The A' Design Awards - the world's leading annual international juried design competition - were established to promote and recognize the best design work in all countries and in all creative disciplines. The Award has 100 main categories, including Architecture, Building and Structure Design, Interior Space and Exhibition Design, and Furniture Design, in addition to others related to the world of Lighting, Landscape, Building Materials, and some "Super Categories" such as Good Industrial Design, Good Architectural Design, and more. Next year's edition is now open for entries; designers can register their submissions here.

With the construction sector getting back into full swing and major upcoming projects being announced, a larger workforce is getting ready to take on these colossal works. Accordingly, on-site presence and inspections are critical and essential to creating good architecture and constitute significant learning instances for architects or engineers looking to build expertise. But despite all these new endeavors that promise new technologies, a more sustainable future, and better ways of living, one old issue prevails the presence of gender discrimination on the construction site. 

In many countries around the world, October is dedicated to raising awareness for breast cancer. Pink ribbons that represent this cause, are a tribute to Susan G. Komen, responsible for the Cure's 1990 campaign in the USA. To celebrate this month and add spread awareness efforts, ArchDaily selected some projects that incorporate the color pink into façades, interiors, and details.

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weico is a high-profile, emerging design practice founded by a group of highly experienced architects. Its scope of work encompasses architectural design, interior design, urban planning, project programming, and engineering consultancy, with a particular focus on the cross-disciplinary integration of design with technology, industry, economics, and the humanities. Led by principal architect Sun Wei (former partner of HENN China), weico, within less than a year of its inception, has secured and undertaken projects including the T3 Headquarters, Hengli International Headquarters, Hongqi High-End Customization Center, and the Phase II consultancy for the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou). It has also been shortlisted for the CGN Scientific Research Base and the Bay Area University projects, garnering significant attention within the domestic industry.

At a time when a lack of public safety daily plagues Brazil's major cities, impacting how we behave in the urban environment, we must examine not only how we act within this space, but also how we build it and with what intentions we modify it.

High walls, fences, cameras, alarms, and razor wire are already part of a landscape that feels fearful, constantly seeking to "protect" private property, often to the detriment of public space appropriation.

Climate is one of the key factors to take into consideration when designing a space. Of course, this can present a challenge, especially when dealing with extreme climates and the need for insulating materials that are able to adapt to a wide range of conditions. Luckily, for architects operating in Mexico, the country's privileged climate facilitates the creation of microclimates and spaces that blur the line between interior and exterior.   

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Cinemas mirror architecture. While the coronavirus pandemic shuttered theaters across the world for months, the industry is looking to the future as it aims to rethink the movie-going experience. As crowds flocked to the cinema after the 1918 pandemic, so too will the industry change shape again as it respond to new modes of watching films together.

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In recent years, several extreme weather events around the world have devastated cities, including those in Brazil. In 2022, heavy rains battered the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro, especially the city of Petrópolis, which recorded 250 landslides in a single day.

A similar situation occurred in Pernambuco, where above-average rainfall triggered landslides. In late 2021, in the state of Bahia, severe storms pushed at least 72 municipalities into a state of emergency. As in previous cases, these disasters caused casualties and left numerous families displaced. Globally, the situation is no different, even if the specific hazards vary.

Mitigating climate change and adapting to the risks of more frequent extreme events demand a rapid and radical transformation of cities worldwide, as they account for the majority of global greenhouse gas emissions. However, the impacts of a changing climate are not shared uniformly across all cities; those who feel its most intense effects are precisely the most vulnerable populations. Achieving inclusive, low-carbon urban transformations tailored to diverse urban contexts requires bringing the global climate agenda down to the local scale—to the people who live in and know their neighborhoods.

It is becoming a priority for architects to optimize projects that require increasingly smaller spaces, especially when building in urban areas where land value is often the most critical factor. This happens in countries like Portugal, for example, where urban plots are scarce and the properties available for remodeling are usually very small.

Working on a small scale offers somewhat playful flexibility. From adaptable interiors to urban installations and treehouses, one must use the imagination to solve the issues of limited space or budget. Check out the following 15 projects in Portugal —from stores to small pavilions— that show that spatial limitations do not diminish the quality of architecture.

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Data centers, automated assembly lines, telecommunications facilities, and warehouses represent a very utilitarian aspect of the built environment, and yet they compose a particular kind of infrastructure within contemporary society, one that is fundamental to the development of everyday life. Rarely discussed within the profession, these new typologies have more recently penetrated the architectural discourse, raising questions about the architectural significance and design potential of the spaces sustaining the mechanics of today's world.

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Although there is much conflict surrounding the term Brutalist, there are certain constants and patterns within the movement that offer a concrete idea of the movement and its place in contemporary architecture.

The buildings that adhere to Brutalism—an off-shoot of the Modern Movement that erupted between 1950 and 1970— stand out in part to their constructional sincerity- that is, keeping no secrets about the materials that went into their creation, their bold geometry, and the asperity of their textures and surfaces. Reinforced concrete is the predominant material in Brutalist works thanks to its prominent and dramatic texture, which is put on full display.

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When building near the sea, a project’s design strategy must pay special attention to the effects of marine corrosion. The salt content in the environment provokes a chemical and physical process which incites a material breakdown or degradation, compromising the durability of the building’s infrastructure. 

As a response to the demands for ocean-side buildings, and the corresponding façade components that go along with them, air-lux has developed a system that aims to perform reliably in maritime conditions. By virtue of its corrosion-resistant materials, improved surface coatings, and technically optimized components, the system withstands marine climates and minimizes salt water damage.

