Blind walls, or facades without openings, are rarely the primary design concept in homes, but rather the result of a need for privacy in certain spaces, especially when the setback from neighboring buildings is minimal or nonexistent. However, blind walls can take center stage in a building's overall composition—whether through the contrast between solids and voids, the enhancement of the wall in other ways (such as the application of paint, texture, vertical gardens, etc.), or, finally, by positioning the blind wall on the front facade. This creates a "role reversal" between the side facades, usually resigned to a lack of openings, and the front and/or rear facades, which normally feature them.

“On Growth and Form”, written by biologist and mathematician D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson [1860-1948], is considered the greatest work of prose in twentieth-century science, highlighting the role of physics and mechanics in determining the form and structure of organisms. The book immediately became a classic for exploring natural geometries in the dynamics of growth and physical processes. Thompson reveals himself to be a great scientist, sensitive to the fascination and beauty of the natural world, writing in a style that led the specialized press to call his work “as much good literature as science; a discourse on science as if it were a matter of humanity.”

Architecture, as a design discipline, relies heavily on visual communication. The advent of new technologies and the exploration of new digital graphic representation techniques reflect architects' growing interest in expressive fields. The need to convey a message and embody ideas, narrating the values and reflections that structure an architectural project, places graphic communication tools in a position of particular relevance.

If this intrinsic need to convey information exists within the architectural field, could comics, as a narrative medium, serve as a useful tool for design communication?

Following a debate held last Monday (04/08/19) at its headquarters regarding models for public metropolitan planning companies, the Instituto de Arquitetos do Brasil - Departamento de São Paulo (IABsp) expresses its concern over Bill (PL) 01/2019. Submitted by the State Government to the Legislative Assembly, the bill proposes, among other mergers and extinctions of public agencies, the shutdown of the Empresa Metropolitana de Planejamento (Emplasa). Established in 1975, Emplasa is responsible for regional planning and plays a key role in the necessary restructuring of inter-federative governance in the São Paulo Metropolitan Area, aligned with the guidelines of the Statute of the Metropolis, enacted in 2015.

Felipe Camus, a photographer who has documented ELEMENTAL's project, shares his reflections on Ochoquebradas.

The Museo Casa de la Memoria is located in Medellín's Boston neighborhood and was developed to commemorate the bicentennial of Colombia's independence. Led by Juan David Botero as the design team coordinator, the project was conceived from the outset as a highly recognizable building for both the community and visitors, drawing its sculptural form from traditional gabled houses. "It is a museum for the victims of violence, and as such, we had to ensure it was a space for everything; a home, the house where memory comes to life," Botero says.

The 3,800-square-meter cultural facility unfolds along the creek like a tunnel, housing exhibition rooms, workshops, archives, offices, and an auditorium. Its envelope functions as a folded skin, incorporating an air cavity that absorbs cool air, draws it in through the facade, and expels it as hot air at the top. This chimney effect helps control the typical 30ºC summer temperatures of the area, ensuring a stable and comfortable indoor climate. Below, we take a closer look at its sculptural thermal and acoustic envelope.

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The casa chorizo is a residential typology historically used in Argentina, primarily in the city of Buenos Aires. It consists of a succession of similarly sized rooms connected along a longitudinal axis that open onto a gallery or courtyard, from which they receive light and ventilation. Typically built on plots between party walls, their service areas are grouped at the back. Today, numerous projects address the rehabilitation of this type of housing. These can be understood as research initiatives exploring how a city's characteristic construction matrix can be reviewed and updated to adapt to contemporary ways of living.

Photographer Manuel Sá shared with us his perspective on the Coati Restaurant, designed in 1987 by Lina Bo Bardi, João Filgueiras Lima - Lelé (precast reinforced mortar), Marcelo Ferraz, and Marcelo Suzuki.

The entire complex—comprising a restaurant, a bar, and three historic houses converted into nine apartments with ground-floor commercial space—is located in the Pelourinho district of Salvador, and is part of the pilot project for the Bahia Historic Center Recovery Plan proposed by Lina. The restaurant is unfortunately abandoned and falling into disrepair, as is the rest of the complex.

Today, January 27, marks the 113th birthday of Félix Candela—of Spanish and Mexican nationality—who is one of the most globally recognized architects of the 20th century. His career was defined by his exploration of reinforced concrete through experiments that resulted in his famous cascarones (concrete shells): key structural and design elements that support many of his works, such as the Cosmic Rays Pavilion at UNAM, Mexico City (1951); the Palmira Chapel in Cuernavaca (1958); the Los Manantiales Restaurant, Xochimilco (1958); and the Palacio de los Deportes for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.

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Currently, nearly 65 million people worldwide have been forced to flee their homes due to conflicts unfolding across the globe, leaving behind their belongings, years of personal history, and years of hard work to find themselves adrift. Many of these families are forced to cross oceans and diverse terrains in search of a promising future to start from scratch. These journeys often lead to informal settlements where many perish due to rampant disease and shortages of medicine, food, and clean water.

The new workplace paradigm, driven by digital transformation, is introducing significant changes to employee profiles and the roles people perform within their work environments. At Actiu, these shifts represent an opportunity to turn workspaces into strategic levers of change, allowing organizations to align their transformation goals with the well-being and satisfaction of their workforce.

