In 2018, a group of former political prisoners who had been incarcerated at the Punta Carretas prison from 1968 to 1985 formed a "pro-Memorial Site commission" to promote a project that would invite reflection and memory regarding the events that occurred during their years of confinement in the former penitentiary. Seeking to create a site that fosters memory for current and future generations, they launched a call for proposals to develop a Memorial. This project honors the victims, their families, and the entire community, continuing the struggle for truth, memory, and justice in Uruguay.

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The Safe Cities Index (SCI) by The Economist Intelligence Unit ranks 60 representative cities worldwide based on indicators covering digital security, health security, infrastructure, and personal security.

Focusing on Latin America —and setting aside the repeated leadership at the top of the list by Tokyo, followed by Singapore, Osaka, Amsterdam and Sydney— where do this region's cities rank in terms of safety for 2019?

To showcase the valuable output of Argentine universities, for the third consecutive year we launched an open call inviting our Argentine readers to submit their final thesis projects, sharing the work that launched their careers as newly minted architects.

After receiving more than 60 submissions from various Argentine architecture schools and cities, our editorial team selected nine projects, focusing on those that demonstrated critical thinking toward contemporary issues, formal resolution, and representation. The selection not only recognizes those projects that delivered the best possible architecture through simple design suited to their context, program, and users, but also highlights those showing a strong commitment to human scale, mediation, transition, and new ways of approaching urban architecture. This edition's jury was composed of Fabian Dejtiar, Managing Editor of ArchDaily en Español; Mónica Arellano, Editor of ArchDaily México; and Delia Bayona, Editor of ArchDaily Perú.

Read on to explore the selected projects in detail.

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"SOM: Art + Engineering + Architecture" is an exhibition opening at the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso in Mexico City. Presented in collaboration with MEXTRÓPOLI, the global architecture and urbanism festival organized by Arquine magazine, the exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of SOM's structural engineering practice, its integration with architectural design, and the firm's long tradition of collaboration with the visual arts.

Of the two million people currently living in the region of Galicia, an estimated 5,000 work in the production and sale of crafts. Through the exhibition “Pensar coas mans. Las nuevas siete lámparas de la belleza artesanal” (Thinking with Hands: The New Seven Lamps of Craft Beauty), located at the Museo Centro Gaias in The City of Culture, Izaskun Chinchilla presents an art installation of 250 pieces. Created in collaboration with 65 artisans, the project seeks to restore the prestige of craftsmanship and prompt reflection on its collective value.

Miguel Eyquem walks with one hand resting on his bag, bringing a handkerchief to his nose. He says he has a cold and hopes it will not be an obstacle to our conversation. Like all those who embody history, Eyquem's ideas race ahead of him. He walks, speaks, stops, thinks, speaks again, changes the subject, and keeps walking.

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The International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale opened its 58th edition on May 11, 2019, at the Sale d'Armi in the Arsenale in Venice, and will run through November 24. At this world-renowned event, Mexico presented its contribution to the national pavilions with Acts of God by artist Pablo Vargas Lugo. Curated by Magalí Arriola, the project seeks to establish a dialogue with the curatorial concept of the Biennale Arte 2019, May You Live in Interesting Times, to examine how we value our actions, the connections we establish between the natural world and geological time, and to question the origins of our moral choices and inherited values, such as the idea of redemption.

Through elements that once served a functional purpose in architecture—such as door frames, scaffolding, wheelbarrows, planters, or chairs—Colombian artist Sebastián Dávila assigns them a sculptural use, transmuting this obsolescence into the foundation for creating new scaled spatialities in cast concrete. In conversation with ArchDaily, the artist, sculptor, and near-architect explains how merging art and architecture transcends the stereotomic quality of concrete-generated space.

The Chilean city of Valparaíso is comprised of 42 hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Its unique topography has prompted—or forced—residents to build a creative network of elevators, staircases, and alleys, connecting every corner of the city despite its rugged terrain.

With the launch of ODA19, this year we celebrate the eleventh anniversary of the Obra del Año (ODA) Award, the highest accolade in the architectural world where the winners are chosen by popular vote. Starting today, Monday, April 1, and for the next three weeks, our readers are responsible for determining which projects inspired us during 2018, faithfully representing the identity of our local contexts while shaping the way architecture is practiced around the world.

Over the next three weeks, the entire ArchDaily en Español network (Plataforma Arquitectura, ArchDaily México, ArchDaily Colombia, and ArchDaily Perú) will serve as the platform to celebrate the best built architecture in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America.

Paying attention to Lima's many perspectives is something that should be a daily occurrence, though unfortunately, this is not the case in our city. Sometimes we do not even notice what happens in the streets; at other times, we have a biased view, or we simply prefer to look at the city from the most comfortable angle. It is important to turn our attention to the many urban actors whose multidisciplinary visions, when integrated, can offer an interesting, enriched, and diverse outlook on the city.

