Since 2016, Chile has been undergoing a gradual transformation of its building regulations thanks to the enactment of the historic Decree 50 of the General Ordinance of Urban Planning and Construction (OGUC). This decree mandates a national standard for universal accessibility, ratifying both the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2008) and Law 20,422 (2010), which establishes standards for equal opportunities and social inclusion for people with disabilities.

This regulatory shift prompted the team at Corporación Ciudad Accesible to update their 14 “Accessible Fact Sheets,” now that compliance is a requirement rather than an option. "We want to achieve an accessible and universal vision where design envisions people beyond the traditional mold, so that those who do not move, see, hear, or understand the environment in conventional ways find the same opportunities and participation," explains their team.

Do identical brick blocks confuse you? Are you unsure whether to turn at this corner or the next because all the perimeter-block buildings look exactly alike? Do you lose your way in the narrow, winding streets of the city center? As it turns out, this is a common challenge for many, which is why it is essential for cities to invest in wayfinding systems designed specifically for pedestrians.

The benefits are numerous. First, it is an excellent way to promote the cleanest form of transit: walking. The advantages of this include easing public transit congestion, reducing vehicular traffic, encouraging a deeper familiarity with the city, and revitalizing businesses on secondary streets—not to mention the positive impact on tourists and visitors. This is precisely what the #LeerMadrid project aims to achieve. The initiative is currently being developed by Paisaje Transversal in collaboration with Applied Wayfinding, Avanti Avanti, Urban Networks/CGR, and Dimas García Moreno.

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The initiative is part of the citizen forum held in January 2018 in the city of Chillán, titled “Modern Landscape, Territory in Transformation,” organized by CCE Santiago, CECAL of the Universidad de Concepción (Chillán campus), and the Heritage Unit of the Municipality of Chillán (UPA).

When Clorindo Testa was asked how he felt upon learning that one of his works, the Casa Di Tella, was going to be demolished, he replied: “I believe that buildings are not made to last. One can say that the Roman Colosseum will endure. They are not going to tear down Notre-Dame Cathedral, nor the Duomo in Milan. But when you design a project, you don't go around thinking it will be memorable and last forever. Works of this nature have owners, and owners change their minds. People and society also change: what was valid twenty years ago is no longer valid today. It is inevitable. Personally, it doesn't bother me in the least if they demolish a work of mine; I don't design things to last forever. You make things to function when they are commissioned, and they last as long as they need to. The Casa Di Tella was built for Di Tella, and Di Tella died. In a sense, it is no longer his house... It became part of an institute that bought it. Therefore, the functions it needs are different.” [1]

Testa's words reveal a remarkable humility that seems rare in the DNA of architects who yearn for the eternity of their work. Indeed, this desire for permanence was imposed on us almost as a mandate, a necessity. Palladio knew this well when referencing Vitruvius: “utility, perpetuity, and beauty.”

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Most of us share childhood memories of drawing little houses—a triangular roof, a door, a window, and a tree beside it. What sets architects apart from the general public, however, is that we continue to make these drawings long after we grow up. Naturally, our skills usually mature along the way. Just as our residential architecture becomes more complex and refined, our representation of trees must also evolve (that broccoli-like scribble is unlikely to impress clients or professors). While trees are rarely the focal point of a drawing, they play a crucial role in architectural composition, establishing scale, casting shadows, and representing specific landscape designs.

Various scholars link the sense of belonging to a population's social and cultural appropriation of territory. Along these lines, authors such as Spanish geographer Joan Nogué connect human societies to the places they inhabit—spaces with which they identify and bond, granting them significance as vital shapers and consolidators of identity.

In this regard, the Matta Viel Housing Complex in Santiago, designed by the architecture firm Bresciani Valdés Castillo Huidobro, is significant for several reasons. It stands out as a remarkable example of appropriation—a model of public social housing in Chile that not only seamlessly integrates into the urban fabric but has also been fully embraced and brought to life by its residents.

