Articles

Daniel Flavin was a key figure of the minimalist art movement of the 1960s and 1970s in the United States. The term was first coined by philosopher Richard Wollheim in his 1965 essay “Minimal Art” to categorize works that, like Duchamp's ready-mades, did not seek to represent an external reality; instead, the exhibited object was to be understood as a work in its own right, and the viewer's experience was not meant to rely on external associations.

Hello Wood, as you may already know, is an annual festival, which gathers hundreds of people in a Hungarian village for a week. Divided into groups, the architects and students carefully selected by the team of organizers, build installations made of wood with their bare hands. The outcome is amazing — dozens of beautiful structures rise up there each year adding more and more originality to the site.

The words cannot express the vibe you get at the Hello Wood Project Village — all the "beautiful people", as they call each other, are one big family. There is no competition, the teams help each other to make sure all projects are completed before the deadline, when they all march to the neighboring village and celebrate the week spent together.

But what is the idea behind this festival? What is the secret key to building a strong community of professionals and students in such a short period of time? Watch our interview with Hello Wood team to learn how they answer these questions.

Many people's way of working has changed, but most offices remain the same.

However, innovating doesn't necessarily mean breaking down every wall and creating a play space; the design of an office must take into account the needs and details of each type of work separately. For every function, there are better and worse ways to organize spaces, and some configurations work better for certain activities but not for others. The most important consideration is that the workplace allows interactions while providing spaces for concentration and focus.

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An established trend in the creative world and beyond, coworking is predicated on the idea that sharing space can offer both financial and productivity benefits. As demonstrated by Bjarke Ingels’ heavy involvement in WeWork, and the vibrant, dynamic workspaces created by Second Home, architecture and design play a heavy role in the effective design of coworking spaces.

The way we approach work has changed, and that is undeniable. Our profession no longer defines us as much as past generations, and new forms of work have been incorporated into everyday life. While technology has revolutionized our ability to perform a variety of daily tasks, many professions have disappeared, some will probably not last much longer and, while others were created.

As the trend of migration from rural to urban areas continues, it is estimated that by 2050, one billion people with disabilities will live in cities. Many of these urban centers, with cores dating back hundreds or even thousands of years, are currently ill-equipped to respond to this demand.  There is, therefore, an immediate challenge for architects, urban planners, and city officials to address the inaccessibility of historic cities, from uneven cobblestones to narrow, stepped alleys, creating an urban realm that offers universal mobility without detracting from their historic charm.

Once subjugated by outlaw armed groups and devastated by the largest urban military operation in Colombia's history, the Las Independencias neighborhood, located in Medellín's Comuna 13, is today an open-air graffiti gallery of sorts, accessed via a system of electric escalators—the only ones in the world built in an informal settlement.

In its fourth consecutive edition in Chile, Casa FOA 2019—the international exhibition that brings together design, interior design, architecture, landscaping, and art—showcased established and emerging design talents who revitalized the forgotten Paseo San Damián in Las Condes.

The exhibition aims to introduce the public to the latest trends in the design industry under the concept of creating, transforming, and rethinking the way we live and work. This year's edition was guided by the concept of Coliving, the current expression of social and generational evolution, pointing toward collaborative living and the construction of collective intelligence through shared workspaces and common home areas.

Rarely does one see brutalist architecture in the city of London. Primarily, these buildings were perceived as rebellious and grotesque, only to become the "go-to" style for commercial and governmental buildings after the Second World War. Nowadays, with the real estate market demands and dominance of contemporary architecture, these monumental grey structures are gradually fading away.

Santiago-based architect and photographer Grégoire Dorthe developed the passion of photography during his military service, when he realized that through his images, he is able to freeze moments and preserve what will be lost with time. In his photographic series titled "Brutal London", the Swiss photographer captures the raw forms and graphic qualities of the city's brutalist architecture, before these buildings meet their end.

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Women are imperative members of the design community, creating innovative and inspiring work in the fields of architecture, design, and urban planning. However, even with the rise of the women's movement, their contributions are still being questioned, compared, or taken for granted.

Metropolis Magazine looked back at the history of feminism in architecture, shedding the light on the times when the advocates witnessed unprecedented progress, and times when they lost their advantage.

Hong Kong is considered to have one of the most exceptional skylines and urban schemes in the world: contemporary skyscrapers stand amidst the mountains and harbour, ancient houses nestled between futuristic structures, neon lights, landscapes... But among Hong Kong's numerous remarkable architectures, its spatial typology of death is like no other.

Over the course of five years, RIBA-nominated architectural photographer Finbarr Fallon captured the hyper-dense graveyards of Hong Kong, showcasing the sublime geometry of its mountainside burials in a series titled "Dead Space".

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The work of the Catalan firm Barozzi Veiga is explored through the tension between tradition and invention in architecture in this article by João Paulo Rapagão, published in partnership with AMAG.

Being able to move around cities is a basic requirement for the development of most human activities. Yet daily trips between home and work, study, leisure, and other daily commitments are not always done under the most comfortable conditions, whether it be because of crowded public transportation or unexpected traffic jams. Urban mobility is a hotly debated topic, from informal conversation circles to technical and scientific seminars. It's hard to find someone who doesn't have an opinion on the subject or some miraculous solution to the problems in their city or region. In fact, we have already posted several articles addressing this issue on this site, from utopian proposals to questions related to the daily lives of most of the population.

The following research, developed within the Master's in Sustainable Habitat and Energy Efficiency program at the Universidad del Bío-Bío by C. Matías Tapia Maureira and María Beatriz Piderit M., addresses the integration of resilience and sustainability criteria in the design of educational buildings in Chile. Read a summary of their work below.

Conceived as a large-scale residential development in an expansion zone of São Paulo, the Jardim Ana Rosa Residential Complex began its subdivision design in 1950, in the Vila Mariana neighborhood, facing Largo Ana Rosa. The development, carried out by the Banco Hipotecário Lar Brasileiro, featured the participation of several prominent São Paulo architects of the time, such as Abelardo de Souza, Plínio Croce, Roberto Aflalo, and Salvador Cândia. In its initial version, the project planned for a few buildings bordering Vergueiro Avenue, with most of the area designated for single-family homes.

Throughout the past year, the concepts of Smart Homes (+160% YoY) and Domotics (+450% YoY) have been gaining traction as they define the automation and connectivity between devices found within homes, and which constitute the basic units of the growing Smart Cities concept.

According to data released by the United Nations (UN, 2017), the global population has reached 7.6 billion, with more than half (54%) living in urban areas. In Brazil, according to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE, 2010), 84.4% of the population lives in cities.

Open More Doors is a section by ArchDaily and the MINI Clubman that takes you behind the scenes of the world’s most innovative offices through exciting video interviews and an exclusive photo gallery featuring each studio’s workspace.

This month, we talked with Italian architecture firm Supervoid to discuss their design strategies and how they helped develop the office's interior space.

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