Modern and surreal, yet without compromising on functionality and comfort, the bathrooms designed by emerging architects and designers at the current Casa FOA interior design exhibition in Santiago, Chile, seek to rethink a traditional space within an innovative context, aiming to trigger a different experience for both users and spectators.
Numerous movements are demanding alternatives to current urban mobility—systems designed by and for vehicular traffic, burdened by an outdated planning mentality that centered everything around the car. Their reasons are equally diverse: improving public health, utilizing economic resources more rationally when commuting, lowering pollution levels (both noise and air), and even increasing efficiency by reducing travel times.
Yes, we are referring to the endless and inevitable daily traffic jams we have all experienced.
If the benefits across all sectors are so clear, why haven't we implemented an alternative mobility system on our streets yet? There are several answers to this question, ranging from public resistance to change and a lack of prioritization in political agendas, to the simple fact that there is no universal, magic formula to solve every issue overnight everywhere. Once we overcome these barriers, we can begin by analyzing who currently uses the streets, who does not, and why.
Madrid's Gran Vía is illuminated with LED bulbs along 1,300 meters thanks to a light installation by Brut Deluxe. Commissioned by the city council, the installation is inspired by nebulae and galaxies. Set up for this year's holiday season, the display was captured by Imagen Subliminal.
A breath of fresh air, new colors: A FUCHSIA intervention in the Faculty of Social Sciences (CCSS) at the PUCP. In this faculty's striking garden, students have always sat and lain on the grass to debate their ideas; however, with the increase in “social” activities, more seating, equipment, and shade were needed. Featuring a perforated textile canopy floating between the trees and stacked tires that organically integrate with the garden, this project creates a colorful focal point and an ideal gathering space that INTEGRATES in multiple ways: the students of this program and their ideas, all the campus students with one another, and the various recycled materials that culminate in FUCCSSIA-INNTEGRA.
The emergence of such a project right in the middle of the “tontódromo”—a busy campus street where students from la cato hang out—is highly significant, both for the project's inherent message and for the visibility and accessibility of its location. “Ocupa Tu Calle”, a citizen-led initiative that typically carries out urban interventions in Lima's public spaces, has now intervened on a university's main thoroughfare, partnering with the Faculty of Social Sciences to invite students to help design and improve their own campus through an ideas competition. In addition, the project prompts a reflection on the appropriation of private space using public space principles. The winning proposal reinterprets the Greek agora into a flexible, playful area for students to debate and simply be. Below, we explore the details of the project, from the design process to its construction.
The establishment of an architectural drawing language throughout history is a tool that allows, for instance, a Japanese architect to design a building in Brazil, or makes it possible, by lingering over plans, sections, and elevations, to imagine the spatiality and character of a project that has not yet been built. This means that, despite local singularities, in terms of graphic representation, the field of architecture has successfully established itself as a common, international language.
The collapse of the Wilton Paes de Almeida Building on May 1, 2018, exposed a glaring housing emergency. Compounding the cuts in public funding for the sector, in São Paulo alone during 2017, at least 14,000 families were evicted from their homes, and at least another 30,000 face displacement due to public works projects, according to the Eviction Observatory of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism (FAU/USP).
Especially when it comes to public buildings, it is essential that spaces are designed to allow everyone to access them autonomously, regardless of mobility challenges. However, during the design process, aligning a project with accessibility codes can often become a major headache—especially when every single inch counts toward accommodating the required programmatic needs.
To standardize these requirements, NBR 9050 (2015) establishes technical criteria and parameters to be observed in the design, construction, installation, and adaptation of buildings, furniture, spaces, and urban equipment to meet accessibility standards.
The hillsides are like a shroud surrounding us, yet in a skewed manner. Lima's fog serves as an excuse for this neglect. Speaking of inhabiting the hillsides can still be synonymous with "uninhabitable" due to the precarious conditions of so many vulnerable homes, which make up 70% of the city's self-built housing. Yet, by virtue of their geography, hillsides offer habitable qualities that we must recognize and rethink to position ourselves wisely within the territory, and thereby reinhabit them with a fresh perspective. Not all self-built homes are "devoid of knowledge"; some offer their own lessons. Most, however, do not. The truth is, this is a field that remains to be explored.
