When lighting designer Hervé Descottes began work on Jean Nouvel’s concert hall, the Philharmonie de Paris, the project was well under construction, and the architect even had another designer’s lighting scheme in hand.

From the founding of their namesake monastery in 1145, the clerics of Santa María de Retuerta pursued Roman Catholic values of work, peace, and hospitality. Although monks have not occupied this corner of Spain’s Sardon del Duero area since 1931, contemporary visitors to their former abbey subscribe to the same principles, but in the reverse order.

The remote, rural town of Frommern, in Germany’s Black Forest, is hardly the place one expects to encounter finely crafted works of architecture.

A seasonal house in Canada’s Maritimes takes inspiration from local fishermen’s cabins.

In 2012, Dutch firm Oving Architekten won a competition to create a protective enclosure for this deteriorating monument to infamy, but wanted their contribution to dissolve into the background.

Modesty is rare amongst global architectural practices, yet Dutch firm Mecanoo is an exception. With major projects under way from New York to Taiwan, Mecanoo has recently completed a surprisingly understated railway station and municipal offices in its hometown of Delft that also helps repair a torn urban fabric.

To create the iconic curving forms of the cruise-ship terminal in Porto, Portugal, architect Luís Pedro Silva began working from the project’s territorial context rather than simply seeking a display of formal prowess.