Architecture News

Spanish architect Ángela García de Paredes, of the firm Paredes Pedrosa Arquitectos, has been shortlisted for the Women in Architecture 2018 award. Also nominated are Sandra Barclay of Barclay & Crousse (Peru), Biba Dow of Dow Jones (UK), and Stephanie Macdonald of 6a Architects (UK).

Created in partnership with The Architectural Review and The Architects’ Journal, the award aims to recognize and reward the work and designs of women architects worldwide, promoting role models who inspire other professionals.

Below are the projects for which these four architects are nominated for this prestigious award:

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On May 18, the Superior Council of the Colleges of Architects of Spain presented the Spanish Architecture Awards (PAE) and Spanish Urbanism Awards (PUE), which were decided in October 2017. Along with the Gold Medal, both awards are among the most prestigious honors in the Spanish architecture sector. Through these accolades, the CSCAE recognizes architectural and urban excellence, as well as the determination and perseverance of institutions in promoting high-quality work despite the severe economic crisis of recent years.

The awards ceremony, attended by more than 400 people, was held at the recently opened Wanda Metropolitano stadium. Designed by Seville-based Cruz y Ortiz Architects, the venue served as the home of architecture and Spanish architects for the evening.

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Three architecture projects are among the 104 winners of the 2019 competition of the Directorate of Cultural Affairs (Dirac) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Chile.

Now in its ninth year, the call aims to promote the internationalization of Chilean artists and creators across a wide range of artistic disciplines. "Our mission is to strengthen and support Chile's foreign policy and our embassies and missions through high-quality artistic projects that foster the participation of our creators and artists," said Maritza Parada, Director of Cultural Affairs.

A field is a mapping from one vector to another; some experts believe that momentum should exist within the field. The architectural field, however, represents the holistic concept of architecture. Architecture exists within the field, which serves as the map, result, and answer for the exchange, dialogue, and intertextuality between interior and exterior spaces. Burdened by material things and troubled by emotions, yet integrated with the physical world, it ultimately achieves its own depth.

On the afternoon of December 14, 2018, a forum titled ‘Creating the Field: Villa District · Art · Design’ was held with great enthusiasm at the Beijing Youan Mansion Sales Center. Co-hosted by Youan Mansion and Designwire, the event invited the project's lead designers to explore the “field” created by Youan Mansion. Starting from the villa-centric nature of the project and extending to the dimensions of art and lifestyle, the panel discussed the relationships between theory and design, philosophy and aesthetics.

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This week, the latest edition of Concéntrico, the Logroño Architecture and Design Festival in Spain, came to a close. For the second consecutive year, we have participated in this initiative, which invites residents and visitors to discover and rediscover spaces of interest in the city's historic center. Over five days, a series of temporary installations by creators from around the world became resting places for pilgrims, urban stages for enjoying a glass of wine, and adventure playgrounds for local children.

Assumpció Puig is set to become the first female dean of the College of Architects of Catalonia (COAC) after leading the Ara, Arquitectes (“Now, Architects”) slate. The winning list received 1,238 votes, defeating the candidacies of Ramon Torra (600 votes) and Enric Mir (385) votes, according to an announcement by the COAC.

The professional association reported that 2,452 members voted, representing 24% of eligible voters—an improvement over the 2015 elections, which saw a 17.3% turnout. Puig will lead the governing board for the 2018–2021 term, alongside Pere Castelltort (secretary), Ione Ruete (treasurer), and board members Josep Ferrando, Guillem Costa, and Duna Bellmunt.

On Wednesday, November 21, the winners of the XXI Pan-American Architecture Biennial of Quito (BAQ2018) were announced in Ecuador.

Divided into six participation categories, the juries selected a series of projects and publications that stand out as meaningful contributions to their respective fields, offering relevant lessons for our discipline. The following are the winners in Category A (Architectural Design), Category B (Urban Design and Landscape Architecture), Category C (Social Habitat and Development), and Category D (Architectural Rehabilitation).

On December 20, the final curatorial review for the first edition of the National Essay and Research Competition, Arquitectura Escrita 2017, took place at the national headquarters of the Colegio de Arquitectos de Chile.

Organized by Grupo Arquitectura Caliente and co-organized by Ediciones ARQ, the competition awarded the 20 best essays out of 87 submissions in the undergraduate and graduate categories, representing 18 architecture schools across 9 different Chilean cities.