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The city of Rio de Janeiro preserves an important and representative legacy of leading names in modern architecture. Affonso Eduardo Reidy is one of them. Born in Paris, France, he was brought to Rio at a very young age, growing up amidst the modernity and *bossa* of the "Marvelous City." Graduating from the National School of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro in 1930, he was a member of the group led by Alfred Agache for Rio's urban remodeling and was part of the team of young architects who designed the Ministry of Education and Health building under Le Corbusier's consultancy. Le Corbusier was one of his primary influences, alongside Oscar Niemeyer, the most prominent figure of the so-called Escola Carioca.

Given the architect's prominence in Rio's and, above all, Brazilian modern architecture, we have selected a few of his widely recognized works alongside some less frequently cited projects. We hope this guide to five of the architect's projects sparks interest among residents and visitors alike—or even those who have never been to Rio—encouraging everyone to experience Reidy's work firsthand. Discover them below!

Cities are critical to the functioning of many countries. With the rapid population growth of recent decades, urban centers have had to face a series of challenges, a primary one being mobility planning. In Brazil, with the enactment of the National Urban Mobility Policy (PNMU) in 2012, Brazilian cities received new guidelines to plan and guide policy actions toward establishing more sustainable mobility. To this end, the PNMU requires the development of Urban Mobility Plans for cities with over 20,000 inhabitants as a prerequisite for receiving federal budget allocations. Ultimately, this requirement aims to transform cities and the way Brazilians commute daily.

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The architects and photographers of studio FLAGRANTE have shared with ArchDaily a series of photographs capturing the recently completed Japan House São Paulo, designed by Kengo Kuma in collaboration with local office FGMF.

Part of a global initiative by the Japanese government to “create a vision of contemporary Japan,” Japan House opened in May 2018, combining art, technology, and business to offer an escape into modern-day Japan.

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Chile's history can be read through its towns. Blending the architectural and building traditions of its indigenous peoples with the influence of European immigrants, these small localities reveal how their inhabitants have occupied and appropriated the territory according to their needs, customs, and specific contexts.

With a landscape that changes drastically from north to south, certain patterns emerge, shaped by climate and geography. From the use of adobe and stone in desert regions to meticulous craftsmanship with native woods in the south, along with the rich colonial architecture of the central valleys, these 24 examples offer significant lessons that every architect should study closely. Read on to discover them below.

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By Qian Qinyang

Created by the Ecuadorian firm ENSUSITIO, the Con Lo Que Hay Workshop is a course taught separately to architecture students at the Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica (UTI) and the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE), offering them the opportunity to work on their first real commission. As a result, students must navigate not only the design itself, but also engage with communities, clients, budgets, and, of course, their own peers.

"We do not see architecture as a product," write Enrique Villacís alongside Cynthia Ayarza and Lorena Rodríguez, co-founders of ENSUSITIO, who serve as the workshop's tutor and professional advisors, respectively. "It is an organic process built day by day alongside its inhabitants, from diagnosis to use and maintenance, including the *minga*—collective construction. Everything is built under the principles of 'what is available'—materials, local wisdom, and our own contributions that value ancestral knowledge within a contemporary context," they add.

On this occasion, we present three projects developed on the periphery of Quito: a collection center, a dining hall for an evangelical congregation, and an outdoor therapy space.

During the design process of a building, design professionals from various disciplines are called upon to propose solutions that ensure client requirements and expectations are met.

Design decisions, which until the 1980s were often not grounded in objective criteria, have gradually become more evidence-based. This shift aims to reduce design and execution errors, material waste, and operational inefficiencies, while also systemically recognizing best practices.

Humanity has always been obsessed with pushing its limits, setting records only to break them time and time again. Consequently, our cities' skylines have always been defined by those who hold power in any given era: once it was churches, then state institutions, and in recent decades, private skyscrapers have arisen to remind us who can reach the highest—literally.

