It’s a simple but powerful idea, spreading out and embedding hotel rooms into the urban fabric to give visitors a space from which to explore as well as a place that feels like it’s more part of the city than a monolithic tourist resort. The Hotel Enso Ango features a series of zen-inspired buildings and landscaping in what it boasts as Japan’s first ‘dispersed hotel’ in the ancient capital of Kyoto.

The idea, in part, is to encourage travel between the buildings in the hotel network, both to experience their amenities but also to explore more along the way. In simple terms: it aims to combine the best of staying at a cozy bed-and-breakfast with the benefits of a high-end hotel.

Each unit features courtyard gardens and meditation spaces, aimed at providing a relaxing experience to compliment city exploration. There are also spaces, like a central bar, that are open to the public, offering opportunities to mingle with locals.

The spaces are spread out through key neighborhoods of Kyoto and crafted to be both contemporary while also including local art and craftsmanship. As the hotel grows, it aims to build out additional spaces around the city.

Each building is located within walking distance from the others, as well as from a hotel hub space where the lobby, gym and tearoom can be found, providing an opportunity for guests to mingle, but at their discretion rather than by necessity. Those who wish to can participate in group meditation lessons, tatami craft and runs through historic parts of the city.

“Welcoming visitors is a building which embodies classical Machiya construction featuring a front desk and corridor-cum-gallery space decorated with art by Masanobu Ando. At the end of this corridor, the gallery space opens into a lounge area with a small garden known as Tsuboniwa – a typical feature of Kyoto houses, providing a spot to enjoy nature and relax in the safety of a private space.”

Squint and you can see familiar shapes behind the dazzling detail and metallic gold of these 3D-printed chairs, but up close: finer geometries dominate each design.

Developed by John Briscella, this series of seats illustrates how metal printing can optimize for materiality (by leaving calculated voids), against a backdrop of classic furniture forms (and in some cases: set upon more traditional chair leg formations).

But it also highlights the rich array of aesthetic possibilities offered by such an approach, when one, for instance, introduces algorithms and other new technologies to inform geometric expressions.

More about the individual chairs in the series: ‘Nuum’ takes the classical form and progresses toward something new; in an homage to eames, briscella adds the mathematical letter ’n’ — a non negative integer. ‘Geofrei’ is geometrical and free. ‘Seafoam’ is calming — the entire collection is one flush with history — past, present, and a 3D printed, highly optimized future.”

A pair of island municipalities between Denmark and Iceland in the North Atlantic Ocean has been bridged by a work of architecture and engineering, a town hall that crosses a river below and features a green roof bridge above.

Designed by Henning Larsen Architects of Copenhagen, this new town hall for Norðragøta blends naturally into its surroundings. Despite an angular modern shape, its colors and greenery tie it to surrounding stones and lush grasslands.

The structure is relatively small and thin, as much a bridge as a building, and made to be visited by locals and travelers alike. Inside, tall glazing frames the surrounding landscape and a glass section of floor offers views of the river flowing below.

“A central theme in traditional Faroese architecture is the blurred line between nature and building, the fact that the spectator has difficulties distinguishing where the landscape ends and the building begins,” says designer Ósbjørn Jacobsen.

“The primary conceptual idea behind the design of the town hall is driven by the notion of this fleeting line between landscape and building.” A light and sound installation designed to pair with the structure welcomes visitors to cross it above or enter from below.

This tropical residence along the coast of Brazil combines traditional and local materials like stone, wood and bamboo to fashion a contemporary-looking abode that fits into both its natural and cultural context.

Designed by Vilela Florez Architects, the various spaces are simple and connected by covered outdoor walkways, paved in stone in line with Portuguese traditions.

Stone walls and a wooden roof shade a shared outdoor area while masonry blocks are arranged to compliment the herringbone pattern of the lashed bamboo stick panels, a design theme carried over indoors, too.

Called Casa Bambu, the place responds to its environment, oriented to capture and redirect incoming winds to provide breezes. Inside, simple color palettes modernize the spaces while leaving an edge of minimalist rustic appeal.

The question of what to do with ruins is as old as architecture, and answers range from demolition to meticulous reconstruction, or: cleverly combining what’s there with something new and functional.

Graphic designer Neomam has taken on a series of uninhabited buildings, playfully updating them while preserving core elements of what was left behind.

Castles on hills, colonial outposts, and farmer cottages are all raw material for these reuses, contrasting with new glass and complemented with rust-colored corten steel.

These kinds of solutions serve a few purposes They can stabilize and help protect existing architecture, but also, by giving it a new function, they add a use that people have a vested interested in preserving.

Doing interventions like these with care, to show the difference between old and new, also helps viewers ‘read’ the difference immediately, distinguishing the additions from the originals in clear and compelling ways.