Wang Hao (born 1978) is the co-founder of Atelier Anonymous. In 2013, he held the solo exhibition "Free Structure: New Chinese Dwellings" at the Shanghai Design Center, and was awarded the German *Bauwelt* First Work Award in the same year. He participated in the Shanghai Urban Space Art Season in 2015, and exhibited at the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2016. In 2020, he co-organized the "Timber Structure Renaissance" exhibition with the K11 Art Foundation (KCG) in Shanghai, and received the Natural Build Award | Young Architect Discovery Award.

Qiu Zhefeng (born 1979) is the co-founder of Atelier Anonymous. In 2008, he published the book *The Forerunner: China's Future in a Small Town*. In 2012, he curated the "Society" project for the City Pavilions program at the 9th Shanghai Biennale. In 2013, he was invited to participate in the 55th Venice Biennale, curating the exhibition *Shanghai and Venice: City Center, Diankou, Lima, and Palermo*.

"Complete City: La Palomera, Acknowledgment and Celebration" is the installation by Enlace Arquitectura for the 17th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale 2021. The model is a representation of the paths, stairways, and gardens of the La Palomera barrio in Caracas, Venezuela. The message: to recognize the barrio as part of the city.

Dear readers, with your companionship, ArchDaily has journeyed through 2020. Throughout this past year, we have continued our daily mission to report on and share global architecture, growing along the way while earning the recognition of architects and the invaluable support of our readers. 2020 has been an extraordinary year. At a time when we cannot gather or meet in person, we rely on the digital realm to send holiday wishes, sharing warmth and connection through online greeting cards. We have compiled the holiday cards we received this year to share with you, our dear readers. Let’s take a look at these creative designs from architects worldwide as we welcome 2021 together.

This September marks the 4th edition of the Chicago Architecture Biennial under the title The Available City. It is a perfect opportunity to open up the debate on the role of architecture in urban equity.

The acclaimed architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha, who passed away on May 23, cementing his eternal legacy, granted an interview to Revista América #1, published just over two years ago. In this journal from the Escola da Cidade graduate program, the architect, whose reflections lie at the core of the publication's editorial vision, expands—as he did on many other occasions—the concept of architecture, linking it to geographic and political dimensions.

Currently under construction and scheduled for completion in 2022, the Smart 22@ building by GCA Architects is a project that seeks to integrate past and future while reflecting the values of modernity, sustainability, and technology. Located in Barcelona's 22@ district, the building aims to become Spain's first Smart Building, targeted to achieve LEED Platinum V4 certification with the highest score, alongside a WELL Gold certification.

# Red Dot Award: Product Design 2020
# 2019 Archiproducts Longlist
# Selected for the 2020 ADI Design Index Exhibition

When Mies van der Rohe urged us to distill our walls to their bare essentials with his famous adage "less is more," he might not have anticipated that we would eventually grow weary of perfectly uniform boxes. While minimalism remains a dominant design style worldwide, there is a growing desire to inject clever details beyond mere simplicity, breaking its monotony to introduce aesthetic refinement and a warmer atmosphere. This is where Eclisse 40 comes in.

The door frame of the Eclisse 40 series is not only a technical innovation, but it also rethinks the frame as an aesthetic, design, and decorative element. The splayed profile defines the volume, playing with light to create a unique theatrical effect. What was once an invisible, purely structural element—the frame—now takes center stage, turning the door into a prominent feature in interior design with its own expressive power.

Throughout history, the bicycle has endured as a means of transportation, evolving in various ways. In recent years (and even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic), however, its popularity has surged, specifically in major cities. In rural areas, by contrast, it has always been one of the primary modes of transportation due to the lack of other infrastructure. In Mexico, there are regions that have historically been highly bicycle-centric. While cycling is often associated with being a trendy mode of transportation, the reality is that its use is concentrated among low-income groups across towns, municipalities, and even entire states. Unfortunately, investment in cycling infrastructure in Mexico remains consistently low.

A new edition of the Latin American Architecture Biennial is set to begin on September 28 in Pamplona, Spain. Organized by the AREA association in collaboration with the City Council of Pamplona, the Basque-Navarrese Association of Architects, the University of Navarra, the Government of Navarra, and the Spanish Ministry of Development, this 7th edition will feature 13 emerging architectural practices representing Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

ArchDaily is working with CityMakers to publish a series of articles, conversations, and interviews with the various city co-production stakeholders behind the Barcelona CityMakers Lab 2021, taking place from November 8 to 12.

CityMakers is a global platform of experts in city co-production best practices, aiming to connect city co-producers and influential leaders from around the world to inspire one another and drive transformation in their cities.

For this installment, Velislava Simeonova presents her article "The Return to the Post-COVID City: Reflections Toward Sustainable Urban Tourism."

An active city is one that encourages its inhabitants to be physically active in their daily lives. This does not mean aiming to turn citizens into Olympic athletes, but rather providing safe spaces for cyclists and pedestrians to move around, as well as adequate infrastructure so that people of all ages can play sports, have fun, and relax outdoors. Consequently, physical activity, at varying levels of intensity, becomes a natural part of the population's daily routine. 

Anyone who enjoys growing food or cultivating plants knows that a greenhouse can be invaluable in many scenarios. Whether to protect plants from the cold, shelter wind-sensitive species, or nurture sprouts and seedlings before they are transplanted elsewhere.

Having your own greenhouse requires space. While there are plenty of ready-made options and professional builders available, you can also use your creativity, time, and dedication to construct your own greenhouse.

