Architecture News

On June 28, 2019, Barranquilla-born architect Ricardo De Castro was awarded the Bronze A' Design Award in Como, Italy, for his design of the El Marquise Monument to the Magdalena River.

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Designed by architect Juan Segura and built in 1930, the Ermita Building in Mexico City is considered one of the most influential works of Mexican architecture from the first half of the 20th century. From its inception, it was one of the first buildings to incorporate mixed-use spaces, featuring ground-floor retail, a cinema, and apartments of various sizes.

Walking through the classrooms of the University of Buenos Aires' School of Engineering is like stepping into a time machine: fine wooden desks, rosettes, pointed ogival arches. Green chalkboards with theorems and equations waiting to be solved. Here, the foundations of knowledge are laid for the young minds who will later calculate bridges and dams, and optimize plants and processes. 

As you walk up to the terraced workshops, the wood groans and creaks—a sound that signals the passage of time.

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Latin America's social crisis is centered in its informal settlements, the epicenters of the most urbanized and unequal region in the world. Approximately 104 million people live in these communities, where one in four lives in poverty within a slum, villa, favela, or informal camp. This has led organizations like TECHO to focus on this segment of the population, which subsists despite the ongoing violation of their rights and a grueling test of their resilience.

The current social crisis in Chile prompted the curatorial team of the XXI Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism of Chile a few days ago to "pause" all of its activities in solidarity with the country's situation. Ultimately, after a day of deliberation on Wednesday, October 23, the organizers and curators decided to cancel all of the event's activities, according to an official statement.

Pavilions have been a key typology in architectural history. Their flexibility and ephemeral nature have allowed architects to unleash their imagination, breaking away from established canons. Each generation has taken the baton, pushing boundaries even further. From demountable structures to spaces that foster a democratic spirit, we look back at the history of Argentine pavilions and reflect on their importance.

On May 28, the winners of the Binational Public Competition for Preliminary Architectural Projects, organized by the Administrative Commission of the Uruguay River (CARU), were announced. The competition was open to architects from both Argentina and Uruguay, with the support of the Association of Architects of Uruguay (SAU), the Association of Architects of the Province of Entre Ríos (CAPER), and the sponsorship of the Argentine Federation of Architectural Organizations (FADEA).

The project called for the construction of a Control Laboratory for the environmental analysis of the Uruguay River, to be located adjacent to the head of the Libertador San Martín International Bridge, on the eastern bank of the river, in the city of Fray Bentos, Uruguay.

As part of Montevideo's urban housing management framework, the local government, together with the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning, and Environment, launched a national public ideas competition to develop a housing and public space program on the site formerly occupied by the Raincoop company in the La Unión neighborhood.

The objective was for contestants to design, on a nearly 3-hectare plot, a housing development within a public space that promotes the integration of compatible activities and services, thereby ensuring mixed-use land and inclusion. Learn more about the winning projects in the words of their authors.

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On September 11, the winners of the Provincial Preliminary Project Competition for the design of the new headquarters of the College of Architects of the Province of Santa Fe, District 4 – Casilda, were announced. The competition aimed to develop a new building that would allow the College to accommodate the new needs arising from the recent growth in its members' activity and the evolution of its institutional policies.

In its 21st edition, Barcelona Building Construmat (BBConstrumat), the International Construction Exhibition of Fira de Barcelona, will feature central spaces designed by an architecture firm for the second time.

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This coming April, Costa Rica will host the Latin American Social Workshop for Architecture Students (XVI TSL) for the first time. The event is organized by the Latin American Coordinator of Architecture Students (CLEA) and the local organization Estudiantes de Arquitectura en Movimiento (EAM), with academic backing from the University of Costa Rica.

Under the theme Situated Knowledges, TSL Costa Rica 2019 will welcome 210 participants from 18 Latin American countries and a European delegation between April 11 and 21. During this period, students and young architects will work side-by-side in a series of design-build workshops held in two communities of Santa Cruz, a town known in the Central American nation as the "folklore city."

The Graham Foundation has announced 63 new grants to individuals around the world supporting architectural projects. The funded projects represent diverse lines of research with original ideas that advance our understanding of the built environment. Selected from over 500 proposals, the funded projects include exhibitions, publications, films, and performances that promote rigorous scholarship, stimulate experimentation, and foster critical discourse in architecture. These innovative projects are led by both established and emerging architects, artists, curators, filmmakers, historians, and photographers, among other professionals.

On Thursday, June 13, the new Cinemateca Distrital de Bogotá opened its doors to the public, bringing the seventh art to the edge of the Colombian capital's historic center. 

Música para volar is the winning project of the “Micro Urban Architecture – Caminito” experience, a joint exercise conducted by the School of Architecture, Urbanism, and Design at the National University of Córdoba, Buenos Aires (Cátedra Equipamiento A, FAUD UNC) and the Politecnico di Milano.

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As part of INFONAVIT's Housing Research and Practical Experimentation Laboratory project—which involved designing and developing a series of prototype homes to deepen the analysis of social housing and improve residents' quality of life—32 world-renowned architects gathered in the city of Apan, in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico. There, they tested, evaluated, and validated these prototype homes to improve the users' quality of life and promote better practices among developers, demonstrating that high-quality housing can be built at costs comparable to current market rates.

From September 30 to October 7, Madrid will be the featured capital of the 16th Architecture Week 2019, organized by the Official Association of Architects of Madrid (COAM) through the COAM Architecture Foundation.

Today, Friday, April 5, the National Board of the Chilean Association of Architects (Chile) announced Miguel Lawner as the winner of the 2019 National Architecture Prize—the highest honor an architect can receive in the country, previously awarded to other renowned figures in past editions such as Germán del Sol, Enrique Browne, Teodoro Fernández Larrañaga, and Edward Rojas Vega.

Lawner served as the executive director of the Urban Improvement Corporation (CORMU) until the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, during which he was detained in concentration camps before being exiled to Denmark. Both from abroad and following his return, he has been recognized for his social housing projects, as well as his research and advocacy exposing human rights violations.

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As part of its annual awards program, Interceramic, a leading Mexican manufacturer and distributor of ceramic floor and wall tiles, celebrated the eighth edition of the Interceramic Architecture and Interior Design Award on October 17, 2019, at the Salón de las Artes of the JW Marriott Santa Fe Hotel in Mexico City. The awards aim to promote and recognize projects that best reflect contemporary design and express the current state of architecture and interior design, while also celebrating creativity in the use of Interceramic ceramic materials.