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Argentina Declares a Climate and Ecological Emergency: What Can Be Done Through Architecture?

Just over a month ago, the Senate of the Argentine Nation approved the Declaration of Climate and Ecological Emergency in the country and gave partial approval to the bill for the Law on Minimum Budgets for Adaptation and Mitigation to Climate Change. Through this initiative, driven by youth environmental organizations, Argentina becomes the first country in Latin America to move forward with a bill of this nature.

The recent and worrying increase in fires in the Amazon, where the fires have begun to relentlessly consume our planet's most important natural lung, has brought environmental issues to the forefront. The consequences of this event will drastically alter the global climate and demand urgent action, preparing us for industrial, energy, productive, and consumption shifts.

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.

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.

Heritage homes are transformed into public-use student spaces in Valdivia

To date, the Universidad Austral de Chile (UACh) has restored more than a dozen historic houses in Valdivia, and is expected to continue this work in the coming years. Located in two main areas of the city—Isla Teja and the corridor known as the Yungay-General Lagos Axis—the university is committed to repurposing these existing structures, transforming them from family residences into public-use university spaces.

10 Projects to Be Built at Hello Wood Argentina 2020

Hello Wood Argentina, the creative, professional, and social program that aims to teach thinking with one's hands, has announced the 10 projects designed by architects, designers, artists, professionals, and academics that will be part of its fourth edition. The event will take place in March 2020 in the Municipality of Ceibas, Entre Ríos Province.

The Winning Projects of the 2019 Sustainable Architecture and Urban Design Award in Argentina

The winners of the National Award for Sustainable Architecture and Urban Design (ADUS) have been announced, an initiative aimed at recognizing and promoting the integration of sustainable guidelines, strategies, and actions in architectural and urban design projects across Argentina.

10 Ruins and Archaeological Sites You Can Visit in Argentina

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Ruins are defined as structures, architectural remains, or constructions that have been partially or completely lost due to various factors (such as natural disasters, war, depopulation, abandonment, and lack of maintenance). They manifest as the material and tangible presence of a past era, representing the historical paradigm in which they were conceived and built. Their appeal lies in their ability to freeze a temporal plane different from current reality within the present, serving as a condensation of the ideals, interests, aspirations, questions, and challenges of a specific era. With this in mind, we present below a selection of 10 archaeological sites and ruins you can visit in Argentina.

These houses in Córdoba enhance the fusion between architecture and landscape

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When designing outside of urban areas, where property lines are not constrained by party walls and adjacent buildings do not dictate the layout, some of the most honest architectural responses emerge regarding how to intervene and what stance to take toward the surrounding landscape.

The following four architectural projects located in the Province of Córdoba, shaped by the topographical conditions and the specific characteristics of their surroundings, establish a profound sense of belonging with the landscape. By blurring the line between the natural and the artificial, they offer valuable tools and insights for designing on suburban plots.

Three projects will be linked to revitalize Tres Turons Park in Spain

The *Tres Turons* (Three Hills) Park is one of the most important green lungs in the city of Barcelona. Located between the districts of Horta-Guinardó and Gracia and comprising the Turó de la Creueta del Coll, the Turó del Carmel, and the Turó de la Rovira, the park features a complex topography that offers exceptional aerial views of the city. Although the Barcelona City Council has planned to revitalize the area since 1953 by creating a large green zone to serve as a green lung, leisure hub, and rest area, opposition from local residents has delayed its development. Consequently, the site is currently in a state of degradation that threatens its environmental value. To address this, the City Council recently launched a competition under the guidelines of the 2010 master plan. The initiative aims to preserve the park's biodiversity, ensure ecological resource management, redesign pathways and activity zones to encourage public use, improve connections with surrounding neighborhoods, and reorganize the Can Baró quarries area.

Winners of the Competition for the Provincial Autarchic Insurance Institute of Entre Ríos, Argentina

The winners of the preliminary design competition for the office building of the Instituto Autárquico Provincial del Seguro de Entre Ríos (IAPSER) have been announced. The call for proposals encouraged reflection on corporate architecture, asking participants to develop an institutional office building that would perform its function efficiently while also serving as a landmark representing the company's identity and spirit.

Discover the winning projects of the 2019 Wood Week architecture competition

Semana de la Madera (Wood Week) is an annual event organized by Madera21, an association founded in 2001 by the Corporación Chilena de la Madera (Chilean Wood Corporation). Its goal is to promote and disseminate the use of this material in Chile, offering a unique opportunity to highlight architecture, design, engineering, and innovation using wood, while encouraging future project development and research by professionals and academics.

