On Tuesday, April 23, Archiprix Chile 2019 announced the winners of this year's edition at the Centro Cultural Estación Mapocho, honoring the thesis projects of young Chilean architects with three top prizes and three honorable mentions. The award ceremony was preceded by a lecture by Martín del Solar, co-founder of Grupo Talca, a Chilean practice featured in the 2016 Venice Biennale.
Obra en Obra is a multidisciplinary project led by architects, whose work focuses on experimenting in different ways with the built architectural object, as well as its processes and spaces, through the intersection of architecture with other disciplines such as dance and the visual arts. Conceived as a private, citizen-led, and professional non-profit initiative, Obra en Obra operates in partnership with various firms, conceiving architecture through the senses and experience—a perspective that arises from reversing processes and exposing confrontations.
According to Vitruvius and Pausanias, its origin derives from the tree trunks used in primitive constructions of dwellings and religious buildings. In Egypt and Persia, they were commonly found in palaces and temples. In the Romanesque period, beyond structural necessity, they were employed for the pedagogical purpose of teaching the Holy Scriptures. During the Gothic era, they became stylized and clustered, eventually reaching a second peak during the Renaissance and Neoclassicism, evolving into a symbol of an almost nostalgic rationality. Ultimately, they were heavily and pedantly decorated during the Plateresque and Baroque periods, until all ornament was abandoned in favor of their structural and organizing capacity under the new order imposed by modernity through the free plan.
Originally published in ArquitecturaAhora, architect Ana Sugranyes explores the origin and evolution of the concept of the right to the city, from 1960s Paris to its global expansion.
In the name of social integration or sustainability, the United Nations New Urban Agenda (2016) also incorporated a reference to the right to the city. “Words, then, are of no use: they are just words,” says Alberti. Meanwhile, Chile maintains its high level of income inequality, which has a direct, correlative effect on the deep socio-spatial segregation of its territories and cities; this, in turn, corresponds to worrying levels of social, cultural, and structural violence.
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Spaces and their designated uses are connected through circulation. When navigating the vertical axis, stairs, ramps, and elevators function as the primary systems of movement. Some view these architectural elements as protagonists in spatial configuration.
Stairs undoubtedly span the entire spectrum from mere utility to sculptural installations. The stairs designed by the Bogotá-based firm Yemail Arquitectura are no exception.
For the third consecutive year, National Monuments Day will take place during the first weekend of May throughout Argentina, coordinated by the National Commission of Monuments, Places, and Historic Assets of the National Ministry of Culture.
Continuing with the series of articles by Nikos A. Salingaros, David Brain, Andrés M. Duany, Michael W. Mehaffy, and Ernesto Philibert-Petit on the study of social housing in Latin America, this installment discusses construction work processes and operating systems. Review past publications and the new article below.
What Will Happen Here? (O que vai acontecer aqui?) is a new documentary by Left Hand Rotation, in collaboration with Stop Despejos and Habita, on the housing struggles in Lisbon—a city where rents have increased by 50% over the last three years and that has become the leading European city for real estate fund investment.
In its most recent edition, BBConstrumat, Spain's largest construction trade fair, underscored its commitment to supporting a new model in the construction industry—one centered on the circular economy and sustainable development.
Among the event's key highlights, Ricardo Devesa—editor-in-chief at Actar and urbanNext and professor at IAAC—curated the refreshing congress Logics of Innovation and Change, where presentations and discussions revolved around global challenges such as climate change, robotics, resilience, migration, and new global narratives.
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On Thursday, September 5, ArchDaily México celebrated its seventh anniversary. This year, Proyecto Público Prim was chosen as the venue—an early 20th-century building of great architectural value featuring interventions by architect Alberto Kalach and the firm PRODUCTORA. The venue served as the backdrop for some of the most influential figures on the contemporary scene to connect with the ArchDaily México team.
The article series by Nikos A. Salingaros, David Brain, Andrés M. Duany, Michael W. Mehaffy, and Ernesto Philibert-Petit investigating social housing in Latin America continues by exploring the choice of building materials. Read all past articles and the new piece below.
1- Design Capable of Establishing 'Emotional Belonging' 2- Anti-Patterns of Latin American Social Housing 3- Geometry of Control 4- Biophilia, Connectivity, and Spirituality 5- Using the Work of Christopher Alexander 6- Construction Strategies for Social Housing 7- Examples of Patterns and Generating Codes 8- Design Strategies 9 - Design Sequence 10 - Practical Suggestions for Successful Projects
The results of the National Catalog of Modular Schools Competition in Peru were recently announced, with a single winning team unanimously selected for all five categories across their respective bioclimatic zones: Coast, Rainy Coast, Highlands, Frost, and Rainforest. Remarkably, this team was formed by an alliance of several highly influential architecture firms in the country, as evidenced by the caliber of their proposals. What made this outcome so compelling was that unity and diversity prevailed in a competition that seeks to foster those very principles through architecture and education.
However, there is an important detail in the competition's process—and processes are journeys worth remembering. The project developed by the architecture offices leonmarcial + Ghezzi Novak was awarded first place by the jury in the Highlands Catalog category; however, it was disqualified for failing to meet the required documentation. Such situations are common in architectural competitions, where regulations must ultimately be upheld.
