Albania is now witnessing an influx of ambitious projects, many by world-renowned international architects, that begin to redefine the skylines of Tirana and beyond. Albania’s Prime Minister, and former Tirana mayor, Edi Rama, has even pointed out that ‘Albania produces more architecture than the rest of Europe,’ a claim that reflects a construction frenzy that has made architecture one of the most visible symbols of change in the country.

designboom discusses this creative boom with key figures shaping Albania’s transformation, including Stefano Boeri, MVRDV’s Winy Maas, Christian Kerez, Beat Huesler of Oppenheim Architecture, and the team at Bofill Taller de Arquitectura, to explore how global architecture is helping redraw the cultural and urban landscape of the country.

Pyramid of Tirana by MVRDV (read more here) | image © Ossip van Duivenbode

how leadership, planning, and global talent reshape a country

A former artist, Rama prioritized urban revitalization since his mayoral tenure in the early 2000s. He famously beautified drab facades with vibrant colors and cleared illegal structures, setting the stage for larger transformations. After becoming prime minister, Rama launched the Tirana of the New Generation initiative in 2014, personally inviting 32 international architects to reimagine the capital. Around the same time, Tirana’s government commissioned Italian architect and urban planner Stefano Boeri to craft the Tirana 2030 Master Plan, envisioning sustainable growth, vertical development, and a massive ‘orbital forest.’ Boeri describes the city as ‘the most interesting and up-to-date, and therefore the most controversial and debatable, museum of contemporary architecture in the world,’ arguing that the sheer number and speed of projects have turned Tirana into an urban school of architecture in real time. ‘Our studio Stefano Boeri Architetti, which, in addition to the 2030 Master Plan, has already completed six buildings for Tirana and is building and designing another six, is therefore now fully involved, both as a student and as a teacher, in this International Urban School of Architecture,’ he tells us.

Swiss architect Christian Kerez compares the rapid transformation of the country to early-2000s China, noting, ‘You feel an energy and vitality, which is not abstract, but you can feel in the daily life.’ What sets Albania apart, he shares with designboom, is that the transformation is curated from the top: ‘It is curated by the highest governmental official, the prime minister, Edi Rama. He is personally supervising the architectural projects for all large and exposed plots.’

Today, a mix of completed landmarks, active construction sites, and visionary proposals illustrates Albania’s unique creative surge. From repurposed communist monuments to futuristic towers and ‘vertical villages,’ these projects showcase a country in architectural flux. 

Red Sol Resort by Bofill Taller de Arquitectura (read more here) | image courtesy of the architects

Built Landmarks

MVRDV’s transformation of the former Pyramid of Tirana into a vibrant youth cultural center is one of the most symbolic of Albania’s design renaissance. The brutalist landmark was preserved and reactivated with colorful, climbable structures that house tech classrooms and public gathering spaces, a clear nod to the power of adaptive reuse. Winy Maas, co-founder of the international architecture and urbanism office, reflects on this reinvention as a gesture of pride and contextual storytelling. ‘With the Pyramid of Tirana, we monumentalized the history of the building and its changed relationship with Tirana’s citizens,’ he reflects. Topped out in 2020, Downtown One, also by MVRDV, soars with cantilevered balconies shaped into a pixel map of the country – a literal vertical Albania. ‘Our projects near Skanderbeg Square make direct references to Albania’s history and geography – Downtown One with its map, the Skanderbeg Building with the statue of the former hero,’ Maas tells us.

Elsewhere in the city, built projects reveal how this architectural shift extends into public space, everyday life, and symbolic form. Stefano Boeri’s Blloku Cube introduces a compact yet highly visible intervention in Tirana’s once-restricted district, using iridescent surfaces and transparency to signal the transformation of the area into a hub for the creative economy. At the civic scale, 51N4E’s redesign of Skanderbeg Square performs a more radical act by removing traffic altogether, reshaping the city’s central plaza into a pedestrian landscape where architecture recedes in favor of collective use, ceremony, and urban calm.

This logic of hybridity carries through Archea Associati’s Air Albania Stadium, where sport, commerce, and hospitality are compressed into a single composition. Nearby, Studio Libeskind’s Magnet Residences extend symbolic thinking into the domestic realm, abstracting the Albanian eagle into curving residential forms organized around shared green spaces.

Stefano Boeri’s Blloku Cube (read more here) | image courtesy of the architects

Approved & Under Construction

A generation of next-wave architecture is rising across Tirana and beyond. BIG’s design for the new National Theatre broke ground in 2022 and introduces a dramatic bowtie-shaped cultural facility that anchors a new arts quarter. OODA’s Hora Vertikale rethinks the tower as a vertical neighborhood, stacking 13 modular volumes into a staggered, plant-covered form. Mount Tirana, designed by CEBRA, abstracts the silhouette of Albania’s mountains into a jagged vertical profile that could one day become the country’s tallest structure. 

