Continuing the history of expansions at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum —located just meters from Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum Bilbao— the six finalists selected from the 57 initial applicants in the architecture competition have been announced. The leading architecture firms of Norman Foster, Rafael Moneo, Nieto Sobejano, Snøhetta, BIG, and SANAA will advance to the next stage to compete for the renovation of the current venue, with the winner to be announced between July 22 and 29.
In the new Urban and Building Code of the City of Buenos Aires, approved by the Legislature in late 2018, new strategies are presented for the city's planned growth and densification. One of the code's most notable elements, which this article reflects upon, enables the development of apartments with a new minimum floor area established at 21 square meters. The supposed affordability of these minimum micro-units seeks, under a political agenda, to double the urban population in the near future, betting on a densification that would increase the city's population from 3 million to 6 million inhabitants.
Colombian practices Urbanittá and Lumaa have been awarded first place in the competition to design the Comfamiliar recreation park in Huila, Colombia.
This initiative is part of the organization's mission to expand its recreational services in the southern region of the department. The project entails the construction of a recreation center in Pitalito, strategically located near major cultural and tourist attractions, including the Tatacoa Desert and the San Agustín, Alto de los Ídolos, and Alto de las Piedras archaeological parks.
As part of the Museo Jumex’s fall programming in Mexico City, internationally acclaimed artist James Turrell will illuminate two of its galleries with immersive installations from his new body of work—one of the most significant series of his career—which engages viewers with the limits of human perception. These two installations will offer contrasting experiences, transforming the spaces to blur the boundaries of the horizon in both light and darkness.
As part of Design Week Mexico 2019, Diez Company opened Maison Diez Company to the public. Led by Rodrigo Fernández, this dedicated design and lighting project brings together various elements to create an environment centered on illumination. This unique project in Mexico returns with a renewed concept, showcasing new proposals in a house in the Juárez neighborhood, aimed at those who enjoy architecture, design, hospitality, and construction.
Beyond its vast and diverse geography, the Iberian Peninsula is a map of architectural examples that have successfully adapted by reinterpreting materials, technical methods, and human needs.
In this regard, vernacular architecture in Spain—referring specifically to traditional dwellings—might not be as robust today as in its heyday; nevertheless, numerous examples still stand, some even continuing to serve as viable living spaces.
Below is a selection of the most representative traditional houses across Spain's diverse regions, offering a journey through the territory to inspire new architectural perspectives.
Open House Madrid has announced the winners of the 2019 City Awards, a new accolade highlighting the most innovative, socially engaged, and committed proposals shaping the future of cities. According to its founders, "these awards recognize both innovation and design as essential factors in improving citizens' quality of life, aiming to foster a culture of design and innovation in Spain."
Paseo Molino is a new complex—comprising residential and corporate towers alongside a commercial zone—set to open soon at the Antiguo Molino de La Unión in Toluca, State of Mexico, a site with over 220 years of history. Designed by architect Samuel Chávez, the project involved restoring the historic structure using traditional construction techniques, including adobe, masonry, and reclaimed antique timber.
More than 500 people attended the opening of the 21st Chilean Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism in Santiago. This year, the curatorial team presented the event as a "Free Architecture Fair" focused on the "everyday and ordinary," spanning the entire country with more than 250 public activities in Iquique, La Serena, Santiago, and Puerto Montt.
The Bubble Creation is a collection presented by Herman Miller at the MAIA gallery, located in Mexico City's Roma neighborhood. The exhibition brought together 14 Nelson Bubble Lamps—one of the brand's most recognized products—reimagined by Mexican architects, designers, and interior designers.
The history of Cine Ópera dates back to 1949, when the iconic venue—designed by architect Félix T. Nuncio with interiors by set designer Manuel Fontanals—held its first screening, quickly becoming one of Mexico City's most popular movie theaters. Located at 9 Serapio Rendón Street in the San Rafael neighborhood, the Art Deco building features a facade framed by a large window with two stone-carved sculptures depicting the comedy and tragedy masks.
_07.jpg?1577130518&format=webp&width=640&height=580)
Antonio Lamela's Torres Colón is "an unprotected Madrid icon set to change completely." The twin buildings by the Spanish architect—who also designed the renovation of the Santiago Bernabéu stadium and Terminal 4 of the Madrid-Barajas Airport alongside Richard Rogers—will undergo a renovation that adds four new floors and a new facade by 2022.
In 2018, Chilean researchers Teodoro Dannemann, Boris Sotomayor-Gómez, and Horacio Samaniego published the results of a study in Royal Society Open Science that, by anonymously tracking the "footprint" of 350,000 mobile phones during working hours, visualized urban segregation in Santiago.
We revisit an old interview conducted by Teleproyecto with Tucumán-born architect and educator Víctor Saúl Pelli, who has based his career on participation, not only in the field of social housing design but also in his teaching. In both cases, the architect encouraged those involved—users and students—to become an essential part of the search for solutions to a given problem, from conception to consensus-building.
