Over the last two weeks, the ArchDaily en Español community submitted more than 17,000 nominations, yielding 15 finalists that represent some of the most emblematic architectural works of the past year. Decided by its community, the 2026 Building of the Year Award—the most significant architecture prize in the Spanish-speaking world—exists to recognize the best of architecture across Spanish-speaking countries.

These 15 finalists, chosen by public vote in this 17th edition, showcase the breadth of recent Ibero-American production while highlighting shared shifts in contemporary practice: an architecture that prioritizes clear construction choices, operates within real-world constraints, and understands design as a way of adapting to specific contexts.

The world of architecture is evolving rapidly. Faced with technological transformation, environmental urgency, and growing cultural complexity, architects must combine creativity with technical expertise, cultural sensitivity, analytical skills, and the ability to work across multiple disciplines. The Master's Degree in Architecture at CEU Cardenal Herrera University responds to these demands through a transformative academic experience.

There are only two days left to vote for the winners of ArchDaily en Español's 2026 Obra del Año Award. The three winners will be announced on April 16, following three weeks of public voting. The 15 finalists chosen by the public showcase the breadth of recent Ibero-American architectural production, spanning Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Spain, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay.

Discover the 15 finalists and help choose the three most significant projects of the past year in Spanish-speaking countries. In this final stage, users can vote for one project per day until April 15 at 6:00 PM (GMT-4).

The announcement of the 2026 Obra do Ano Award is drawing near, with only two days left until the close of the final selection stage. The three winners will be announced on April 16, following three weeks of public voting. The 15 finalists paint a portrait of the current state of architecture according to the public, who have been voting for their favorite projects.

View the 15 finalists and join an unbiased network of jurors responsible for choosing the most relevant projects built in Portuguese-speaking countries over the past year. In this final stage, each person can vote for one project per day until April 15 at 7:00 PM (Brasília time).

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Work no longer takes place in a single location. It shifts, fragments, and adapts. It can begin in an office, move to an acoustic booth, transition to a shared space, and end at home. Throughout this journey, the laptop remains a constant. As work becomes increasingly mobile, spatial configurations must also adapt to this condition.

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Work is no longer confined to a single place. It moves. It changes. It adapts. Today, it can start in an office, continue in an acoustic booth, shift to a shared space, and end at home. In this transition, the laptop has become a constant fixture. As work becomes more mobile, spatial needs change accordingly.

In the field of architecture, wood was one of the first materials used by humans in construction, evolving and facing various challenges over the years. From the integration of new technologies in industrial production processes to ancestral techniques and materials reinterpreted in contemporary ways, timber construction continues to capture the interest of architecture and design professionals. Beyond its versatility, strength, appearance, and sustainability, cross-laminated timber, known as CLT, presents a promising future for the industry.

Heimtextil Colombia 2026 brings together an international showcase and a knowledge-sharing agenda that highlight the shift in value toward the home and hospitality categories, where Colombian and Latin American designers are expanding their creative DNA to scale the value chain, diversify revenue streams, and compete in global markets.

Another year, another successful ArchDaily China Building of the Year Awards! Once more, the award has proved to be the largest architecture prize centered around people's opinion. Crowdsourced, the most relevant projects of the year were nominated and selected by our readers.

The 2026 China Building of the Year Awards is brought to you thanks to Dornbracht, renowned for leading designs for architecture, which can be found internationally in bathrooms and kitchens.

Three Brazilian projects have been chosen as the winners of the 2026 Obra do Ano Award by ArchDaily Brasil's readers. After three weeks of public voting, more than 700 projects were narrowed down to 15 finalists, concluding the process with three grand winners that represent the very best of Lusophone architecture.

Three projects have been chosen by the ArchDaily en Español community as the winners of the 2026 Obra del Año Award. Representing Peru and Ecuador, the winners were selected after three weeks of public voting from a pool of over 800 projects. The award recognizes the best of architecture in Latin America and Spain, as decided by its community.

Understanding play as a social transformer and a key influence in defining public space, urban life is shaped by a diverse range of individuals across different ages, cultures, ideologies, interests, classes, and social groups. Thinking about how play inhabits cities means thinking about all generations, and about the need to build public spaces with urban equipment designed to endure and be preserved over time.

The performance of play structures calls for an examination of the different stages of their life cycle, along with their impact on the configuration of the urban environment. Analyzing the life cycle of urban play equipment means understanding everything from materials, durability, and maintenance to the role of certifications, applied manufacturing technologies, and environments that are more conscious of their ecological impact.

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It is eight in the morning, and the car's dashboard display reads 36°C on the streets of San Pedro Sula, Honduras. The sky is almost clear: an intense blue with a few bright, drifting clouds. The air conditioning in the cars—all with tinted windows—makes you forget that upon stepping out, the warm, humid air will immediately weigh on your shoulders and break a sweat.