+ 1

+ 7

As part of an investigation prompted by the September 19, 2017 earthquake in Mexico City, Mexican photographer Onnis Luque presents the book “Undercover,” published by the imprint The Velvet Cell (TVC) América Latina. The book features a series of photographs depicting damaged buildings shrouded in a kind of black veil, which was installed to prevent structural debris from collapsing. These images, in turn, are accompanied by texts that guide the reader, revealing diverse issues that extend beyond architecture to address social and political aspects from this unique vantage point.

Videos

Through its Seminar on Culture and Contemporary Reality course, Escola da Cidade hosted sociologist, professor, and researcher Jessé Souza to discuss social classes in contemporary Brazil, exploring the challenges of overcoming inequality and the impact of these issues on the city.

+ 59

The tension between architectural form and structural feasibility is long-standing; the bold, avant-garde visions of architects often remain on paper due to structural requirements and technical constraints. How can projects that break traditional architectural forms be realized? How do we translate these imaginative concepts into reality?

In this feature, ArchDaily introduces Eckersley O’Callaghan, a structural and facade engineering design firm. The practice has collaborated successfully with many of the world’s leading architects. Notably, their long-standing partnership with Foster + Partners has yielded several of Apple’s iconic, minimalist "all-glass" retail stores worldwide. They have also established strong collaborations with Zaha Hadid Architects, SOM, Gensler, KPF, Snøhetta, and Heatherwick Studio. Through numerous innovations and breakthroughs in glass manufacturing technology and structural design, Eckersley O’Callaghan has demonstrated world-leading capabilities in structural innovation and project execution.

Synonymous with light and loyalty, the lighthouse takes us back to antiquity. Conceived for utilitarian purposes, these architectural structures have accompanied thousands of sailors for decades, illuminating the coasts and warning of potential dangers and geographic hazards. Rooted in the collective memory, they represent specific historical moments depending on the country or region in which they stand.

Along Argentina's uninterrupted coastline, which stretches from Buenos Aires to Tierra del Fuego, lighthouses rise like columns. Emerging from the waves, they mark the edge of civilization, enabling dialogue and integration with nature.

The shortage of affordable housing is an issue that, when combined with challenges like gentrification or touristification, creates a highly volatile mix. ATRI (Tactical Groupings for Inclusive Repopulation) is a strategy that uses public or public-community co-produced housing as a tool for urban improvement to protect established urban fabrics from gentrification. It achieves this through the joint and simultaneous management of a constellation of small-scale developments that are faster, more affordable, fairer, and more sustainable to implement than conventional public housing systems.

+ 6

Generally, termoarcilla blocks are ceramic bricks made from clay and secondary aggregates (typically expanded polystyrene beads or other granular materials). These secondary aggregates play a key role in manufacturing: during firing (at temperatures exceeding 900 °C), they undergo a gasification process that creates pores in the material, reducing the block's density and making it lightweight (hence why in some countries they are commonly called lightweight clay blocks). This porous structure enhances the block's thermal and acoustic insulation performance, offering significant advantages over similar materials.

When the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, proposed the development of apartment buildings and commercial spaces on an empty industrial site, an op-ed in Growler Magazine compared the proposed development to a metal shredder. “Rather than conserving and enhancing the qualities and character of the neighborhood,” writes Charles Hathaway, “the redevelopment endorsed by the city's plan disregards the unique characteristics of the neighborhood and diminishes its quality.”

+ 16

Due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, global tourism ground to a halt for over a year, yet the desire to seek the inspiration that comes from traveling and experiencing new places remained. While experiencing spaces firsthand is undoubtedly one of the best ways to study architecture, reconstructing these structures through drawings and visualizations serves as another valuable educational tool, fostering a deeper awareness of the intricate details that compose them.

+ 1

The Arctic covers one-sixth of the Earth's surface. Much of its territory is covered by water, with the rest comprised of vast expanses of land. It is home to approximately 4 million inhabitants, including more than 30 Indigenous peoples. Eight states (Canada, Denmark/Greenland, Finland, Iceland, Norway, the Russian Federation, Sweden, and the United States) possess territories in the Arctic region. Its significance lies, among other things, in its role as the planet's air conditioner—reflecting sunlight and regulating global temperatures.

Founded in 2010 by He Zhe, James Shen, and Zang Feng, People’s Architecture Office (PAO) maintains offices in Beijing and Boston. Guided by the principle of “Design for the Masses,” the firm drives social impact through a multidisciplinary, innovative design approach that spans urbanism, architecture, and product design, with a focus on education, offices, housing, and urban renewal. PAO is the first architectural practice in Asia to achieve B Corp certification, serving as a model for social enterprise. Since 2017, the firm has also collaborated extensively with the Leping Social Entrepreneurship Foundation on various social innovation initiatives.

Videos

Architectures of the Global South is the title of the course taught by architects Marco Artigas and Pedro Vada through the Escola da Cidade Association. The program aimed to broaden perspectives on contemporary architectural production, considering the urgent need for new, fundamentally counter-hegemonic viewpoints. Grounded in the concept of the Global South and a shared vision of unity among countries shaped by colonization, the course, held between September and December 2020, established ongoing dialogues with architects practicing or residing in these nations.

The goal of these sessions was to discuss what and how people are building in these countries through direct conversations about the challenges posed by different territories, societies, and cultures. By exploring the processes and decisions behind each project in greater detail—using richer documentation than typically found in publications—the course addressed structural reflections and urgent issues.

Archivo de Ideas Recibidas is an interdisciplinary research and dissemination project that seeks to document and connect the ideas of individuals who contribute to the contemporary creative ecosystem from the fields of art, design, and architecture. It is built on conversations between the team and various creators, exploring topics related to memory, academia, cultural context, key influences, and working methodologies. On this occasion, they share their interview with designer Mariana Otero, who, alongside Yerko Zlatar, leads the design and interior design studio PUNA, based in Lima, Peru.