On Monday, May 3rd, at 5:00 PM, the FAUUSP YouTube channel will host the launch of Anna Bokov’s book, "Avant-Garde as Method: Vkhutemas and the Pedagogy of Space, 1920-1930." The work stands as one of the most significant publications on the often-overlooked Soviet school of art, design, and architecture from 1920s Moscow. The school was the first to implement mass art and technological education, which were considered essential to the dominant modernist paradigm in the Soviet Union. Better known in the West as the sibling of the Bauhaus, Vkhutemas (Higher Art and Technical Studios) possesses a history that diverges somewhat from the German experience, which has been extensively studied by researchers worldwide. In contrast, Vkhutemas has had only one major pioneering book prior to Bokov’s, released by researcher Selim Khan-Magomedov in the 1990s.

Portugal is the host country for the 2021 European Conference on Architectural Policies — CEPA, and as such, will organize, through the Portuguese Association of Architects (Ordem dos Arquitectos), a discussion forum to analyze, discuss, and present proposals for architectural policies at the European level. CEPA 2021 presents an opportunity to respond to the challenge launched by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, toward building a New European Bauhaus, proposing a dialogue on current challenges for a post-pandemic future at the intersection of architecture, art, the city, and politics.

Wood is, without a doubt, one of the most versatile building materials there is. Treated lumber, boards, composites, or rustic hardwood, have structural and visual qualities that attract architects and clients searching for a wide range of possible applications and designs. Logs are one of the oldest ways of using this material since they require very little treatment and processing after the tree is cut and are the most natural form of lumber.

Rustic lumber is often used in vacation homes, but not only for this purpose. Below, we have gathered Brazilian houses that use rustic wood elements either in their structure or walls and finishings.

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The Center for Studies and Research in Indigenous Technologies, Tecnoíndia—founded by UFMT professor José Afonso Botura Portocarrero, an architect with a PhD from the School of Architecture and Urbanism at USP, and retired UFMT anthropologist Maria Fátima Roberto Machado, who holds a PhD from the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro—is releasing a new book that compiles articles produced over 20 years of research and teaching on Indigenous technologies and architecture in Mato Grosso.

The Ipiranga Museum, located in São Paulo's south zone, has launched a virtual tour that allows users to follow the progress of the restoration and expansion of the building and its immediate surroundings. The digital tour features 360-degree camera footage captured across various spaces of the building and construction site, providing an overview of the renovation's progress.

With the aim of getting to know the architects, projects, and stories behind landmark Portuguese architecture, Sara Nunes, from the architectural film production company Building Pictures, launched the podcast No País dos Arquitectos, where she talks with leading names in contemporary Portuguese architecture.

In her first episode, Sara spoke with architect João Luís Carrilho da Graça about his Lisbon Cruise Terminal. Now, for the second interview, she welcomes João Mendes Ribeiro for a conversation about heritage, the adaptive reuse of historical structures, and landscape architecture, focusing on the rehabilitation of the greenhouse at the Botanical Garden of Coimbra, the city where the architect is based. Read the full interview or listen to the podcast below.

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In a world that is increasingly polarized and intolerant of differences, Portugal's contribution to the theme of the Venice Architecture Biennale—How will we live together?—sheds light on public space as a stage for opposing forces, the confrontation of ideas, and social coexistence. Entitled In Conflict, Portugal's participation is curated by Carlos Azevedo, João Crisóstomo, and Luís Sobral from the office depA architects, with Miguel Santos serving as associate curator.

We spoke with the curators about some central aspects of the exhibition and the cycle of debates they propose—democracy, conflict, and opposing ideas in urban space. 

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"The house is among the first concepts shared by society and architecture", states André Tavares and Pippo Ciorra, curators of the exhibition called At Home: Projects for Contemporary Housing, on display at Garagem Sul / Centro Cultural Belém, in Lisbon. The show, which is the unfolding of another one previously held at the MAXXI Museum in Rome, gathers pieces from the huge collection of the Italian institution and seeks intersections with contemporary Portuguese architectural production. Its main topic – the house, the home – has never been more discussed than right now.

