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Right to the City: Concept and Evolution

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Originally published in ArquitecturaAhora, architect Ana Sugranyes explores the origin and evolution of the concept of the right to the city, from 1960s Paris to its global expansion.

In the name of social integration or sustainability, the United Nations New Urban Agenda (2016) also incorporated a reference to the right to the city. “Words, then, are of no use: they are just words,” says Alberti. Meanwhile, Chile maintains its high level of income inequality, which has a direct, correlative effect on the deep socio-spatial segregation of its territories and cities; this, in turn, corresponds to worrying levels of social, cultural, and structural violence. 

These are the winners of the second edition of the 'Proyectar a Conciencia' STO competition.

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Do you have ideas on how to improve existing social housing to transform environmental conditions? That was the question posed by Proyectar a Conciencia 2.0, a competition open to students and faculty throughout Chile, aiming to intervene in the Family Heritage Protection Program (PPPF) of the Chilean Ministry of Housing and Urbanism (MINVU).

Sustainable public transportation, a necessary goal to achieve in the city of Córdoba

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Since the mid-twentieth century, Latin American cities have undergone metropolization processes in which transportation has been heavily impacted by the exponential growth of private vehicle use. This is driven by rapid, unregulated urban sprawl that causes cities to spread extensively across the territory. This physical expansion is compounded by deficient public transit management and weak domestic socioeconomic conditions, both of which severely constrain the development of transportation systems.

Córdoba, Argentina's most populous city after Buenos Aires, is a prime example of this paradigm, featuring one of the largest urban footprints in the world at 576 square kilometers (excluding its metropolitan area). Its physical structure is radiocentric, with transport corridors converging in the city center, creating a dense core where services are concentrated and an ever-expanding periphery.

Social media in the collective construction of urban memory: the case of #RobinHoodGardens

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In this article, Beatriz Coeffé Boitano presents a portion of her Master’s thesis in Arts and Cultural Management at King’s College London, titled “Brutalism Revival: media as active spaces of urban memory.” The piece reflects on the documentation and construction of a collective discourse around urban memory through social media platforms, focusing on the demolition of the brutalist Robin Hood Gardens complex by Alison and Peter Smithson.

What can children say about the city and dwelling?

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Today, when it comes to urban planning, the design and pursuit of inclusive cities is generally promoted. That is, fostering collective environments where all sectors of society can thrive.

How much easier would this task be if spaces were created where different segments of society could express their needs regarding how they live?

“Leo Leo! Que Ves? La ciudad contada por los niños y las niñas” is a project that originated in the city of Córdoba in 2017, within the framework of the artistic and cultural activities program of the Undersecretariat of Culture at the National University of Córdoba. It continues to develop activities such as “Ciudad niñez-ca,” led by Paola Antonietti and workshop facilitators Camila García Reyna, María Paz Pérez Roque, Rocío Maldonado, Gabriela Soto, and Matias Zanetti, alongside FAUD's Urbanism 1A department and the City and Territory Studies Workshop.

We explore this project through the words of its creators.

Mares de Madrid: Resilient Spatial Processes of Urban Transformation and Social Economy

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Mares is an urban transformation and social economy project developed by estudio SIC, VIC (Vivero de iniciativas ciudadanas) and TXP (Todo por praxis) in Madrid, Spain. The project reclaims four former buildings across four different districts of the city, converting them into innovation hubs. Each hub is linked to key urban challenges: Mobility, Food, Recycling, Energy, and Care.

Fernández del Amo: Modern Clandestinity in Spanish Architecture

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José Luis Fernández del Amo (1914–1995) belongs to the landscape of postwar Spanish architecture, with projects and works that stood apart from the academic aura. His works circulated like clandestine messages that opened up new paths, hinted at truths, supported collective wills, and vanished into a crowd driven by diverse interests. Like many of his generation, he had to begin his professional career trapped between the conflicts of disillusionment and a spiritual shift in his outlook on life—a disillusionment born from the searing cruelty of a civil war that provoked, in those who endured it, an internal shift in response to the drama unleashed by such conflicts.

House with Studio and Workshop: Homes That Incorporate Workspaces in Argentina

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While many of the homes built during the Modern Movement—as design experiments on new ways of living—fostered the early emergence of "programmatic hybrids" by typically linking the residences of artists, painters, or architects with their workspaces (one need only recall, for instance, the atelier Le Corbusier designed for painter Amédée Ozenfant in 1922), today, new work models and hyperconnectivity have further driven the development of a new typology where workspaces are integrated into residential architecture. Architects, writers, photographers, designers, and painters increasingly choose to integrate their studios and workshops into their homes, merging living and working into a single whole.

