The inaugural 1979 Dakar Rally, a race from Paris to Dakar (the capital of Senegal), was inspired by the mishaps of French adventurer Thierry Sabine, and the winning car, a V8 Range Rover, was driven by another Frenchman, Alain Génestier. It marked the beginning of a long relationship between the broader Land Rover brand and one of the best-known long-distance automotive races in the world.

Forty-seven years on, numerous location changes separate that first race from the current one in Saudi Arabia, but the return of Land Rover after an absence of 40 years can serve as a through line across the decades and continents. For the January 2026 running, Land Rover entered the Stock category (previously known as T2), featuring “production-based vehicles” that are allowed only minimal modifications for the rally. As Jack Lambert, head of technical integration for JLR Motorsport noted, “It is a legacy class that goes back to Dakar’s origins, with production cars and privateers racing across thousands and thousands of kilometres.” This is in contrast to the one-off, highly modified four-by-fours that now dominate the T1 category of the race. Lambert explained that while adjustments can be made to some aspects of the vehicle, such as the width or strength of the suspension, all the crucial elements, from the body to the engine and the transmission, must be identical to a car that is available for street use.

For the 2026 race, the Land Rover entry came from the Defender line, the direct successor of the original Land Rover, that returned with a major design overhaul in 2020 after its original production ceased in 2016. Specifically, the car running at Dakar, the Dakar D7X-R, was from the Octa line, the high-performance cousin of the standard Defender. The Defender Dakar D7X-R has a 4.4‑litre twin-turbo mild hybrid V8 engine capable of producing 626 horsepower. Land Rover touts the Octa as a crossover between extreme off-road credentials and the luxury expected of a vehicle that has long been a favourite of celebrities and royals.

The Dakar D7X-R, along with all other Octa models, is 28 millimetres higher and 68 millimetres wider than the standard Defender and has been kitted out with an all-new 6D Dynamics suspension system, entailing multiple hydronically linked air dampers that Land Rover says virtually eliminates pitch and roll. When it launched in 2024, Jamal Hameedi, director of special vehicle operations for Jaguar Land Rover, said, “Our high‑performance experts have achieved the impossible with Defender Octa, working tirelessly over the past three years to create the most capable Defender ever made—regardless of which surface it is enjoyed on. They have reengineered components throughout the vehicle to ensure Defender Octa is the perfect companion for epic adventures anywhere on the planet.”

The biggest mechanical challenge at Dakar is keeping the car cool. The hottest day of the race was expected to be around 45°C, and the sand can wreak havoc on radiators and intakes. The last thing you want in the middle of a crucial stage is an overheating engine, so the cooling systems were brought farther into the vehicle to protect them from the elements.

The car is clearly fit for purpose, but that is only half the picture when competing in the Dakar Rally. Land Rover entered three cars, helmed by the driver and co-driver teams of Stéphane Peterhansel and Mika Metge, Sara Price and Sean Berriman, and Rokas Baciuška with Oriol Vidal. Price, a rally driver, motocross champion, and four‑time Dakar stage‑winner, emphasized preparation in the months leading up to the race. “It’s very key to be physically fit,” she said. “Otherwise you will mentally decline, and as everyone knows, Dakar is the toughest thing you can put yourself through mentally.”

Clearly the years of preparation, by both the drivers and the manufacturer, paid off. Out of the 13 stages of the Dakar, the Defender trio finished in the top three spots 10 times. When all was said and done on January 17, Baciuška and Vidal finished as the winners of the Stock category, Price and Berriman came in second, and Peterhansel and Metge were fourth. And for anyone feeling envious, simply head down to your local Land Rover dealership and drive away in a vehicle ready to take on the desert.

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A red sand beach might not be high on the list of features you’d expect to find in rural Quebec, but that is what the site for this home designed by Ghoche Architecte offered. It sits on the shore of Lac Archambault in the village of Saint-Donat, which is flanked by a second large lake, Ouareau, on the other side. The surrounding Lanaudière area is popular year-round for skiing, hiking, and water sports.

