Located in the historic neighborhood of San Ignacio in the city of Bilbao, Spain, Levante Square is a prominent gathering point for residents and visitors alike. To address the lack of covered spaces protecting from the heavy rain, Spanish architecture office CANOBARDIN has designed a solution for users: a concentric structure titled "A Piece of Sky in Levante Square" that allows people to inhabit the public space and find shelter without losing touch with their surroundings, acting as a piece of the sky by day and a reflection of the square by night.
In its fourth consecutive edition in Chile, Casa FOA 2019—the international exhibition that brings together design, interior design, architecture, landscaping, and art—showcased established and emerging design talents who revitalized the forgotten Paseo San Damián in Las Condes.
The exhibition aims to introduce the public to the latest trends in the design industry under the concept of creating, transforming, and rethinking the way we live and work. This year's edition was guided by the concept of Coliving, the current expression of social and generational evolution, pointing toward collaborative living and the construction of collective intelligence through shared workspaces and common home areas.
Earlier this year, we unveiled the trends that will influence urban and architectural discussions in 2019, and we discovered a broad interest among our readers in topics related to Natural Resource Management, such as water—a concept that saw an 84% increase in searches on our site during 2018.
In line with this, the Superintendencia de Servicios Sanitarios will hold a seminar this month to reflect on issues related to water treatment in Chile for the year 2030.
To activate disused public spaces, BASE Studio has developed a system that explores the properties of structural materials like bamboo and colihue, generating a structure that allows for the production of complex double-curvature geometries. Based on this exploration, architecture students created 'ÍCARO,' a work installed in a "pocket plaza" in the Ñuñoa commune of Santiago, Chile.
Architect Juan Agustín Soza, who also serves as a tenured professor of architecture at various Chilean universities, has compiled and documented his firm's work in the book "Anacronía." The volume collects projects, built works, and furniture under a concept based on a "condition of that which is independent of the passage of time or temporal limits."
Visual artist Leonardo Portus has designed a sensory art installation inspired by the iconic COPELEC Building in Chillán. In 'Soplos de Luz' [Breaths of Light], the modern architecture of this historic monument takes on a new quality, where curved and organic forms break the orthogonal paradigm of architecture through movement generated by light projections on models.
The Spanish architecture and design studio Arquitectura a Contrapelo is back in the news with the second edition of SCALA, a deck of playing cards featuring architectural motifs. This time, in addition to providing updates and improvements to the previous platform, the series includes international emerging architects such as Nicolás Campodonico, Bjarke Ingels, O'Donnell+Tuomey, and Johnston Marklee. The works depicted on the cards reflect iconic buildings of varying scales through a meticulous design process.
The uninhabited Church of the Monasterio del Carmen Bajo de San Rafael, a designated National Monument, will open its doors to the community on January 23 and 24 to host "Sonpendular," an audiovisual concert that integrates immersive mapping, lighting, and live music.
The project is an aesthetic investigation into time and space, inviting the viewer into an immersive sound-and-light ritual rich in geometric patterns and real-time generative audio. The work explores transformation and impermanence, creating a constantly shifting portal where past, present, and future engage in a singular dialogue.
'Gaudí en Valparaíso', a project positioning the port city as a cultural hub with a focus on architecture and design, has launched a temporary exhibition featuring iconic works by Antoni Gaudí. With an artistic intervention, the Catalan muralist 'Uriginal' kicked off the official launch of this major international exhibition, which is open to the public from March 12 to May 10 at the Parque Cultural de Valparaíso.
With 15 years of experience, Cristián Pérez Navarro, an architect and urban planner from the Universidad de Chile, has focused his practice on Architectural Design and Sustainable Urban Planning across Central America, France, the United States, and Chile. In academia, he taught in the Real Estate Management program at Universidad Finis Terrae, integrating Sustainable Design as a business variable.
The skill set Pérez Navarro has developed throughout his career—designing high-performance buildings and sustainable systems and environments across three continents—has allowed him to understand the value of designing systemic, multidisciplinary solutions rooted in best practices and continuous innovation toward comprehensive collective visions in sustainable development.
Bar en la biblioteca. Image Cortesía de Hugo Grisanti y Kana Kusen
In its third edition in Chile, Casa FOA invites architects and designers from the world of decoration and interior design to create innovative spaces for the home. On this occasion, we have compiled spaces with a common focus: the kitchen and the bar. Although both spaces are conceived for functional, everyday use, in these examples they combine different functions to bring people together.
Modern and surreal, yet without compromising on functionality and comfort, the bathrooms designed by emerging architects and designers at the current Casa FOA interior design exhibition in Santiago, Chile, seek to rethink a traditional space within an innovative context, aiming to trigger a different experience for both users and spectators.
Madrid's Gran Vía is illuminated with LED bulbs along 1,300 meters thanks to a light installation by Brut Deluxe. Commissioned by the city council, the installation is inspired by nebulae and galaxies. Set up for this year's holiday season, the display was captured by Imagen Subliminal.
For the third edition of Casa FOA, architects Giulia Carboni and Macarena Canales collaborated to create "Genderless Bathroom," a space that champions the shared, unisex nature of public restrooms. Guided by this concept and inspiration, the design focuses on gender-neutral restrooms constructed from planes of color and light.
Furthermore, the layout guides visitors along a path highlighting a mural by Santiago Ascui, where human figures facing mirrors fragment both the artwork itself and the reflections of those passing by.
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Detalle prototipo. Image Cortesía de BASE studio
BASE Studio, a design and research practice focused on innovative architectural systems, has designed "Flocking Tejas," a pavilion made of handcrafted clay tiles. The installation emerges as an architectural system that expands the possibilities of handmade materials and adaptive systems, ultimately creating an intervention designed to spark the curiosity of its users.
The project was a finalist in the YAP_Constructo 8 competition, directed by architects Marcelo Sarovic and Jeannette Plaut.
Santiago, Chile. Image via Flickr User: alobos Life. Used under CC BY 2.0
The first American Institute of Architects Committee on Design (AIA COD) Conference in South America will take place in the cities of Santiago and Valparaíso, Chile, from October 20 to 27, 2018. The event is organized by the Copperbridge Foundation in collaboration with the Chilean organizations Constructo and Massantiago.
The architecture of Santiago, Chile—inherited from the colonial era but connected to a contemporary design vision—will take center stage at the conference, providing a global perspective on “Blueprint for Better Cities,” the AIA's theme of the year chosen by its president, Carl Elefante.
The works are presented through interventions in common spaces—such as bars, cafés, and community centers—located in various Chilean cities, with the goal of bringing the discipline closer to a wider audience.
The architects invited to participate in this first touring cycle hail from Concepción, Castro, Valdivia, and Santiago. Each faced the challenge of intervening in a space in a city other than their own, using a theme specific to the host city as the basis for their work, viewed through the lens of an outsider.
The works are presented through interventions in common spaces—such as bars, cafés, and community centers—located in various cities across Chile, with the goal of bringing the discipline to a wider audience.
The architects invited to participate in this first touring cycle hail from Concepción, Castro, Valdivia, and Santiago. Each is challenged to intervene in a space located in a city other than their own.
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