Nicolás Valencia speaks with Peruvian architect Sandra Barclay, founding partner of Barclay & Crousse Architecture, about the book Atlas Sensible: tiempo, memoria y recorrido en la construcción del paisaje, published by Publicaciones Arquitectura PUCP and Fondo Editorial PUCP.
The internationally established Pan-American Architecture Biennial of Quito, BAQ2024, held its latest edition this past November 2024 in the historic center of the Ecuadorian capital. The event brought together experts in the architectural discipline from all over the world for dialogue and reflection on the future of our cities, architecture, and the contemporary urban landscape. Under the theme CONVERGENCES: landscape architectures, this latest edition offered a deep reflection on the role of architecture in transforming the urban landscape—a topic of particular relevance in times of environmental, urban, and social challenges.
Beyond their aesthetics, materiality, or installation methods, the role of ceilings in contemporary architecture is no longer limited to hiding building structures or internal building systems. By providing functional benefits such as acoustic absorption, thermal insulation, energy efficiency, fire protection, integrated lighting, and ease of maintenance, different ceiling layouts combine flexibility and versatility to meet the diverse needs and uses of their occupants. Offices, restaurants, clinics, retail shops, and other interior spaces take center stage through the use of ceilings designed with clear intentions and narratives.
In 2025, we celebrate the sixteenth edition of our Obra del Año award, the ultimate recognition in the architectural world across Latin America and Spain, where the winners are chosen by our readers. Starting today, Tuesday, March 18, you and our entire readership will be responsible for determining which projects completed during 2024 inspired us and now faithfully represent the identity of our local contexts.
Over the next three weeks, the collective intelligence of our readers will filter through hundreds of projects built in Spanish-speaking countries—Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Uruguay.
At the heart of a historic and compressed urban fabric, where time seems to settle into granite walls, ceramic roof tiles, and the tile mosaics that paint facades with memory, a narrow and deep townhouse is given a new lease on life. Casa do Carriçal—a renovation of a typical 19th-century row house lot in Porto—proposes more than a simple spatial update. It is an exercise in listening, an attempt to reconcile past and present without rigid hierarchies, revealing the transformative power of everyday architecture.
We invite you to participate in the 2025 ArchDaily Brasil Building of the Year Award. Now in its ninth edition, we charge our readers with the responsibility of recognizing and rewarding the projects that have made the greatest impact on the profession. By voting, you become part of an unbiased network of judges, recognizing the most relevant projects built in Portuguese-speaking countries over the past year. Only a few days remain until the end of the nomination stage, which will select the 15 finalists for the 2025 ArchDaily Brasil Building of the Year Award.
Registered users can vote for their favorite project once per day. The nomination stage closes on April 1 at 11:59 PM (Brasília time, GMT-3).
In an era of shifting paradigms, contemporary hospitality architecture is rethinking the adoption of new technologies, the incorporation of sustainability and energy efficiency principles, as well as the personalization of user experiences. Redefining the design of both interior and exterior hotel spaces, these projects integrate everything from region-specific climate design strategies to the use of recycled materials and bioclimatic design, all aimed at minimizing environmental impact.
O-office Architects was founded in Guangzhou in 2007 by He Jianxiang and Jiang Ying. Through research-driven design, the studio seeks to construct a fresh spatial discourse between rapid economic growth and regional culture. Maintaining professional composure and restraint, O-office pursues the widely lost essence of inner space and urban life. Viewing architectural design as tectonic exploration and travel within a generalized metropolis, the firm attempts to establish an integrated design strategy that spans different scales and disciplines. The preservation of urban history and memory in the Pearl River Delta, alongside research into new forms of urban living, has been the focus of the firm's recent design and research efforts. O-office's unique regional practice has garnered widespread attention from professional media both domestically and internationally. Their works and essays have been featured in top academic publications, including The Architectural Review (UK), Architectural Record (US), L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui (France), CASABELLA (Italy), and Architectural Journal (China), as well as several international volumes on contemporary Chinese architectural research and case studies.
