On the path toward poverty reduction, economic growth, and environmental sustainability, both water and sanitation measures play a fundamental role, demonstrating the importance of access to a resource like water in people's lives. To mark World Water Day, celebrated every March 22, we present the Palacio de Aguas Corrientes (Water Company Palace) in Buenos Aires—one of the greatest creations of the 19th-century European foundry industry outside Europe, combining art and engineering in a unique Argentine work declared a National Historic Monument in 1989.

How can we analyze the environmental impact of buildings? What strategies could be developed to improve people's quality of life and achieve a harmonious relationship with the environment? Year after year, more questions are added to the design decision-making process of thousands of architects around the world. They seek to take action and implement policies that improve the environmental performance of their buildings, reducing energy and resource consumption while also lowering greenhouse gas emissions and waste production.

As part of the series of public activities organized by the Center for Contemporary Architecture Studies (CEAC) at the School of Architecture and Urban Studies (EAEU) of Torcuato Di Tella University (UTDT), architect Ricardo Fernández Rojas will deliver a lecture on Thursday, March 17, introduced by Martín Torrado. Like other past and upcoming lectures, this series, titled "The Work of Others," is a program of free, in-person activities that require prior registration.

Within the Latin American and Caribbean region, it has been recorded that at least 25% of the population lives in informal settlements. Given that their expansion is one of the major problems afflicting these cities, a project is presented, supported by the IDB, which proposes how new technologies are capable of contributing to the identification and detection of these areas in order to intervene in them and help reduce urban informality.

Pipes, wiring and ducts of different materials in walls, ceilings and roofs make up all the spaces we walk through and inhabit. They represent the set of networks and equipment necessary for the development of life in our buildings, providing services such as water, electricity or gas, among many others. According to the regulations in each country and the use defined in each space, the installations can be left visible, giving a certain character and aesthetic to interior spaces.

Nowadays, the role of architects exceeds the limits of construction, reaching fields that are often unthinkable, but which nonetheless demonstrate a close relationship with the profession. If we go back in time, the fact is that many buildings, houses, monuments and even cities have been built intuitively without urban planning or renowned architects. Undoubtedly, today's architects are facing a great challenge that goes beyond demonstrating our skills and knowledge and extends to other areas that involve us, but we still don't know it. So we ask ourselves, what will be the profile of the architect of the future?

The Center for Architecture and Contemporary Studies (CEAC) at the School of Architecture and Urban Studies (EAEU) of the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (UTDT) has presented its public programming for the first semester of 2022, which began on Thursday, March 3, with a lecture by Spanish architect Juan Herreros. On Thursday, March 10, the second cycle of activities, titled "The Work of Others," will begin. This series aims to showcase the intellectual affinities of the School's new leadership through weekly presentations. The inaugural lecture will be delivered by Marcelo Faiden, with an introduction by Ricardo Fernández Rojas.

Organized by the Colombian Society of Architects - Bogotá and Cundinamarca Chapter (SCA BC) and the Administrative Department of the Public Space Ombudsman (DADEP), the II Bogotá Public Space Biennial 2021 (BEP BOG) aims to recognize and showcase projects that contribute to the creation, recovery, and sustainability of public space in the city of Bogotá.

The Association of Architects of Uruguay has announced the selected works from the 129 projects that participated in the 2021 Completed Work Competition. To ensure maximum territorial equity, the competition considered projects built between 2014 and 2020 across different regions of Uruguay. Divided into seven diverse categories—ranging from housing, cultural, and social infrastructure to interventions in built heritage or public spaces—one award and two honorable mentions were granted for each category.

The jury comprised Alma Varela, Humberto Eliash, Bernardo Martín, Héctor Berio, María Samaniego, Fernando Giordano, Alejandro Baptista, Nivaldo Andrade, and Angela Perdomo, who evaluated their respective categories. They were advised by Juan A. Articardi, Cristina Bausero, and Salvador Schelotto. Below are the winners in each category.

Over the last couple of years, terraces have become an important part of urban life, acting as a refuge, a space for enjoyment and gathering, for contemplation or as an outdoor workspace. As a result of periods of confinement around the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, these outdoor spaces where people can exercise, connect with nature, study or work, have become particularly popular with those living in large cities.

