Romullo Baratto is an architect with a PhD from FAUUSP and Managing Editor of ArchDaily. He previously coordinated the editorial team of the 11th São Paulo Architecture Biennial and served as Managing Editor of ArchDaily Brasil, where he led the platform to win the FNA Award—the first time the honor was granted to a media outlet. He collaborated on the editing of the book "Concrete Jungle", published by gestalten, and has curated architecture exhibitions in Brazil, Chile, Denmark, and Italy, as well as delivered lectures and moderated debates in Spain, the United States, and Portugal. His doctoral thesis investigates the urban landscapes of São Paulo through cinema. His work spans academic research and editorial practice, communicating architecture through texts, interviews, lectures, curatorship, and photography. Follow him on Instagram @romullobf.
Few people have the opportunity to design a city. Even fewer do so by chance. This is the story of illustrator and comic artist Eloar Guazzelli, who since 1990 has been developing an art project titled Cidade Nanquim. Working with A4 sheets of paper, the artist composes a kind of black-and-white urban mosaic that portrays fragments of an imaginary city.
The Women’s House in Africa design competition aimed to promote the involvement and empowerment of the female community in Senegal. The competition was organized by Kaira Looro International, a non-profit organization that hosts contests open to students and young architects to foster humanitarian projects in developing countries and spotlight emerging architectural talent.
The competition, which challenged participants to design a “women’s house” featuring symbolic, ecological architecture inspired by local traditions, selected a Brazilian team among its finalists, composed of students Marcela Luana Sutti and Adenir Filho. Read more about the featured proposal and its project description below.
The Museu dos Emboabas Competition, an initiative of the municipality of Caeté, Minas Gerais, seeking architectural proposals to honor the memory of the War of the Emboabas, has selected the firm ARQLIQ arquitetura and architect Laila Bentes, with collaboration from Márcio Motta and Giulia Sgarbi, as the winners. The winning proposal was chosen for its careful attention to both the building's interior, with its spacious and versatile areas, and its surrounding environment.
Half a century ago, a lethal fog of smoke and soot, also known as the Great Smog of 1952, blanketed London and killed at least 12,000 people. More recently, in 2013, Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah died as a result of air pollution. “[Ella] was the first person in the world to have air pollution listed as the cause of her death,” says 17-year-old Anjali Raman-Middleton, co-founder of the organization Choked Up and a friend of Ella's. Yet London's toxic air, a long-standing issue linked to 9,000 premature deaths per year, is more than an environmental and public health crisis.
In July of this year, UNESCO designated the Roberto Burle Marx Site as a World Heritage site. As a result, Brazil now has 23 sites and practices inscribed on the World Heritage List, which brings together properties, ensembles, and practices of tangible and intangible value.
According to UNESCO, the 23 listed properties and practices in Brazil can be divided into Cultural Heritage—"composed of monuments, groups of buildings, or sites that have outstanding universal historical, aesthetic, archaeological, scientific, ethnological, or anthropological value"—and Natural Heritage—"outstanding physical, biological, and geological formations, habitats of threatened animal and plant species, and areas of outstanding scientific, conservation, or aesthetic value."
On July 29, 2021, we once again reached Earth Overshoot Day. This date marks the point when our annual consumption of natural resources and ecological services exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that same year. In other words, we enter the planet's "overdraft," according to the Global Footprint Network, the organization that has calculated Earth's ecological footprint since 1970.
The Akatu Institute, an organization promoting conscious consumption, issued a statement noting that Earth Overshoot Day in 2021 fell on the exact same date as in 2019. This means we have returned to pre-2020 levels, after the pandemic temporarily pushed the date back to August 22 last year.
Through its Seminar on Culture and Contemporary Reality course, Escola da Cidade hosted professor Alfredo Bosi to discuss the notion of culture—or cultures. In the conversation, drawing on personal experiences that touch on various spatial encounters, the professor interrogates and exposes the multiple facets of the word culture.
Planning and implementing projects to prioritize active travel has been a requirement in Brazilian cities since 2012, under the National Urban Mobility Policy. Walking is the most significant mode of transport in urban life, accounting for 39% of daily trips in Brazilian cities. Furthermore, walkable cities are more sustainable, resilient, healthy, social, and democratic.
To this end, the Walkable City Award, organized by SampaPé! with support from ITDP Brasil and Walk 21, sought to discover and recognize public sector projects and initiatives implemented in recent years to prioritize walking. Its inaugural edition received 28 eligible projects from 16 different cities across 10 states and the Federal District, representing every region of the country except the North. All submissions are featured on a map of public walkability initiatives available on the Award website to inspire future projects.
