In response to a request from the Council of Architecture and Urbanism, Banco do Brasil has announced a package of measures with special conditions to support architects, urban planners, and companies in the sector during this period of economic impact caused by the coronavirus.

Today, the Brazilian Hospital Services Company (Ebserh) published a call for applications to create a reserve pool of up to 6,000 professionals to work temporarily in the fight against COVID-19 across the Ebserh Network. In addition to healthcare professionals, the call is also open to architects and engineers for 40-hour work weeks and a salary of R$ 10,350.45.

Videos

The Lisbon Architecture Triennale has released the Talk, Talk, Talk debate series on its Vimeo channel. The series was held as part of its 5th edition, curated by Éric Lapierre. Divided into five major exhibitions, the Triennale explored architectural imagination in one of them—the theme of the Inner Space exhibition and of the debates featured here.

Escola da Cidade is once again hosting its Seminar on Culture and Contemporary Reality as open, public livestreams. In today's episode, Guilherme Wisnik welcomes Giselle Beiguelman for a conversation inspired by the series Coronavida, published in seLecT magazine.

Last week, we announced the 15 finalists for the 2020 Obra do Ano, an award celebrating the best of Lusophone architecture by inviting our readers to choose their favorite projects built in Portuguese-speaking countries. Today, it is time to reveal the winners of ODA 2020.

The courtyard is an essential architectural element in many cultures. In Brazil, examples can be found both in historic buildings of Portuguese influence and in modern architecture of the last century. While its use is frequently associated with bioclimatic benefits—improving natural ventilation and daylighting in interior spaces—it can represent much more than that. The void it creates, a subtraction from the built volume, can establish unexpected geometric and visual relationships and foster cross-dialogues between different parts of the building.

The field hospital at Pacaembu, set up on an emergency basis to meet the demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in São Paulo, will begin receiving patients on Wednesday, April 1st. The hospital facility will operate inside the stadium located in the central region of the city and will have a capacity of 200 beds for low-complexity patients.

Videos

The Lisbon Architecture Triennale has released on its Vimeo channel the Talk, Talk, Talk debate series, held as part of its 5th edition under the general curation of Éric Lapierre. Divided into five major exhibitions, one of the Triennale's showcases addressed the relationship between agriculture and architecture, which is the theme of the debates featured here.

Following the recommendations of public authorities and the WHO general guidelines towards the COVID-19 pandemic, The International Union of Architects, UIA, the Institute of Architects of Brazil, IAB and the Executive Committee UIA2020RIO have decided to postpone the 27th World Congress of Architects to July 2021. The announcement echoes several other events related to architecture that had to be postponed, including the Venice Biennale and the Salone del Mobile.

Known for projects across a wide range of scales—from houses to residential buildings, and corporate offices to cultural centers—the firm FGMF comprises a collaborative team of over 40 architects and is led by partners Fernando Forte, Lourenço Gimenes, and Rodrigo Marcondes Ferraz. In an interview with ArchDaily, the three discuss their most recent residential and corporate buildings, as well as the experience of working collaboratively with Kengo Kuma's team on Japan House São Paulo.

The Brazilian Association of Architectural Offices of Rio Grande do Sul (AsBEA-RS) has released more than 40 hours of videos on its YouTube channel, featuring lectures and discussions on BIM, sustainability, technical standards, and other architecture-related topics.

We are pleased to present the finalist projects for the 2020 Building of the Year Award (ODA20). After two weeks of nominations, the favorite projects have been chosen from among hundreds of built works in Portuguese-speaking countries. Our jury of experts, made up of our own readers, has once again done an outstanding job in selecting these 15 projects. The finalists span a remarkable diversity of programs, ranging from cultural and educational projects and public spaces to high-end residences and temporary installations.

A glimpse of hope emerged from the endless loop of COVID-19 news this week when China announced the closure of their last temporary hospital in Wuhan due to their stabilization of the pandemic that has now taken the world by storm. Western countries have been enforcing more restrictive measures aiming to stop the spread of the virus, including mandating shelter-in-place orders and forcing any business deemed non-essential to close. Due to the quarantine and isolation politics imposed by the authorities around the globe, we asked you, our readers, how the coronavirus is affecting your daily life as architects and designers. These answers allowed us to compose an overall picture of the atmosphere established by the pandemic – and the way we are adapting to it.

The São Paulo Department of the Institute of Architects of Brazil (IABsp) has made a series of videos of lectures, classes, and debates available on its YouTube channel. The videos cover topics such as urban mobility, architectural heritage, design competitions, urban policy, housing, environmental sanitation, and exhibition design.

The recent success of Parasite, the award winning film directed by South Korean director Bong Joon Ho, has created a conversation around the emphasis of architecture and interior spaces in movies. This particular film does an excellent job of blurring the boundaries between the two disciplinary fields, to the point where the architecture is not just the background of the set, but it has been placed at the forefront of the storyline, and takes on the leading role in many scenes.

In an interview with ArchDaily, architect Gui Mattos discusses the beginning of his career in Ubatuba, on the northern coast of São Paulo, and his current projects across various scales, ranging from high-rise buildings to product design. Best known for his residential designs, Mattos heads his namesake firm, which features a team of over 25 architects.

We invite you to participate in the 2020 Obra do Ano Award. In its fourth edition, we are giving our readers the responsibility of recognizing and rewarding the projects that have made the greatest impact on the profession. By voting, you become part of an unbiased network of jurors recognizing the most significant projects built in Portuguese-speaking countries over the past year. There are only a few days left in the nomination stage, which will select the 15 finalists from over a thousand projects.

Remember, registered users can nominate their favorite project once per day. The nomination stage ends on Tuesday, March 24 at 11:59 PM (Brasilia time, GMT-3). Thank you once again for helping us democratize architecture.

In an interview with ArchDaily, Rio de Janeiro-born architect Thiago Bernardes, founder of the firm Bernardes Arquitetura, discusses his projects in Brazil and Portugal, as well as the complexities of leading a practice with offices in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Lisbon.