Articles

As the end of the year approaches, it brings the opportunity to reflect on the standout architectural moments of 2023. With this in mind, we looked at the most liked photos on ArchDaily Brasil's Instagram.

In recent years, India has emerged as a focal point for architects and urban designers from around the world. From the rich legacy of masters and emerging firms to smart city initiates being established across the peninsula, the acts of decolonization in architecture design to the evolution of a modernized vernacular, India has been demonstrating the power of supporting good architecture and urban design. This year, ArchDaily launched ArchDaily Building for Billions, a column that discusses the effects of population rise, urbanization, and economic growth on India’s built environment. Building for Billions was fueled by the recognition of changes and innovative projects washing over the country.

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Far beyond the technical knowledge of his engineering background, Eladio Dieste (1917-2000) developed a rare architectural sensibility. He was a pioneer and master of reinforced masonry—essentially a relatively thin "shell" system in which ceramic blocks are compressed, steel bars are tensioned, and concrete binds the assembly together. Structural strength is enhanced through the design of complex spatial geometries that respond precisely to applied loads, thereby minimizing material use. This allows large spans and cantilevers to be achieved, while elegantly transferring loads to the ground.

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Architecture in the Global South often embodies a rich cultural heritage and craftsmanship, incorporating vibrant colors, intricate patterns, and symbolic elements. It also tackles the challenges faced by developing economies, such as limited resources, rapid urbanization, and social inequality, by promoting inclusive and community-driven design solutions. As installations and pavilions serve as radical templates for interrogating these architectural ideals and seeking innovative solutions, we present the top architectural installations as part of our year-in-review. They encompass curated exhibitions like the Venice Architecture Biennale, as well as permanent pavilion structures in specific contexts that delve into local materials, waste reuse, and the reinterpretation of historical narratives.

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Residential architecture plays a vital role in people's lives, influencing their quality of life and well-being. To design environments that are truly tailored to the biopsychosocial needs of each user, it is essential to incorporate the principles of neuroscience applied to architecture. In this regard, Rudolf Steiner's Seven-Year Cycles theory offers a valuable conceptual framework for understanding the different phases of life and their implications for home design. This article addresses the stages of the architectural project, from briefing to execution, highlighting the relevance of cognitive and behavioral neuroscience concepts—such as priming, framing, nudging, wayfinding, salutogenic design, and biophilic design—in light of the Seven-Year Cycles theory.

Our buildings become symbolic of the times we live in, reflecting the spirit of a given era, attending to different needs, lifestyles and functions. “Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness,” says one of the most prominent architects of our time, Frank Gehry. For architectural innovators, exploring new technological potentials and envisioning ways to enrich people’s lives have long been driving forces, shaping responses to contemporary challenges. Today, sustainability stands as a key challenge, adding new dimensions to the debate, bringing together form, function, the responsible choice of materials and long-term thinking. Adapting to these demands has never held more significance.

Cities are not just inert landscapes or lifeless settings; they play active and significant roles in shaping numerous television narratives. Whether in series or soap operas, urban environments play a fundamental role not only as the backdrop where plots unfold but also in shaping the developments of storylines, their creations, guidelines, and contexts. While, on the one hand, cities and their urban cultures contribute to the composition of various small screen plots, on the other hand, television programs can also help shape a certain idealized imagination about these urban spaces, generating unrealistic expectations and perpetuating a series of stereotypes about the represented cities.

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This article was originally published on Common Edge.

The biennale UN climate conference, COP28, concluded in Dubai this week with a commitment to the eventual “phasing out” of fossil fuels. It was a classic glass-half-empty/glass-half-full gesture. Yes, as optimists pointed out, it was the first time any reference to moving away from fossil fuels had made it into the text of the final communique. But, like previous COPs, this resolution, too, is nonbinding and was reached over howls of protest from both oil-producing countries and developing countries reliant on existing energy supply chains for future growth. The tortuous nature of the outcome, watered down and officially toothless, left me feeling glum. If we can’t agree on the nature of the problem, it will be exceptionally difficult to fix it.

To offer perspective, I reached out to longtime activist Bill McKibben. A professor at Middlebury College, he has published 20 books; his first, The End of Nature, appeared in 1989. He was, along with Dr. James Hansen, one of the first to sound the climate alarm. McKibbin is a contributing writer to the New Yorker, and a founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice. In collaboration with seven Middlebury students, he founded 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign.

