The winning project of the Oscar Hagerman Prize International Architecture Competition has been announced. Established in 2017 to honor the career of architect Oscar Hagerman, the biennial competition recognizes social architecture concepts, encouraging participants to utilize regional materials while prioritizing user needs.
Using plants to filter impurities from lakes and rivers is already a common practice in sustainability. It is an alternative that avoids artificial chemicals in favor of maintaining a balanced ecosystem. Now, students at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) have gone a step further, creating floating planters made of mycelium to clean pollutants from waterways while restoring wetland habitats.
Estudio Lamela and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP), alongside AYESA Ingeniería, will design the expansion project for terminals T4 and T4S at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport. In addition to the terminal expansions, the project includes commercial areas, related equipment and furniture, as well as aircraft parking aprons.
Teatro Amazonas in Manaus and Theatro da Paz in Belém could soon achieve recognition as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The first step toward this distinction for the Amazon theaters will be taken between December 13 and 15, during the first mobilization workshop in Manaus. This event will gather representatives from the governments of Amazonas and Pará, the city halls of Manaus and Belém, civil society, researchers, and the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN).
The future has always been impossible to predict with absolute certainty. While various films, books, and theories have attempted to decipher it—and many have come close—we continue to be surprised by what actually emerges. Take, for instance, artificial intelligence tools. As we wrap up 2023 and head into 2024, does this dynamic remain the same? Can these tools also drive social change?
The firm Bloco B arquitetura, led by architects Júlia De Fáveri, Camilla Ghisleni, and Gabriela Fávero, was awarded second place in the competition for the renovation of the CAU/SC headquarters building. The competition sought solutions for the building's primary areas, such as the atrium, reception, and facade, in an effort by the Council to "welcome all architects and urban planners, connect with society, engage with the street, and practice the commitment to making the city more human."
Honoring and reaffirming the importance of Porto Alegre's modernist icons, a new series launched by AsBEA-RS on its YouTube channel invites the public to visit, alongside architects, market experts, and users, six of the most important buildings constructed between the 1950s and 1960s in the state capital.
Faial, Santa Tecla, Santa Cruz, Palácio da Justiça, Centro Administrativo Fernando Ferrari, and Grêmio Náutico União: six projects that shape the skyline and reaffirm the construction quality of fifty-year-old structures, revisiting the legacy and lessons of prominent architects from Rio Grande do Sul for contemporary urban development.
The City of São Paulo launched the digital platform for the Urban Design and Road Works Manual in December last year. This document compiles guidelines for urban projects aligned with the principles of accessibility, social equity, road safety, and environmental sustainability. Coordinated by Elisabete França, José Renato S. Malhem, and Maria Teresa Diniz, the manual aims to guide the design of projects in the road space to meet citizens' well-being needs.
In November 2020, IABsp, the organizer of the International Architecture Biennale of São Paulo, launched a Co-Curatorship Competition for the Biennale's 13th edition, scheduled for 2022. Proposals, which can be submitted through the website until January 24, 2021, will be evaluated by a jury representing diverse fields of knowledge, composed mostly of women and Brazilians.
The 13th Biennale presents RECONSTRUCTION as its initial central provocation, starting from the idea of rebuilding, reshaping, and renewing the relationships of social groups with their domestic spaces, citizens with public spaces, and the personal and professional dynamics unfolding in spaces of confinement and collective use, during and after the pandemic. The Competition also proposes that this reflection involve one or more guiding themes: democracy, bodies, memory, information, and technology.
To celebrate the 467th anniversary of the city of São Paulo, the Museu do Ipiranga is launching the digital campaign São Paulo – Território em Construção on January 25. Through the collection's rich iconography, along with testimonies from historians, architects, and urban planners, the public is invited to reflect on the city's transformations, from its founding in the colonial period to the grand metropolis we know today. The content, formatted as web stories, will be available on a website featuring a timeline, photos, paintings, and maps from the collection, as well as explanatory audio and videos about the evolution of São Paulo's urban space. Visitors can also learn more about the city's main landmarks, such as Pátio do Colégio, Paulista Avenue, and Nove de Julho Avenue.
Motivated by the enrollment of a classmate with a disability at the Dona Escolástica Rosa State Technical School (Etec), logistics students at the institution developed a project that could transform public transit in the city of Santos, São Paulo. The project consists of an audio system designed to assist and offer autonomy to passengers who face mobility challenges.
A brief preview of Uncertainty, the Spanish Pavilion for the 17th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, which will take place from May 22 to November 21.
The winners of the 3rd Tomie Ohtake Institute Leroy Merlin Design Award have been announced. The award ceremony, which was originally scheduled to take place in person at the Tomie Ohtake Institute alongside the exhibition of the projects, was held virtually for invited guests due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
A total of 15 projects were selected from 213 entries representing 20 Brazilian states and the Federal District.
Anyone interested in urban policy will likely, at some point, come across the term “compact city.” This expression has become a staple of urban planning. Proposals associated with the concept favor denser development, with commerce and services close to residential areas, encouraging pedestrian, bicycle, and public transit mobility. Some European capitals, such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam, are often pointed to as examples of this model. Its counterpart is the sprawling city, where neighborhoods are predominantly residential, far from downtown, and require long commutes from home to work.
With nearly fifty thousand plant species—over half of which are endemic, meaning they only occur naturally here—Brazilian flora is among the most diverse and richest in the world. This data is featured in the country's largest and most comprehensive virtual botanical library, Flora do Brasil 2020, developed by the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden.
With one of the best higher education systems in the world, the Netherlands offers annual scholarships for Brazilians through the Orange Tulip Scholarships program. Applications for the 2021/2022 academic year are now open for undergraduate, postgraduate, or MBA students.
More than 20 Dutch universities participate in the program, offering scholarship options for courses in the fields of Arts, Biological Sciences, Health, Exact Sciences, Technology, and Humanities, including some focused on architecture and urban planning – all taught in English.
The University Council of the São Paulo State University (Unesp) has decided to award the title of Doctor Honoris Causa to Adélia Borges, a curator, journalist, and critic active in the field of design. The initiative for awarding the degree came from the Department of Design at the Faculty of Architecture, Arts and Communication (FAAC) on the Bauru campus. In its justification, the Council stated that the title was awarded “for her work as a critic and curator with a significant contribution to the research, dissemination, and promotion of Brazilian Design on both the national and international stages, demonstrating deep knowledge of the field and a broad socio-political and cultural vision.” The official ceremony will take place on March 8, 2021, International Women's Day, at 2:30 PM, and will be broadcast on the TV Unesp YouTube channel.
The septic tank developed by the Municipality of Uberlândia is a compelling alternative for repurposing waste materials while also addressing basic sanitation challenges common in many Brazilian cities.
The Municipal Department of Water and Sewage (DMAE) is the agency responsible for designing the system and manufacturing the sustainable septic tanks distributed in the city. To share this knowledge more widely, however, they created a step-by-step manual so the design can be replicated anywhere.
