Articles

Over the past two decades, new master-planned cities have risen at a pace and scale rarely seen in modern history. Concentrated largely in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, more than 150 such projects are currently underway. For some, these cities are promoted as fast tracks to modernization and a way to leapfrog from resource- or agriculture-dependent economies into knowledge-driven ones. For others, they are strategic showcases, designed to attract global attention, foreign capital, and prestige. By packaging urbanization itself as an investment opportunity, these projects promise to stimulate growth and reposition nations within the global economy—all through the act of building anew.

According to Forbes, "The new city building movement that we are currently in the middle of is one of the most under the radar and most misinterpreted social and economic developments happening in the world today". What often escapes scrutiny, however, is not only the architecture of these projects, but the governance model they advance.

+ 7

Self-described as a movement united around the idea that the physical environment can directly impact the creation of more prosperous and happier lives for its inhabitants, New Urbanism emerged as a concept in the United States in the 1990s and became consolidated through the Congresses for the New Urbanism (CNU), held annually since 1993.

In 1996, three years after the First Congress for the New Urbanism, the Charter of the New Urbanism was launched with the goal of establishing the guiding ideals and principles of the movement and, in doing so, exploring the possibilities for the development of American cities.

+ 1

How important is color in architecture? The choice of color for a facade or a space can have complex effects on people, directly influencing their sensations and perceptions. The possibilities are endless, ranging from bold contrasts to complete achromatism.

The following list is our index of articles, news, and projects covering everything you need to know about the importance of color in buildings—from design strategies and the latest trends to its application in projects and materials.

The relationship between the market and the state has traditionally been understood as a three-tiered framework. The state guarantees property rights and other preconditions for markets. Markets operate within this structure and deliver efficient outcomes. The state corrects market failures through complementary institutions, such as, in some cases, social welfare policies. Managing cities is no different, and issues such as economic development, accessibility to goods and services, mobility, sustainability, freedom, and well-being depend on the relationship between markets and the state.

+ 19

The orthogonal grid is the manifestation of a principle of order, a condition reinforced by the repetition of elements that express the structural rationality embedded in an aesthetic system. There is also a sense of freedom celebrated by decoupling structure from walls which, combined with pragmatic efficiency, keeps structural grids a constant presence in buildings of various scales both in Brazil and around the world.

In technical terms, structural grids are composed of linear elements—specifically beams—situated on a single plane to form a mesh capable of resisting structural loads. Typically, they feature regular spacing crossing at right angles, with dimensions that vary depending on the material used.

Videos

In 2017, Escola da Cidade—through its Seminar on Culture and Contemporary Reality course, then coordinated by Professor José Guilherme Pereira—welcomed anthropologist and PhD in Social Sciences Manuela Carneiro da Cunha to discuss the history, spatialization, and daily life of Indigenous peoples in Brazil, highlighting issues from not only a cultural standpoint, but also a legal and environmental one.

Videos

As part of an initiative to document the history of Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, REGIOPOLIS emerged as a documentary video series narrated from the perspective of the city's creators, aiming to leave an architectural record of the Monterrey metropolis. Each episode showcases some of the most significant works that laid the foundation for its urban fabric, exploring the historic and emblematic architecture built to this day.

+ 4

Wood in architecture, when properly managed, is often associated with sustainability but also with a sense of comfort and coziness. Well-designed joinery can provide versatility and uniqueness to interior design, among so many other benefits.

As we are entering 2021 after a year of anxiety and uncertainties, what are your expectation for our future? The UN75 survey reports that most people around the world hold greater optimism for the future: “Globally, many more respondents believe people will be better off in 2045 than today (49%) compared to those who believe people will be worse off (32%).”

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

For most people, calling a place “sacred” designates it as an important location, one usually associated with spirituality. It might be the setting for religious rituals (the sacred space of a church, synagogue, or mosque), a spot where some event described as “miraculous” has occurred (such as the reported sighting of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France, which became a pilgrimage site), or a place which held the body of deity (think of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, built upon what is believed the be the tomb of Jesus Christ). 