A team of Brazilian architects was awarded third place in the international Toronto Affordable Housing Challenge, organized by Bee Breeders. Developed by Ana Luisa Rolim (Coletivo-rt arquitetura), Isabella Trindade, Beatriz Bueno, and Larissa Falavigna, the project LaneWAY OF LIVING: Green Villages in The Heart Of Toronto’s Urban Fabric proposes a series of units featuring a cross-laminated timber (CLT) structure and a charred wood exterior finish.
The Cultural Department of the Abrigo do Marinheiro (DCAMN), in partnership with the Brazilian Navy, and the Rio de Janeiro Department of the Institute of Architects of Brazil (IAB/RJ) have announced the results of the Architectural Competition for the Brazilian Maritime Museum. The team led by architect and urban planner Rodrigo Quintella Messina, from São Paulo, won first place in the competition, which received 110 preliminary studies. In total, 191 teams from 17 Brazilian states registered to submit projects—a record in the history of public calls organized by the IAB/RJ.
The Brazilian Center for Steel Construction (CBCA) has announced the winners of the 14th CBCA Competition for Architecture Students. The nationwide competition was open to students from architecture schools and colleges across the country, focusing on the theme "Health and Well-being."
In honor of Cultural Heritage Day, celebrated on August 17, CAU/GO has launched the National Design Competition for Quilombola Housing. The objective is to select the best design for home construction in historical quilombola communities located in Goiás, as part of the housing programs of Agehab (Goiás Housing Agency), a partner in organizing the competition.
The 4th Tomie Ohtake Institute Leroy Merlin Design Award, dedicated to university students and recent graduates, announces the 10 selected projects. The jury, composed of Cláudia Zacar (Curitiba - PR), Diego Mauro (Salvador - BA), Érico Gondim (Fortaleza - CE), Iran Pontes (Recife - PE), and Sâmia Batista (Belém - PA), evaluated 233 proposals submitted by 412 authors from 19 states and the Federal District.
Brazilian student Luan Fontes, from the University of Porto in Portugal, has won the national competition Healthy Home, Healthy City with a modular project made of shipping containers. Organized by the Council of Architecture and Urbanism of Rio Grande do Sul (CAU/RS) in partnership with UN-Habitat and Minimum, the competition sought the best architectural and urban solutions for innovations or improvements across different scales and living spaces in urban areas, aiming to foster quality of life in cities following the new reality imposed on society by the pandemic.
The Galeria da Cidade is hosting the exhibition Artacho Jurado no Desenho da Cidade, which highlights the self-taught architect who designed and built landmarks of modern São Paulo, such as the Bretagne, Cinderela, and Louvre buildings, among others. The public opening is on Saturday, September 4, marking the 114th anniversary of his birth.
Rejecting the rigid tenets of mid-century modernism, Jurado developed a unique style characterized by refined details, vibrant colors, and generous spaces and programs, almost always opening the ground floors of his buildings to the city. His expressive design language led critic Décio Pignatari to compare him to the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí.
The Saint-Gobain Group and the Brazilian Association of Architecture Offices (AsBEA) have announced the winners of the 8th edition of the Saint-Gobain AsBEA Architecture Award. The accolade celebrates projects that offer comfort and innovative solutions while simultaneously preserving the environment and promoting sustainability within the Brazilian construction industry.
Divided into two categories, professional and academic, the award recognized more than twenty projects across subcategories that included commercial, residential, and institutional architecture, thermal comfort, sustainability, and innovation, among others. See the winners below.
In its 8th edition, the Saint-Gobain AsBEA Architecture Award announced the winners of its 2021 cycle, and the Sesc Parque Dom Pedro II project, developed by UNA Arquitetos under the coordination of Fernanda Barbara and Fabio Valentim—currently partners at UNA Barbara e Valentim—won in three categories. It secured first place in the Professional Category – Institutional Project, the Sustainability Highlight award, and the "Roberto Claudio dos Santos Aflalo" Highlight of the Year award.
Last week, we announced the 15 finalists for the 2025 ArchDaily Brasil Building of the Year Award, which celebrates the best of Lusophone architecture by inviting our readers to vote for their favorite projects built in Portuguese-speaking countries. Now, the time has come to reveal the three grand winners!
This year, first place went to the Seedling Nursery - Ocupação Fazendinha, a simple and sensitive small-scale project developed by the Projects Department of the School of Architecture at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. Second place was awarded to Casa da Carnaúba Várzea Queimada in the state of Piauí, designed by the firm Rosenbaum, while third place went to the Requalification of the Municipal Square of Ribeira de Pena in Portugal, designed by the studio AXR - Arquitetura e Design.
