In this issue: The Regenerative Architecture Index 2025 unveiled; Material Cultures, Purcell, and Marks Barfield on regenerative practice; Collective Works and Jan Kattein Architects on creating a just space for people; and Beau Lotto on why Bruton is his kind of town.
Broadfields Estate
RCKa has completed 28 affordable rented apartments for Barnet Council within the Broadfields Estate in Edgware.
Reflections: The Crystal Palace
John Pardey on how Joseph Paxton’s pioneering Crystal Palace for Great Exhibition of 1851 marked the end of millennia of masonry and timber construction, ushering in a new era of light, span and prefabrication that would redefine architecture in the age of industry.
Power Hall
Carmody Groarke has completed the refurbishment of the Power Hall at Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum, combining heritage restoration with decarbonisation measures to create a more accessible and environmentally efficient museum.
Two systems, one VEKA standard
VEKA discusses how its M70 and OMNIA PVCu window and door systems combine contemporary aesthetics with outstanding thermal performance and sustainable manufacturing.
Dispatches from Shanghai: Rachaporn Choochuey
Bangkok-based architect Rachaporn Choochuey, co-founder of all(zone), discusses her curatorial approach for the Rockbund Art Museum’s biennial festival of architectural thinking, RAM Assembles 2025. Titled Shanghai Picnic, the biennial explores how informal, spontaneous public life can be rekindled in one of Shanghai’s most meticulously restored and highly regulated urban environments.
Remembering Terry Farrell
Sir Terry Farrell's son, Max, along with current and former senior staff at the practice Peter Barbalov, Stefan Krummeck and Nigel Bidwell look back on life with the late Terry Farrell, a "titan of design" and a man of "intellect, instinct, humility and heart."
My Kind of Town: Beau Lotto
Beau Lotto on how Bruton's unique mix of culture and community fosters discovery and connection – and why this small Somerset town provides the perfect setting for a new kind of school rooted in interaction, meaning and curiosity.
Regenerative Architecture Index 2025
An event celebrating the 2025 Regenerative Architecture Index (RAI), hosted by UK Architects Declare and Architecture Today in partnership with Schüco, took place on 2 October at Broadway Malyan’s London office.
ISoRaRA: the shortlist
The Wildheart Trust has selected a shortlist of three practices from the 2025 Regenerative Architecture Index to design the International School of Rewilding and Regenerative Agriculture at Sandown on the Isle of Wight: Marks Barfield Architects, BakerBrown Studio and Unknown Works. CEO Lawrence Bates explains what made the practices stand out.
Beyond carbon: Methods, materials and measures for sustainable and regenerative practice
Watch the AT webinar, in partnership with Oscar Acoustics and Vectorworks, exploring how architects can move beyond carbon metrics to deliver projects that are genuinely sustainable and regenerative.
Dispatches from Folkestone
AT chats to Duarte Lobo Antunes and Jack Taylor from A is for Architecture about their Folkestone Harbour plan which has recently been granted planning permission.
Dublin City Dialogue: an exchange of ideas for sustainable growth
An AT event, supported by Schüco and hosted by the Royal Irish Academy of Music, explored the challenges and opportunities facing Irish cities, and what can they learn from each other and from best practice abroad.
Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities
Hopkins Architects have designed the University of Oxford's largest single building project, opening to students in October 2025, and to the public in April 2026.
The Court Theatre
Haworth Tompkins and Athfield Architects’ theatre in central Christchurch brings New Zealand’s largest producing company back to the city centre, combining craft, performance, and community under one roof.
Design smarter, build faster
James Hardie explains how its fermacell® fibre gypsum boards streamline installation without compromising performance.
The Spencer Building
Wright & Wright Architects has completed a pioneering Passivhaus library for Corpus Christi College, Oxford, balancing contemporary environmental standards with contextual sensitivity.
In pictures: The AT Awards Live Finals
The Architecture Today Awards Live Finals saw 30 projects presented in front of a live audience including the jury. Here's how the day panned out and what those involved had to say.
Remembering Nick Grimshaw
Grimshaw Partners Andrew Whalley and Neven Sidor reflect on Nick Grimshaw’s pragmatism and quirks, and recall conversations after “several hours and several rounds of scotch and dry ginger.”
in partnership with AccuRoof (formerly SIG Design and Technology)
Shoemakers Museum
Purcell completes the Shoemakers Museum: a new home for Clarks’ 200-year legacy and a civic anchor for the Somerset town of Street.
Little Star Kindergarten
A compact two-classroom building by ČTYŘSTĚN brings sheltered gardens, rooftop play space and vibrant interiors to a tight residential site in Šlapanice.
Grand Bayview Qianhai
Foster + Partners has completed a pair of 180-metre-high residential towers in Shenzhen, China, aimed at supporting health, wellbeing and community for work-focused professionals.
Spotlight on products in use
in partnership with manufacturers
Holburne Museum
Eric Parry Architects returns to Bath’s Holburne Museum with two new galleries designed to house Renaissance treasures from the Schroder family collection.
Janošík headquarters and showroom
Set within a reworked 1950s grain warehouse in eastern Czech Republic, Jakub Janošík’s new headquarters and showroom for his family’s window and door company forms a strong connection with the surrounding Carpathian landscape.
Monte Sant’Angelo Subway Station
A collaboration between AL_A and Anish Kapoor, Naples’ visually-striking metro station combines sculptural entrances with raw, elemental interiors to create an immersive public artwork.
South Barn
Studio Weave's recent conversion of a mid-20th Century barn into a family home near Cowes on the Isle of Wight is a model for how rural buildings can be reimagined without erasure.
The Chancery Rosewood
Eero Saarinen’s Grade II-listed former US Embassy building in Grosvenor Square, London, has been reimagined as a hotel by David Chipperfield Architects with interiors by Joseph Dirand.
Litomyšl Lookout
Atelier-r has completed a low-cost, container-based viewpoint on the edge of Litomyšl, providing panoramic views of the UNESCO-listed town.
