Architecture News

Placemaking is a dynamic concept that inspires people to collectively reinvent their public spaces, transforming them into destinations, gathering places, and social hubs. It serves as a practical tool to revitalize public life by focusing on key locations—a process of social empowerment that helps build local, everyday democracy from the ground up within the public realm. This paradigm encourages diverse stakeholders to assume shared responsibility in shaping and developing the city. As part of the Placemaking Latin America program, more than 40 activities are scheduled, including a first complete training course in Placemaking to be held in Mexico City, as well as a Participatory Urbanism Forum featuring panels, workshops, project pitches, and networking events.

The mismanagement of water in a city built on a former lakebed—as is the case with Mexico City—has become a daily and cyclical struggle over the years. Consequently, various authors have studied different ways to address the cataclysmic impact of denying a site's geographical history. However, Mexico City's water crisis is not limited to constant flooding; it also involves a drinking water supply that is often insufficient and unequally distributed across different areas. This is due to an inefficient underground distribution system, adding further complexity to an issue that remains a constant challenge in urban planning and infrastructure.

This article was originally published as 'Solving Mexico City's cataclysmic cycle of drowning, drying, and sinking' in Quartz.

Nodes or gathering zones are the key points in urban dynamics, as they facilitate interaction between citizens and the architectural object. Many buildings seek to capitalize on the opportunities provided by their context to connect the architectural design with the landscape, thereby strengthening and introducing new approaches to understanding and viewing urban relationships and architecture from a different perspective.

As an axis connected to the city, a building must understand the relationship between architecture and the urban environment. It should be generous, opening its constituent spaces to the city and its residents to create shared areas for participation, thereby enriching the experience of the city and its surrounding environment.

For this reason, we have selected 5 projects that integrate urban dynamics, providing spaces for civic gathering.  

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Emilio De la Cerda, director of the School of Architecture at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile since 2014, has been chosen to assume the newly created position of Undersecretary of Cultural Heritage in the South American country's new Ministry of Culture, the Arts, and Heritage, an institution that began operations on March 1st.

Among his responsibilities, De la Cerda will coordinate the activities of the new National Cultural Heritage Service and will "propose policies, and design and evaluate plans and programs in areas related to folklore, traditional cultures, indigenous cultures and heritage, tangible and intangible cultural heritage, heritage infrastructure, and citizen participation in collective memory and heritage definition processes," according to the official regulations for the position.

This week, the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (Iphan) released the call for applications for a civil service examination that will open 411 positions across the country. Organized by the Brazilian Center for Research in Assessment and Selection and Promotion of Events (Cebraspe), the selection process was authorized on May 3 by the Ministry of Planning, Budget, and Management (MP) and is the result of a strong national mobilization aimed at highlighting the importance of preserving Brazilian cultural heritage to society.

Italy has just added a new work by Santiago Calatrava: the Cosenza cable-stayed bridge in the eponymous city, located 300 kilometers south of Naples. The project was conceived to integrate two urban areas currently separated by the Crati River: Contrada Gergeri and Via Reggio Calabria.

Built with the signature materials of Calatrava's career—steel, concrete, and natural stone—the single-pylon cable-stayed bridge features a 140-meter-long steel deck, a width of 24 meters, and a maximum height of 82 meters, serving both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Its form recalls the world's first bridge with an inclined pylon: the Alamillo Bridge in Seville, Spain, also designed by Calatrava.

The renovation and adaptation project for the Reales Atarazanas of Seville (Spain)—one of the Andalusian capital's most spectacular architectural spaces, often referred to as the city's "civil cathedral"—has overcome what appears to be the final hurdle on its path to becoming a landmark cultural center, not only for Andalusia but for all of Spain.

On December 29, during a ceremony held at the Atarazanas itself, an agreement was ratified between the Regional Government of Andalusia, the La Caixa Foundation—responsible for managing the historic building as a cultural space with an investment of over 13 million euros—and Adepa (Association for the Defense of Andalusian Heritage), which had filed a lawsuit against the project in 2016, putting the renovation on hold.

