There are architects who build. And then there are architects who listen first.

Amelia Tavella belongs to the second category. Before placing anything, she examines. She reads a site like one reads a soil, searches for layers, traces, what has lived there before. Only then does the project begin.

The jury of the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture 2026 rewarded her for exactly that: an architecture they described as "emotional, sensual, and organic," capable of reconciling heritage and sustainability without brutalizing either. The theme of this edition was "Architecture Is Transformation." It's hard to find a more fitting laureate.

We interviewed her.

Forty square kilometers of inland water, seventy-seven kilometers of coastline, exceptional biodiversity, and unabated real estate pressure. The Bassin d'Arcachon is one of the French territories where the tension between residential attractiveness and environmental preservation is most strongly felt. This equation makes the question of sustainable real estate particularly central, at a time when the climate calendar is tightening and coastal erosion is becoming a visible reality. Here is an overview of the sustainable real estate market in Arcachon for 2026.