In every architectural project, the goal is always to maximize productivity during construction. However, this speed can be counterproductive if there is no assurance that every aspect of the project is being executed optimally.

When working with concrete, choosing the right constructive solution is key to achieving efficiency during execution. This becomes even more critical when trying to prevent productivity from compromising the correct structural and formal execution of the original architectural design.

How do you build a concrete house in a single day? Are productivity and good design compatible when using this material? We compared the performance of traditional concrete with Producret, a highly fluid and cohesive concrete, drawing seven conclusions that allow us to answer these questions affirmatively.

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Prompted by significant inefficiencies and silos in their workflow—where design, modeling, and documentation were treated as separate tasks—David Miller Architects (DMA) decided to transition the firm to the world of BIM (Building Information Modeling) in 2008. While their transition proved highly successful, the trial-and-error process yielded key lessons that are crucial for any firm looking to rethink its architectural design processes.

During a June 2018 conference in Santiago, Chile, we spoke with British architects, including representatives from Planbim, during a workshop titled “Why Implement BIM in 2020.” The session outlined seven key takeaways to help architecture practices adopt this paradigm shift.

1. The Smaller Your Practice, the Easier the Transition

What is the manufacturing process of a chair like?

Our partners at Herman Miller opened the doors of their factories and offices in Michigan, United States, to show us the complex yet efficient design and manufacturing process of their various furniture pieces and products. During a three-day tour, we saw that their production involves a high level of detail and craftsmanship, where the experience and skill of their workers are essential.

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Is there room in the real estate business to create good architecture and contribute to our cities? Convinced of the potential of the real estate sector, Chilean architects Eduardo Berlin and Nicolás Lipthay founded MoDe Studio, an innovation and design workshop that seeks to maximize urban opportunities to build quality architectural projects without compromising—and even improving—their financial performance.

Based on these principles, they developed the 'Casa Vitacura' project, a building designed as a 'vertical neighborhood' with DFL2-standard units that aim to offer the same benefits as a house: spaciousness, privacy, a patio, and independence.

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Over the course of five days, 36 third-year students from the UDD Architecture Program in Concepción, Chile, traveled to San Juan, Chiloé, to design and build a lookout for the local community. The main objective of this academic initiative was to connect students with physical materiality, marking the beginning of their professional degree cycle. The project is part of "Experiencia Detonante II" (Triggering Experience II), one of three hands-on experiences students undergo during their studies to engage directly with territory, materiality, and the discipline. Specifically, the Concepción campus, through its Escuela SurSur, fosters this connection to materiality by engaging with remote locations that preserve traditional local crafts.

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Over the last decade, prominent and widely recognized architecture in Peru has slowly moved away from single-family housing, showcasing a promising output of educational buildings, restaurants, offices, and collective housing.

This latter category encompasses a series of private buildings characterized by maintaining a scale appropriate to their urban contexts. They serve as prime examples of architecture that allows for multiple families to live together on the same plot while maintaining a low overall density. Furthermore, their low height is complemented by evocative treatments of their facades and interior spaces, suggesting a conscious effort to create high-quality living environments for their inhabitants.

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BIM (Building Information Modeling) is a design methodology in which architects create digital design models and manage all information related to a project.

While CAD produces two- or three-dimensional drawings where architectural components or elements lack inherent distinction, BIM incorporates four-dimensional (time) and five-dimensional (cost) considerations. This methodology enables architects to benefit from intelligent information management throughout the entire project lifecycle, facilitating the automation of processes such as preliminary planning, conceptual design, detailed design, analysis, documentation, fabrication, construction logistics, project execution, maintenance, renovation, and demolition.

It is essential to distinguish between BIM technology and design software such as Revit®, ArchiCAD®, and AllPlan®: BIM is a working methodology, whereas these software platforms are tools that enable BIM compatibility. Together, they complement each other to enhance the efficiency of an architect's work.

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Installing wooden flooring may seem basic, or even irrelevant to the work we do as architects, but that is not the case. Understanding the specific characteristics of these materials and their assembly processes helps us design more efficiently and tailor our proposals to project requirements.

With this in mind, we will use EGGER's UNI Fit flooring as an example to explain the step-by-step assembly process. This type of flooring can be laid directly over a subfloor without the need for screws or adhesive. The system uses a "click" locking mechanism, allowing the floor to be installed over any type of subfloor material.

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Much more than merely as a protective skin, the building envelope functions as a thermal regulator that influences operational energy demand, indoor comfort, and long-term efficiency. And before renewable systems or mechanical strategies are introduced, performance begins in section. The way walls, roofs, windows and floors are layered determines how much heat is lost in winter, gained in summer, and ultimately how much energy a building consumes. At the center of this evaluation lies a fundamental metric: the thermal transmittance, or U-value. Understanding how to calculate it is essential for assessing whether an envelope conserves energy or allows it to escape.

Conceptually, thermal transmittance relates heat flow to both surface area and temperature difference. It expresses how much energy crosses one square meter of envelope for each degree of thermal gradient between its two faces.

If we divide 1 m2 of our envelope by the temperature difference between its faces, we will obtain a value that corresponds to the thermal transmittance, also called U-Value. This value tells us a building's level of thermal insulation in relation to the percentage of energy that passes through it; if the resulting number is low we will have a well-isolated surface and, on the contrary, a high number alerts us of a thermally deficient surface.

Neither a passing trend nor a permanent threat: the initial alarm is fading. Artificial intelligence is increasingly being adopted as a strategic tool which, when integrated responsibly, can be highly valuable—especially in participatory urban design processes focused on children and youth.

