The opening scenes of the award-winning Brazilian film "City of God" (2002) portray a newly constructed housing complex situated on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Subsequently, this complex evolves into a hub of poverty and violence. Despite the film being set in the 1960s, the housing development depicted was a recent construction.
How can industrialization and environmental responsibility go hand in hand? What siting, technological, or constructive strategies can be developed without harming the surrounding landscape? The application of modular design in architecture has been in practice for years, with a history involving the pursuit of standardization and modular coordination among materials, products, and more. Over time, it has been complemented by various environmental, sustainable, ecological, and economic factors to achieve the adaptability and functionality desired by its inhabitants.
In a constant search to find new ways to reduce costs and construction times, modular architecture emerges as an opportunity to implement various methods, technologies, and techniques to design livable spaces using separate repetitive elements such as modules. As Tom Hardiman, executive director of the Modular Building Institute (MBI), maintains, "Modular" is not about a construction product but rather a construction process.
CityMakers, The Global Community of Architects Who Learn from Exemplary Cities and Their Makers, is working with Archdaily to publish a series of articles about Barcelona, Medellin, and Rotterdam. The authors are the architects, urban planners, and/or strategists behind the projects that have transformed these three cities and are studied in the "Schools of Cities" and "Documentary Courses" made by CityMakers. On this occasion, Victor Restrepo, Coordinator of CityMakers in Medellin, presents his article "Medellin: A Case Study".
Heatherwick Studio has just been selected to design a new educational facility for a university in Bogotá, Colombia. Marking Heatherwick’s Studio’s debut in South America, the construction is set to begin in 2025. Located on the existing campus in central Bogotá, the new design school and makers’ space for Universidad EAN will become a home for the university’s school of sustainable design. The seven-story structure features a striking façade adorned with colorful artistic columns and open terraces.
CityMakers, The Global Community of Architects Learning from Model Cities and Their Makers is working with Archdaily to publish a series of articles about Barcelona, Medellin, and Rotterdam. The authors are the architects, urban planners, and/or strategists behind the projects that have transformed these three cities and are known in the "Schools of Cities" and "Documentary Courses" made by CityMakers.
Many buildings often fall into disuse due to our cities' constant economic, social, and technological changes. The programmatic inconsistency of current times demands great versatility and adaptability from our infrastructures, increasingly leading projects to become uninhabited, and left to abandonment and decay.
When designing spaces with reduced dimensions, adopting an efficient configuration and distribution is crucial for the user experience and the smooth development of activities and tasks to be carried out. In the case of bars and restaurants, numerous architecture and interior design professionals strive daily to meet the needs of clients, employees, and employers, considering everything from necessary installations and technologies to services, atmospheres, and furniture suitable for the type of gastronomy to be consumed.
Some materials change the course of architecture from the moment they begin to be employed. The initial materials used in construction certainly did so: clay, stone, and wood. The ability to build is the origin of the discipline. With technological development, techniques were also refined, and in the 19th century, industrialization spread the use of other materials, transforming and expanding the realm of construction: iron and glass.
The use of local materials in architecture is becoming more and more important as there is a growing need to find new, sustainable construction methods that can help address the current climate crisis. Understanding the behavior of different materials and their key construction properties, architects and other professionals in the field are increasingly turning to bamboo, aiming to develop strategies and techniques that enable its use in both the structures of their projects and the various components of spaces.
