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This article was originally published on Common Edge.

For the past decade, Nigeria has lived under the crushing specter of attacks by the terrorist group Boko Haram. From Maiduguri to Abuja, bombs have exploded intermittently, killing hundreds, destroying thousands of homes, and crippling public infrastructure. In recent years, the Nigerian military has liberated several captive communities and begun reconstruction work in a number of them. Sadly, the aftereffects of these violent convulsions have profoundly reshaped our cities. The attacks utterly upended lives: shattering basic civic amenities, disrupting livelihoods, and forcing residents to rebuild from scratch while still grieving for family and friends.

The Berlin Philharmonic by Hans Scharoun is one of the most prominent mid-20th century structures in the German city. The expressionist-style building with its bright-colored facade is the first of its kind by the German architect, as well as his most famous project to date. Scharoun’s design interprets rhythm and music as architecture, both conceptually and physically.

Architectural photographer Bahaa Ghoussainy unfolds Scharoun’s unique architecture by highlighting the concert hall’s dramatic angular geometry, vibrant yellow-hued facade, and play of lines and forms.

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Bamboo is a building material that has been used since antiquity in various structures, demonstrating its superiority over modern materials such as plastic and steel. This is due to its countless benefits, as well as an incomparable aesthetic appeal that has positioned it as one of today's leading architectural trends.

The following reflections emerged from SENEMAU, the National Seminar of Model Offices of Architecture and Urbanism, which took place in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, from August 9 to 18, 2019. This national gathering, held since 1997, brought together 12 student collectives from various cities across the country for an immersive experience focused on university outreach and the social and political role of architects and urban planners. The self-managed student gathering hosted an exhibition of works, debates on various themes, and immersive experiences in areas of interest across the city. 

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Concrete, a material commonly used in the construction industry, is made of a binder combined with aggregates (or gravels), water, and certain additives. Its origins reach back as far as Ancient Egypt, when the construction of large structures created the need for a new kind of material: one which was liquid, featured properties of natural stones, could be molded, and communicated a sense of nobility and grandeur. 

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Light Collective, founders of the project "Women in Lighting", conclude that although female designers seem to make up possibly half of the lighting design profession, their profile appears much lower than men when looking at judges in awards and speakers at major conferences. Sharon Stammers and Martin Lupton started a project with interviews of female lighting designers and contacted conference organizers to enhance their visibility. 

The World's Greatest Places of 2019 list by Time magazine celebrates 100 destinations in the world to visit, stay, eat and drink. Selected by the global team of editors of the publication, the places have been evaluated based on quality, originality, innovation, sustainability and social impact.

We have shortened this list and selected the architectural projects that have previously appeared on ArchDaily. Read on for more details.

Over the past 20 years, the role of representation and rendering has shifted dramatically across the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industries. New rendering technologies, techniques, and software, such as Lumion, have driven this evolution. By integrating 3D rendering tools, architects and designers can leverage intuitive, versatile visualization technologies to enhance creativity rather than stifle it.

The “De-whitening the City” Podcast is a space invented from the desire of five Black women residing in Salvador, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte to circumvent geographic distance in order to foster and celebrate connection. Emmily Leandro, Gabriela Gaia, Luciana Mayrink, Malu de Barros, and Natalia Alves make up the Terra Preta collective, giving shape and voice to this exercise in creating a shared virtual territory—both a political and aesthetic commitment—now made public for the first time.

What happens when the sensor-imbued city acquires the ability to see – almost as if it had eyes? Ahead of the 2019 Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB), titled "Urban Interactions," ArchDaily is working with the curators of the "Eyes of the City" section at the Biennial to stimulate a discussion on how new technologies – and Artificial Intelligence in particular – might impact architecture and urban life. Here you can read the “Eyes of the City” curatorial statement by Carlo Ratti, the Politecnico di Torino and SCUT.

The series of articles developed by Nikos A. Salingaros, David Brain, Andrés M. Duany, Michael W. Mehaffy and Ernesto Philibert-Petit researches the peculiarities of social housing in Latin America. 

