A phantom is believed to be real despite being illusory. It is a distorted, incorporeal, unstable manifestation of perceptive conditions, built upon the remnants of familiar realities. To sustain a legible future, one conjures comfortable yet innovative possibilities to contain all that was and can be.

This week's dispatch reveals traces of a disappearing urban condition in Casa en Mercedes by id | arkosis. The author's account of navigating the 61st Venice Biennale, postpartum and with a toddler, makes visible the suppressed emotional and anthropological realities dwelling within existing

institutional systems. Tadeas Podracky's designs are suspended apparitions between subjectivity and objectivity. The projects of Brick Award 2026 spotlight how architecture's persistent search for the next revolutionary material circles back to brick. Even as technology advances, brick continues to resurface in various forms while preserving centuries of material memory.

Phantoms become apparent when familiar narratives begin behaving strangely.