Steven Holl’s Expo Albania reimagines a conventional convention center as a sculptural pair of signature buildings linked by landscape and light. Oppenheim Architecture, deeply embedded in Albania’s urban evolution, is advancing the New Boulevard Tower and the Vlora Beach Tower. ‘Albania’s creative boom carries a remarkable openness, a moment where the spirit of place is being rediscovered while the country transforms at great speed. What compels us as international practitioners is the chance to learn from context and to build with the land not on the land, embracing honesty in materials and the quiet power already present,’ notes Beat Huesler, director of the team at Oppenheim Architecture Europe. ‘Our work there seeks a kind of silent monumentality, architecture that responds to this energy with humility and clarity, allowing the landscape and culture to lead.”

Christian Kerez emphasizes that realizing these designs requires long-term commitment. ‘It is easy to make a rendering and very hard and difficult to build,’ he says. ‘We always follow closely the steps from concept design to site supervision.’ This level of dedication led him to open an office in Albania, where he now spends half his time.

New Boulevard Tower by Oppenheim Architecture (read more here) | rendering by MIR

Visionary Proposals

Some of the most speculative and exhilarating designs remain on the drawing board. MVRDV’s Grand Ballroom, a spherical sports arena wrapped in apartments, challenges the typology of stadiums by merging culture, housing, and entertainment into one orbital gesture. For Maas, it is another part of Tirana’s urban narrative: ‘The Grand Ballroom acts as another part of the Tirana collection, showing the city’s ambitions and creating another landmark.’

Bofill Taller de Arquitectura, whose recent and forthcoming work spans the Albanian Riviera and the capital, engages both topography and skyline without imposing a singular formal language. The studio frames its Albanian projects as site-specific responses to radically different landscapes, from steep coastal cliffs to dense urban contexts. ‘The landscapes of Albania are all completely different,’ the architects note, ‘so naturally each project is approached in a completely different manner. We want to find the unique spirit of a place, and in Albania we have been given the freedom to do this.’ This attitude underpins a body of work that resists iconic repetition in favor of contextual continuity. ‘There has always been the temptation for an architect to plant their flag over the landscape,’ the team tells designboom. ‘We don’t approach architecture in this way. We aim for buildings that are of their context and actively looking to improve it, whether that’s bettering access, encouraging wildlife, or providing social space for the community.’

Boeri describes these proposals as part of Tirana’s unique urban ecosystem. ‘Ideas are transformed into urban artifacts with unexpected speed. Mineral artifacts, traversed by everyday life.’ he shares with us.

MVRDV’s Grand Ballroom (read more here) | image © Antonio Luca Coco, Angelo La Delfa, Luana La Martina, Jaroslaw Jeda, Stefano Fiaschi, Ciprian Buzdugan

building identity in real time

Almost every architect designboom spoke with pointed to the role of Edi Rama as an unprecedented figure in contemporary development. As Christian Kerez observes, ‘What is different from any country I know about this process of transformation is that it is curated by the highest governmental official (…) He is personally supervising the architectural projects for all large and exposed plots.’ For many, this direct involvement has helped turn architectural competitions and urban policy into a live cultural project. Bofill Taller de Arquitectura describes the boom as ‘a moment of rebirth’ enabled by Rama’s leadership, a system that ‘allows and values creative freedom.’

Winy Maas highlights how Albania offers national identity expressed through architecture. ‘Instead of producing safe, boring buildings that make every city look the same, Albania is incentivising creative innovation,’ he tells designboom. But he also sees deeper implications. The creative boom, he argues, is not just about buildings but about pride and cultural presence within Europe. ‘How does a country like Albania maintain its individual identity in a Union that features so many wealthier, larger, more populous nations? Architecture is one way.’ he tells designboom. Stefano Boeri, too, frames Albania as a model for international practice: ‘Tirana and Albania are now a real-time laboratory for the most advanced ideas in contemporary architecture… a true School where architecture can be simultaneously learned and taught.’

SIMA Tower by Christian Kerez

campus for the College of Europe by Oppenheim Architecture (read more here) | all renders © MIR

Bjarke Ingels Group’s Faith Park (read more here) | visualization © Beauty and the Bit

Steven Holl Architects’ Expo Albania (read more here) | render by the architects

Hora Vertikale by OODA (read more here) | image © Plomp

Papuli Tower by Bofill Taller de Arquitectura

Mount Tirana by CEBRA (read more here) | image courtesy of the architects

CHYBIK + KRISTOF (CHK)’s ODA Tirana (read more here) | image courtesy of the architects

Veterinary Hospital in Tirana by Davide Macullo Architects (read more here) | image courtesy of the architects

Tirana’s Selman Stërmasi Stadium revitalization by OMA (read more here) | image courtesy of OMA

Valona Hills I-Cones by Davide Macullo Architects

Archi-Tectonics’ Festival City (read more here) | visualizations © Archi-Tectonics

Tirana 2030 by Stefano Boeri

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The New Museum in New York is set to reopen on March 21st, 2026, unveiling a major 5,600-square-meter expansion designed by OMA, led by Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas, in collaboration with executive architect Cooper Robertson (find designboom’s previous coverage here). The project doubles the institution’s total footprint to 11,148 square meters, extending the capacity of the museum for exhibitions, public programs, and artist-led initiatives. Opening weekend will offer free admission on March 21st and 22nd, welcoming visitors into a reconfigured building that rethinks circulation, public access, and the museum’s relationship to the street.