On October 14, the first edition of the TAC! Urban Architecture Festival will begin. This year, the festival will be held in the city of Granada and will run until November 14. The opening of the event will be marked by the inauguration of the temporary pavilion “AIRE,” the winning project of the open call, located in Plaza del Humilladero and designed by P + S Estudio de Arquitectura.

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Writer Eva Hagberg and I have known each other for a long time. Way back, in a year I can’t remember, I assigned her one of her first magazine assignments. Literally, dozens of other assignments followed. So it was with some anticipation, and a bit of surprise, that I received her new book When Eero Met His Match: Aline Louchheim Saarinen and the Making of an Architect (Princeton University Press), an intriguing hybrid text, one-part Aline and Eero biography, one part memoir of Hagberg’s experiences as a design writer and publicist. (I am briefly mentioned in the book.) The book’s main argument is that Aline Saarinen largely invented the role of the architectural publicist. Recently I traveled out to the Brooklyn Navy Yard to talk to a very pregnant Eva about the impetus for her new book, its dual structure, and the journalistic ethics of Aline Saarinen.

As our collective conscience challenges the ethics of mass production and the manufacturers of high-end furniture make moves towards more mindful and individually specified making, a design-and-make mentality is becoming ever more present in the industry. It’s new but old. It’s workshops coming to the fore and it’s happening when design entrepreneurs are committed to the very 2022 preoccupations of waste-free production, individualisation and durability.

To celebrate the first decade of ArqFilmFest, Santiago Architecture Film Festival, various members of its community—including architects, cultural managers, film critics, academics, among other professionals—were invited to answer the question: What do we talk about when we talk about film and architecture?

Journalist and film critic Christian Ramírez responds with "Filmed Space, Inhabited Space," reflecting on the relationship between the recorded and the built; architect Martin Schmidt Radic presents "Reflections of the Future," addressing projections over time; and sociologist and cultural manager Julia Ramos responds with "10 Years of Narrating the City," exploring the importance of fostering exchange between film and architecture. Read the full columns below.

Within the context of the comprehensive recovery of the Historic Center of Lima, the Rímac River Special Landscape Project (PEPRR) is developing a proposal for the regeneration of the iconic Alameda and Plazuela de Acho. This project—together with the other 50 interventions proposed in the PEPRR master plan—aims to spark a multidimensional recovery of the riverfront and heritage environment, while simultaneously defending and strengthening the civic qualities of Lima's public spaces through a systemic approach that coordinates mobility, the urban environment, heritage, and landscape.

As part of the World Habitat Day celebrations, the platform SPACE10 has launched "Urbanismo Comunitario," a 20-minute documentary on informal settlements in Medellín, Colombia. Amid rapid urbanization and forced displacement, the number of people living in informal settlements is growing. The UN estimates that by 2030, three billion people will be living in these territories. The documentary examines new alternatives for housing construction in informal settlements, based on community collaboration, material innovation, and the co-development of solutions in partnership with communities.

From the first traces of a sketch to the ribbon cutting at the official inauguration, a building and its construction process goes through numerous steps. From understanding client demands, complying to local regulations, staying within budget, getting the necessary approvals for development and construction details, a lot of time, resources and decisions are involved. To this end, it is essential to have a workforce that knows and understands the correct processes inside-out, are well informed and have experience and availability. Finding and training this workforce isn't always easy though, and this is where Aligned Studios comes in: a service that creates and manages teams composed of qualified designers for US architectural and construction companies.

Over its 457-year history, the built landscape of Rio de Janeiro has taken shape in diverse ways. During its first few centuries, the city developed around Rua Direita (now Rua Primeiro de Março), consisting primarily of two-story row houses, typically featuring a single door and two windows on the ground floor. This layout stemmed from the measurement standard of the era, the *braça* (fathom), with plots usually measuring three *braças* wide (each *braça* equivalent to 2.2 meters). Rio's land ownership profile has always driven its urban form, and the Portuguese plot—with its narrow frontage and deep lot—defined an era and left an indelible mark on the city's development. 

Although we usually think of climate change as something that should be addressed by research institutes, governments or official reports, private companies also play a key role in affecting change, as they are on the front lines of production and innovation. This is especially true in the field of construction, as it is an industry that moves a significant amount of resources and people, but also exerts a huge impact on the environment. Unfortunately, not all companies take on this challenge, although this is slowly changing and can be seen in a number of successful examples. One of these is the case of Rieder, which embarked on a journey to become “Climate Positive” by 2030 and, more notably, set the example when building its new headquarters.

The decentralization process currently underway in Chile represents one of the major social and structural transformations of the political system in a country historically characterized by a highly centralized culture. In May 2021, with the democratic election of Regional Governors, Chile took a major step toward this goal; true decentralization, after all, occurs when decision-making capacity is transferred to local territories, redistributing power from the central government to the regions.

To support a successful decentralization process and strengthen regional governments, the Territorial Human Well-Being Matrix (MBHT) was developed. Designed by the Center for Territorial Intelligence at the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez Design Lab (CIT.UAI.CL), the initiative is part of the “National Program for Strengthening Regional Capacities” carried out by the Undersecretariat of Regional and Administrative Development (Subdere).

This tool equips decision-making bodies with enhanced capabilities, allowing them to compare different areas, identify patterns, challenges, and opportunities to effectively implement solutions, and pinpoint the gaps and imbalances that need to be addressed. 

The Global Challenge is an annual competition organized by A--D that recognizes the most sustainable architectural projects around the world, and helps accelerate their development.