1920’s apartments in Cologne, with wonderful brickwork. I love the arches, creating a threshold which is now used to store bikes. Would benefit from larger windows and more natural light I’m sure. Photos by interwarmodernism

Beautiful urban infill housing on a tight and complex site, in Porto. All rooms benefit from a balcony, either to the street, or to an inner courtyard. By DepA Architects

Damn…. Gotta love this combination of bricks and shadows Apartment building in Queretaro, Mexico. By Laboratorio de Arquitectura

An enormous courtyard housing scheme in Stans, Switzerland The plan has no corridors. Instead there are 24 individual stair and lift cores, each servicing just 2-3 apartments per floor. This means every home is dual aspect! By Edelar Mosayebi Inderbitzin

Courtyard housing in Basel, designed by Studio Esch Rickenbacher An interesting plan, with projections into the courtyard to maximise the number of homes created

A real *mass timber* building Chapel in the Bavarian Forest made of 61 Douglas Fir logs. By John Pawson

Cooperative housing in Bern, Switzerland The striking feature is the bright yellow ‘communal terrace’ that acts as both circulation and an extension of the living space for residents (plan in thread 🧵) By Studio DIA

Competition design for apartments in Switzerland by FHV Architects Beneath the complexity, the design has no corridors, and permits virtually all homes to be dual aspect - meaning better access to light and ventilation

At last an AI tool I can get behind “Upload an architectural render. Get back what it'll actually look like on a random Tuesday in November.” antirender.com

I can only assume there were lots of weird-shaped uPVC windows available for a massive discount? Via the aptly named ‘Ugly Belgian Houses’

Design for 278 apartments in Stans, Switzerland A really interesting plan that creates multiple open courtyards, but doesn’t have any central corridors. Instead most apartments are dual aspect, or on corners, proving better access to light and air By Studio Sintzel

The Jakarta metro region is… quite large! (Stat from the Council of Vertical Urbanism)

“Make Airports Great Again” That’s what Zaha Hadid Architects promise (they really said it!) with their design of the ‘Donald J Trump Terminal’ at Washington International Airport Desperate much? archive.is/DfVRl

Brick or glass??? Left: Stumm Haus, Düsseldorf, 1924 by Paul Bonatz Right: PPG Place, Pittsburgh, 1984, by Johnson and Burgee

The floor plan of a new apartment building with 12 social housing units in Paris. The architecture works really hard to make the super tight site work. Note how all rooms have a window, and access to light and air. Also the circular fire stair (illegal in most places)

Cute courtyard housing scheme in Paris (of course!), includes the refurbishment of a historic building, and the addition of a new building By JBA Architectes

Some people will turn anything into a conspiracy theory. What’s “Stalinist” about town planning where you can walk to the shops?

Beautiful design for 54 new apartments on the edge of Paris, with solid load-bearing stone walls By SUD Architectes and Gloria Architectes

In shocking news Saudi Arabia’s NEOM is to be “significantly downscaled and redesigned” Alas, it could now become “a hub for data centres” as part of an aggressive push for Saudi to become “a leading AI player” archive.is/eKiPI

Nowhere does guttering and downpipes as good as the Dutch! In Utrecht, photo by Krishna Koushik

A 1907 office building in New York, being converted to apartments. The layout of these older buildings can be less attractive for modern office tenants… but instead can make *awesome* apartments! Also saves waste and embodied carbon. Many wins!

43 social housing apartments in Ibiza by Peris + Toral Architectes Built using 20cm thick rammed earth walls, that provide thermal mass, storing excess heat in the summer months and regulating the humidity of the interior air

A great way to retain an existing building, reduce construction waste, and create more housing! 3 storey vertical extension built on top of an existing 5 storey block. Creates 75 student apartments. In Paris, designed by Henley Hale Brown and AAVV

This is a beautiful design for affordable courtyard housing in London Note how the external walls are curved to retain the mature trees around the site By Stephen Taylor Architects

Evidence that designing a skyscraper is not the same as designing a car! This 62 storey tower in Brazil was designed by… Pininfarina