+ 3

Published in book format by Wustavo Quiroga and Juan Ruades, “Intermitencia. Diseño Mendocino” (Intermittence: Design from Mendoza) is an investigation that explores the development and trajectory of both architecture and other design disciplines in the province of Mendoza, Argentina. Spanning from the 1930s to the present, the book incorporates political events, pivotal moments, and intersecting histories that shed light on the evolution and cross-cutting connections linking industrial, graphic, product, and architectural design in the province, serving as a key resource for consolidating a federal narrative of Argentine design.

+ 4

Nayarit is a state located in western Mexico, bordered by the states of Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, and Jalisco, and facing the Pacific Ocean. With an area of 27,815 km², it is the country's ninth-smallest state. Its capital and most populous city is Tepic. Other notable localities include Nuevo Vallarta, Valle de Banderas, Ixtlán del Río, San Blas, Santiago Ixcuintla, Acaponeta, Compostela, Jala, Santa María del Oro, Rosamorada, Xalisco, San Pedro Lagunillas, Tecuala, and Huajicori.

Videos

The term ‘open concept’ is popular with house-flipping television shows and real estate descriptions for lofts or contemporary style homes. However, the phrase is absent from the architect’s lexicon, likely due to a much more robust vocabulary and archive of precedents for describing the continuity of space in a domestic environment. This video is the second in a series that breaks down various ‘open concepts’ in architecture. The first video was dedicated to the ‘Organic Plan’ of Frank Lloyd Wright and this one takes a closer look at the ‘Free Plan’ of Le Corbusier. Through comparisons with Wright and supported with examples from the Five Points of a Modern Architecture, ‘Free Plans’ are presented as a unique way of understanding the coherence of space.

+ 16

The progressive departure of factories from cities, often due to environmental regulations, noise ordinances, or the price of real estate, has left many urban manufacturing facilities abandoned and out of use. As these urban factories are left empty, many adventurous developers are taking advantage of the plentiful space, light, and flexible functions that they offer, leading to a residential revitalization in many of the world's defunct manufacturing facilities.   

In dystopian films, it is a common trope to depict the sky as filled with a thick fog, blocking the sun's rays and bringing a dark atmosphere to the scenes. Whether in Blade Runner or in a Black Mirror episode, the lack of sun commonly represents a future we would rather not live in. The sun provides heat to planet Earth and is a great source of light energy, essential for the survival of many living creatures. We can generate electricity from the sun and still use only a fraction of the energy it provides. Sunlight also regulates our circadian cycle, which affects our mood. But recent forest fires and industrial pollution in some large cities have already made the dystopian blockage of sun a relatively common phenomenon, depriving hours of sunshine from many inhabitants. Concurrently, with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are living a plot that few science fiction writers could have predicted, and new technologies and solutions have emerged to try to contain the spread of this invisible enemy. Can the sun, or specifically ultraviolet radiation, kill viruses and bacteria? Could it kill the coronavirus?

Almost 6 months ago, on August 4^th, 2020, the city of Beirut was shaken by one of the biggest non-nuclear blasts in history. Leaving the northern side of the capital in ruins, the explosion damaged around 40,000 buildings. New contemporary structures completed recently by local international architects are now facing reconstruction dilemmas, raising existential questions such as: How should reconstruction efforts of “new” damaged buildings look like? Should architects rebuild them as they were before the blast, erasing what has happened or should they leave scars and portray new realities?

In order to explore ideas and highlight different perspectives, ArchDaily had the chance to sit with three architects whose buildings were impacted by the blast. Bernard Khoury, Paul Kaloustian, and Lina Ghotmeh talked about their projects and their vision of the reconstruction of Beirut with ArchDaily's Managing Editor, Christele Harrouk, alongside Architectural Photographer Laurian Ghinitoiu, who documented in a featured photo series the extent of the destruction.

+ 15

Since immemorial time, humans have constructed their shelter and homes using wood. Gradually these structures grew more complex, but wood has continued to play a fundamental role in architecture and construction. Today, especially due to growing concerns about climate change and carbon emissions, wood has been regaining significance as an important building material for the future, if used consciously and sustainably. Wood’s structural performance capabilities make it appropriate for a broad range of applications—from the light-duty repetitive framing common in low and mid-rise structures to the larger and heavier, often hybrid systems, used to build arenas, offices, universities and other buildings where long spans and tall walls are required.

From climate crisis to How Will We Live Together, as we face the current and accentuated global challenges many of our ideas about the cities of tomorrow are changing. So how will the city of the future be?