Nearly three years ago, the platform arquitectas.mx was launched as an initiative by Mexican architects Mónica Suberville and Laura A. Gómez. Born from the desire to find ways to support, mobilize, and bring visibility to women in architecture, the platform offers a gathering space for professionals across different practices within the field, aiming to steer the profession toward inclusion, equity, and the improvement of cities through a gender perspective.
Cities worldwide face growing challenges in urban planning and the creation of sustainable, engaging public spaces such as green areas. In response, new approaches have emerged to integrate green landscapes into municipal public spaces. These sites play a fundamental role in the development and transformation of cities; for a long time, they have served as the stage for social interaction, cultural expression, and the exchange of ideas.
Major cities like Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Belo Horizonte have been transforming their downtown areas into more residential zones, reclaiming a past of greater vitality. Rio de Janeiro pioneered this trend with the launch of its Reviver Centro program in 2021. More recently, São Paulo launched Todos pelo Centro, which also aims to “promote transformative actions in downtown São Paulo, bringing new life alongside the city's memories and history.”
Preschool is more than just a place to leave young children; it is a space that allows them to connect with their imagination and senses through the colors, textures, and layout of their environment. In Chile, many architects have committed to translating these learning opportunities into the architecture itself.
From the recently built Golondrina Preschool and Nursery in Valparaíso to the renowned Bambú Preschool in Santiago, we present a selection of outstanding projects that leverage these attributes, enabling both children and educators to engage in their activities in dynamic and creative ways.
A major urban axis where thousands of people, subways, buses, cars, and bicycles pass daily. High-rise buildings, cultural centers, banks, and shopping malls. As the symbol of São Paulo, Avenida Paulista once looked very different. As difficult as it may be to imagine today, it was once lined with grand mansions of the most diverse architectural styles, and its destiny was altered in a matter of days by heritage preservation disputes and... a pizza.
The TEMA Pavilion Competition was established to give young architects and students from the University of Guadalajara community the opportunity to design ephemeral projects that express ideas beyond the typical demands of an architecture or design school.
When considering the segment of the elderly population aged 60 and over, the 2022 survey by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) recorded a total of 32,113,490 older adults, representing approximately 15.6% of the current population. In 2010, this same age group represented 10.8%, indicating a 4.8% increase in just 12 years. The median age of the Brazilian population has increased by six years since 2010, reaching 35 in 2022, while the aging index rose, indicating 55.2 older adults for every 100 children aged 0 to 14, compared to 30.7 per 100 in 2010.
If there is one defining characteristic of Mexican flora, it is its beauty and unique, vivid, and emblematic colors. Mexican culture and its indigenous peoples are known worldwide for their mastery and the outstanding talent of artists and artisanal communities.
The counter-monument 2146 Stones – Monument Against Racism / The Invisible Monument is an intervention carried out in 1993 on the square in Saarbrücken by Jochen Gerz and students from his class at the Hochschule der Künste Saar, in Saarbrücken, Germany. Executed in accordance with Gerz's constant practice of vigilance [1], the work is the result of a period of unrest in German artistic production that questioned the representational art of a post-war generation, as well as the search of those who lived through the events of World War II and the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, amidst a national effort to evade the memories of the Holocaust.
On Monday, February 6, the results of the National Reflection and Research Competition: Written Architecture 2022, organized in Chile by Grupo Arquitectura Caliente, were announced.
Recycling is the process of reclaiming discarded materials. Its goal is to reintroduce them into the production chain to continue generating value and enable their reuse, enhancing the preservation of natural resources and improving quality of life. It is considered one of the most efficient alternatives for managing solid waste from both an environmental and social standpoint, and is directly integrated into the framework of the circular economy.
Play represents a key opportunity for children to acquire skills and knowledge in a natural and engaging way. Among the key innovations in early childhood and primary education, play stands out as a central axis of the learning process, serving as a fundamental pedagogical principle to achieve educational goals. Combining play with outdoor learning fosters exploration, experimentation, sensory stimulation, and motor development during childhood.
Featuring diverse materials, designs, and dynamics, the playground equipment represented by Urbanplay fosters open, spontaneous interactions, providing children with spaces to take risks, explore, and connect with nature.
Buildings consume natural resources. Whether in their construction or during their operation, architecture can have a significant impact on the environment. Promoting sustainable practices to minimize energy, water, and material consumption is essential to reduce carbon emissions and help mitigate the climate crisis. With the ongoing debate surrounding sustainability, environmental consciousness has not only become vital, but it has also started to add value to properties built with this focus. Therefore, moving beyond mere greenwashing, we must look for solutions that make a real difference.
Architects Smiljan Radic and Nicolás Schmidt designed an inflatable structure for the XXII Chilean Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism. Located in the urban setting of the Palacio de La Moneda in Santiago, it served as a temporary venue for meetings, debates, and lectures that brought public discussions to the forefront regarding the event's central theme: "Vulnerable Habitats."
Interior design is the art of transforming the experience of interior space by manipulating spatial volume and treating surfaces to enhance the inside of a home, apartment, building, or restaurant. Closely related is landscape architecture, which focuses on shaping open, outdoor spaces.
“Together we are stronger,” read the signs at the massive Latin American marches on International Women's Day. Women build networks across all their spheres of action: their families, communities, and workplaces. The world of architecture is no exception. Among women architects, these bonds foster connection, as seen in the nearly 30 networks of women architects in the region featured below.