Designed to align with the existing SANAA building, completed in 2007, the new addition expands vertically and internally rather than reshaping the museum’s iconic stacked form. The intervention introduces new circulation systems, including three elevators, an atrium stair, and a reworked entrance plaza, aimed at improving movement across floors and increasing accessibility. The expansion also doubles gallery space, allowing exhibitions to unfold across a much broader architectural sequence. Public-facing amenities have been enlarged and relocated to the ground level, including a larger lobby, an expanded bookstore, and a full-service restaurant with a separate entrance from Freeman Alley.

rendering of the expanded New Museum | image courtesy of OMA/bloomimages

reconfigured circulation reshapes the visitor experience

The museum will reopen with New Humans: Memories of the Future, a large-scale thematic exhibition spanning the entire building. Featuring more than 200 participants across art, science, architecture, literature, and film, the exhibition traces how artists have historically imagined the future of humanity in response to technological, political, and biological transformation. Contemporary artists such as Sophia Al-Maria, Meriem Bennani, Pierre Huyghe, Wangechi Mutu, Hito Steyerl, Philippe Parreno, and Anicka Yi will be presented alongside twentieth-century figures including Francis Bacon, Hannah Höch, Salvador Dalí, H.R. Giger, Kiki Kogelnik, and El Lissitzky. Rather than positioning futurity as a fixed destination, the exhibition frames it as a recurring cultural projection shaped by each era’s anxieties and aspirations.

Upper levels house a new studio dedicated to artists-in-residence and a purpose-built home for NEW INC, the museum’s long-running cultural incubator. An expanded Sky Room on the seventh floor and a new 74-seat Forum introduce flexible venues for talks, screenings, and performances, emphasizing the institution’s evolving role as both exhibition site and discursive platform. With the coexistence of two Pritzker Prize–winning practices, OMA and SANAA, the New Museum becomes one of the few institutions globally shaped by multiple laureates working in close architectural dialogue.

rendering of the expanded New Museum and public plaza | image courtesy of OMA

site-specific commissions integrate art into the architecture

Beyond the exhibition galleries, the building incorporates a series of long-term, site-specific commissions. These include new facade work by Tschabalala Self, a monumental sculpture by Klára Hosnedlová installed along the Atrium Stair, and a public artwork by Sarah Lucas integrated into the entrance plaza. These permanent or semi-permanent interventions embed artistic production into the museum’s architectural fabric, blurring the line between building and exhibition.

‘Since our founding nearly 50 years ago, the New Museum has been a home for the most groundbreaking art of today and a haven for the artists who make it. Our new 120,000 square feet building on the Bowery signals our redoubled commitment to new art and new ideas, and to the museum as an ever-evolving site for risk-taking, collaboration, and experimentation,’ states Lisa Phillips, Toby Devan Lewis Director of the New Museum, reflecting on the significance of the expansion. The new building will be named in honor of Toby Devan Lewis, acknowledging her long-standing role in shaping the institution.

rendering of the expanded New Museum | image courtesy of OMA/bloomimages

public programming centers families, youth, and education

The reopening also expands the public programming infrastructure of the New Museum. New family- and youth-oriented initiatives include a Kids Activity Guide by Azikiwe Mohammed, audio tours designed for younger visitors, free monthly Family Days, and a recurring teen-focused art-making program. All New York City public schools will be invited for free guided visits, reinforcing the museum’s long-term educational role within the city.

OMA has also designed the New Museum’s first full-service restaurant, operated by the Oberon Group under executive chef Julia Sherman. With a vegetable-forward menu, the space will incorporate a commission by Ian Cheng and custom furniture by Minjae Kim. Meanwhile, the New Museum Store, now twice its original size, will operate independently from ticketed areas, expanding its offering of artist-made objects and publications.

a reconfigured building that rethinks circulation, public access, and the museum’s relationship to the street | image courtesy of OMA

project info:

name: museum | @newmuseum

location: 235 Bowery, New York, NY, USA

architect: OMA | @omanewyork (Shohei Shigematsu, Rem Koolhaas)

executive architect: Cooper Robertson | @corganinc

existing building: SANAA | @sanaa_jimusho

total size after expansion: 11,148 square meters

new addition size: 5,600 square meters

opening exhibition: New Humans: Memories of the Future

opening date: March 21st, 2026

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OMA, in collaboration with the Busan Architecture Festival and the Department of Housing and Architecture, proposes a masterplan that translates the strengths of the South Korean city’s informal neighborhoods into a contemporary framework for lively streets and coherent skylines.

Four residential categories emerged from the Busan Slope Housing study, including terrace houses, urban villas, row units, and towers. Each type is tested for slope, solar access, orientation, and area, while additional qualitative filters, proximity to public space, views, and visual variety helped refine their placement. Towers occupy high points, villas anchor urban centers, row houses follow ridgelines, and terraces nestle into steep pockets. The resulting masterplan is a composition of interlocking zones, structured around stairs, landings, terraces, and small squares rather than fences and parking decks. Circulation becomes social, outdoor spaces communal, and the hillside once again accommodates visible, everyday life.

images courtesy of OMA

prioritizing a circulation network that supports everyday life

During the Korean War, Busan became a city of refuge, its hillsides claimed by refugees who built improvised homes from salvaged materials. Over decades, these settlements evolved into dense, vibrant neighborhoods uniquely adapted to steep terrain. Today, those same hillsides sit on valuable land, but aging structures and narrow lanes no longer meet contemporary needs. The conventional response, tower estates, promises efficiency and comfort but erases the urban life that once animated these slopes. 

