Inspired by the pioneering vision of Noah’s Ark at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, which underscores the importance of diversity, collaboration and second chances, ANOHA — The Children’s World of the Jewish Museum Berlin seeks to give young guests a sense of hope and possibility. Located across from the Jewish Museum Berlin, the heart of ANOHA is a 7m-tall (23ft-tall) circular wooden ark.

More than 150 sculptural animals populate ANOHA’s ark, each created from found objects by a team of 18 German artists. This approach encourages children to consider the importance of recycling and adaptive re-use, while supporting ANOHA’s core philosophy of creativity and imagination. Interactive exhibits placed along an intuitive visitor pathway teach children how to solve problems independently and as a group, while exploratory spaces modelled after unique habitats allow children to experience the diverse perspectives of the various animals.

Sustainable strategies are embedded in the architectural design as an integral part of the user experience. Mechanical system needs are reduced thanks to the environmental buffer of the existing hall, significantly lowering energy loads. Ceiling fans and operable windows in the ark allow for air exchange and natural ventilation. The ark’s windows support this passive daylighting approach, while visually connecting ANOHA with the existing structure of the hall.

The exhibition designer for the project was IGLHAUT + von GROTE, and the lighting design was by Blieske Architects Lighting Designers.

With flexible exhibition galleries, dedicated space for educational programming, and areas for public gathering, Orange County Museum of Art’s new building provides expanded access to the museum’s permanent collection, which comprises important works of modern and contemporary art from Southern California and the Pacific Rim, and to its world-class special exhibition programme.

Designed by Morphosis Architects, the museum’s new home was completed in 2022. The main floor is dedicated to reconfigurable open-span exhibition space, complemented by mezzanine, black-box, and jewel-box galleries that can accommodate temporary and permanent collection exhibitions spanning a variety of scales and mediums.

A spacious roof terrace, equivalent in size to 70 percent of the building’s footprint, serves as an extension of the galleries with open-air spaces that can be configured for installations, a sculpture garden, outdoor film screenings and events. A grand outdoor public stair curves toward the museum’s entry, creating dialogue with Connector, the monumental sculpture by Richard Serra at the heart of Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Linking the museum to the arts complex’s Argyros Plaza and adjacent performing arts venues, the stair was designed to be an inviting gathering space for pedestrians and visitors.

The design strategy choreographs a rich visitor experience, from approach and entry, to procession through the galleries, and finally, an invitation to linger on the steps, in the café, or in the museum store. The building’s relationship between indoor and outdoor space encourages visitors to “immerse themselves in the celebrated climate of southern California, where light, air, and space have influenced generations of artists,” according to the architects.

The new home for the Museum of Ethnography, designed by Napur Architects, opened in May 2022. Realised as part of the Liget Budapest Project – a major redevelopment of Budapest’s 100-hectare City Park – the museum joins Sou Fujimoto’s House of Hungarian Music, which also opened in City Park last year.

The Museum of Ethnography opened in 1872 – it explores ethnographic science, European ethnology and cultural anthropology. The collection, which comprises 250,000 items, has been exhibited in various locations, but has never had a purpose built facility designed specifically to meet its needs.

According to the Architizer judges, the new building is distinguished by a “dynamic yet simple design harmonised with the natural environment of the park while communicating with the urban texture of its surroundings.

“The gently curving lines enable the building to function as a gateway linking the city and the park. The spectacular trademark of the building is the glass curtainwall surrounding the landscaped roof garden, consisting of nearly half a million pixels inserted into a laser-cut aluminium grid by a special robot.

“The building’s design hides a number of technological solutions, with its arched wings supported by a post-tensioned structure used in the construction of bridges.”

Completed in 2022, this project is a new multi-use, open air pavilion located on the grounds of Locust Grove, a 55-acre 18th-century farm site and National Historic Landmark in Louisville, Kentucky.

Locust Grove operates as a historic interpretive site and museum on the remaining William Croghan estate that consists of a Georgian farmhouse and outbuildings built by enslaved African Americans, emphasising the legacy of George Rogers Clark – Revolutionary war hero and the founder of Louisville – who lived at the property.

