In recent years, solar energy has become a very popular method to power electric vehicles. This emerging technology has motivated the development of new architectural typologies. An evident evolution of traditional gas stations, it could be foreseen that solar-powered charging stations will begin to significantly grow in numbers in our cities in both public and private spaces.
Córdoba is one of the pioneer cities in the implementation of landscape architecture as we know it today. Moving beyond the paved plazas of the colonial era, it was the first city in the country where the renowned French architect and landscape designer Carlos Thays designed a major urban park: Parque Sarmiento. Inaugurated in 1911 along the ravines that then marked the city's limits, the park became an integral part of the Nueva Córdoba neighborhood.
Similar initiatives followed over the years, creating highly characteristic green corridors such as the canalization and urban development of La Cañada. Later, during the 1970s and 1980s, the creation of pedestrian streets in the downtown area featured the incorporation of green pergolas, paved surface treatments, and plaza designs—such as Plaza Italia and Plaza España—led by architect Miguel Ángel Roca.
Today, this same emphasis on public and green space is no longer evident. The city currently has only 8 square meters of green space per inhabitant, falling short of the 10 to 15 square meters recommended by the WHO.
Colombia's topography features both plains and mountainous areas. Despite the challenges this poses for urban development, the country's major cities—from its capital, Bogotá, to Medellín and Cali—have been founded upon it. While this topography has posed significant challenges for construction and mobility, it has also paved the way for innovation, inspiring architectural projects that seamlessly integrate with the mountainous terrain, adapt to their specific altitude, and reflect regional culture.
Although the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), south of Mexico City, is home to the well-known O’Gorman murals, it is, in fact, the campus itself, that is quite intriguing. Walking through UNAM, individuals find themselves in an architectural display of modernist buildings that date back 70 years, along with open courtyards, hidden walkways, and pavilions. Uniquely, the campus buildings have a little bit of everything: bold geometry, openness, abstraction, humanistic design, permeability with nature, decaying masonry walls, local lava rocks used as walls, and pavers throughout the campus.
As mentioned in our previous article on retail stores under 100 square meters, the spatial distribution of commercial spaces is a determinant for its success. Not only does it address adequate logistics and the circulation of customers, but the variations and innovations that will enable a more efficient and original space.
Below, we've selected projects from our site, with their plan and section, that can help inspire your next project.
Few names fit the label of “cult writer” as perfectly as Raymond Queneau, who boasts a fanatical following of near-militant devotees of the cause: literature as a very serious game. From the outset, and even upon the most cursory reading, Exercises in Style, written by the French author in 1949, is radically different from conventional literature. The book positions itself—or pretends to—in a kind of no-man's-land between literary theory and practice, giving the impression of having been crafted based on the chapters of a style manual. Queneau rejects any preconceived schema that might have grouped the “exercises” by theme, gradual complexity, or simple alphabetical order. He does not even work from a single baseline text. At times, he opts for a purely mechanical game of textual transformation to produce a sense of sheer nonsense.
It is no wonder that this seven-decade-old book still feels revolutionary and remains an essential manual in literary programs. What Queneau showed us then—that playful, mocking creative freedom—remains difficult to match today. For this reason, such an exercise in variation, of refusing to set limits on the imagination, is and must be compatible with the craft of architectural model-making. What Queneau demonstrated, starting with an unremarkable text and transforming it 99 times, is precisely what any architect should attempt to translate into their model-making. It is the art of variation and accumulation—“difference and repetition,” as Gilles Deleuze would say. It means working 99 times on the same idea, watching it transform until, at some point, we are able to recognize its ultimate synthesis.
Virtual reality offers benefits that, just years ago, were hardly even imaginable. Projects can be walked through before being built; the interiors fully visualized before all the details are decided. It allows architects and clients the ability to work as true collaborators in the design of a project.
The concept of sustainability dates back to the 1980s, when the chairperson of the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, Gro Harlem Brundtland, authored the report titled “Our Common Future.” This document questioned the negative environmental consequences of development and globalization, raising the need to advance toward “Sustainable Development.”
