Nicolás Valencia

Award-winning architect Nicolas Valencia is the former Head of Editorial at ArchDaily, leading a global editorial team ---- @nicolasvalencia.cl | nicolasvalencia.cl | hellonicolasvalencia@gmail.com

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Norman Foster Foundation offers student scholarships for the Urban Mobility workshop

The Norman Foster Foundation is offering students from around the world the opportunity to participate in the upcoming Urban Mobility workshop, which will take place at the Foundation's headquarters in Madrid, Spain, from September 17 to 21, 2018.

Since the late 19th and mid-20th centuries, the monorail has been a staple of science fiction's visions of the urban future. Beyond the Space Age aesthetic, its implementation is relatively affordable and rapid when compared to the cost, time, and impact of underground subway systems. Surprisingly, there are few operational examples, and those currently in use are often conceived in isolation from other urban needs.

Last days to apply for the curatorial team open call for the XXI Chile Architecture and Urbanism Biennial 2019

Following the confirmation that the Architecture and Urbanism Biennial will return to Santiago after two editions in Valparaíso, the countdown has begun for the close of the call for applications to select the next curator and their team, who will define the conceptual and curatorial framework for the upcoming edition of the event.

While the 2017 edition, "Diálogos impostergables" (Unpostponable Dialogues), addressed national issues that the discipline needed to confront beyond design itself, for the upcoming edition, the Colegio de Arquitectos de Chile is seeking a curatorial team to address the processes of urban renewal, heritage conservation, and densification currently shaping Chilean cities. In this context, the XXI Biennial will be held in Santiago's Barrio Biobío, a historic commercial district in the Chilean capital currently undergoing simultaneous processes of conservation, gentrification, and real estate speculation.

"Odeón or on Contingency," the architecture open call by Espacio Odeón

For its fourth exhibition cycle, Espacio Odeón has invited Alejandro Martín Maldonado and Estudio Altiplano to serve as curators. They have chosen to launch an architecture competition that examines the spatial conditions of Odeón, along with its history, present, and future.

This competition invites any individual or collective—regardless of age, discipline, nationality, gender, or political affiliation—to submit architectural proposals. We are seeking submissions that consider the building's current state in programmatic, heritage, urban, and economic terms. We invite you to envision alternative futures and new directions, and to submit proposals that radically question the spatial condition of Odeón, the contingency of the void, and the potential of its ruins.

Who Has Won the Pritzker Prize?

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The Pritzker Prize is the most important award in the field of architecture, awarded to a living architect whose built work "has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity through the art of architecture." The Prize rewards individuals, not offices, as happened in 2000 (when the jury selected Rem Koolhaas instead of his firm OMA) or in 2016 (with Alejandro Aravena selected instead of ELEMENTAL); however, the Prize can also be awarded to multiple individuals working together, as was the case in 2001 (Herzog & de Meuron), 2010 (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa from SANAA), and 2017 (Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, and Ramon Vilalta from RCR Arquitectes).

The 25 Tallest Buildings in the World

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Humanity has become obsessed with breaking its limits, creating new records only to break them again and again. In fact, our cities’ skylines have always been defined by those in power during every period in history. At one point churches left their mark, followed by public institutions and in the last few decades, it's commercial skyscrapers that continue to stretch taller and taller. 

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has developed its own system for classifying tall buildings, stating that the Burj Khalifa (828 m.) is the world’s tallest building right now. Read on for the 25 tallest buildings in the world today.

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Who Has Won the RIBA Royal Gold Medal?

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Recognized as the UK’s highest honor for architecture, the RIBA Royal Gold Medal for Architecture is approved personally by Her Majesty The Queen and is given to a person or group of people who have had a significant influence "either directly or indirectly on the advancement of architecture.", according to the organization. In 2024, the recognition was awarded for the first time to an African Woman, to the Ghanaian-Scottish architect, academic, and curator Lesley Lokko.

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The Impact of AI Tools on Architecture in 2024 (and Beyond)

In 2022, a wider audience gained access to unexpectedly powerful AI tools, including Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and DALL-E 2 for text-to-image generation, as well as the human-like chatbot OpenGPT.

One year later, pundits, organizations, and governments have stated these technologies will pose profound risks to society and humanity—from automation-spurred job loss to disrupting democratic processes to the automatization of weapons.

Architecture and Communication: Dissemination, Curators and Architecture News

In 1999, Birgit Lohmann and Massimo Mini co-founded designboom, self-proclaimed as the "first online architecture and design magazine." Seven years later, Facebook transitioned from Ivy League universities to massive audiences, while the first tweet was posted on formerly-known Twitter. Sixteen years have passed since these milestones.

While 16 years may be a short period in architecture, digital media and social networks are far from being considered emergent in the history of the internet. In fact, they form the core of the current Web 2.0 model, characterized by a dual interaction between content producers and consumers: sharing, liking, remixing, and reposting.

