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This week’s architecture news highlights a diverse global landscape of design innovation, cultural investment, and adaptive reuse. Across continents, new museums and cultural venues are opening to foster dialogue around art, design, and community engagement. At the same time, major recognitions and project announcements underscore the growing importance of sustainable, socially conscious practices in shaping contemporary architecture. From adaptive transformations in New York, Tainan, and Milan, including preparations for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games, to new cultural landmarks in Ghana and Qatar, this week’s overview features projects by leading firms such as Herzog & de Meuron, Snøhetta, and Mecanoo, alongside initiatives from emerging practices like Limbo Accra in West Africa.
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New Architecture Exhibitions and Cultural Venues Opening Around the World
This week witnessed the proliferation of new spaces for culture and for the exhibition of architecture, art, and design. From Ghana to Qatar, spaces for reflecting on contemporary spatial practices continue to emerge in new, existing, or rehabilitated buildings. In Doha, Qatar Museums opened two venues, Qatar Preparatory School and the National Museum of Qatar, for an AMO/OMA-designed exhibition exploring how rural territories adapt to global transformations. In Suzhou, the nearly completed Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art (Suzhou MoCA), designed by BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, announced its inaugural exhibition, expanding upon Bjarke Ingels’ year-long editorial series for Domus magazine, tracing a material journey from stone to recyclate. From another material perspective, the opening of the Limbo Museum in Ghana presents a new approach to the concept of the ruin: a radical institution dedicated to art, design, and contemporary space within an unfinished building.
In New York City, The Studio Museum is preparing to open a new facility in Harlem designed by Adjaye Associates in collaboration with Cooper Robertson. Dedicated to artists of African descent, the building marks the first structure in the institution’s fifty-seven-year history conceived specifically for its mission. Also in the United States, the first week of November saw the opening of the country’s first Ismaili Center, designed by Farshid Moussavi Architecture and Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects. Located in Houston, the project joins six other centers worldwide dedicated to fostering intercultural dialogue and civic engagement while reinterpreting architectural ideas from across the Muslim world through a contemporary lens. All of these initiatives demonstrate how spaces for reflection and community representation can remain resilient to political contingencies and responsive to local material realities.
Architecture Awards, Nominations, and Notable Projects from Europe to China
This week also brought recognition to several figures and initiatives in architecture and landscape. Whether through architectural competitions or international awards, organizations around the world continue to highlight projects that envision a sustainable and socially engaged future. Two major projects were selected for future development: MVRDV’s spherical building for Tirana’s new sports landmark and Snøhetta’s riverfront design for the Qiantang Bay Art Museum in China. Preliminary recognition also came from the EU Mies Awards, which announced 410 nominated projects across Europe, while earlier this week, we reviewed the 45 pavilions honored at Expo 2025 Osaka. Finally, the Pritzker Architecture Prize released a special video celebrating Liu Jiakun, the 54th Laureate of the award, honoring his architecture grounded in civic life, cultural continuity, and the human condition.
On The Radar
From Museum to Auction House: Herzog & de Meuron Completes the Renovation of Marcel Breuer’s Building for Sotheby’s in New York
On Saturday, November 8, 2025, Sotheby’s inaugurated its new global headquarters at 945 Madison Avenue, the former Whitney Museum of American Art, designed by Marcel Breuer in 1966. Herzog & de Meuron, in collaboration with PBDW Architects, led a transformation that preserves the integrity of Breuer’s inverted ziggurat while adapting it for Sotheby’s program of exhibitions, auctions, and public events. Guided by archival research and Breuer’s original drawings, the renovation reinstates essential elements such as the bluestone floors, coffered ceilings, sculptural stair, and distinctive material palette of concrete, granite, bronze, and mahogany. The architects removed later office additions to restore the open gallery plans. They introduced flexible salesrooms, state-of-the-art lighting and climate systems, and a new freight elevator that supports art handling without disrupting visitor circulation. Subtle exterior enhancements, including updated canopy and façade lighting, seek to revive the building’s urban presence on Madison Avenue, while interior interventions, such as vitrines integrated into Breuer’s concrete benches and minimally framed display cases, maintain visual coherence with the original fabric.
VegWorld by Mecanoo Revitalizes Former Laboratory at the World Vegetable Center in Tainan, Taiwan
Mecanoo recently unveiled images of the project to transform the former laboratory building at the World Vegetable Center’s main campus in Tainan, Taiwan. Established in the 1960s as a global research institution dedicated to advancing vegetable science for healthier lives, the World Vegetable Center is now responding to growing community interest and support, transforming to be more open and engaged with local communities and international visitors. The adaptive reuse project introduces three complementary program areas: a discovery space that narrates the organization’s history and showcases the diversity of vegetables, a multifunctional convening hall for conferences and workshops accommodating up to 300 participants, and a coworking space designed to foster collaboration with start-ups and partners. Mecanoo’s design preserves the modernist character of the existing structure while adding a new volume above the former patio, inspired by the organic patterns of seeds. Together with new façades, interiors, and landscaped outdoor areas, VegWorld seeks to reinforce the World Vegetable Center’s role as a bridge between scientific research and public engagement.
Fiera Milano Rho Exhibition Center is Transformed into a Speed Skating Stadium Ahead of Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games
As part of preparations for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games, the pavilions of the Fiera Milano Rho exhibition center, originally built to host Expo 2015, have been transformed into the Rho Speed Skating Stadium, an Olympic venue within the Milano Ice Park. Together with the adjacent Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena, the facility exemplifies the Games’ approach to repurposing existing urban infrastructure for temporary sports use. The venue will debut during the ISU Speed Skating Junior World Cup on 29-30 November 2025, serving as the first official test event ahead of the Olympics. Designed to host both individual and team competitions, the stadium will welcome junior and neo-senior athletes and engage local students through the Gen26 education program. Following the Games, the pavilions will revert to their original exhibition function.