The study focuses on two contrasting sites, the ones of Yeongju, integrated into central Busan, and Anchang, isolated between forested ridges. These differences allow the team to test a flexible approach that mediates the existing micro-scale urban fabric with a modern macro-scale estate. The OMA team, led by Chris van Duijn, starts with prioritizing circulation, linking main public nodes through pedestrian corridors from bus stops and monorail stations to schools, parks, and markets, creating a network that supports daily life across the slope. This reveals natural ‘pocket neighborhoods’ shaped by gradient, adjacency, access, and views. Within each pocket, trade-offs between slope retention, vehicle access, daylight, and communal landings inform the placement and type of housing.

the masterplan translates the strengths of Busan’s informal neighborhoods

terrace housing, urban villas, row housing, and towers are proposed for the area

a composition of interlocking zones, structured around stairs, landings, terraces, and small squares

circulation becomes social, outdoor spaces communal, and the hillside accommodates visible, everyday life

during the Korean War, Busan became a city of refuge

project info:

name: Busan Slope Housing

architect: OMA | @oma.eu

location: Busan, South Korea

client: Busan Architecture Festival

partner: Chris van Duijn | @chris_van_duijn

associate: John Thurtle

team: Jeremy Chow, Felicia Gambino, Freddy Maggiorani, Suhin Park, Xaveer Roodbeen

The post OMA rethinks hillside areas in busan, south korea, with patchwork of terraces and towers appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

How do we make sense of the world? Often, the answer comes through lines, arrows, and boxes: the seemingly simple language of diagrams. At Fondazione Prada’s Venetian venue, the exhibition Diagrams, on view until November 24th, 2025, turns this visual shorthand into a subject of deep reflection. Conceived by AMO/OMA, the research arm of Rem Koolhaas’ studio, the project explores how diagrams shape the way we understand, communicate, and even manipulate knowledge. Spread across the 18th-century Palazzo Ca’ Corner della Regina, the exhibition, which runs alongside the Venice Architecture Biennale, assembles more than 300 objects, from medieval manuscripts to contemporary digital graphics, that cross centuries and cultures. These materials are not just archival curiosities; they reveal how visual schematics have been enlisted to address urgent issues, from public health to war, climate change to inequality.

AMO/OMA arranges the show around nine core themes: Built Environment, Health, Inequality, Migration, Environment, Resources, War, Truth, and Value. Each is presented in vitrines that resemble unfolding thought processes, aligned in parallel throughout the palazzo’s central hall. The experience feels less like a traditional display and more like an active tool for speculation, inviting visitors to view diagrams not as neutral or objective devices but as cultural artifacts with the power to clarify, persuade, or distort.

Fondazione Prada, Venice | all images by Marco Cappelletti courtesy of Fondazione Prada, unless stated otherwise

AMO/OMA Unpack Centuries of Visual Thinking

The exhibition draws on extensive research by the art and culture institute Fondazione Prada, conducted in close collaboration with Rem Koolhaas and Giulio Margheri, Associate Architect at architecture firm OMA, and enriched by the expertise of historian Sietske Fransen. Together, they trace the diagram as a nearly constant companion to human thought. Up until the 24th of November, visitors can discover striking examples, from three-dimensional diagrams in South Africa dating back 40,000 years to intricate wood-carved maps of Greenland’s coastline. For Koolhaas, these artifacts prove that ‘the diagram is an enduring form of communication that adapts to whatever medium exists at the time.’

What makes this journey compelling is the way ancient and modern forms speak to each other inside the palazzo’s galleries. The exhibition shows how diagrams move effortlessly between explanation and persuasion, able to illuminate areas as diverse as fashion, religion, and social inequality. Their independence from words makes them, as Koolhaas notes, ‘one of the most effective forms of representation,’ capable of crossing centuries and cultures with clarity and immediacy. By presenting diagrams not just as tools of knowledge but also as cultural artifacts, the show invites visitors to reflect on how images have always helped us make sense of complexity. Infographics of the 20th century, shaped by avant-garde movements, sit alongside earlier forms to highlight surprising connections.

Diagrams is on view until November 24th, 2025

Designing with Diagrams: Rem Koolhaas Reflects

Equally central to the exhibition is AMO/OMA’s own design practice. Koolhaas notes that diagrammatic thinking has been a guiding principle for the studio since the 1970s. ‘Complex ideas are almost an intellectual or sometimes artistic pleasure, and they became a driving element in what we were trying to do. In this context, diagrams were incredibly helpful. By researching and designing them, we were trying to form a space or to define another architecture, the form of which required an enormous amount of argument and articulation.’ He continues, ‘We would not have come close to that if I had not discovered a number of diagrams. The role of diagrams was crucial at that time because we needed the physical burden of proof to show that what we wanted to achieve was possible. Today, I may find myself in a different position, where I no longer have to prove that things are possible, and that certainly changes the nature or the role of diagrams. But I would still say that diagrams are an important part of my repertoire.’

