Photo credit: Home of Architecture | Chris Tate
Piha Beach stretches along New Zealand’s wild west coast where black sand meets pounding surf and sheer cliffs rise without warning. Chris Tate placed Bunker House, a compact two-bedroom home right there next to a public car park and surf lifesaving club. The structure rises as a solid black form that feels carved from the landscape itself.
Photo credit: RW Genting
The First World Hotel, located in the Genting Highlands, some 50 kilometers north of Kuala Lumpur, stands out against the backdrop of the greenery. Its two main buildings and annex include a remarkable 7,351 rooms, which kept the Guinness World Record for world’s largest hotel under lock and key since 2015. People come via cable car or by making their way up the mountain roads, and then find themselves in a realm of continual motion, as you can’t help but keep going forward to the next surprise.
Justin Flom’s Las Vegas home is a true one-of-a-kind masterpiece, a real breathing reflection of his career in magic, with something unexpected around every corner. He created the entire building himself, transforming a typical house into a seriously off-the-wall playground of secret passages and faulty mechanics, and guests can see right away that nothing behaves as you’d normally expect.
Photo credit: China News Service
Wushan County residents in Chongqing, China can now easily enter and exit neighborhoods that used to require an hour of navigating steep slopes and tight roads. The Wushan Goddess Escalator finally opened its doors on February 17, 2026, just in the midst of Chinese New Year festivities.
The Volcano-In Visitor Center and Hotel of Arrivals, both built by PLAT ASIA in Inner Mongolia’s Baiyinkulun Steppe, inspired the project’s name. The two comprise the first phase of a tourism resort set amidst an ancient volcanic terrain. This region of town contains an astonishing 108 volcanoes, many of which have long ago vanished but are still strewn around the steppe, sandy plains, lakes, and wetlands. It is located around 380 kilometers north of Beijing, inside a C-shaped crater that originated approximately 150,000 years ago.
Photo credit: Onocom
O House, finished in late 2025 within Kurihara, Miyagi Prefecture, is a 50-square-meter, 3D-printed two-story home. The 31-square-meter ground floor holds a master bedroom and bathroom, while the 19-square-meter upper level hosts the kitchen, dining, and living areas. Curved walls rise 7 meters, stacked like bricks and set half a meter below ground for stability, while skylights let natural light pour into every corner.
The Margherita Hut is located at 14,940 feet (4,554 meters) above sea level on Punta Gnifetti, one of the steepest peaks in the Monte Rosa range and serves as a natural border between Italy and Switzerland. As previously said, this wooden hut is a bit of an oddity in that it is Europe’s tallest building while also serving as a simple refuge for climbers who can earn their stay by merely climbing the mountain. However, ‘earn’ means climbing up to it, which is not an easy feat.
Photo credit: Studio Link-Arc | Tian Fangfang
Deep within Yunlu Wetland Park in Shundes, south China, there’s a building that blends in with the trees and water, making it difficult to see from a distance, despite being right across from an island where thousands of egrets have made their home. Studio Link-Arc completed this museum a year ago, resulting in a space that serves as both a learning center for all things wetland as well as a great place to observe local wildlife.
Five years ago, Atari Hotels made a big splash about gaming-themed destinations planned throughout the United States. Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, and Austin were at the top of the list, and the renderings were showcased sleek buildings bathed in a retro arcade light that would make you feel right at home if you were a kid who spent your afternoons playing Pong and Asteroids. As with so many games, delays emerged out of nowhere, owing mostly to the pandemic.
Photo credit: Max Touhey / Nigel Young for JPMorganChase, Foster + Partners
JPMorgan Chase’s new global headquarters in NYC, 270 Park Avenue, is a 1,388 foot copper-colored beast designed by Foster + Partners. This 60 story building was built on the foundation of the historic Union Carbide Building, and an engineering marvel that’s both environmentally conscious a well as human-centered, housing 10,000 people.