From barns and sheds to windmills, rural farm structures have a habit of falling into disrepair when they cease to serve their old functions. In Suffolk, England, one such old structure has found new life as a guest house.

Beech Architects saw the stump of an old windmill on the site as an opportunity to expand the living space of the main farmhouse nearby. At 60 feet tall, the spacious structure now houses two bedrooms, a dining/kitchen area and bathroom.

On the top, where the cap and sails were lost decades ago, a new viewing pod was installed to provide panoramic views of the surrounding countryside. Though architects designed the addition, the homeowner acted as the builder and hired subcontractors and suppliers for specific tasks.

“The design objectives were to reinstate the lost cap structure and restore the redundant and crumbling windmill to its former landmark status via contemporary design interventions,” said the architects.

The cap and entry diverge from the historical aesthetic of the main structure, but also serve to illustrate what parts of the building are original and which have been added. The curved form of the cap uses a special timber rib system that also provides strength and stability, helping it resist wind forces at its exposed and elevated location.

Everything about the project was complicated by curves. New cladding had to be custom-fit to the exterior. Inside, the lack of straight lines made structural retrofits challenging, and also resulted in a series of rounded furniture and fixtures. A series of staircases spiral up each floor to the final fourth level with the viewing platform.

The building has won a variety of accolades, including awards from the 2016 National Roofing Awards, Structural Timber Awards and a nomination for an RIBA Regional Awards 2017.

Designed to reduce real estate needs for runways in ever-more-crowded cities, this “endless runway” system encircles a central terminal building and lets multiple planes take off and land at the same time.

Developed by Dutch scientist Henk Hesselink, the two-mile-circumference shape also lets planes land or take off in alignment with the wind (rather than fighting crosswinds) since they can line up with any point on the strip.

In theory, the system would improve the flying experience for both passengers and pilots, making for smoother departures and arrivals. They would also save energy and space, increasingly an issue for once-suburban (or rural) airports now encroached upon by growing cities.

Critics have expressed skepticism regarding the difficulty of landings and take-offs in such a setup, but big backers seem to believe in the potential. Also, even if not immediately feasible, increased automation could make it increasingly viable over time, since computer systems can coordinate ideal landing and arrival trajectories for optimal safety and comfort and across multiple planes.

Each such setup provides the length of three airstrips and could be deployed or at least tested at scale in Europe soon — participating backers include the Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR), along with DLR Germany and ONERA in France.

From the designers research report: “The results of the literature survey in this document are promising and suggest that a circular runway can be developed with current and expected technology. Today’s aircraft characteristics allow to take off and land with speeds and low altitude bank angles compatible with the operation on a circular track. The Endless Runway fits in future concepts that specify improved planning of operations, new navigation equipment, and intermodal transport.”

A new 125,000-square-foot science complex to be built outside Cairo will combine research, learning and museum facilities in a future-focused structure designed by competition-winning architects.

Architects Weston Williamson+Partners beat Zaha Hadid Architects to secure the role of lead designer on this forward-thinking Science City complex. Their plans include a planetarium, observation tower, workshop rooms and conference facilities in addition to spaces dedicated to scientific research and development.

The competition brief called for a future-oriented, state-of-the-art interactive science museum for the new century, and “a set of buildings and spaces that must be inspiring on the outside and motivating and exciting on the inside to visitors and employees alike” – it attracted nearly 500 submissions from architects around the world.

The circular footprint is filled with umbrella-shaped protrusions serving to define spaces and paths while providing shelter from the Egyptian heat. While currently located in a semi-remote location, the design is intended to form part of a larger regional master plan for redefining and expanding Egypt’s capital city.

Of their victory, the architects said: “We are proud to have won. Needless to say that Egypt has a unique cultural heritage, but we were also attracted by the ambition of the project, clearly expressed through the brief. We look forward to developing the design and creating something worthy for Egypt’s future generations.”

Combining the physical benefits of circular plans with the practicality of straight lines and corners, octagonal houses are uniquely positioned to resist hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes that threaten coastlines.

Rounded habitats have a long history, from tipis and yurts through the geodesic domes of Buckminster Fuller. Indeed, round homes make sense for a lot of reasons. They have less surface area, which means they require less construction material and have greater energy efficiency, for instance. Critically, rounded homes are also ideal for resisting extreme weather (above: a regular home destroyed in a storm and a surviving semi-round house).

Flat sides pose a significant structural risk during hurricanes and tsunamis. It is much easier for wind and water to flow around a round house than a square or rectangular one.

In modern rounded house designs, radial floor and roof trusses meet in a center ring like spokes on a wheel and thus lock the building in a constant state of compression, which further reinforces its structural integrity. This approach also helps them resist earthquakes.

Of course, fitting furniture along the edges of a truly round house can be frustrating. The space and materials saved are nice, but the usability of the resulting spaces is diminished.

Today, many round-house makers opt for a middle ground and go with octagonal floor plans (or other variants with more than four sides). Doubling the number of walls, this represents the best of both worlds in many ways. These are easier to construct with contemporary materials and techniques, but still take advantage of wind- and water-resistance found in edge-less dwellings.

Deltac, one manufacturer of such semi-round structures, boasts that none of their 5,000 homes built to date has been knocked down by nature. These kinds of homes also have an added benefit for those living along coasts, where storms are a great thread: their shapes provide seaside dwellers with amazing panoramic views (images via Deltac and Cayman).

Paired to fantastic effect, a series of arch-forming shelving units and a black-mirrored floor create a wraparound tunnel in a Chinese bookstore, punctuated by a fracture leading visitors through the resulting passageway.

Designed by Shanghai studio XL-Muse (images Shao Feng), these floor-to-ceiling shelves in the Yangzhou Zhongshuge bookshop drew inspiration from the winding and reflective Zhen Yuan river nearby, as well as the area’s arched bridges.

“In the past, guided by water, many literati and poets visited and gathered here,” said XL-Muse, and these regional infrastructural icons were “used to be the guiding factor of culture and commerce, and they represent that the bookstore is the bond between humans and books at the same time.”

The tunnel opens up into a vast library-worth realm of further reading in the cavernous interior, with architectural elements echoing the arches of the entry corridor. The rounded-and-arched theme is carried through in thin pillars and sloping displays.

Additional interior design dimensions come into play in themed reading spaces for children and adults, with starry ceilings and other humanizing elements. Here, furniture colors and shapes soften these spaces and make them more comfortable and inviting for longer-term occupation.