In 2025, wood confirms its transition from "alternative" material to ordinary project infrastructure, entering typologies and contexts that until now had relied almost exclusively on concrete and steel. In Rotterdam, SAWA by Mei architects brings a 50-meter wooden structure to Lloyd's Wharf, combining load-bearing system, green terraces, and inhabited galleries into a single residential organism. In Japan, Vuild's new Fukushima United FC stadium by Vuild reinterprets the tradition of periodic reconstruction of Shinto shrines as a device for a wooden arena designed to be disassembled, reused, and powered by local forestry supply chains.

Meanwhile, wood is also entering knowledge infrastructure in a systematic way. Mecanoo's new Doris Duke Theatre in Jacob's Pillow, Massachusetts, rebuilds the theater destroyed by fire with a wooden massing structure that integrates advanced technical apparatus for the contemporary stage. In Paris, the University of Chicago Center designed by Studio Gang uses a wooden frame for the upper floors and wooden facade cladding, with prefabricated elements sourced from European supply chains, resting on a platform that spans the railway. In Fayetteville, Grafton Architects' Anthony Timberlands Centre becomes a school-building on wood construction, where different species and techniques are displayed and made legible as part of the educational program. Together, these projects compose a map of how wood culture is reshaping, with still-evolving tools, the relationship between architecture and resources.

A Rotterdam, one of the European capitals of architecture, has opened Sawa, a new wooden residential complex built in Lloydkwartier, a former port area now transformed into an urban neighborhood. The 50-meter-high building introduces a housing typology characterized by a system of green terraces that redesign the riverfront. Keep reading 

The year 2020 has been a difficult year. For Jacob's Pillow, a legendary dance venue, it was an annus horribilis. Its celebrated summer festival is canceled for Covid-19. And one November morning the Doris Duke Theatre, in the heart of the 220-acre campus that has been the Pillow's home for nearly a century, catches fire. Built in 1990 and designed for intimate or experimental performances, the theater burns with a crackle "reminiscent of the sound of a tornado," fire officials say. The theater will rebuild, announces director Pamela Tatge. But not right away. The new Doris Duke Theatre, designed by Mecanoo, debuts these days. Keep reading 

Vuild has unveiled the design for the new wooden stadium intended to become the future home of Fukushima United Fc. Commissioned by SportX - football club operator that manages all operations related to the team - the intervention is designed as a sports infrastructure but also as a social and cultural device, designed to encourage the participation of the local community and reaffirm, through architecture, a path of regeneration after the 2011 earthquake. Keep reading 

The construction of an academic building designed by Studio Gang for the new campus of the University of Chicago is nearing completion in Paris. The John W. Boyer Center-that is its official name-was from the outset designed in compliance with the French sustainability law, which requires new public buildings to be constructed with at least 50 percent wood or other natural materials. With this law implemented in 2022, France aims to prioritize low-carbon bio-based materials, such as wood, hemp, and straw, over other building materials such as concrete and steel. Keep reading