Presidents James Monroe and Andrew Jackson, John James Audubon, Cassius Marcellus Clay, and explorers Lewis and Clark were welcomed to Locust Grove by its owners to rest, campaign and duel. Now a National Historic Landmark, Locust Grove is a unique example of early Kentucky architecture, craftsmanship, and history.

When designing the new event pavilion, the architects took inspiration from the property’s collection of historic buildings, using a predominant material palette of stone and timber to create the single storey building.

Drawing on a key feature of Locust Grove’s 18th century Georgian mansion, the pavilion’s form evokes the idea of a large-scale porch. Limestone is combined with a spectacular timber roof canopy – profiled glulam beams are infilled with decorative secondary framing to create a coffered ceiling that recalls the sinewy texture of the black locust tree bark.

The pavilion has been designed for a range of events, including performances, musical events, weddings and celebrations.

Access to the pavilion is multi-directional and site-specific, reinforcing a porous threshold from the west and forming a broad open canopy to the east.

Careful positioning of the pavilion minimises its visual impact in the landscape and frames important views.

The Osage Park Pavilion is a gateway and centrepiece for Osage Park, a scenic green space located at the northern end of a small municipal airport in Bentonville, Arkansas.

The airport is seen as a destination as well as transport hub, attracting unique, small aircraft and featuring a restaurant, flight school, flying club and store. Taking this as inspiration, the architects have designed a pavilion that derives its playful form and structural expression from aircraft wing design. The simple, fluid form lifts seamlessly out of the ground, evolving into a light, airy structure that celebrates natural light pouring through repetitive structural elements and the dynamic, undulating Arkansas-sourced cypress facade.

The pavilion acts as a hub within the larger park and contains a covered gathering space, restrooms, green room, and an outdoor stage and amphitheatre that anchors the eastern edge of the 55-acre recreational area. As the pavilion rises out of the park, the green roof becomes a viewing platform for visitors to watch planes take off and land.

The existing wetlands at Osage Park remain and play several roles, including water purification, water storage, and processing of carbon and other nutrients. Boardwalks are used for circulation throughout the park to preserve existing wetland and riparian areas. Other green infrastructure includes wetland buffers and the introduction of native plants to help clean contaminated land and restore a more natural aquatic environment.

This planned pavilion, designed by Mexico-based architecture firm A-001 Taller de Arquitectura, aims to help visitors enjoy the biodiversity of the local region while raising awareness of the challenges and solutions around climate change.

The key element is an ethnobotanical garden surrounding the pavilion, in which the biocultural heritage of the principal local plant species are exhibited and divided into five categories according to their uses: edible, toxic, religious, medical, and those used for building.

The garden works as an extension of the pavilion’s layout, with rectangular plots set on a series of platforms that follow the natural slope of the land and integrate harmoniously as a ‘reminder of the pyramidal foundations of Mexico’s native culture’.

The irrigation system takes advantage of the height differences between the platforms, allowing gravity to transport the water from the bio-pond fed by water from Lago Menor to each plot, reducing operating costs and returning excess water to the subsoil by an infiltration wetland.

Located in the historic harbour of old Montreal, Maison Sédimentation by Studio Fei seeks to vitalise a historical townhouse while maintaining its authenticity.

Currently owned by a local art foundation that plans to convert it into a contemporary gallery and cultural centre, it was built around 1770 onto the foundations of an older building, and is clad in Montreal graystone. It features a characteristic sloped roof meant to discourage snow build up and raised end walls that serve as firebreaks.

Taking inspiration from the concept of sedimentation, the architect decided to celebrate the ‘layer upon layer of the construction, demolition and partial recycling of physical boundaries and foundations’ to create a new space for displaying art and hosting cultural events.

“The rich history has resulted in complex circulations and varying elevations in this building. Thus deciding on a strategy of intervention required an honest assessment of what was feasible. It is impossible to meet the basic needs of an exhibition space while completely preserving and restoring the current structure,” said the architect.

Studio Fei’s proposal sees new and old come together, with an all-white extension added to the original building, keeping elements of the old structure including the topography and “slat-like organisation of spaces”.

The aim, according to the architect, is to create “a palimpsest of physical building layers that can accommodate the programme of a contemporary art museum while preserving the authenticity of the original.”

The space will serve as an exhibition venue, hosting a range of art and cultural events.