Terra. A term used to define the planet we live on, the soil we walk on, and the raw material for the most diverse works. From it derives the word territory, which, beyond its symbolic meaning in shaping culture and worldviews, is also the foundation of any settlement and of nature itself. The power of all the meanings this word carries is taken as the title of the 6th Lisbon Architecture Triennale, which explores themes concerning the human relationship with its context and the revolutionary processes spanning the most diverse scales of architecture.

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In architecture, the most common is to design for humans only. However, covering the scope of the project for other species is an exercise that has been proposed in several orders. From specific furniture to interior design planned for the animal, the possibilities of creating a more playful and comfortable ambience, both for humans and animals, are diverse.

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Reclaiming ancestral techniques and materials to forge new spaces of coexistence. This is the guiding principle born from a desire to "create openings for freedom, joy, love, and empowering affects, which propose to rethink ways of inhabiting in harmony with the Earth and ancestry." It is a concept materialized—and still under construction—at Terra Afefé: a micro-city in Ibicoara, in Bahia's Chapada Diamantina region, created by artist Rose Afefé.

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Videos

Sheltering is a fundamental issue in Architecture. The ways of living and interacting with the space in which we spend our daily lives is an everlasting debate in the field, which is committed to providing a better quality of life, but also to developing new ways of living. By adding other aspects such as real estate speculation, high housing density in urban centers, the pursuit of nomadism, or even the sheer desire to follow a trend, the debate around small-scale houses becomes even more relevant. And so, we ask ourselves, what is the smallest area required to live in?

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Architecture is realized through design. Professionals who face a blank canvas and fill it with lines that express desire, technique, and beauty know the many challenges inherent in this task. The act of designing involves a complex web of references, knowledge, and culture. Therefore, when we share a project, we know that more than simply showcasing a building, we are telling a story and inspiring the public. In its eleven years of existence, ArchDaily Brasil has published more than 23,000 projects, recognizing the importance of each one and how they help transform visions through what they propose—influencing not only local architecture but also bringing this discussion and inventiveness to the entire world.

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What is the story that your city's public space tells? Who are the people honored in monuments scattered throughout it? Issues like these have led to a series of insurgencies in recent years in several cities. The notions of memory and representation have expanded the reflection on which narrative we build in our spaces, a fact that has triggered an urban question for the future: after all, what do we want to remember (or forget) through the symbols that we rise (or destroy) in cities?

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Biophilic design is capable of improving the well-being of those who use a space through reconnection with nature. When this practice is implemented in offices and workshops, this property translates into many benefits. After all, in addition to the emotional qualities that vegetation can bring, it has the ability to filter noise, lighting and allow for a milder climate, with results in team productivity and more optimized services.

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The current architectural production faces several paradigms and one of them is aesthetic. In a scenario of constant uncertainty, buildings with projections, holograms, or completely automatic ones that science fiction has shown so much, seem more and more distant from reality. Nowadays, the search for greater identification with the built space has been amplified instead of idealizing the new for the new. Therefore, looking at the past has presented different perspectives and it is in this scope that perhaps we can imagine a new futuristic aesthetic.

How might your persona or act differ if you were to put yourself before society’s expectations and limitations, embracing your queerness and preferences? Looking into the impact of individuality, we talked with Andreas Angelidakis, an architect to who refers to himself as “an architect who doesn’t build”, but views architecture as a site of social interaction, creating works that reflect on the urban culture by mixing ruins, digital media, and psychology to better understand the power of finding different design paths.

While walking through the city, have you ever felt afraid to be yourself? As strange as the question may sound to some, it is a reality for most LGBTQIA+ people, who at some point have been victims of hostility when they were noticed performing outside the "heteronormative standards" of public spaces. If violence comes from social layers that go beyond the designed space, this does not exempt the importance of thinking about projects that can integrate the physical sphere and insert a symbolic or representational factor to include and educate its citizens. This is the case of Homomonument, which for more than three decades, has become a platform for queer celebration and protest in the heart of Amsterdam.

