2025, The Year in Architecture
John Hill | 16. décembre 2025
Image: World-Architects
Take a look back at 2025 as we present a few highlights from the many articles we published in our online magazine over the last twelve months. Instead of a chronological presentation, here we link to 35 articles in 9 categories: Awards, Books, Brutalism, Exhibitions, Films, Interviews, Openings, Passings, and Studio Visits. Scroll down to look at the year in …
… Awards:
Liu Jiakun (Photo: courtesy of the Hyatt Foundation and the Pritzker Architecture Prize)
- 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize: Chinese architect Liu Jiakun was named the latest recipient of “Architecture's Nobel” in March, when he was described as an architect “prioritizing the everyday lives of fellow citizens through his works.” Read also: a profile of Liu Jiakun by Eduard Kögel.
- DIVIA Award 2025: Trần Thị Ngụ Ngôn, co-founder of Tropical Space in Vietnam, was named the winner of the second biennial Diversity in Architecture (DIVIA) Award in May at an event in Venice. Read also: our interview with Trần Thị Ngụ Ngôn.
- RIBA Middle East Awards: In November, nine projects—in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE—were named winners in the Royal Institute of British Architects' inaugural RIBA Middle East Awards.
… Books:
Architecture, Not Architecture by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (Photo courtesy of Phaidon)
- Architecture, Not Architecture: The career-spanning monograph on Diller Scofidio + Renfro that is literally two books in one.
- Bangkok Modern: Architecture of the 1950s–1970s: Walter Koditek trained his camera on the facades of modernist buildings in Bangkok, compiling them into a monumental book.
- Perfection: The first book by Italian novelist Vincenzo Latronico translated into English follows the lives of two young digital “creatives” in Berlin and other parts of Europe.
- Architecture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: An Introduction to AI for Architects: We read the second edition of Neil Leach's book about the incorporation of AI into architectural workflows, wondering, “if AI is the answer, are we asking the right questions?”
- The Summer House: Masashi Matsuie’s debut novel about a small team of architects designing working on a competition while at a summer house is, unlike most architecture books, a great summer read.
- Herman Hertzberger, Shaping Freedom: Architecture 1959–2025: The latest and most likely last book by the great Dutch architect is part monograph, part manifesto, and part memoir.
… Brutalism:
The Sixth Pantheon in Buenos Aires by Ítala Fulvia Villa (Photo: Milagros Sánchez Azcona)
- The Sixth Pantheon: Milagros Sánchez Azcona visited the underground necropolis in Buenos Aires that was designed by Ítala Fulvia Villa, remained little known for decades, and then received global attention after the recent publication of a monograph devoted to it.
- George L. Mosse Humanities Building: On a recent visit to the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, World-Architects discovered a lesser-known, endangered Brutalist building from 1969 designed by Chicago architect Harry Weese.
- Siedlung Halen: World-Architects Magazine editor in chief John Hill, visiting Switzerland from New York, ventured to the nearly 70-year-old residential masterpiece by Atelier 5 one foggy morning, taking some photos.
… Exhibitions:
Expo 2025 Osaka (Photo: Neoplus Sixten Inc.)
- Steven Holl – Drawing as Thought: Oliver G. Hamm walked us through an exhibition of Steven Holl's drawings and watercolors at the Tchoban Foundation – Museum for Architectural Drawing in Berlin.
- Venice Architecture Biennale: We covered Carlo Ratti's ambitious curation of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – Intelligens: Natural. Artificial. Collective., as well as the national pavilions, collateral events, and other exhibitions taking place beyond the Biennale.
- Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai: The Japan-Architects curators ventured to Osaka ahead of the opening of Expo on April 13, taking lots of photos and shooting a few videos. We presented some highlights.
- Two monographic exhibitions in Japan saw the contents matching the containers: Riken Yamamoto Exhibition: Community and Architecture was on display at Yokosuka Museum of Art, which Riken Yamamoto designed in 2006; and Maki Fumihiko and Spiral – A Place Where Art Lives celebrated The Spiral's 40th anniversary and the 60th anniversary of its architect's firm, Maki and Associates.
