KOSMOS Architects

We will be presenting at UIA 2026
World Congress of Architects in Barcelona
on the 1st of July

Link to the event in the first comment:

Project of transformation of an old Mallorcan townhouse in a village by the sea.

Due to its isolated location, the project relied on reusing as much as possible from the existing house, as well as from the local storage of leftovers of construction material. The existing tiles were recomposed as a large-scale terrazzo; existing door cut in half and reused as a folding one; windows and facades repaired. Oil funnels and ceramic rooftiles became lampshades; a discarded cast iron manhole cover became the base of the existing stove; and rebar caps were used as doorknobs. In the kitchen, traditional mediterranean chain curtains screen the otherwise exposed products and appliances. Paint was used as a minimum resource to recompose the space.

At the end the only addition really needed was a pulley to bring materials and supplies up the house.

Project is a collaboration of KOSMOS Architects and Blanca Gardelegui Blanca García Gardelegui
Photos by

Wolf Areal Basel, MF05 Experimental housing project with Re-Use of building elements. 2024–2025. Shortlisted in an open 4-phase competition.

The ambition to maximize the Re-Use, and the constraint of a limited availability of equal structural elements for the whole building led to the concept of three distinct towers. Each tower is constructed using its own set of reused materials from existing warehouses on the site —a strategic balance between material availability and architectural expression. Beyond their structural logic, the towers form a distinctive urban and architectural composition while simultaneously creating diverse living environments.

In response to the site’s contrasting conditions—the noisy St. Jakob-Strasse to the north and the green courtyard of the Wolf complex to the south—the building presents a different character on each side. The north facade, composed of large reused concrete frames and closed windows, establishes a strong urban identity. The south facade, on the other hand, clad with balconies made of reused, small-scale materials, serves as an extension of the living spaces and opens up to the greenery. These balconies, covered with plants, blur the boundaries between indoor and outdoor areas and bring more light, air, and openness into the apartments.

Thank you to the team of specialists:
TU: ERNE Plus
Re-Use consultant: Zirkular .reuse
Structural Engineer: ZPF Ingenieurie
Building physics and acoustics: Gartenmann Engineering
Façade consultants: Husner
Images: and .pics

Tomorrow, 17th of June, giving a lecture in Columbia GSAPP

Monument to the Ordinary, an installation at the entrance of Santa Clara-a-Nova monastery in Coimbra, designed for the Coimbra Anozero Biennale 2026.

The project reuses abandoned cabinets left by the military after vacating the Santa Clara-a-Nova convent. Assembled into a tower-like structure, the cupboards form a signpost near the convent entrance, giving the biennale visibility at its main venue. Having lost their storage function, they gain a new role as a landmark remotely reminiscent of a silhouette figure of a traditional Coimbra student in a graduation gown.

Unlike traditional monuments, which commemorate exceptional figures or events, this work proposes a monument to the ordinary. The cupboards carry traces of everyday life: wear, repair, age, and use. They evoke anonymous gestures—objects stored, clothes folded, things kept rather than discarded—quiet actions that, repeated over generations, form the unnoticed foundation of collective life.

Biennale Anozero - Bienal de Coimbra
Curated by Curated by Hans Ibelings, John Zeppetelli, Daniel Madeira
Photos by Francisco Ascensão

We are happy to announce that we will be teaching a design studio in Columbia University GSAPP in New York as visiting professors next semester in the Master of Science program . Looking forward to great student work.

Transformation and extension of an old winery, inactive for decades, into a contemporary infrastructure for wine production and the transmission of knowledge.

Located within a typical Provençal domaine, composed of fragments added over time, the project combines the careful renovation of existing structures with an extension responding to contemporary production needs. The proposal develops through a dual approach. On the north façade, a continuous wall unifies the main overall complex of the domaine and unites a series of internal courtyards between the existing volumes. On the south façade, fragmented volumes echo the scale and character of traditional Provençal houses. Inside, production infrastructures, public spaces, and living areas are intertwined through carefully positioned openings, creating visual relationships between interiors and courtyards while framing the surrounding landscape. The existing ‚cuverie‘ structure is defined by concrete tanks, a unique technology, and at the same time a remnant of an obsolete winemaking technique inherited from the French colonisation in Algeria. Project aims to reveal the maximum potential of what is already there by strategic and punctual interventions.

Project (2024 – ongoing) is in progress and received the construction permit for the historical part of the building.

architecture : in collaboration with .architects
structural engineer : bollinger+grohmann
thermal engineer : Ecosystem
wine engineer : Cabinet d’agronomie provençale
vrd : ALIZE Environnement
images: .pics