The duality of sunlight in the field of architectural design presents fascinating contrasts, especially when addressing the question of how to interact with it through the built environment and the materials that define architecture. The sun's influence in this discipline has become an essential part of the cultural heritage of some countries, as evidenced by Spanish architecture, where the interaction with sunlight manifests through elements such as lattices. These lattices are recognizable on the facades of buildings from the Middle Ages, exemplified by structures like the Alhambra, to 20th-century constructions such as Casa Gomis, considered historical monuments.

The facade, being the skin of the building, is the architectural component that is usually directly exposed to sunlight. Based on this premise, we seek to establish a dialogue between openness to the environment and the need for protection, thus creating a synergy between functionality and aesthetics. In this context, sunscreen facades have been developed through various approaches, standing out for their ability to address this design condition. For this reason, we have selected solar control solutions from Spanish brands, distinguished by their technical characteristics and materiality through various approaches.

They say that it doesn’t matter what happens, but how you see it. They also say that literature does not reproduce reality, but rather creates another. It all starts with an idea. Just an idea. Image and imagination go hand in hand, meaning they constitute the mechanism of human perception, thought, language, and memory. And in essence, architecture is nothing more than organizing ideas. The question is: how do we organize these ideas? Or rather, how do you see things? Is there really perception without social and cultural context? The short answer is no. The long answer involves interpretive anthropology, a bit of theory, and a great deal of criticism.

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Smart homes leverage technology to provide residents with increased convenience, savings, comfort, and security. With automated environments, household routines are streamlined. What once seemed like a distant future is now within reach as smart devices have become more accessible. They enable a new level of interaction between the home and its inhabitants through Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections.

As AI has become more accessible, we have witnessed examples illustrating its diverse applications. Prominent among these are generative AIs, which excel in their ability to “create” images through prompts, many distinguished by their composition and vividness. These AI systems are neural networks with billions of parameters, trained to create images from natural language, using a dataset of text–image pairs. Thus, although the initial question posed by Turing in the 1950s, “Can machines think?” still recurs today, the generation of images and text is grounded in existing information, limiting their capabilities.

What has surprised many is the increasingly apparent closeness to overcoming the Turing test and the growing similarity, in terms of visualizations, to what an architect with skills in this field can achieve. In this context, while the debate persists in the architectural community about whether AI can process architectural concepts, this article explores how it interprets materials to develop these visual representations. With that in mind, a single prompt was developed for this experiment (with materiality as its variable) to delve into the obtained results.

Designed by the architects of Grass+Batz, the Dignity Memorial Mausoleum in Chile has been selected as the winning project in the architecture category of ESENCIALES x ArchDaily 2023.

Every year, ArchDaily features thousands of new projects that make up the largest online architecture library in the world. Our team of curators review, seek, and make sure to explore some of the most innovative and relevant architectural works around. Just like the projects that appeared in our first ArchDaily book, our aim is to open up our platform and highlight (What is) Good Architecture.

The Wild Mile project is an ambitious initiative by the nonprofit organization Urban Rivers, aiming to restore a 1.5-kilometer stretch of the Chicago River in the United States. The project involves creating a vibrant and sustainable urban oasis with boardwalks and floating gardens.

Since the opening of its first section in July 2023, the Wild Mile has already attracted over 30,000 visitors, including local residents, educational programs, and special events. Leaders at Urban Rivers express pride in the project's achievements, highlighting the transformation of a once-neglected stretch of the river into a thriving public space for both wildlife and people.

Some materials change the course of architecture from the moment they begin to be employed. The initial materials used in construction certainly did so: clay, stone, and wood. The ability to build is the origin of the discipline. With technological development, techniques were also refined, and in the 19th century, industrialization spread the use of other materials, transforming and expanding the realm of construction: iron and glass.

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Combining technical and aesthetic qualities, porcelain tile stands out as a versatile ceramic option for various architectural and design applications, both indoors and outdoors. Composed primarily of ground clays, feldspars, silica, and other natural materials, porcelain is distinguished by its strength, compactness, and low porosity. In addition to its wide range of colors, patterns, and textures, this material comes in various formats and dimensions. Among these options, large-format porcelain tiles stand out, ideal for enhancing the design of seamless, contemporary spaces.

As part of its solutions for flooring and ceramic wall coverings, Cesantoni has developed large-format porcelain tiles that merge classic style with contemporary innovation. By analyzing these new rectified porcelain options, we demonstrate the versatility of this material across diverse applications, ranging from outdoor areas, kitchens, bathrooms, and common spaces to public space design.

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