The "Single-Family Residential" Architectural Design Workshop, organized by the architecture firm Cota Paredes Arquitectos, concluded its eighth edition, which invited graduate architects and senior architecture students to develop a single-family housing project over four weeks in either an in-person or online format.
The Mexican architecture firm Comunal Taller de Arquitectura has been announced as the winner of the 2019 AR Emerging Architecture awards, alongside two highly commended practices—Estudio MMX and Estúdio Gustavo Utrabo—and the joint winners of the Peter Davey Prize, TAKA Architects and Clancy Moore Architects.
In Bogotá, the mayor's office has launched an initiative to build seven public Happiness Centers (CEFE), where residents of each sector of the city will have access to cultural spaces, Olympic and recreational pools, gyms, and leisure areas. The competitions have been managed through the Colombian Association of Architects (SCA). The CEFE Chapinero—named after the locality where it will be built—will be located in the El Retiro neighborhood.
At each Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism, the Ibero-American Prize for Architecture and Urbanism is awarded: a recognition for those who have worked to promote and defend the values of the discipline in the region.
The Superior Council of Colleges of Architects of Spain (CSCAE) has announced the State of Oaxaca Historical Archive Building by Mendaro Arquitectos as the winner of the 2019 International Spanish Architecture Award, which is presented to encourage and promote the global expansion of Spanish architects and architecture firms, recognizing their architectural and urban quality while consolidating a shared brand.
In February of this year, construction will begin on the renovation of Plaza de España in Madrid. The project is a collaborative effort by design firms Guadiana and Porras La Casta Arquitectos, led by architects Lorenzo Fernández-Ordóñez and Fernando Porras-Isla.
The project, known as Welcome Mother Nature, seeks to create a large green area in the city center, recovering its long-lost identity as a "plaza," which had been reduced to a transit space. The proposal emphasizes the definition of a plaza as a "social place of expression, gathering, and freedom." The project's main priority is to create a space where "it is easy to build shared civic experiences," while creating a new lung for a city that constantly lives under a cloud of pollution and smog.
As part of the celebrations for the Bicentennial of Peru's Independence, the Ministry of Culture, the Municipality of Lima, and Grupo Centenario announced an international architecture and landscaping competition to design a metropolitan park along the perimeter of the Pachacamac Sanctuary in the Lurín district of Lima. The competition sought to encourage reflection on Lima's relationship with its historical and landscape heritage, as the Sanctuary houses some of the most important structures of the national archaeological heritage, spanning more than fifteen centuries of human occupation.
With the launch of the new Urban and Building Code, approved by the Buenos Aires City Legislature in late 2018, the city of Buenos Aires has begun to reconfigure how information is accessed in the urban and architectural fields. In line with this approach, Plano Abierto BA serves as a tool that allows any resident to access online data regarding development capacity, permitted uses, building heritage listings, maximum heights, construction records and inspections, and the current status of each individual plot in the city (including cadastral data, built area, and number of floors). This provides indicative urban planning information to facilitate the understanding of the New Urban Code of Buenos Aires.
To date, the Universidad Austral de Chile (UACh) has restored more than a dozen historic houses in Valdivia, and is expected to continue this work in the coming years. Located in two main areas of the city—Isla Teja and the corridor known as the Yungay-General Lagos Axis—the university is committed to repurposing these existing structures, transforming them from family residences into public-use university spaces.
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On Friday, May 7, the winning proposal of the second "Imagining Machines" (Máquinas Imaginantes) open call was announced. The initiative invited architects, researchers, and writers to reflect on "machines" of the past and present operating within architecture as tools for social analysis and production. The open call accepted both real and speculative projects, incorporating installations, historical documents, archival material, performance formats, and publications that engaged with the creation of imagining machines.
On Wednesday, May 15, the winners of the BBConstrumat 2019 Awards, curated by the Fundació Mies van der Rohe Barcelona, were announced at the Roca Gallery Barcelona.
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Santa Lucía Esplanade aims to connect Vicuña Mackenna Square with the adjacent, renowned public hill of Santiago, Chile. The goal is to improve the urban space and connectivity of this historic monument and tourist attraction within the district.
The project is funded by the Regional Government, and the corresponding works have been authorized by the National Monuments Council and the Municipal Works Directorate. Learn more about the project in detail below.
In recent days, Mexico City has experienced pollution levels reaching 150 points on the Air Quality Index in various areas, such as Nezahualcóyotl in the State of Mexico. On May 13 of this year, Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum reported that while hazy conditions and low visibility prevailed in the nation's capital, an environmental contingency had not yet been declared.
The winners of the Richard H. Driehaus Building Arts Awards, presented annually to four master craftspeople in various traditional building trades in Spain, have been announced.
Usina de Innovación Colectiva is a cultural initiative of the School of Architecture, Design, and Urbanism at the University of the Republic in Uruguay.
It was established to revitalize disciplines related to architecture, design, landscape, and the city by creating opportunities that foster exchange, reflection, and the dissemination of work in these areas.
A total of 1,598 legally practicing architects in Colombia participated in the study titled “Characterization Study of the Colombian Architect,” developed by the National Professional Council of Architecture and its Auxiliary Professions (CPNAA). Its president, Julio César Báez Cardoso, shared the key findings in a recent article published by the association.
The XI Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (XI BIAU) concluded last Friday, October 11, in Asunción, featuring lectures by Jorge Scrimaglio, one of the two winners of the 2019 Ibero-American Architecture Prize, and a closing lecture by Solano Benítez and Gloria Cabral, co-founders of Gabinete de Arquitectura.