Through this lens, Diagrams is more than a historical survey. It is a meditation on the enduring power of visual reasoning, a space where centuries-old artifacts converse with modern graphics, and where the diagram emerges as both a practical instrument and a medium of imagination. 

Diagrams by AMO/OMA is on view until November 24th, 2025, at Fondazione Prada’s Venice venue (Ca’ Corner della Regina). More info and tickets to the show available here. 

spread across the 18th-century Palazzo Ca’ Corner della Regina, the exhibition assembles more than 300 objects

the project explores how diagrams shape the way we understand, communicate, and even manipulate knowledge

Elwin J. Woodward, Historic and prophetic diagram of the world: God’s plan of salvation for law breakers, 1912. Colored lithograph, exhibition copy David Rumsey Map Collection, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford University Libraries. Courtesy David Rumsey Map Collection, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford University Librarie

the exhibition draws on research by Fondazione Prada, conducted in close collaboration with Rem Koolhaas and Giulio Margheri

the show invites visitors to reflect on how images have always helped us make sense of complexity

W.E.B. Du Bois, Conjugal condition of American Negroes according to age periods, c. 1900. Exhibition copy of a statistical chart illustrating the condition of the descendants of former African slaves now in residence in the United States of America, Atlanta University. Ink and watercolor on paper. Daniel Murray Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C., Daniel Murray Collection

the exhibited materials reveal how visual schematics have been enlisted to address urgent issues, from public health to war, climate change to inequality

AMO/OMA arranges the show around nine core themes: Built Environment, Health, Inequality, Migration, Environment, Resources, War, Truth, and Value

each theme is presented in vitrines that resemble unfolding thought processes

visitors are invited to view diagrams not as neutral or objective devices but as cultural artifacts with the power to clarify, persuade, or distort

John Auldjo, Map of Vesuvius showing the direction of the streams of lava in the eruptions from 1631 to 1831, 1832 Exhibition copy from a printed book In John Auldjo, Sketches of Vesuvius: with Short Accounts of Its Principal Eruptions from the Commencement of the Christian Era to the Present Time (Napoli: George Glass, 1832) Olschki 53, plate before p. 27, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, Firenze Courtesy Ministero della Cultura – Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze.

the exhibition shows how diagrams move effortlessly between explanation and persuasion

for Koolhaas, these artifacts prove that ‘the diagram is an enduring form of communication that adapts to whatever medium exists at the time’

Ed Hawkins, Temperature changes around the world between 1901 and 2018, 2019. Published by BBC on June 21, 2019. Digital image. From BBC News at bbc.co.uk/news and Prof. Ed Hawkins, National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of Reading, UK www.ShowYourStripes.info. Courtesy BBC News

the diagrams’ independence from words makes them, as Koolhaas notes, ‘one of the most effective forms of representation’

in Diagrams, a space emerges where centuries-old artifacts converse with modern graphics

project info: 

name: Diagrams
exhibition design: AMO/OMA | @oma.eu
location: Fondazione Prada | @fondazioneprada in Venice, Italy 
dates: until November 24th, 2025 
tickets: here

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OMA completes Harajuku Quest, a commercial complex in the heart of Tokyo set to open on September 11th, 2025, when the first stores welcome visitors, followed by a phased rollout from November onwards (find designboom’s previous coverage here). Designed within NTT Urban Development Corporation’s wider strategy for Harajuku, the 4,300-square-meter project bridges the two distinct contexts of the grand, tree-lined Omotesando Avenue and the dense, intimate Oku-Harajuku district.

The redevelopment, which began construction in October 2022, shapes its volume differently in each side. Toward Omotesando, the volume is pinched and pulled within its zoning envelope, resulting in a monolithic, transparent facade that recedes at both ground and roof level. The setback at the street creates a funneling passage into Oku-Harajuku, while the upper recess brings daylight deep into the block. On the opposite side, the mass steps and fans out into terraces facing Harajuku, offering open-air platforms where programs spill outward. 

images by Forward, unless stated otherwise

reinterpreting Harajuku’s Legacy Through Hybrid Hub

Since its original debut in 1988, the former Harajuku Quest has been closely tied to the evolution of the area, adapting to the shifting currents of fashion, youth culture, and urban change. The reconstruction by the team at OMA, led by Shohei Shigematsu, seeks to update the complex, reinterpreting that legacy for the present, proposing a hybrid form that mediates between globalized retail architecture and the human-scaled fabric of backstreets known for independent shops and creative subcultures. The building acts as a gateway, drawing flows of people between Omotesando’s flagship-lined boulevard and the winding alleys of Oku-Harajuku for the first time.

A second-level public plaza centers the design, conceived as a new civic datum within the district. This elevated space expands the conventional retail experience into a stage for cultural programs and gatherings, weaving local life into the site and blurring the threshold between commerce and community. Along with alleys, squares, and casual meeting spots, the project builds on NTT’s With Harajuku (2020) by extending the pedestrian network and strengthening Harajuku’s identity as a meeting and exchange point.

