Architecture News

Daniel Libeskind will visit Chile this coming December, following an invitation extended by Mauricio Soria, the mayor of Iquique, and approved by the Chilean city's municipal council. However, the decision has drawn coverage from local media due to opposition from council members who voted against the initiative, primarily over the budget: 75 million Chilean pesos (around $110,000), which includes a "city visit, site visit, public lecture, and a preliminary draft or conceptual proposal," as highlighted on Twitter by council member Felipe Arenas, one of the dissenting voices in the municipal vote.

Although the announcement was shared by the mayor's office on Twitter on November 8, efforts to bring Libeskind to the country began exactly a year ago when the architect visited Chile to give a lecture at ENMATERIA's International Architecture and Materials Encounter. During that visit, the American architect met for the first time with Soria and his technical team in Santiago.

With the proposal  'Mining Tailings Phytoremediation Machine', the Chilean team won first place in the 11th Alacero Steel Design Competition for Architecture Students 2018 in Colombia.

The team, composed of students from Universidad Finis Terrae—Diego Concha, Tomás Aguirre, and Trinidad Hermosilla—presented a project that aims to "recover and reuse mining waste by utilizing plants with high tolerance to minerals to reduce and mitigate the site's environmental risks," as explained by the authors in the project description. The team was advised by professors Andrés Echeverría and Cristián Lecaros.

The Council of Architecture and Urbanism of Rio de Janeiro (CAU/RJ) has open applications for its first call for proposals to support the development and implementation of projects under the Technical Assistance for Social Interest Housing (ATHIS) program, alongside the sixth edition of its Cultural Sponsorship Program.

Applications for the ATHIS call are open until 4:00 PM on September 25. The deadline to submit proposals to the Cultural Sponsorship Program closes slightly earlier, at 5:00 PM on September 21. Both calls are restricted to non-profit legal entities. 

RSAA/Büro Ziyu Zhuang has recently unveiled the design for the "Chengdu Linpan Resort" in Chongzhou, a county-level city under the administration of Chengdu. Boasting a rich history and deep cultural heritage, the region has inspired the works of renowned literary figures like Lu You, Du Fu, and Wang Bo, while preserving the ancient style, charm, and heritage of western Sichuan. RSAA/Büro Ziyu Zhuang's design integrates the historical residential spatial form of western Sichuan with local climatic conditions, cultural characteristics, and regional living habits. The project aims to overlay and reorganize the traditional Linpan prototype with the shifting perspective of Chinese scroll painting. This spatial synthesis creates richer spatial variations and narrative possibilities for both the interior and exterior experiences. The project is currently under construction.

Videos

The city of Hiroshima, Japan, has selected prominent Chilean visual artist, architect, and filmmaker Alfredo Jaar as the winner of the 11th edition of the prize (Hiroshima Art Prize).

Jaar, who studied architecture at the University of Chile before permanently leaving the field in 1980, worked during the Chilean military dictatorship on projects such as Studies on Happiness (1979-1981) and Opus 1981 / Andante desesperato performance (1981), before settling permanently in the United States. Jaar's global recognition is reflected in his participation in the 1987 and 2002 editions of Documenta, as well as the retrospectives dedicated to his work in 2012 by the Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NGBK) and the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin.

After seven days of voting, we are pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 Building of the Year Award. This architectural prize highlights projects chosen by our readers, who filtered through thousands of built projects in Portuguese-speaking countries and, after selecting 15 finalists, voted for the top three works published on ArchDaily in 2017.

Our expert jury—namely you, our readers—did an outstanding job selecting three projects that represent an architectural production deeply rooted in material conception and closely tied to their built and social contexts.

Discover the winning projects below!

Recognizing that well-designed and high-quality sidewalks encourage walking in cities, the City of Florianópolis has launched the Calçada Certa program, aiming to ensure legal guidelines for sidewalk design are followed and to guide citizens in designing and building public walkways.

The program is accompanied by an illustrated manual presenting recent updates to the ABNT NBR 9050/2015 and ABNT NBR 16537/2016 standards. These address, respectively, accessibility in buildings, furniture, urban spaces, and equipment, and tactile paving design.

There is no manual on architecture competitions to guarantee success; rather, the specific conditions and the different ways of approaching the problem determine whether a proposal is appropriate and, hopefully, a winner. Some participants push their capabilities to the limit, treating the project as a deeply personal challenge. However, the solutions we find in difficult moments strengthen our confidence, proving just how far we can go. There is nothing quite like the satisfaction of a job well done after hours of effort and dedication.

