in the UK architecture industry are classed as privileged.
Architectural careers such as architects, town planning officers, and technicians rank as number one in the study's list of the 25 most elite occupations in the UK.
"Architecture is a tremendous amount of work for a minimal salary"
Commenters aren't convinced. "As an underpaid architect in my late 40s, who held down a part-time job whilst working my way through architecture school, I struggle with my privilege every day," joked Jay Cee.
Alfred Hitchcock continued: "I'm from an underprivileged working-class background and I worked my way through my education and paid for it myself. Public perception of architects' earnings has no bearing on reality."
"You are looking at the problem the wrong way," added Jacapo. "Architecture is a tremendous amount of work for a minimal salary. Only rich kids will be able to deal with the work for free mentality around this profession."
Felix Tannenbaun agreed: "Architecture students need huge blocks of uninterrupted time for thinking and for crafting. The work that is expected of them is intense. This time and work requirement weeds out those who are exhausted from side work. This paired with relatively low wages skews the demographic to those who have a background that allows both."
"Gehry," said Hosta, "still one of a few architects doing anything remotely interesting."
Siphonophoros agreed: "It's beautiful, grand, imaginative, ambitious, decadent, humorous, provocative, and it irritates the commoners. What's not to like?"
"Anyone could design a massive jumbled sculpture, but not anyone can make it function as a building," concluded BSL. "I'm not a fan of the aesthetics, but I've got to hand to Frank, no one does it like him."
Reader thinks Denver housing complex screams "look at me"
Commenters are debating a small housing complex in Denver, Colorado, that provides eight units with shared amenities on a lot that would typically accommodate only two single-family homes.
"It screams 'look at me, I am so minimal'", said Karol B.
Archi was also unsure: "So when one family is eating dinner, and another family is watching a movie, do they just wave at each other between the all-glass wall?"
"I think you're missing the point," replied Eric. "It's not intended to be two distinct, traditional single-family dwellings. Each building contains three units with a shared kitchen/living room. It's supposed to be a communal living arrangement."
Commenter calls "carbon negative" skyscraper "a huge achievement"
Readers are divided over a timber development in Sweden, which features the world's second-tallest wooden tower. White Arkitekter claims the tower will be carbon negative over its lifetime.
"Call me a grouch but gosh, that's unattractive," said Pixinator. "I do like the sustainability of timber construction but I really dislike the inevitably unfinished-looking aesthetic."
Bunker Mentality agreed: "Looks like a really not well-aged example of a mid-seventies, small-town, power station."
"A carbon-negative building is a huge, huge achievement," replied a less cynical Z-Dog. "Sometimes we see the work of high-tech architects like Grimshaw or Renzo Piano as pointing towards the future of architecture. I think buildings like this may give a snapshot of the ways we will be working in 15-20 years' time."
Dezeen is the world's most commented architecture and design magazine, receiving thousands of comments each month from readers. Keep up to date on the latest discussions on our comments page.
CLB Architects has completed a holiday home in Wyoming's Teton mountain range, drawing references from settler communities that were built as the United States expanded further West.
The property is named Five Shadows after the five distinct volumes that make up the 12,800 square-foot (1,100 square metres) estate. "The house, reminiscent of a homesteader's settlement, is composed of five connected, symmetrical, agrarian-inspired forms," said CLB Architects.
Five Shadows was built by CLB Architects and is comprised of multiple volumes
The term refers to the Homestead Acts, a set of laws in the United States enacted after the civil war that allowed any adult male to claim up to 160 acres (65 hectares) of government land as private farmland.
This spurred the development of the country's Western frontier, including what's known today as Wyoming. These settlements were often built with modest means, and were characterised by simple gabled roofs.
The different volumes of the home were organised around a large terraced area
CLB Architect's project is a single-family home, which lays out the owner's program into several similar volumes laid out around a series of exterior terraces and a pool.
"Slightly elevated above neighbors, the compound imparts a feeling of privacy, screens nearby buildings through structural orientation and strategic window placement, and takes in broad views across the valley to the Gros Ventre Range," said the studio, which is based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Bozeman, Montana.
Rooms are connected by wood-clad and glazed corridors
"The largest form hosts the public spaces, while the peripheral volumes capitalize on privacy for bedrooms and a den," the architects explained.
Three of these buildings, which are connected by glazed walkways, contain four of the home's bedrooms. The last structure is off to the side, and contains a pool house.
"The layout of the multiple buildings lends an elegance to the flow, while the relationship between spaces fosters a sense of intimacy," according to the architects. In the clearings between the buildings, the architects included a range of different spaces, such as an outdoor dining area and lounge.
Guests enter the home via a double-height glass lobby, where a monolithic black door on an offset pivot is framed by two large cabinets for storing coats. A gallery then leads to the main part of the home, for entertaining guests.
An open-tread staircase leads upstairs, where there are two additional bedrooms that bring the total to six.
The interiors have a neutral palette and use woods and stone
Here, two separate living rooms at either end of the main gabled structure frame a large dining area, allowing for several groups to gather at once. To delineate the space, the architects include two fireplaces that help separate these areas from one another.
The interiors, which were designed by Philip Nimmo, feature a bright palette of rift-sawn white oak boards on the walls, floors, and ceilings, with black steel detailing and a stone that matches the exterior cladding. The restrained choice of materials emphasises the home's "deep connection to the outdoors".
