Ecuadorian Architecture

Ammodo Architecture will launch the first edition of Ammodo Architecture Days in Amsterdam on November 9 and 10, 2026. Organized by Ammodo Architecture, a programme of the Ammodo Foundation, the event will bring together architects, landscape architects, urban planners, artists, communities, collectives and multidisciplinary design teams, alongside recipients of the 2024 and 2025 Ammodo Architecture Award. Taking place at Westergas, a former industrial complex now used as a cultural and public venue, the invitation-only two-day programme will combine a symposium, exhibition, publication launch and award ceremony, creating a setting for exchange between practices working across different geographic, cultural and disciplinary contexts.

Architecture across Latin America this month reflects an ongoing conversation around inhabitation, cultural heritage, and the ways architecture can connect contemporary life with existing places and knowledge. From the Buenos Aires International Architecture Biennial and initiatives addressing traditional building practices and archaeological heritage to new cultural infrastructure and housing projects in Argentina, Ecuador, and Peru, recent developments highlight different approaches to working with local contexts. Across the region, questions of memory, community, landscape, and material practice continue to shape both architectural projects and broader discussions around how cities and territories are inhabited.

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ArchDaily is proud to announce the winners of the 2026 Next Practices Awards, recognizing 20 emerging and forward-thinking practices expanding the possibilities of architecture today.

Water management, air quality, and heat mitigation are usually planned through systems much larger than the spaces where people actually experience them. Drainage networks sit below the street. Air pollution is measured across entire cities. Yet these conditions are felt much closer to the body: while waiting for a bus in the sun, walking through a flooded street, crossing an exposed plaza, or looking for somewhere to sit when the air itself feels difficult to breathe.

Architecture across Latin America this month reflects an ongoing negotiation between environmental challenges, cultural heritage, and changing approaches to public and professional life. From Colombia's earthquake and its impact on historic architecture to new cultural projects in Argentina and environmentally responsive design in Ecuador and Medellín, recent developments highlight how architecture continues to respond to both regional conditions and broader global challenges. Questions of heritage and infrastructure also remained prominent, as UNESCO raised concerns over the impacts of the Tren Maya on Mexico's Calakmul World Heritage site, while new initiatives in Chile and Costa Rica explored ecological design and sustainable practice. The month's stories point to a regional architectural landscape shaped by resilience, adaptation, and the relationship between built environments and their wider social and natural contexts.

Founded in Quito in 2017 by Martín Real and Florencia Sobrero, Taller General works across housing, rehabilitation, exhibitions, and community projects. What ties them together is less a type of building than a way of building: architects, builders, craftspeople, students, organizations, and communities move in and out of the process, and each project takes shape from whatever is already there.

Displacement is usually understood through movement: the moment people are forced to move from one place to another. Yet from an architectural perspective, that movement is only the beginning of what comes next. A house may need to be rebuilt, an entire community relocated, or everyday life reestablished somewhere completely new. What is lost through displacement is not always something architecture can simply replace.

Architecture across Latin America this month reflects a growing emphasis on adaptation, whether responding to environmental risks, rethinking cultural institutions, or extending the life of existing buildings. Recent developments reveal a regional conversation shaped by resilience, heritage, and public space, where architecture is increasingly understood as part of broader urban, social, and environmental systems. From the aftermath of major earthquakes in Venezuela to the debate surrounding Ecuador's future National Museum, the month's stories highlight how design is intertwined with questions of identity, civic life, and long-term sustainability.

An international team led by SANAA, in collaboration with Estudio A0, Caá Porá Arquitectura, Jerome Haferd Studio, and Taller Capital Landscape, has been selected to design the new Museo Nacional del Ecuador (MuNA) in Quito. Titled "Living Strata," the proposal was chosen following the competition's revised final evaluation phase, which combined jury deliberation with a public voting process, and envisions the museum as a civic landscape that integrates exhibition spaces, public programs, and open green areas. The announcement concludes the international competition launched to design Ecuador's future national museum.

The announcement of the winning proposal for Ecuador's new National Museum (MuNA) sparked one of the country's most significant architectural debates in recent years. The public response has since reshaped the competition itself while also raising broader questions about how a national museum gives architectural form to an interpretation of a nation. While the discussion began with a single design, it exposed a challenge that extends far beyond Ecuador.