Alongside the SOM LAND hostel in Shanghai, China, sits a very standard-looking accompanying structure, providing multifunctional communal space for visitors. Inside, however, bent bamboo slats curve up to a full-length skylight above, filtering light through a ceiling that’s anything but ordinary. In a converse juxtaposition of interior and exterior form, meanwhile, the No. 6 Sydney Street Apartments in Prahran, Australia, turns the formal composition of the living space’s ceilings into softened floor plates resting on fluted columns, giving the building ‘a sense of visual movement,’ as explained by architects Wood Marsh.