Amancio Williams and Delfina Gálvez's Emblematic Casa sobre el Arroyo in Mar del Plata to Be Restored

Amancio Williams and Delfina Gálvez's Emblematic Casa sobre el Arroyo in Mar del Plata to Be Restored - Image 1 of 4Amancio Williams and Delfina Gálvez's Emblematic Casa sobre el Arroyo in Mar del Plata to Be Restored - Image 2 of 4Amancio Williams and Delfina Gálvez's Emblematic Casa sobre el Arroyo in Mar del Plata to Be Restored - Image 3 of 4Amancio Williams and Delfina Gálvez's Emblematic Casa sobre el Arroyo in Mar del Plata to Be Restored - Image 4 of 4Amancio Williams and Delfina Gálvez's Emblematic Casa sobre el Arroyo in Mar del Plata to Be Restored - More Images+ 7

The Casa sobre el Arroyo, commonly known as the “Bridge House,” was designed by renowned Argentine architects Amancio Williams and Delfina Gálvez de Williams between 1943 and 1946 in Mar del Plata. It was originally built as a residence for his father, the musician Alberto Williams, but served this purpose for only a relatively short period. Although the building is now recognized as a paradigm of 20th-century architecture and a crucial reference for understanding the influence of the Modern Movement in Argentina and Latin America, its future has recently been the subject of debate and speculation. After suffering two devastating fires in 2004 and 2008, the house waited for a protection plan for over twenty years, during which various public and private institutions, both national and international, campaigned for its defense and comprehensive preservation.

Discover the winners of the Idea Raiz competition for the gardens of the British Hospital in Buenos Aires

As part of its 175th-anniversary celebrations, the British Hospital of Buenos Aires, Argentina, launched the “Idea Raiz” competition, an initiative aimed at revitalizing the green spaces of its headquarters. The project seeks to enhance the institution's spatial and landscape qualities, creating therapeutic and recreational areas for patients, families, and staff. The hospital selected projects with a distinct identity that aspire to serve as a legacy for its future. Discover the winning team's proposal below:

10 projects to reflect on the value of timber architecture in southern Chile

The third edition of the “Architecture and Wood” exhibition was held in Puerto Montt, Chile. This edition aimed to continue expanding the range of exhibitors by once again inviting prominent professionals to participate in an architectural commission, exploring and speculating on the constructive and formal possibilities of the material. The event serves as an invitation to showcase the value of timber architecture in the southern part of the country.

Scaffolding installations explore ephemeral architecture in Spain

Scaffolding installations explore ephemeral architecture in Spain - Imagen 7 de 4
Plaza del Museo / "El Hueco del Vacío". Image Cortesía de EfimerARQ

To mark World Architecture Day, the architects' collective efimerARQ, alongside the Association of Architects and the School of Architecture of Valladolid, developed a design exercise involving collaboration between students and professionals. The activity, titled “Ephemeral Architecture as a Pedagogical Device,” took place at the Patio Herreriano Museum of Contemporary Art in Valladolid, Spain, aiming to create an open-air classroom that allowed students to study current and past trends through fieldwork, viewing the discipline as a medium for exploration, research, discussion, and collaboration. The base structure used to build the three installations was a fundamental "auxiliary" construction material: scaffolding.

The Winners of the 2019 Vivienda Rifa Competition: Reflecting on Contemporary Living from the University

The Rifa Housing Competition is a historically celebrated event in Uruguay that gives new generations of architects from the Faculty of Architecture, Design, and Urbanism (FADU – UdelaR) the real opportunity to design and build a project. Every year, the Arquitectura Rifa travel groups organize this competition to reflect the state of the discipline, offering a perspective on contemporary living and how it is conceptualized within the school.

Stacken: The First Cohousing Model with Self-Management, Communal Work, and Feminism in Sweden

Architect Rodrigo Rieiro Díaz, writing for the Collective ARKRIT, explores the values of community living in Stacken, a cohousing project built in Sweden in 1979. The project became the country's first housing model based on self-management, community labor, and feminism, challenging established social relations and presenting collective living as an attempt to move beyond the standard family model.

These are all the winners of the Mini Stadium and International Pavilion Competition - Expo 2023

On August 28, the results of the International Ideas Competition for the design and renovation of the existing Mini-Stadium and International Pavilion at Tecnópolis were announced. Organized by the Central Society of Architects (SCA) and the Association of Architects of the Province of Buenos Aires (CAPBA), and sponsored by the Argentine Federation of Architect Entities (FADEA), this second of six international competitions launched in recent months for Expo 2023 addressed the intervention of the two buildings and their connecting foyer.