Bringing together houses of different scales, built in diverse locations by various methods and techniques, and designed by Italian, Portuguese and international architects, the exhibition gathers, in groups of three, projects from which it is possible to weave relationships that go beyond geographies and materialities and foster reflections about the future of housing and what the home of tomorrow will look like.

We had the opportunity to talk with Tavares and Ciorra about the exhibition, its motivations and expectations with its opening in the physical venue of Garagem Sul. Read below.

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The Google Maps application will direct drivers to more eco-friendly routes that generate the lowest carbon footprint using mainly traffic data, road slopes and inclines, and other factors.

The eco-friendly option will be the application's default route if comparable options take about the same time. When alternatives are significantly faster, Google will offer choices and let users compare estimated emissions.

The 27th World Congress of Architects is hosting, from April 19 to 22, the UIA2021RIO Open Week on Diversity and Mixture. The event will feature three debates and the Weekly Live Session – where specialists will delve deeper into the main issues raised in the discussions and answer questions from the public.

Last week, we announced the 15 finalists for the 2021 Obra do Ano, an award celebrating the best of Lusophone architecture by inviting our readers to select their favorite projects built in Portuguese-speaking countries. The day has come to find out the winners of ODA 2021.

Through its Seminar on Culture and Contemporary Reality course, Escola da Cidade, in collaboration with the Carmen Portinho Feminist Collective, hosted seven women to discuss architectural production in today's context and how gender issues intersect with this field.

Videos

The 27th World Congress of Architects launched its online program this week, preceding the in-person events scheduled to take place between July 18 and 22. Social inclusion, the periphery, and architectural interventions in favelas were the topics of debates featuring Fabienne Hoelzel, Maria Alice Rezende de Carvalho, Alfredo Brillembourg, Jorge Mário Jáuregui, Alejandro Echeverri, and Adriana Levisky.

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Urban densification and the demand for urban land have, among other things, led to a reduction in lot sizes in cities. Large parcels of land once destined for single-family homes have made way for multi-family buildings that, depending on their location, feature commercial establishments and services on their ground floors. Building a house in major urban centers is no easy task, largely due to the scarcity of available plots, or their reduced dimensions when they can be found.

The 8th edition of the Arquiteturas Film Festival, taking place from June 1 to 6 in Lisbon, explores the theme “Bodies Out of Space” through an exploration of the social construction of space, connected by a thread running through its own narratives of domination. These are also narratives of identity, which is often stripped away or forced to represent our bodies.

Each year, the festival is dedicated to presenting documentaries, fiction, animation, and experimental films relevant to promoting contemporary Portuguese architecture both nationally and internationally. The 2021 edition is no different, structured around three distinct pillars: the official selection, the competition program, and the guest country program.

Gathering innovative, sustainable architectural designs for social housing that enable a reduction in energy consumption is the objective of the National Competition of Architectural Ideas for Energy Efficiency in Social Housing, launched this Monday (15) by the German governmental cooperation agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. Applications are open until April 26.

Closing out the week dedicated to publications focusing on women in architecture, as well as the week marking the posthumous recognition of Lina Bo Bardi with the Special Golden Lion from the Venice Biennale, the Virginia and Vilanova Artigas Institute shared with us a brief and touching letter sent by the Italian-Brazilian architect to Artigas on August 21, 1978.

The Brazilian Center for Steel Construction (CBCA) has opened registration for the "14th CBCA Architecture Student Competition 2021," open to university students across Brazil. This year, the competition addresses the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the theme "Health and Well-being." Consequently, students are tasked with presenting projects that offer efficient solutions, emphasizing the correct and appropriate use of steel in both conceptual and architectural design, as well as in technological and construction aspects.