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Tec de Monterrey, in collaboration with the Architectural Association (AA), is launching a new certificate program titled Metropolitan Landscapes / Escenarios Metropolitanos. This program combines Tec's commitment to urban development with the AA's experimental tradition, addressing the emergence of a metropolitan discipline worldwide.

Based in Mexico (Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey) and the United Kingdom (London), the program explores the visionary role that design can play within the so-called "urban age" and "Anthropocene epoch," given the scale of global urbanization processes. To do so, it utilizes the latest urban, critical, technological, ecological, and landscape concepts to shape the discipline.

ByFutura is an integrated, transdisciplinary firm led by Iván García that began 10 years ago in Monterrey. Originally founded as a design studio focused on branding, this path opened doors through various projects, leading them to design everything from a coffee cup to an entire space.

One of their first projects was Taquería Canalla, where this vision was first reflected. "It was here that we took on the comprehensive responsibility of designing a space for the first time. We asked for help from architect friends and realized that architecture was a fundamental piece of our design, as it opened many doors for us," comments Iván García.

These types of projects remind us that architecture is so vast that it can be approached from different starting points. Today, ByFutura consists of 13 people dedicated to design and architecture. The firm has established itself on the global design and architecture scene, handling national and international projects, 80% of which are completed outside of Mexico.

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Arquideas is a community of students and young professionals from the architecture and design world. Its main objective is to showcase the talent and creativity of these young designers and help bridge the gap between the academic and professional spheres of architecture and design.

With this in mind, they once again launched a competition titled Bay Book House (BaBH) San Francisco, which challenged participants to propose a cultural exchange space to activate one or more of the abandoned piers in San Francisco's historic port.

Given its prime location, the proposed space was envisioned as a meeting point and an international benchmark for students, researchers, culture lovers, and the general public. It aims to offer outdoor reading, research, and technological innovation as key attractions for both residents and visitors. In a city already full of globally iconic landmarks, this new space must be designed to become San Francisco's new cultural landmark—the flagship of a vibrant, rapidly developing waterfront.

As part of International Habitat and Architect Week in Mozambique, the exhibition opened and the winners of the First Architecture Photography Competition - Perspectivas were announced on October 1 in Maputo, during the event A Cidade Desejada, organized by the Association of Architects of Mozambique - ARCHIMOZ.

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.

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.

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As part of the 30th National Meeting of Architecture Students (ENEA), the Association of Architecture Teaching Institutions (ASINEA) invited the country's most prestigious architecture schools to participate in this event organized by Universidad de La Salle México. The meeting took place at La Salle Cuernavaca in March 2018, bringing together the highest-performing students.

The exercises focused on the theme proposed by La Salle México, "Architecture and Design for Urban Emergencies," which arose from the events of September 19, 2017, and the urgent need to raise awareness within the profession about the importance of preparing for social disasters caused by natural phenomena.

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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.

After 70 years of setbacks, the Bogotá Metro is finally beginning to take shape. Last September, it secured partial state funding for its construction, and in April, the 16 stations of the first line were presented. Consequently, building a new transit system for a city of 8 million people has sparked widespread debate, capturing the attention of residents who long for a project that would solve one of the major mobility crises currently facing the Colombian capital.

Darío Hidalgo, director of integrated transport at the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities, and Carlos Carrillo, an industrial designer from the National University of Colombia, recently participated in the Observatorio de Gobierno Urbano program on UN Radio, where they compared the routes and costs of an elevated metro versus an underground one.

Around 19,000 architects and urban planners from Rio de Janeiro state now have access to a shared office space in downtown Rio de Janeiro. Featuring 20 workstations and two meeting rooms, the space allows professionals to work and host client meetings.

The Council's goal is to bring greater vitality to the use of its headquarters—located at Av. República do Chile, 230, 23rd floor—while strengthening ties with professionals and providing access to an infrastructure that architects and urban planners help maintain. By the end of this year, CAU/RJ expects to increase the number of available workstations and meeting rooms.