The regional expressions of a country’s culture are vital in helping us understand the relation between context and specific conditions of social manifestations. These nuances and singularities inside the realm of construction are translated into what can be called vernacular architecture. Although it has always existed, this universe of local exemplars of architecture with their particular materials, techniques and regional constructive solutions came to be well studied in the second half of the twentieth century in Brazil, in a project that traced national architecture history, headed by Lucio Costa.
In 2017, ArchDaily Brazil reported that Smart City Laguna would become the first “smart city” in Brazil. With its inauguration scheduled for that same year, the venture opened with 1,800 units in its first phase, and in its final phase, 7,065 units divided between residential, commercial and technological uses.
Located in the Croatá district of São Gonçalo do Amarante, the first Brazilian smart city occupies 815 acres directly connected to the federal highway BR-22, which crosses the states of Ceará, Piauí, and Maranhão, starting in Fortaleza towards Marabá, in Pará. Its location has economic reasons: the proximity to Pecém Harbor, in Fortaleza, the Pecém Steel Company (CSP) and the Transnordestina Railroad make Croatá a strategic hub that has been recently occupied by technological companies, becoming a “digital belt” a little over 50 kilometers from the state’s capital.
Over the next 20 years, 45% of urban land should consist of public spaces (streets, parks, and plazas), according to UN-Habitat. What will be the quality of these spaces? Which stakeholders will assume responsibility for their management? The movement to reclaim public spaces by city dwellers is gaining momentum both in Brazil and globally. The right to the city is at the forefront of urban discourse, and at its core, many citizens are committing to actively participate in decisions regarding their cities, or even in everyday initiatives to improve public spaces.
It is true that designers, architects, and the general public share an endless fascination with abandoned architecture. Throughout history, shifting economies, disasters, regime changes, and sheer incompetence have forced the evacuation of striking architectural structures, which today serve as curious—and even haunting—monuments to bygone eras.
This fascination has led to the publication of several articles on our site exploring the mysteries of some of the most famous sites through text and photography. Yet, this curiosity has also driven individuals to venture out and document their experiences firsthand. Such is the case of Mike Corey, a YouTuber who, through his channel Fearless & Far, has dedicated himself (among other pursuits) to exploring some of Mexico's most famous abandoned buildings.
Artistic expression is often undisciplined. Sometimes, the riot of colors and explosion of lines and forms help unleash a 2D illustration out of its medium, which is precisely what Drawing Architecture Studio (DAS) managed to create in Ucommune’s new branch in Dajiang Hutong, Beijing.
In late 2018, Li Han, co-founder of Drawing Architecture Studio, won the 2018 Drawing Prize for her digital drawing of The Samsara of Building No.42 on Dirty Street, which also illustrates a visual narrative of the city of Beijing and its residential chronology throughout the 21st century. This year, DAS took Qianmen area, co-working brand Ucommune’s location as a subject, transforming its road network, architecture, and urban composition into a dynamic, meticulously detailed panorama titled Under the Zhengyangmen.
In recent years, documenting architecture and cities through photography has undergone a swift and surprising transformation. Professional and amateur photographers have been seeking new perspectives, going beyond what the human eye can see at street level. In this pursuit, aerial photography—which captures a bird's-eye view—is layered with aesthetic intentions that reveal an intimate and breathtaking look at cities and landscapes.
3D printing itself is no longer a new technology, but that hasn’t stopped researchers and innovators around the world from coming up with new applications and opportunities. Some experiments with new materials have been driven by sustainability concerns and others are simply the result of imagination and creativity. Others have chosen to invest their time utilizing more traditional materials in new ways. Materials, however, are just the beginning. Researchers have developed new processes that allow the creation of objects that were previously impossible to print and, on a larger scale, new building typologies are being tested - including a Mars habitat!
Clément Blanchet Architecture in collaboration with Etienne Tricaud (AREP) have been shortlisted for the French pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. The winner will be announced in February. The proposal is intended to enhance both the virtual world and the real to support human communication, cultures and interactions. The pavilion will be built around the themes of Light and Mobility to create a hidden oasis with two vertical gardens facing one another.