The beach provided the initial inspiration for the home, a “seaside” cottage that would take full advantage of the unobstructed view of the lake. From the outside, a striking feature is that the entire house is clad in a single material, locally sourced white-stained wood panels that contrast with the light-brown oak window frames. More than just a stylistic choice, the white wood reflects light from the house, compensating for the lack of shade to provide a cooling element in the summer.

The structure itself is simple, with flat-roofed cubes. Large windows give full access to the panoramic lake views while being simultaneously positioned to allow maximum natural sunlight into the living areas. Surrounding the house, the landscaping was designed with a focus on native plant species.

Indoors, the exterior material palette was retained to make the transition more seamless between indoors and out. The ceilings, furniture, and stairs are the same shade as the window frames, and white walls again highlight the simple but striking wooden elements. The layout is modern and open plan, with unimpeded transitions between areas allowing the natural light to flow through the entire space.

To make further use of the lakeside location, a large verandah provides a large outdoor area for eating or simply relaxing and looking out at the water. All of this leads down to that striking red sand beach, where it is easy to imagine whiling away many a summer day.

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For this house on the banks of the St. Lawrence, ships floating along the river were the main inspiration for Bourgeois / Lechasseur Architects when they were tasked with replacing an existing summer cottage cantilevered above the water. The small spit of land juts into the river and is flanked by two sandy beaches, providing panoramic views over the water.

When they visited the site in the early stages of planning, the architects were enamoured with the existing building and chose to incorporate it into the new structure, which took its design cues from nautical grounding: beaching boats in shallow water. By raising the old cottage and replacing the pillars it stood on, they were able to further protect it from fluctuating water levels. The protruding, angular pavilions that make up the new home hint at the bows of boats that have been grounded along the shore.

These pavilions and their angular geometry were also informed by the site’s geography. While there is a seemingly large area to work with, the rising water level of the tidal river and the protected shoreline hemmed in the boundaries considerably, leading the architects to the home’s unusual shape. The main living areas are contained within the original cottage, and floating walkways connect the pavilions, linking all the areas of the home.

A central courtyard contains a swimming pool and is angled to block occupants from the prevailing wind whilst still providing the all-important views of the river. Flanking the living area is an eastern pavilion with the master bedroom angled to catch the rising sun, while the western pavilion has a second bedroom looking out over a small bay.

The interiors are simple but connected to the setting, with cedar panels in the new areas and the original white-painted wood in the cottage. The cedar blends with the exterior cladding, a darker shade that more easily sets the home into the surrounding nature.

By breaking up the house into these distinct pavilions, the architects were able to maintain the impression from ground level that a small cottage occupies the site, while viewed from above, the true scope of the project becomes clear.

The post In Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures Near Quebec City, This Home Grounds Itself on the Riverbank appeared first on NUVO.

There is often a contradiction in modern architecture: how to create a house that allows the occupants to see the world without inviting the world in? Of course every homeowner wants ample natural light, and access to the surrounding nature if they are lucky enough to have it, but if that meant that every passerby could see what you were watching on TV or inventory the contents of your fridge, it might lead to some second thoughts.

Although privacy wasn’t the primary concern of Fernanda Canales Architecture when designing this secluded house a three-hour drive west of Mexico City, it did focus on the marriage of what it calls “seclusion and aperture.” The house is in the region of Valle de Bravo, which is one of Mexico’s Pueblos Mágicos (Magical Towns), locations recognized by the government for their symbolic attributes such as natural features, architecture, and culture. Valle de Bravo is recognized for its spectacular lake, resulting from the Miguel Alemán Dam. However it also experiences fairly extreme weather, with temperature fluctuations from day to night and copious rainfall for nearly half the year, creating a struggle between inviting the surrounding area in while mitigating the effects of climate.

