Architecture News

The Arquitetas Invisíveis (Invisible Women Architects) Collective is an initiative that seeks to promote gender equality within the field of architecture and urban planning by recognizing and promoting the life and work of women architects who have been historically overlooked. Founded by students at the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Brasília, the group's initial effort aimed to expand the repertoire of architecture and urban planning students and professionals while sparking discussions on gender in both academic and professional spheres. Arquitetas Invisíveis was officially launched on March 8, 2014, in honor of International Women's Day, using Facebook to reach architecture students and professionals across Brazil.

Today, March 8, 2018, the Arquitetas Invisíveis Collective is launching the second edition of the Arquitetas Invisíveis Magazine, under the theme "In the Shadows."

The Government of Catalonia, having finalized its approval of the modification to the Metropolitan General Plan, has approved a new measure requiring 30% of housing in new residential developments and major building renovations in Barcelona to be allocated for social housing.

This regulatory change is backed by the 2007 Law on the Right to Housing, which already allowed for affordable housing allocations within the urban fabric. Under this framework, the Catalan Minister of Territory and Sustainability, Damià Calvet, and the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, explained that the Urban Planning Subcommission has amended an additional provision detailing the transition period for implementing this new rule.

The 21st edition of the student competition was titled Home. The brief challenged participants to design a home for their family in their hometown, with the program, location, and project area decided by the competitors themselves. The competition stands out because participants have only 24 hours between the release of the brief and the project submission. The results were announced on January 30th.

Discover the winning projects below:

1st Place

In Bogotá, CEMEX Colombia hosted the 12th edition of the 2018 CEMEX Building Award (Premio Obras CEMEX), celebrating the best of Colombian architecture and construction—projects "capable of creating solutions that promote the social and economic development of countries and, of course, contribute to protecting the environment," explained Ricardo Naya, president of CEMEX Colombia, during the ceremony held at the C. Vilar Auditorium.

Composed of Carlos Campuzano, Rafael Esguerra, Eduardo Rocha, Francisco de Valdenebro, Argelino Durán, and Lorenzo Castro, the jury presented awards in four categories—with the Infrastructure category declared vacant—along with three special prizes for outstanding achievements in Sustainable Building, Construction Innovation, and Social Value. The universal accessibility category was also declared vacant.

The winning architects in each category will travel to Mexico in November to represent Colombia at the international CEMEX Building Award ceremony.

With 333 registered teams from 180 schools of Architecture and Urbanism representing 24 Brazilian states, the results of the 11th edition of the Competition for Architecture Students, organized by the Brazilian Center for Steel Construction (CBCA), were announced on August 22. For the 2018 edition, the proposed theme was a Pavilion with a Greenhouse for a Botanical Park.

The city of Paraty, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, had its bid for World Heritage status accepted by UNESCO last week. While this is not the first time the city has been considered for the organization's list, having been nominated on two previous occasions, it is the first time it is running as a Natural and Cultural Landscape.

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One of the world's most renowned architecture festivals, the World Architecture Festival (WAF), has announced the finalists for its eleventh edition, taking place in Amsterdam, Netherlands, from November 28 to 30. The World Architecture Festival is dedicated to celebrating, sharing, and inspiring outstanding architecture. It is the only architecture event where keynote speeches from the industry's most influential figures coincide with live presentations from over 500 award finalists, global networking opportunities, and an international product exhibition.

Mexican architecture continues to make a strong showing on the global stage, which is why we present the complete list of projects in Mexico nominated for the 2018 World Architecture Festival awards, ranging from cultural, healthcare, housing, and residential projects to mixed-use developments. Read on to discover the projects.

Working partners and friends for over four decades, Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura have won two Pritzker Prizes and a host of other awards, earning the admiration and respect of any architecture professional. In a conversation moderated by Isabel Lucas and published in the Portuguese newspaper Público.pt, the duo discusses the early days of this long partnership which, over time, has evolved into a close bond that allows them to sketch over each other's drawings in a process they refer to as "osmosis."

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The renowned architecture firm Zaha Hadid Architects has announced its first exhibition in Latin America, which will take place at the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) on the campus of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). The exhibition, titled Design as Second Nature, will showcase several projects by architect Zaha Hadid through models, audiovisual materials, paintings, and photographs, exploring the creative process of her practice and highlighting the importance and complexity of design as the central axis connecting form and construction in her work.

On Wednesday, December 5, the winning project of the Paulista Para Todos Ideas Festival was announced. An initiative of Esquina.net.br, the competition featured four teams of São Paulo-based architecture firms (FGMF + Erê Lab, Königsberger Vannucchi Arquitetos Associados + Mauricio Alito, Nitsche Arquitetos + Petro Fontes, and Paulo Mendes da Rocha + Nadezhda Rocha). They were evaluated by a jury comprising Carlos Leite (urban planner, PhD, professor at FAU Mackenzie, director of Stuchi & Leite Projetos e Consultoria, and former director of São Paulo Urbanismo), Sol Camacho (curator of the Brazilian Pavilion at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale and director of the Lina Bo Bardi/Casa de Vidro Institute, a graduate of the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico with a Master in Urban Design from Harvard University), and Renato Schermann Ximenes de Melo (partner at Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr e Quiroga Advogados).

