ArchDaily has announced its December editorial focus will center on a comprehensive year-end review, examining the most significant architectural developments, projects, and cultural shifts that defined 2025. The architecture publication plans to gather compelling stories, innovative ideas, and influential voices that shaped the global architectural conversation throughout the year.
The retrospective will cover major architectural exhibitions and events that framed 2025's debates, including pavilions from Osaka and Venice, as well as roundtables held in Belém. The review aims to capture how architecture responded to complex global challenges including environmental urgency, cultural reinvention, and rapid technological change. December's coverage will revisit the projects, interviews, and essays that left lasting impacts on the discipline.
Several key themes emerged throughout 2025 that will be highlighted in the review. The rehabilitation of existing structures continued to spark dialogue about permanence, context, and continuity in architecture. Interior design trends revealed how spaces adapted to new patterns of living, working, and well-being. A renewed focus on materials and construction techniques pointed toward more conscious and regenerative approaches to design.
The review will particularly emphasize contributions from the Global South, showcasing pavilions, installations, and rural initiatives that demonstrated how local knowledge expanded global architectural thinking. Featured projects include the Terrachidia Oasis Campus, one of the winners of the Ammodo Architecture Awards 2025, and works by Pritzker Prize winner Liu Jiakun, including the West Village - Basis Yard project in Chengdu.
ArchDaily's year-end coverage will also examine the Pavilion of the Kingdom of Bahrain at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale and the Serpentine Pavilion 2025 'A Capsule in Time,' designed by Marina Tabassum of Marina Tabassum Architects. These projects exemplify the year's emphasis on experimentation and adaptation across the built environment.
Looking ahead, the publication will identify the most anticipated projects and issues of 2026, exploring emerging directions in architectural practice. The review poses critical questions about which stories left their mark on 2025 and how they might continue shaping future paths in architecture and urban design.
ArchDaily's December focus represents more than just a retrospective exercise. The publication views reflection as both an act of memory and foresight, providing a framework to understand where the architectural community has been in order to envision where it might go next. This comprehensive review celebrates not only what was built, published, or imagined in 2025, but recognizes architecture as a continuous conversation between past, present, and future.
