This guide covers a workflow that moves from project parameters to generated floor plans, 3D perspective views, exterior design exploration, and site context visualization, using AI tools in place of preliminary CAD and rendering work.

+ 6

The 2018 International Housing Finance Summit, organized by INFONAVIT, brought together experts from various disciplines to discuss the future of cities and the lessons learned to date. Held on May 2 and 3 at the Camino Real Polanco, the event hosted prominent figures who examined urban transformation processes to evaluate models that could guide us toward an integrated urban plan.

The event featured the participation of Al Borde, a firm that has materialized its ideas across various Latin American countries, earning numerous awards and accolades. In 2016, they served on the nominating committee for the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP) and were part of the official selection at the Venice Biennale, which was themed 'Reporting from the Front.' Currently, they are among the winners of the "Young Architects in Latin America" competition, a collateral event of the 16th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale.

+ 13

As part of a generation of photographers who in recent years have helped place Mexican architecture on the global map, Jaime Navarro is one of the key figures who has navigated the technological transition shaping a new way of seeing and practicing architecture. As one of the country's most recognized photographers, Jaime Navarro's approach aims for photography that can help document the beauty and goodness of specific historical moments, witnessing how we relate, what moves us, and what transcends disciplinary boundaries to build new futures. Below, we present an exclusive interview that showcases his career and the admiration of the ArchDaily team.

+ 10

The 2nd Placemaking Latinoamérica Summit—organized by Lugares Públicos A.C.—took place in Mexico City during the first and second weeks of November. It featured various activities, including the rehabilitation of eight public spaces led by Mexican and Latin American participatory urban planning specialists in the boroughs of Cuauhtémoc, Iztacalco, and Miguel Hidalgo.

These interventions were carried out as part of a broader effort to reflect and act on the Placemaking methodology at a Latin American scale, fostering collaboration between organizations from different countries to improve public space. This process is detailed in the "White Paper on Latin American Placemaking: Tactical Urbanism and Innovation in Public Space Program," presented this week by the Alliance for Urban Regeneration (ARU) and Lugares Públicos.

As we contemplated the vestibule of the Laurentian Library, I distinctly remember paraphrasing Giorgio Vasari: I thank God for being born in the time when Álvaro Siza is alive and for being worthy of having him as a master on such friendly terms. A much more eloquent version was dedicated to the "divine" Michelangelo Buonarroti in the original Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1568), yet it rang just as true in the presence of the "mystic" Siza – an epithet bestowed by Eduardo Souto de Moura. At that moment in Florence, the architect of sculpture and the sculptor of architecture met metaphysically face to face in the form of a staircase, whose silhouette would outlive time, transformed by the Baroque and reinterpreted by many authors – from Charles Garnier to Alvar Aalto – yet perhaps by none with more enthusiasm than Álvaro Siza himself. 

Javier Reverte once said that "the adventure of travel consists of being able to experience the daily lives of other people in places far from your home as an extraordinary event." It is precisely within those extraordinary events that, upon arriving in a new country, we undergo an adaptation process that transforms the extraordinary into the everyday. Whether you share a language with your host country or face an unfamiliar tongue, the first few months are a crash course in absorbing countless new concepts—from discovering you can buy cigarettes at pharmacies to distinguishing the distinct calls of trucks selling tacos, tamales, or sweet potatoes. We learn new terms to define daily life, while simultaneously relearning familiar words that take on entirely new meanings.

In the presence of officials from the Ministry of Culture, Dra. Lidia Camacho, general director of the National Institute of Fine Arts, Mtra. Irene Muñoz Trujillo, director of the Mixed Fund for Tourism Promotion of Mexico City, and Maria Laura Medina de Salinas, honorary president of the Design Week México board, the general director of Design Week México and World Design Capital CDMX 2018, Emilio Cabrero, announced the details of the activity program for World Design Capital CDMX 2018.

+ 26

Through the Center for Sustainable Development Research (CIDS), Infonavit launched an open call for architecture and engineering firms to design the "Materials, Energy, and Water Laboratories" Building. Aiming to research and experiment with new materials, industrialized components, and spatial characteristics that foster the development of social housing, the building will be part of the complex named "Infonavit Housing Practical Research and Experimentation Laboratory" in "San Miguel del Arco," Apan, Hidalgo.

The brief required the proposal to be designed as a program container. Specifically, the design for this Ideas Competition had to house three major research spaces (materials, energy, and water) tailored to the specific testing and research needs of each laboratory, which will be developed in detail during the executive project phase with the winning firm. A key requirement for these spaces was spatial flexibility and versatility in both plan and section.