Below, we share three tips from Colombian architect Dan Gamboa, who won the SkyCity Challenge 17 architecture competition in China. His winning project merges a library with a children's playground. According to Gamboa, the proposal was developed in just 48 hours after his team pulled out of the competition a week prior.

Videos

Like any port city, Barranquilla, Colombia, has historically turned its back on the Magdalena River, a waterway of over 1,500 kilometers flowing down from the Andes Mountains to empty into the Caribbean Sea. Although its urban fabric overlooks the river, the road known as Vía 40 has been the city's true boundary. Between this highway and the river, industrial zones and vacant lots serve as buffers.

"For many years we had a wall blocking this view for 70 years," said Barranquilla Mayor Alejandro Char last February during the inauguration of the second section of the River Boardwalk, an urban project that seeks to restore the city's relationship with the river, which runs through 11 of Colombia's departments.

Following last year's designation of the Gimnasio Maravillas, designed by Alejandro de la Sota, the Community of Madrid has declared the Capitol Building an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) under the Monument category. This designation continues the region's initiative to protect and promote 20th-century Spanish modern architecture.

Also known as the Carrión Building, the Capitol Building was designed by architects Vicente Eced and Luis Martínez Feduchi. Construction began on April 21, 1931, and the building officially opened on October 15, 1933.

+ 5

Located on São Paulo's most iconic avenue, after eight years of construction, the new Sesc São Paulo unit will open its doors on April 29. With programming based on the triad of “Art, Body, and Technology,” the institution expects to welcome approximately 18,000 visitors per week.

A federal building abandoned for decades may soon be rehabilitated to provide quality housing for socially vulnerable families in downtown Porto Alegre. This is the proposal of a project selected in the funding call for Technical Assistance for Social Interest Housing (ATHIS) programs by the Council of Architecture and Urbanism (CAU/RS). Made possible by the Architects' Union of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, the project aims to turn the building in the Floresta neighborhood into a decent home for approximately 40 low-income families.

The Chilean City in the Press is a new section on ArchDaily en Español where we cover the key urban issues facing Chilean cities across the country. This is our editorial roundup of everything you need to stay up to date.

In this first edition, we cover the University of Chile's proposal to rehabilitate the Villavicencio Tower in Santiago, the National Monuments Council's interest in preserving the birthplace of the late poet Nicanor Parra, and urban news from Valparaíso, Concepción, and Valdivia.

The Council for Architecture and Urbanism of Tocantins – CAU/TO has launched a design competition to select the best proposal for the construction of its headquarters in the city of Palmas. 

On October 22, the winning design of the 1st Public Design Competition of Conde was announced. A total of 32 proposals were submitted from 11 states, featuring intervention plans for an area of approximately 14,266 m², with projects covering landscaping, urban planning, urban infrastructure, public facilities, and street furniture. The area designated for the competition contains the highest concentration of open spaces and public facilities within Conde's urban perimeter, such as a market, schools, plazas, churches, an open-air market, transit services, and public offices. Among these, the Pedro Alves and Antônio de Sousa Santos plazas, along with Domingos Maranhão and Nossa Senhora da Conceição streets, hold significant urban potential and host major social events in the city.

The jury comprised architecture and urban planning professionals, as well as a local representative. The winning proposal came from Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul) and met several key requirements, including local economic development, commerce, and the creation of public spaces for community gathering. The team consists of Bruno de Moraes Britto, Camila Bellver Alberti, Douglas Silveira Martini, Jean Michel Forte dos Anjos, and Mariana Mocellin Mincarone. See the winning entries below:

Videos

A bridge approximately 1.5 kilometers long collapsed this morning in Genoa, Italy. The Morandi Bridge, built in the 1960s, crosses the Polcevera River in the western part of the Port of Genoa, connecting the city center with the regional airport. Authorities attribute the disaster to structural failure combined with a severe storm occurring at the time of the collapse.

New residential developments in the country must incorporate accessibility features in all common areas, while individual housing units must be adapted according to buyer demand. Developments will have an 18-month deadline to adapt to the new rules established by Decree 9,451, whose guidelines regulate the Brazilian Inclusion Law.

In celebration of its 75th anniversary, the Institute of Architects of Brazil – São Paulo Department (IABsp) is launching, on May 14, 2018, an unprecedented competition for curatorial proposals for the XII International Architecture Biennale of São Paulo, which will take place from September to December 2019.