FIG Projects

El otro Barragán. Milton Barragán, Templo de la Patria, Quito, Ecuador 1975.

https://www.archpaper.com/2024/08/milton-barragan-dumet-polymathic-ecuadorian-architect/?amp=1

https://www.fig-projects.com

Oscar Tenreiro, Casa Alto Haltillo, Caracas, Venezuela 1965-2005.

https://guiaccs.com/en/obras/housing-alto-hatillo/

https://www.fig-projects.com

MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects, Skybox House, Kingsburg, NS, Canada 2026.

https://www.mlsarchitects.ca/work/skyroom

Photographs by Matthew MacKay-Lyons, https://www.instagram.com/mattm_l

https://www.fig-projects.com

We missed the hole in the sky that Toyo Ito designed for the Osaka Expo last year!

www.toyo-ito.co.jp

https://www.expo2025.or.jp/en/expo-map-index/main-facilities/expohall/

https://www.fig-projects.com

The plan is everything and BeAr are always good.

BeAr, Arratia Musika, Artea, Spain 2026.

https://bear-rabe.com

Photographs by Luis Diaz Diaz, https://luisdiazdiaz.com

"The proposal for the new Arratia Valley Music School begins with the recovery of a terraced building that connects the town and its edge park to the riverside promenade along the Arratia River. A retaining structure that holds back the land, creates a terrace above it, and offers us an interior waiting to be conquered.

Within this void, a series of boxes are placed in tension, reaching out towards the river and the landscape, weaving between the concrete columns of the existing structure and establishing with them a relationship of respect and distance. Four built pieces: three classrooms and a service volume.

Three timber boxes and one metal box; three classrooms and a set of bathrooms. Three interiors lined with charred cork and light floors, and one finished with soft pastel tiles. Exteriors clad in boldly stained local red timber and corrugated grey metal sheeting. Buildings with the appearance of found objects, as if they had always been there, or perhaps only in our memory.

They create no sense of strangeness. Playful on the outside, they welcome and relax you within. At times dark and intimate, at others flooded with light. They are tied together by a long corridor, cut through by a triangular courtyard that links the school to the roof terrace. Along it runs a long centipede-like cabinet, inviting students to leave their trikitixas and albokas before stepping inside to learn.

Learning from the surroundings and from what is already there. Because, in the end, that is what it is all about."

https://www.fig-projects.com

Arrhov Frick, Grislehamn house in Väddö Veda, Norrtälje, Sweden 2021.

www.arrhovfrick.se

Photographs by Mikael Ollson, https://www.mikaelolsson.se

"The client owned a large piece of old farmland on Väddö, including Gamla Grisslehamn, where, in the old days, letters from Finland entered Sweden. This land, originally used for itinerant agriculture, had not been used for this purpose for a long time.

There was no brief as to what to develop. Our suggestion was to divide a small, secluded part of the land area that did not disturb any animals or people into 12 plots that were large enough to not to reveal the neighbours’ activities. The landscape shows a wide range of characteristics, from rocky glades to pine-strewn flatland and dense birch forest. With such natural variation, each house has to be adapted to its site, making each one unique. An important part of the project was to develop a fully prefabricated building system in wood that could allow such customisation without excessive cost.

A structural laminated timber frame supports wooden inserts as walls, floors and roofs."

https://www.fig-projects.com

Impressive Berlin!

https://architecture-exhibitions-weekend.net

https://www.fig-projects.com

Mixed use.

Komada Architects Office, Stitch, Tokyo, Japan 2025.

komada-archi.info/archives/4317

Photographs by Yuki Seshimo, https://studiosenph.com

"The project aims to create a multi-family residence that “stitches together” local residents, diverse experiences, the building itself, and the surrounding neighborhood. We believe that the very process of designing the building as a cohesive whole served as a first step toward weaving people together—laying the groundwork for community formation.

At the ground level, a bakery that has been run by the same family in Minami-Sunamachi for two generations occupies a retail space. Together with the owner-couple—who have been baking exceptional bread for the local community—we shared the vision of enriching this stretch of Arakawa along the Edogawa River, an area otherwise lacking vibrancy, and bringing small but meaningful touches of color and life to the neighborhood.

Each floor from the second to the fourth accommodates a single residential unit (with portions of the second and third floors reserved for the owner’s residence). Every unit features a balcony directly connected to a “stitched” staircase, reinforcing a sense of connectivity. The plan also allows for flexible use beyond purely residential purposes, including the potential to incorporate retail or office spaces."

https://www.fig-projects.com

Industrial architecture done much better.

Nuno Melo Sousa, Sede de Corcet, Penafiel, Portugal 2025.

https://nunomsousa.com

Photographs by Federico Farinatti, https://www.federicofarinatti.com

https://www.fig-projects.com

The gift that keeps on giving. John Cafaro who got the contract for the pool in Wahington DC. His company's name: Greenwater Services. Left picture from 2002 - we wonder how he looks now.