At a time when architects are forced to open up to multidisciplinarity, and to work in close collaboration with all the stakeholders required to realize an architectural work, his thinking remains more relevant than ever. This is especially true when considering the growing trend toward designing open and shared systems, based on co-creation and supported by the efficiency of new technologies.
Out of 24 projects, the design by Smiljan Radic, Cecilia Puga, and Paula Velasco was selected to represent Chile at the upcoming world expo Expo Dubai 2020, to be held from October 2020 to April 2021.
The AR Emerging Architecture Awards have revealed their shortlist, which includes two Mexico-based practices: Estudio MMX and Comunal Taller de Arquitectura. Alongside 14 other offices, they will have the opportunity to present their projects to the judges: Anna Heringer of Anna Heringer Architecture, winner of the 2006 and 2008 AR Emerging Architecture awards; London-based Irish architect Níall McLaughlin of Níall McLaughlin Architects, who was a finalist in 2002; and Sou Fujimoto, founding director of Sou Fujimoto Architects, a previous winner in 2006 for a children's treatment center in Hokkaido, Japan.
CityMakers is working with ArchDaily to publish a series of articles, conversations, and interviews with the different actors in the co-production of cities behind the Barcelona CityMakers Lab 2019, an event taking place from October 14 to 20.
On this occasion, we feature Salvador Rueda, director of the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona, who will give a Masterclass at the Barcelona CityMakers Lab 2019, addressing the challenges of implementing Barcelona's Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan based on "Superblocks".
Directed by Isaac Niemand, the documentary Cholet: The Work of Freddy Mamani explores the architectural phenomenon of the self-taught Bolivian architect, who was chosen by ArchDaily as "one of the leaders who inspired us" in 2015.
On August 8, as part of Expo Arte-Objeto—an exhibition commemorating the 60th anniversary of Llano de la Torre— Firenze invited architect Ricardo Casas to reinterpret the use of porcelain tiles with playful, exclusive designs.
.jpg?1566510800&format=webp&width=640&height=580)
Inspired by the successful Tejiendo la Calle initiative—winner of the Design and Citizen Participation Award at the 2016 Ibero-American Design Biennial—Supertrama is a public art program in the autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain, focused on rural areas. In municipalities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, residents collaborate with architects, artists, and other creative professionals interested in public art to transform their local public spaces.
It is best to remember a diverse Lima, rather than the centralized capital. To remember that this very centrality has turned it into a meeting ground for Peru's diverse cities. Everyone comes to the capital, yes, but in this city, the three regions (coast, highlands, and jungle) blend while preserving their essence like nowhere else. "Todas las sangres" (All Bloods) is the title of the most ambitious novel (1964) by Peruvian writer José María Arguedas—an attempt to portray the whole of life through the representation of geographical and social settings from across the country. This expression, which remains relevant today, points to the racial, regional, and cultural variety of our society. Speaking of "all bloods" unites and blends us: it contains and integrates our diversity. Speaking of "all colors" evokes this colorful and intercultural nature.
On June 5, 2019, the College of Architects of the State of Oaxaca, a member of the Federation of Architects of the Mexican Republic (FCARM), officially launched the call for entries for the First Oaxacan Architecture Biennale 2019. The initiative aimed to showcase and promote architecture developed within the state, elevating Oaxacan architecture to a national stage. For this inaugural edition, the jury consisted of architects Aldo Paul Ortega Molina, Victor Sánchez Ruz, Prometeo Alejandro Sánchez Islas, Miquel Adriá, and Andrea Griborio.
Fernando Higueras (1930-2008), a leading figure of late-modern Spanish architecture in the 1960s, was, like many others of his generation, an Icarus-like youth obsessed with reaching the sun. Far from conforming to the rigid standards of his time, his architecture rose above the earthly plane with a single goal: to conquer the unknown. Even then, he concluded that modern architecture was misguided, that none of it made sense. Looking at contemporaries like Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe—with their flat roofs and obstinate obsession with lightness—nothing added up for him. His undeniably reactionary attitude drove him, from an early age, to boldly rebel against the hypocrisy of the triumphant establishment.
In October of last year, in an exclusive interview with ArchDaily, we spoke with architect Alberto Kalach about the role of the architect and land-use planning in Mexico. During our conversation, he strongly emphasized the need to reinvent the architect's role to develop much more holistic projects integrated with their territory.
Based on this premise, Alberto Kalach's firm, Taller de Arquitectura X, presents an ambitious project centered on integrating the park with the city and vice versa. This initiative addresses the more than 70 neighborhoods surrounding the forest—an area home to 800,000 people living less than 1 kilometer from the Chapultepec Forest, 560,000 of whom reside behind Avenida Constituyentes, which severely limits their mobility to the park.
.jpg?1553787777)
