"Perhaps in other times knowledge was a secret, which held back progress. As knowledge is made public, knowledge advances." - Juan Baixas

This micro-documentary by HOLDER is the result of an initiative dedicated to bringing visibility to contemporary Latin American design through its histories and creations. In this first episode, Juan Baixas offers a first-person account of the creation and development of his Puzzle Chair, a piece that was added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York in 2015, highlighting its significance in modern design.

When the Minergie sustainable building standard was established in Switzerland 25 years ago to reduce energy consumption and improve indoor comfort, it was hard to foresee that it would become one of the country's most sought-after certifications. Today, it boasts a significant footprint with over 50,000 certified buildings. It was equally difficult to imagine its future in present-day Latin America: how could a system developed for the specific demands of one nation respond to the needs of another region with such diverse geography and culture?

What role do glass surfaces play in connecting contemporary architecture, nature, and the experience of those who inhabit interior spaces? The evolution of the glass envelope has accompanied the development of contemporary architecture, with the transmission of natural light serving as one of its defining qualities. Furthermore, the material's versatility and transparent character blur the boundaries between indoors and outdoors, while evoking a range of sensory and psychological experiences, among other virtues. In its constant search for innovation, Glasstech offers a wide range of glass solutions, providing end-to-end support from initial project design to final installation. To illustrate these diverse applications, we examine Casa Bosque in Chile as a prime example of architecture in harmony with its natural surroundings.

Offering a balance between aesthetics and comfort, designing wooden decks for outdoor spaces such as patios, terraces, walkways, balconies, gardens, or swimming pools represents an excellent alternative for creating outdoor areas for relaxation, entertainment, and recreation. When paired with swimming pools, fountains, or water features, decking in various dimensions, colors, and finishes combines the warmth of wood with the clarity of water, provided it is treated and maintained to maximize durability and optimize long-term performance. Indeed, Leaf Panel's Forta Deck offers a renewable, recyclable, and high-quality solution for outdoor flooring, highlighting the importance of reducing the carbon footprint of building products and leveraging the properties of acetylated wood to improve outdoor performance.

Nicolás Valencia speaks with Venezuelan architect Betina Rincón, research coordinator at ⁠re:arc institute⁠, about the work of the Danish philanthropic organization in supporting and funding community-led solutions to address the climate crisis worldwide.

This week on the TERRAZA podcast, Nicolás Valencia talks with Chilean designer Karla Silva about the book ⁠Viña del Mar Moderna⁠, published in 2022.

A cada ano, a equipe de Curadoria de Projetos do ArchDaily rememora a vasta gama de obras publicadas ao longo desse período, apresentando retrospectivas que permitem não apenas identificar tendências e variações na produção arquitetônica, mas também reconhecer de que forma impactam a nossa audiência. No ArchDaily Brasil, a seleção anual de melhores casas – que ano após ano, segue permanecendo como nossa categoria de projeto mais popular – representa uma amostra das variadas soluções, estratégias, técnicas e materiais encontrados na arquitetura residencial dos países de língua portuguesa.

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Seeking to reflect on the contemporary city invariably runs up against the limitations imposed by the methods of the Modern Movement. Classical sciences and their deterministic methods, which guided—and still guide—the urban planning of this era, describe world phenomena through strict causal relationships and, consequently, define them by reductive universal laws that exclude contradictions and uncertainties. The frequent result of these perspectives is an idealized, mechanistic world that denies the complex, actual nature of phenomena such as cities.

Designed by 2006 Pritzker Prize-winning architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha, the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture and Ecology (MuBE), completed in 1995 in São Paulo's Jardim Europa neighborhood, is one of the most emblematic works of contemporary architecture in São Paulo.

Begin by imagining a composition of mostly vertical elements. Between them, ovoid shapes float, intertwined. Condensing this (in)formal schizophrenia, there is a translucent cubic envelope sliced horizontally into six equal parts. An iconic Cartesian coordinate system contaminated by amorphous bubbles. 

“Whatever is repeated endures, and is eternal, therefore, is sacred. That is why Sunday soccer is sacred; that is why sex is sacred; that is why having dinner with my mother on Saturdays is sacred. This builds within me a bond with the permanence of everything—all human beings, all dreams, all lives that, at this moment, cross my existence.”

Recently, Sesc Avenida Paulista launched an app allowing users worldwide to immerse themselves in the panoramic views from the venue's Lookout, explore georeferenced tours covering topics as diverse as local cultural centers and native tree species, listen to audio tours about the avenue or the Brazilian artworks exhibited on-site, play a composition game inspired by the building's facade, and access the full events calendar, among other features and functionalities. The app is available for free download here and in the official Apple and Google stores.