OMA completes Harajuku Quest

a monolithic, transparent facade that recedes at both ground and roof level

former Harajuku Quest has been closely tied to the evolution of the area | construction images by Ko Tsuchiya

the reconstruction by the team at OMA, led by Shohei Shigematsu, seeks to update the complex

the building acts as a gateway

drawing flows of people between Omotesando and Oku-Harajuku for the first time

project info:

name: Harajuku Quest

architect: OMA | @oma.eu

partner: Shohei Shigematsu | @shohei_shigematsu

location: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan

gross floor area: 4,300 square meters

client: NTT Urban Development Corporation

associates: Takeshi Mitsuda, Fernan Bilik, Tetsuo Kobayashi, Kohei Sugishita, Yuzaburo Tanaka, Timothy Tse, Chiao Yang

executive architect: NTT Facilities

structure: NTT Facilities

MEP: NTT Facilities

landscape architect: Landscape Plus

lighting design: Lighting Planners Associates

graphics, signage, wayfinding: Daikoku Design Institute, Bikohsha

general contractor: Kumagai Gumi

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This October, The ReefLine will unveil its first installation by Leandro Erlich off Miami Beach, beginning a seven-mile underwater public sculpture park, snorkel trail, and hybrid reef. Conceived by Founder, Ximena Caminos, The ReefLine will restore a section of the Florida Reef Tract while creating a site for public engagement with art and climate resilience. OMA and Shohei Shigematsu were brought on to put together the master plan for the project.

The first deployment, Concrete Coral by Leandro Erlich, features twenty-two full-scale cars submerged fifteen to twenty feet underwater at 4th Street. Cast in marine-grade concrete from 3D-printed molds, the sculptures evoke an underwater traffic jam while providing structure for coral growth. Using Coral Lok, a patented attachment system, live corals are seeded onto the cars to accelerate reef development.

The ReefLine to deploy its first installation by Leandro Erlich this October | visualization courtesy The ReefLine

leandro erlich Hybridizes infrastructure and fabrication

While Leandro Erlich’s ReefLine installation will be sculptural, it will also support biodiversity and act as a breakwater to protect Miami’s shoreline from erosion and rising seas. 2,200 corals are being cultivated at The ReefLine’s Miami Native Coral Lab under marine biologist Colin Foord.

Concrete Coral marks the first step in a multi-phase cultural corridor. Upcoming installations include The Miami Reef Star by Carlos Betancourt and Alberto Latorre, and Heart of Okeanos by Petroc Sesti. Each work is designed as both art and reef infrastructure, advancing The ReefLine’s goal of planting one million corals over its lifespan.

The Reefline’s Miami Reef Star prototype displayed during Miami Art Week 2024 | image © designboom

project info:

name: The ReefLine | @thereefline

artist: Leandro Erlich | @leandroerlichofficial

fabricator: Madco3D | @madco3d

coral cultivation: Miami Native Coral Lab (Colin Foord)

artistic director, founder: Ximena Caminos
master planner: OMA / Shohei Shigematsu
curatorial advisors: Brandi Reddick (Cultural Affairs Manager, City of Miami Beach), Jérôme Sanz (Independent Curator)

previous coverage: November 2020, December 2024

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OMA’s Mangalem 21 occupies a steep site in eastern Tirana, Albania, shaped by a 27-meter elevation change from top to bottom — roughly the height of a nine-story building. Framed by communist-era housing blocks to the north and informal developments to the south, the residential masterplan responds to this layered context with a rhythmic and vibrant sequence of buildings and courtyards. Developed with Kontakt, the complex adopts a checkerboard layout that balances urban density with green, communal space.

The entire ground level is pedestrian-only, with parking and vehicular access placed below ground. This frees up 70% of the surface area for public plazas, gardens, and circulation, resulting in a calm and accessible urban setting. As the slope steps down, buildings are arranged so that each looks over the one below, allowing for open views and sunlight across the site.

all images courtesy of Kontakt

oma’s tirana masterplan introduces porosity into the grid

At the architectural scale, Mangalem 21’s design transforms the regular grid into a more spatially active fabric. Tangent corners and overlapping volumes are articulated through three new typologies: the straddle core, where circulation is shared between buildings; the straddle apartment, which spans two structures; and the kissing corner, where two volumes meet. These configurations introduce porosity and variation across what might otherwise be a rigid plan.

A carefully curated color palette further animates the development’s façades. Referencing Tirana’s 2000s city-wide mural initiative led by then-mayor Edi Rama, international practice OMA introduces color through standardised openings, shifting patterns, and selective accents across walls, window frames, and shutters. The resulting visual language is diverse yet cohesive. With the stepped arrangement revealing multiple elevations at once, rooftops are treated as fifth facades — visible from above and woven into the spatial rhythm. Together, these elements aim to establish a new model of urban living in Tirana that integrates high density with visual diversity, open space, and a flexible architectural framework that evolves with its residents’ needs. The project builds a walkable, inhabited landscape that ties individual experience to a collective urban form.

