This article by Miguel Paredes Maldonado was originally published with the title "House, City, Territory: A Collective Investigation into the Transformations of Contemporary Urban Living" in issue No. 31 of Dearq journal on September 1, 2021 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.18389/dearq31.2021.02).

The article explores the interscalar relationships recently established between the domestic realm of housing and the collective spheres of the city and territory, viewed through the lens of developing new “urban commons.” This exploration is framed as a collective research project based on participation in architectural competitions and developed within a pedagogical framework at the University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom) between September and December 2020. Its findings highlight the pronounced infrastructural basis of contemporary urban living and identify the primary processes of transfer between the domestic and collective domains across a series of urban housing scenarios.

We present this article as part of a joint collaboration to help disseminate the research, analysis, and opinions developed by the national and international academic community on architecture, urban issues, and related fields.

What do we mean by heritage? This is one of the main questions raised by Alejandro Orellana, director of Relatos de Barrios—a Chilean project that seeks to reclaim the heritage and historical value of housing complexes, highlighting the community dimension behind the lives of their residents.

A documentary and a book are the results of their experience with the “CCU Worker Housing” in La Serena, later renamed the “Rengifo Housing Complex.” Designed in 1957 by architect Carlos Feuereisen Polanco and built in 1958 by Negochea and Vergara, it represents a characteristic housing typology of the city.

This article by Maya Orzechowska was originally published under the title "Five Principles for a Vulnerable and Intimate Architecture: Drawing Alternative Boundaries and Openings to the Home and the Self" in the 31st issue of Dearq journal on September 1, 2021 (DOI: https://doi.org/10.18389/dearq31.2021.04).

This article investigates how the boundaries and openings of the home are not separate from one another; rather, they play an active role in the politics of bodily and social health. For an increasing number of people, both the idea of the home and the reality of housing fail on a daily basis; therefore, this article seeks alternatives to the narrative of the home, of a utopian internal intimacy that endorses withdrawal, and of a non-responsible relationship toward the public realm. It suggests that the result is dystopian, concealing and exacerbating vulnerability and its resistance to change. In contrast, a vulnerable and intimate architecture focuses on the vulnerable body, drawing the uncanny, repressed, and emotional into the home.

We present it below as part of a joint collaboration to contribute to the dissemination of research, analysis, and opinion produced by the national and international academic community on architecture, urban issues, and related fields.

Dear users,

When we launched this project in 2006, the concept of a "Platform" became highly significant for us, as we sought to provide an effective foundation to showcase your work as architects, building a network for knowledge exchange.

Although it was in Spanish, this network grew from Chile to the world, generating significant interest from various regions. This made us realize that the platform was needed in other languages, leading us to launch it in English, and later in Portuguese and Chinese.

At that moment, we wondered what it should be called: Architectural Platform? Plataforma Arquitetura? 体系结构平台?

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Recently, Tec de Monterrey unveiled “Skyspace: Espíritu de Luz,” an installation designed by American artist James Turrell that now joins DistritoTec in Monterrey, Mexico, as a cultural destination that enhances spatial quality through innovation. Arising from the “Light & Space” art movement, this piece was designed as an observatory to generate a unique visual experience through a sequence of lights every 12 hours, at dawn and dusk. It also serves as a tribute to the life and legacy of Don Eugenio Garza Sada and Eugenio Garza Lagüera.

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Architectural visualization is a branch of the profession that has gradually evolved to show more than just a final image of the projects presented. Over the years, with new tools made available by technology, it has become increasingly interesting to explore the different facets that speak not only to an author's language, but to a firm's own processes. At ArchDaily, architectural visualization has been a topic we have explored through various articles that reveal different ways of working, but above all, of communicating.

Over the years, the practice of architecture has maintained a very clear line regarding the solutions and services it offers to society. However, given the fast-paced and shifting context we inhabit today, it is far more common to find emerging firms establishing themselves through new discourses that promote transparency and horizontality in the profession. Today, it is fascinating to see how younger generations are increasingly adopting a perspective that borders on theater and the arts, shaping a scene that complements and draws inspiration from other disciplines, rather than remaining confined within the boundaries of architecture itself.

In its 2022 edition, the Colombian Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism celebrates 60 years of highlighting projects that preserve and enhance the urban, environmental, social, historical, and cultural values of the contexts in which they are built. Organized by the Colombian Society of Architects since 1962, the event has announced the 97 selected projects competing for the Biennial Award across nine categories covering different fields of architecture: Interior and Ephemeral Architecture; Urban Design and Landscaping; Dissemination; Social Habitat; Heritage Intervention; Research, Theory, and Criticism; Urban and Regional Planning; Architectural Project; and Single-family, Two-family, and Three-family Housing.

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On February 8, at Torre Glorieta Cibeles and as part of Mexico City Art Week, MASA Inc. presented an exhibition showcasing pieces by Manuel Bañó, Hollie Bowden, Frida Escobedo, Héctor Esrawe, Mario García Torres, Adeline de Monseignat, Marrow, Brian Thoreen, Joe Sweeney, ROOMS Studio, EWE Studio, and VISSIO.

