+ 6

Materia, founded in 2009, is one of the most prominent emerging firms in Mexico and Latin America. Its work focuses on studying the relationship between spatial moments and the strategy of materiality in architecture. The firm's work is characterized by a meticulous, handcrafted refinement and technical execution of built details. Its creative process methodology considers the contextual elements of the site, the user, and the specific requirements of each project as design references. Concepts such as mass, light, and contrast are fundamental tenets in the materialization of projected spaces.

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Architecture for Urban Play: Guidelines for Designing Public Play Spaces in Mexico City (APJU) is a digital publication that serves as a framework to guide the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of public play spaces, while incorporating children's perspectives into urban planning and design processes. Directed at urban planners, architects, designers, decision-makers, and the general public, this guide explores what it means to design a play space for a Latin American metropolis, analyzes the urban challenges of this process, and integrates diverse voices and perspectives from both civil society and government.

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Just over six months ago, the Federation of Architects' Associations of the Republic of Mexico invited young Mexican architects to participate in the Third Young Architects Biennial, aiming to identify, recognize, and promote their best works. Through analysis and critique, the biennial fostered reflection on responsible contemporary architecture with sustainable solutions.

Recently, Airbnb has begun to approach the architectural field, both by offering unique experiences in world-renowned buildings and by creating Archibnb, a platform that offers hosts the option to create architectural floor plans.

Through these initiatives, guests from various locations have had the privilege of spending a night in places like the Great Wall of China, the Louvre Museum, or the LEGO House.

But if your destination is Latin America, specifically Argentina, you can now stay in exemplary works by architects including Norman Foster, Clorindo Testa, Jorge Ferrari Hardoy, Juan Kurchan, Fermín Bereterbide, and Luciano Kruk. Explore below the list of works available for booking in the country.

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Villa Fantasía Park is a space where several key community areas converge, featuring children's play zones and a wildlife sanctuary for confiscated, rescued, or donated animals. Designed by architects Kei Arao Takahashi, J. Abraham Lara Ramiro, and Héctor García Ventura, the project is also an Environmental Management Unit located in Jalisco, Mexico, spanning an area of 16,900 square meters.

+ 58

The armed conflict in Colombia has left a mark through the experience of every Colombian—each one unique, none more or less significant than the other. The National Museum of Historical Memory commissioned Antonio Yemail and an interdisciplinary team to physically manifest its narrative through the impact on land, water, and the body.

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Siting a building in a city is no easy task. The quest for isolation and privacy within a complex, heterogeneous, and constantly changing urban space creates a dual condition during the design process. How can an urban building offer privacy and openness at the same time? Consequently, there arises a need for various control mechanisms to mediate between exterior and interior spaces, filtering sound, screening views, managing intimacy, and ensuring anonymity without losing the connection to the city.

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Palacio Salvo is an iconic, 100-meter-tall building located in the city of Montevideo. Inaugurated on October 12, 1928, and declared a National Historic Monument in 1996, it has now regained its light after almost 90 years in darkness. Thanks to the Gran Salvo project, and following a year of planning, production, design, and construction, a new beacon has completed its silhouette, crowning a historic dome that had been empty for years.

Construye Solar 2019 will exhibit eight sustainable social housing units in Santiago, designed and built by universities from across Chile. The initiative, according to the organizers, aims to "spark innovation in social housing construction, addressing the inherent challenges of pursuing sustainable innovation on a limited budget."

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SKALAR is a large-scale art installation designed by light artist Christopher Bauder and musician Kangding Ray. Following its resounding success in Berlin, the work arrives in Mexico City for the first time as part of a collaboration between MUTEK MX, Noiselab, and the German studio WHITEvoid. The installation lasts approximately 45 minutes and is open to the public Monday through Sunday. Additionally, it will feature special shows with live performances by its creators, offering attendees an artistic and audiovisual experience distinct from the continuous loop.

Ecuadorian firm URLO Studio has been selected as the winner of the ideas competition for the southern articulating axis of Quito, a contest aimed at urban renewal in the Ecuadorian capital through the development of micro-centralities along the 13-kilometer tourist route.

