2026 Architizer Best Young Firm Finalist
RADar remains committed to experimenting and driving the architectural discourse on decentralized inclusivity. #rethinkingspace
Rethinking tropical canopy architecture. #WIP Habitat Garden
This project connects multi-level commercial spaces through a low-carbon architectural footprint, seamlessly integrating them into a lush urban garden.
The design demonstrates the efficiency of treating the facade, roof, and ceiling as a single, cohesive envelope. It is carefully engineered to optimize natural daylight and cross-ventilation during the day, while utilizing high-performance interior lighting to activate the facade at night-redefining energy efficiency in urban commercial buildings. #rethinkingspace
Stratified Massing for Extended Canopies.
Habco HQ explores the vertical integration of a lounge, workspace, and gallery through strategic volumetric shifting, the stacked programs act as extended canopies—resulting in a completely self-shading, north-south oriented mass designed for the climate.
#rethinkingspace 📸 @ernesttheofilus
Cat Tower - in the making.
An experimental residential project, designed to facilitate the seamless cohabitation of a animal lover young family and their nearly 100 felines. 🐈⬛
Beyond its sustainable framework, the core architectural concept explores cross-species programmatic integration. By utilizing a radial, split-level spatial configuration, the central 'Cat Tower' establishes high visual permeability across every functional zone of the home.
This spatial overlap transforms the entire residence—from the living room and bedrooms to the shared rooftop terrace—into a dynamic playground for both worlds. By utilizing layered circulation and interstitial zoning, the design successfully balances shared physical and visual connections with strict acoustic privacy and hygienic separation. #rethinkingspace
Sagehaus Office is a “Dome for Wind,” a reversed carved space designed to channel and intensify Jakarta’s gentle breezes through shaded, sheltered gathering and social spaces, creating a pleasant and safe environment for all staff activities. The enclosed breezeways between the blocks are designed for maximum comfort and interaction, offering spaces for groups of various sizes to engage and relax. This wind-directing design has proven to be both successful and extremely comfortable, providing constant cooling breezes despite Jakarta’s high humidity
“风之穹顶” Sagehaus办公空间是一个反向雕刻的空间，设计旨在引导和强化雅加达的微风，通过遮阴、庇护的聚集和社会活动空间，为员工的所有社交活动提供一个愉快且安全的环境。建筑中封闭的连廊在各个建筑单元之间形成了一个舒适且便于交流的环境，为不同规模的群体提供了聚会和放松的空间。这种引导风的设计已被证明非常成功且舒适，即使在雅加达高湿度的户外环境中，也能带来持续的凉爽微风。同时，屋顶被设计为一个大型的休闲绿色屋顶和办公健身房
#rethinkingspace
“To address this challenge, the structural elements were integrated into the spatial planning of the design. This allowed for a seamless transition from the front garden, diagonally creating a loop connection for three tenants: restaurants on the ground floor, a bar in the mezzanine space, and a beer garden in between spaces extended to the rooftop. This integration of different spatial experiences and characters within the development ensured a cohesive design.
By targeting optimal integration and considering sustainability, the design achieved a balance between functionality, aesthetics, and environmental responsibility.” From the architects.
Aruma Split Garden designed by RAD+ar (Research Artistic Design + architecture) @radarchitects , located in #Semarang, #Indonesia and photographed by Mario Wibowo @mariowibowo_ .
#architecture #projectfeature #architects_need
Folded Rooms Garden is an experimental residential intervention located within a compact urban pocket in Bandung, Indonesia. The project challenges the conventional reliance on vertical partition walls, proposing instead a fluid sequence of living environments seamlessly integrated with the landscape.
Serving a bigger picture, this small experiment acted as ecological urbanism of a permeable prototype. Beyond its formal experimentation, Folded Rooms Garden serves as a micro-urban prototype. By maintaining 70% permeable green area, the project prioritizes on-site rainwater harvesting—a critical response to Indonesia’s dense city planning.
This small villa prototype from RAD+ar demonstrates how decentralized "pocket spaces" can be transformed into decentralized ecological nodes. It advocates for a shift in typology where private developments actively contribute to the city’s hydrologic health, serving as a "green gateway" that balances architectural playfulness with environmental responsibility that could inspire thousands of similar pocket spaces all around the scattered archipelagos nation.
