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

BROWSE ALL FROM THIS AUTHOR HERE
↓
Subscriber Access

19 Colombian Works Explained Through Their Models

There are now more than 350 Colombian projects published on ArchDaily. To celebrate this milestone, we have curated a selection that highlights the invaluable role of architectural models in conceptualizing, designing, and constructing contemporary Colombian architecture.

Far from the photorealism now achieved by 3D rendering specialists, the physical model endures as a critical tool for conceptual, spatial, structural, and constructive exploration, as showcased in the following selection:

Subscriber Access

Proyecto Habitar unveils the trailer for a documentary exploring how Chileans live.

"How do Chileans live?" is the question directors Joaquín Mora and Verónica Wüst seek to answer in the series Habitar, which portrays the current reality of housing in Chile through the intimacy of their homes.

On October 22, the nine-episode series will launch on the official website of Proyecto Habitar and on ArchDaily en Español. It will also premiere on Thursday, October 26, as part of the Arqfilmfest programming.

Barça pays tribute to Barcelona on its third jersey

Barça’s history is closely tied to Barcelona, the city where the soccer club was founded in 1899. Today, the reigning Spanish league champions paid tribute to the city with the launch of their third kit for the 2018/2019 season.

The third jersey features a pale pink color crossed by a diagonal sash running from the left shoulder to the bottom right. The stripe pays tribute to Avinguda Diagonal, one of Barcelona's most important avenues, and is superimposed on a reddish-toned satellite image of the Eixample district.

Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá, the only Colombian project to win at the 2018 Building of the Year Awards

Designed by El Equipo de Mazzanti, the Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá has been selected as the winner in the 'Healthcare Architecture' category of the 2018 Building of the Year Awards, making it the only Colombian project—and one of only two Latin American representatives—to win in the competition organized by ArchDaily, the network of websites to which ArchDaily Colombia also belongs.

The Building of the Year Awards are presented annually to the best projects published on our English-language edition—the most visited architecture website in the world—with winners chosen by the readers themselves, who can vote across 15 typological categories in two stages. In this edition, the competition reached 100,000 votes from around the world within a two-week period.

Discover the 108 projects selected for the XXVI Colombian Biennial of Architecture

The Jury of the XXVI Colombian Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism has presented the list of projects and publications selected for the next edition of the event, which will be held once again in Cartagena this year.

Divided into eight categories, the 283 submitted projects were evaluated by an international jury comprised of Iñaqui Carnicero (Spain), Alejandro Beals (Chile), and Fabián Farfán (Bolivia), alongside local architects Germán Fonseca, Julián Rincón, Sara Giraldo, and Diego Aguilera.

The 108 finalist projects for the upcoming Colombian Biennial are:

Subscriber Access

Iñaki Domínguez on gentrification, brunch, and hipsters: "I think we are tending toward global homogeneity"

The opening of new muffin shops and cereal bars in Madrid is more than just anecdotal. For Iñaki Domínguez (b. 1981), who holds a degree in Philosophy and a PhD in Cultural Anthropology, this reveals the urban impact of a mass phenomenon known in Spain as moderneo (the trendsetter scene) and its most recent, caricatured incarnation: hipsters.

With Madrid's Malasaña neighborhood as a backdrop, Domínguez delivers an intense, absorbing, and remarkably fresh essay in Sociología del Moderneo (Melusina, 2017). He analyzes this subculture through sociological theory, pop culture references, and his own experience in Madrid's underground scene among punks, indies, ravers, and grunges.

The radical social and economic transformation that turned Malasaña into a neighborhood of cupcakes, hipster barbershops, and cereal bars will likely sound familiar to Latin American readers: La Magdalena in Bogotá, Barranco in Lima, and Barrio Italia in Santiago. "These are global identities shaped by the internet and mass media," Domínguez explains in this Skype conversation with ArchDaily.

