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Representation as Argument: Lyndon Neri on What Juries Look for in Architecture Competitions
In an industry defined by building codes, climate urgency, and the pressures of the real estate market, the architectural competition has quietly become one of the discipline's most generative spaces. Unburdened by budgets, clients, or city regulations, competition entries allow architects to think at the edge of what the built environment could be, and increasingly, that speculative work is being taken seriously as a cultural and intellectual contribution in its own right. Buildner's Unbuilt Award, now in its second edition, is one of those efforts, by treating the unbuilt project as a platform for architects and designers to share concepts that challenge boundaries and inspire future possibilities. In this way, competitions like this allow architecture professionals and students to showcase ideas and visions that, even without being constructed, reflect the spirit of exploration and ingenuity in architecture.
Care and Wellness Center for the Elderly and Disabled / sol89
- architects: sol89
- Location: Paju-si, South Korea
- Project Year: 2025
- Photographs: Bojune Kwon
- Area: 12560.0 m2
RJH House / Wiyoga Nurdiansyah
- architects: Wiyoga Nurdiansyah
- Location: South Jakarta, Indonesia
- Project Year: 2024
- Photographs: Arte Haus
- Area: 530.0 m2
Dahecun National Archaeological Site Park and Dehecun Site Museum / CADG
- architects: China Architecture Design & Research Group
- Location: Zhongzhou Street, Zhengzhou, China
- Project Year: 2025
- Photographs: Xiang Li, Haoquan Wang
- Area: 19977.0 m2
WIDOARQUITECTOS Office / WIDOARQUITECTOS
- architects: WIDOARQUITECTOS
- Location: Cuernavaca, Mexico
- Project Year: 2026
- Photograph: César Belio
- Area: 150.0 m2
The Landscape Becomes a Tool for Learning at This School in India
School design often centers on a series of basic classrooms placed together to support study and extracurricular activities for young learners. Yet these facilities can be more institutional than imaginative, and often have little connection to the outdoors, whether in rural or urban settings.
For a Dakshana Foundation-funded secondary facility in India, Morphogenesis decided to forgo typology to blend with nature rather than keep it apart, so that it becomes a tool for learning. Located in Khed, the Dakshana Valley Institute is set on 109 acres, with a plan that embraces the north-to-south slope of the site and the surrounding area. “The primary axis, from the highest central point down to the lake, ensures that the landscape remains a constant companion to the act of learning” says Manit Rastogi, co-founder and chairman of Morphogenesis.
A distinctive brick building sits at the heart of the campus, a hub for gifted scholars from low-income households as they prepare for their medical and engineering examinations. The blocks were originally selected for their tactile quality, but they also contribute to a nearly 50% reduction in heat gain, essential in the humid climate.
These basic elements provide a sense of familiarity for teens who have traveled for the first time in their lives to attend this residential school. “Brick is instinctively associated with a home-like warmth that fosters a sense of belonging, and that was as deliberate a consideration as any structural or thermal one,” notes Sonali Rastogi, co-founder and vice-chairperson of Morphogenesis. Basalt, wood, terracotta, and Shahabad stone round out the earthy material palette.
Even the journey inside evokes the paths found in the pupils’ native villages. Based on the concept of a meandering lane, this new route leads to 13 classrooms, a knowledge center, and a dining hall. With its curved profile, the arrival pavilion frames panoramic views of the valley below as well as the amphitheater.
Lecture halls feature window sills with light shelves and vertical fins that reduce glare from the sun and support cross-ventilation. Shaded buffer zones near entrances double as sectors for discussion that mitigate crowding and noise. Individuals can read or relax in outdoor nooks. Covered verandas function as overflow spaces to spark spontaneous interactions.
Shaped by an emphasis on terrain, Dakshana Valley Institute promotes the well-being of the planet and the next generation entrusted with its care.
To see more projects by the studio, visit morphogenesis.org.
Photography by Anuj Joshi.
The Logic of Weaving Entwines These Rugs
Rugs have yet again become a popular medium for fresh, unabashed ideation. Art for the floor, this hyper-refined furnishing typology is being reassessed as a potent and plenteous conduit for pictorial representation and abstract expression. Over the past year, established producers, scrappier start-ups, and independent talents have debuted a drove of designs that render this home accessory—once an afterthought—a foremost focal point of the interior.
Reining in this season of extensive exploration is Stockholm-based Massproductions, a prolific product-development practice that prides itself on purpose and clarity, always seeking to translate industrial rationale through different modalities, including handicrafts. The factory is not only a source of inspiration for its product methodology, but also a creative conceit.
