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.

Glued Laminated Wood (Glulam) is a structural material manufactured through the union of individual wood segments. When glued with industrial adhesives (usually Melamine or Polyurethane resin adhesives), this type of wood is highly durable and moisture resistant, capable of generating large pieces and unique shapes.

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In the 21st century, smart city management will be one of the most influential factors in economic development. Addressing challenges in housing, sanitation, democracy, education, safety, economic development, and quality of life will be at the forefront of the agenda for city leaders. 

The Haszkovó housing estate in the city of Veszprém, Hungary has been seen as a failed urban development: "grey, sad, and soulless". However, this cold structure managed to shelter 20,000 inhabitants within its walls, standing as a "real city" within the area.

On the occasion of Veszprém Design Week, a collaborative project by five renowned architects and architecture studios: Edward Crooks, Point Supreme, Supervoid, MAIO, and Paradigma Ariadné, invited the visitors to change the perception and current state of Haszkovó, by creating five vibrant, portable, and durable urban artifacts.

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This article was originally published on Common Edge.

To its great credit, the American Institute of Architects recently denounced the Trump administration’s decision to formally withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. This may put the professional organization on the right side of history, but it’s unlikely to sway any hardened hearts and minds in Washington. Obviously, the executive branch is worse than useless on this issue: not just an impediment to change, but a malevolent force for willful inaction. It’s hard to see it as anything less than an enemy of the climate.

Most architects can agree that they would prefer to spend more time designing and less time managing. Management is a vital role architects play, yet increased efficiency is always valuable. Whether it involves coordinating consultants or ensuring a job site is progressing to meet the contract documents, architects are in charge of orchestrating many moving parts throughout the life of a project. With an app like Archireport, architects can keep track of projects in the office or on site, wherever the work day may lead.

After the success of the original guide-book on underrated Soviet architecture, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art is publishing an English version of the bestselling guide: Moscow: A Guide to Soviet Modernist Architecture 1955–1991 in a new digitalized format with six new chapters.

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The history of the spaces presents an important diversity throughout the world, which corresponds to different geographical, economic and cultural moments and conditions. Technology plays an important role since the constructions through which time has passed also work with a kind of sample that breaks down all the advances and ambitions in force of the time, leaving reflections that it are important to keep today.

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The challenges associated with the provision of adequate and affordable housing around the world demand that architects respond with original solutions that challenge traditional building forms, typologies and methods of delivery.

PLANE–SITE brought together the architects of four inventive housing projects. These projects represent a diversity of approaches to similar housing challenges across radically different global contexts. From the redensification of European urban centers to the rapid urbanization of the tropical Asian megacity, these radical housing models challenged existing paradigms in order to advance resident well-being as their principle design concern. In contrast to Schumacher’s divisive speech, the panel illustrated projects that were deliberately designed to promote community life and social interaction between residents – and in some cases also with other citizens in spaces that blur the line between public and private.

Architecture and design studio Hello Wood have created a line of "smart" outdoor furniture for educational institutes and public communal spaces. The two furniture pieces, Fluid Cube and City Snake, re-introduce modular public structures in a contemporary and sustainable way.

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The global need to find more sustainable ways to meet new demands is one of the most compelling catalysts for the reuse of materials or structures in contemporary architecture. In the field of scenography, repurposing materials to construct stage sets has long been a reality. Professional practice in this field deals with the representation of a scene, using temporary elements designed to stimulate the spectator's imagination. In this context, the work of scenographer Renata Mota has paired repurposing with the reuse of materials—either discarded or donated—that have lost their original function, using them to craft sets for performances, exhibitions, and other events.

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Automation is rapidly becoming a normalized part of many people’s daily lives and careers, a trend which has by no means evaded the construction industry. While this increasingly pervasive technology is often considered a symptom of the contemporary 21st century, however, one automated construction technology may have a history stretching as far back as the 1960s. This technology, the bricklaying robot, has transformed dramatically since its limited realization over 50 years ago, splintering into newer, more technologically advanced variations today.

In Brazil, an increasing number of people are choosing to live in apartments rather than houses. Mirroring this trend, the supply of residential buildings with diverse floor plans and typologies has grown at a similar pace. In this context, and aiming to evoke the feeling of a standalone house, developers are increasingly offering lofts and duplex apartments. These layouts foster spatial openness, functional design, and enhanced natural light and ventilation through large openings and glass expanses. Additionally, double-height ceilings establish a visual connection between different floors, among other features that provide greater comfort to residents.

Continuing our series of articles studying social housing in Latin America, Nikos A. Salingaros, David Brain, Andrés M. Duany, Michael W. Mehaffy, and Ernesto Philibert-Petit present a reflection on the problems and solutions of favelas. Read the previous articles and the new piece below.