The result is a house slung low to the ground, a single-storey residence set in a perfect circular pattern conceived as a solar clock. The shape allows the occupants to gaze outward to the landscape, in particular the mountains and a volcano, during the day, and then turn inward to the central patio as night falls. From afar, the house appears almost as a waterless cenote, the famed swimming holes found in the Yucatan Peninsula. To further integrate the home with the landscape, local soil was added to the concrete used in the building process, lessening the contrast between the built and natural environments.

The home is off-grid, and it encompasses a range of features that make this designation possible. Due to the high seasonal rainfall, the house has a system to harvest and reuse the rainwater. Solar panels provide electricity, and hydronic radiant floors pump heated water underfoot to provide home heating. The shape of the house and its large windows allow cross ventilation in any direction.

Overall, this house has achieved a synthesis between the wants of the occupants and the requirements of the landscape. By focusing on the environment and adapting the structure to that, through the materials and even the shape of the house, the home achieved its desire of marrying seclusion and aperture in one site.

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Wine has been made in Greece in one form or another for over 6,000 years, through the time of the Trojan war, Sparta, and the golden age of Athens. Many translations of Greece’s most famous tale, The Odyssey, describe the Aegean Sea as “wine dark,” pottery used for wine has been found all over the mainland and islands, and traditionally people gathered at sites all over Greece to crush the fruit under their feet in large vats.

One of these sites is on Antiparos, part of the Cyclades Islands southeast of the Greek mainland, which attracts tourists for its laid-back atmosphere, ocean views, and iconic white buildings. With the site no longer used for its original purpose, Athens-based firm Architecture Research Practice (ARP) was tasked with renovating and converting the Patitiri (Greek for winepress) into a holiday home.

The structure was completed in 1936, but unlike many similar buildings, it has no official conservation status dictating how it can be altered. ARP decided to treat it as if it did, preserving the stone exterior and making only minor alterations to improve the structure and condition. Other than the addition of a reclaimed marble sink and a custom marble table, from the outside the building appears much as it has done for the last 90 years.

Inside, the firm was able to be more liberal with the renovations, nevertheless maintaining as much of the original material as possible. To complement the existing stone and tile, the materials chosen were solid oak, painted white, and marble from the nearby island of Naxos. The interiors are simple, allowing the original stonework to take centre stage, particularly the arched entranceway to the living room.

The windows allow plenty of natural light to flood the space, and the predominantly white interior reflects and enhances the sunlight to create an easy, airy feeling that links the interior to the large covered patio facing the sea.

This patio is the clear heart of the home. Partially enclosed by the remains of stone walls weathered over time and the same white oak used for the roof, the space is equally useful for eating, entertaining, or a quiet moment alone gazing out at the sea.

Patitiri is a prime example of modernizing a building without gutting its soul, and of responsible architecture applied to a building that has long been part of an ancient community.

Photographs by Giulio Ghirardi.

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Tokyo is one of the biggest and most densely populated urban areas on Earth. As a result, architects, builders, and even residents must be innovative in the use of space, and often multiple residences are supported by a lot that would contain only one home in a North American or European city.

Such constraints were a prevalent part of the design process for Ryuichi Sasaki Architecture with this multihome project in the Meguro neighbourhood, a hilly, quiet section of the city that includes buildings from the Edo period, when Japan’s centre of power shifted from Kyoto to Tokyo, paving the way for the city of roughly 40 million people that exists today. The result, Escenario Hanabusayama, is a 12-unit building predominantly built from concrete that fits the area well.

Sasaki, inspired by the topography, created Escenario Hanabusayama with an exterior that hints at the striated layers of rock under the ground. The solid, square blocks of concrete have clear demarcating lines and fit together like sculpted boulders. The material itself also reflects the site, evoking a huge slab cut directly from the 10-metre cliff directly behind it.

Despite the heavy use of concrete, and the drab government buildings that may evoke for many of us, the inside is light and airy, with each unit benefiting from large windows and a freshness often missing from homes built into hillsides.

