While brick is one of the preferred construction methods within the architectural culture of several Latin American countries, Uruguay's unique history with this material has been deeply shaped by the contributions of the renowned engineer Eladio Dieste. His work pushed brick to its ultimate lightness, creating curved surfaces through a pioneering technology he termed reinforced ceramics. In doing so, Dieste offered the country—and the world—a new perspective on the structural possibilities of brick, strengthening its role in local identity and inspiring further exploration and design with the material.
The state of New Mexico is located in the western region of the United States, bordering Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas (in the US) and Chihuahua (in Mexico). It has the highest percentage of Spanish-speaking population in the United States. As part of Aridoamerica, its landscape is predominantly shaped by cacti and desert species.
The following article proposes rethinking architecture as a subject rather than an object. Carlos Medellín delves into the topic, arguing from both experimental and academic perspectives how people-centered architecture acts as an agent of change.
Observing the reality of our built environment allows us to recognize that certain identities are not represented by existing models and scales. Unsurprisingly, these voices have been conspicuously absent from the planning and construction processes of cities and their architecture. Their desires, ways of being, and modes of inhabiting the world have been excluded and rendered invisible. This prompts us to rethink: Which voices are legitimized in urban debates, and for whom is the city designed?
The year 2019 was one of the most prolific for public design competitions in Bogotá, particularly within the education sector. Recently, the results of the public architectural preliminary design competition for the Hipotecho School were announced, with the winning proposal submitted by the joint team of AR-AR (Martínez Arquitectura) + Fiallo Atelier + MEC arquitectura.
Eight years ago today, we began this adventure called ArchDaily México, sharing the same mission as the global ArchDaily platform: to continue providing inspiration, knowledge, and tools to architects, but through a local lens, recognizing the value that national talent has to offer to the world.
Within residential spaces, architects choose to give more or less prominence to certain areas of the program, depending on client preferences. While some prefer to prioritize more intimate spaces, others lean toward social areas—with the kitchen being a primary example.
Although the pragmatic function of a kitchen is to serve as a space for preparing food, there are few homes where it does not also double as a gathering place. Even in traditional dwellings like the Mapuche *ruka*, a central hearth is used both for cooking and for heating, conceptually evoking the same welcoming atmosphere as integrated urban kitchens. Today, fire is managed through stoves—with a strong modern shift toward induction cooktops for their safety and precise temperature control. Nevertheless, the core domestic principle remains the same, and contemporary architecture has allowed the kitchen to once again integrate seamlessly with daily activities and social zones.
The pursuit of security in architecture is closely linked to creating sheltered interiors that allow us to carry out our daily activities comfortably and without unforeseen disruptions. However, the challenges involved in protecting people and property have shifted dramatically in recent years. Today, we seek to feel safe wherever we are, and in an increasingly open and transparent architecture, the building envelope material becomes more and more critical, particularly in its glazed areas.
What parameters should be considered when choosing safety glass? We spoke with technical experts from Cristales Dialum, who have developed solutions with different resistance levels for single- and double-glazed units.
We have all heard the term BIM in the field of architecture and construction. But have you ever wondered why its adoption has grown so rapidly in recent years? Building Information Modeling (BIM) has streamlined the work of various professionals in the architecture and construction industries. It not only facilitates the design process but also simplifies the overall analysis of the building, thereby minimizing errors.
Through BIM methodology, teams can work collaboratively, maximizing the efficiency of project management and administration for both small and large-scale projects. This allows architects and engineers to work with parametric models and drawings, known as 3D smart objects.
https://www.archdaily.com/1123903/learn-about-bim-in-revit-with-this-free-online-introductory-courseGoPillar Academy
Courtesy of Königsberger Vannucchi Arquitetos Associados
In this article, I share the analysis and decision-making process we led at Königsberger Vannucchi Arquitetura when starting our BIM transformation in 2017. We conducted six investment studies between 2013 and 2017 before the plan finally became an active initiative. It was September 2017, and we had just embarked on what would be the most important, transformative, and risky investment of the KV2020 strategic cycle: adopting BIM as the office standard across 100% of our projects, throughout 100% of their lifecycles.
Located in southern Mexico, bordering the state of Tabasco and sharing a border with Guatemala, the state of Chiapas is one of the most significant regions for Mesoamerican cultures like the Olmec, Maya, and Chiapanec. Consequently, some of the area's most important tourist attractions are the archaeological zones of Yaxchilán, Palenque, Chinkultic, Toniná, and Bonampak, which are crucial for understanding the construction, structural, and social processes that shaped this territory.
Similar in nature to silos and granaries, the barn is an essential building typology within agricultural storage processes. Their designs are typically simple and functional. Serving specifically as facilities to store large volumes of raw materials, they are characterized by high ceilings, wide spans, and relative flexibility. These structures protect agricultural products—such as cereals, fruits, grains, straw, and hay—from the sun, rain, moisture, and pests.
Nearly sixty years ago, Flora Manteola, Javier Sánchez Gómez, Justo Solsona, Carlos Libedinsky, and Antonio Diaz envisioned a building with a capacity of 3,000,000 books and 500,000 magazines and newspapers for the National Library of Argentina preliminary design competition. Their proposal for a "large metal tent" would ultimately take second place to the concrete glyptodont by Clorindo Testa, Bullrich, and Cazzaniga that stands today.