Indeed, the speed and magnitude of the transformations that digital media have undergone, and in turn, driven, provide the opportunity to begin documenting the history of the digital era and its impact on architecture.

Paolo Portoghesi, First Director of the Venice Architecture Biennale, Passes Away at the Age of 92

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Italian architect and architecture historian Paolo Portoghesi, the first director of the Venice Architecture Biennale, passed away at the age of 92 in Calcata, Italy, as reported by the organization today, Tuesday, May 30.

Graham Foundation Awards 64 Grants for Architecture and Design Projects with Critical Perspectives in 2023

The Graham Foundation has announced the award of 64 new grants to individuals exploring innovative and interdisciplinary ideas that contribute critical perspectives on architecture and design in 2023.

Meet the Full List of the 63 National Pavilions at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale

Titled The Laboratory of the Future and curated by Lesley Lokko, the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale will be holding the 18° International Architecture Exhibition from May 20 to November 26, 2023.

The 2023 edition of the Biennale will include 63 national participants allocated in the Giardini, at the Arsenale, and in the historic city center of Venice, Italy. Additionally, the exhibition will welcome Niger for the first time, along with Panama, which will have its own pavilion. The Holy See will also return to the Biennale Architettura with a pavilion on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.

Please find below the full list of national participants at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale.

"Moving Ecologies": Chile Announces Pavilion for the 2023 Venice Biennale

The Chilean Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage selected architect Gonzalo Carrasco and Beals Lyon Arquitectos as curators of the Chilean pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2023 with their proposal themed "Moving Ecologies" ("Ecologías en Movimiento").

"Moving Ecologies" will address how "architecture and science made it possible to imagine the future of a country that was entering modernity" in the XIX century in such a project as the Quinta Normal park, according to the organizers. Moreover, the proposal parallels the current challenges around ecological repair and restoration with the study of soil recovery processes with endemic seeds.

Meet the Participants of the International Architecture Exhibition at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale

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Since 1998, the Venice Architecture Biennale has been divided into three pillars: the national pavilions (each country chooses its own curators and projects), the international exhibition (curated by the Biennale's curator), and the collateral events (approved by the Biennale's curator).

In the 2023 edition of the event, the international architecture exhibition curated by Lesley Lokko is structured in six parts, including 89 participants. Over half of them are from Africa or the African Diaspora, with a 50/50 gender balance, and an average of 43 ages for participants.

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ArchDaily’s Readers Select Who Should Win the 2023 Pritzker Prize

As part of our yearly tradition, we have asked our readers who should win the 2023 Pritzker Prize, the most important award in the field of architecture.

For those who don't know, the Pritzker Prize is funded by Jay Pritzker through the Hyatt Foundation in the United States and has been awarded to living architects, regardless of their nationality, whose built work "has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity through the art of architecture."

Who Should Win the 2023 Pritzker Prize?

Once the Pritzker family of Chicago through the Hyatt Foundation has revealed the announcement date of the 2023 Pritzker Prize Laureate, the speculation has begun to swirl around which architect or architects will be honored with "the profession’s highest honor."

Since the foundation does not allow public nomination nor disclosure of its selection methodology, the architecture and design community speculates who can be the laureate. If you take a look at the list of architects who have won already, you might realize that anything is possible.

Why Are Liminal Spaces Eerie? The Case of The Backrooms

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A24 and Atomic Monster have recently confirmed a movie adaptation of The Backrooms, a Youtube short horror film (expanded to a series) created by 17-year-old director and VFX artist Kane Parsons.

Based on the namesake creepypasta, The Backrooms is set in a seemingly infinite labyrinth of yellow-tinted, carpeted office spaces, bathed in fluorescent indoor lighting, like an abandoned building, in 1996. Its kitsch corporate aesthetic is reinforced by the imitation of the VHS tape recording style that allows Parsons to hide imperfections (or avoid an uncanny valley effect) of a simple 3D scenario created in Blender and edited in Adobe After Effects during the post-production stage.

From ELEMENTAL to Emilio Duhart: the Concrete Architecture in Chile through Jakub Sawosko's Lens

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From Taiwan to the Netherlands to Uruguay, Jakub Sawosko has extensively been photographing concrete architecture all over the world and displaying them on Instagram as @sh_sh_welt.

After living surrounded and fascinated by post-war concrete architecture in Europe in his early years, Sawosko moved to Taiwan where he eventually realized that Modernism had heavily influenced Taiwan as well. "I felt that [Taiwan's distinctive style of architecture] deserved more recognition", explains Jakub in conversation with ArchDaily via Instagram.

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The Best Architectural Drawings of 2022

Every year, ArchDaily honors the best architectural drawings of the year in an annual tradition that has now been going on for eight years. The 2022 edition is particularly special, as it showcases a wide range of techniques and representations in the field of architecture. From traditional painting to digital collages and axonometric drawings, this year's selection truly has something for everyone.