Mangalem 21’s facades emerging from the urban edge

colorful residential blocks

the residential masterplan responds to its layered context with a rhythmic sequence of buildings and courtyards

the interplay between vibrant facades, arcades, and planted courtyards

the design references Tirana’s 2000s city-wide mural initiative led by then-mayor Edi Rama

framed by communist-era housing blocks to the north and informal developments to the south

project info:

name: Mangalem 21
architect: OMA | @oma.eu, Kontakt

location: Tirana, Albania

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: Ravail Khan | designboom

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Louis Vuitton: Visionary Journeys is now open at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka, Japan. Designed by Shohei Shigematsu of OMA, the exhibition occupies 2,200 square meters of the museum and is organized into eleven thematic galleries. These are grouped into four interconnected zones — history, codes, process behind the craft, and cultural dialogue — that together express the enduring identity of the House.

The exhibition design celebrates spatial variety, with each room conceived as a unique set within a continuous narrative. Shigematsu explains that the scenography aims to translate Louis Vuitton’s legacy into an architectural journey, one that goes beyond objects to explore ideas. Osaka’s long-standing role as a center of trade and craftsmanship in Japan underscores the choice of venue, bringing a contextual layer to the Maison’s exploration of heritage and innovation.

the exhibition spans 2,200 square meters at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art | images courtesy Louis Vuitton

Monumental Interventions in the Museum Atrium

Visitors to Louis Vuitton: Visionary Journeys first encounter eight monumental lanterns, which the team at OMA suspends from the Osaka museum’s five-story atrium. Each 12.5-meter-tall column stacks trunk-like forms wrapped in Monogram washi paper, arranged in six unique configurations. The lanterns emphasize the verticality of the atrium while casting a soft, diffuse glow, creating a welcoming transition into the exhibition.

Beyond the atrium, the entrance gallery is anchored by a hemispherical installation composed of 138 authentic Louis Vuitton trunks. Mirrored by the glass floor below, the self-supporting structure forms a complete globe, referencing themes of exploration and global exchange. The trunks’ structural integrity alone holds the piece together, exemplifying the balance of strength and lightness that defines the House’s craftsmanship.

a hemispherical globe is built from 138 Louis Vuitton trunks

a celebration of Japanese influences

Speaking to its context in Osaka, Louis Vuitton and OMA prominently feature Japan as both subject and context throughout the exhibition. A dedicated gallery, Louis Vuitton and Japan, examines artistic and cultural exchanges between the brand and the country. The display spans centuries, from traditional garments and samurai armor to contemporary pop culture, all arranged on modular platforms evocative of tatami mats.

Other rooms trace the evolution of Louis Vuitton’s creative codes. In the Origins room, a hand-woven bamboo armature carries the timeline of the Maison’s six historic eras, reflecting a shared respect for craftsmanship. Two galleries are devoted to the Monogram canvas, charting its development from early influences, including Japanese motifs, to its use in contemporary designs.

hand-woven bamboo structures and archival materials highlight LV’s craftsmanship legacy

The Expeditions gallery immerses visitors inside a full-scale inflatable hot-air balloon that doubles as a display structure and projection surface. In the Materials gallery, a dense arrangement of foundational components is presented in a way that appears weightless, giving visitors the sense of peering into an infinite archive. Atelier Rarex, a selection of exceptional pieces, is displayed along a boulevard backdrop modeled on the mansard roofline of Louis Vuitton’s Paris flagship.

The Workshop gallery incorporates arched windows, sawtooth roofs, and workbenches modeled after the House’s Asnières atelier, where craftspeople conduct live demonstrations. Mirrored ‘skylights’ allow these processes to be observed from anywhere in the room. Meanwhile, the Testing gallery introduces visitors to the machinery and protocols behind product durability, bringing the brand’s laboratory into the museum context.

In the Collaborations gallery, four mirrored domes house works by artists and brands such as Stephen Sprouse, Supreme, Yayoi Kusama, and Takashi Murakami. The reflections create a kaleidoscopic environment that reconstitutes each partnership as part of Louis Vuitton’s broader creative ecosystem.

an inflatable hot-air balloon and mirrored displays offer immersive environments for storytelling

a gallery dedicated to Japan explores the brand’s cultural exchanges using tatami-inspired platforms

live workshops and testing galleries recreate the Asnières atelier within the museum

Shohei Shigematsu organizes four zones focused on history, craft, codes, and cultural dialogue

mirrored domes reflect key collaborations in a kaleidoscopic environment of contemporary design

project info:

name: Visionary Journeys

designer: Louis Vuitton | @louisvuitton

exhibition design: Shohei Shigematsu / OMA | @shohei_shigematsu @omanewyork
museum: Nakanoshima Museum of Art | @nakkaart2022

location: Osaka, Japan

dates: July 15th — September 17th, 2025

photography: courtesy Louis Vuitton

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OMA wins an international competition to design a new bridge in Lyon, France. The project, led by Reinier de Graaf with associate Gilles Guyot and project architect Anton Anikeev, will form a key part of the TEOL (Tram Express de l’Ouest Lyonnais) initiative by SYTRAL Mobilités, connecting the Confluence district on the eastern bank of the Saône with the steep, green slopes of La Balme to the west.

