Designing the Future, Again: What the 55-Year Return of the World Expo to Osaka Reveals

Furukawa Pavilion, Expo ’70. Image © Takato Marui via Wikipedia under license CC BY-SA 2.0 The 2025 Osaka Expo has captured widespread attention—not only for its architectural ambition and spectacle, but also for breaking records and generating controversy. Its most iconic feature, a monumental timber ring designed by Sou Fujimoto, has already made headlines as … Read more

Spaces for Browsing: Balancing Commerce and Community in the Design of Bookstores

Dashali Rural Coffee Bookstore / Zhixing Architects. Image © Shanxi Architectural Photography The contemporary bookstore is a paradoxical space. It is commercial, but rarely commercialized; public, but often privately owned; small in scale, but expansive in impact. As adjacent architectural typologies evolve under the pressures of digital consumption, economic precarity, and changing social habits, the … Read more