This article was originally published on Common Edge.

The biennale UN climate conference, COP28, concluded in Dubai this week with a commitment to the eventual “phasing out” of fossil fuels. It was a classic glass-half-empty/glass-half-full gesture. Yes, as optimists pointed out, it was the first time any reference to moving away from fossil fuels had made it into the text of the final communique. But, like previous COPs, this resolution, too, is nonbinding and was reached over howls of protest from both oil-producing countries and developing countries reliant on existing energy supply chains for future growth. The tortuous nature of the outcome, watered down and officially toothless, left me feeling glum. If we can’t agree on the nature of the problem, it will be exceptionally difficult to fix it.

To offer perspective, I reached out to longtime activist Bill McKibben. A professor at Middlebury College, he has published 20 books; his first, The End of Nature, appeared in 1989. He was, along with Dr. James Hansen, one of the first to sound the climate alarm. McKibbin is a contributing writer to the New Yorker, and a founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice. In collaboration with seven Middlebury students, he founded 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign.

The duality of sunlight in the field of architectural design presents fascinating contrasts, especially when addressing the question of how to interact with it through the built environment and the materials that define architecture. The sun's influence in this discipline has become an essential part of the cultural heritage of some countries, as evidenced by Spanish architecture, where the interaction with sunlight manifests through elements such as lattices. These lattices are recognizable on the facades of buildings from the Middle Ages, exemplified by structures like the Alhambra, to 20th-century constructions such as Casa Gomis, considered historical monuments.

The facade, being the skin of the building, is the architectural component that is usually directly exposed to sunlight. Based on this premise, we seek to establish a dialogue between openness to the environment and the need for protection, thus creating a synergy between functionality and aesthetics. In this context, sunscreen facades have been developed through various approaches, standing out for their ability to address this design condition. For this reason, we have selected solar control solutions from Spanish brands, distinguished by their technical characteristics and materiality through various approaches.

Smart homes leverage technology to provide residents with increased convenience, savings, comfort, and security. With automated environments, household routines are streamlined. What once seemed like a distant future is now within reach as smart devices have become more accessible. They enable a new level of interaction between the home and its inhabitants through Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections.

As AI has become more accessible, we have witnessed examples illustrating its diverse applications. Prominent among these are generative AIs, which excel in their ability to “create” images through prompts, many distinguished by their composition and vividness. These AI systems are neural networks with billions of parameters, trained to create images from natural language, using a dataset of text–image pairs. Thus, although the initial question posed by Turing in the 1950s, “Can machines think?” still recurs today, the generation of images and text is grounded in existing information, limiting their capabilities.

What has surprised many is the increasingly apparent closeness to overcoming the Turing test and the growing similarity, in terms of visualizations, to what an architect with skills in this field can achieve. In this context, while the debate persists in the architectural community about whether AI can process architectural concepts, this article explores how it interprets materials to develop these visual representations. With that in mind, a single prompt was developed for this experiment (with materiality as its variable) to delve into the obtained results.

Some materials change the course of architecture from the moment they begin to be employed. The initial materials used in construction certainly did so: clay, stone, and wood. The ability to build is the origin of the discipline. With technological development, techniques were also refined, and in the 19th century, industrialization spread the use of other materials, transforming and expanding the realm of construction: iron and glass.

+ 9

Videos

In the context of global initiatives to promote energy efficiency and the decarbonization of buildings, Latin America is at the center of the debate. The International Seminar on Sustainable and NetZero Buildings 2023, held in Bogotá and organized by CCCS, IEA, UNIANDES, CAF, and CEELA, aimed primarily to create a space for the exchange of experiences, such as Oliver Schütte's No Footprint House, while simultaneously conducting a review of government policies and the implementation of norms and standards in the region.

Among panels and conferences featuring Clara Camarasa, Nicola Borregaard, Laura Chapa, Paola Valencia, Iván Osuna, Juan Carlos Vega, Angélica Ospina, and Diego Velandia, five main learnings emerged as lessons: from creating more relevance and energy calculations to the development of the timber industry - and certifications.

As one of the four essential elements that sustain life on this planet, water is key to the survival of all species. And just as wild animals like to stay close to the watering hole, we humans enjoy life by the water.

While our ports, lakes, and waterways are no longer the international transport hubs and feeding grounds they once were, the improved air quality, more temperate climate, and improved relaxation and mindfulness that’s brought by the presence of fresh or flowing water, means specialist spaces such as riverside pubs, beachfront hotels and lakeside homes are some of the most popular of their type.

The following homes show how prized nearby waterbodies can be better utilized with great architecture and design.

