In 1897, the City of Minas Gerais was founded, later renamed Belo Horizonte in 1901. Aarão Reis's urban plan for the capital of Minas Gerais gave rise to the first modern planned city in Brazil. The orthogonal grid defining blocks, major corridors, and distinct urban zones was inspired by other city models, such as Paris and Washington, reflecting modernizing and republican ideals that shaped the territory's spatial hierarchy.
The curatorial team of the XII São Paulo International Biennial of Architecture, comprising architects Vanessa Grossman, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, and Ciro Miguel, has been named a recipient of the competitive 2019 Grants to Individuals from the prestigious, Chicago-based Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. The grant was awarded for the publication of the book Todo dia/ Everyday, the result of the work and research that culminated in the theme of the XII São Paulo International Biennial of Architecture. The bilingual volume will be published by Ruby Press, a Berlin-based publisher specializing in books on architecture, art, and other cultural practices engaged in the production of space in contemporary society.
Following a debate held last Monday (04/08/19) at its headquarters regarding models for public metropolitan planning companies, the Instituto de Arquitetos do Brasil - Departamento de São Paulo (IABsp) expresses its concern over Bill (PL) 01/2019. Submitted by the State Government to the Legislative Assembly, the bill proposes, among other mergers and extinctions of public agencies, the shutdown of the Empresa Metropolitana de Planejamento (Emplasa). Established in 1975, Emplasa is responsible for regional planning and plays a key role in the necessary restructuring of inter-federative governance in the São Paulo Metropolitan Area, aligned with the guidelines of the Statute of the Metropolis, enacted in 2015.
On Friday, October 11, we attended the panel discussion featuring MAPA—the practice based in Brazil and Uruguay, represented by partners Silvio Machado and Luciano Andrades—and Andrade Morettin Arquitetos Associados, represented by Vinicius Andrade. The event was part of the 21st Brazilian Congress of Architects (CBA) held in Porto Alegre. During the panel, the architects presented their respective work and discussed the role of prefabricated construction systems in design development. We also had the opportunity to interview Luciano Andrades, who shared details about the Minimod project. Read the interview below:
The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) has opened applications for events taking place this October across Brazil, organized by institutions interested in participating in Circuito Urbano 2019, under the theme "Innovative and Inclusive Cities."
The magazine Solidarity Housing Production: An International Overview was launched on Monday, November 25, at the opening of the National Seminar on Technical Assistance for Social Interest Housing. The publication compiles the main contributions from the event of the same name, held in July 2018. Organized by architects and urban planners Luciana Ximenes and Thais Velasco, the magazine was produced by CAU/RJ and the Observatório das Metrópoles (Ippur/UFRJ).
Felipe Camus, a photographer who has documented ELEMENTAL's project, shares his reflections on Ochoquebradas.
The exhibition Victims: A Work by John Hejduk materializes the unbuilt work of the New York architect, presented here for the first time by the Leopoldo Rother Architecture Museum at the National University of Colombia. Alongside the scale model of the project, the 67 figures are accompanied by narratives, illustrations, and a short film titled Structures of a Wound.
ArchDaily spoke with Spanish architect Flavio Tejada, director of the Master in Real Estate Development at IE University and associate director at Arup, about the ongoing urban transformation of our cities. "The digital economy is transforming our urban environment," he notes.
Festival Provincia aims to create a space open to dialogue and the exhibition of civic issues, emphasizing responsible participation in the architectural development of the provinces. Tuxtla Gutiérrez lacks high-quality urban space, with a notable absence of planning and vision regarding project impacts. Furthermore, there is a constant drain of local talent, driven by a myriad of reasons that foster the belief that success is only possible in major cities through large-scale projects.
The design team composed of the architecture office STVX (Aguascalientes, Mexico) in partnership with María Eizayaga (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Emilio López (Aguascalientes, Mexico) has been announced as a First Place winner (one of five awarded) in an open international architecture competition launched by the Russian Federal Government and organized by DOM.RF and Strelka-KB.
The Open International Competition for Alternative Layout Design in Standard Housing is designed as a testing ground for creating the apartments of the future. The requirements for submissions reflect the principles that define standard housing, including flexibility, usability, and stability. The goal is for the proposed planning solutions to help meet modern citizens' needs for comfort, communication, and personal fulfillment.
As a tribute to Mexico's rich and diverse chromatic palette, the Museo del Objeto del Objeto (MODO) presents its new temporary exhibition: “Mexico in Color,” curated by Ana Elena Mallet and Mariano Marroquín. The exhibition offers a cultural review of color perception in Mexico and its impact on art and design. One of the first experiences visitors will encounter is the conceptualization of color in folk art to forge identity. Subsequently, this element is adopted as a defining feature in the arts and, ultimately, as a driving force for the country's modernization.
The 12th São Paulo International Architecture Biennial, on view at the Centro Cultural São Paulo until December 8, includes in its program the screening of two documentaries and a performance that reveal the struggle for housing in São Paulo, focusing particularly on the history and tragic fate of the Wilton Paes de Almeida Building, which collapsed after a fire on May 1, 2018.
