Articles

The academic world has much to contribute to the field of architecture and urbanism. Its research and proposals foster inspiring visions, new materials, and concepts, sparking essential debates on how we perceive, occupy, and design the built environment. Across their entire spectrum, final graduation projects offer students an opportunity to put forward a final proposal before earning their degree, addressing diverse themes and touching upon urgent issues. Consequently, we host an annual call for submissions open to all Portuguese-speaking countries to present a panorama of outstanding projects that help us reflect on the past year and look to the future.

The Instituto Corrida Amiga works to bring people closer and connect them to the spaces they inhabit, aiming to transform citizens' daily lives through the perspective of active mobility, access, and the right to the city.

Part of the institute's initiatives consists of educational practices designed for diverse audiences, featuring playful-educational activities that encourage active participation and collaboration. This allows participants to express their opinions and desires, fostering decision-making, critical thinking, and empathy.

Whether for environmental, structural, or aesthetic reasons, wood is widely used in contemporary architecture, although it still falls far short of its true potential. Properly managed, it becomes an inexhaustible resource—which, in itself, should attract significant attention from architects and other construction professionals.

To separate wood from its association with cladding and partitions—or purely ornamental uses—we have compiled 10 public and community projects of varying scales, from small neighborhood libraries to conference centers, built in locations as far apart as Ecuador and Bangladesh, that employ wood in their structures.

+ 6

+ 4

Caring for the earth, caring for people, and caring for the future. These are the three ethical principles that have guided the practice of permaculture since the term was coined in the late 1970s by Australian ecologists David Holmgren and Bill Mollison. This was an era when the environmental movement gained significant traction, with the emergence of various organizations and movements united in an effort to curb the destruction of the planet's natural resources.

Its three core principles embody a commitment to caring for natural resources, pursuing a social life in harmony with nature, and creating systems to share these resources.

The first architecture course in Brazil was established more than 200 years ago as part of the "French Mission" of 1816. The Royal School of Sciences, Arts, and Crafts of Rio de Janeiro offered the only course in the country for over fifty years. It was an institution geared toward educating the Brazilian elite, lacking any research purpose, and training an "architect-artist in service of the court."

According to architect and researcher Sônia Marques, the requirements for admission to the Royal School were "knowing how to read, write, and count," and the curriculum of the architecture course consisted of subjects such as: ornamental drawing, ornamental sculpture, archaeology and applied mathematics, perspective and shadows, and stereotomy (the technique of cutting construction materials), among others. Its foundation aimed to meet the needs of a clientele consuming symbolic goods—a demographic developed and fostered primarily by the recent presence of the Portuguese court in Brazil. [1]

+ 6

In 1936, the Brazilian Press Academy launched a competition for the design of its new headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. Herbert Moses, president of the Association, was, according to Cláudio Pereira (2002), in sync with international avant-garde trends, having even served as an interpreter for Frank Lloyd Wright during his lectures in Rio de Janeiro in 1931. It was Moses who handpicked the jury members, which consisted of ABI members, architects, and representatives from specialized organizations.

The existence of urban centers as hubs of trade and culture spans millennia. As construction, water supply, and transportation technologies developed—especially vessels capable of carrying large volumes of goods and people—small villages transformed into major cities.

By 500 BCE, there were already one million inhabitants in Rome. Yet it was only after 1760, following the Industrial Revolution in England, that cities began to take center stage. Since then, cities have faced monumental challenges, and so far, absolutely nothing has been able to disperse populations or dismantle large urban centers.

+ 3

Access to adequate housing is difficult in a country like Brazil, which has a housing deficit of 6.3 million homes (FUNDO FICA, 2019). The perverse logic of the real estate market—where the costs of buying land and property, and even renting, are extremely high—coupled with the lack of public housing policies—in a social context where urban families earning up to two minimum wages spend 41.2% of their household income on housing consumption expenses (GUERREIRO; MARINO; ROLNIK, 2019)—makes homeownership extremely difficult for the poorest segments of the population.

+ 1

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.

+ 1

Since March 2018, when a 2.5-magnitude tremor on the Richter scale startled the residents of Maceió, the population of the Alagoas state capital has become aware of—and gradually had to grapple with—the consequences of a tragedy that would soon fully unfold. Following the appearance of a series of cracks and sinkholes across various neighborhoods, geological analyses identified the primary cause of the ground subsidence: the extraction of rock salt—a mineral used in the manufacturing of caustic soda and PVC—which had been carried out in Maceió for over 40 years by the petrochemical company Braskem.