To explore this intersection of technology, cities, and new generations, we spoke with Dolores Victoria Ruiz Garrido, architect and founder of Little Architects, a program she created over a decade ago at the Architectural Association (AA) in London. With more than 15 years of experience in participatory urbanism, she emphasizes that AI can be a powerful tool when used ethically and purposefully—particularly to enrich education and community-focused design processes. But she warns: "The city cannot be understood from the screen—it must be grasped through the body, the walk, and wonder. Before generating stunning or visually beautiful images to transform the city, we must teach how to read it: to observe, understand, and emotionally connect with it."

The current demands of the industry lead architects to design based on construction solutions that accelerate processes without compromising quality, while reducing waste and dependence on intensive labor. Among these options, SIP panels stand out as a modular alternative that combines thermal and acoustic insulation with speed and construction precision.

Named after their acronym, SIP panels are self-supporting elements consisting of a rigid foam core sandwiched between two structural claddings, typically OSB boards. Strong yet lightweight, these panels are manufactured under strict factory controls and transported to the construction site, facilitating the rapid assembly of floors, walls, and ceilings, while creating an airtight thermal and acoustic envelope. The thickness of the panel depends on the combined thickness of its components, and its weight typically does not exceed 20 kg per square meter.

Concrete blocks are prefabricated materials primarily used for constructing walls. Similar to bricks, these blocks are stacked together and bonded with mortar, typically composed of cement, sand, and water. They are hollow inside to accommodate steel bars and mortar filling.

These blocks are available in a variety of dimensions and textures, ranging from traditional smooth surfaces to fluted or rough finishes. Additionally, there are special units designed for corners or beams with longitudinal reinforcements. The dimensions vary, from the classic 8x8x16 inches (approximately 19x19x39 cm) intended for structural use, to a size of 8x3.5x39 inches (approximately 19x9x39 cm) for partitioning walls. How can we creatively incorporate them into our designs?

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As an additive manufacturing method, 3D printing has been characterized by the construction of objects through the horizontal deposition of material, layer by layer. This still restricts, nonetheless, the manufacture of elements and limits the shape of early prototypes to within the range that allows the addition of material in a single direction, making it difficult to create complex shapes with smooth curves.

However, the team from the Chair of Digital Construction Technologies at ETH Zurich—integrating computational design, digital manufacturing, and new materials—has been exploring an innovative non-planar robotic additive manufacturing system. This method facilitates the printing of thin structures with double curvature, significantly expanding the possibilities of their application in architecture on a larger scale.

Aiming to balance the calm and uniformity of minimalism with the tactile appeal of raw, textured materials, ceramics emerge as a versatile medium to bridge the gap between sterile spaces and those that might become overwhelming. Whether incorporating large formats or small mosaics, or embracing organic or geometric aesthetics, the diverse range of ceramic options enables the infusion of character into spaces while maintaining a sense of order and cohesion. But it is not a simple task. In the pursuit of this harmonious blend, we explore specific types of ceramic cladding that have been effectively applied in architectural projects, enriching the visual language of minimalism while grading its complexity with precision.

By recognizing and analyzing the multiple architectural possibilities of bamboo—a construction material mostly native to warm and tropical areas—the following questions arise: How can we take advantage of its qualities and enhance its use in colder climates? Such regions necessarily require a certain level of thermal isolation in walls, floors, and roofs—but for these climates, we can combine bamboo with materials that complement it.

We spoke with Penny Livingston-Stark, a designer and professor of permaculture who has worked for 25 years in the field of regenerative design based on non-toxic natural materials, to understand the opportunities offered by combining bamboo with earth.

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A few years ago, the architects at Studio Bark, in collaboration with Structure Workshop and Cut and Construct, began to develop the idea of a circular kit of parts designed so that anyone with reasonable DIY skills could build their own structure. This is U-Build, a modular system made of wood panels crafted with the precision of a computer-controlled cutting machine (CNC). The panels are delivered to the construction site in a compact box, ready to be assembled, stacked, and screwed to shape the walls, floors, and ceilings. Only a few tools are needed, such as a rubber mallet, a drill, a tape measure, and a level.

While this system allows the construction of various types of buildings, its high level of customization finds particular utility and effectiveness in housing projects of all scales. From a tiny house for a couple opting for simplicity to an off-grid cabin in the woods, a Georgian cottage extension, and a 3-bedroom efficiency home, U-Build has brought extraordinary prefabricated wooden homes to life.

Brick beams have been widely used in construction due to their strength, durability, and aesthetic appeal. By embedding steel reinforcing bars into a series of bricks arranged in a specific pattern, these elements form horizontal load-bearing structures that distribute the weight and forces that act on a building. However, it is difficult to find brick beams with excessively large spans, in order to avoid long-term structural problems. Instead, they mostly come in the form of simple lintels, which can be easier to handle.

With a length of 16.2 meters and an impressive clear span of 15.8 meters, CEBRA architects have collaborated with the Randers Tegl group, the largest brick supplier in Scandinavia, to complete the construction of probably the longest brick beam to date. This exterior beam is accompanied by a 13-meter-span interior "sister" beam and is located above the main entrance to the Danish Crown's new headquarters in Randers, Denmark, extending freely between two of the building's wings. The longest beam is made up of almost 4,200 bricks – its height is made up of 25 rows of bricks, equivalent to 1.6 meters, and its edge consists of 4 bricks.

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Kengo Kuma uses materials to connect with the local context and the users of his projects. The textures and elementary forms of constructive systems, materials, and products, are exhibited and used in favor of the architectural concept, giving value to the functions that will be carried out in each building.

From showcases made with ceramic tiles to the sifted light created by expanded metal panels, passing through an ethereal polyester coating, Kuma understands the material as an essential component that can make a difference in architecture from the design stages. Next, we present 21 projects where Kengo Kuma masterfully uses construction materials.

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