Modular construction yields a surprisingly fresh aesthetic in a school for young children in Germany.

The Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz station lies 60 feet under the inner city of Leipzig, yet architect Max Dudler, who is based in Zürich, Frankfurt, and Berlin, wanted to create the impression that this public space is flooded with daylight.

Once vilified for pollution and noise, the mines and factories of the Ruhr district (Ruhrgebiet), Germany’s former coal and steel belt, have become proud symbols of the region’s industrial past. 

Erich Mendelsohn's Schocken Department Store in Chemnitz, completed in 1930, is well known to architects worldwide. Yet encountering the recently renovated early-20th-century landmark will be a revelation, even for those familiar with it.

The clients, a family of five, asked the Germany-based firm to design a house in Stuttgart with light-filled living spaces, connecting to a gallery space for exhibiting the family's private art collection.