After visiting numerous sites that have been the setting for tragic crimes against humanity and violent conflicts, one can make a simple observation: the space of collective memory is not solely confined to a memorial building that commemorates through names and stories. Particularly in Latin America, it is also a place evoked through gatherings and public demands.

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The exhibition dedicated to Mario Merz (Milan, 1925–2003) showcases, for the first time, the largest gathering of igloos brought together from various private collections and museums. This landmark display highlights Arte Povera’s profound exploration of the relationship between humanity and nature. This art movement, which emerged in Italy in the second half of the 1960s and was named by Germano Celant (art historian, critic, and artistic director of the Prada Foundation since 1993), is characterized by the use of humble, generally non-industrial materials that decay over time, naturally transforming the artwork in the process.

Portuguese studio FAHR 021.3 has created a temporary wooden installation that transformed the facade of the Cine-Teatro Garrett, a historic building in the city center of Póvoa, Portugal. Titled Ensaio 04, the project is a geometric study of a curved surface built from straight planes of poplar wood, resulting in a distorted perspective.

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Since ancient Greece, public space has been the primary setting for gathering and socialization in cities and towns, supporting a wide range of activities as well as political debate and collective empowerment. It is a common good from which to foster equality, respect, and solidarity as the foundation of a fairer society. One of the primary characteristics of public space is its capacity to adapt and open itself up to new challenges and uses. 

However, in recent years, licensing the commercial use of public spaces has become a growing source of revenue for municipal governments. The regulation and legal restriction of how our plazas and other spaces are used, enforced through municipal ordinances and codes, represents one of the primary dimensions of the privatization of public space. Privatization is understood here as the process of establishing conditions that restrict free access to a common good. The overexploitation of public space for corporate profit promotes a consumerist urban model that is detrimental to the citizenry.

Designed by Esteban Ramírez, the Teatro Navegante project was chosen as one of the 10 winners in the Thesis Projects category of the Concurso Arquitectura Caliente 2018 (CAC 2018), a Chilean competition organized by Grupo Arquitectura Caliente and funded by the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage.

Historically, the Chiloé Archipelago has been defined by its own inhabitants as an annex to the mainland due to the physical, social, and cultural isolation existing since the beginning of the last century. Sea and land define the everyday lives of its people. From these environments, they extract the resources for their survival, and their land routes extend through the channels and fjords vital to connecting the islands and their communities. In this isolated and fragmented territory, climatic and geographical conditions make it difficult for nearly 15,000 inhabitants to access educational, health, and cultural infrastructure, which remains concentrated in the region's urban centers kilometers away—an ongoing issue that the State has yet to address.

The Institute of Architects of Brazil - São Paulo Department (IABsp) stands in solidarity with the victims of the fire and collapse of the Wilton Paes de Almeida building. Beyond the tragedy this episode represents, it must be emphasized that we are facing systemic problems afflicting most large Brazilian cities—issues that demand discussions integrating urban development, housing, cultural heritage, and public asset management policies.

It is well known that mass tourism causes significant inconveniences for local residents, benefits large corporations at the expense of small entrepreneurs, and can strip away the very character that makes a place attractive. Yet, one must also admit that tourism generates jobs, increases income, stimulates new businesses, and improves urban quality in many respects—through urban revitalization, infrastructure improvements, and the construction of cultural facilities, for example. 

For several years, Lisbon has been experiencing a tourism boom that embodies both of these aspects. The city has undoubtedly changed. Urban rehabilitation projects have breathed new life into dilapidated areas, revitalizing public spaces and investing in the restoration and retrofitting of buildings that, in many cases, would otherwise have been condemned to ruin. New cultural facilities have been built, such as the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology - MAAT, designed by British architect Amanda Levete, and the new National Coach Museum by Paulo Mendes da Rocha, in collaboration with the firms MMBB arquitetos and Bak Gordon Arquitetos.