In tribute to this diverse city of nearly ten million inhabitants, the UNESCO Office in Lima has gathered academics, historians, archaeologists, urban planners, architects, artists, and Lima enthusiasts for the inaugural UNESCO Talks event, titled “Lima, muchas miradas”.

This chapter of the article series by Nikos A. Salingaros, David Brain, Andrés M. Duany, Michael W. Mehaffy, and Ernesto Philibert-Petit—which examines social housing in Latin America—presents recommendations for the sequence of actions required to generate housing in both rural and urban contexts. Review the previous installments and the new article below.

Recognizing outstanding heritage practices, the fourth edition of the European Award for Architectural Heritage Intervention AADIPA has announced 15 shortlisted works in Category A (Intervention in built heritage) and 10 in Category B (Exterior spaces).

On June 13, during the 4th International Biennial of Architectural Heritage Intervention—an event organized by the directors with the support of COAC, AADIPA, and the Generalitat de Catalunya—the finalists and winners of each award category will be announced.

Urban Sketchers Bogotá held its third exhibition through a competition organized in partnership with the Colombian Society of Architects and the Bogotá Public Space Biennial (BEPBOG) at the beginning of this second half of the year. Building on the momentum of the inaugural BEPBOG, the contest aimed to promote freehand graphic representation of the city's 30 most iconic public spaces.

Aiming to propose “ordinary” solutions that meet the needs of the majority of people in Chile, the open call for the Feria Libre de Arquitectura—as this year's XXI Chilean Architecture Biennial is known—received 543 registrations, “a historic figure for this type of event,” according to the organizers.

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The installation Hórama Rama by Pedro y Juana (Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo and Mecky Reuss) opened this summer as part of the 20th edition of the Young Architects Program 2019 at MoMAPS1. This architectural installation is an immersive jungle landscape set within a large-scale cyclorama that sits atop the courtyard walls of MoMAPS1 and runs from June 28 through September 2, 2019.

2019 brought a wealth of enriching experiences through some of Mexico City's most prominent events, including the inaugural Porto Academy Workshop, the annual Design Week Mexico festival, and the Abierto Mexicano de Diseño, among others. These events hosted design and architecture exhibitions that captured the creative output of the moment—showcases that will serve as future reference points for understanding the architectural discourse of this era.

In this installment, as part of the series of articles by Nikos A. Salingaros, David Brain, Andrés M. Duany, Michael W. Mehaffy, and Ernesto Philibert-Petit, we examine the importance of design sequences and generative codes in social housing in Latin America. Explore all previous publications and the new article below.

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Mexico City’s vecindades (traditional tenement housing) are urban settlements located primarily in the downtown area. According to the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), these buildings first emerged in the late 18th century, though their peak occurred during the 19th century as a result of rapid population growth, serving to provide affordable housing for the city's most marginalized sectors.

Reading "Poéticas Colectivas" is a unique experience: the pages divide into two, three, and then become one. The boundaries of the pages dissolve, and both knowledge and architectural works intersect on both a literal level—the pages—and a theoretical one—the ideas.

This book by Bisman Ediciones brings together the work of Matéricos Periféricos and Arquitectura del Sur, two collectives of Rosario-based architects with shared ideals.

In September, we launched the fourth edition of our open call in Colombia, inviting architects to submit their undergraduate thesis projects. In this edition, the call received 104 submissions from more than 15 cities and 25 universities across the country, marking an 11% increase in proposals compared to 2018.

Following an exhaustive evaluation, and to celebrate Architects' Week in Colombia, we present the 13 thesis projects selected as winners by our editorial jury (Fabián Dejtiar, Mónica Arellano, and Santiago Baraya). The evaluation criteria prioritized projects that directly addressed current issues, such as urban, local, social, and environmental contexts.

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Sala Roxy is a historic venue located at 80 Mezquitán Street in the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. For years, this space served as a local symbol of freedom, bringing together alternative artistic and cultural expressions. First opening its doors in 1937, it operated for several decades as Cine Roxy; built in the Art Deco style, it became one of the first theaters dedicated to film screenings in Guadalajara.

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This coming April, Costa Rica will host the Latin American Social Workshop for Architecture Students (XVI TSL) for the first time. The event is organized by the Latin American Coordinator of Architecture Students (CLEA) and the local organization Estudiantes de Arquitectura en Movimiento (EAM), with academic backing from the University of Costa Rica.

Under the theme Situated Knowledges, TSL Costa Rica 2019 will welcome 210 participants from 18 Latin American countries and a European delegation between April 11 and 21. During this period, students and young architects will work side-by-side in a series of design-build workshops held in two communities of Santa Cruz, a town known in the Central American nation as the "folklore city."

The Graham Foundation has announced 63 new grants to individuals around the world supporting architectural projects. The funded projects represent diverse lines of research with original ideas that advance our understanding of the built environment. Selected from over 500 proposals, the funded projects include exhibitions, publications, films, and performances that promote rigorous scholarship, stimulate experimentation, and foster critical discourse in architecture. These innovative projects are led by both established and emerging architects, artists, curators, filmmakers, historians, and photographers, among other professionals.