Beyond the outstanding projects that ultimately won, what happens to those left behind? What becomes of all that valuable material? They, too, deserve visibility, as they represent efforts that should lead to some outcome. We are committed to sharing quality architecture, and this project, given its winning caliber, is undoubtedly one of them.
Ciudad Juárez is an industrial city located on the northern border with the United States, specifically bordering the city of El Paso, Texas. Over the years, Juárez's economy has been dominated by the ‘maquiladora’ assembly industry, and the city was once considered one of the most violent in the world due to a wave of crime between 2008 and 2012. In response to these conditions, in 2014, a group of friends from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, eager to contribute to their city's resilience and recovery, came together to discuss and pitch ideas for reclaiming streets, plazas, and parks through sociocultural projects and public space interventions, ultimately giving rise to Nómada Laboratorio Urbano.
Exhibited in a parallel exhibition at the 2018 Venice Biennale, the Tropi-Co-Re Housing project by SUMA Arquitectos reflects on the intersection of urban and architectural design within the low-income residential context of an equatorial/tropical climate, investigating alternative material systems for its construction, such as bamboo truss structures and folded metal plate roofs.
Read on to explore the project in detail, in the words of its designers.
Promoted by the Uruguay River Administrative Commission, organized by the Society of Architects of Uruguay (SAU) and the College of Architects of the Province of Entre Ríos (CAPER) —and sponsored by the Argentine Federation of Architect Associations (FADEA)— the call for entries is now open for the binational preliminary design competition to develop a Control Laboratory for the environmental analysis of the Uruguay River.
As part of the 2nd Placemaking Latinoamérica gathering –organized by Lugares Públicos A.C.– which took place in Mexico City during the first and second weeks of November, various activities were carried out, including the restoration of eight public spaces led by Mexican and Latin American participatory urban planning specialists in the boroughs of Cuauhtémoc, Iztacalco, and Miguel Hidalgo.
Rodrigo Schiavoni and Adán Yenerich, founding partners of SY arquitectos, have won the open competition organized as part of the eighth International Congress of the Spanish Language, held in the city of Córdoba from March 27 to 30, 2019. This competition called for the design of an urban-scale commemorative landmark to serve as a civic symbol.
Organized by the Córdoba Province Chamber of Tourism and open to artists, designers, and architects, this interdisciplinary competition called for the creation of urban-scale pieces to intervene in the public space of a prominent sector of the city: a portion of the historic founding district located just steps from the Jesuit Block, a site designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Together with a group of researchers, over the last five years we have been studying working-class housing developments in southern Chile: the coal basin in Lota, Schwager, and Pilpilco; the textile towns of Bellavista and Carlos Mahns in Tomé; and the working-class settlements in Valdivia and Magallanes.
One could say we have waited for sunset to rekindle the warmth of this experience—and thus blend nostalgia with the newly arrived autumn.
The end of summer has arrived in the southwestern hemisphere, and among the many new lessons each climate leaves behind in these parts, in one of Peru's warmest regions, TSI 2019 left footprints and works that sooner or later we would be ready to reveal. All, or most, of those who participated have already returned to their school or work routines, yet at the end of the season, this remains a place to return to.
A few months ago, we witnessed how one of the most iconic Gothic monuments in Paris and Europe was consumed by a massive fire that broke out shortly before sunset. The fire reached the north tower of the cathedral's twin belfries, claiming the cathedral spire, which was part of a 19th-century addition built with a timber and lead structure.
In the fall of 2017, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck at least nine Mexican states, leaving several areas severely damaged across Mexico City, Puebla, Morelos, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Tlaxcala, Guerrero, and the State of Mexico. Jojutla, a municipality in Morelos, was among the hardest hit, left in ruins after the September 19 disaster. Much of the local infrastructure was devastated, prompting a master plan initiated by Infonavit to reconstruct the municipality's primary public buildings.
"An old skating area, a forgotten garden beneath bridges, and the reconstruction of a skatepark in a working-class neighborhood serve as the backdrops for this documentary. The parallel narrative of the construction of three new public spaces in Barcelona shows how once-marginalized territories are integrated into the urban fabric while respecting the site, its memory, its people, and its everyday life."
The premise of the documentary Landskating, directed by Kike Barberá, with a script and production by Sergi Carulla and Oscar Blasco (Scob), is highly promising. Filmed between 2013 and 2015, this period saw the realization of participatory processes led by the youth themselves, alongside the construction of Barcelona's first three urban sports parks: the Landskate Parks.
To mark the documentary's public premiere, we interviewed the team at SCOB to learn more about their work.
In 1900, Dr. José Ignacio Capetillo and his wife, María de la Luz Servín, purchased the land located at General Prim 32 from Archbishop Eulogio Gregorio Gillow. On this site, the Capetillo-Servín family began construction on an apartment building commissioned to architect Manuel Gorozpe, who designed it in the eclectic style characteristic of the period and completed construction in 1906.
As part of the design program at AGO Projects—a multidisciplinary space focused on promoting design, photography, and architecture, based in New York, which opened its doors in Mexico City just a few weeks ago—the exhibition "Otro Reino" has opened. The showcase features previously unseen and well-known pieces by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo's architecture studio, LANZA Atelier, and is complemented by "Neo-neo," a collection of ceramics based on urban concrete accidents by MT Objects.
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