Between 1985 and 1989, the city of Olinda (Pernambuco) served as the pilot site for a federal program that was to be implemented in 48 other Brazilian cities. Among other goals, this program sought to provide social housing in built environments and preserve local memory and ways of life by ensuring the permanence of traditional residents. Though still little known in the history of cultural heritage and social housing policies in Brazil, this plan points the way toward managing territories based on the social and cultural practices of their inhabitants.

Female architects and urban planners account for 63.47% of the 174,513 registered professionals currently in the country. Despite being the majority in the profession, the spotlight remains focused on men. To break this paradigm and promote dialogue and ways to foster the inclusion and visibility of women in the multiple fields of Architecture and Urban Planning, the Council of Architecture and Urbanism of Rio de Janeiro (CAU/RJ) has launched the CAU + Mulheres Award.

One of Brazil's most influential designers, José Zanine Caldas would have celebrated his centenary in April this year. To honor his legacy, the municipality of Belmonte, Bahia, plans to open a museum in February next year. The project will be divided into two phases: the restoration of the historic mansion where Caldas was born, followed by an expansion designed by Márcio Kogan.

Videos

The School of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo (FAU USP), one of the most prestigious architecture schools in Latin America, recently launched its YouTube channel—an initiative that continues efforts to highlight its community's work and democratize knowledge. Featuring student projects, lectures, documentaries, and expert perspectives on a wide range of topics, the channel offers diverse and relevant content.

Following heavy rains that hit Maceió at the beginning of the year, residents of the Pinheiro neighborhood entered a state of emergency as several cracks appeared in the area. Civil Defense authorities state that the neighborhood is at risk of collapse, and the main threat is that the asphalt could sink enough to create a sinkhole and destroy buildings, endangering the lives of over twenty thousand residents.

As extreme weather events become increasingly common worldwide, brises-soleil and perforated cladding have become effective options for creating a second skin on building facades, protecting interiors and creating unique atmospheres through the interplay of light and shadow.

Each building and facade orientation requires a distinct solution—whether fixed or operable, and in various materials. However, certain general guidelines can help streamline the selection process. We spoke with the experts at Hunter Douglas to identify the most critical considerations.

+ 25

Videos

The film “Melting Souls” by François-Xavier Destors won the Best Documentary award at the 7th edition of the Arquiteturas Film Festival, which took place from June 4 to 9 at Cinema São Jorge in Lisbon.

Inverse City uses the urban morphology of central São Paulo and its adjacent districts as its primary structure and raw material, providing a foundation for the creation of a new space-time. This space-time allows us to explore and deconstruct the city we know.

The California Air Resources Board, or CARB, is a 16-member panel (mostly appointed by the governor) that oversees air pollution control efforts in California. In December, the board approved a first-of-its-kind regulation in the US, establishing a statewide goal for public transit agencies to gradually transition to 100% zero-emission bus fleets by 2040.

The offices AUÁ arquitetos and Estúdio Itinerante were awarded third place in the national competition for the new headquarters of the Association of Engineers and Architects of Sorocaba (AEAS). Read the full project description and proposal below.

The 44th edition of the Itaú Cultural Occupation program honors Ukrainian architect Gregori Warchavchik. A naturalized Brazilian, he was responsible for building the first modernist work in Brazil, the Casa Modernista, located on Santa Cruz Street in São Paulo's Vila Mariana neighborhood.

As part of the cultural programming of Jardín 17—a space designed by Luis Barragán as an extension of his house-studio that has hosted various academic programs from around the world for the past 20 years—Japanese architect Go Hasegawa has designed the installation Flying Carpet: a pavilion suspended in the middle of Barragán's garden.

The Teatro Oficina, designed by Lina Bo Bardi and Edison Elito in 1984, had one of its walls partially destroyed by heavy rain that hit São Paulo yesterday afternoon. The wall of the large glass facade, which faces one of the last vacant lots in the Bixiga neighborhood, collapsed around the iconic tree planted inside the theater.

In recent years, documenting architecture and cities through photography has undergone a swift and surprising transformation. Professional and amateur photographers have been seeking new perspectives, going beyond what the human eye can see at street level. In this pursuit, aerial photography—which captures a bird's-eye view—is layered with aesthetic intentions that reveal an intimate and breathtaking look at cities and landscapes.

Discussions surrounding women's access to higher education and the labor market in general are of central importance when considering ways to establish more equitable living conditions and active roles in contemporary society. Although grounded in censuses and surveys linked to the formal labor market, this reflection provides a general baseline of women's current conditions in the face of difficulties stemming from the lingering legacy of a patriarchal and moralistic structure of professional hierarchies, where the leading figures are, and historically have been, men.

Videos

In an interview with Goma Oficina, David Barragán shares insights into the practice of Al Borde, an architecture firm based in Quito, Ecuador, which he leads alongside Pascual Gangotena, Marialuisa Borja, and Esteban Benavides.

The firm's work directly addresses the divide between manual and intellectual labor in architectural practice. Although this division is the product of historical and social construction, it is still treated today almost as an "indisputable scientific fact," given the prevailing silence surrounding the issue.

Although zoning regulations point toward necessary densification and the subsequent verticalization of residential buildings in urban centers—seeking greater efficiency and access to urban infrastructure—something escapes this purely rational plan and enters the subjective sphere when we think of single-story houses.

The design for the Fiat factory in the Lingotto district of Turin, Italy, was developed by engineer Giacomo Mattè-Trucco in 1915. Construction began the following year and was carried out in stages until its completion in 1923. Inspired by Fordism, a manufacturing model that emerged in the United States in the 1910s, the factory was designed with an upward-moving assembly line. Upon reaching the roof, the completed cars were ready to be tested on a track approximately 1 km long.

Just 100 cities account for 18% of all global carbon emissions, even though half of the world's population lives in urban areas. This is one of the findings of the study titled Carbon footprints of 13 000 cities, conducted by an international team of researchers. The study compared the carbon footprints of 13,000 cities using national emissions data, urban and rural consumer profiles, population, and city incomes.

One of the most beloved and undeniably successful museums in the Portuguese-speaking world, the Museum of the Portuguese Language is preparing to reopen its doors after the fire it suffered in 2015. The opportunity to rethink the institution and understand its relationship with the public were the guiding principles that aligned with the new usage needs and desires for improvement that permeated the entire concept behind the building's rehabilitation.

Many authors address the importance of the street to vitality in urban space. Streets are public open spaces, typically bordered by the buildings that shape them. We rarely realize it, but it is through this open space that we appropriate the city, and where the experience of walking takes place.

The Portuguese firm Aires Mateus, led by brothers Francisco and Manuel Aires Mateus, has won the international competition to design the renovation of the Museum of Fine Arts of Reims in France. This is the duo's third large-scale cultural project in France, alongside the Olivier Debré Contemporary Creation Center in Tours and the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse.

Installed about three years ago, the vertical gardens occupying the blind walls of several buildings near the Minhocão have lacked maintenance for over a year and have become a nuisance for residents. According to an article published in Folha de S. Paulo, the green walls went from being an attraction to a liability for the buildings that chose to adopt the system.

Today, October 18, the Casa da Arquitectura – Portuguese Center for Architecture opens the exhibition “Souto de Moura – Memory, Projects, Works,” which will remain on display until September 6, 2020. Curated by Francesco Dal Co and Nuno Graça Moura, the exhibition offers a unique monographic reading of the work of Eduardo Souto de Moura, 2011 Pritzker Prize laureate and one of the most prestigious Portuguese architects.