This guide covers a workflow that moves from project parameters to generated floor plans, 3D perspective views, exterior design exploration, and site context visualization, using AI tools in place of preliminary CAD and rendering work.

ArchDaily is continuing a six-year-long tradition of celebrating the best architecture drawings of the year. The 2020 edition highlights a carefully-curated collection of architectural drawings and visualizations with a wide variety of techniques and representations, all orientated towards a common goal of sharing ideas, visions, and designs.

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When we talk about cities or their lesser variations – villages, towns, communities –, we are used to evoking stereotyped scenarios that relate to streets, cars, buildings, and we often end up forgetting that there are plenty of other surprisingly unique patterns.

Many people study the cities and wonder about the exact moment when they were invented, given that they are open, unfinished works in progress. Some assume that their origin was due to the need for protection, which caused humans to quit nomadic lifestyles and settle as groups in a specific land to increase their chances of survival.  

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Videos

In our increasingly urbanized world, everything and everyone has adopted a lifestyle of nomadism. New environmental and social constraints have forced people to have a constant "on-the-go" behavior, so much so that almost everything has acquired wheels, even the buildings. But with the rise of debates like "is humankind being replaced by robots?" and "is technology taking over?", urban mobility has helped give access to housing, healthcare, and education in places with extreme difficult conditions.

To shed the light on globally-thriving mobile activities, the France-based Institut pour Ville en Mouvement, or City on the Move Institute, is an organization that has been addressing the challenges posed by urban mobility and contributing to the emergence of innovative solutions. In a series of short Youtube clips, the organization invited experts in the fields of architecture, urban planning, and technology to share their insights on the future of urban mobility.

The 14th Bolivian Architecture Biennial 2021 took place between January 18 and 25, a cultural and academic event organized by the Departmental College of Architects of La Paz (CDALP) and the College of Architects of Bolivia (CENA CAB) through its Organizing Committee. The goal of this gathering was to celebrate and promote completed works, projects, and intellectual contributions related to the urban and architectural environment of recent years, both nationally and internationally.

In this edition, 169 projects were submitted from Bolivia's nine departments, as well as from the 12 countries participating in the international categories. Discover the winners below in the categories of Completed Work, Project Category, Research and Intellectual Production, and Student Graduation Projects. 

It’s a given that the coronavirus pandemic has had wide-ranging impacts on construction projects large and small over the past 10 months. So, what about the construction of new buildings that share the defining characteristic of being superlatively tall?

As detailed in an annual report published earlier this month by the Chicago-headquartered Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), newly completed skyscrapers experienced a global decline of 20 percent in 2020 compared to the previous year due, both directly and indirectly, to the COVID-19 crisis.

The façade is one of the most important elements in an architectural project. In addition to being the building's first barrier against heat, rain, snow, or wind, it also largely determines the appearance of a building. It can make the project stand out, blend into urban context, or even manifest, at first glance, values of transparency, lightness, or simplicity that the architect seeks to convey. Accordingly, the façade also constitutes a significant portion of the total cost of the work and, therefore, must be specified very carefully, taking into account aesthetics, functionality, maintenance, and long-term behavior.

Over the past two decades, new master-planned cities have risen at a pace and scale rarely seen in modern history. Concentrated largely in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, more than 150 such projects are currently underway. For some, these cities are promoted as fast tracks to modernization and a way to leapfrog from resource- or agriculture-dependent economies into knowledge-driven ones. For others, they are strategic showcases, designed to attract global attention, foreign capital, and prestige. By packaging urbanization itself as an investment opportunity, these projects promise to stimulate growth and reposition nations within the global economy—all through the act of building anew.

According to Forbes, "The new city building movement that we are currently in the middle of is one of the most under the radar and most misinterpreted social and economic developments happening in the world today". What often escapes scrutiny, however, is not only the architecture of these projects, but the governance model they advance.

