The best buildings of 2021

From homes made of 3D-printed raw earth to a community library in Mexico, we round up the projects championing sustainability, inclusivity and innovation

Innovative ‘House for Artists’ opens in east London

In the new building in Barking, creative tenants pay part of their rent with time gifted to the community

High-rise greenhouses open in Paris suburbs

The Cité Maraîchère project in Romainville hosts and promotes sustainable urban agriculture

Learning centre opens at King’s Cross nature reserve

The Camley Street Natural Park learning centre, designed by Erect Architecture, promotes engagement with nature in the middle of the city

Rock-like Chapel of Sound designed in Chinese valley

OPEN Architecture’s rural, open-air concert hall appears as if emerging from the landscape

Printmaking Workshop designed for TU Dublin

The industrial studio by Irish practice Scullion Architects is robust and flexible – while publicly celebrating the work of staff and students

Mecanoo transforms Mies van der Rohe’s MLK Library

The Washington DC library honouring the civil rights leader has been revitalised with new spaces, a public roof garden and a social focus

Mario Cucinella designs Tuscan cultural centre with ‘suspended plaza’

Palazzo Senza Tempo, in the Italian hilltop town of Peccioli, combines old and new structures with a cantilevered public platform

London’s Courtauld Gallery reopens after redevelopment

The transformation project by Witherford Watson Mann has revitalised and opened up the neoclassical building within Somerset House

Circus-inspired wooden theatre built in historic Béziers

K architectures has designed the striking Domaine de Bayssan Theatre complex in one of France's oldest cities

6a architects designs community centre in London 

The light, open building for Holborn Community Association transformed a dark basement and includes an artistic collaboration with Caragh Thuring

Brussels railway training academy features train tracks

The aluminium-clad Infrabel Academy by Atelier Kempe Thill references industrial shed architecture – and connects to an adjacent train station

Stateless Heritage exhibition explores refugee experience

The show by DAAR (Decolonize Architecture Art Research) in London proposes a Palestinian refugee camp as a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Warehouse in Santander transformed into art gallery

Two architecture practices converted the damaged 20th-century structure into a new cultural space for the Spanish city, with minimal interventions

COP26 virtual pavilion champions 17 sustainable architecture projects

Build Better Now shows how architecture can tackle and mitigate climate change

Arts centre in Somerset developed by and for local community

Resembling a mix of beach huts and containers, the East Quay Arts Centre is designed by Invisible Studio and Ellis Williams for local social enterprise Onion Collective

Hélène Binet’s architectural photography celebrated in Royal Academy show

Light Lines showcases the 'moods' of architecture that the French-Swiss photographer captures

Estudio Herreros-designed Munch museum opens in Oslo

The aluminium-wrapped vertical structure on the Norwegian capital's waterfront provides expansive spaces for the artist's work 

‘Modernist Glade’ created in Milton Keynes by Hayatsu Architects and Tue Greenfort

The public space project celebrates mycelium and references the city's modernist origins

OMA transforms historic Berlin department store 

The first phase of the practice’s redesign of Kaufhaus des Westens has opened to the public 

‘15-minute city’ idea wins Obel Award

The annual architectural prize has been awarded to Carlos Moreno's concept of local urbanism