It is highly unlikely that you made it through architecture school without seeing or even helping to build a geodesic dome. These structures are defined by a mesh composed of a network of polygons—usually steel, wood, or bamboo triangles—that, when materialized in three dimensions, form spaces. By connecting the edges (struts) and rendering the structure three-dimensional, this model achieves strength and structural lightness through the uniform distribution of its dead load to the ground. From a technical and structural standpoint, this dome is composed of a series of similar struts that form a hemispherical surface based on triangles. Within this complex composition, strength and lightness are achieved through the uniform distribution of forces.

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This edition of the International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale has been the most active and representative yet for Mexican architecture. This biennale brings together the largest number of Mexican participants across various fronts and collaborative projects. The Mexican Pavilion, “Echoes of a Land”—located in the Sale d'Armi of the Arsenale—presents an approach to architecture that goes beyond form and programmatic function, associating it instead with geography, culture, and identity.

Construction is complex. Anyone who has been on a construction site understands this. It is not just about having the right attitude and knowing how to lead a team of skilled craftspeople, masons, and specialists, but also about providing—or at least understanding—the right tools for them to perform each task in the best possible way.

While the construction knowledge gained during your university studies might be minimal until you have a few projects under your belt, learning to recognize the tools available on the market will not only help you save costs, but also speed up construction and reduce physical effort—delivering significant advantages.

Here, we present an overview of the different equipment, tools, and machinery most commonly used in architectural construction.

Designed by Cristian Fuhrhop, the project Arquitectura y Emergencia was chosen as the Grand Winner in the Degree Projects category of the Concurso Arquitectura Caliente 2018 (CAC 2018), a Chilean competition organized by the Grupo Arquitectura Caliente and funded by the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage.

Chile's status as a country exposed to disasters, whether natural or human-made, has prompted a continuous design dialogue on how emergency situations should be addressed through architecture. Seemingly without reflection, we have shifted our focus toward a relentless race to solve temporary housing issues, guided either by a bleak technical-efficiency bias or through practically unfeasible proposals that are completely disconnected from actual emergency management operations within the country.

Due to a clear lack of awareness regarding the national civil protection plan and architecture's scope of action in these matters, we have overlooked equally urgent needs, such as community facilities and services—which, in many cases, are precisely what trigger or worsen the issues of temporary housing. 

As part of our coverage of the 2018 Venice Biennale, we present the participation of the São Paulo-based firm GrupoSP: an installation titled "unnamed spaces" that is part of the FREESPACE exhibition. Below, the architects describe their contribution in their own words.

"Unnamed spaces" [espaços sem nome] was a term that professor and artist Flávio Motta [1] used to describe the free, generous, and open spaces of radical architecture that accommodated the unpredictability of life. They can also refer to the open spaces or clearings within our city.

Today, August 17, is National Historical Heritage Day, a date that honors the efforts to preserve assets of cultural, historical, and artistic significance across Brazil. This date coincides with the birth of historian and journalist Rodrigo Mello Franco de Andrade, who played a crucial role in founding the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN). Established in 1937, IPHAN is the agency responsible for promoting and organizing the preservation of Brazil's National Cultural Heritage, aiming to “protect and promote the country's cultural assets, ensuring their endurance and enjoyment for present and future generations.” [1]

When it comes to design, the channels opened for information gathering are vital to the success of the process. The diversity and breadth of the audience to whom our questions and inquiries are addressed is so wide that we must design processes that allow everyone to contribute, and to do so constructively on a common playing field, as this is the only way to achieve a collective design. Through our experience, we have tested the effectiveness of different tools and selected those that we at Paisaje Transversal consider most effective.

Since it is always better to provide examples to understand and apply our work to reality, we have decided to use our project in Torrelodones to showcase these tools. This project involves the collaborative design for the remodeling of Pradogrande Park, a park of over 4 hectares located in the area of the Madrid municipality known as La Colonia, which extends through the urban center. The park's current use and the diverse activities it hosts—ranging from local festivals and occasional events to sports fields, play areas, and dog parks—make it even more critical to analyze every change and renovation alongside its users.