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In an ongoing effort to provide tools, inspiration, and knowledge, in 2019 ArchDaily editors and contributors engaged in numerous conversations with distinguished figures from all corners of the design world and the built environment.

To demonstrate this and reflect on how much we and our readers have learned—especially regarding the roles of representation, academia, cities, technology, and architecture itself—we have selected the 20 best interviews published on ArchDaily throughout the year.

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In the fall of 2017, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck at least nine states in Mexico, leaving several areas severely affected across Mexico City, Puebla, Morelos, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Tlaxcala, Guerrero, and the State of Mexico. Jojutla, a municipality located in Morelos, was one of many reduced to ruins after the earthquake shook Mexico on September 19, leaving much of its infrastructure damaged. Consequently, through an initiative by Infonavit, a master plan was launched to reconstruct the municipality's primary public buildings.

The project emerged as an opportunity to increase accessibility to Buenos Aires's Hipódromo de San Isidro—currently privately managed—through minimal interventions. By creating a linear park around the perimeter, the proposal makes this urban green lung more inclusive, transforming it into a social hub that enhances both the environment and quality of life.

When we understand architecture as the activity of modifying a natural site and transforming it into an environment suitable for human coexistence—whether through a building or the urbanization of a territory—we can understand the architect's work as something that must serve the community. In this sense, the historical concept of humanism and republicanism is invoked—the public affair, in Latin.

Anyone who has ever been to the beaches of Rio de Janeiro has certainly seen vendors selling grilled *queijo coalho* (curd cheese) or grilled shrimp, sweet mate tea, and Globo biscuits—classic snacks of the Rio shoreline. In São Paulo, open-air markets serve sugarcane juice and fried *pastel*, a local adaptation of a dish originally brought by Chinese immigrants and popularized by Japanese immigrants. In Minas Gerais, there is *pão de queijo* (cheese bread) and pastel, also filled with cheese. In Salvador, it is impossible not to mention *acarajé* (with or without hot sauce), which has been declared an intangible cultural heritage asset by IPHAN. The capital of Bahia even has its own Street Food Guide, reflecting the immense culinary diversity found in the city.

Urban transformation and development processes can often lead to side effects or unintended consequences when these movements are organic and unplanned. These outcomes are not always positive and can trigger phenomena like gentrification, which can become a major social problem, directly impacting low-income populations. Nonetheless, it is also clear that certain transformations typically associated with this phenomenon can bring improvements and reactivate underutilized spaces in urban centers; the threshold between this scenario as a virtue or a detriment remains a subject of ongoing debate among architects and urban planners.

As part of our monthly topic (travel), we invited several Brazilian and Portuguese architecture firms to suggest buildings and public spaces in their respective cities that are well worth a visit. In Brazil, projects in Brasília, Rio de Janeiro, Olinda, Fortaleza, Belo Horizonte, and Porto Alegre will inspire our readers to get to know the country better—or cross the Atlantic to visit works in the Portuguese cities of Guimarães, Porto, and Lisbon.

According to Flávio Kiefer, museums are as old as human history itself. They have existed ever since humans began collecting and storing valuable objects in rooms built specifically for that purpose. Today, museums are more than environments that organize history: their programs are diverse and complex, their spaces flexible, and innovations are constant in the conservation, exhibition, and lighting of artworks. This week's Arquicast spoke with architect and specialist Carlos Eduardo Ribeiro about museum architecture and the entire debate surrounding this prestigious architectural program.

The visual stimulus that triggered this research[1] was the suggestive ambiguity of the letter m/h. Less glamorous than roadside motels, these motel-hotels are an affordable invitation to sexual fulfillment. To capture both their material and intangible complexity, the work is structured as a fiction. In doing so, the narrator imagined within these motel-hotels the potential to reveal other component parts of herself—as if these places, in their ambiguity and anonymity, could facilitate this encounter. In a simultaneous process of liberation and frustration, the multiple narrators find agency.

LED bulbs have become ubiquitous due to their low energy consumption, durability, and increasingly affordable prices. However, our need for illumination can work against us if we do not understand the effects of this type of light on the body.

While we have previously addressed light temperatures, warm and cool lighting, and the dangers of blue light regarding sleep cycles and eye strain, we must now also consider the phototoxicity of blue light.

Among the various programs within architectural and urban planning practice, projects for public spaces are perhaps those that most encourage professionals to build a rich narrative, drawing upon the multidisciplinarity inherent to the craft. Designing spaces destined for everyday public use and appropriation reflects how architects envision urban life, opening up a platform for collective dialogue on the subject.

It is well known that our cities are increasingly saturated by automobile use; mobility has therefore become a key element in any discussion on urban living, particularly in large Brazilian cities. This premise prompts us to examine and better understand which aspects of urban commuting we can prioritize for intervention, moving toward approaches where car use is less necessary. An important step in this dialogue is understanding just how time-efficient cars actually are. Mapping Lab conducted a visual analysis of 27 Brazilian capital cities using data from the here.com platform.

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The book Sustainable Tropical Cities, published by the Institute of Tropical Architecture (San José, Costa Rica) in 2006, gathers the conclusions its authors compiled over years of observation and study. Bruno Stagno and Jimena Ugarte, both architects and immigrants enamored with the tropics, aimed to demonstrate the specific characteristics that cities located in the tropical belt possess—or should possess—while introducing an unprecedented topic.