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Self-described as a movement united around the idea that the physical environment can directly impact the creation of more prosperous and happier lives for its inhabitants, New Urbanism emerged as a concept in the United States in the 1990s and became consolidated through the Congresses for the New Urbanism (CNU), held annually since 1993.

In 1996, three years after the First Congress for the New Urbanism, the Charter of the New Urbanism was launched with the goal of establishing the guiding ideals and principles of the movement and, in doing so, exploring the possibilities for the development of American cities.

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How important is color in architecture? The choice of color for a facade or a space can have complex effects on people, directly influencing their sensations and perceptions. The possibilities are endless, ranging from bold contrasts to complete achromatism.

The following list is our index of articles, news, and projects covering everything you need to know about the importance of color in buildings—from design strategies and the latest trends to its application in projects and materials.

The relationship between the market and the state has traditionally been understood as a three-tiered framework. The state guarantees property rights and other preconditions for markets. Markets operate within this structure and deliver efficient outcomes. The state corrects market failures through complementary institutions, such as, in some cases, social welfare policies. Managing cities is no different, and issues such as economic development, accessibility to goods and services, mobility, sustainability, freedom, and well-being depend on the relationship between markets and the state.

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The orthogonal grid is the manifestation of a principle of order, a condition reinforced by the repetition of elements that express the structural rationality embedded in an aesthetic system. There is also a sense of freedom celebrated by decoupling structure from walls which, combined with pragmatic efficiency, keeps structural grids a constant presence in buildings of various scales both in Brazil and around the world.

In technical terms, structural grids are composed of linear elements—specifically beams—situated on a single plane to form a mesh capable of resisting structural loads. Typically, they feature regular spacing crossing at right angles, with dimensions that vary depending on the material used.

Videos

In 2017, Escola da Cidade—through its Seminar on Culture and Contemporary Reality course, then coordinated by Professor José Guilherme Pereira—welcomed anthropologist and PhD in Social Sciences Manuela Carneiro da Cunha to discuss the history, spatialization, and daily life of Indigenous peoples in Brazil, highlighting issues from not only a cultural standpoint, but also a legal and environmental one.

Videos

As part of an initiative to document the history of Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, REGIOPOLIS emerged as a documentary video series narrated from the perspective of the city's creators, aiming to leave an architectural record of the Monterrey metropolis. Each episode showcases some of the most significant works that laid the foundation for its urban fabric, exploring the historic and emblematic architecture built to this day.

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Wood in architecture, when properly managed, is often associated with sustainability but also with a sense of comfort and coziness. Well-designed joinery can provide versatility and uniqueness to interior design, among so many other benefits.

As we are entering 2021 after a year of anxiety and uncertainties, what are your expectation for our future? The UN75 survey reports that most people around the world hold greater optimism for the future: “Globally, many more respondents believe people will be better off in 2045 than today (49%) compared to those who believe people will be worse off (32%).”

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

For most people, calling a place “sacred” designates it as an important location, one usually associated with spirituality. It might be the setting for religious rituals (the sacred space of a church, synagogue, or mosque), a spot where some event described as “miraculous” has occurred (such as the reported sighting of the Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France, which became a pilgrimage site), or a place which held the body of deity (think of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, built upon what is believed the be the tomb of Jesus Christ). 

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Published in book format by Wustavo Quiroga and Juan Ruades, “Intermitencia. Diseño Mendocino” (Intermittence: Design from Mendoza) is an investigation that explores the development and trajectory of both architecture and other design disciplines in the province of Mendoza, Argentina. Spanning from the 1930s to the present, the book incorporates political events, pivotal moments, and intersecting histories that shed light on the evolution and cross-cutting connections linking industrial, graphic, product, and architectural design in the province, serving as a key resource for consolidating a federal narrative of Argentine design.