Concéntrico 05: The festival that reflects on public space

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Concéntrico is an International Architecture and Design Festival that, through a democratic approach open to all citizens and visitors, aims to reflect on the urban environment and the city.

How ArchDaily Mexico Celebrated Its 7th Anniversary at Proyecto Público Prim

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How ArchDaily Mexico Celebrated Its 7th Anniversary at Proyecto Público Prim - Imagem 1 de 4How ArchDaily Mexico Celebrated Its 7th Anniversary at Proyecto Público Prim - Imagem 2 de 4How ArchDaily Mexico Celebrated Its 7th Anniversary at Proyecto Público Prim - Imagem 3 de 4How ArchDaily Mexico Celebrated Its 7th Anniversary at Proyecto Público Prim - Imagem 4 de 4How ArchDaily Mexico Celebrated Its 7th Anniversary at Proyecto Público Prim - More Images+ 23

On Thursday, September 5, ArchDaily México celebrated its seventh anniversary. This year, Proyecto Público Prim was chosen as the venue—an early 20th-century building of great architectural value featuring interventions by architect Alberto Kalach and the firm PRODUCTORA. The venue served as the backdrop for some of the most influential figures on the contemporary scene to connect with the ArchDaily México team.

The need for adaptable materials in Latin American social housing

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The article series by Nikos A. Salingaros, David Brain, Andrés M. Duany, Michael W. Mehaffy, and Ernesto Philibert-Petit investigating social housing in Latin America continues by exploring the choice of building materials. Read all past articles and the new piece below.

1- Design Capable of Establishing 'Emotional Belonging' 2- Anti-Patterns of Latin American Social Housing 3- Geometry of Control 4- Biophilia, Connectivity, and Spirituality 5- Using the Work of Christopher Alexander 6- Construction Strategies for Social Housing 7- Examples of Patterns and Generating Codes 8- Design Strategies 9 - Design Sequence 10 - Practical Suggestions for Successful Projects

On Reclaiming Residual Spaces on the Mexican Border: Neighborhood Action Laboratory

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On Reclaiming Residual Spaces on the Mexican Border: Neighborhood Action Laboratory - Featured Image
© Nómada Laboratorio Urbano

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Ciudad Juárez is an industrial city located on the northern border with the United States, specifically bordering the city of El Paso, Texas. Over the years, Juárez's economy has been dominated by the ‘maquiladora’ assembly industry, and the city was once considered one of the most violent in the world due to a wave of crime between 2008 and 2012. In response to these conditions, in 2014, a group of friends from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, eager to contribute to their city's resilience and recovery, came together to discuss and pitch ideas for reclaiming streets, plazas, and parks through sociocultural projects and public space interventions, ultimately giving rise to Nómada Laboratorio Urbano.

Emilio Santiago Muíño: "Sustainability is not a technical problem, but a political one"

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In its most recent edition, BBConstrumat, Spain's largest construction trade fair, underscored its commitment to supporting a new model in the construction industry—one centered on the circular economy and sustainable development. 

Among the event's key highlights, Ricardo Devesa—editor-in-chief at Actar and urbanNext and professor at IAAC—curated the refreshing congress Logics of Innovation and Change, where presentations and discussions revolved around global challenges such as climate change, robotics, resilience, migration, and new global narratives.

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Examples of Flexible Spaces through Movable Partitions in Argentina

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As a result of programmatic uncertainty, the diversity of individual lifestyles, and the impossibility of planning future ways of living, our architectural spaces have begun to call their own boundaries into question. The inability to confine contemporary activities to specific rooms, combined with new demands for adaptability and constant mutation in *micro-spaces*, has led to various architectural strategies in pursuit of flexible living.

Maintenance Strategy for Social Housing in Latin America

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Continuing with the series of articles by Nikos A. Salingaros, David Brain, Andrés M. Duany, Michael W. Mehaffy, and Ernesto Philibert-Petit on the study of social housing in Latin America, this installment discusses construction work processes and operating systems. Review past publications and the new article below.

New documentary on the struggle for housing and gentrification in Lisbon

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What Will Happen Here? (O que vai acontecer aqui?) is a new documentary by Left Hand Rotation, in collaboration with Stop Despejos and Habita, on the housing struggles in Lisbon—a city where rents have increased by 50% over the last three years and that has become the leading European city for real estate fund investment.

The metropolitan rural landscape of the City of Córdoba

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The following research by the Córdoba Urbanism Laboratory (LuCBA)—part of an agreement between the Faculty of Architecture, Urbanism, and Design of the UNC and the Municipal Planning Institute—explores the formative logic, physical structures, and reality of the Green Belt of Córdoba, Argentina.