Gathering spaces in rural areas play an important role in improving the quality of life for local communities. In April 2022, Fundación Mi Parque launched the book “Rural Public Spaces: Community, Architecture, and Landscape” as both a contribution and a guide for a design discipline that seeks to highlight and address the need for meeting spaces in rural environments. The book is the culmination of five years of fieldwork, during which 37 community spaces were built, benefiting more than 26,000 residents in the Choapa Province of Chile's Coquimbo Region.

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The first “Urban Life Competition: Ideas for Sustainable Urban Transformation” was launched as part of an initiative by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) in collaboration with the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), under the framework of the LAIF City Life initiative and with the support of the European Commission. On June 15, 2022, the appointed jury announced the winning ideas, selected from over 90 proposals from 15 Latin American countries.

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As part of an initiative by LIGA, an independent space founded in Mexico City in 2011 to promote contemporary Latin American architecture through exhibitions, publications, events, lectures, and workshops, the exhibition “Registro: Museo Tamayo” opened on April 21 as part of the LIGA-ARCHIVOS initiative. This iteration presents a reinterpretation of the building designed by architect Teodoro González de León and built in 1981 in the First Section of Chapultepec Forest.

The international architecture festival Open House Madrid returns with a surprise for 2022, offering free access to five “magical” locations to enjoy the city from above, from September 23 to 25.

“Mercado Retablo” is the winning proposal of the II Semilla Competition organized by MURU, presenting a new design for the Playa Grau Municipal Market, located in the city of Ayacucho. Architects Santiago Nieto Valladares and Lucía Uribe Osores explain how “the market proposes quality public spaces that establish it as a gathering place, moving beyond a mere site for transit and commerce to host and foster social interaction.”

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Two decades ago, at the "International Congress on Construction in Architecture and its Teaching" held in Barcelona, Helio Piñón spoke of attention to materiality and construction as a fundamental condition of conceiving architecture. Today, in 2022, Equipo 01 Architecture & Design—composed of Jesús San Vicente and Franca Colmenarez—reverses this statement by presenting the National Paradores Pavilion at the FITUR 2022 International Tourism Fair.

The Municipality of Avellaneda, in partnership with the Association of Architects of the Province of Buenos Aires (CAPBA), launched a national ideas competition for a new urban public park and the National Football Museum. The project is to be located near the urban center of Avellaneda, in the province of Buenos Aires.

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The historical memory and research project "Clásicos Mexicanos"—which recovers the work of key figures in mid-20th-century Mexican design by manufacturing some of their most iconic pieces—once again opens its doors to celebrate the work of Armando Franco (b. 1921), a key figure in the Mexican architecture and design scene.

Exacerbated by the pandemic, the housing crisis has become a global phenomenon. Rising prices, lack of access, and poor housing policies have resulted in greater scarcity and precarious conditions. Chile is no exception. Indeed, according to the latest reports issued by the Chilean Chamber of Construction (CChC), there are “more than 700,000 families experiencing overcrowding and irreparable housing, in addition to 81,000 families living in informal settlements.”

Recognizing the essential relationship between development and nature, Barranquilla aims to become Colombia's first biodivercity. Over the past 14 years, district administrations have committed to urban transformation through blue and green infrastructure projects, seeking new opportunities for economic, social, and urban development. The Ciénaga de Mallorquín Ecopark is one of the city's most emblematic projects due to its technical and engineering design, serving as a benchmark for infrastructure works.

The Municipality of the Villarino District (MPV) and the College of Architects of the Province of Buenos Aires, District 10 (CAPBA, D10), launched the National Binding Preliminary Project Competition for the design of the Pedro Luro Bus Terminal. Sponsored by the Argentine Federation of Architectural Organizations (FADEA), the competition's objectives focused on creating a high-quality space for arrivals and departures of medium and long-distance travel, consolidating the site's character to transform it into a new central hub, and creating a new service space for local identity that engages both the local and regional populations, among others.

Architect Jimena Hogrebe presents “Architectural Embroidery,” an intimate project that explores the possibilities of representing and understanding architecture through the boundaries of other disciplines, framing it as a multifaceted and diverse activity. Embroidery is an ancient technique that demands abstraction and a clear understanding of what is being stitched. Above all, however, it is about pausing in time. Much like hand drawing, it connects the hand with the brain, linking reflection with memory to record and interpret architecture through an alternative narrative.

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According to a recent study titled "Digital Transformation in Architecture," conducted by RIBA in partnership with Microsoft, 87% of architecture firms agree that digital technologies are transforming the way they work, and the majority have already embarked on their digital transformation journey. The study shows that architectural professionals have readily embraced digitization through systems like 3D computer-aided design, rapidly advancing toward Building Information Modeling (BIM) and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Although the construction industry has spent years making strides in new fields such as biomaterials, nanotechnology, and 3D printing, it simultaneously remains one of the slowest to adopt new technology. Many of these innovations never progress past the experimental stage. How can this situation be reversed?

Videos

Teresa Moller, José Cubilla, Solano Benítez & Gloria Cabral were honored today with the 2021 Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, organized by the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, a French institution dedicated, among other initiatives, to organizing events focused on heritage and architectural education.