Arquitectura

-A white grid raised from the ground encloses a chessboard of courtyards, gardens and domestic areas. Makoto Takei and Chie Nabeshima use a typically modernist element-not as a reference to a universal rational order, but to strengthen the building's links to its context and local history.

-At a time when politics is struggling to tackle the economic crisis, the latest official stance on school building in the United Kingdom seems to associate architecture with needless extravagance. The refurbishment of a Croydon primary school points in the opposite direction, going far beyond a show of pretty design to offer new possibilities to civil society.

-One reality of working in rural areas is that the profession of architecture does not exist in villages. So what can an architect do in a place with no need for architects? This is a question John Lin from Rural Urban Framework has been facing since working in Chinese villages over the past six years.

-The finished building is just half the story. Artist Pablo Bronstein, who in 2008 created the Branca Tower Ballet for Domus, offers the owners of a house extension recently completed by OFFICE in Brussels some helpful advice on how to furnish it tastefully.