Taking the opportunity of our participation in the 9th Architecture and Urbanism Week of the Architecture and Urbanism program at the Centro de Ensino Superior de Juiz de Fora (CES/JF), we at Arquicast recorded this biweekly episode based on the event's theme: Scales and Places. Held in May, the week-long event was organized by the program's students and featured a series of lectures and activities, including this special episode. We address the relationships regarding the importance of scale and place in design education and practice across their various dimensions. Our guest was architect and professor Frederico Halfeld, who shared his experience as an educator alongside other insights on the topic.

In his research presented in 2014, Eduardo Gurian begins the introduction by posing the following questions: "Could the greatness of an architectural work be defined solely by the brilliant gesture and capacity for synthesis of its author? Or should we take into account its utility and its capacity to meet the needs for which it was designed? Or even listen to those who actually use the space and question their satisfaction?" With these questions in mind, the researcher analyzes the evolution of the uses and occupation of the Ibirapuera Park Canopy, designed by Oscar Niemeyer. The master's thesis was advised by Professor Helena Aparecida Ayoub Silva, PhD, within the graduate program at FAUUSP. Read the author's abstract below.

The transformations in the civil construction production model historically proposed by housing movements through self-managed *mutirões* (mutual-aid efforts) in Brazil, compared to market-driven production modes, are not limited to the labor force responsible for undertaking construction. That is, it is not merely a swap of wage labor for decommodified mutual-aid work. Instead, these innovations span various spheres, from architectural design—conceived from a collective perspective and as a common good that positions the mutual-aid builder as "author, producer, and future user"—to the production mode itself. Unlike the traditional model, in this framework "it is not possible to increase productivity through increased exploitation, precarization, overtime, and layoffs, but only through the invention of new procedures and construction techniques." This theme is a subject of debate for many architects, both in the theoretical arena and in practice and experimentation, where the construction site becomes the stage for efforts toward rationalization, optimization, and horizontal processes.

Human figures take center stage over buildings and streets through the lens of photographer Carlos Moreira, 82. Urban space is depicted through framings suggested not only by historical monuments (which are indeed there) but, above all, by the body and its actions. What emerges is an emotional, living vision of cities, capable of triggering a sensory expansion of spatial portraits.

Real estate speculation is undoubtedly the greatest villain singled out by those who study, inhabit, or are simply interested in cities today. It gets blamed for practically every urban problem: whether a city is too dense or too sprawling, choked with traffic or prohibitively expensive; whether local politics are corrupt or the poor are marginalized to the periphery; whether corporations profit from public investments or public infrastructure lies idle; whether historic heritage is destroyed, new buildings alter the cityscape, or informal settlements are burned down. The list is endless.

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In the world of architecture, technical solutions designed for indoor comfort are frequently transformed into expressive features or unique design details. This is especially true of reflecting pools—features that significantly improve thermal comfort in buildings while simultaneously serving as elements of aesthetic interest, creating striking moments wherever they are implemented.

Between 1985 and 1989, the city of Olinda (Pernambuco) served as the pilot site for a federal program that was to be implemented in 48 other Brazilian cities. Among other goals, this program sought to provide social housing in built environments and preserve local memory and ways of life by ensuring the permanence of traditional residents. Though still little known in the history of cultural heritage and social housing policies in Brazil, this plan points the way toward managing territories based on the social and cultural practices of their inhabitants.

Although zoning regulations point toward necessary densification and the subsequent verticalization of residential buildings in urban centers—seeking greater efficiency and access to urban infrastructure—something escapes this purely rational plan and enters the subjective sphere when we think of single-story houses.

The design for the Fiat factory in the Lingotto district of Turin, Italy, was developed by engineer Giacomo Mattè-Trucco in 1915. Construction began the following year and was carried out in stages until its completion in 1923. Inspired by Fordism, a manufacturing model that emerged in the United States in the 1910s, the factory was designed with an upward-moving assembly line. Upon reaching the roof, the completed cars were ready to be tested on a track approximately 1 km long.

The so-called “right of protocol” is a legal anomaly today, as it allows private real estate developers to choose which legislation applies to their projects. This mechanism was established in the 1970s, prior to key democratic advancements, particularly those concerning the social function of property and rights to an ecologically balanced environment, housing, and cultural heritage. Today, maintaining this “right” of protocol delays the implementation of changes envisioned by new urban planning laws designed to correct the everyday dysfunctions of the city, such as flooding.

Architectural photographer Guilherme Pucci shared with us his photo essay of the boat garage that is part of the Santa Paula Yacht Club complex, designed by architect João Batista Vilanova Artigas in the early 1960s and closed in the mid-1980s. Currently, the building, one of the icons of São Paulo's modern architecture, located on the shores of the Guarapiranga Reservoir in the southern zone of the city of São Paulo, is in a state of disrepair and abandonment.

As part of the cultural programming of Jardín 17—a space designed by Luis Barragán as an extension of his house-studio that has hosted various academic programs from around the world for the past 20 years—Japanese architect Go Hasegawa has designed the installation Flying Carpet: a pavilion suspended in the middle of Barragán's garden.