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Atlantes is the new monumental installation by Mexican artist Bosco Sodi, presented by Galería Hilario Galguera, Blain | Southern, and Kasmin. Situated on the coast of Oaxaca, near Casa Wabi, in the largely uninhabited area near Puerto Escondido, Mexico, Atlantes is described as "the region's most ambitious land art project in recent years."

Every four years, the city of Olympia hosted athletic competitions in honor of the god Zeus. During this period, time stood still: the city-states declared a truce and wars were suspended. These festivities were known as the Olympic Games. These new activities required new building typologies; architecture was put at the service of sports, a tradition that continues to this day.

For the third edition of the Youth Olympic Games, held in Buenos Aires, architects from across the country participated by creating various spaces. The multidisciplinary team from Galpón Estudio, along with Gruba and Hacelo Sonar, among other professionals, led the creation of Espacio Infancia, which invites visitors to awaken their senses. Running, climbing, walking, pausing, observing, listening, imagining. Learn more about the project in the words of its designers.

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The Urban Agriculture Laboratory is designed by Transversal / Arquitectura Paisaje Urbanismo, located at the Semilla Museum in Chihuahua, Mexico. This project is the result of a civic initiative that combines landscape, architectural, and exhibition design elements centered around urban agriculture, permaculture, and the observation of natural phenomena. In doing so, it redefines the traditional "white box" exhibition space, transforming it into a hands-on pedagogical space, civic gathering point, and laboratory.

The new and growing demands for change driven by urban population growth mean that, when designing, we face a highly heterogeneous and constantly transforming fabric.
Increased urban density directly impacts the open space available for new, standalone construction, leading to a juxtaposition of buildings where the simultaneity and coexistence of individual pursuits result in a varied fabric.

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An entire day of the XXI Chilean Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism was dedicated to the guest city, São Paulo. The program opened with a presentation of the architectural works, student projects, research, and publications representing the city that were selected through the event's open call.

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) presented the 2019 edition of its annual ranking of the world's best universities in the field of architecture, in which UCL (University College London) dethroned the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, which had led the list for four consecutive years.

Within the Ibero-American region, the list has not changed significantly compared to 2018: Spain maintains a strong presence, while Chile leads Latin America. Discover the top-ranked institutions below!

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The Architectural Design Workshop "Single-Family Housing", organized by the architecture firm Cota Paredes Arquitectos, concluded its eleventh edition, inviting graduate architects and senior architecture students to develop a single-family home over four weeks, in either in-person or online formats.

In this installment, Nikos A. Salingaros, David Brain, Andrés M. Duany, Michael W. Mehaffy, and Ernesto Philibert-Petit present a new article in their series on the study of social housing in Latin America. Here, they share recommendations on how to work with future residents, based on extensive experience in practical projects. Read the previous posts and the new article below.

Along with the 17 winning projects of the Panorama of Works section, the XI Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (XI BIAU) has announced the winners in the publications, research papers, and academic works categories.

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In 2014, a group of friends from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, eager to contribute to their city's resilience and recovery, came together to discuss and pitch ideas for reclaiming streets, squares, and parks through sociocultural projects and urban interventions in public spaces. This gave rise to Nómada Laboratorio Urbano. Ciudad Juárez is an industrial city located on the northern border with the United States, directly adjacent to El Paso, Texas. Over the years, Juárez's economy has been dominated by the "maquiladora" manufacturing industry, and the city was once considered one of the most violent in the world due to a wave of crime between 2008 and 2012.

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Each year, the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA), through the National System of Art Creators (SNCA), recognizes outstanding figures in national culture through the Young Creators Program. By providing grants, the program supports the creative and educational development of Mexico's young artists, fostering favorable conditions for the realization of original, significant, and positive creative projects.

As part of the heritage preservation program of the municipality of Rosario, the provincial authorities of Santa Fe held the national preliminary design competition for the new building of the Provincial School of Visual Arts No. 3031 "General Manuel Belgrano". The selected plot contained the former railway workshops of the Central Argentino line, where contestants had to adapt the structures to the needs of the school and the community while preserving their historical value. Discover the winning project below.

Continuing our series of articles studying social housing in Latin America, Nikos A. Salingaros, David Brain, Andrés M. Duany, Michael W. Mehaffy, and Ernesto Philibert-Petit present a reflection on the problems and solutions of favelas. Read the previous articles and the new piece below.