Santiago, Chile. Image via Flickr User: alobos Life. Used under CC BY 2.0
The first American Institute of Architects Committee on Design (AIA COD) Conference in South America will take place in the cities of Santiago and Valparaíso, Chile, from October 20 to 27, 2018. The event is organized by the Copperbridge Foundation in collaboration with the Chilean organizations Constructo and Massantiago.
The architecture of Santiago, Chile—inherited from the colonial era but connected to a contemporary design vision—will take center stage at the conference, providing a global perspective on “Blueprint for Better Cities,” the AIA's theme of the year chosen by its president, Carl Elefante.
The 5th Lisbon Architecture Triennale has announced its title and theme: “The Poetics of Reason.” This title asserts that, despite its subjective and non-scientific dimensions, architecture is grounded in reason, and its goal is to shed light on the specificity of this rationality. Indeed, a foundation in reason and rationality is essential for understanding architecture—making it accessible to everyone, not just architects.
Máquina Fitorremediadora de Relave Minero. Image Cortesía de Universidad Finis Terrae
With the proposal 'Phytoremediation Machine for Mining Tailings,' the Chilean team won first place in the 11th Alacero Steel Design Competition for Architecture Students 2018 in Colombia.
The team, comprising Universidad Finis Terrae students Diego Concha, Tomás Aguirre, and Trinidad Hermosilla, presented a project that seeks to "recover and reuse mining waste through the use of plants with high mineral resistance to reduce and mitigate the site's environmental risks," as the authors explain in their project description. Their advisors were professors Andrés Echeverría and Cristián Lecaros.
The project developed by CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, Park Associati, Politecnica Building for Humans, Openfabric, DOTDOTDOT, Studio Mattioli, and Eckersley O'Callaghan has been selected to design the new Main Hospital and Children's Hospital in Brescia, Italy. The international competition mandate was to redevelop an existing hospital, preserving and extending a radial plan conceived by engineer Angelo Bordoni in the early twentieth century. The existing healthcare complex, Spedali Civili di Brescia, follows a hexagonal masterplan and radial layout that informs the new design for the premises. The geometry is reinterpreted to update the campus for future models of care, drawing a new CareRing around it that connects people, nature, and healthcare through the principles of One Health, the idea that human health, environmental health, and social wellbeing are inseparable.
Recent events highlighted the many ways architecture responds to changing environmental, social, and cultural conditions. Major earthquakes in Venezuela, Japan, and Northern California renewed attention to the role of planning, infrastructure, and building practices in shaping resilience to natural hazards. As these questions continue to inform the built environment, the opening of the 2026 UIA World Congress of Architects in Barcelona brought together practitioners and researchers to discuss climate, housing, public space, and the future of the profession. Recent project announcements, preservation initiatives, completed works, and new design tools further reflected the range of approaches shaping architectural practice today, from heritage conservation and adaptive reuse to environmental performance and long-term planning.
Dallas City Hall, Texas. Image via World Monuments Fund
On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the United States' Declaration of Independence, the World Monuments Fund has announced a new list of ten heritage places representing the country's history. The special initiative, titled "Irreplaceable America," recognizes historic places across the country whose preservation is considered "essential to the richness and complexity of American history," spotlighting urgent preservation needs. From the oldest botanical garden in the country to I.M. Pei's modernist Dallas City Hall, the selected sites bear witness to Indigenous heritage, artistic experimentation, and public health, colonial, and Black history.
The exhibition What is This? A Spa, a Gym, a Zoo for Tiny Animals? is on view at the Palau Victòria Eugènia in Barcelona from May 11 to July 5, 2026. Organized by the Fundació Mies van der Rohe and curated by Anna Sala and Ivan Blasi, the exhibition presents the institution's archive through a new curatorial framework, bringing together architectural models, drawings, documents, films, and records of artistic interventions that have taken place at the Barcelona Pavilion since 1986. Open daily with free admission, the exhibition invites visitors to engage with the archive as both a historical collection and an evolving record of architectural discourse.
International firms Studio Gang and Henning Larsen have completed Breakthrough Properties' One Milestone. The life science development is part of the first phase of Tishman Speyer and the Harvard Allston Land Company's Enterprise Research Campus (ERC), a 14-acre mixed-use district in Boston's Allston neighborhood. Located on the southwest end of the ERC, One Milestone is intended to serve as a hub for creativity, science, and entrepreneurship. Its recently inaugurated two-building complex, spanning 47,380 sqm, was designed to serve Greater Boston's scientific community. The two firms began collaborating on the project in 2019 with the co-design of a strategic framework plan, breaking ground on One Milestone in 2023.
Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has unveiled new images of the National Juneteenth Museum, offering a closer look at the design of the 72,000-square-foot institution planned for Fort Worth, Texas. Designed in collaboration with Alligood Song Architecture and architect of record KAI Enterprises, the project is scheduled to begin construction in fall 2026 and will serve as a national center dedicated to preserving the history and legacy of Juneteenth. Led by activist Dr. Opal Lee, widely recognized as the "Grandmother of Juneteenth," the museum combines exhibition spaces with community-oriented programs intended to support both cultural preservation and neighborhood revitalization.
The UIA 2026, the 29th edition of the triennial international event for architectural dialogue organised by the International Union of Architects, has opened its doors on Sunday, June 28th, with an inaugural event held at Three Chimneys, a former power plant in Sant Adrià de Besòs. Each Congress focuses on a pressing topic relevant to the profession, articulated through a central theme. The topic for 2026 is "Becoming. Architectures for a Planet in Transition," calling for a broad and critical overview of the possible futures of architecture. The event runs through July 2, 2026, as a distributed event across multiple venues and urban contexts. With a multidisciplinary approach, Barcelona, the UNESCO World Capital of Architecture 2026, is set to become a global laboratory and hub for debating forthcoming ecological, social, material, and cultural transitions.
Three decades after it first hosted the event, Barcelona once again becomes the host of the global disciplinary debate. The UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona aims to bring together 10,000 professionals, students, and institutional representatives from more than 130 countries. Discussions address topics such as the climate emergency, the housing crisis, the circularity and sustainability of materials, and the evolution of public space at large and small scales, as well as more specific topics such as the future role and responsibility of architectural awards or conferences dedicated to the DANA floods in Valencia. The daily program will be marked by two plenary sessions each day, at the start (09:00) and at the end (16:45).
Faced with the reality that climate change is making cities increasingly unlivable, citizens are confronted with the choice of either leaving or transforming their environments. The unbuilt projects compiled in this article offer transformative alternatives for more livable cities, combining construction, architectural, and landscape design strategies across urban parks and suburban interstitial spaces. As ecological laboratories, they incorporate a multispecies perspective into the design process, adopting a concept of time better suited to the development of ecosystems.
Aino and Alvar Aalto's Paimio Sanatorium is a recognized example of modern architecture for healing, representing a patient-centered approach to hygienism that treated the building itself as a medical instrument. Built between 1929 and 1933, it was designed as a nature-oriented tuberculosis sanatorium, later used as a hospital, and today operates as a tourist attraction. The property comprises the main building together with fourteen additional structures, granted protection in Finland in 1993 under the Finnish Building Protection Act. The complex was included on UNESCO's tentative list in 2004 and is part of the "Aalto Works" nomination, with a decision expected in July 2026. Snøhetta has developed a masterplan representing a new vision for the modernist complex, reimagining it as a destination combining hospitality, wellness, cultural spaces, and arenas for international dialogue.
Foster + Partners, in collaboration with Dar Al-Handasah, has revealed the master plan for Al Najd Agricultural City in Dhofar, southern Oman. Covering approximately 54 million square feet, the development is conceived as a self-sustaining agricultural and urban settlement designed to respond to the region's environmental conditions and agricultural landscape. Commissioned by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Water Resources, the project forms part of the objectives outlined in Oman Vision 2040, which seeks to strengthen food security, diversify the national economy, and support sustainable development initiatives.
From projects and institutions that reinforce the relationship between art and architecture to initiatives seeking new approaches to persistent urban and ecological challenges, this week's developments reflect a broader effort to reconsider established frameworks and expand the role of design in contemporary society. Whether through adaptive reuse, policy innovation, artistic experimentation, or critical research, architects and cultural organizations are exploring how existing systems can be transformed to address emerging realities. These questions resonate across new architectural projects that translate environmental conditions and civic aspirations into built form. In Chicago, the completion of the Obama Presidential Center positions architecture as a vehicle for public memory, while in Albania, OODA's Lighthouse reinterprets local landscapes and traditions through a tower overlooking the Adriatic coast. Meanwhile, Heatherwick Studio's proposed AlUla Manara visitor centre responds to the conditions of Saudi Arabia's desert landscape, combining scientific research and tourism within a destination dedicated to observing the night sky.