"The Metropolitan Rural Landscape" is a compendium that presents diverse, intentional perspectives on metropolitan rural territory. These viewpoints aim to highlight and open a discussion on the challenges and potential of these spaces. Below are some excerpts from the project:

Binational Competition for the Environmental Control Laboratory on the Uruguay River

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Promoted by the Uruguay River Administrative Commission, organized by the Society of Architects of Uruguay (SAU) and the College of Architects of the Province of Entre Ríos (CAPER) —and sponsored by the Argentine Federation of Architect Associations (FADEA)— the call for entries is now open for the binational preliminary design competition to develop a Control Laboratory for the environmental analysis of the Uruguay River.

A winning (and disqualified) project for the Catalog of Modular Schools in the Peruvian highlands

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The results of the National Catalog of Modular Schools Competition in Peru were recently announced, with a single winning team unanimously selected for all five categories across their respective bioclimatic zones: Coast, Rainy Coast, Highlands, Frost, and Rainforest. Remarkably, this team was formed by an alliance of several highly influential architecture firms in the country, as evidenced by the caliber of their proposals. What made this outcome so compelling was that unity and diversity prevailed in a competition that seeks to foster those very principles through architecture and education.

However, there is an important detail in the competition's process—and processes are journeys worth remembering. The project developed by the architecture offices leonmarcial + Ghezzi Novak was awarded first place by the jury in the Highlands Catalog category; however, it was disqualified for failing to meet the required documentation. Such situations are common in architectural competitions, where regulations must ultimately be upheld.

Beyond the outstanding projects that ultimately won, what happens to those left behind? What becomes of all that valuable material? They, too, deserve visibility, as they represent efforts that should lead to some outcome. We are committed to sharing quality architecture, and this project, given its winning caliber, is undoubtedly one of them.

Trujillan Windows: Urban Scale and Interior World

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They represent one of the many treasures of northern Peru: its immense windows. When I learned I was heading pa'l norte to Trujillo, I immediately began to dream of its windows. I had encountered them in an excellent university course, and their dimensions were striking enough to occupy a significant place in my memory—compounded by a natural obsession with windows of any size or shape, their purpose, and what they make possible. Although I had been there years ago as a child, I was now returning with a fresh, more architectural perspective.

This is a photographic journey and compilation of the diverse variations of the Trujillo window. The images are not limited to the well-preserved areas of the city; they also reveal neglect or deterioration. Either way, their beauty shines through.

Buildings for the Kuélap Cable Cars: Architecture from Memory and the Environment

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01-Boarding Station. Image © Manuel Medir

Kuélap, a pre-Inca site built by the Chachapoyas culture, is located in the north-central part of Peru, in the Amazonas Region. It forms a massive stone architectural complex characterized by its monumentality, featuring a large artificial platform seated on a limestone ridge at the summit of the mountain. Its colossal walls and complex interior architecture bear witness to its function as a well-organized settlement, which included administrative and religious enclosures, ceremonial spaces, and permanent residences.

For a long time, the Peruvian government had targeted the archaeological complex for ongoing visitation and conservation. As an essential destination for both domestic and international tourists, the cable car circuit project was finally brought to fruition through a public-private partnership. Here, we present an intriguing architectural project developed by FD Arquitectos y Urbanistas. Its design successfully reconciles the technology and modernity required by the project's complexity with the traditional vernacular construction of Amazonas, promoting environmental sustainability and a deep understanding of the high-jungle territory.

21 university teams envision interventions in historic residential blocks in Santiago

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As part of Semana UTEM 2019—"The Project Within the Project"—21 teams from the Faculty of Architecture at the Metropolitan Technological University of Chile (UTEM) participated in the Domestic Pre-Existences workshop. The students proposed interventions for the historic "C Blocks" in Santiago's pericenter—residential complexes designed by the state Housing and Urban Development Service (SERVIU) between 1986 and 1996.

How to Implement Virtual Reality: Answers to Architects' Frequently Asked Questions

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If you are looking for something different for your architectural presentations, virtual reality can be a compelling option (and a challenge if it is your first time working with it). Do you know which headsets are the most suitable, or what the ideal file size of a 360-degree render or 3D model is for VR viewing?

We hope the following answers to frequently asked questions are helpful!

These are the new collaborations by Mexican designers for Pirwi

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Pirwi, the leading national design editor, recently presented new collections featuring collaborations with Mexican artists and designers, including Daniel Pouzet, Joel Escalona, Moisés Hernández, Pablo Herrera, Sebastián Ángeles, Sergio Morales, and Mario García Torres. These collaborations range from small objects such as shelves and furniture to design pieces that offer a critique and reflection on the era we inhabit. Some of the pieces shown below come together as a complete range of daily-life objects designed by Pirwi, reflecting the brand's aspiration to reach a more inclusive audience and refresh its image with materials and finishes not previously explored.

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