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A public program fulfills several functions that, in addition to improving the social dynamics of the surroundings, can be an important factor in increasing the feeling of belonging, the offer of jobs and services, and the quality of life in the area. Therefore, after presenting popular housing projects developed in Brazilian communities, we searched for cultural equipment that occupy rural and urban areas that are less privileged in terms of infrastructure.

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A few years ago, it was more common for the bicycle to be seen as an option for leisure and sport in large Brazilian cities. Currently, in the face of the climate crisis, the price of fuel, and more cyclist-friendly planning (although far from ideal), the bicycle has gained more and more prominence and has become a transport option for the population. However, we know that it is not always easy to find a place to keep it in our homes. Therefore, we present some possibilities.

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Videos

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Gloria Cabral was born in the heart of São Paulo and grew up in Paraguay—where she studied at the Colégio Experimental Paraguai Brasil, designed by Affonso Eduardo Reidy. Since then, she has established herself as an architect whose practice transcends borders. With numerous international honors to her name and currently based in Guarda do Embaú, Santa Catarina, she has championed horizontal, collaborative processes that demonstrate the power of the collective in shaping the built environment.

Besides thermal, acoustic and luminous comfort, colors are factors that influence the sensation we feel when in an environment and become a strong device to influence the user's behavior.

Far beyond aesthetic preferences, the use of certain colors can bring different meanings that cover other fields such as psychology or symbology. Therefore, it is known that a color does not depend only on light and environment, but also on the perception we have of it. The German Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, who has deepened his study of the Theory of Colors, points out that the identification of tones is subjective, but the effects are universal. As an example, the warm colors (red, yellow and orange) are more dynamic and cause feelings of comfort and stimulus in people, while the cold colors (green, purple and blue) have a softer, soothing and static effect. Therefore, creating a color palette is a possibility to generate different sensations in the perception of space.

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"Growing up queer means experiencing the destabilizing absence of a broad and accessible queer history, most notably, in our case, in relation to spatial design". This account is what intrigued artist Adam Nathaniel Furman and architectural historian Joshua Mardell to bring together a community of contributors who bring new perspectives to the field of architecture and share stories of spaces that challenge cis-heteronormative morals, sheltering lives that seek to live their own truths. The result of this quest is a book titled Queer Spaces: An Atlas of LGBTQIA+ Places and Stories, which explores stories about distinct social, political, and geographical contexts within the community.

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If today technologies are emerging for different forms of representation and interaction with drawing, understanding how architects communicate through hand-drawn strokes can be essential to delve into the topic of architectural visualization. Through the simplicity of gestures, small texts or a collage of references, it is possible to translate ideas in an innovative way, unlike the ways that a render can present. For this reason, we highlight here the work of great names such as Lina Bo Bardi, Renzo Piano, Pezo von Ellrichshausen and Mikkel Frost, who, using different techniques, reveal different ways of representing a project.

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Architecture carries a strong archetype, one in which its purpose seems larger than the discipline itself. Embellished by a poetic image, its practitioners embody the symbol of great inventors who conceive space and establish new ways of living in society. It is undoubtedly an alluring trade, and one that certainly shapes the daily life of any culture. Yet it is increasingly marked by illusion and disappointment in a market that seems to gradually distance itself from theory and close itself off in niches of its own creation. Under ever-growing competition that fails to yield a significant improvement in the quality of what is produced, working in architecture gradually translates into frustration and insecurity.

Pingado, carioca, espresso, drip, americano, cappuccino. Unlike in architecture, in this case, form is the least important factor when it comes to declaring a passion for coffee. A loyal companion since the college days of pulling all-nighters, and one that continues to accompany the daily creative process throughout the careers of many architects, this traditional beverage holds a special place in the profession and deserves to be celebrated. Today, March 14, is World Coffee Day. To celebrate, we feature a selection of projects where this sensory-awakening ingredient takes center stage.

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