Architecture News

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The Safe Cities Index (SCI) by The Economist Intelligence Unit ranks 60 representative cities worldwide based on indicators covering digital security, health security, infrastructure, and personal security.

Focusing on Latin America —and setting aside the repeated leadership at the top of the list by Tokyo, followed by Singapore, Osaka, Amsterdam and Sydney— where do this region's cities rank in terms of safety for 2019?

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"SOM: Art + Engineering + Architecture" is an exhibition opening at the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso in Mexico City. Presented in collaboration with MEXTRÓPOLI, the global architecture and urbanism festival organized by Arquine magazine, the exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of SOM's structural engineering practice, its integration with architectural design, and the firm's long tradition of collaboration with the visual arts.

Of the two million people currently living in the region of Galicia, an estimated 5,000 work in the production and sale of crafts. Through the exhibition “Pensar coas mans. Las nuevas siete lámparas de la belleza artesanal” (Thinking with Hands: The New Seven Lamps of Craft Beauty), located at the Museo Centro Gaias in The City of Culture, Izaskun Chinchilla presents an art installation of 250 pieces. Created in collaboration with 65 artisans, the project seeks to restore the prestige of craftsmanship and prompt reflection on its collective value.

With the launch of ODA19, this year we celebrate the eleventh anniversary of the Obra del Año (ODA) Award, the highest accolade in the architectural world where the winners are chosen by popular vote. Starting today, Monday, April 1, and for the next three weeks, our readers are responsible for determining which projects inspired us during 2018, faithfully representing the identity of our local contexts while shaping the way architecture is practiced around the world.

Over the next three weeks, the entire ArchDaily en Español network (Plataforma Arquitectura, ArchDaily México, ArchDaily Colombia, and ArchDaily Perú) will serve as the platform to celebrate the best built architecture in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America.

Paying attention to Lima's many perspectives is something that should be a daily occurrence, though unfortunately, this is not the case in our city. Sometimes we do not even notice what happens in the streets; at other times, we have a biased view, or we simply prefer to look at the city from the most comfortable angle. It is important to turn our attention to the many urban actors whose multidisciplinary visions, when integrated, can offer an interesting, enriched, and diverse outlook on the city.

In tribute to this diverse city of nearly ten million inhabitants, the UNESCO Office in Lima has gathered academics, historians, archaeologists, urban planners, architects, artists, and Lima enthusiasts for the inaugural UNESCO Talks event, titled “Lima, muchas miradas”.

Recognizing outstanding heritage practices, the fourth edition of the European Award for Architectural Heritage Intervention AADIPA has announced 15 shortlisted works in Category A (Intervention in built heritage) and 10 in Category B (Exterior spaces).

On June 13, during the 4th International Biennial of Architectural Heritage Intervention—an event organized by the directors with the support of COAC, AADIPA, and the Generalitat de Catalunya—the finalists and winners of each award category will be announced.

Urban Sketchers Bogotá held its third exhibition through a competition organized in partnership with the Colombian Society of Architects and the Bogotá Public Space Biennial (BEPBOG) at the beginning of this second half of the year. Building on the momentum of the inaugural BEPBOG, the contest aimed to promote freehand graphic representation of the city's 30 most iconic public spaces.

Aiming to propose “ordinary” solutions that meet the needs of the majority of people in Chile, the open call for the Feria Libre de Arquitectura—as this year's XXI Chilean Architecture Biennial is known—received 543 registrations, “a historic figure for this type of event,” according to the organizers.

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The installation Hórama Rama by Pedro y Juana (Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo and Mecky Reuss) opened this summer as part of the 20th edition of the Young Architects Program 2019 at MoMAPS1. This architectural installation is an immersive jungle landscape set within a large-scale cyclorama that sits atop the courtyard walls of MoMAPS1 and runs from June 28 through September 2, 2019.

2019 brought a wealth of enriching experiences through some of Mexico City's most prominent events, including the inaugural Porto Academy Workshop, the annual Design Week Mexico festival, and the Abierto Mexicano de Diseño, among others. These events hosted design and architecture exhibitions that captured the creative output of the moment—showcases that will serve as future reference points for understanding the architectural discourse of this era.

Reading "Poéticas Colectivas" is a unique experience: the pages divide into two, three, and then become one. The boundaries of the pages dissolve, and both knowledge and architectural works intersect on both a literal level—the pages—and a theoretical one—the ideas.

This book by Bisman Ediciones brings together the work of Matéricos Periféricos and Arquitectura del Sur, two collectives of Rosario-based architects with shared ideals.

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This coming April, Costa Rica will host the Latin American Social Workshop for Architecture Students (XVI TSL) for the first time. The event is organized by the Latin American Coordinator of Architecture Students (CLEA) and the local organization Estudiantes de Arquitectura en Movimiento (EAM), with academic backing from the University of Costa Rica.

Under the theme Situated Knowledges, TSL Costa Rica 2019 will welcome 210 participants from 18 Latin American countries and a European delegation between April 11 and 21. During this period, students and young architects will work side-by-side in a series of design-build workshops held in two communities of Santa Cruz, a town known in the Central American nation as the "folklore city."

The Graham Foundation has announced 63 new grants to individuals around the world supporting architectural projects. The funded projects represent diverse lines of research with original ideas that advance our understanding of the built environment. Selected from over 500 proposals, the funded projects include exhibitions, publications, films, and performances that promote rigorous scholarship, stimulate experimentation, and foster critical discourse in architecture. These innovative projects are led by both established and emerging architects, artists, curators, filmmakers, historians, and photographers, among other professionals.

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On September 11, the winners of the Provincial Preliminary Project Competition for the design of the new headquarters of the College of Architects of the Province of Santa Fe, District 4 – Casilda, were announced. The competition aimed to develop a new building that would allow the College to accommodate the new needs arising from the recent growth in its members' activity and the evolution of its institutional policies.

In its 21st edition, Barcelona Building Construmat (BBConstrumat), the International Construction Exhibition of Fira de Barcelona, will feature central spaces designed by an architecture firm for the second time.

As part of Montevideo's urban housing management framework, the local government, together with the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning, and Environment, launched a national public ideas competition to develop a housing and public space program on the site formerly occupied by the Raincoop company in the La Unión neighborhood.

The objective was for contestants to design, on a nearly 3-hectare plot, a housing development within a public space that promotes the integration of compatible activities and services, thereby ensuring mixed-use land and inclusion. Learn more about the winning projects in the words of their authors.

On May 28, the winners of the Binational Public Competition for Preliminary Architectural Projects, organized by the Administrative Commission of the Uruguay River (CARU), were announced. The competition was open to architects from both Argentina and Uruguay, with the support of the Association of Architects of Uruguay (SAU), the Association of Architects of the Province of Entre Ríos (CAPER), and the sponsorship of the Argentine Federation of Architectural Organizations (FADEA).

The project called for the construction of a Control Laboratory for the environmental analysis of the Uruguay River, to be located adjacent to the head of the Libertador San Martín International Bridge, on the eastern bank of the river, in the city of Fray Bentos, Uruguay.

In the heart of Palermo, a large iron and glass structure houses species whose origins date back to distant eras predating the dinosaurs. This is the main greenhouse of the Carlos Thays Botanical Garden in Buenos Aires.