After three years of planning and a pandemic-forced delay, the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx has joyfully announced the opening of its major exhibition for 2021. Titled ‘KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature’, the eye-popping survey features work by internationally celebrated Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama amid a carefully choreographed display of seasonal floriculture.

With two active young boys, a keen cook and gardener in the family, the Au-Yeungs needed more space and light throughout. Specifically, they wanted a family gathering space that was substantial which included a central kitchen. There also needed to be a strong connection to the garden, extra bedrooms, a study space and rumpus room for the boys.

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’.

Designed by Tokyo-based firm Klein Dytham architecture (KDa), the Toggle Hotel is a truly efficient urban lodging in a city where real estate is notoriously hard to come by. Expertly wedged onto a triangle-shaped site in the beating heart of Tokyo, the nine-storey hotel is bound by the elevated Metropolitan Expressway which flies past on one side, while the main railway line that crosses Tokyo zooms past on the opposite side.

First launched in 2017, ‘The National' is a compelling biennial survey that showcases the varied and vital work being made by Australian artists of different generations and cultural backgrounds from urban, regional and remote communities across the country.

Italian-born Luca Vezzosi credits a “deeply formative experience” at John Wardle Architects for his readiness to undertake the newly created director of architecture role at Mim Design. The opportunity to join the Melbourne-based practice, led by founder Miriam Fanning, “couldn’t have come at a better time,” he says. “The studio is going through a really exciting period, celebrating its 21st year in operation and taking on more architectural projects than ever before.”

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.