The Municipality of the Villarino District (MPV) and the College of Architects of the Province of Buenos Aires, District 10 (CAPBA, D10), launched the National Binding Preliminary Project Competition for the design of the Pedro Luro Bus Terminal. Sponsored by the Argentine Federation of Architectural Organizations (FADEA), the competition's objectives focused on creating a high-quality space for arrivals and departures of medium and long-distance travel, consolidating the site's character to transform it into a new central hub, and creating a new service space for local identity that engages both the local and regional populations, among others.

Could a space be one and many at the same time? Under the name Minimum Common Multiple, Estudio BNAA has designed a space of minimal footprints—typically used for commercial premises or offices—with the unique feature of being able to transform into multiple spaces simultaneously. Located in San Luis, Argentina, the project references the mathematical concept of the least common multiple (LCM) but from a different approach and function, combining movement, flexibility, and the use of magnetism as a construction system.

The Municipality of Flores launched a public competition for preliminary architectural proposals for a mixed-use building called Mercado Trinidad, to be located in the city of Trinidad, Uruguay. By integrating existing heritage structures and renovating or replacing the remaining buildings and open spaces, the project aims to redirect truck and heavy machinery traffic from the municipal workshops and warehouses currently operating there. This shift will promote urban regeneration and revitalize the central area with a new urban facility.

Sponsored by the Argentine Federation of Architecture Organizations (FADEA), the Argentine Center of Engineers (CAI) commissioned the Central Society of Architects (SCA) to organize and run the binding National Preliminary Design Competition for the Argentine Center of Innovation: Conservation, Preservation, and Adaptation of the CAI Headquarters, located in downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In a tour of the layout of Buenos Aires, around 500 passages are distributed throughout the city. Regardless of the neighbourhood in which they are located, they represent postcards of contemporary urban architecture with a tinge of improvisation. However, they bear witness to the organisation of Buenos Aires, which aspired to a checkerboard regularity.

On many occasions, it is difficult to tell the difference between the passage, the cut-off and the dead-end street, but they are all part of the urban space, that place of exchange, of encounter, of signs, symbols and words where people live, play and learn at the same time.

The Colombia Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai is thought of as an artefact with the ability to tell the past, present and future stories of the country's culture through its music. Supported by its geography and its cities, the pavilion designed by Pacheco Estudio de Arquitectura intersperses dense vegetation with water, representing the great biodiversity of its plant and animal world, and is composed of a reticular structure in three dimensions symbolising the urban centres that are constantly growing.

By proposing a route from the vegetable and aquatic floor to the open ceiling, the artefact is quickly identifiable from a distance and seeks to remain in the memory of those who visit it as a fresh, open space that reveals itself to all and finds itself in constant development.

The Mayor's Office of Santiago de Cali, the Special Housing Fund (FEV), and the Colombian Society of Architects – Valle del Cauca (SCA Valle) launched a public competition for the preliminary urban, architectural, and landscape design of a sustainable rural social housing prototype. This project is designed to resettle families with productive vocations.

For the project, located in the city of Cali, within the Valle del Cauca region of Colombia, the jury awarded first place to the architecture firm DARP – De Arquitectura y Paisaje + Ana Elvira Vélez.

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The public architectural design competition for the Velodrome in Gibraltar Metropolitan Park in Bogotá, D.C., was organized by the District Institute for Recreation and Sport (IDRD). Located in the Kennedy locality, the competition—with advisory support from the Colombian Society of Architects (SCA)—aimed to select a preliminary architectural proposal for the design, technical studies, architectural and technical coordination, and related design tasks.

The jury comprised architects Leonardo Álvarez Yepes (representing SCA Bogotá D.C. and Cundinamarca), María Elvira Madriñan Saa and Fernando Montenegro Lizarralde (representing the SCA National Presidency), and Nelson Yovany Jiménez and Felipe Alberto Morales Sánchez (representing the District Institute of Recreation and Sport). Out of 17 submissions, three prizes and several honorable mentions were awarded. Read on to learn more about the winning projects.