… Films:
Still from At the Garden's Pace, 2024 (Photo: Juan Benavides)
- The Brutalist: A sweeping tale about the immigrant experience, architecture, power, and legacy that premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in 2024 and won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Drama in January.
- At the Garden’s Pace: A film that documents the construction of a pavilion for a botanical garden in Hilversum, Netherlands. The pavilion was designed by architect Enzo Valerio and built by him and a small team of architects over the course of a year.
- Ada – My Mother the Architect: The life story of Israeli architect Ada Karmi-Melmede, whose father and brother were architects, and whose daughter, the director of the documentary, was also an architect before she ventured into filmmaking.
- Architecton: A meditative documentary that oscillates between hypnotic slow-motion sequences of quarry blasts and concrete production, black-and-white images of architectural ruins, and architect Michele De Lucchi creating a small piece of land art at his Italian home.
- The Librarians: A documentary about how the titular workers in the United States were in the crosshairs after Texas Republican Matt Krause's 2021 book ban list led to hundreds of titles being removed from school libraries for allegedly spreading pornographic content.
… Interviews:
Riken Yamamoto in his Yokohama studio, December 2024 (Photo: Neoplus Sixten Inc.)
- Riken Yamamoto: We spoke with the 2024 laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in February, exploring his upbringing, speaking about some of his projects, and seeing what he is working on now.
- Botond Bognar: We spoke with the expert on Japanese architecture in April, on the occasion of the release of the third edition of Architectural Guide – Japan, which coincided with the opening of Expo 2025 Osaka.
- Ma Yansong: In July, we spoke with the founder of MAD Architects about his just-opened Fenix Museum in Rotterdam, the under-construction Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, and other topics.
- Lahbib El Moumni: On a visit to Casablanca, Eduard Kögel spoke with the co-founder of Mémoire des Architectes Modernes Marocains (MAMMA) about modernist buildings in Morocco that have often been forgotten and urgently need more publicity.
… Openings:
Princeton University Art Museum on opening weekend (Photo: John Hill/World-Architects)
- Calder Gardens: The Philadelphia institution designed by Herzog & de Meuron, with landscapes by Piet Oudolf, opened to the public in September.
- Doshi Retreat: The latest addition to the Vitra Campus, Germany, designed by the late Balkrishna Doshi in close collaboration with his granddaughter Khushnu Panthaki Hoof and Sönke Hoof, opened on October 25 in Weil am Rhein, Germany.
- Princeton University Art Museum: The Ivy League museum's new home opened on October 31 in a sprawling, concrete-clad building designed by Adjaye Associates in collaboration with Cooper Robertson.
… Passings:
Frank Gehry in Toronto in 2008 (Photo: Taku, cropped from the original at Flickr)
- Leon Krier: The visionary and controversial figure who designed mixed-use urban neighborhoods where everything was within walking distance, but also wrote a lavish book on Albert Speer's architecture, died on June 17 at the age of 79.
- Kongjian Yu: The Chinese architect and landscape architect best known for the development of “sponge cities” died unexpectedly in Brazil on September 23, when a small plane he was riding in crashed.
- Robert A.M. Stern: The famed neotraditional architect, longtime dean of the Yale School of Architecture, and author of a series of definitive books on New York City architecture died on November 27 at the age of 86.
- Frank Gehry: The titan of architecture whose Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened to worldwide acclaim in 1997, bringing architecture into the mainstream and spurring the so-called “Bilbao Effect,” died on Friday, December 5 at the age of 96.
… Studio Visits:
The studio of T.ZED Architects in Dubai (Photo courtesy of T.ZED Architects)
- Erin FlynnT.ZED Architects: A visit to the Dubai studio led by architect Tarik Zaharna, who thinks of his architecture “as very tactile, and the services that we offer are research-focused, context-driven, material-rich and the kind that stand the test of time.”
- Dabbagh Architects: A visit to the Dubai studio led by Saudi architect Sumaya Dabbagh, who spoke about “projects that respond to their environment, that draw from their context and materiality and yet remain contemporary in their expression.”
- Cooper Robertson: We visited the firm's Lower Manhattan studio and spoke with partner Erin Flynn about a trio of museum projects then nearing completion in New York City and Princeton, New Jersey.
Wishing wonderful holidays and joyous New Year to everyone — see you in 2026!