Listen to 'Fiesta de Arquitectos', an ArchDaily en Español playlist on Spotify

As you know, ArchDaily has joined forces with Spotify, the world's largest music streaming platform. From the start, we have been sharing our own playlists for those moments in the lives of all architects. We have also invited architects from Latin America and Spain to share the music that inspires them, or better yet, the sounds that have shaped their careers.

In this installment of ArchDaily en Español + Spotify, we share an ad hoc playlist to close out the year: Fiesta para Arquitectos. A constantly updated playlist to get the party started... while you edit your plans.

Subscriber Access

16 Classics of Chilean Architecture Through Their Plans

A mint that became the government palace of Chile. A pavilion in Paris that became a children's museum. The first work of the Modern Movement in Chile, and a revolutionary urban master plan that never materialized.

These and other examples in our selection of Chilean architectural classics, explained through their floor plans.

These are the finalists of the III Latin American Landscape Architecture Biennale (BLAP)

Yesterday, Monday (September 10), the 3rd Latin American Landscape Architecture Biennial announced the finalists for the competition, which will take place in Mexico City on September 26 and 27. Organized since 2014 by the Mexican Society of Landscape Architects (SAPM), the biennial seeks to highlight the role of landscape architecture in shaping the habitat in Latin America, with a particular emphasis on the environmental and social challenges facing the region.

"We seek to encourage participation in landscape construction to showcase the broad and diverse panorama of local interventions that ultimately help define a region sharing common challenges and solutions," the organizers state in the biennial's guidelines.

The 19 built works, unbuilt projects, and research papers meet the biennial's criteria, focusing on projects that respect the landscape and its values, demonstrate a commitment to sustainability, and integrate and address social issues, among other criteria.

Discover the finalists below:

Subscriber Access

Floating Cemetery, one of the 10 winners of the 2018 Arquitectura Caliente Competition for thesis projects

Designed by Fabián Leiva, the Floating Cemetery project was selected as one of the 10 winners in the Thesis Project category of the 2018 Arquitectura Caliente Competition (CAC 2018), a Chilean contest organized by Grupo Arquitectura Caliente and funded by the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage.

In 2004, the Ralco reservoir in the Biobío Region was unexpectedly and irreversibly flooded, burying the local Pehuenche community's cemetery beneath its waters. Following years of trying to recover the bodies, studies demonstrated that salvage was unfeasible, leaving the inhabitants helpless in the face of the millions of cubic meters of water separating them from the cemetery. This situation sparked the idea to create a space in memory of a sacred, violated, and unrecoverable site—one that would bring the community closer to their deceased and eternally condemn the event.

Subscriber Access

10 Projects in the 10 Years of the Multidisciplinary Collective Todo X La Praxis (TXP)

Since the installation of Speculator in 2008 —the year the Spanish real estate bubble burst— the Spanish multidisciplinary collective has been characterized by its collaborative practices, co-production processes, and civic management models. Over ten years, the numbers speak for themselves: 15 countries, 18 agreements, 29 institutions, 43 grassroots organizations, and 96 projects, including Campo de Cebada in Madrid and the La Y Cultural Hub in Caracas (Venezuela), as part of the government project Espacios de Paz.

TXP explains their methodology: "We start with a preliminary diagnosis that allows us to understand the keys, codes, and particularities of each process. We then define a context for collaborative design where the proposal is prototyped based on collective interests."

"In our practice, we propose a dynamic combination of scopes that tailors the project based on available parameters, allowing us to define a consensus-driven model that responds resiliently. We establish frameworks for collective construction that foster learning environments, serving as tools for civic appropriation and empowerment. Finally, we design management models that address the specific needs of each case, establishing protocols for use and maintenance," they add.

What happened to BD Bacatá, Colombia's tallest skyscraper?

In early 2016, we reported that construction had been completed on BD Bacatá, Colombia's tallest skyscraper (216 meters), and that its opening was just months away. However, an official opening date has yet to be set, while elsewhere in the Colombian capital, construction is progressing on a project that will surpass BD Bacatá in height: the Atrio Towers (268 meters), designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) and El Equipo de Mazzanti.