Instead of covering the concrete, Sasaki left the material remainsexposed throughout, almost as if the residents truly are living in a cliffside and have excavated the home. He aimed for an “architectural reinterpretation” of the Japanese gardening concept of shakkei, or “borrowed landscape,” in which distant views of mountains or lakes are framed to enhance the garden. In this spirit, each unit’s windows take advantage of the foliage and scenery in the area.

Escenario Hanabusayama shows us that even in the biggest cities on Earth, through focused and considered architecture, apartments and condos can be just as livable as any cabin or country retreat.

Photography by Takumi Ota Photography

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Seeing a cowboy in Alberta isn’t that unusual, but seeing one strapped into a pair of skis and being towed by a horse at speeds of up to 95 kilometres per hour is an altogether different proposition. However, every winter the Canadian province plays host to multiple skijoring events where the main attraction is precisely that: high-speed, horse-powered ski races over jumps and around obstacles. Photographer Morgan Storch’s images of SkijorDue in Calgary are a showcase not just of the participants’ skills but also for the carnival-like atmosphere and the loud, western-inspired outfits that befit such an event.

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Big Sur, a long stretch of coastline in California, is widely regarded as one of the most scenic areas in the world. The area draws up to seven million tourists per year, but in comparison to other coastal California areas with stunning views like Malibu or Carmel, the residential population is remarkably low.

This is, in large part, due to the Big Sur Coast Land Use Plan, which highly restricts development and new buildings, particularly if they are visible from the iconic Route 1.

When new buildings are allowed in the area, it is an almighty responsibility, which weighed on the Carmel firm Studio Schicketanz when it was tasked with replacing a dilapidated cabin in a wooded area of the coast. The cabin is in an area where loggers of the past harvested tanbark oak and redwoods from the surrounding forest and shipped it from nearby Notley’s Landing to San Francisco.

As a result, the bulk of the homes in the area are loggers’ cabins that have been passed down from generation to generation and are now in need of upgrade or replacement after over a century of use.

The new cabin on this site is 1,194 square feet, but its footprint surpasses most of the historic cabins in the area. Studio Schicketanz used this extra space by separating the cabin into three sections; a bedroom, great room, and bathhouse. Each of the three also features a small patio to allow the homeowners to enjoy the towering trees on the site.

The wood used for the cabin was entirely salvaged from fallen redwoods and milled locally, further blending the cabin into its surroundings and tying back to the history of the community. The bedroom hovers above the forest floor on a pillar, and large windows mean the redwoods act almost as a wallpaper for the master suite.

This cabin shows that even in areas where building is difficult or highly regulated, thoughtful and purposeful architecture can make even the newest building blend in with the oldest forest.

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Touching the clouds in the eastern Swiss Alps, Engadin, a high alpine valley, stretches from the Maloja Pass in the southwest to the Swiss Austrian border in the east, carrying the River Inn through some of Europe’s finest scenery. It is split into two halves, Upper and Lower, with Upper Engadin dotted with lakes named for the towns and villages on their shores. Lakes Sils and Silvaplana are known for windsurfing or sailing, and while they not be household names, another lake in Upper Engadin certainly is: Lake St. Moritz.

The luxurious mountain town on its shores that lends it its name has been a hub of winter tourism since 1864, when hotelier Johannes Badrutt invited four English summer guests back for Christmas and wagered that if they didn’t enjoy their winter stay, he would cover their costs. They ended up staying until Easter, around the time of year when the lake begins to thaw.

When frozen over, Lake St. Moritz has a long history as a winter playground. Since 1907, it has played host to White Turf, a series of horse races, and skijöring (the sport of being towed behind a horse on skis) since 1923, before crowds that now exceed 30,000, while an annual snow polo tournament, the first of its kind, has been staged on the frozen surface since 1985. That same year, as vintage Bentleys raced across the frozen lake to commemorate the 100th anniversary of St. Moritz’s Grand National skeleton race on the famed Cresta Run, Marko Makaus saw more than just a spectacle—he saw potential. Amid the roar of engines and the sparkle of snow, the idea struck: the lake, long a stage for winter sports, could also become a platform for celebrating the artistry and performance of the automobile. Makaus envisioned an event where the world’s most exceptional vehicles wouldn’t merely be displayed—they would be in motion, on ice.