With new tremors in November 2023 and the imminent risk of the mines collapsing, Maceió's crisis returned to the Brazilian headlines, shedding light on a range of complex urban issues tied to the tragedy. From physical damage to city infrastructure and forced displacement to inflation and real estate speculation, the unfolding disaster reveals painful scenes of what is already being called one of the worst urban tragedies in the world. Immersed in this crisis, the city's population suffers from incalculable damage: "The cracks weren't just in the buildings; they were in us, in our souls."

The interaction between architecture and human well-being is a field drawing increasing interest in the contemporary world. The role of architecture in daily life extends far beyond its aesthetic or practical functions; it directly shapes the experience and well-being of those who interact with built spaces. This fundamental link between architectural space and human well-being is being increasingly explored by researchers and practitioners seeking to understand and optimize the impact of the built environment on people's health and quality of life.

Mexico City- and Guadalajara-based firm Estudio AMA debuts with its "Riviera Ka’an Residencias" project, located in Xpu Ha, a town in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico, situated south of Playa del Carmen and north of Tulum on the Caribbean coast. Estudio AMA presents itself as a creative space encompassing all fields of design: architecture, interiors, graphic design, and art.

The following text contributes to the debate on a topic crucial to understanding the Portuguese presence in the world: urbanization processes. Focusing on the landscape of Cochin as a case study, we seek to build alternative pathways for thinking about “Portuguese” cities around the globe and their relations with the diverse agents and cultures with whom the Portuguese interacted during their overseas activities across practically the entire planet. Amid this sea of options, the choice of Cochin is guided by two main aspects.

First, Cochin was the first location where the Portuguese established a solid foothold in the Indian Ocean, in the early sixteenth century. While the Portuguese had previously accumulated a wealth of experience on the West African coast and the Atlantic islands, the same could not be said of the Indian Ocean: Cochin served as the first permanent laboratory of the Portuguese experience on Asian shores. In this context, the case allows us to analyze how the Portuguese accommodated themselves to an unfamiliar environment, as well as to debate their strategies and instruments.

+ 2

In a revealing use of big data, Raj Chetty and his colleagues at the Equality of Opportunity Project used anonymous tax records to track the childhood-to-adulthood income of individuals who grew up in the United States. The results show that the neighborhoods and metropolitan areas where these individuals were raised have a major impact on their lifelong economic prospects.

Surprisingly, children from low-income families who grow up in certain neighborhoods—particularly those with mixed-income demographics and lower levels of racial segregation—fare much better economically.

Simpler to build, yet less common than traditional gable roofs, single-pitch roofs—or meia água, as they are known in some parts of Brazil—are formed by a single inclined plane responsible for shedding rainwater.

+ 6

As the venues of social life, public spaces are key elements of individual and collective well-being. They comprise a network of open areas such as streets, plazas, and parks, as well as sheltered spaces like public libraries and museums. This network serves multiple roles in cities, including recreation, social interaction, environmental conservation, circulation, and economic exchange. Despite their vital role in urban life, public spaces in Brazilian cities are, as a rule, poorly maintained, featuring insufficient lighting, broken sidewalks, and deteriorated street furniture—conditions that actively discourage use and result in social and economic losses that are commonly underestimated by both public authorities and the population itself. 

+ 3

In the context of contemporary design, glass partitions have gained prominence in the world of interior design due to their versatility in harmoniously combining elegance, functionality, natural light, and spaciousness. One of their primary advantages is transparency, which allows for spatial division without obstructing natural light, offering a sense of openness and connectivity between areas. This is particularly beneficial in small spaces where light can make a significant difference in the interior atmosphere.

At the same time, construction methods are simplified by the clean and rapid installation of glass walls and doors, as well as their multiple mounting options, which adapt to structural conditions and construction sequencing. Moreover, while transparency is a key feature, glass partitions can also incorporate options to ensure privacy when necessary, utilizing various types of glass with digital printing, silkscreening, or satin finishes.

In light of today's climate emergency, our current urban model—defined by rapid, uncontrolled growth that fosters social segregation and harms the environment—must be replaced.

Against this backdrop, the concept of Sustainable Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) emerges to break with existing spatial planning paradigms. As the name suggests, TOD proposes action strategies that integrate urban design with transport and mobility planning, which can be implemented through public policies or urban projects. 

+ 4