La Parleta is a project by the Ecuadorian architecture and construction collective EseColectivo, which gathers "highly valuable reflections, anecdotes, and experiences surrounding the profession." Below, we share some of their thoughts alongside their fourth episode, "Post-Apocalyptic Architecture."

Nicolas Norero presents a new season of his podcast, continuing his conversations on identity, memory, and ways of life. In this edition, the featured guests are Dust Architects, Salvador Macías, Luis Callejas, Grupo Talca, Germán del Sol, and Enrique Walker.

Street safety goes far beyond policing and lighting. While these factors may be important in certain contexts, community engagement and building social capital are key to making cities safer. “Feeling safe is crucial for people to embrace urban space,” says Jan Gehl.

Between 1960 and 1980, architectural development in the Magallanes Region was heavily driven by public investment from the Chilean state. The economic boom of the era enabled the construction of high-quality buildings and infrastructure designed by the country's most prestigious architecture firms, providing solutions to challenges related to territory, the city, and society. It was during this progressive development process that Modern Architecture assumed a crucial role.

In 1978, at the height of postmodern architectural discourse, twelve eminent architects were invited to participate in the *Roma Interrotta* exhibition, with the task of redesigning the first map of the city of Rome, created in 1748 by the architect Giambattista Nolli. Each participant was responsible for reinventing a portion of the original map to construct a theoretical or utopian condition, taking into account the historical forces that had swept through the territory during the intervening years.

+ 5

At the same rate that the real estate development industry aggressively intervened in the most favorable areas of the city valley—backed by state approvals and concessions, supported by massive banking resources, and employing top individual talent trained at public universities—popular settlement neighborhoods grew proportionally across complex topographies, receiving minimal institutional support, completely devoid of financial backing, and with negligible, residual, if not non-existent, technical assistance.

When analyzing an architectural project, we often focus on issues such as its programmatic demands and historical context, its design and representation process, and how it was built. We tend to study it as a finished product. Yet, once a work is constructed, it opens itself up to the city and to others, becoming vulnerable to flaws, imperfections, redevelopments, and unforeseen appropriations. The consequences then stem from conflicts, and social and political dynamics that shape the city, forming a fluid and shifting landscape. 

+ 8

When we visit an urban destination—or perhaps a rural one as well—can we truly say we know it? A brief vacation in a tourist destination might give us an impression of what a place "is." However, this is a far cry from reality, as tourism has always manipulated the impression left on visitors, obscuring the actual lived experience of the place. 

Videos

Since the second half of the twentieth century, Brazil has become globally recognized for urban insecurity. Since then, the problem has intensified, with extraordinarily high homicide rates—comparable, in many cases, to countries at war. In 2018, 17 Brazilian cities ranked among the 50 most dangerous cities in the world.

+ 25

The city of Puebla, located in the central highlands of Mexico, is particularly well-known for its street layout and its predominantly Baroque architecture. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987, it hosts a broad cultural dynamic centered on the preservation of built heritage and its appreciation from afar, as if it were a museum piece. Consequently, on our daily commutes, we notice the monumentality of its facades, while most often overlooking what lies behind the large wooden doors: what we have called “the heart of the Poblano home.”

The following article proposes rethinking architecture as a subject rather than an object. Carlos Medellín delves into the topic, arguing from both experimental and academic perspectives how people-centered architecture acts as an agent of change.

The year 2019 was one of the most prolific for public design competitions in Bogotá, particularly within the education sector. Recently, the results of the public architectural preliminary design competition for the Hipotecho School were announced, with the winning proposal submitted by the joint team of AR-AR (Martínez Arquitectura) + Fiallo Atelier + MEC arquitectura.

Within residential spaces, architects choose to give more or less prominence to certain areas of the program, depending on client preferences. While some prefer to prioritize more intimate spaces, others lean toward social areas—with the kitchen being a primary example.

Although the pragmatic function of a kitchen is to serve as a space for preparing food, there are few homes where it does not also double as a gathering place. Even in traditional dwellings like the Mapuche *ruka*, a central hearth is used both for cooking and for heating, conceptually evoking the same welcoming atmosphere as integrated urban kitchens. Today, fire is managed through stoves—with a strong modern shift toward induction cooktops for their safety and precise temperature control. Nevertheless, the core domestic principle remains the same, and contemporary architecture has allowed the kitchen to once again integrate seamlessly with daily activities and social zones.