From its inception, the proposal "prompted sensitivity toward new formal and structural directions," as noted in the jury's critique. In 2015, this design was featured in the exhibition Latin America in Construction, and today its original model and blueprints are in the official collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.
Below, we revisit the project through the words of Justo Solsona:
There are many ways to define BIM methodology. One of them describes it as a set of processes that help us combine a project's geometry with the data required to complete its entire lifecycle. We could say that modeling in BIM is like virtually executing the construction process.
Another key aspect is that it allows us to work in a collaborative environment, helping to simplify the flow of information among different stakeholders and providing greater control over our projects.
https://www.archdaily.com/1123891/what-are-quantity-takeoffs-used-for-in-bimGoPillar Academy
As part of an initiative by the Faculty of Architecture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the Carlos Obregón Santacilia Bookstore is making a selection of its publications available to the public digitally and free of charge. These texts cover a wide range of topics, including research methods, analyses of administrative processes in the architectural field, theoretical writings by Alberto T. Arai, architectural history across various periods and contexts, structural systems, energy efficiency, urbanism, landscape, heritage, reconstruction, biennials, and guides to support the conception of new architectural projects.
As a human creation, architecture as an object always poses the challenge of its integration into the landscape. When a design opts to go underground, it can bring various design benefits, such as blending into the context, as well as technical advantages like increased thermodynamic efficiency.
Without a doubt, 2020 was a year defined by transformation and new paradigms. For the first time in more than a century since the Spanish Flu, we faced a pandemic that drove us into complete isolation inside our homes. Within the field of interior design, lockdowns forced millions of people worldwide to rethink their personal relationship with the home and its various spaces. In Brazil, despite a surge in renovations and furniture sales, the segment faced initial downturns. Nevertheless, the construction sector's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is projected to grow by 3.8% in 2021, according to data from the Civil Construction Industry Syndicate (Sinduscon-SP) and the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) published on the Época Negócios website.
Analyzing the Brazilian interior design projects published in recent months, combined with our daily curatorial experience, we have mapped out 22 trends pointing toward the future of interior design in Brazil for 2021 and beyond. To provide a coherent overview, we have divided our selection into five major conceptual categories: Colors; Finishes and Surfaces; Spatial Integration; Efficiency and Space Saving; and Repurposed Construction Materials in Interiors. Read on below:
In 2018, a flexible and ephemeral space was erected in Mexico City's Alameda Central, demonstrating the luminosity and plastic versatility of joining 2,500 water jugs to form a conical blue oasis. Today, this pavilion is located within the Huerto Urbano Roma Verde, where it has hosted various events and activities, shedding the transience and impermanence that originally defined its essence.
Traditional architecture is based on a complex understanding of dwelling, the collective production and transmission of knowledge, and construction through mutual-aid community processes that strengthen the social fabric, cultural identity, and territorial bond. In other words, it is a practice of community self-production where the inhabitants themselves, without intermediaries, manage the multiple processes involved in materializing their habitat, always relying on collective intelligence. Today, architecture has shifted from being a communal asset to an exclusive language of a few where, despite still requiring the organized participation of various actors, its production is credited to a single author: an individual entity who, without possessing the diverse knowledge required to complete a work from start to finish, is recognized as the mastermind behind all processes. The professionalization of architecture has not only individualized its discourse and complicated the transmission of knowledge; it has also discriminated against and rejected the knowledge produced outside of academic, professional, and governmental institutions, labeling it as precarious—thereby opening the door to racism.
https://www.archdaily.com/1124047/architecture-and-racism-when-design-is-used-as-a-colonial-toolMariana Ordoñez y Jesica Amescua
Have you ever had to convince your friends or family that an exposed brick wall can be more interesting than a plastered surface painted white? Or that exposed building systems can offer major advantages when it comes to maintenance? These are recurring scenarios in the professional lives of architects and design firms.
Sidewalks were widened and new street furniture was installed to encourage walking and spending time on the street. Photo: Daniel Castellano/Curitiba City Hall
Amid century-old buildings, a major bus terminal, and a thriving commercial sector, Curitiba has implemented a complete street. Completed in February, the revitalization of Voluntários da Pátria Street has made the thoroughfare safer for pedestrians moving through the central area and more inviting for staying, featuring new benches and widened sidewalks. It is a reclamation of the past that makes the present more welcoming and strengthens the construction of a more humane future for Brazilian cities.
https://www.archdaily.com/1124020/curitibas-new-complete-street-combines-pedestrian-priority-and-heritage-preservationBruno Batista, Paula Manoela dos Santos e Fernando Corrêa
Are artists connected to the territory and the community?
Todo por la Praxis presents their project Monumento Residencia, an active research initiative addressing the space of artistic residencies and the resident's engagement with their context.
At a time when we only have room for immediate priorities, many designers in our discipline work detached from the actual context where their projects will be built. Yet, some still dedicate the time and passion to experience these realities firsthand and build hand-in-hand with the users.
Chiloé is a production by Glaciar Films, directed by Diego Breit and David Guzmán, consisting of five episodes that showcase the architectural identity of the Chilean island and its key figures. Architects, carpenters, artisans, and residents weave together a narrative charting the island’s building history and how it now faces imminent change and the adoption of modern paradigms.
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