How, then, do we propose to listen to both the park and its users?

In early March, students, architects, and designers from Argentina gathered to bring their ideas to life in the second edition of Hello Wood Argentina, an international experience brought by local partners TACADI and MANDARiNA.

For this edition, the chosen theme for 2018 was "CON-TEXT"—a context we consciously build, where balance is achieved through the interaction of each of its parts, and what each part contributes is unique.

Discover the projects built in this edition below.

Frequently used in residential design as an extension of the roof slab, eaves have shed their modest dimensions and traditional role of simply protecting outer walls from rain. Today, they are being reinvented to create new living spaces, such as verandas, which seem to reinterpret the historic alpendre bandeirista and extend the interiors, blurring the boundaries between inside and out.

From the Fundación Arquia Blog, architect María Álvarez García presents an article on the controversial revival of garden cities in England's urban planning, which is depopulating city centers—proposals that lead to an inevitable segregation of uses that is neither sustainable nor conducive to social and economic development.

It is time to say goodbye to 2018 and look back at everything we have achieved. What captured our interest? What surprised us? What made an impact?

After presenting the best architecture of 2018, we decided to round up and highlight some of the Argentine projects that generated the most engagement on our social networks. Goodbye 2018, hello 2019.

Women represent the majority on the streets and in public transit. Travel patterns and transport mode usage vary significantly by gender, largely because women still disproportionately shoulder domestic responsibilities, many of which involve caring for children. While gender issues remain overlooked in urban planning, the access of women with children to the city is a topic in even greater need of attention. Through the testimonies of several mothers, the everyday consequences of failures in urban planning and mobility on mothers and children become glaringly clear.

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Conversatorio FA is a project born out of the desire to create a space for reflection on contemporary thought, aiming to foster a dialogue enriched by diverse perspectives within these very spaces. It seeks to reclaim various spaces and generate new questions and inquiries through critical and pluralistic thinking in open university areas, fostering democratic dialogue on topics chosen based on student interests.

The structure of Conversatorio FA seeks to bring external guests closer to the community, establishing connections and raising new questions about the future of the profession. Past guests have included renowned figures such as Alberto Pérez Gómez, Néstor García Canclini, and, most recently, Carlos Amorales. As part of its eighth edition, an event was held focusing on gender perspective in architecture. It featured Argentine architect Inés Moisset, coordinator of the project "Un día, una arquitecta," and Zaida Muxí, author of several publications on gender perspectives and co-director of the Master's Laboratory of 21st Century Housing at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.

In June, the Federal Government released the publication Urbanized Areas of Brazil 2015, produced by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) using images from the RapidEye satellite captured between 2011 and 2014. The mapping shows that the largest urbanized areas in the country are São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Curitiba, and Goiânia. Together, these five urban agglomerations cover more than 2,500 km².

Aedas has unveiled its design for Alacarte Halong Bay Condotel, a new development in Vietnam's renowned coastal destination. Famous for its thousands of towering limestone karsts, Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Occupying a prime beachfront plot, the Alacarte Condotel is designed to offer unobstructed views of this spectacular natural heritage.

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Architect Rafael Pina, from the ARKRIT Collective, presents an article comparing two prestigious German automotive brands and their effort to project, also through architecture, an image of modernity and power. These museums belong to a lineage of spectacular architecture, seeking to inspire admiration and surprise through showmanship across various dimensions: formal, technological, and financial.

The American Planning Association (APA) recently announced that Sasaki’s 2006 Vision Plan for Beijing's 798 Art District has been honored with the organization's highest accolade, the Pierre L’Enfant International Planning Excellence Award. Today, the 798 Art District in Beijing is a thriving, mixed-use district that welcomes over three million visitors annually, earning a reputation as the city's third most popular destination after the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. The district's success has set a benchmark for the adaptive reuse of historic buildings and is internationally recognized as a model for industrial regeneration.