Santiago will once again host the Chilean Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism in 2019

After two editions at the Parque Cultural de Valparaíso, the Chilean Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism will return to Santiago in 2019. On Wednesday, June 6, the Mayor of Santiago, Felipe Alessandri, and the President of the Chilean Association of Architects, Humberto Eliash, signed the official agreement during a ceremony at the Mercado Matadero Franklin, which was attended by city council members, Minister of Housing and Urban Development Cristián Monckeberg, undersecretaries, regional authorities, and other officials.

During the ceremony, organizers confirmed that the 21st Biennial will take place in October 2019, with both the Mercado Matadero Franklin and the Teatro Huemul serving as the main venues for the country's premier architectural event.

These are the ten booming tourist cities in South America, according to Tripadvisor

As is tradition, digital travel platform TripAdvisor has released the results of the 2018 Travelers' Choice awards. These accolades are determined by millions of reviews posted on the website, measuring "the year-over-year increase in positive traveler review ratings," the company explains. Additionally, these cities "have also experienced an increase in search traffic and booking interest" for accommodations.

According to Brooke Ferencsik, communications director at TripAdvisor, the selected cities share the fact that "they all have excellent accommodations, wonderful restaurants, and exceptional attractions for every travel budget."

In South America, six countries are represented on this year's list. Below, discover the ten cities chosen by TripAdvisor users:

Subscriber Access

María Paula González Bozzi: 'More than the built object, the design process generates social transformation'

For this International Women's Day, we have partnered with the Colombian print journal de-Arq (Universidad de Los Andes) to showcase the work of five contemporary Colombian architects. They represent distinct, complementary approaches within our discipline: design, research, teaching, and experimentation.

Today, we meet María Paula González Bozzi, founder and director of Fundación Juligón.

Women architects dominate the 2018 CA Awards of the College of Architects of Chile

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Colegio de Arquitectos de Chile, the professional association has announced the winners of the 2018 CA Awards, the country's most important national honors.

Following a 2017 edition heavily criticized for the absence of women among the honorees, this year's awards not only introduced two new categories promoted by the Mujer Arquitecta organization—the Dora Riedel and Eliana Caraball awards—and another recognizing regional contributions, but women also swept 9 of the 12 categories awarded by the Colegio de Arquitectos to its members.

Below are the winners of this edition:

Subscriber Access

Lina Toro: 'The problem lies in the system's inability to recognize excellence'

In this edition of International Women's Day, we have joined forces with the Colombian print publication de-Arq (Universidad de Los Andes) to showcase the work of five contemporary Colombian women architects, who represent different complementary approaches within our discipline: design, research, teaching, and experimentation.

Today we talk with Lina Toro, a Colombian architect, co-founder of dosmasunoarquitectos, current director of linatoro.arch, and professor at IE University in Spain. "I believe the problem lies in the system's inability to recognize excellence," says Toro.

Lina Toro: 'The problem lies in the system's inability to recognize excellence' - Image 1 of 4Lina Toro: 'The problem lies in the system's inability to recognize excellence' - Image 2 of 4Lina Toro: 'The problem lies in the system's inability to recognize excellence' - Image 3 of 4Lina Toro: 'The problem lies in the system's inability to recognize excellence' - Image 4 of 4Lina Toro: 'The problem lies in the system's inability to recognize excellence' - More Images+ 2

Discover RCR Arquitectes' proposal at the Catalonia Pavilion at the Venice Biennale

The Institut Ramon Llull has presented the project RCR. Dream and Nature_Catalonia in Venice in Barcelona, an exhibition showcasing RCR Arquitectes as part of the collateral events of the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale, set to open on May 26.

Representing Catalonia at the 2018 Venice Biennale, the project is co-curated by journalist Pati Núñez and architect Estel Ortega alongside the 2017 Pritzker Prize-winning firm. Together, they have created a space free of scale models or blueprints to "investigate and rethink humanity's relationship with the world, located at the La Vila estate in Vall de Bianya (Girona, Catalonia)," according to an official statement from the Catalan institute.