Archdaily

Reclaimed land is often presented as new ground: flat, available, and ready for architecture. It promises cities more space where space is scarce, allowing them to extend waterfronts and build cultural districts. Sometimes, these newly claimed lands may also develop into financial centers, create parks, and imagine futures beyond the limits of existing land. Yet reclaimed land is never simply land. It is an engineered surface, produced through fill, seawalls, drainage, and soil stabilization — a long-term negotiation with the water it claims to have displaced.

Every year since 1950, Japan has commissioned a temporary piece of state architecture to host the National Tree-Planting Festival—a significant ode to forest preservation that is rarely publicized outside the archipelago. The onodatesho, a ceremonial pavilion occupied by the Emperor and Empress, serves as the centerpiece of the event and is traditionally dismantled soon after the festivities end.

House Q is a monolithic concrete residence designed as a serene retreat for a middle-aged couple in Nghệ An, Vietnam. Set on a generous corner plot at a busy intersection, the house balances privacy and openness, creating a sanctuary that contrasts with the lively commercial surroundings nearby.

A Millennium Cross-Section on a Living Street — This project originates from a major breakthrough in the archaeological discovery and conservation practice at Bastion No. 11 of the Jingzhou City Wall. Since 2016, this section of the ancient wall had been listed for emergency conservation due to foundation settlement and structural cracking. During the repair process, a stratified structure of "walls built upon walls," spanning the Five Dynasties, Song, Ming, and Qing periods, was uncovered. This led to the approval by the National Cultural Heritage Administration for systematic archaeological excavation.

In the historic centre of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, this house turns the constraints of a narrow plot into an opportunity for spatial invention. An off-centre courtyard brings light and air into the interior and organises the spaces around it, breaking with conventional room divisions to create an open setting where economy and pleasure overlap. The narrowness of the site becomes a starting point for the design, shaping the layout, ventilation and everyday use of the house.

Designed to make the most of the native vegetation and enhance the natural beauty of the land, Casa Varanda was born from a careful listening to the place itself. The project was built on a spacious lot with a gentle slope and rich vegetation of Cerrado trees such as paineiras and other species.

Initiated in 2022, Zayma is a residential development comprising eleven units organized into three volumes articulated around a central courtyard. Conceived as the project's primary spatial device, the courtyard is more than a void between buildings; it is the element that establishes the relationships among the complex's diverse components. It organizes circulation, access, views, and shared spaces, while introducing vegetation, natural light, and ventilation into the heart of the project.

This project emerges from the dialogue between topography, material and the act of inhabiting. More than a response to a functional brief, the house seeks to interpret the site and inscribe within it a serene everyday experience, where space, light and time intertwine with natural ease.