Architecture News

Indian architecture firm Manoj Patel Design Studio has designed several award-winning projects that make creative use of clay roof tiles. In one of them, named Ridge Clay Roof Tile Plantation, a vertical garden was created using these tiles.

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The Lisbon Architecture Triennale has released on its Vimeo channel the Talk, Talk, Talk debate series, held as part of its 5th edition under the general curation of Éric Lapierre. Divided into five major exhibitions, one of the Triennale's showcases addressed the relationship between agriculture and architecture, which is the theme of the debates featured here.

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Starting Saturday, July 18, you can tour some of the works included in the Open House Buenos Aires catalog directly from your screen. The virtual festival will open the doors of 16 buildings across the city, guided via streaming by their architects and residents. From your screen, you will be able to discover, learn about, and reflect on various issues surrounding the city and its contemporary and historic heritage. The live tours will begin at 11:00 AM on the Open House YouTube channel and will follow a pre-established schedule.

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The La Carcova Educational Park project is defined as an ongoing, long-term collaborative effort, initiated by the creation of a university network united by a common goal in a specific territory with many unmet basic needs.

Mónica Álvarez de Oro, partner at MAO Arquitectos and an AOA director since 2018, secured her reelection for a new term in the recent electronic vote election held within the association. During the first session of the new board, she was unanimously elected as president for a two-year term.

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The winning projects of the National Ideas Competition for the master plan of the Sociedad Rural de Jesús María site have been announced. Organized by the Colegio de Arquitectos de la Provincia de Córdoba, the open call invited architects to develop comprehensive proposals for the programmatic organization of spaces and functions—both current and future—on the property belonging to the Sociedad Rural de Jesús María, located in the municipalities of Colonia Caroya and Jesús María in the province of Córdoba, Argentina. The master plan for the site, which covers a total area of 808,304.68 m², was required to establish a general scheme incorporating specific considerations for urban integration, movement flows, and the introduction of new mixed-use programming.

Due to the current social distancing and mandatory quarantine measures, the film series dedicated to documentaries and films on architecture and urbanism—which ran for seven years in the auditorium of the Professional Council of Architecture and Urbanism (CPAU), programmed and coordinated by Ezequiel Hilbert since 2012—has been restructured to continue online.

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For years, Mexico City has been what many authors call a "living organism"—built day by day and choreographed in diverse ways. In recent years, the work of Mexican photographer Santiago Arau has portrayed a city where time passes, a city built by its inhabitants, spanning from aerial shots to the daily perspective of a commuter on public transit. Yet, what has happened over these past few months as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe?

As part of the interventions that occupied Sesc 24 de Maio and its surroundings during the 12th International Architecture Biennale of São Paulo, the firms Vão and Adamo Faiden, from Brazil and Argentina, respectively, proposed a mirror installation on the building adjacent to the esteemed Sesc. Located at the level of its 11th floor, the intervention establishes a series of intersecting visual dialogues between the buildings, their occupants, and the urban landscape.

During the presentation of the Obra del Año Awards held earlier this month at the Mirador Pablo Neruda, ArchDaily CEO David Basulto shared a series of data with the audience, providing a quantitative and qualitative overview of Chilean architecture in 2019:

“Based on the data we have collected over nearly 12 years, at ArchDaily we have managed to build a highly representative profile of how architecture is designed and built in Chile. I hope this information is useful for creating more and better cities, and for understanding how the digitization of architecture has influenced how we inhabit our cities.”

Chilean architect Carlos Martner, known for designing the Tupahue and Antilén swimming pools and the Pablo Neruda Mirador Square in Santiago's Metropolitan Park, has passed away at the age of 93.

The private preliminary design competition for the Day Center for the Elderly and the CBI Comprehensive Wellness Center, managed by the Compensar compensation fund, sought a design solution that would connect directly with the green space network of Simón Bolívar Metropolitan Park and primarily serve older adults. The competition awarded first place to taller de arquitectura de bogotá, second place to De la Carrera Cavanzo, and third place to David Delgado Architects.

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As part of the feminist demonstrations that took place last weekend in Mexico, a group of Mexican women architects organized to join the march held on Sunday, March 8, in various parts of the country. The march aimed to 'take back the city' to demand direct state action to reverse the wave of violence and historical bias against women in Mexico, where numbers have reached 10 femicides a day.

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One of the most interesting challenges and boundaries in architectural design revolves around the conceptualization and design of ephemeral spaces. Ephemeral architecture is communication at its core—a spatial, three-dimensional format that drives and generates perceptions to connect with visitors and convey specific messages.

Naturally, the word "ephemeral" implies a finite lifespan, which introduces unique constraints across the entire development process of a project. This ranges from the initial concept and design phase, through the construction of the budgeted executive project agreed upon with the client, to its eventual disassembly and the recycling of its materials.

As part of this year's cultural agenda, Museo Jumex inaugurated the large-scale work Mariposa B1-09 by artist Michael Lin on February 4. The piece consists of a hand-painted floor spanning over 1,300 m2, temporarily covering the plaza and the building's ground floor.

Along with Zhongguancun Science City and Future Science City, Huairou Science City has been designated by the State Council as one of the capital's three major science cities dedicated to establishing a national center for scientific and technological innovation. With the official establishment of the Beijing Yanqi Lake Institute for Applied Mathematics in Huairou Science City, the area has become a focal point for domestic and international architectural firms. In the international competition for the conceptual planning and design of the Beijing BBMG Xingfa Cement Factory transformation project (which includes the Institute for Applied Mathematics), HPP, in collaboration with the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD), has emerged as the winning team.

The project covers a total site area of 61.35 hectares, with a total above-ground gross floor area of 182,200 square meters. The landscape surrounding the factory has already undergone initial transformation: the adjacent quarry, retaining its excavated rock formations, has been converted into a mine park; leftover tailings from the factory's closure have been transformed into landscape walls; and a new viewing pavilion built of weathering steel has been added, infusing the mountainous landscape with a strong industrial character. Within the factory grounds, 54 structures have been designated for preservation—including cement silos, elevated pipe galleries, and red-brick workshops—totaling approximately 70,000 square meters.

The Institute of Architects of Brazil, São Paulo Department, has made the complete archive of the IABsp Awards, one of the most prestigious Brazilian architecture accolades, available for online consultation.

Since its first edition in 1967, the IABsp Awards have established themselves as an important platform for promoting architectural criticism and dissemination on a national scale. The award aims to recognize benchmark architectural projects and built works, identifying the advancements and challenges faced in contemporary production, as well as ingenious and significant proposals—especially those contributing to the development of technique, knowledge, and the built environment in dialogue with nature, society, economics, and culture throughout the country.

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On Thursday, November 5, Mexico City saw the inauguration of a new section of Plaza Satélite—a shopping center originally opened in 1971, where renovation and expansion work began two years ago to adapt to new ways of using and experiencing space. Designed by the Mexican firm Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos, the Parque Plaza Satélite project continues this expansion, establishing a new vision for retail where commerce serves as a vehicle to create green, open-air spaces for the community.