The proposal combines a tramway with a pedestrian and cyclist path in a single integrated structure. The bridge addresses both practical infrastructure needs and urban accessibility while paying close attention to its topographical and ecological context. The steep western terrain, which has historically limited development, is now the focus of densification and improved connectivity.

The OMA design avoids grand gestures and instead blends into the natural environment, offering what de Graaf describes as ‘an elegant connection between the urban waterfront and the river’s natural edge.’ Rather than asserting itself as an icon, the bridge calibrates its expression in response to the surrounding landscape, subtly different on each side of the river.

the bridge combines tram infrastructure with a pedestrian and cyclist path | visualizations © OMA & hism

oma Shapes the Crossing Experience

On the Confluence side, OMA designs the Lyon bridge to float above the water gardens, supported by a light and narrow deck that frames views of the river. The passage here acts as both a thoroughfare and a public promenade, with the space underneath reimagined as an open civic area around the historic harbormaster’s building.

Across the river, the project calls for the restoration of a forgotten path along the La Balme hillside. This former route, which once offered a natural vantage point over the Saône, will be reintroduced as part of the bridge’s integration into the landscape. The tram line, which must pass through this hilly terrain, is designed as a discreet incision into the hillside, minimizing impact on the surrounding environment.

The team at OMA is collaborating with WSP, Devaux & Devaux architectes, and Marco Rossi Paysagiste to develop the scheme. The office has prior experience in the region through its work on the Vallée de la Chimie masterplan and recently completed the Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux, awarded the Équerre d’Argent in 2024.

OMA avoids landmark posturing in favor of contextual precision

project info:

name: Lyon Bridge

architecture: OMA | @oma.eu

location: Lyon, France
status: ongoing
visualizations: © OMA & hism (Diego Iacono, Stefania Trozzi)

partner: Reinier de Graaf
associate: Gilles Guyot
project architects: Anton Anikeev, Yasemin Parlar, Francois Riollot, Suet Ying Yuen
engineering: WSP
heritage specialist: DDA
landscape architects: MRP
lighting design: Les Eclaireurs

The post OMA wins competition to design anti-iconic bridge in lyon, france appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

In Xiamen, China, OMA completes a new headquarters for JOMOO, the country’s largest sanitaryware manufacturer. Marking the transition of the company from national supplier to global brand, the project redefines the conventional office typology through a sculptural volume that bridges city and nature. On one side, dense high-rises of the emerging central business district press in, while on the other, forested hills rise above the coast. Responding to these contrasts, OMA’s design combines a multi-functional base with a 230-meter tower, anchoring JOMOO’s identity. White vertical ceramic stripes compose the facade, a detail that references both the company’s industrial roots in ceramics and traditional window patterns found in Fujian’s vernacular houses. These stripes shift orientation across the surface of the building, creating a pattern that gives the headquarters a distinct presence. 

Led by OMA partner Chris van Duijn, with project architects Chen Lu and Lingxiao Zhang, the building is the firm’s first realized high-rise in China, a precursor to several ongoing commissions in Hangzhou, Shenzhen, and beyond. ‘Located in rapidly growing cities,’ van Duijn notes, ‘these projects explore new connections to their immediate urban context, reinterpreting the prevailing tower typology that has shaped much of China’s recent urban expansion.’

images courtesy of OMA

rocky topography inspires the irregular form of the tower

The OMA-designed structure houses JOMOO’s offices and showroom, along with public-facing spaces like a lobby, multipurpose hall, and recruitment and conference rooms. The design team embeds all these areas within a monolithic base volume, whose irregular form draws from the rocky topography of the surrounding landscape. This base anchors the campus in its natural setting, while establishing a civic presence along the urban front.

The system of the facade eliminates the need for interior columns, allowing flexible and open floor plans throughout the tower, an architectural choice aligned with JOMOO’s modular, future-oriented production ethos. The project is the result of a close collaboration between OMA and local architect Huayi Design, which also handled structural and mechanical engineering. 

OMA completes a new headquarters for JOMOO

the project redefines the conventional office typology through a bold sculptural volume

OMA’s design combines a multi-functional base with a 230-meter tower

vertical ceramic stripes compose the facade

the detail references the material expertise of the company and traditional window patterns

these stripes shift orientation across the surface of the building

the OMA-designed structure houses JOMOO’s offices and showroom

project info:

name: JOMOO Headquarters

architect: OMA | @omanewyork

location: Xiamen, China

client: JOMOO | @jomoointer

partner-in-charge: Chris van Duijn

project architects: Chen Lu, Lingxiao Zhang

design team: Mark Bavoso, Slava Savova, Sebastian Schulte, Ricky Suen, Gabriele Ubareviciute, Yue Wu, Adisak Yavilas, Pu Hsien Chan, Alan Lau, Cecilia Lei, Kevin Mak, Connor Sullivan

local architect: Huayi Design

structural & mechanical engineering: Huayi Design

facade consultant: VS-A

photographer: Xia Zhi, Chen Hao

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