Observing the reality of our built environment allows us to recognize that certain identities are not represented by existing models and scales. Unsurprisingly, these voices have been conspicuously absent from the planning and construction processes of cities and their architecture. Their desires, ways of being, and modes of inhabiting the world have been excluded and rendered invisible. This prompts us to rethink: Which voices are legitimized in urban debates, and for whom is the city designed?

Videos

Eight years ago today, we began this adventure called ArchDaily México, sharing the same mission as the global ArchDaily platform: to continue providing inspiration, knowledge, and tools to architects, but through a local lens, recognizing the value that national talent has to offer to the world.

+ 13

One of the most critical factors in architectural design is local climate. While extreme conditions can pose challenges—requiring insulating materials to adapt to changing weather—Mexico's favorable climates work to the designer's advantage, enabling the creation of microclimates and spaces that blur the transition between indoors and outdoors.

In a conversation for the third edition of Revista CLEA—an annual publication of the Latin American Coordinator of Architecture Students (CLEA)—Ecuadorian architect María Augusta Hermida explores the capacity to decolonize spaces and cities today.

The pursuit of security in architecture is closely linked to creating sheltered interiors that allow us to carry out our daily activities comfortably and without unforeseen disruptions. However, the challenges involved in protecting people and property have shifted dramatically in recent years. Today, we seek to feel safe wherever we are, and in an increasingly open and transparent architecture, the building envelope material becomes more and more critical, particularly in its glazed areas.

What parameters should be considered when choosing safety glass? We spoke with technical experts from Cristales Dialum, who have developed solutions with different resistance levels for single- and double-glazed units.

We have all heard the term BIM in the field of architecture and construction. But have you ever wondered why its adoption has grown so rapidly in recent years? Building Information Modeling (BIM) has streamlined the work of various professionals in the architecture and construction industries. It not only facilitates the design process but also simplifies the overall analysis of the building, thereby minimizing errors.

Through BIM methodology, teams can work collaboratively, maximizing the efficiency of project management and administration for both small and large-scale projects. This allows architects and engineers to work with parametric models and drawings, known as 3D smart objects.

In this article, I share the analysis and decision-making process we led at Königsberger Vannucchi Arquitetura when starting our BIM transformation in 2017. We conducted six investment studies between 2013 and 2017 before the plan finally became an active initiative. It was September 2017, and we had just embarked on what would be the most important, transformative, and risky investment of the KV2020 strategic cycle: adopting BIM as the office standard across 100% of our projects, throughout 100% of their lifecycles.

+ 19

Located in southern Mexico, bordering the state of Tabasco and sharing a border with Guatemala, the state of Chiapas is one of the most significant regions for Mesoamerican cultures like the Olmec, Maya, and Chiapanec. Consequently, some of the area's most important tourist attractions are the archaeological zones of Yaxchilán, Palenque, Chinkultic, Toniná, and Bonampak, which are crucial for understanding the construction, structural, and social processes that shaped this territory.

Nearly sixty years ago, Flora Manteola, Javier Sánchez Gómez, Justo Solsona, Carlos Libedinsky, and Antonio Diaz envisioned a building with a capacity of 3,000,000 books and 500,000 magazines and newspapers for the National Library of Argentina preliminary design competition. Their proposal for a "large metal tent" would ultimately take second place to the concrete glyptodont by Clorindo Testa, Bullrich, and Cazzaniga that stands today.

From its inception, the proposal "prompted sensitivity toward new formal and structural directions," as noted in the jury's critique. In 2015, this design was featured in the exhibition Latin America in Construction, and today its original model and blueprints are in the official collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

Below, we revisit the project through the words of Justo Solsona: 

There are many ways to define BIM methodology. One of them describes it as a set of processes that help us combine a project's geometry with the data required to complete its entire lifecycle. We could say that modeling in BIM is like virtually executing the construction process.

Another key aspect is that it allows us to work in a collaborative environment, helping to simplify the flow of information among different stakeholders and providing greater control over our projects. 

As part of an initiative by the Faculty of Architecture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the Carlos Obregón Santacilia Bookstore is making a selection of its publications available to the public digitally and free of charge. These texts cover a wide range of topics, including research methods, analyses of administrative processes in the architectural field, theoretical writings by Alberto T. Arai, architectural history across various periods and contexts, structural systems, energy efficiency, urbanism, landscape, heritage, reconstruction, biennials, and guides to support the conception of new architectural projects.