Havana-based designer Jorge Luis Veliz Quintana of creative studio Veliz Arquitecto has envisaged an imaginative refuge in the rugged mountains of Cuba. Boasting breathtaking views across the digitally replicated landscape, the ‘Cabins on the Mountain’ are designed to be camouflaged among the age-old boulders and towering trees.

The Stewart House is located in Palm Beach on a ridge overlooking the McKay Reserve, a gully which is significant for its Endangered Ecological Community (EEC) of the Pittwater Spotted Gum Forest. This places the site within a bushfire ‘Flame Zone’, and its designs and materials were oriented towards meeting stringent requirements of the bushfire code. In addition, there was much consideration for the environment in its construction.

Located in the Barrio del Niño Jesús, a neighbourhood of Mexico City, the Iturbide Studio is just a few steps away from owner Graciela Iturbide's private residence. A celebrated Mexican photographer, Graciela had only one condition when she asked her architect son Mauricio Rocha of local firm Taller de Arquitectura to design the studio: it simply had to be built from bricks.

While many visitors flock to Mexico’s coastline for a relaxing spell of surf, sand and sunshine, Mexico City attracts its fair share of tourism thanks to the region’s burgeoning design and architecture scene, bolstered by the city’s annual design week. One of the hottest hotels to call the city home – the Círculo Mexicano – is located in the downtown district, where design studio Ambrosi Etchegaray balanced a contemporary aesthetic with original architectural charms.

Positioned on a narrow thoroughfare site between existing education buildings and a nearby boundary-line, the library for a small school in central western India saw its designers, Mumbai-based firm Sameep Padora and Associates, cast their net globally upon receiving the commission. Roman-inspired Catalan roof vaulting, a reinforcement technique developed in Uruguay, Swiss software and locally made brick tiles were all used to create the striking building, which went on to win a Brick Award in late 2020 for ‘Building Outside the Box’.

Paris-based architecture studio Ateliers Jean Nouvel has been announced as the winner of an international competition to build a new opera house in Shenzhen, China. Titled ‘Light of the Sea’ for the washes of light to be emitted from the building's curvaceous shell and its proximity to the South China Sea, the winning design will become the sparkling diamond in a revived promenade precinct that stretches along the city's shoreline.

Situated in the developing industrial area of Jiading, just beyond Shanghai’s city centre, China-based architecture firm Neri&Hu has envisioned a 32,400-square-metre headquarters for Swiss elevator manufacturer Schindler. Led by practice co-founders Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu, the project encompasses a showroom, offices, factories, warehouses and “fortress-like” research facility. Defined by an armour of light grey bricks, glass-clad boxes and an immense open garden plaza, the precinct signals a new chapter in the company’s corporate masterplan.

After winning an international competition in 2003, Netherlands-based architecture office KAAN Architecten has worked intensively on the 100 million euro masterplan, renovation and extension of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. The glorious 19th-century museum – also known as KMSKA – is one of the last examples of bold neoclassical architecture in the Belgian city, housing a vibrant collection of paintings, drawings and sculpture that spans seven centuries of art: from Flemish primitives to expressionists.

Sought after for its health benefits and healing powers, geothermal bathing is an ancient tradition in Iceland which dates back to the 12th century. The Nordic island nation is located on a fissure between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates, placing it directly above geothermal activity that heats reservoirs of water underneath the earth’s crust. The piping hot water – the quintessence of geothermal bathing – can be accessed by drilling or it might rise to the earth's surface naturally.

Offering a glimmer of hope that global travel will resume in the not too distant future, construction is underway at the Red Sea International Airport in Saudi Arabia. Designed by Foster + Partners, the world-class facility is located on the country's west coast, about 15 kilometres inland from the Red Sea. By 2030, the airport is expected to facilitate the confluence of one million passengers per year, establishing its status as a significant gateway for the region’s tourism-focussed Red Sea Project.