For many, this fascinating parallel world occasionally brings forth theses like this one, deeply grounded in reality. Accordingly, “Urban Occupation Strategies to (Re)inhabit Hillsides” has won first prize this year in the undergraduate thesis category of the XVIII Peruvian Biennial of Architecture. While this is the first time the Peruvian Biennial has chosen to recognize recent graduates, the proposal itself offers valuable lessons for professional practice. In justifying its decision, the jury highlighted it as an intriguing and well-crafted solution for hillside development, combining landscape design with renewable technology.
The construction industry consumes more resources than any other sector, and the weight of the Technosphere—the urban and planetary stratum of everything we produce—reaches 30 trillion tons. Engineers, architects, and designers are at the heart of the Anthropocene.
There is nothing personal against the color yellow, but let us be honest: we were saturated by the monotony.
We love yellow, but not when it is used tastelessly and to mask corruption. We like the yellow that is natural to Lima, like the one in the header image—that earthy tone, the tone of every sunset, the one that shines like the sun. In recent years, our city has been forcibly invaded by this color: yellow staircases, yellow bridges, yellow walls, yellow railings... perhaps too much. And even if certain works were not yellow themselves, the intentions behind them carried a distinct whiff of that hue.
Since the mid-20th century, the Castagnino Museum has established itself as one of Argentina's most important cultural spaces. The historic building by the architectural firm Hérnandez Larguía-Newton (1937) was built in a privileged setting, conceived as the gateway to the city—a condition that will be further emphasized by the new intervention.
Born in Artigas, Uruguay, in the second decade of the twentieth century, Eladio Dieste became an exceptional builder, with most of his work located in Montevideo, the capital of his home country, and its adjacent cities. However, his work gained broader international recognition posthumously, after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) celebrated it in 2005 through the theoretical work of Stanford Anderson. Trained as an engineer, his relationship with the construction site and in situ experimentation allowed him to push materiality and structural possibilities to their absolute limits.
With a practice deeply connected to the relationship between materiality and the construction site, he developed a rich architectural output based on studies of thin ceramic shells, which he termed reinforced ceramics. Alongside this construction technique, Dieste found that ceramic bricks offered the essential structural resolution he sought. The material possessed excellent structural properties—highly resistant to compression, quick to build with, and easy for local labor to handle—while the addition of steel reinforcement allowed it to resist tension and bending. Consequently, he found in brick the ideal medium for the plasticity and structural design he envisioned, enabling him to span large distances with slender self-supporting structures anchored only at their ends. Free of central supports, these structures unified walls, floors, and ceilings into a single cohesive body.
But what makes Eladio Dieste such a remarkable builder?
In this fourth and final installment of his New York chronicles, Kosme de Barañano from the ARKRIT Collective poses a two-part question: on one hand, a new architectural “type” has emerged in an extraordinarily limited “ecological” niche—the super-slender skyscraper designed for luxury residences around Central Park—and, on the other, the construction of “installations” where some architects experiment in a new field where architecture shares territory with sculpture.
Today in Brazil, there are several groups spearheading initiatives aimed at improving our living environment. Unfortunately, many face difficulties in getting their ideas off the ground, primarily due to a lack of financial resources, as shown by data gathered by the Como Anda Project.
The Fenômenos Foundation sees this demand as an opportunity: through the Fenômenos Challenge, the organization supported the implementation of three ideas with great transformative potential in the city of São Paulo. The challenge's premise was to select initiatives promoting physical activity and sustainability in vulnerable areas, offering solutions to local issues. The selected groups were: Cidade Ativa, Canto da Arte Jaguaré, and the Dente de Leão Collective. The selection process considered criteria such as impact, feasibility, and how the program could help boost the projects.