Some 30 years later that vision became a reality when he founded The I.C.E. (International Concours of Elegance) St. Moritz, a now-annual car show on the lake. After percolating the idea for more than 20 years, Makaus officially launched The I.C.E. in 2022, following a test race in 2019. The I.C.E. fits into the lineage of the polo championship and White Turf, big events on the lake that can be enjoyed by enthusiasts, residents, and some of the hundreds of thousands of tourists that flock to the Alpine hot spot every winter.

The two-day event features both contemporary and vintage vehicles. The 2024 concours included such icons as the Ferrari 275 GTB/4, the same model owned by legendary actor and motorsport enthusiast Steve McQueen, whose chianti red version sold for over $10 million (U.S.) in 2014.

The main competition is the Concours of Elegance, a familiar car show concept. On the first day, judges inspect the cars on the ice, checking everything from the tires to the dashboard and the upholstery. But the real fun happens on the second day, when the drivers nudge their vehicles into first gear and set out on the course. This is where the awesome backdrop, ice surface, and cars combine to provide spectators with one of the most unusual visuals in motoring. Open-wheeled racers from the 1930s spray snow behind them as they rip around the circuit. Retro-futurist Lamborghinis that wouldn’t look out of place in Blade Runner motor under the watch of the surrounding mountains. The winter setting means the vehicles themselves command ultimate attention, the reds and blues standing out against the stark white of their surroundings.

The list of winners gives an idea of the diversity of vehicles on display. The 2025 best in show winner was a Bugatti Type 59, an open-wheeled racer that won the Belgian Grand Prix in 1934. More modern but no less striking was the Porsche 908/03 that won the Racing Legends category.

While the scenery may grab the spotlight at The I.C.E., what also endears the event to spectators are the luxury amenities. St. Moritz has long been a getaway for Europe’s elite and is home to perhaps the highest luxury shopping street on Earth, but during The I.C.E, the lake itself becomes a piano bar where drinks are served to guests on sun loungers, and drivers and locals can mingle and share in the enjoyment of the weekend.

The I.C.E. stands out in the world of modern car shows. While the vehicles on display may be viewed and awarded at other shows, The I.C.E is likely the only time they will be seen on snow, much less driven on a frozen lake, and the experience is once in a lifetime.

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Wild Spring Dunes, north of Nacogdoches, the oldest town in Texas, has opened for preview play on its first golf course. Designed by Tom Doak, the first eight holes have been completed and are ready for play, with the rest being seeded and expected to open in 2026 to complete the course.

Wild Spring Dunes is the latest golf offering from Michael Keiser, owner of Rodeo Dunes in Roggen, Colorado, and co-owner of Sand Valley in the Central Sands of Wisconsin with his brother Chris. The new course in Texas marks a continuation of the Keisers’ partnership with Doak, with the latter also responsible for The Lido and Sedge Valley at Sand Valley.

This new course runs across sandy terrain populated by forests and creek-filled ravines, with rolling hills providing varied elevation across holes.

Wild Spring Dunes is further proof that Michael and Chris Keiser have taken the basic setup of their father’s famous development, Bandon Dunes, and run with it. It is something like a Field of Dreams model for golf: If you build it, the golfers will come. Future plans include a second course, the routing for which has already been completed by Bill Coore and Texas-native Ben Crenshaw, as well as a practice range and a short course.

Wild Spring Dunes is roughly an equal distance from both Dallas and Houston, about a three-hour drive, providing access from two major airports that connect to almost anywhere in the world. The grand opening is expected in October 2026.

Photographs by Jeff Marsh.

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