At one of Bolivia's most important architecture events, a Brazilian project took home the top prize. Sesc Parque Dom Pedro II, designed by the firm UNA Arquitetos under the coordination of Fernanda Barbara and Fabio Valentim, won the International Project category of the International Architecture Biennial of Santa Cruz 2022 (VIII BASC), held between March 25 and April 3 of this year.
The seven main representative entities of Brazilian architects and urban planners, members of the Board of Architecture and Urbanism Entities (CEAU), launched the Open Letter to Candidates in the 2022 elections. Featuring 20 proposals, the document aims to address structural issues, economic and social development policies, and territorial planning in the country.
The National Congress will officially discuss the proposal for the Professional Microentrepreneur (MEP), a tax category that would reduce taxes paid by architects, urban planners, and other independent professionals. The proposal, drafted by CAU in partnership with the Board of National Entities of Architects and Urban Planners (CEAU), was introduced by Federal Deputy Érica Kokay in the Chamber of Deputies as Supplementary Bill No. 55/2022.
Portuguese architecture firm Sastudio, in partnership with Icelandic studio Hjark and the firm Landmotun, has won the international design competition for a community center in Hornafjörður, Iceland. This marks the second competition won by the two offices; the first, for a kindergarten in Garðabær, is scheduled to begin construction in May of this year and is expected to be completed by mid-2023.
The 29 de Março community, in the Cidade Industrial de Curitiba (CIC), was one of two Brazilian regions selected by the Action Fund Brazil to receive investments to combat climate inequality. Ambiens Sociedade Cooperativa, a local cooperative, was responsible for the project — a 15-month initiative in one of the city's most vulnerable neighborhoods. The other project was implemented in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul.
At the end of 2021, the port city of Genoa, Italy, introduced free public transit. Following the success of the initiative, the experiment, originally scheduled to end on March 31, 2022, was extended for another four months.
Vertical transit systems (such as elevators and funiculars) will remain free seven days a week with no time restrictions, while free subway access is available during two specific windows: daily from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. This free access will be valid until July 31.
On May 3 at 11 a.m., Portobello will host the UNLTD Dreams Exhibition, an event that promotes discussions on art, architecture, and sustainability, while showcasing the diverse possibilities of space design through the eyes of leading professionals.
From May 10 to 15, the second edition of the Barcelona International Architecture Film Festival (BARQ) will take place. The event will be hosted within the MODEL. Barcelona Architectures Festival. It will feature seven feature films and twelve short films in competition, which will be screened at Barcelona's Cines Girona and the Disseny HUB. During the festival, the selected films will also be available on the Filmin platform.
Dating back to 1535, the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Igarassu, Pernambuco, is considered the oldest surviving church in Brazil. This iconic landmark has recently undergone an extensive restoration that preserves its historic features while introducing upgrades to facilitate its contemporary use. The intervention also included the adjacent two-story Parish House.
"Agostinho de Freitas was an extraordinary artist," says Agnaldo Farias, art critic, professor, and curator of the exhibition “Agostinho Batista de Freitas – Mestre das Ruas,” on view from May 12 to June 11 at Galeria Estação in São Paulo. The exhibition features a selection of about 20 of the artist's canvases from the collection of gallerist Vilma Eid.
Two years after receiving the complete archive of Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Portugal's Casa da Arquitectura inaugurated its Digital Building last weekend. Marking the institution's shift toward the inescapable virtual world, the project consists of digitizing the archive accumulated since the organization was founded in 2017.
The 13th edition of the Architecture Biennial, organized by IAB-São Paulo, will open on May 27. It emerges from a reality of intense transformations brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic worldwide, which demanded major efforts to reorganize urban, social, and professional dynamics for survival.
Travessias (Crossings), the theme of this edition, recognizes that the pandemic reinforces socio-spatial inequalities that were already established, not only in Brazil but globally, understanding that these structures undergo physical and symbolic fragmentations rooted in violent processes of colonization and historical erasure. As a result, they trigger numerous manifestations of oppression – such as racism, sexism, ableism, and coloniality – in Brazil and other territories.
Concéntrico is the renowned Logroño International Architecture and Design Festival. An event about the city, open to residents and visitors alike, its main goal is to discover and rediscover key sites in the Historic Center, reflecting on the urban environment through temporary architectural and design installations. This year, the 8th edition will be held from September 1 to 6.
In May, the same month that the 13th São Paulo International Architecture Biennale begins, SescTV will make five selected episodes from two series—Arquiteturas and Coleções - Mestres da Arquitetura—available on-demand on the channel's website. These episodes prompt a reflection on architectural and historical heritage and depict the vision of architects and other professionals in the field, offering different perspectives on several iconic projects. All of this content, along with other programming spanning various artistic expressions, is part of the channel's collection and is available on-demand on the SescTV website.
The Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI) released its Global Street Design Guide to help urban planners with the challenging task of including all users of urban spaces in their designs. The publication became a benchmark and has now inspired a dedicated companion guide focused on children. The guide Designing Streets for Kids (translated into Portuguese as Desenhando Ruas para Córiaças) is already available in several languages, including Portuguese.
The canals of Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, span more than 100 kilometers and are not immune to plastic pollution. However, a clever invention has arrived in the city to address this issue: “The Great Bubble Barrier,” a technology that creates bubbles in the water to make collecting plastic waste easier.
The Albert Einstein Education and Research Center, the first project in Brazil by Safdie Architects, is nearing completion. Scheduled to open this August, the building—which features spacious garden courtyards that create an urban oasis in the southern zone of São Paulo—will house a new medical school and research facilities for one of the country's most advanced healthcare institutions.
Brazilian architects Mário Rubem Costa Santana and Rafael Lamary Silva Santos received a special mention in the Children's House competition in Senegal, organized by the Kaira Looro organization. The competition sought proposals for a "space aimed at preventing child malnutrition" in Sub-Saharan Africa.