My mind is undoubtedly diffuse and scattered, gathering and comparing disparate elements, architectures from distant eras, reading and enjoying them with equal passion. There is no doubt that an early reading of this article's protagonist has shaped my thoughts and those of many of us. Having just passed away (on Tuesday, September 18), Robert Venturi, at the age of 93, remains an essential reference for us.
And why is that? Robert Venturi wrote a book titled Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, which acted as a catalyst for the entire discipline. It seems that in this book, Venturi set out to explain a quote by Charles Rennie Mackintosh: “There is hope in honest error; none in the icy perfection of mere stylisticism.”
There is no denying it: Revit is a sensation. And if you haven't fallen in love with it yet, get ready: you will.
I don't understand why some people are still so resistant to this software. No, I am not an Autodesk employee, and I am not paid to speak well of their programs—in fact, they don't even need me to. I am saying this as an architect, designer, project manager, virtual construction modeler, and BIM manager.
The Metropolitan Housing Observatory of Barcelona, established to provide both the public and public administrations with the information and tools necessary to evaluate and design housing policies, has released the first results of its work conducted during 2017.
The report reveals concerning results, shedding light on the complex and problematic reality faced by many residents who find it difficult or simply impossible to afford the high rents currently being reached in Barcelona and virtually all other Spanish cities.
The Helium Pavilion —GA estudio— not only demonstrates a design and construction exploration of temporary installations, but also highlights the compelling capabilities of inflatable architecture: lightweight, easy to assemble, flexible, economical, and nomadic.
Three months ago, the 20th Chilean Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism opened in Valparaíso. Titled "Diálogos Impostergables" (Urgent Dialogues), the 2017 edition was an invitation to understand the design and construction of our cities through a broad lens—one that incorporates aspirations and knowledge from outside the discipline.
As the most important event in Chilean architecture, this year's biennial served as a platform for projects reflecting on what we consider urgent in architecture and urbanism. Simultaneously, it examined how the profession can engage with those living on the margins, whose needs and aspirations have long been neglected in urban development.
Originally published in the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio de Valparaíso, this column written by Alberto Texido, President of the Colegio de Arquitectos de Chile, addresses the current urban landscape of Valparaíso after the Chilean Supreme Court's ruling declared the building permit for a mega-mall —Mall Plaza Barón— on the waterfront of the Chilean port city illegal.
With the judicial outcome of the Puerto Barón project decided, there is little room for celebration. Instead, there is concern over the more than 15 years lost by Valparaíso, its authorities, the business community, and its citizens, who have failed to reach a consensus to move past neglect and lack of investment. Yet, beyond this regrettable litigation—which has exposed a collective inability to bring projects to fruition—it is this very status quo that has been overcome, at least by an active citizenship ready to build a new local representation. From its outset, and unlike its predecessors, this movement has successfully offered a counterpoint, demanding maximum quality, better public participation, and regulatory compliance for major urban projects.
Concluding the activities of "Urban October," celebrated annually, the UN designated October 31 as "World Cities Day" to promote a greater exchange of experiences among countries on how to address the challenges of growing global urbanization and contribute to sustainable development.
KPF has released the latest construction progress photos of The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences. Located on Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah—the emirate’s premier resort destination—the 45-story building comprises 806 guest rooms and 256 apartments. The main structure stretches along the coast, forming an “open-air screen” against the sea.
The overall design deconstructs the traditional hotel and residential “resort block” into individual volumes. These separated masses are stacked to create fourteen “sky courts” and twenty sky terraces, offering fully open, private outdoor spaces accessible directly from the guest suites and apartments—a layout that seamlessly integrates indoor and outdoor living. Each residential apartment features a private plunge pool and garden designed to maximize shade and harness year-round breezes blowing across the water and vegetation, ensuring these private oases remain cool and comfortable throughout most of the day. While current construction photos reveal the primary massing of the main building, the sky courts are still taking shape.
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.
.jpg?1537636136 "Franklin Court / Venturi Scott Brown. Image © Mark Cohn")
_Fotografía_Stefanie_Suárez.jpg?1545419542 "© Stefanie Suárez")
_Fotografía_Stefanie_Suárez.jpg?1545419805 "© Stefanie Suárez")