#rethinkingspace 📸 @ernesttheofilus
Lattice Garden is one of RADar’s prototype on tenant behavior and energy stewardship.
In a landscape driven by high property values, it reclaims the passive design agenda. The architecture engages in a dialogue with the thriving trees to construct an extreme shading system. By decoupling the facade to create breezeways and thermal chimneys, and replacing mechanical lifts with a meandering garden ramp, the design challenges the standard typology of vertical circulation. The result is a significant reduction in air conditioning and elevator dependency. It stands as a beacon of possibility, illustrating that in a developing economy, environmental responsiveness need not be sacrificed for economic gain.
格栅花园（Lattice Garden）是建筑师关于租户行为与能源管家理念的原型实践。在一个受高地产价值驱动的环境中，它重新夺回了被动式设计 的话语权。建筑与茂盛的树木展开对话，构建了一个极致的遮阳系统。通过将立面分离以创造通风廊道（Breezeways） 和热烟囱效应（Thermal Chimneys），并用蜿蜒的花园坡道取代机械电梯，该设计挑战了垂直交通 的标准类型学。其结果是显著降低了对空调和电梯的依赖。它如同一座可能性的灯塔，昭示着在发展中经济体里，环境响应性无需为了经济利益而做出牺牲。
#rethinkingspace
The Sanctuary Tunnel Garden dissolves into its environment, creating a gesture that feels both profane and sacred.
On the ground floor, a smaller sacred space appears, gently intertwined with water elements on both ends. Free-form natural terraces merge into a man-made waterfall where flowing water interacts with organic topography. This interplay enhances the ethereal quality of the space, reinforcing a sense of serenity and transcendence.
Spirituality feels rooted in the natural world. At the heart of the design, the chapel emerges, taking the form of the floating corpus of Jesus. The chapel becomes a suspended, luminous entity where light and space converge. This experience leads to the "light at the end of the tunnel," marking a moment of revelation where the physical world gives way to the divine. #Rethinkingspace
Passive Design as Vernacular Response to Tropical Urbanism
The project proposes a commercial office typology rooted in climatic responsiveness, where the building’s massing and formal geometry serve as the primary cooling mechanism. By prioritizing passive design strategies, the architecture moves beyond mere aesthetics to become a functional performative shell.
Solar Geometry and Self-Shading Facades, The building envelope rejects the traditional flat curtain wall in favor of a dynamic, articulated skin. The facade is composed of stacked, non-planar volumes angled at 30∘. This specific geometric configuration creates a permanent self-shading mechanism, effectively mitigating solar heat gain by shielding the glazing from high-angle tropical radiation. These tectonic shifts in the facade not only provide thermal protection but also lend a rhythmic, sculptural quality to the building's identity.
Orientation and Luminous Environments, The building’s circulation and floor plates are organized along an elongated North-South axis. This strategic sitingexploits the path of the sun to provide diffuse, high-quality daylighting to the internal workspaces. By minimizing the building's western exposure, the design prevents thermal discomfort and reduces the reliance on mechanical cooling, ensuring a consistent and productive interior environment.
The Ground Plane and Cantilevered Porosity
The logic of the cantilever extends to the building’s footprint, where the upper massing overhangs the base to create a sheltered interstitial space. This creates a transition zone at the ground level—a "cool sink"—that remains protected from the sun while promoting natural ventilation and spatial fluidity. This approach ensures that the public realm at the base of the building is both luminous and thermally comfortable, blurring the boundary between the private office and the streetscape.
#rethinkingspace
📸 @ernesttheofilus
Paradox of Opening
In terms of the facades, large openings were carved to minimize direct heat from the sun while still allowing ample natural light through the “slices and punctures” of the facade.
All recessed and indirect openings were carefully designed to avoid direct solar radiation and, consequently, the greenhouse effect.
From a user functionality perspective, the mixed-use design conceals a high-security file room at the deep center, surrounded by flexible open-plan workspaces, and flanked by a series of mini to large meeting rooms, with a foyer pocket garden and casual spaces in between. This layout fosters short connections within each floor, facilitating movement from conventional desks to meeting rooms, lounges, and leisure spaces within the building, all designed with democratic access and subtle variations across different levels. A consistent feature throughout all floors is that services and restrooms are located in separate wings, designed as garden toilets to ensure optimal comfort in a tropical context while minimizing energy consumption.
#rethinkingspace
