The 22nd SIACOT, the Ibero-American Seminar on Architecture and Construction with Earth, will be held in La Serena, Chile, in November 2024, continuing the legacy of the 21 seminars initially organized by the Proterra Research Project (2001–2006). Since 2006, SIACOT has been organized by the Ibero-American PROTERRA Network, which emerged from the aforementioned project. It has since become one of the network's primary activities and has established itself as the most significant Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking gathering focused on architecture and construction with earth. To date, SIACOT has been held in Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Portugal, Uruguay, Peru, Chile, El Salvador, Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Cuba. Its most recent edition, held in Colombia, brought together more than 300 participants.

In recent years, traditional ideas about the "workplace" have been completely transformed. With remote and hybrid systems becoming the new normal, employees now expect flexibility regarding where and when they perform their work. However, prolonged remote work has also revealed the irreplaceable value of in-person collaboration and connection.

On October 24, the winning projects of the fourth edition of the Rogelio Salmona Latin American Architecture Prize will be announced at the Virgilio Barco Public Library auditorium. Concurrently, the book and exhibition featuring the 26 most representative works from the 47 participants will be launched.

As the only living artist from the Grupo Frente—a significant artistic movement established exactly 70 years ago in Rio de Janeiro and considered a landmark of the constructive movement in Brazil—César Oiticica will open the exhibition "Frente a Frente" at the Paço Imperial on November 13, 2024. Curated by Paulo Venancio Filho, the exhibition will present 20 works that are either previously unseen or have long been absent from public view. A large portion of these were created during the period when the artist was a member of the Grupo Frente, founded by Ivan Serpa (1923–1973) in 1954, which included prominent figures such as Abraham Palatnik (1928–2020), Aluísio Carvão (1920–2001), Hélio Oiticica (1937–1980), Lygia Clark (1920–1988), Lygia Pape (1927–2004), Franz Weissmann (1911–2005), and Rubem Ludolf (1932–2010), among others. The exhibition will also include recent works, providing the public with a comprehensive overview of the artist's trajectory.

SEMANAU—the Architecture and Urbanism Week at UFERSA—is an event organized by the Architecture and Urbanism program of the Semi-Arid region, part of the UFERSA Pau dos Ferros campus. Throughout its five editions, its primary objective has been to connect students from the public university in the rural interior with professionals, students, and researchers in the field (architects and urban planners) or related disciplines. By establishing connections between students and the professional world, the event consistently highlights our regional identity through the exchange of experiences via discussions, activities, and hands-on learning.

In a lecture on Wednesday, October 30, architect and urban planner Anthony Ling will present concepts and potential experiences for transforming cities into safer, healthier, and more stimulating places for children. Scheduled for 7:00 PM at the Instituto Ling auditorium, the event will spark discussions on how a city—or even the neighborhood where we grow up—can influence our life path, demonstrating how walking to school or living near a park can contribute to a family's sense of well-being.

The course "Architecture, Innovation, and Sustainability: Possible Futures" is the first online course created and taught by architect and designer Guto Requena. "I felt there was a lack of a course open to those curious and passionate about design that would democratically address relevant topics for rethinking the future," the architect notes.

For the past eleven years, MEXTRÓPOLI has served as a space for reflecting on the city through architecture, bringing together specialists, students, citizens, public officials, artists, and journalists. The festival fosters the analysis and enjoyment of cities, one of humanity's greatest inventions.

In the early 20th century, the Pinheiros River in São Paulo was a destination for water sports and leisure. However, subjected to the misguided urban planning of the 1960s, the river’s winding curves were straightened to accommodate roads along its banks, leading to frequent flooding, while the river itself became polluted by industrial discharge and urban sewage. Recent city and state administrations have worked to clean the river and establish a bike path, encouraging the emergence of kiosks and a temporary floating bar. Building on this momentum, the 2024 workshop will explore ways to further revitalize this space, investigating a new relationship with the city's rivers to create public space.
The surreal contrast between modern skyscrapers, a seven-lane highway, and the river’s green banks—complete with capybaras and polluted water—creates landscapes that resemble digital montages, even inspiring art installations. Expanding on this, students will learn to leverage the power of artificial intelligence to speculate on radical new aquatic landscape infrastructures, utilizing its capacity to generate a fluid fusion of natural and built structures. Led by Carlos Bañón, an expert in artificial intelligence applied to architecture, alongside specialists in landscape design and urban infrastructure, students will learn to translate some of this virtual exuberance into built form.

José Pinto Duarte, leader of the finalist team for the NASA Mars Habitat Challenge, will be in Chile from March 12 to 14 to deliver lectures in Santiago and Concepción.

Currently focused on developing new housing solutions using 3D-printed construction, drawing on the experience gained from the space competition, Dr. Pinto Duarte—a faculty member at Penn State University and former researcher at MIT—will deliver two lectures. He will also engage with national teams implementing this technology in the country and visit local companies currently industrializing residential construction.

Temporary exhibition at the Historical and Geographical Institute also marks the reopening of the visitor circuit, following the completion of the first phase of the renovation project.

The Portobello Group is hosting another edition of its Sustainability Week from June 17 to 22, an initiative aimed at mobilizing the public and showcasing the company's actions related to the topic.

Colombian anthropologist Santiago Uribe will be at the Instituto Ling on Tuesday, September 3, at 7:00 PM, to deliver the lecture "Resilient Cities: How to Promote New Futures." During the event, which is open to anyone interested in the subject, the researcher will discuss the social transformation of their hometown, Medellín. Once the world's most violent city, it became a benchmark for innovation following two decades of social work, resulting in one of Latin America's most successful urban experiences.

According to data from the 2017 Origin-Destination survey in the city of São Paulo, walking is most prevalent in the periphery. In Heliópolis, the city's largest favela, 37.7% of trips are made exclusively on foot. In Paraisópolis, the second-largest favela, this figure rises to 40.7%, while in Brasilândia, the eighth most populous district, it is 30.9%.

It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm that we present the 1st International Seminar on Neuroscience and Architecture by GEP-NeuroArq, under the theme "Connecting the Dots: Humans, Environments, and Technologies." This event, organized by the Research and Study Group in Neuroscience and Architecture (GEP-NeuroArq), reflects our commitment to exploring the boundaries between disciplines that are deeply interconnected through their impact on human well-being.

Videos

From November 28 to December 7, the pioneering film and architecture festival in Chile and Latin America returns to an in-person format after six years, inviting audiences of all generations to join an enriching intersection of perspectives and expressions.

Standing prominently on the Alameda in Santiago, Chile, is a giant that has undergone significant changes in both name and appearance over the past 50 years.

Originally released in 2017, the book "Sensory Architecture - The Art of Designing for All Senses" (Arquitetura sensorial - A arte de projetar para todos os sentidos) by Juliana Duarte Neves is now receiving a second, revised and expanded edition from Mapa Lab, a publisher focused on slow publishing. The Rio de Janeiro launch will take place on Monday, April 8, at 7:00 PM, at Livraria da Travessa in Leblon.