#218: THE MOST BEWITCHING BUILDINGS OF 2025

Once again, it is time for me to highlight ten works of architecture that caught my eye last year—bewitched my design sensibilities. There are many more than just ten projects that deserve recognition, but such is life in an industry of subjective creativity.

1: For the Fenix Museum of Migration in Rotterdam, a renovation of a century-old warehouse receives an iconic double-helix staircase. Entitled The Tornado, this stainless steel feature spirals up through the two levels of the warehouse, then bursts through the roof reaching for the sky—a metaphor for the journey of migration. By MAD Architects, the 160,000-square-foot museum exhibits artifacts telling the story of migration around the globe, past and present.

2: Architect Philippe Starck proclaims, “Maison Heler was born of a surreal, poetic tale I imagined. It is a hotel conceived as a habitable work of art, a literary principle crystallized in matter.” A dream-like, whimsical “mansion” tops off this nine-story, 104-room Maison Heler hotel, located in Metz, France. Entirely wrapped in standing seam metal panels, the rooftop replica of a 19th century house comprises a restaurant and bar, standing in stark (Starck?) contrast to the aggressively and intentionally dull hotel beneath.

3: The Lago Ranco Retreat by Hevia Poblete Arquitectos curves its thin linear form just slightly, sweeping gently through the landscape, welcoming in panoramic views. In Chile, this 3,000-square-foot, five-bedroom, getaway home on a lake comprises a modular steel exoskeleton. Excessively repetitive, the exact architectural/structural section repeats itself three dozen times.

4: With Big Red Crayfish, architect Dayi Design created an addition/renovation with a visually stunning juxtaposition of old and new, backdrop and accent, gray/white and Chinese red. At this historic complex on the banks of Nanjing’s Qinhuai River, a steel ribbon of red stairs and paths weave up and down, in and out, through and around, knitting together several commercial structures.

5: In Pepingen, Belgium, a triangular courtyard carves into an existing farmhouse, delivering light and air to this traditional barn. Double-height spaces and split-level areas surrounding this aggressive cutout. Entitled Lyco House by architect OYO, much of the original structure remains to display a conversation between the past and the future. The design is an intervention where more is added through subtracting.

6: The first of its kind in the Muslim world, the Al-Mujadilah Center and Mosque for Women, Qatar, provides 50,000 square feet of educational, worship, and community spaces, to include classrooms, courtyards, event areas, and a prayer hall. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the roof with its 5,000 light wells sits both boldy and gently in the cityscape like a slightly folded piece of paper and provides a landmark presence. The concept of bringing together many diverse activities and interests “under one roof” has literally been accomplished.

7: A modest 4,700-square-foot project by Atelier Xi can say a lot about nature, sustainability, and sheltering into the earth. In Shenzhen, China, the steel pavilions of the Qiaochengbei Park Visitor Center weather, show a wabi-sabi patina that unifies this modest village. With minimal disturbance to the landscape, building forms wind around existing trees. Living roofs tell the earth to receive the structures gracefully into the 16.5-acre park.

8: Supporting the building’s timber design innovation degree program at the University of Arkansas, Grafton Architects exploits mass-timber construction to its fullest. The Anthony Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation in Fayetteville houses 45,000 square feet of education around design-building and research in wood, digital fabrication/prototyping, and a materials research division. Though the roof angles may appear arbitrary, like an architect inscribing his signature, the slopes and heights are driven by the activities within.

9: Inspired by the lines of racing boats, the 9,400-square-foot Lindsay Boathouse is modest and minimal, yet expressive . Architects VJAA shifts and slides three rectilinear masses—two storing the boats and one containing the gym and office. Employing low carbon, cross laminated timber and expansive bird safe glazing, this passively heated and cooled structure takes in views of the lake with Toronto’s skyline in the background.

10: With a shoestring budget of $150,000 and modest building footprint of 900 square feet, architect/builder Ben Pennell created an eccentric and bizarre duplex residence at 210 Semple Street, Modesto, California. The sculptural façade employed CNC-cut plywood forms and a white gel-coat applied to fiberglass cloth. During the creation of this surreal work that calls upon the Grotesque, Pennell comments on “the asphyxiating burdens of this intolerably capitalistic existence.”

For past years’ “top ten,” visit 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. Or see my all-time 15 favorite buildings. Check out my favorite projects in Los Angeles and around Los Angeles. Lastly, my favorite architects living and from the past.