Exactly five months ago, residents of São Paulo witnessed the tragic collapse of the Wilton Paes de Almeida Building. Following a massive fire, the structure of the iconic 24-story modern building came down, leaving dozens dead and injured, and hundreds homeless. Located at the intersection of Rio Branco Avenue and Largo Paissandu, the collapse also affected three other adjacent buildings, including the headquarters of the Lutheran Church of São Paulo.

The term ‘right to the city’ was on the lips of participants in the June 2013 protests, which were sparked by public transit fare hikes across several Brazilian states. It was also emblazoned on banners hanging from occupied vacant towers and abandoned buildings by the Ocupe Estelita movement, which has fought since 2008 to preserve the José Estelita Pier in Recife. Abroad, the phrase was splashed across Turkish signs when trees were felled in Istanbul’s Gezi Park to make way for a shopping mall.

But what, after all, does the right to the city actually mean—an expression vehemently invoked by social movements in recent years and one that, in Brazil, gained territoriality following the 2013 mobilizations?

Architect Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza is undoubtedly a pivotal figure in 20th-century Spanish architecture. Designer of iconic works like Torres Blancas and the current Castellana 81, Sáenz de Oiza was twice awarded the National Architecture Award (1946 and 1954), served as Director of the Madrid School of Architecture (1981–1983), and was a figure whose work and theoretical reflections shaped the course of the Modern Movement in Spain.

This year marks the centenary of his birth in the town of Cáseda (Navarra). To celebrate this milestone, the 15th Architecture Week will pay tribute to him with a major exhibition charting his entire career. Titled Centenario Sáenz de Oiza. 1918-2018 (Sáenz de Oiza Centenary. 1918-2018), the exhibition is organized by the COAM Architecture Foundation in partnership with the Directorate-General for Architecture of the Ministry of Development, and curated by his children, architects Vicente, Javier, and Marisa Sáenz Guerra.

+ 5

The 1970s and 1980s witnessed a new urban image in the Ecuadorian capital. Rafael Vélez Calisto graduated in 1970, going on to become one of its most prominent and prolific architects. He expressed his architecture for a thriving country and capital that offered unique opportunities to professionals, driven by oil exploitation, the growth of the public and private sectors, and rapid urban expansion.

The capital shifted the profile of its main corridors, gradually shaping itself as a vertical city. Along Quito's Avenida Amazonas, the dominant presence of large, still-functional estates gradually disappeared, replaced by high-rise buildings (1)—an urban landscape that continued to spread along new arteries toward the north.

In these areas, several of his notable, contemporary, and cosmopolitan buildings stand out.

+ 7

Originally published in Metropolis Magazine as El Equipo Mazzanti Heals a Gash in Bogotá’s Urban Fabric. With a Patchwork of Verdant Gardens, Anna Fixsen writes about Bicentennial Park in Bogotá. "Once a lightning rod for controversy, the innovative park now reconnects two areas at the heart of the city's historic center," she writes.

It is impossible to experience Bogotá without encountering the aura of Rogelio Salmona. Perhaps more than any other architect, Salmona shaped the urban identity of this Andean city through civic and poetic buildings. From a small balcony in his last office—located at the top of a tower he designed himself—a tableau of Salmona's legacy unfolds: directly ahead, the massive volumes of the Torres del Parque, a three-tower residential complex completed in 1970; and to the south, MAMBO, the Museum of Modern Art of Bogotá.

+ 20

A new interactive museum is opening its doors at the Mexican Stock Exchange. The Mexican Stock Exchange Museum, “MUBO”—inaugurated in May 2018—is a space dedicated to a historical narrative focused on the country's financial market culture, utilizing interactive modules to enhance the understanding of the curatorial script. Through this new space, the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores Group brings together efforts initiated just over a year ago alongside the "Escuela de la Bolsa" to disseminate financial topics and foster an understanding of the country's history and development.

With the proposal 'Phytoremediation Machine for Mining Tailings,' the Chilean team won first place in the 11th Alacero Steel Design Competition for Architecture Students 2018 in Colombia.

The team, comprising Universidad Finis Terrae students Diego Concha, Tomás Aguirre, and Trinidad Hermosilla, presented a project that seeks to "recover and reuse mining waste through the use of plants with high mineral resistance to reduce and mitigate the site's environmental risks," as the authors explain in their project description. Their advisors were professors Andrés Echeverría and Cristián Lecaros.

The Architecture, Education, and Society graduate program at Escola da Cidade invited Rodrigo Mendes de Souza to present research on the pedagogical program of the Bauhaus Vorkurs during the directorship of Walter Gropius.

Through the theories of Pure Visibility (Sichtbarkeit) and Objectivity (Sachlichkeit), Rodrigo Mendes de Souza addressed Walter Gropius's pedagogical program for the Bauhaus, drawing on various authors—such as K. Fiedler, A. Riegl, H. Wölfflin, and G. Semper—to better understand the school's pedagogical theory and practice.