Puerto Cortés on the Caribbean coast is too far away for a quick dip, but in the neighborhood of Armenta, the eponymous river flows almost silently down from the Sierra del Merendón, running from west to east through gray stones. On the northern bank, tall, leafy trees along the upper edge of the ravine shade a long, dry, and dusty plaza, while thick, exposed roots give texture to the ground. The sun is less punishing.

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Could a space be one and many at the same time? Under the name Minimum Common Multiple, Estudio BNAA has designed a space of minimal footprints—typically used for commercial premises or offices—with the unique feature of being able to transform into multiple spaces simultaneously. Located in San Luis, Argentina, the project references the mathematical concept of the least common multiple (LCM) but from a different approach and function, combining movement, flexibility, and the use of magnetism as a construction system.

Ana García, architect and founder of NeuronaLab, recently interviewed Aureli Soria-Frish from the company Starlab. They discussed how the latest technological advances are increasingly being used to objectify neural activity and the emotional states associated with architectural spaces. Below, she shares her key reflections.

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Mexican interior designer and artist Olga Hanono has been invited to present her latest exhibition, DREAMVILLE, at La Biennale de Venezia Modigliani Opera Vision, from May 1 to July 31, 2022. The collection is inspired by the human capacity to dream, reflecting on imaginary objects that might exist within a dreamscape, along with the variety of colors and shapes found in distant stars, planets, and galaxies. Hanono has created art pieces and furniture using unconventional, luxurious materials.

The world of gastronomy is about far more than just food; space plays a vital role in the overall dining experience. To achieve this, architecture transcends mere functionality to cultivate distinct atmospheres through the meticulous curation of light, acoustics, color, texture, and form, ensuring both intimacy and comfort for diners.

The city of Lima—capital of Peru, a preeminent culinary destination—features a diverse array of restaurants and cafés that reflect the country's rich heritage. Below, we present a selection of 10 restaurants and cafés offering unique dining experiences across the city.

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CHINAS CHINAS is a research project conducted by FLORA. It maps a trajectory through the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, based on a typological analysis of Chinese supermarkets. Its objective is to recognize and explore the modes of appropriation and domestic micro-scales that occur within them, demonstrating that urban architecture is shaped by everyday banalities. Ultimately, architecture takes on meaning when living conditions are defined by the people themselves. Inhabiting—beyond mere functionality—is precisely about this.

This year we celebrate the fourteenth edition of the Obra del Año 2022 award—the highest recognition in the Spanish-speaking architectural world, where the winners are chosen by popular vote. Starting today, Tuesday, March 8, our readers will be responsible for determining which projects inspired us during 2021, faithfully representing the identity of our local contexts while shaping the way architecture is practiced around the world.

Over the next three weeks, the entire ArchDaily en Español network (Plataforma Arquitectura, ArchDaily México, ArchDaily Colombia and ArchDaily Perú) will serve as the platform to celebrate the best built architecture in Spanish-speaking America and Spain.

With nearly a thousand projects published in 2021, you can easily find your favorites by browsing through each category and using the search engine to filter projects by country and architecture firm. 

The 2022 Obra del Año Award is brought to you by Dornbracht, renowned for its design leadership in architecture, which can be found internationally in bathrooms and kitchens.

Through the construction of a narrative fiction, this work by Federico Lagomarsino, framed around the landscape, aims to depict everything that unfolds in contemporary society when a singular event occurs—in this case, the impact of the two largest meteorites detected to date in South America.

When designing residential interiors, architects increasingly lean toward creating environments where flexibility and space optimization provide solutions tailored to programmatic and functional needs, helping to achieve the well-being and comfort that turn a house into a true home.

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Desde la periferia is an audiovisual project directed by José Luis Uribe, PhD in architecture and professor at the School of Architecture of the University of Talca, Chile. The project consists of three documentaries to be released progressively over the next two years, exploring various aspects associated with contemporary Latin American architecture. The first installment, Volume I: Ugly, Dirty & Bad: A Contemporary Architecture in Latin America, is an audiovisual essay that gathers some of the initial thoughts on its current state through the oral accounts of a group of architects in a hotel room in Asunción, Paraguay.

Architects and designers, as well as psychologists and sociologists, recognize that aesthetics and its underlying philosophy have the power to change how we perceive the world around us. Consequently, a deeper understanding of what is beautiful holds the powerful potential to alter how people respond to their environment.

Exploring the different meanings of aesthetics in architecture, from 'form follows function' to the aesthetics of the metaverse, can help us understand the potential of our physical and virtual environments on the path toward a better world.

Much has been written on the subject, from Alberto Pérez-Gómez's "The Beautiful and the Just in Architecture" to Pablo Caldera's "The Failure of Beauty." Now, however, we want to open up the debate and invite you, our readers, to share your perspectives on what makes a building or a city beautiful.

Share your thoughts in the form below. Selected responses will be published in an upcoming article.