This time, the proposal focuses on how human health and well-being depend on the geometry of the environment. Check the previously published pieces and the new article, below.

• 1. Design That Establishes Emotional Ownership
• 2. Anti-Patterns of Social Housing in Latin America
• 3. The Geometry of Control

4. Biophilia, Connectivity, and Spirituality.

Economic and urban processes are known to drive major modifications in the urban structure. In light of the events of January 25, 2019, with the collapse of the Brumadinho dam, it is clear that environmental negligence by major mining corporations also has the power to produce profound consequences and alter the ways in which people inhabit and utilize the territory.

Few may have heard of Hermosillo, a Mexican city of 850,000 inhabitants located in the middle of the desert, just 280 kilometers south of the United States border. It is a city of great strengths, but also immense challenges. In an increasingly urbanized world, cities have become platforms for innovation and change, particularly in developing countries. While megacities like Bogotá, Lima, and Mexico City struggle to distribute goods and services to their sprawling populations, intermediate cities like Hermosillo have the potential to offer a more sustainable alternative.

After studying civil engineering at the Escola de Minas de Ouro Preto, Carlos Frederico Ferreira returned to his native city of Rio de Janeiro and enrolled in the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes, graduating in architecture in 1935. In 1939, he was hired by the IAPI as an engineer-architect and soon rose to the position of head of the institute's Engineering Department. By 1943, having overseen the partial completion of the first major housing development, the Conjunto Residencial Operário in Realengo, he was able to begin expanding the model to other locations. The designs for Vila Guiomar in Santo André and Piratininga in Osasco, as well as the apartment building and IAPI Regional Office headquarters in Recife—all designed by him—demonstrate how, through his position, he sought to shape the direction of the institute's future developments.

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In the fall of 2017, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck at least nine states in Mexico, leaving several areas severely affected across Mexico City, Puebla, Morelos, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Tlaxcala, Guerrero, and the State of Mexico. Jojutla, a municipality located in Morelos, was one of many reduced to ruins after the earthquake shook Mexico on September 19, leaving much of its infrastructure damaged. Consequently, through an initiative by Infonavit, a master plan was launched to reconstruct the municipality's primary public buildings.

Discussions surrounding women's access to higher education and the labor market in general are of central importance when considering ways to establish more equitable living conditions and active roles in contemporary society. Although grounded in censuses and surveys linked to the formal labor market, this reflection provides a general baseline of women's current conditions in the face of difficulties stemming from the lingering legacy of a patriarchal and moralistic structure of professional hierarchies, where the leading figures are, and historically have been, men.

Since the beginning of the month, thousands of fire outbreaks have been recorded in Brazil's northern states, spreading through Acre, Rondônia, Mato Grosso, and Mato Grosso do Sul, and reaching the triple border of Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay. According to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), the country is experiencing its worst wave of wildfires in five years.

Architecture school. You’ve heard the myths - the legends of all-nighters and innovation, of unmatched workaholism and love for the profession. Perhaps you know what you want – to solve the great urbanization problem, to create the next sustainable wonder-gadget, or maybe just to start your own firm and show the architectural world how it’s done. Maybe you have no idea what you want to do, drawn to architecture by the romance, the larger-than-life scale. Maybe you’re an artist who wants a job when they graduate. A hometown hero, you’re about to be thrown into a classroom of the best, possibly for the first time in your life. You’ll be surrounded by the brightest in engineering, problem solving, writing, drawing and a host of other skills. Anxious and excited, you stand ready at the doors of architectural education, hungry for innovation and ready to share and learn from others. Stepping inside that first day, you prepare yourself for the best - and most difficult times of your life so far.

To prepare you for the strange beast that is architecture school, shed light on what is fact and fiction, and give you some peace of mind, we at ArchDaily have prepared a list of advice for all incoming architecture students. There is no other education in the world quite like an architectural one, and we hope that this list can help prepare you for its unique wonders and challenges. The advice below is meant to ease the transition into school as much as possible – but be warned, nothing can compare to experiencing the real deal. Read them all after the break.

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