A 7-storey tower built out of Glubam - glue laminated *bamboo* The benefit over timber is bamboo grows in 3-6 years. Trees used for laminated timber take 27 years to grow to maturity. Ninghai Bamboo Tower, China

I think I found the ‘setbacks’ final boss! De Piramide housing, Amsterdam, by Soeters van Eldonk, 2007 (photo by Sasa Stark)

Competition winning design to build a 50m-tall housing tower in Paris, with a structure of stone, timber and concrete. Look at the modularity and careful repetition in the plan.  Provides adaptability for residents, but also reduces cost for the builder! By Barrault Prassacco

Lovely apartment design, with a mix of stone and timber, proposed for Tehran, Iran. Design by Ali Hosseini

Research shows being rude to LLMs, rather than polite, results in more accurate outcomes. How sad, yet entirely unsurprising!

We’re building a generation of apartments in Australia that are not designed for our warming climate. Too much glass. Not enough shade. (This resident’s energy bills are also $300/month!) www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

Apartment building in Shiraz, Iran I really like the recessed, shaded balconies with…brick ceilings! Designed by Fashid Roozitalab. Photo by Arash Akhtaran

Record *low* temperatures are becoming rarer and rarer (only one city in the past 10 years has experienced its coldest year on record) But in 2025 nearly 4,000 cities experienced their *hottest* year on record archive.is/Bi6qf

24 social housing apartments in Barcelona, built from modular mass timber elements By Marti Sanz Arquitectura and COMO (Plans in the next post)

Competition winning design for 22 social housing apartments in Barcelona. Super compact core (look at the stair!), with mini courtyards cut in for light and air. Would be good to see more space for storage. Mass timber structure, and lots of shading too. By Yaiza Terre.

Idea / building The Flying Block Hotel, Phu My, Vietnam By TAA Design

Apartment buildings designed for Wohlen, Switzerland The triangular plan is to fit the buildings into the site without removing existing trees. Uses prefabricated rammed earth walls and timber floors to reduce embodied carbon by 63%. By Boltshauser Architekten

111 social housing apartments in Barcelona All homes are dual aspect, with 2 units serviced off each core. Living spaces have generous balconies that face inwards towards a shared courtyard By Flores y Prats

34 social housing apartments in Caen, France, clad in 135,000 chestnut shingles The shingles are split rather than sawn, giving a more irregular texture Build cost = €5.49m (€2,500 /m2) By Prinvault Architects

A kitchen that doubles as a balcony - cute idea. Though surprising it’s in Bern (Switzerland) where it’s relatively cold.

These micro-apartments in Kloten, Switzerland,are beautifully designed. Mass timber structure, and a mixture of duplex and single-storey homes. The double-height shared laundry (right) shows the generosity of light and volume.

Love the bright red awnings on these apartments in Zurich. The plan is super simple too. Two homes accessed from the core each level, both with heaps of access to light and ventilation.

Complex but incredibly thoughtful apartment plan for a housing competition in Zurich You can see a wide number of different apartments - including 4-bedrooms and intergenerational layouts. Many of living spaces are dual aspect too! By Atelier Abraha Achermann

143 new socially rented and shared ownership homes soon to be finished for Ealing Council, London Inspired by Victorian Mansion blocks, they’re also designed to meet Passivhaus - so will have very low energy bills Golf Links Estate by Stephen Taylor Architects

I can’t understand how the restoration of the Houses of Parliament will cost… £15 billion! That’s…. £133,000 a square metre! For context, to build a brand new skyscraper in London is around £10,000 /m2. What the hell? www.politico.eu/article/mp-q...

When you design the brickwork to celebrate the downpipe! Livornostraat 12 1, Amsterdam (photo by John Lee)

Beautiful cooperative housing in Barcelona by Lacol The building also has a ground floor community kitchen, guest rooms, co-working spaces and a large rooftop garden

24 social housing apartments on the outskirts of Paris, by Prinvault Architectes Love the quality of brick detailing!

Austin Maynard Architects are designing some very pretty apartment buildings in Australia. Love the ‘pops’ of blue here.

The Swiss are building a 27 storey timber skyscraper in Zurich, with 10-stacked vertical neighbourhoods, each housing 22 apartments A thread 🧵