The new Cord Collection, developed by the studio for boutique rug producer LAYERED, brings the typology back to its roots, grounding it in the logic of its construction. The four handwoven designs amplify the intrinsically practical, yet also metaphysical, practice and payoff of weaving: the perpendicular crisscrossing of fibrous strands to achieve a planar form that is at once tensile and flexible.
The fresh offering debuted during this year’s 3daysofdesign in an installation featuring spinning columns covered in loose-ended cords. Harnessing the material in apparatuses that mimicked large industrial-grade car-wash brushes, the display demonstrated both the rugs’ dynamism and durability.
Available in Black White, Blue Brown, Rust, and Yellow Oatmeal variants, Cord emphasizes this quality through a unifying stripe layered over its base structure. The strategy allows what is normally a surface-level medium to become three-dimensionally perceptible, both visually and tactilely.
To emphasize the thinking behind this clever yet nuanced line of inquiry, Massproductions co-principals Magnus Elebäck and Chris Martin wanted to subtly play up the fluid line — or stripe, even — between the precision of industrial production and the faint imperfections of the human hand, masterfully engaged in a tried-and-true making technique.
“We wanted to create a dialogue between the natural and the constructed,” Martin says. “By contrasting a base of wool in subdued, neutral shades with a bold, artificial accent color, we found a balance between the organic and the contemporary. Adding a coarser yarn to the stripe was a way to give the two-dimensional weave a physical presence — a quiet dimensionality.”
Why do more products not visually represent and physically embody the ingenuity of the processes involved in their making?
To learn more about the creative powerhouse collaborators, visit massproductions.se and us.layeredinterior.com.
Photography courtesy of LAYERED.
A Return to Roots with Bentley Mills
Texture holds memory. From warped wood steps worn down from years of use to the sun-faded fibres of a favorite carpet, time-worn spaces and surfaces bear physical evidence of the past. Celebrating this patina of time––and reflecting on the experiences that shape our lives and careers––a recent soirée at the Bentley Mills Chicago showroom marked both Design Milk’s 20th anniversary and the launch of Bentley Mills’ new Land/Mark collection. The afternoon featured a conversation between Jaime Derringer, Design Milk’s founder, and Todd van der Kruik, Founder & Creative Director of Neutral Haus.
For both Derringer and Van der Kruik, the new collection and anniversary celebration represented a homecoming.
With great fondness, Derringer regaled guests by bringing it back to the beginning: blogging about design on her computer and eventually, building a design community of like-minded creatives. “When I think about spaces that shaped me, the internet had a huge influence on me – being in that online space for 20 years, having conversations and meeting people that way,” Derringer explained. “But I do really truly feel like the moment I got out into the world and got out from behind the computer was really the moment when things started to take off.” Twenty years later, Design Milk has the best of both worlds: an established online presence and a global network of design talent.
Designed by Neutral Haus for Bentley Mills, Land/Mark was inspired by the liminal spaces that leave room for creativity. For Van der Kruik, this meant the grease-stained floor of his parent’s garage, where his teenage band practiced three times a week; an old wood floor he used to frequent; or a worn cobblestone street. But the collection also represented a personal return for Van der Kruik, who previously served as the Vice President of Design at Bentley Mills.
“I wanted these patterns to feel lived in, so that when you walk into a space, it already feels like something happened there,” shared Van der Kruik.
Partygoers made off with custom luggage tags as keepsakes, branded socks and one lucky attendee went home with a special gift from Prima Vista, Bentley Mills’ premium custom area rug program.
With three styles and 16 colorways, Land/Mark embraces imperfection as design, moving from the golden browns of Know by Heart, Late Gold, Ashlar to the mottled greys of Where We Met + Know By Heart, Haze White, Ashlar.
Derringer reflects on those traces people leave behind: “There’s something really beautiful about the patina of humans using a space.”
To learn more about the brand, visit bentleymills.com.
Photography courtesy of Bentley Mills.
Paso de los Toros House / Juan Carlos Sabbagh Arquitectos
- architects: Juan Carlos Sabbagh Arquitectos
- Location: Chicureo, Chile
- Project Year: 2024
- Photographs: Cristobal Palma / Estudio Palma
- Area: 365.0 m2
HANZA, Business Centre / AEXN Architects
- architects: AEXN Architects
- Location: Klaipeda, Lithuania
- Project Year: 2025
- Photographs: Norbert Tukaj
- Area: 15600.0 m2