TeamLab Planets quickly made a name for itself after opening its doors in 2018. It holds the Guinness World Record for the most-visited museum dedicated to a single group or artist, bringing in more than 2.5 million visitors from April 2023 to March 2024.
Osaka, Japan's third largest city after Tokyo and Yokohama, has a youthful energy to it. Locals love it for tabearuki, which literally means walking and eating at the many shotengai-covered arcades, lined with stalls and tempting street food.
The contemporary technology museum has emerged as a performative participant in the systems it seeks to document. The architecture of these institutions has become increasingly fluid and bold, often mirroring the velocity and complexity of the systems it houses. They operate as mediators between the human, the ecological, and the technological realms, transforming from encyclopedic warehouses into active educational engines.
One of Japan's most recognizable cultural practices - the Japanese tea ceremony, known as chanoyu, or chadō - is being reshaped by tourism, wellness culture and social media. Matcha, the Japanese powdered green tea that is used during the ceremony, has entered the global marketplace. Influencers post highly curated tearoom photos, wellness brands market matcha as a "superfood," and cafés worldwide present whisked green tea as a symbol of mindful living.
The city has a unique opportunity to showcase its dynamic history and culture, draw new fans to a range of entertainment and attractions and capture the economic impact of all this activity. City officials, our local hospitality industry, regional sports teams and venues and the folks at the San Jose Mineta International Airport have been working together for many months to position San Jose as a home base for visitors and provide local residents opportunities to enjoy the vibrant atmosphere.
Behind [Mount Fuji's] beautiful landscape is the reality that the quiet lives of citizens are threatened. We have a strong sense of crisis. To protect the dignity and living environment of our citizens, we have decided to bring the curtain down on the 10-year-old festival, he added in his statement. Authorities cited repeated incidents of disruptive behaviour from tourists in the city, which lies to the west of Tokyo.
KITONOKO is a community-oriented complex located in a suburban commercial district, conceived as a place where architecture quietly connects people, work, and everyday life. Surrounded by large-scale retail and roadside developments, the project seeks to introduce a more human-scaled, open, and approachable environment within a typically car-oriented context. Rather than operating as a closed commercial facility, the building encourages local residents, visitors, and staff to naturally intersect through spatial openness and continuity.
And while the convenience and amenities of a hotel stay may be tempting, renting an Airbnb just off the beaten path is an even better way to experience the city like a local. The bustling capital encompasses a dynamic mix of cultural sights, impressive culinary experiences, and globally-renowned shopping landmarks-from the vibrant Harajuku district to the Edo-era Senso-ji Temple-that make it one of the most bucket-listed travel destinations in the world.
Intervening at the head office of Imabari Shipbuilding's Marugame Site presented an opportunity to reorganize the working environment of multiple parties involved in the construction of large tankers, formerly scattered across a vast industrial area of 0.88 km.
Rising from the ground as a cultivated landscape of learning, the Uzbekistan Pavilion "Garden of Knowledge" at Expo 2025 Osaka translates national transformation into a spatial and material narrative.
I grew up visiting this house. It originally belonged to my grandfather's older sister, and whenever I traveled down from Iwate, the northern prefecture in Japan where I grew up, this was where the family gathered. Later, I worked as a rehabilitation consultant at hospitals in Osaka and Yokohama. I moved, but this place was always in the back of my mind.
Workplaces serve as centers to support business transactions, often with cues from traditional corporate styling but little else. For its new office in Tokyo, the staff at KOKUYO, a leading manufacturer of office furniture, stationery, and supplies, envisioned a combination work and learning hub that sparks child-like imagination. The 5,317-square-foot space, completed by DDAA in collaboration with KOKUYO's own design team, centers on the theme of learning.
CIRCULUS Atelier is the working studio of Oka Architecture Design & Co., Ltd. (OAD) and a built application of the practice's CIRCULUS architectural framework, which examines circularity, continuity, and long-term adaptability in design. Conceived as both a in Yokohama, , and a prototype, the project investigates how digital fabrication can inform architecture as a system that integrates exterior enclosure and interior spatial treatment within a unified logic.
Room 1101 by FORM / Kouichi Kimura Architects is the renovation of an urban apartment conceived as a secondary, designed to support flexible use while offering a distinct spatial experience. Located on the 11th and top floor of the building in, the apartment is defined by a five-meter-high atrium and a series of large, irregularly arranged windows that introduce abundant natural light into the interior.
Across this week's broader architecture news landscape, a central theme emerges around the advancement of civic architecture conceived as open, publicly engaged infrastructure, with cultural and institutional projects increasingly designed to strengthen their relationship with the city and everyday urban life. At the same time, renewed global attention turns toward Africa, where large-scale transport infrastructure and the conservation of modernist landmarks reflect interests in the region and the reassessment of the continent's architectural heritage.