To close this little Advent pilgrimage, here is Le Corbusier landmark in a former mining town whose industrial grit somehow suits his concrete poetry.

Stop Four: Firminy, France.

Over 15 years in the making, this church is completely integrated in the transformation process of a neighbourhood of 670 homes.

Third stop: San Cristobal de la Laguna, Spain.

Patricia Urquiola’s exhibition at the Centre for Innovation and Design at Grand-Hornu arrives at a moment when design can no longer ignore its own implications.

With its light and organic structure, this church contrasts with other religious buildings in the same city.

Second stop: Ferrara, Italy.

This Advent I am starting a tiny ritual of my own: four Sundays, four churches with architecture that caught my eye.

First stop: Umphang, Thailand.

A refreshing exhibition that casts fungi not as trendy materials but as autonomous designers with their own unruly logic, far beyond our control at the Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam.