On Sunday, May 15, 2022, the closing ceremony of the second edition of BARQ – Barcelona International Architecture Film Festival was held at the Disseny Hub Barcelona. The event was also hosted as part of the recent MODEL - Barcelona Architectures Festival.
During the ceremony, the winning films in the two competition categories, feature films and short films, were announced. Learn more about each of them below.
In early 2015, the Regional Government of Santiago in Chile launched a public competition for the redevelopment of the Alameda-Providencia axis, an 11.3-kilometer-long avenue that serves as the most important mobility corridor in the Chilean capital.
The winning proposal was awarded in October of that same year to a team comprised of the firms Lyon Bosch, Martic Arquitectos, and Groundlab. Although construction was scheduled to begin two years later, in March 2019, the project was canceled by the administration at the time due to budget constraints. They announced that only a segment of the western end of the corridor would be renovated, though no progress has been reported since.
Three years later, on December 28, 2022, President Gabriel Boric, alongside local mayors and authorities, signed a public cooperation agreement to reactivate the recovery and transformation of the Alameda-Providencia axis in its original scope: from Pajaritos Street in the east to Plaza Baquedano, popularly known as Plaza Italia or Plaza Dignidad.
An eco-friendly autonomous vessel will begin transporting passengers through the waterways of Rio de Janeiro in December 2022. The new urban mobility project is the result of a partnership between travel platform Hotel Urbano – Hurb and TideWise, a Latin American autonomous boat company.
The new partnership will explore several of the city's water routes to connect tourist attractions and major hubs, such as Sugarloaf Mountain and downtown Rio, as well as the Península in Barra da Tijuca and the Jardim Oceânico subway station.
A recent study revealed that, since 2014, marine heatwaves have become “the new normal.” The climate crisis is no longer a concern for the distant future. Extreme events are increasingly common; one only has to follow the news. While it may seem that public officials are being caught off guard, scientists have long warned of the need to focus on sustainable development.
Good examples are still few and far between, but they do exist. At COP26, a comprehensive guide featuring proven strategies to achieve urban cooling was launched.
During the International Union of Architects (UIA) 2020 International Forum, “Affordable Housing Activation: Removing Barriers,” the Higher Council of Spanish Architects’ Colleges (CSCAE) developed the first dynamic atlas on access to housing. The platform aggregates over 4,000 economic, urban, and development indicators into a single interface, making them easy to analyze and interpret. The data is sourced from major international organizations, including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Health Organization.
The call for entries for the European Award for Architectural Heritage Intervention (AHI), aimed at professionals and associations linked to architectural heritage, is open until March 17, 2023. Its primary objective is to recognize high-quality interventions in built heritage across all its dimensions. In doing so, the award aims to contribute to their dissemination and establish itself as a catalyst and observatory for the new challenges that contemporary architectural globalization poses to the conservation and intervention of built heritage.
In January of this year, a legal framework for distributed micro- and minigeneration of energy was established under Law 14,300/2022. The text ensured that the sector's previous rules would be maintained until 2045 for existing solar installations and new customers within a 12-month window. Now, with only three months left in the year, the topic is back in the spotlight, as the deadline to secure benefits like exemptions from certain tariff components is fast approaching.
The National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute (Iphan) has launched the 35th edition of the Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade Award. The award recognizes outstanding national initiatives in the preservation and promotion of Brazilian Cultural Heritage. This year's theme is the Socioeconomic Sustainability of Cultural Heritage, and submissions are open until July 11.
The Mexican project Casa de Música, designed by Colectivo C733, and the Bío Bío Regional Theater in Chile, by architects Smiljan Radic, Gabriela Medrano, and Eduardo Castillo, have been jointly awarded the Grand Prize at the Pan-American Architecture Biennial of Quito BAQ 2022.
To celebrate its tenth edition, Open House will open the doors of more than 160 spaces and buildings of great architectural, cultural, and heritage value in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires on October 1 and 2, 2022. As it does every year, this architecture and urbanism festival will offer the public the opportunity to rediscover the city's architecture and urban design, as well as its people, stories, and anecdotes, through free activities, visits, gatherings, and tours.
The CA Awards and Honors are among the most prestigious recognitions for architects in Chile, honoring 12 registered members for their work and contribution to the country's architectural field. Coinciding with the closing of Architecture Month and the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Colegio de Arquitectos de Chile, the award ceremony will take place on Thursday, August 25, at 6:00 PM. The event will also be broadcast via FB Live and on the YouTube channel of the Colegio de Arquitectos.