Hotel Magnolia, designed by architect Cazú Zegers and built in 2013 in Santiago, Chile, has been featured for the fourth consecutive year in the Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards, ranking among the Top 20 Hotels in South America.
The purpose of this article is to expand on the relevant debate proposed in Marília Matoso's piece, titled We Need to Rethink Architecture Programs, published on ArchDaily in January 2023. Indeed, rethinking architecture education is a task that is not only necessary but also urgent. However, I believe this discussion is inseparable from debates about the profession itself and how we educate future professionals. Rather than simply attempting to formulate definitive answers, I think it is important to raise further questions that contribute to our collective reflection.
To us, architectural practice is an organic process of construction. Within this framework, we emphasize three dimensions of practice: research, design, and execution. Rather than being strictly sequential, these three aspects are parallel and intersecting. Refined through both built works and speculative projects, our daily collaboration has become increasingly grounded and stable. Consequently, our practice has crystallized around three main pillars: historical context, community placemaking, and a smart future. In recent years, guided by a diverse, multifaceted, and open-minded architectural perspective, we have strived to create vivid scenarios and spaces tailored to the unique narrative of each project, seeking enduring poetry and value. Our ultimate goal is to create dignified human habitats for society through precise and poetic architectural design.
Since 2021, to provide more specialized services for local projects in Hangzhou and the Yangtze River Delta region, ALYA established its Hangzhou studio and formed an urban design team. Over the years, the firm has received widespread international media attention, numerous awards, and exhibition invitations, including the ARCASIA Gold Medal, the UK's Dezeen Awards (Hotel Building of the Year), the UK's BUILD Award for Architecture and Sustainable Design, the DFA Design for Asia Awards, the Venice Architecture Biennale, Wallpaper* Design Awards, WA China Architecture Awards, and the IDEAT Future Award. In 2021, Yuyang Liu, founder of ALYA, was appointed by the Hangzhou Canal Group as the Chief Planning and Design Advisor for the Cultural and Tourism Integration of the Hangzhou Grand Canal. Following three challenging years of the global pandemic, ALYA will celebrate a series of project completions in 2023, while systematically launching high-quality, meticulous, sustainable, and highly creative projects aligned with future trends.
For those who are passionate about the healthy development of premier Chinese architectural practices, value a pioneering spirit and precision, enjoy exploring the unknown, and seek to grow with us into a world-class professional design team based in the Yangtze River Delta, we warmly invite you to join ALYA.
A subjective understanding guides us when we think about real estate values—one deeply connected to how markets shape cities. While the spatial distribution of prices leads us to place higher value on land in urban centers, the same economic model conversely assigns lower values to more remote areas.
Historically, central port areas were responsible for developing many cities into commercial hubs, which also expanded along geographical and economic lines. In a standard urban model, it is from the center outward that market forces dictate land prices and densities, factoring in transport costs, income, and total population.
The theorization of the workplace has become a global discourse, spanning research on new spatial trends, experiments in hybrid models, the digital revolution and its impact on productivity, workplace wellness, and the elusive balance between life and work. Yet, as a New York Times article on the digital workplace notes, while this theoretical debate has spanned decades, successful implementation remains in its infancy. Propelled by the rise of tech giants like Slack and Zoom, alongside the global disruptions of recent years, our working patterns have fundamentally shifted. We have seemingly adapted to remote work, often forgetting the efficiency of physical presence and the nuanced connection of face-to-face interaction. As “digital distraction” increasingly permeates our daily lives, this is a challenge we must confront when rethinking the design of the physical office.
Can our work, then, be fully digitized and done remotely?
As part of a new collaboration between Mexican firms Dellekamp Arquitectos and Rojkind Arquitectos, Casa Roca is presented in Puerto Los Cabos, San José del Cabo, Mexico. Inspired by the rock formations at the site's summit, the project features a radial layout carefully organized in response to its topography. Sited on a 5,000 m² lot, the 1,200 m² house organizes its program along the natural landscape, minimizing its footprint and establishing a close relationship with nature as the core living experience.
Recently, many Brazilian cities have turned to tactical urbanism as a way to intervene in the design of their streets, making them safer and more appealing—all at a low cost and on a short timeline.
The volume and nature of these interventions have been particularly remarkable in addressing the immediacy imposed by the pandemic in our cities. They seek to adapt street layouts to modes of travel that reduce the risk of transmission during daily commutes, even amidst scenarios of restricted activities.
genarchitects was founded in Shanghai in 2013. Whether operating in dense urban environments or amidst natural landscapes, the firm remains committed to the authentic realities of design and construction practice. By carefully balancing site conditions and functional requirements, genarchitects seeks to find calm and honest solutions for complex and uncertain realities.
Led by founding partners Fan Beilei, Kong Rui, and Xue Zhe, genarchitects engages in a comprehensive range of design work. Their projects span from schools and art museums to bridges, sports fields, furniture, and urban design. Representative works include the Dingshu Vocational School, the Pavilion of One Court, the Aranya MCSC Hotel, and the Wallpaper* Apartments at Friendship Bay. The firm's work has received numerous honors, including the Architecture China Natural Construction Award, the WA China Architecture Award, the Architectural Creation Award of the Architectural Society of Shanghai, the AIA Shanghai Design Award, the German Iconic Awards (Best of Best), and Italy's THE PLAN Award.
