According to the New York Times and the Oxford English Dictionary, the word that defined 2025 was “rage bait”: online content designed to trigger anger and polarization. For the Cambridge Dictionary it is “parasocial”, referring to increasingly close – and often toxic – relationships between stars and the public. In Italy, for Treccani, the word of the year is “trust”.

Three different definitions, but a shared impression: 2025 was marked by a widespread sense of online disorientation. There is too much content, constant stimulation, while the tools to orient oneself and to select remain few.

In this scenario, rereading becomes an almost countercultural act. Not out of nostalgia, but as a way to orient oneself. Because if 2025 was the year of content designed to trigger immediate reactions, Domus continued to do what it has always done: build stories that do not ask to be consumed quickly.

This selection of twenty articles, to linger over for the first time or to reread during the holidays, comes about in this way: as a pause in the flow. It is an invitation to return to architectures that no longer exist and to others that endure over time; to real cities and to the unsettling ones of digital crime; to humble objects and furnishings that shaped the history of the twentieth century. There is desire in the sets of Luca Guadagnino, there is the distorted intimacy of Instagram feeds, there are “magical” places that become reality like those of Elmgreen & Dragset, and those that have remained only in the imagination of designers.

And there is one question that runs through the entire year: what does it mean today to design – a space, an object, even a face – in a world that moves faster than our ability to understand it?

Everyone knows Carlo Scarpa's famous Olivetti store in Piazza San Marco. However, few people are aware that in 1961, the architect also collaborated with Dino Gavina on another store which, although less well known, is equally fascinating. Today, we returned to visit it after its restoration and reopening. Read more

The stadiums that have shaped the history of football — both in sporting and architectural terms — are now abandoned or demolished. The recent controversy surrounding Milan’s San Siro has reignited a debate on Italian stadiums that extends to those across the globe. Read more

Between technical utopia and an obsession with control, these five inventions, each designed to improve everyday life, reveal the most unsettling – and oddly fascinating – side of modern design. Read more

In Southeast Asia, urban clusters designed for online fraud are emerging: camouflaged, functional spaces where architecture becomes the real infrastructure of the dark side of the web. Read more 

According to a survey by the World Economic Forum, 41% of employers are already planning to reduce their workforce in favor of AI. However, the consequences are quite different from what we expected, and they mainly affect the younger generations. Read more

In 1966, Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé discovered Morocco and fell in love with the country. Marrakech became a creative refuge and source of inspiration, marking the beginning of a bond that would forever shape his life and artistic vision. Read more

Seventy years ago, the American architect presented The Illinois to the world: a tower more than two kilometres high and containing a veritable city with nuclear-powered elevators. Thanks to renderings by architect David Romero, we can now see what it would have looked like. Read more

Between submerged cities, high-altitude airports and inadequate regulations, the voices of Ghotmeh, Gang, Ma, Mandrup, BIG, Snøhetta and others reveal that sustainability is not a single concept. From the Holcim Awards emerges a landscape of differences, contradictions and new possibilities. Read more 

The face is no longer merely the site of identity, but a designed interface: between filters, “AI-inspired” surgery, parametric aesthetics and body modification, contemporary culture radically reformulates the relationship between image, technology and subjectivity. Read more

Much has been made of America's leading newspaper's selection of buildings. We offer a different way of understanding Milan and why its architecture is so important. Read more 

In After the Hunt, a drama set in the rarefied world of Yale University, production designer Stefano Baisi transforms academic spaces into landscapes of emotion and control. Read more 

Everyone knows it, yet few remember its name. This is the story of an iconic chair – one that embodies democratic design. Read more 

In six seconds, Vine crafted an entirely new visual grammar: loops, imperfect gestures and micro-architectures of meaning that return today with “diVine,” in the age of hyper-designed, algorithmic feeds. Read more

Seven aphorisms and reflections by the Italian maestro, who is 90 years old, tell the story of a life that has crossed the history of design, always with lightness and depth. Read more 

Diller Scofidio + Renfro is one of the firms that has had the greatest impact on the contemporary city’s image. We met with the American architect to discuss future visions and offer a critique of today’s architecture. Read more 

Domus accompanies you on a walk to discover the area of Porta Venezia, tracing its evolution from the sixteenth-century Lazzaretto to a district dotted with emblematic rationalist architecture. Read more 

A major book follows a retrospective exhibition to tell the story of “La Gae”, and through eight projects spanning urban planning to product design, Domus paints a portrait of the legendary architect who “did not want to be a specialist in anything”. Read more 

The two artists tell Domus how the famous public art installation in Texas continues to live on beyond their intentions, and how this has made it the popular and beloved work it is today. Read more 

“At $29.99/day, the U-Haul is undoubtedly the cheapest real estate in NYC”: James Sundquist and Jack Chase are the founders of The U-Haul Gallery, a project redefining how art is exhibited — now making its way to Frieze London. Read more 

Artificial intelligence is becoming part of our lives, but it also brings with it a psychological burden: “AI guilt.” Perhaps it’s time to stop apologizing. Read more 

Domus met with Eames Demetrios and Adrienne Luce of the Eames Foundation to rediscover how this “anti-iconic icon” of California Modern is also inspiring the future of a recovering city, in a way different from what you might expect. Read more

A Tokyo suspended between reality and fiction, “neither empathetic nor courageous,” where a new tower reflects Zaha Hadid’s legacy. A visionary novel, winner of Japan’s most prestigious literary prize: author Rie Qudan tells Domus about it. Read more 

In a world where everything is performance, the home has become a personal stage. Every detail is curated, even in temporary spaces, while the dream of a forever home drifts further out of reach for most. Read more 

Hated or beloved, venerated or misunderstood, Oliviero Toscani has changed photography and communication. Or he did not? We talked about him with those who worked with him, those who knew him, who were his friends and those who followed his steps. Read more 

Opening image: Elmgreen & Dragset, Prada Marfa, 2005, Photo Lizette Kabre. Courtesy of Art Production Fund and Ballroom Marfa