The competition was directed by Gabriela García de Cortázar, with a jury committee made up of 30 prominent academics and professionals.

Below is the research essay by Pontificia Universidad Católica student Francisco Cardemil, winner in the Undergraduate Category.

Jorge and Andrés Kálnay began a journey back in 1920. By that time, Argentina had already built most of its public buildings, Alejandro Bustillo was traveling through Europe, Mario Palanti was erecting his colossal Barolo Palace, and Le Corbusier would have to wait nine years before setting foot in Buenos Aires.

Little did the architect brothers imagine, when they boarded a ship bound for the United States, that they would end up in the waters of the Río de la Plata, shaping part of Buenos Aires's current architectural memory. 

Recently, CCTN Design released renderings of the renovation scheme for the Shougang No. 3 Blast Furnace Museum. The architects have carefully preserved the iconic blast furnace of the original Shougang steel plant, including core industrial structures such as the main body of the No. 3 blast furnace, the hot blast stoves, the gravity dust catcher, and the dry dust collector. By opening up the original main control room that previously blocked the furnace on the west side, the design establishes a clear dialogue between the No. 3 blast furnace complex, the Xiuqi Lake to the west, and Shijingshan Mountain. Below, the design approach for the industrial heritage revitalization of the Shougang Museum is explained through three dialectical relationships.

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Since 2016, we have joined forces with Spotify, the world's largest music streaming platform. Since then, we have created our own playlists for those moments in every architect's life. At the same time, we have invited architects from Latin America and Spain to share the music that inspires them, or even better, the sounds that have shaped their careers.

To mark Women's Month, we have prepared a series of special articles: we highlighted 15 Mexican women architects who are building the future of their country, featured 5 outstanding Colombian women architects in design, research, and teaching, and presented a selection of the best biographies published by Un día | Una arquitecta.

The cities of Bucaramanga (Colombia) and Cipolletti (Argentina) are the winners of the second edition of the international competition “City for People,” organized by the Government of the City of Buenos Aires and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The award ceremony, held in Buenos Aires, recognized the Argentine city in the Sustainable Mobility category for its proposal to implement a sustainable mobility plan designed for youth. Meanwhile, the Colombian city won in the Reviving Cities category with the renovation of the Patio de los Edecanes, a late-18th-century structure in downtown Bucaramanga. 

In Bogotá, CEMEX Colombia hosted the 12th edition of the 2018 CEMEX Building Award (Premio Obras CEMEX), celebrating the best of Colombian architecture and construction—projects "capable of creating solutions that promote the social and economic development of countries and, of course, contribute to protecting the environment," explained Ricardo Naya, president of CEMEX Colombia, during the ceremony held at the C. Vilar Auditorium.

Composed of Carlos Campuzano, Rafael Esguerra, Eduardo Rocha, Francisco de Valdenebro, Argelino Durán, and Lorenzo Castro, the jury presented awards in four categories—with the Infrastructure category declared vacant—along with three special prizes for outstanding achievements in Sustainable Building, Construction Innovation, and Social Value. The universal accessibility category was also declared vacant.

The winning architects in each category will travel to Mexico in November to represent Colombia at the international CEMEX Building Award ceremony.

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The renowned architecture firm Zaha Hadid Architects has announced its first exhibition in Latin America, which will take place at the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) on the campus of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). The exhibition, titled Design as Second Nature, will showcase several projects by architect Zaha Hadid through models, audiovisual materials, paintings, and photographs, exploring the creative process of her practice and highlighting the importance and complexity of design as the central axis connecting form and construction in her work.

Mexican architect Enrique Norten will receive the Fine Arts Medal in Architecture, the highest honor awarded by the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA) to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to Mexico's art and culture. With this award, the Institute celebrates his career and his contributions to the country's culture.

Born in Mexico City on February 27, 1954, Norten was drawn to the world of design and determined to pursue creative work early on. At the age of 20, he began his architecture studies at the Universidad Iberoamericana.

The small sovereign state of Luxembourg has a population of about 560,000. However, its vehicle count is disproportionate to its size: 662 for every thousand people, according to The New York Times. This represents the highest car-to-population ratio in the entire European Union. To address this issue, Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, reelected for a second term, promised free public transit for all residents.

The work of Patricia Golombek is an architectural study developed from different perspectives, analyzing structural elements and design solutions by various architects from around the world.

An architect by training, the artist uses her work to highlight the language through which architects communicate and the creative process behind their designs.