The heritage of Mexico City is extremely rich and diverse due to a long history that overlays like layers above the urban fabric since pre-Hispanic times. Currently, it is one of the largest cities in the world, and its heritage is reflected in its architecture, museums, historical sites, cultural traditions, protected sites, gastronomy, and much more. This chronology has been evidenced through various historical records. However, contemporary recording is essential in moments where we are writing history immediately with different digital tools.

Architecture Classics showcased on ArchDaily serve as essential archives of architectural marvels, offering a window into the past. These classics showcase our collective design wisdom and innovation globally, enriching our design knowledge. In fact, through the acknowledgment and appreciation of different styles, functions, and narratives embedded within these structures, our view of architecture and its impact worldwide can become more comprehensive.

Within ArchDaily’s extensive list of Architectural Classics, 2023 saw the exploration of 16 diverse typologies. From public landmarks like Mies Van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion to the Julio Mario Sant Domingo Cultural Center and the Biblioteca El Tintal by Bermùdez Arquitectos, showcasing the power of public infrastructure. Structures such as Mariano Moreno’s National Library and Oscar Niemeyer’s Aeronautics Center highlight the eclectic nature of these classics.

+ 13

The ArchDaily projects library is managed by our curators who constantly seek to populate our stream with the most interesting global works, showcasing evolving focuses and criteria. While we usually share our reader’s top 100 favorites, this year, we also decided to initiate our editor’s picks on the ArchDaily Instagram account, where our curators highlight some projects that include interesting themes and unique traits. 

+ 26

In the ever-changing world of design and construction, the tools at architects’ disposal have remained the same for decades. With its ability to deeply understand how architects design, Snaptrude has emerged as a collaborative 3D building design tool that incorporates smart, parametric modeling, live building information, easy real-time collaboration, and offers strong interoperability with other BIM tools like Revit.

By analyzing its wide variety of features, we showcase how Snaptrude empowers the design process to operate faster, smarter, and more collaboratively.

Staircases facilitate transit and movement within cities, influencing how communities interact and navigate their urban surroundings. Despite often going unnoticed within the cityscape, these staircases are significant witnesses to history. Beyond their architectural function, they are essential connectors, providing spaces where the pulse of urban life unfolds. Amidst buildings, hills, slopes, and bustling streets, staircases emerge as dynamic stages for movements, encounters, and disconnections, intertwining with the narratives embedded in each step.

+ 15

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Madagascar is an island nation off the southeast coast of Africa that, despite its lush vegetation and unique flora and fauna, grapples with formidable environmental challenges, from rising sea levels to the excessive exploitation of natural resources. Joan Razafimaharo is an architect deeply involved in sustainability, climate change, and adaptation efforts in Madagascar and the broader Indian Ocean region. Razafimaharo is also one of only about sixty architects in the country, serving a population of 28 million.

Recently I spoke to her about environmental activism in the face of climate change, curbing the exploitation of natural resources, the role of architects in resource-scarce societies, and empowering women in isolated areas. The interview, originally conducted in French, has been translated and edited for length and clarity.

If the past few years were a perfect occasion for reflecting and debating on well-being, digitalization, and democratization in architectural design, this 2023 has been a tremendous opportunity to delve deeper and comment on other urgent topics: The climate crisis and the natural environment have unquestionably entered the global agenda of architecture and construction, alongside circularity, energy efficiency, and decarbonization. It's time to engage in dialogue about these matters to conscientiously build for the future.

Reviewing the future of wood, water, and lighting, in each of the related topics that ArchDaily developed month by month, we posed an open question for you - our dear readers - to actively contribute with your experiences and knowledge. After reading and compiling an immense amount of received messages, from construction professionals to students and architecture enthusiasts, it's time to present you with a summary of the main perspectives. Many thanks for your opinions, and we look forward to your comments for 2024!

Nowadays, architectural work is closely linked to technology and the advances that emerge in this field. In that sense, various aspects of artificial intelligence have been widely discussed. The reality is that, rather than plunging into a competition of capabilities between Architects vs AI, —with nuances that could evoke some aspects of the ideology of 19th-century English Luddites— advances in this field can be seen as tools to optimize processes and open new perspectives within the profession.

In this context, architecture often spans various stages, from early phases where data decisively shapes built environments to later ones where generative design tools for spaces play a fundamental role in spatial configuration. In this process, visualization plays the crucial role of graphically understanding the expression of what is being designed. Thus, iterating on the visualization and evaluating each of the results is vital not only to express ideas but also to use those visualizations to interpret aesthetic elements.

The referential of movement, which describes the variation in an object's position and velocity according to the observer's perspective, is one of the fundamental concepts of physics. This idea not only influences the understanding of movement in physical systems but can also be analogously applied in other areas, such as architecture, where the different perspectives of users can shape their experiences and interactions with built space. Each person brings cultural, emotional, and physical baggage, resulting in unique architectural interactions, similar to an observer's interpretation of a motion reference.