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Every field has its heroes. In architecture, heroic designers have often been celebrated both for their skills and as public personalities. Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn were icons in the 20th century. In the 21st, Zaha Hadid was as bold and evocative as her buildings, and she became a “starchitect” (to use the industry-specific parlance), her untimely death further elevating her to what-might-have-been status. But heroes are only human, and their deaths do not automatically convey a permanent place in the pantheon. They do, however, allow for a fresh perspective on the living.

In the fields of architecture and engineering, the term "span" refers to the distance between two structural supports, typically describing the uninterrupted space between the columns of a building's load-bearing frame. Several notable spans have achieved fame for their impressive scale, particularly in public and civic projects, such as Lina Bo Bardi's MASP and Paulo Mendes da Rocha's MuBE, both in São Paulo. Yet, large spans can offer spatial generosity and visual freedom in any project, including those on a smaller scale.

A person living in Moema, a neighborhood with one of the highest income concentrations in São Paulo, lives 20 years longer than someone born in Cidade Tiradentes, in the far east of the capital. Brazil's wealthiest city exposes just how unequal the country is, and how much access to public policies varies depending on where one lives. 

What happens when the sensor-imbued city acquires the ability to see – almost as if it had eyes? Ahead of the 2019 Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB), titled "Urban Interactions," ArchDaily is working with the curators of the "Eyes of the City" section at the Biennial to stimulate a discussion on how new technologies – and Artificial Intelligence in particular – might impact architecture and urban life. Here you can read the “Eyes of the City” curatorial statement by Carlo Ratti, the Politecnico di Torino and SCUT.

Media Architecture is a merging of new technologies and the built form in order to explore narrative and to imbue character, to engage people and create new dialogues through a layer of meaningful experience. 

It isn’t a new concept - telling a story about a building through its form, particularly the facade of a building, has been around throughout history;- just think of York Minster’s stained glass windows, St Mark’s Basilica in Venice, and the Meenakshi Temple in Tamil Nadu.  What is exciting now is the opportunities brought about by technology to create new narratives and new forms of human interaction. 

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The 5th edition of Portugal's PNAM (National Wood Architecture Prize) was awarded on November 8 at the Monastery of Alcobaça. Organized by the Association of Wood and Furniture Industries of Portugal (AIMMP), the Portuguese Chamber of Architects (OA), and the Portuguese Construction and Real Estate Confederation (CPCI), the biennial award is open to Portuguese architects who choose wood as a primary material for their projects.

Discover the award-winning projects below. 

The Minha Casa, Minha Vida (MCMV) program was a cornerstone of federal housing policy under recent administrations. By financing new affordable housing, MCMV incentivizes developers to build in areas far from urban centers. This occurs because performance metrics focus solely on the number of units delivered, creating a strong economic incentive for developers to build far from downtown areas, where land is cheaper. Consequently, many of these developments are distant from job opportunities and basic services, as well as isolated from public mass transit networks, which are structurally unsuited to serve low-density peripheral areas.

In late October, the Guardian’s architecture critic Oliver Wainwright reported that the United Kingdom’s first architecture union had been formed. The Section of Architecture Workers (UVW-SAW) is a section of the United Voices of the World, a new model of grassroots trade union that supports the expansion of union ideals to professions and sectors which traditionally did not have such representation. The launch of the union, and the reasons behind it, serve as the latest episode in long-running concern over the working conditions faced by architects in the UK and across the world.

For the past four years, Avenida Paulista has come alive with color, dance, music, and a vibrant flow of pedestrians and cyclists on Sundays and holidays. This is the result of mobilization by civil society organizations and the public, which in 2015 led the São Paulo Municipal Government to establish the Paulista Aberta Program as part of the city's Ruas Abertas (Open Streets) initiative. Since then, one of the state capital's busiest avenues has served as a stage for economic, cultural, and leisure activities, while providing a vast, free space for physical exercise.

Widely used in infrastructure, gabion walls are structures made of mesh metal cages filled with stones. These permeable walls use galvanized steel wire to withstand outdoor conditions. 

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These river journeys are intended for on-site research, documentation, and data collection focusing on rivers. They are conducted by researchers from the Fluvial Metropolis Group of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo (FAUUSP), coordinated by Professor Alexandre Delijaicov. Each researcher maps out their itinerary based on personal interests, yet shares a common goal: to gather design references for fluvial infrastructure architecture, expanding the research group's imaginary and repertoire. The driving question for the researchers is: how do people relate to the river waters flowing through their metropolises, cities, or towns within the built environment along the riverbanks? The boundary defined by the elements of land and water is the starting point for this observation.

Rua Miguel Calmon has been the stage for significant transformations in Salvador. Until the early 20th century, before the land reclamation that created the left side of the street and a new port for the city, it was called Rua do Cais and was bordered by the sea. A century later, this street in the Comércio neighborhood has become the first Complete Street in the capital of Bahia, standing as a symbol of the interventions revitalizing its historic center.