As part of the celebrations for the 76th anniversary of the Colegio de Arquitectos de Chile, the 2018 CA Awards ceremony will take place next Friday, August 3, at the Club de la Unión. The awards are presented by the Chilean association to the country's outstanding practitioners and role models in the discipline.

This year, for the first time, the Dora Riedel, Eliana Caraball, and Regional Architecture Awards will be presented, expanding the scope of the Chilean honors.

Below are the nominees in the twelve categories of the 2018 CA Awards:

From the desk of Rogelio Salmona, with a wonderful view of Torres del Parque in Bogotá, we present our selection of the best Colombian architecture photography, captured by the followers of ArchDaily Colombia on Instagram.

Remember to tag your Colombian architecture photos on Instagram with the hashtag #ArchDailyCo for a chance to be featured in our upcoming roundups.

After at least five years of study, the time comes for architecture and urbanism students to complete their final graduation projects—often referred to as TCC, TFG, or Final Projects. In choosing their topics, students highlight civic, urban, or theoretical projects that are of great importance in sparking a debate about the future of our cities, the built environment, urban infrastructure, mobility, and many other fundamental issues shaping how we inhabit space.

Completing these projects requires a major effort in data collection, research, and design development to address complex challenges. Since they are not always recognized as they deserve, we launch an annual call to showcase the best work by students from Portuguese-speaking countries, helping them reach a wider audience and inspire the general public with new ideas.

A project developed for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games has been awarded Gold in architecture at the 2018 iF Design Award. The Dancing Pavilion, designed by architect and designer Guto Requena for the Olympics in Brazil, has just received the Gold Award, the highest architectural category of the iF Design Award. The trophy was presented to the designer during a ceremony in Munich, Germany, in March. According to the jury:

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The IHA is considered the world's most important architectural prize for high-rises. It is aimed at architects and developers whose buildings are at least 100 meters tall and were completed in the last two years. The jury consists of architects, structural engineers, real estate experts, and architecture critics. They evaluate the nominated projects based on the following criteria: future-oriented design, functionality, innovative construction technology, integration into the urban context, development schemes, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness. This year, the five finalists chosen from 36 nominees across 15 countries have finally been announced; among them is Torre Reforma, designed by Benjamín Romano.

The cities of Bucaramanga (Colombia) and Cipolletti (Argentina) are the winners of the second edition of the international competition “City for People,” organized by the Government of the City of Buenos Aires and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The award ceremony, held in Buenos Aires, recognized the Argentine city in the Sustainable Mobility category for its proposal to implement a sustainable mobility plan designed for youth. Meanwhile, the Colombian city won in the Reviving Cities category with the renovation of the Patio de los Edecanes, a late-18th-century structure in downtown Bucaramanga. 

The Belo Horizonte Municipal Secretariat of Culture has reopened the Pampulha Art Museum following a suspension of its projects, exhibitions, and the Bolsa Pampulha program. Since the 16th of this month, visitors can participate in the *Museu por Dentro* (Museum from Within) project, which offers a closer look at the museum's history, architecture, and collection, as well as its surrounding landscape.

The new initiative offers various activities, such as a guided tour of the building's interior and telescope viewing of the Pampulha Modern Ensemble, which includes the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi, the Casa do Baile, the Yacht Tennis Club, the Kubitschek House, and the Art Museum itself.

Based on the Urban Design Planning and Implementation Scheme for Banxuegang High-Tech City, this international competition was launched to implement the phase results of the implementation scheme through four sub-projects. The project evaluation meeting has been successfully concluded. Following the competition rules (the jury has provided evaluation opinions on the top two winning agencies of each project and recommended them to the host; the host will further study and determine the final ranking of the top two winning agencies based on full respect for the expert evaluation opinions, and the top two winning agencies will receive different bonuses and undertake corresponding follow-up work), the host has decided to launch a public consultation based on these results to widely collect opinions and suggestions as an important reference for the final ranking and subsequent design refinement. The competition consists of four sub-projects, covering planning, architecture, landscape, and art, with two winners selected for each category.

Winners of the International Competition for the Architectural Conceptual Design of Banxuegang Art Center and Surrounding Plots: URBANUS Architecture & Design, Architectural Design & Research Institute of South China University of Technology & Shenzhen WAAO Architects (Consortium)
Winners of the International Competition for the Conceptual Design of the Integrated Connectivity of Characteristic (Country) Parks Around "Bantian in the Forest": Guangzhou Landscape Architecture Design and Research Institute, MLA+ B.V.
Winners of the International Competition for the Landscape and Greenery Enhancement of Urban Streets and Nodes in Banxuegang High-Tech City: Shenzhen Meidao Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning Design Institute Co., Ltd. & Beijing Vision 4D Directional System Planning & Design Co., Ltd. (Consortium), Beijing Zhonghai Huayi Urban Planning & Design Co., Ltd. & Shenzhen Gardens Co., Ltd. (Consortium)
Winners of the International Competition for the Visual Identity (VI) and Application Design of Banxuegang High-Tech City: Shenzhen Shida Creative Design Co., Ltd., Thonik Design Studio