Preface: Tsinghua University School of Architecture is a world-renowned institution for architectural education. But how does a design institute operate within such a prestigious university system? Over its 60-year history, how has the Tsinghua University Architectural Design and Research Institute (THAD) maintained its relationship with the school, and what transformations has it witnessed in China's architectural industry? What challenges does the contemporary architectural field face? How will design institutes evolve under shifting national policies? How significant is the gap between architecture students and practicing professionals, and what qualities do contemporary architects lack? ArchDaily had the privilege of conducting an in-depth interview with Professor Zhuang Weimin, Dean of the Tsinghua University School of Architecture and President of THAD, to explore these questions.

Launched on October 16, 2018, by the Council of Architecture and Urbanism of Tocantins (CAU/TO), the National Public Architecture Competition No. 001/2018 aimed to select the best Preliminary Architectural Study proposal for its new headquarters. The building will be constructed in block ACNO 11(103N), Conjunto 02, on Pedestrian Street NO-09, Lot 37, in Palmas, Tocantins.

The Municipal Government of São Bernardo do Campo has opened applications for a public selection process with ten vacancies for architects and urban planners. Organized by the Fundação VUNESP, the exam requires candidates to hold a degree in architecture and urban planning and an active professional registration with CAU/SP.

As we welcome the new year, don't miss ArchDaily's selection of the best architecture documentaries to watch this year!

Videos

Alongside an archaeologist and a visual artist, the team led by architect and University of Chile academic Claudia Torres has documented a series of industrial ruins in rural areas throughout Chile. These are structures where geography and nature have played a fundamental role, both as a productive resource and as witnesses to their progressive deterioration after being abandoned decades ago.

Titled “From Noise to Silence: Valuing Industrial Ruins in Rural Areas,” this research, funded by Fondart 2017, selected nine cases across Chile: from the historic use of the coastline associated with mining in the northern desert (Caldera) to logging in the Patagonian forests of the far south (Contao). Each site features unprecedented photographic and audiovisual documentation that showcases the rich natural environment where they were built to spark or secure productive processes that have shaped the socioeconomic and cultural history of each region.

Describing the work of an architect is sometimes an arduous task. Categorizing a production based on the various criteria to which a body of work is tied often subjects it to the constraints of its historical context. Eduardo Longo, however, represents a clear exception, as his work actively rejected the prevailing principles of his time in pursuit of continuous experimentation. Entering the School of Architecture and Urbanism at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie in São Paulo in 1961, he encountered a unique moment in Brazilian architecture: the formation of the so-called “Escola Paulista” (São Paulo School) alongside national political instability, marked by the onset of the military dictatorship and the construction of the new federal capital, Brasília.

As a student, he distanced himself from the canons of the Escola Paulista, seeking instead to experiment and foster new architectural discourse. Against this backdrop, during his fourth year of university, Longo designed the Mar Casado beach house. Intended for his aunt and uncle, the project was heavily criticized by both faculty and peers due to its “independent way of interpreting architecture” [1] and its structural configuration—which featured a non-orthogonal design with acute and obtuse angles beneath a multifaceted roof—openly defying Paulista Brutalism. Despite the backlash, the house was built and eventually gained recognition: art critic Pietro Maria Bardi praised its relevance in 1967, followed by a feature in *Domus* magazine in 1968 and its inclusion in Yves Bruand’s seminal 1981 book [2].

Writing for the Fundación Arquia Blog, architect Enrique Parra outlines the main questions asked by first-year architecture students in Spain, where, despite the ongoing crisis in the profession, it remains one of the most sought-after degrees. This article offers a chance to compare these expectations with the realities and aspirations of students in different countries.

Videos

The First Industrial Revolution took place in the United Kingdom in the late 18th century with the mechanization of the textile industry. Over the following decades, instead of making things solely by hand, the use of machines spread across the globe.

The Second Industrial Revolution began in the United States in the early 20th century with the assembly line, ushering in the so-called Era of Mass Production.

Today, we are living through a new industrial revolution, driven by digital culture and technology, with 3D printers serving as one of its key catalysts. And believe it or not, you will eventually own one. As they become increasingly affordable, these machines are capable of printing three-dimensional objects. The most common technique involves depositing and bonding, layer by layer, minute particles of materials such as plastic, ceramic, glass, or metal.

On August 6, the NOVA Design Award 2018 announced its competition finalists. The NOVA Design Award 2018 is the inaugural edition of the NOVA Design Award (NDA). Under the theme of "Future Living Space," the competition explores the possibilities of residential living over the next decade within a residential space of under 50 square meters with a ceiling height of no more than 6 meters in a first-tier Chinese city, aiming to build a physical prototype of "future living."

The competition selected five finalists from 131 submissions across more than 20 countries to enter the final round of judging.