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Nayarit is a state located in western Mexico, bordered by the states of Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, and Jalisco, and facing the Pacific Ocean. With an area of 27,815 km², it is the country's ninth-smallest state. Its capital and most populous city is Tepic. Other notable localities include Nuevo Vallarta, Valle de Banderas, Ixtlán del Río, San Blas, Santiago Ixcuintla, Acaponeta, Compostela, Jala, Santa María del Oro, Rosamorada, Xalisco, San Pedro Lagunillas, Tecuala, and Huajicori.

Videos

The term ‘open concept’ is popular with house-flipping television shows and real estate descriptions for lofts or contemporary style homes. However, the phrase is absent from the architect’s lexicon, likely due to a much more robust vocabulary and archive of precedents for describing the continuity of space in a domestic environment. This video is the second in a series that breaks down various ‘open concepts’ in architecture. The first video was dedicated to the ‘Organic Plan’ of Frank Lloyd Wright and this one takes a closer look at the ‘Free Plan’ of Le Corbusier. Through comparisons with Wright and supported with examples from the Five Points of a Modern Architecture, ‘Free Plans’ are presented as a unique way of understanding the coherence of space.

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The progressive departure of factories from cities, often due to environmental regulations, noise ordinances, or the price of real estate, has left many urban manufacturing facilities abandoned and out of use. As these urban factories are left empty, many adventurous developers are taking advantage of the plentiful space, light, and flexible functions that they offer, leading to a residential revitalization in many of the world's defunct manufacturing facilities.   

In dystopian films, it is a common trope to depict the sky as filled with a thick fog, blocking the sun's rays and bringing a dark atmosphere to the scenes. Whether in Blade Runner or in a Black Mirror episode, the lack of sun commonly represents a future we would rather not live in. The sun provides heat to planet Earth and is a great source of light energy, essential for the survival of many living creatures. We can generate electricity from the sun and still use only a fraction of the energy it provides. Sunlight also regulates our circadian cycle, which affects our mood. But recent forest fires and industrial pollution in some large cities have already made the dystopian blockage of sun a relatively common phenomenon, depriving hours of sunshine from many inhabitants. Concurrently, with the COVID-19 pandemic, we are living a plot that few science fiction writers could have predicted, and new technologies and solutions have emerged to try to contain the spread of this invisible enemy. Can the sun, or specifically ultraviolet radiation, kill viruses and bacteria? Could it kill the coronavirus?

Almost 6 months ago, on August 4^th, 2020, the city of Beirut was shaken by one of the biggest non-nuclear blasts in history. Leaving the northern side of the capital in ruins, the explosion damaged around 40,000 buildings. New contemporary structures completed recently by local international architects are now facing reconstruction dilemmas, raising existential questions such as: How should reconstruction efforts of “new” damaged buildings look like? Should architects rebuild them as they were before the blast, erasing what has happened or should they leave scars and portray new realities?

In order to explore ideas and highlight different perspectives, ArchDaily had the chance to sit with three architects whose buildings were impacted by the blast. Bernard Khoury, Paul Kaloustian, and Lina Ghotmeh talked about their projects and their vision of the reconstruction of Beirut with ArchDaily's Managing Editor, Christele Harrouk, alongside Architectural Photographer Laurian Ghinitoiu, who documented in a featured photo series the extent of the destruction.

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Since immemorial time, humans have constructed their shelter and homes using wood. Gradually these structures grew more complex, but wood has continued to play a fundamental role in architecture and construction. Today, especially due to growing concerns about climate change and carbon emissions, wood has been regaining significance as an important building material for the future, if used consciously and sustainably. Wood’s structural performance capabilities make it appropriate for a broad range of applications—from the light-duty repetitive framing common in low and mid-rise structures to the larger and heavier, often hybrid systems, used to build arenas, offices, universities and other buildings where long spans and tall walls are required.

From climate crisis to How Will We Live Together, as we face the current and accentuated global challenges many of our ideas about the cities of tomorrow are changing. So how will the city of the future be?