O-office's work has received numerous prestigious international and domestic architecture and design awards, most notably with the Lianzhou Museum of Photography being shortlisted as one of the top three finalists for the 2024 RIBA International Prize. Other accolades include two ARCASIA Gold Medals (in 2022 and 2020), the 2021 RIBA International Award for Excellence, the 2020 Sanlian Humanities City Award (Architecture), a Highly Recommended commendation in The Architectural Review's 2017 New into Old Awards, and a nomination for the 2016 BSI Swiss Architectural Award. In 2015, the firm was named one of the top ten Design Vanguards globally by Architectural Record. In 2020, O-office was selected by the authoritative architecture media outlet Domus as one of the world's 50 best architectural practices of the year.
Completed projects by O-office include the Shenzhen Hongling High School Sports & Art Center, Hongling Experimental Primary School, the Duichuan Tea Yards in Gaoming (Foshan), the Shenzhen iD Town Youth Art District, Shenzhen Mingde Academy, and the Lianzhou Museum of Photography. The office has also designed a series of collective housing research and practice projects in collaboration with Vanke (such as the Songshan Lake Residential Complex, Guangzhou Bashe Port Apartment, and Tianhe Chuangxiang Commune), cultural centers in Guangzhou, Beijing, and Shanghai in collaboration with the EMGdotART Foundation, and the Palazzo Zen exhibition pavilion in Venice, Italy, completed in 2014. Ongoing projects currently under development include the Dongjiao Fire Station and Bus Terminal Complex in Liwan (Guangzhou), rural art centers in Linhai (Zhejiang) and Kaiping (Guangdong), and the renovation of Langtou Primary School in Huadu (Guangzhou).
By Jeanette Fich Jespersen, MA, Director of the KOMPAN Play Institute, Chair of the Steering Committee of the World Playground Research Institute, University of Southern Denmark, Vice President of the International Play Association, Denmark.
"No, I don't want to go to that playground. It's boring!" This might sound like something no child would ever say. Yet, children have clear opinions about the playgrounds they like from a very early age. The reason why not only parents and caregivers, but also urban planners and architects must listen and adapt is more important than ever.
Narrating a work of architecture is always a challenge. Images of a project, no matter how accurate or spectacular, often obscure the entire process that made them possible. Documenting these processes—the architectural "kitchen"—is undoubtedly a fundamental part of any work. This is even more true when both the project and its execution methodology deviate from conventional practices. Such is the case with the work built by Susana, an estate manager with no prior construction experience, who took on the commission and carried it out on her own, guided solely by instructions sent via WhatsApp by the project's architect, Manuel Ocaña.
This article is part of our new Opinion section, a format for argument-driven essays on critical questions shaping our field.
Before architecture students become authors of space, they are subjected to one. For years, they work inside a building that teaches without announcing itself as a teacher. It organizes their exhaustion, their ambition, their visibility, their solitude, their friendships, their sense of scale, and their relationship to judgment. Long before a student can articulate a position on architecture, the school has already offered one in its implicit built environment.
This is not to suggest that buildings determine architects. The influence is slower and less complete than that. A school building operates more like a hidden curriculum: a spatial discipline that works alongside faculty, syllabi, institutional culture, and student life. It teaches through access and obstruction, program adjacencies, daylight exposures, and scale. It produces habits of attention before it produces explicit beliefs.
This week on the TERRAZA podcast, Nicolás Valencia speaks with Chilean sociologist and Universidad San Sebastián academic Ricardo Greene, editor of the landmark book "Ciudad Fritanga," published by Editorial Bifurcaciones in 2014.
"Ciudad Fritanga" compiles 34 chronicles of non-metropolitan Chilean cities like Arica, Talca, and Punta Arenas through the lens of poets, artists, and writers such as Lina Meruane, Jorge Baradit, Marcelo Mellado, and María José Navia.
"When people write about cities, they write about London, Berlin, and New York. That is the urban chronicle. However, non-metropolitan cities are also cities," Greene comments in this interview.