'Silogismos' is an architecture and illustration project that bases its research on archives, publications, and photographs tracing the history of modern construction in Mexico. It offers a graphic narrative on the continuity and transformation of seminal 20th-century works through the synthesis, interpretation, and juxtaposition of their ideals. These paired concepts confront thought and form through deductive inference. Ultimately, the sum of these parts reveals critical architectural meanings and motives for future reconstruction.
Through a sculptural intervention, nationally award-winning artist Romina Castiñeira reinvents the sculpture courtyard of the Caraffa Museum in Córdoba, Argentina, offering a new sensory experience that addresses the spatial condition of inside and outside.
Since its discovery in 8700 B.C., copper has been one of the most used metals in the history of humankind. It has a variety of uses from coins and weapons to statues and even architecture. One of its first architectural uses was in Ancient Egypt for the massive doors of the temple to Amen-Re at Karnak in 300 B.C.
The versatility of the material continues in architecture to this day, allowing for a variety of unique designs and uses. The innovative, efficient, and lightweight material is versatile in its use, ranging from facades to roofs, interior applications, and high tech solutions. Sustainable in its natural form, the material is 100% recycled. As the state of architecture becomes more focused on sustainability, copper becomes the ideal material for the buildings of today.
Below, we’ve selected 7 projects that use architecture's original bling.
Juan Navarro Baldeweg liked to imagine his work within a dreamlike room, where the outlines of his buildings are silhouetted against a horizon of visual vanishing points, with the spectator positioned at their center of convergence. He aspired, moreover, for his exhibitions to be cumulative rather than retrospective—inviting the viewer to wander and trace connections between his works, linking them like elements of a single expressive medium or distinct formal gestures.
In contrast to the rigidity of classicist attitudes and the modern synthesis of artistic languages, Navarro Baldeweg—unbeknownst to many—champions the simultaneous cultivation of diverse, sometimes opposing disciplines and distinct arts. This fluid movement, free of preferences or boundaries across the broad spectrum of artistic practices, foreshadowed approaches that are widespread today, such as nomadism and the poetics of the "in-between." This nomadism does not stem from opportunism, but from a creative impulse, a restless eye, a trained gaze—in short, the work of a total artist.
“Writing is like a city, for which words are a thousand gates.”
- Walter Benjamin
No roads or maps lead to them. Yet, many of the cities imagined in literature feel more tangible than real ones, capturing the human imagination with their fantastical sparks. The rich geographical, cultural, and social detail of cities like the famous Macondo, from One Hundred Years of Solitude, frequently places a magnifying glass over the relationship between territory and its inhabitants.
Designing commercial spaces has historically been a challenge. In these environments, spatial distribution plays a fundamental role, even more so if we have a few extra square meters. With this being said, the study of these spaces in plan and section can be a great starting point. It not only allows us to analyze the logistics and circulation of customers but also helps us find efficient variations and innovations that will enable your store to stand out from the others.
Below, we've selected a series of 25 examples in plan and section that can help you understand how different architects faced the challenge.
In each edition of the Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (BIAU), the event honors masters of Ibero-American architecture with the Ibero-American Architecture and Urbanism Prize.
The Ibero-American Architecture and Urbanism Prize recognizes work "directly related to architecture and/or urbanism, highlighting its aesthetic, functional, technical, social, economic, and environmental aspects. This may include built work, planning, heritage conservation and restoration, knowledge production, or social commitment," as outlined in the competition guidelines.
For the fresh architecture student, the “jury,” “review,” or “crit” is far from glorious—sounding more like a death knell than a customary critique session. The concept, as Kathryn Anthony explores in Design Juries on Trial: The Renaissance of the Design Studio, goes as far back as the 1980s when the Ecole Nationale et Speciale des Beaux-Arts in Paris became the first art and architecture school to experiment with a format that would soon be adopted by architectural schools across the world. While some schools have taken steps to loosen traditional hierarchies, others continuing to reinforce them, much to the terror of fledgling first-year students who aren’t used to being “tried.”
So what can one really do to ease into this rather uncomfortable aspect of architectural education? Below is a fairly simple list of dos and don’ts that could go a long way in helping you out.