Starting tomorrow, April 8, the London city government will implement strict emission rules for pollutants and particulate matter in the central area of the city. The goal is to reduce air pollution levels. According to London Mayor Sadiq Khan, the measure could help reduce the incidence of lung disease and premature deaths related to air pollution. Official estimates suggest that around 9,000 people die annually in the city from pollution-related illnesses.
The Museo Casa de la Memoria is located in Medellín's Boston neighborhood and was developed to commemorate the bicentennial of Colombia's independence. Led by Juan David Botero as the design team coordinator, the project was conceived from the outset as a highly recognizable building for both the community and visitors, drawing its sculptural form from traditional gabled houses. "It is a museum for the victims of violence, and as such, we had to ensure it was a space for everything; a home, the house where memory comes to life," Botero says.
The 3,800-square-meter cultural facility unfolds along the creek like a tunnel, housing exhibition rooms, workshops, archives, offices, and an auditorium. Its envelope functions as a folded skin, incorporating an air cavity that absorbs cool air, draws it in through the facade, and expels it as hot air at the top. This chimney effect helps control the typical 30ºC summer temperatures of the area, ensuring a stable and comfortable indoor climate. Below, we take a closer look at its sculptural thermal and acoustic envelope.
On September 12, the winners of the international urban planning and architectural design competition organized by the Slovenian company Dimnikcobau to design one of the largest business parks in Ljubljana, Slovenia, were announced. Of the eight firms invited to participate, the winning project selected was by BAX studio, a Barcelona-based firm led by Boris Bezan and Mónica Juvera.
A disruption of chronological order. This is what we know as Anachrony, and it is also the perfect concept to describe the creative process of Chilean architect Juan Agustín Soza. Through his sketches, Soza reveals a timeless creative process—one that does not aim to graphically represent the future final result of a work, but rather expresses ideas through aesthetic codes to establish design guidelines and parameters for the project.
Below, you can read more about the drawing process as a design tool in our interview with Juan Agustín Soza.
The casa chorizo is a residential typology historically used in Argentina, primarily in the city of Buenos Aires. It consists of a succession of similarly sized rooms connected along a longitudinal axis that open onto a gallery or courtyard, from which they receive light and ventilation. Typically built on plots between party walls, their service areas are grouped at the back. Today, numerous projects address the rehabilitation of this type of housing. These can be understood as research initiatives exploring how a city's characteristic construction matrix can be reviewed and updated to adapt to contemporary ways of living.
Photographer Manuel Sá shared with us his perspective on the Coati Restaurant, designed in 1987 by Lina Bo Bardi, João Filgueiras Lima - Lelé (precast reinforced mortar), Marcelo Ferraz, and Marcelo Suzuki.
The entire complex—comprising a restaurant, a bar, and three historic houses converted into nine apartments with ground-floor commercial space—is located in the Pelourinho district of Salvador, and is part of the pilot project for the Bahia Historic Center Recovery Plan proposed by Lina. The restaurant is unfortunately abandoned and falling into disrepair, as is the rest of the complex.
Today, January 27, marks the 113th birthday of Félix Candela—of Spanish and Mexican nationality—who is one of the most globally recognized architects of the 20th century. His career was defined by his exploration of reinforced concrete through experiments that resulted in his famous cascarones (concrete shells): key structural and design elements that support many of his works, such as the Cosmic Rays Pavilion at UNAM, Mexico City (1951); the Palmira Chapel in Cuernavaca (1958); the Los Manantiales Restaurant, Xochimilco (1958); and the Palacio de los Deportes for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.
Residencia WW is a project in Mexico born from the idea of fostering community among women. Located in a 1920s house at 102 Edgar Allan Poe Street in Polanco, Mexico City, the space functions as a social and business club designed to build and support this community's growth.
Currently, nearly 65 million people worldwide have been forced to flee their homes due to conflicts unfolding across the globe, leaving behind their belongings, years of personal history, and years of hard work to find themselves adrift. Many of these families are forced to cross oceans and diverse terrains in search of a promising future to start from scratch. These journeys often lead to informal settlements where many perish due to rampant disease and shortages of medicine, food, and clean water.
The new workplace paradigm, driven by digital transformation, is introducing significant changes to employee profiles and the roles people perform within their work environments. At Actiu, these shifts represent an opportunity to turn workspaces into strategic levers of change, allowing organizations to align their transformation goals with the well-being and satisfaction of their workforce.
In an ongoing effort to provide tools, inspiration, and knowledge, in 2019 ArchDaily editors and contributors engaged in numerous conversations with distinguished figures from all corners of the design world and the built environment.
To demonstrate this and reflect on how much we and our readers have learned—especially regarding the roles of representation, academia, cities, technology, and architecture itself—we have selected the 20 best interviews published on ArchDaily throughout the year.
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