Do you know what the tallest building in Latin America is? Specialized organizations like the CTBUH (Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat) have established parameters to objectively measure a building's height, discounting antennas and other additions used to tack on extra meters. Let's take a look at what the CTBUH says about the tallest skyscrapers in Latin America.

This list was last updated in July 2018.

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La Minerva is an iconic monumental sculpture in Jalisco's capital, created by Joaquín Arias in 1957 and commissioned by then-governor Agustín Yáñez. Years passed, and it was during the 1986 World Cup in Mexico that, following a victory by the Brazilian team, their coach gave the players the afternoon off, and the celebration ended up taking place there—at the intersection of López Mateos, Vallarta, Golfo de Cortés, and Circunvalación Agustín Yáñez avenues. Since then, La Minerva has become the preferred venue for both celebrations and demonstrations. However, weathering and traffic-induced vibrations took a heavy toll on its structure.

Prison to Prison, Uruguay's official exhibition at the 2018 Venice Biennale, explores the existence of an unprecedented Freespace within the intimate relationship between two different architectural models of prisons.

The exhibition, curated by Sergio Aldama, Federico Colom, Diego Morera, Jimena Ríos, and Mauricio Wood, is an invitation to spark new dialogues and discussions that transcend the objects of study themselves, enriching our perspective and reconnecting us with the cultural dimension of architecture.

As it does every year, Arquitectura Viva has dedicated its AV Monografías yearbook 'Spain 2018' to the finest buildings completed over the last twelve months: a selection of 24 works offering an overview of the country's most recent architecture, showcasing its characteristic high quality despite the crisis that still affects the sector.

This double issue opens with a compelling essay by Luis Fernández-Galiano, who reviews the major milestones in the world of architecture over the past year. Amid a backdrop of natural disasters and political upheavals that marked a year in which Spain celebrated a Pritzker, a work by Piano, and the arrival of the Foster Foundation, Fernández-Galiano invites us to reflect on territories of risk:

Territories of Risk
By Luis Fernández-Galiano

Have you ever wondered how an exhibition design is conceived? Or how it coordinates the staging of the displayed content?

Historically, what we know today as a museum began as a place to gather pieces and objects organized by typology. This is evident when looking at images of the so-called cabinets of curiosities or wonder rooms, which organized a vast array of rare objects and species (animal, plant, and mineral) brought back from the great explorations of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Centuries later, these collections began to gain traction, and former palaces transformed their hallways into long, continuous galleries, to which only their guests and residents had access. Later, in the 19th century, the emergence of pavilions dedicated primarily to the display of artifacts brought us closer to the modern concept of museums. We regularly publish various museum projects. But beyond their architecture, have you ever noticed the crucial role that exhibition design plays? Below, we outline some of the key concepts of exhibition design.

In recent years, we have witnessed the rise of the concept of “citizen participation,” particularly in the political sphere. As is often the case, this surge is not without controversy and carries inherent risks. Much like what occurred with the term “sustainability,” participation can be relegated to a smoke screen used to conceal specific types of political despotism. A clear example of this can be found in the Netherlands; in September 2013, King Willem-Alexander announced “the transition to a participatory society” to justify dismantling the welfare state through neoliberal policies and some of the harshest budget cuts the country has ever faced.

Clearly, urbanism and urban planning have not been immune to this trend. While the development of statutory urban planning instruments (General Plans, Partial Plans, Special Plans, etc.) is legally required to incorporate public participation mechanisms, the reality is that these are often reduced to public comment and exhibition periods. Consequently, actual participation is replaced by mechanisms that belong strictly to the realm of communication and information sharing.

As a subspecies of bamboo, guadua has been used as a construction material from the Spanish conquest to the present day. Its strength, lightweight nature, and flexibility offer numerous structural advantages and applications. Since it is native to the forests of Colombia and Ecuador, it has been widely used in local building projects. Additionally, its ease of cultivation and processing makes it a highly sustainable material.

This selection highlights six projects where guadua has been used as both a structural and aesthetic resource.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.