Guillermo A. Blanco Alcón shares a summary of his research '"Seeing, Being Seen: The Evolution of the Trafalgar Lighthouse and its Social Influence Today".' This study outlines the aspects most affected by its influence on two highly contrasting realities: tourism and illegal immigration.
Oficios Asociados is an Argentine practice dedicated to the design and production of furniture and architecture. Taking on highly diverse commissions ranging from artistic pieces to industrialized housing systems, they constantly cross the boundaries of architecture, drawing on the expertise of other disciplines and trades such as metalwork, carpentry, and industrial design. Driven by technique and materiality, they develop both their own projects and commissions for third parties, collaborating on the development of structures or specific elements for projects such as the Scout House by BAAG (where they fabricated the metal mesh covering the facade).
Ocamica Tudanca Arquitectos, led by Iñigo Tudanca and Iñigo Ocamica, has been named the winner of the 2021 Peña Ganchegui Prize — established to recognize young talent in Basque architecture and organized biennially by the Peña Ganchegui Archive in collaboration with the Directorate of Housing and Architecture of the Basque Government.
Archivo de Ideas Recibidas is an interdisciplinary research and dissemination project that aims to document and connect the ideas of people contributing to the contemporary creative ecosystem through art, design, and architecture. It is built on conversations between the team and various creators, exploring topics related to memory, academia, cultural context, key influences, and working methodologies. In this edition, they share an interview with Marta Morelli of the firm K+M Arquitectura y Urbanismo.
No País dos Arquitectos is a podcast created by Sara Nunes, who also runs the architectural film production company Building Pictures. The podcast aims to profile the professionals, projects, and stories behind leading contemporary Portuguese architecture. With just over 10 million inhabitants, Portugal is a fascinating country when it comes to this professional field, and its architectural output far exceeds its demographic or territorial scale.
In the first episode of the second season, Sara speaks with architect José Manuel Carvalho Araújo about the design of Casa do Gerês, located in Vieira do Minho. Listen to the interview and read the transcript of the conversation below:
When discussing bioclimatic architecture, the focus is primarily on practices that reduce energy consumption and the environmental impact of buildings, both during construction—for example, by using materials with a low carbon footprint or incorporating responsible processes tailored to the site—and during their lifespan. This approach results in passive architecture designed to minimize long-term energy use. This is achieved—either by supplementing mechanical ventilation, heating, and cooling systems with passive methods, or by relying entirely on alternative systems—by adapting the design, geometry, and orientation to the topography, climate, natural vegetation, solar radiation, and prevailing winds of the site.
Located in the Balvanera neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Manzana 66 is an example of community resistance and collective action. Its name originates from its designation in the Buenos Aires City Land Registry; the block is bounded by Belgrano and Jujuy Avenues, and Moreno and Catamarca Streets. This section of the city was a point of contention for several years, having been initially demolished to build an indoor arena for music events, destroying housing from the 1920s and displacing its residents.
The past year has brought the climate emergency and racial injustice into sharp focus. Concern over the state of the environment has never been higher. Thanks to the Black Lives Matter movement and related campaigns calling for justice, voices that have tragically been marginalized for too long are finally being heard. Yet, some of the most ardent activists still view these struggles as separate.
Among the social challenges facing Colombia is the lack of decent housing for a large portion of the population. A survey by the country's population statistics center revealed that 35% of Colombians live in poverty, lacking access to adequate living conditions.
For construction startup Woodpecker, the answer to this problem might lie in another national challenge: agricultural waste from coffee production, as Colombia is one of the world's largest coffee producers.
How can waste become a resource? Or rather, when did waste stop being a resource? Why does contemporary architecture still build as if our buildings were great titans that will survive different eras and adversities? These are all questions that cross the mind of a recent architecture graduate. One of the current challenges of architectural production in a metropolis like São Paulo is understanding that, after demolition, the building does not disappear. What does our National Solid Waste Policy indicate?
Although latent, this issue is still rarely debated within academia, a space that should be constantly proposing alternatives to our way of life. And even when it is debated, where is the benefit to the public? How can we disseminate these lessons? Education is still the key to getting our future back on track.
Just over a year after the start of the pandemic in Peru, a multidisciplinary team from OjoPúblico and Espacio y Análisis has conducted an extensive investigation based on various geographical and socioeconomic databases. The study reveals wide gaps in access to public spaces and green areas across 44 districts in Lima and Callao (Peru). In several cities around the world, the pandemic has demonstrated how unequally public space is distributed, especially in low-income neighborhoods and vulnerable areas that lack shared spaces like green areas, parks, or playgrounds. Through this mapping report, the team shows how more than half of the districts in Lima and Callao have less than 3 square meters of recreational space per inhabitant. It also highlights stark urban contrasts along district boundaries separating different socioeconomic levels and underscores the urgent tasks facing local authorities to increase and improve the quality of recreational areas.
The Bauhaus Campus 2021 Student Architecture Competition, organized by Arkitekturo, brought together future professionals from around the world to reimagine what the Bauhaus could become in the 21st century.
Refocusing attention on the work of women architects in shaping Chile's modern legacy is the primary objective of the open-access research project titled Entre Líneas. Structured as a visual narrative built around five pillars, the project can be explored directly on its digital platform. Through archival research, document collection, and the creation of analytical graphics, the initiative aims to rewrite the history of 20th-century Chilean architecture from a gender perspective.