This week on the TERRAZA podcast, Nicolás Valencia speaks with Argentine-Spanish architect Zaida Muxí, author of the book “Mujeres, casas y ciudades” (Women, Houses, and Cities), published by dpr-Barcelona in 2018.
In “Mujeres, casas y ciudades”, Muxí proposes rewriting the history of architecture and urbanism by incorporating the contributions of the many women who have been silenced in mainstream historical accounts.
“If we want to play by market rules, housing will never be a right,” Muxí posits in this interview.
The rise of sustainability and the circular economy is transforming the construction industry, driving a growing demand for new specialized roles. Positions such as sustainability managers or circular economy consultants are becoming increasingly common in contemporary projects.
In 2024, the evolution of porcelain tiles has elevated the tactile experience to a new level, transforming them into true works of art. Produced with mineral texture printing technology, the collections feature striking reliefs in dimensions of 120 x 120 cm, 100 x 200 cm, 120 x 250 cm, 160 x 160 cm, and 160 x 320 cm, designed to awaken all the senses. Behind this advancement is Roca Brasil Cerámica, part of the Mexican LAMOSA Group, leading the Roca Cerâmica and Incepa brands.
"Drinking Caracu is drinking health." This is what read on the massive blank wall of a building in downtown São Paulo on the morning of May 1, 2018. Hidden for decades, the advertisement for the famous beer brand now loomed before a massive heap of concrete, twisted metal, and shattered glass. This was the rubble to which the iconic Wilton Paes de Almeida Building had been reduced—a modernist landmark designed by architect Roger Zmekhol and the subject of the documentary Skin of Glass, directed by his daughter, Denise Zmekhol.
The film transcends traditional architectural documentation by blending a personal narrative with the political complexities of contemporary Brazil, a country shaped by deep inequalities and erased memories. At the heart of the story is the building itself, considered a landmark of Brazilian modern architecture, which collapsed in 2018 after a tragic fire.
This Wednesday, October 9, the 19th edition of the Buenos Aires International Architecture Biennale will open to the public. The event, held once again at the Faena Art Center, will run until Sunday, October 13. Over the course of five days, the city will serve as a stage for reflections on sustainability, the environment, and new technologies applied to architecture and design. Alongside the central exhibition, the program will feature international lectures, workshops, and various installations distributed across key locations throughout Buenos Aires.
Stone and marble continue to establish themselves as essential materials in architecture and design, for both interiors and exteriors worldwide. CHC offers a curated selection designed to create spaces with a timeless, elegant character. Discover how to incorporate marble and stone into your projects to add a touch of modern style.
Choosing between vinyl and laminate flooring is no longer necessary, as resilient hybrid flooring combines the best features of both materials. Kiwi is a natural flooring made of 80% wood, utilizing a premium impregnation technology that makes it 100% waterproof. This product features 80% wood, while the remaining 20% is composed of plant-based resins. Consequently, it is 100% PVC-free, making it an entirely eco-friendly choice.
On this week's episode of the TERRAZA podcast, Nicolás Valencia speaks with Chilean architect Sandra Iturriaga about the book Mapocho Aguas Abajo (Ediciones ARQ), a publication developed by the Mapocho 42K Lab at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile that proposes revaluing the heritage and landscape of the downstream stretch of the Mapocho River in Santiago, Chile.
This week on the TERRAZA podcast, Nicolás Valencia talks with Venezuelan-American architect Elisa Silva about her book, "Pure Space: Public Space Transformations in Latin American Spontaneous Settlements" (Actar Publishers), an analysis of a series of public space interventions in communities across Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and Chile.
Nicolás Valencia talks this week on the TERRAZA podcast with Chilean architect Rodrigo Tisi about his book Objetos y espacios performativos (Ediciones ARQ), research that examines key moments to observe, explain, and establish the possibilities of certain performance practices in academia and creative environments.
This week on the TERRAZA podcast, Nicolás Valencia talks with Brazilian architect and critic Guilherme Wisnik about his book En la niebla (Editorial Bifurcaciones), a series of essays where fog serves as a metaphor for the state of uncertainty in today's world, weaving together contemporary debates on space, art, and politics.
