GRAPHĒ: Yes, a Public Restroom Just Won a Design Award—and Everything Else You Need to Know About This Week

Kanye West’s Malibu mansion lawsuit could go to trial, students and faculty at Brown University fight to save its architecture program, and more.

New York’s 2026 AIA design awards put a spotlight on both high profile projects like Lincoln Center’s revamp, and smaller ones like a tiny modular public bathroom on Staten Island, marking a move away from flashy "starchitecture" toward design that serves everyday city life. Here’s what makes the bathroom worthy of the accolade. (Gothamist)
America’s housing crisis is about more than a shortage of homes—it’s also about the "soul-deadening" sprawl that’s expands over swaths of the country. Here’s how combatting an epidemic of ugly homes might simultaneously ease the affordability crisis. (Vox)
A Los Angeles judge has cleared the way for a construction consultant’s lawsuit against Kanye West to go to trial, after claims that Ye put him in "extreme danger" while gutting the $57 million Tadao Ando–designed Malibu mansion he bought in 2021. Here’s what the lawsuit alleges, and how the mansion’s new owner plans to restore the place. (Rolling Stone)
Tokyo’s small scale, pedestrian-friendly streets are being overtaken by luxury developments and "tower mansions," leading Pritzker Prize winning architect Riken Yamamoto to warn that the city is becoming a playground for the rich. Here’s why Yamamoto says these massive projects are "destroying the heart" of the Tokyo. (Bloomberg)

Brown University is moving to discontinue its undergraduate architecture concentration by 2028, sparking backlash from students and faculty who say the program’s interdisciplinary approach embodies Brown’s mission. The professor who cofounded the program says that Brown could become the only Ivy League school without an undergraduate architecture major should the shut down go forward. (The Architect's Newspaper)

Top photo by Ty Cole

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