The winning projects of the Public Competition for the Design of Bus Stations (Rodoviarios Terminals) in the towns of La Junta and Puerto Cisnes, in the Aysén Region, Chile, have been announced. Developed by the Regional Public Transport Division of the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications in conjunction with various Chilean municipalities—specifically, the Ilustre Municipalidad de Cisnes—the initiative sought to organize activities associated with rural and intercity bus operations in these towns.
ArchDaily In-Depth is a series of interviews with designers who have engaged in long-term practice in specific architectural typologies. Featured firms must be established for over ten years or possess a robust portfolio of completed and ongoing projects in a specialized field, along with a mature body of theoretical research. Challenge Design is an innovative architectural firm deeply rooted in the field of real estate design, with a diverse portfolio of completed projects spanning commercial complexes, high-end residential, cultural tourism resorts, luxury hotels, and cultural/artistic developments. Grounded in the "origin of design," Challenge Design prioritizes continuous research and development alongside unique innovation. The firm has won numerous international awards, including the Wood WORKS! Wood Design Award in Canada. Conducting research into timber construction within the high-turnover real estate sector, and establishing its own timber design and construction research arm, Junzhi Technology, positions Challenge Design as an unconventional firm. As such, they are the featured subject of this edition of ArchDaily In-Depth.
The following article is a contribution from architecture students at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Manizales campus. Juliana García Valencia, Alejandro Jaramillo Alzate, and Manuel Felipe Rincón Medina share their experience developing 'Casa Urbana de Montaña 1950 - 1970', the two-volume project that won first place in the research, theory, and criticism category of the IV Colombian Biennial of Architecture Students.
"You should know that Mr. Matías took down one of the sunshades from where you installed it and put it on his balcony, because he wants the shade right at his doorstep," says Pepe, a resident of Valverde de la Vera, a small rural municipality in Extremadura, featured in the book "Tejiendo la Calle." This new publication gathers nearly ten years of testimonies from weavers and residents who brought to life the project of the same name, initiated by Marina Fernández Ramos in 2013.
Questioning both the methodologies involved in the production of architecture and its consumption in traditional representation allows us to engage in a series of interdisciplinary dialogues that, rather than limiting the possibilities of the discipline itself, can expand it in response to the complex contexts that define today's landscape. Rodrigo Valenzuela Jerez, architect and founder of EstudioRO - (E)Studio Futur@ and current director of the School of Architecture at the Universidad de las Américas (UDLA), Chile, shares in the following interview some of the design concepts that guide his “expanded” practice, in which form is a secondary outcome of the strategies and operations that enable users to appropriate their own spaces.
REDES is an organization whose work focuses on the Xochimilco and Milpa Alta areas of Mexico City. They seek to address environmental challenges to improve quality of life and support conservation in the region. We spoke with Elsa Valiente—Executive Director and Founder of REDES Restauración Ecológica y Desarrollo AC—about efforts to revive chinampa production in Mexico City and conserve water in Xochimilco.
Known worldwide for pushing the limits of formal experimentation with reinforced concrete, Oscar Niemeyer relied in many of his works on the indispensable collaboration of a civil engineer as inventive and daring as the architect himself: Recife-born Joaquim Moreira Cardozo, who graduated in civil engineering in 1930 from the School of Engineering of Pernambuco, today part of the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE).
Responsible for the design of the Alberto Torres Rural School in 1936 – a project that already showed synergy with modern architecture at the time – Cardozo met Niemeyer while working at the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Service (SPHAN) in Rio de Janeiro. During this time, he developed the structural design for the Pampulha Ensemble in Belo Horizonte, inaugurated in 1943. This was the initial collaboration of a partnership that would last 30 years and find its most prolific period in the construction of Brasília.
Archivo de Ideas Recibidas is an interdisciplinary research and dissemination project that aims to document and connect the ideas of those contributing to the contemporary creative ecosystem through art, design, and architecture. It is built upon conversations between the team and various creators, exploring topics related to memory, academia, cultural context, key influences, and working methodologies. On this occasion, they share with us an interview with Cristina Dreifuss on architectural Criticism, Theory, and History.
Founded in 2009 by Ian Douglas-Jones, Atelier I-N-D-J’s practice is rooted in a strong architectural foundation. Combined with experimentation, technology, and an unrestricted, interdisciplinary approach, this allows the studio to pursue a diverse range of creative endeavors.
Arquicast invited a team for a conversation that embodies a new vision of architecture and its power to mobilize, conceive, and execute transformative projects. They are part of a generation of professionals who will undoubtedly shift the focus of our craft, serving as role models for many young Brazilians who dream of studying architecture and urban planning—or other disciplines that can foster new practices in the places they call home and hold dear.
We are talking about Ester Carro, from the NGO Fazendinhando, established in Jardim Colombo in Paraisópolis, São Paulo. Also joining the conversation are the NGO's financial director, Erik Luan, and Kamilla Bianca, who manages the project's marketing.
"Domingos Libro" is hosted by Carmelo from Enorme Studio. Every two weeks, he delves into forgotten architectural publications, books, and architecture magazines from the '60s, '70s, and '80s that carry the most fascinating backstories.
This new episode is a holiday special focusing on the December 1971 issue of Architectural Design magazine and the "12 Cautionary Tales for Christmas" proposed by Superstudio.
.jpg?1621616232 "Process sketch - Casa Alegría. Image © Oficios Asociados")
