Natural Architecture
Architecture and design that integrates natural systems, materials, and ecological principles into built environments.
Clad in Clay
Along the Coast A narrative of architecture that emerges, rather than one that is imposed. Every land possesses its own narrative—one that has taken shape over time, under the sun, in the path of the wind, and through the interplay of water and earth—long before it ever hosted architecture. What we call the architectural identity of a land today is not merel
Interlacements: A Gallery Roofed in Strung Leaves That Paints With Interstitial Light
Dayana Ludlow's shortlisted Art-ade entry treats the gallery as an enclosed garden, filtering sun through foliage, slats and white frames.
Bayside Haven: A Stepped Hong Kong Tower Hollowed by an Atrium to Hold Nature at Its Core
A residential tower in Hong Kong treats people and nature as intertwined forces, then tests that idea through a carved void, lofted units and living walls.
Verne Arquitectura Sinks a Timber-Roofed Pelota Court into the Medieval Fabric of Aguilar de Codés
In Navarre, a semi-buried frontón replaces a ruined house in Aguilar de Codés, keeping its stone face while a timber truss sifts southern light.
Nests: A Woven Tower That Stacks Places to Rest High Above a Restless City
A column of tangled, spherical pods turns the bird's nest into a vertical refuge for sleep, standing apart from the glass towers around it.
Earthen Angularity: A Stepped Tower in Accra That Grows a Garden Through Its Core
Tapering floor plates on angled struts wrap a leaf-lined atrium, staging a meeting between vernacular ground and modern frame in Accra.
FMD Architects Sinks a Melbourne Family House into Its Slope Beneath a Garden Inspired by Babylon
In Melbourne's north-east, Babylonia Residence sinks 928 m² of timber, concrete and stone into a slope beneath a suspended rear garden.
Thermal Blue: A Hot Springs Complex Where Five Buildings Turn Inward Toward the Steam
Timber boardwalks, glazed treatment rooms and green roofs organize a terraced bathing landscape in which every building looks back at the water.
Circle of Nature: A Concrete Ring Lifted Over Hveragerði's Steaming Water
A closed circular plan on slender piers turns a hot spring into a shared centre for bathing, film, performance and quiet reflection.
Offhand Practice Folds a Natural History Cabinet of Curiosities into a Concrete Shell at Aranya Guangzhou
A 155 m² specimen shop at Jiulong Lake, Guangzhou, where walnut cabinetry and collected antiques sit inside raw concrete without pretending to be old.
Architecture as the Bridge to Nature: A Thermal Bath in Iceland You Can Walk Over
A ring of green roof, a crossing bridge and sunken pools turn an Icelandic bathhouse into a landscape trekkers walk across before they ever step inside.
Earth Made: A Rammed Earth Courtyard Housing Scheme Built Around a Stepped Water Kund
Three earthen bars frame a sunken, terraced pool in Gwalior, proposing that the oldest building material can still organise shared urban life.
Dom Arquitectura Sets a Stone-Pier House at the Top of a Costa Brava Slope to Give the Garden to the Pool
In Montràs on the Costa Brava, a 735 m² single-level home uses rubble stone piers, oak and deep porches to make outdoor living the daily default.
slóð: A Thermal Spa That Hands Its Roof Back to the Trail
A low concrete spa carries a walking path across its roof, tucking baths, saunas and stepped seats beneath it in a storm-filled valley.
Mono in Mist: A Castle Wall Rebuilt in Water Hides Three Sunken Meditation Gardens in Fukuoka
Below a public park of pools and mist, a waterfall-ringed basin turns meditation, hotel rooms and a castle-wall metaphor into one descending journey.
Austin Sandy Architects Turns a Dark Danville Ranch House Toward Its Garden with Oak, Concrete and Glass
In Danville, California, a chopped-up vintage T-plan ranch becomes a family home of oak slat screens, concrete floors and glass walls facing the garden.
Not a Number Architects Splits a Halkidiki Stone House into a Tower and a Long Wing Beneath Ancient Olive Trees
A 200 m² retreat in Halkidiki, Greece, reworks the rubble stone house as a tower, a planted bar and porches threaded through ancient olives.
Raulino Silva Turns His Grandparents' 1936 House in Rural Vila do Conde into His Own Architecture Studio
In Bagunte, Portugal, a granite family house gains white marble-floored rooms and a walled gravel courtyard without pretending the new part is old.
3XN, B+H and ZHUBO Design Shape the Shenzhen Natural History Museum as a Walkable Geological Landscape
Beside Yanzi Lake in Shenzhen's Pingshan District, a 105,300 m² museum folds its galleries under a public roof that behaves like a river-carved hillside.
HabitArt Architecture Studio Builds a Brick and Clay-Tile House Beneath a Tamil Nadu Mango Orchard
In Chembarasanapalli, a 2,700 sq ft family home lets mature mango trees set the plan, the shade and the light, with brick, timber and terracotta jali.