Registration is now open for the 24th IABsp Awards 2022—a traditional and prestigious award in the field of architecture and urbanism organized by the Institute of Architects of Brazil, an institution with over a century of history. “This edition seeks to consolidate the advances of the national edition held in 2021, aligning the categories and subcategories with the reality of our profession.” Hannah Machado, Co-president of IABsp
Until November 21, architects and urban planners can register for free through the website. Participation is limited to IAB members from any of the state departments across the country with works and proposals executed in the state of São Paulo since January 2017. Fortunately, applicants can also join the institute during the registration period.
The desire to simplify and find new ways to bring more greenery to buildings and cities motivated agricultural engineer Sérgio Rocha to create Kaatop, a hydroponic roof tile designed for cultivating various plant species. The inspiration for the tile came from his professional experience developing green roofs and suspended gardens. Working in the field for over a decade, Rocha noticed that existing market systems and techniques struggled to gain traction in construction projects.
A new title from Edições Sesc SP, Oswaldo Corrêa Gonçalves arquiteto cidadão, highlights the main contributions of the engineer, architect, and urban planner across the various fields in which he worked. Born in Santos in 1917, he designed residential projects, sports facilities, schools, and institutional buildings, including the first Sesc/Senac units. Organized by architects Gino Caldatto Barbosa and Ruy Eduardo Debs Franco, the book also highlights his role in founding the School of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo (FAU-USP), FAU Santos, and the Institute of Architects of Brazil in São Paulo (IAB-SP).
The Tomie Ohtake Institute has announced the three winning projects of the 8th Tomie Ohtake Institute AkzoNobel Architecture Prize. The announcement was made via a video on the institute's social media platforms, marking the opening of the exhibition featuring the 13 selected projects of this eighth edition. A total of 178 projects were submitted from 18 Brazilian states and the Federal District, with five of them located abroad (Argentina, France, Italy, Madagascar, and Mozambique).
A carbon-neutral concrete prototype has just won the 2022 Obel Award. The solution aims to mitigate the environmental impact of the construction industry, which is responsible for 38% of all energy-related CO2 emissions, according to a UN report.
Dubbed Seratech, the material was developed by two PhD students from Imperial College London, Sam Draper and Barney Shanks. They discovered a simple way to eliminate concrete's CO₂ footprint: replacing part of the concrete's cement content with a type of silica created from carbon dioxide (CO₂) captured from factory smokestacks.
Organized by the Intendencia de Montevideo and Municipio B, with the support of the Sociedad de Arquitectos del Uruguay and sponsored by the Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo, the Architectural Preliminary Design Competition for the Mariano Arana Cultural Center (CCMA) was held to transform an iconic area of Montevideo's Ciudad Vieja, the Rambla Portuaria, and Diagonal Fabini.
How can architecture and urbanism once again contribute to the debate and production of Social Interest Housing (HIS)? This was one of the guiding questions behind the Guidelines for Social Interest Housing in Jardim Lapena, developed by the Tide Setubal Foundation and BlendLab for the East Zone of São Paulo. The document compiled a set of guidelines on housing, management models, site planning, and integration with the urban environment, shaping the proposals for the +Lapena Habitar Call for Projects held in late 2022.
How can architecture and urbanism once again contribute to the debate and production of Social Interest Housing (HIS)? This was one of the core questions that guided the development of the Guidelines Manual for Social Interest Housing in Jardim Lapena, created by the Tide Setubal Foundation and BlendLab for the East Zone of São Paulo. This document compiled a set of guidelines on housing, management models, site planning, and integration with the urban environment, which in turn guided proposals for the +Lapena Habitar Call for Projects held in late 2022.
The relationship between cities and ocean sustainability was highlighted at the Brazil Pavilion during COP28, the United Nations Climate Change Conference. The panel "Cities, ports, and conservation: integrated effort for resilient and climate-adapted cities" brought together representatives from the federal government, subnational governments, the private sector, and civil society, and marked the launch of the publication "Ocean Without Mysteries – Building Blue Cities."
How can architecture and urban planning contribute once again to the debate on and production of Social Interest Housing (HIS)? This was one of the core questions guiding the development of the Guidelines Booklet for Social Interest Housing in Jardim Lapena, created by the Tide Setubal Foundation and BlendLab for the East Zone of São Paulo. This booklet compiled a set of guidelines regarding housing, management models, site planning, and urban integration, guiding the proposals for the + Lapena Habitar Call for Projects held at the end of 2022.
According to members of Teatro Oficina, on the morning of Monday, February 5, 2024, the theater designed by Lina Bo Bardi and Edson Elito "was taken by surprise by a heavy-handed action to block the alleyway arches, carried out by the Silvio Santos Group."
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