The 7th edition of the ArchDaily Brasil Building of the Year award has arrived, and once again we need your help to select the best architectural projects of the year. By voting, you become part of an unbiased network of jurors recognizing the most relevant projects of 2022.

Over the next three weeks, the collective intelligence of our readers will filter hundreds of projects from Portuguese-speaking countries — Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Macau, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe — published in 2022, selecting the best built works in the Portuguese-speaking world.

Out of hundreds of projects published in 2022, readers will choose their favorites, with the 15 most-voted projects advancing to the second stage of the award.

The 2023 Building of the Year Award is presented by Dornbracht, an internationally renowned company for kitchen and bathroom products.

As the urgency to replace fossil fuels increases, new electric vehicle models are announced with growing frequency. From urban cars to models equipped with solar panels, the focus is on prioritizing electric mobility, with automakers shifting production lines and countries and cities passing laws to accelerate the energy transition.

Located in one of the most urbanized areas of São Paulo, the Bruno Covas Novo Rio Pinheiros Park will be the city's largest linear park, running along the entire west bank of the river. Opened in 2022, the first 8.2-kilometer (5.1-mile) section features various attractions, such as bike paths, playgrounds, picnic areas, and trails. However, people living next to the river are often unaware that the area is open to the public and that they can use the space, despite frequently crossing the bridges over it.

The São Paulo Association of Art Critics (APCA) announced yesterday evening the winners of the 2022 APCA Awards. The accolade is divided into ten categories, covering Architecture, Visual Arts, Cinema, Dance, Literature, Popular Music, Radio, Theater, Children's and Youth Theater, and Television. After two years of virtual meetings, the jurors for each category met in person to debate the nominations.

To mark its 470th anniversary in 2024, São Paulo will receive a green area of approximately 10,000 square meters featuring over 400 trees and urban furniture designed by the award-winning Estudio Campana, founded by brothers Humberto and Fernando Campana. The gathering space will be built in the Paulista Avenue area, along a stretch of Alameda Rio Claro, Alameda das Flores, and Rua São Carlos do Pinhal. Construction is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2023.

From April 27 to May 2, 2023, the Logroño International Festival of Architecture and Design, Concéntrico 09, will take place. Year after year, the festival reflects on the urban environment and cities through architectural and design proposals including installations, exhibitions, meetings, workshops, and other activities. This edition has announced the winners of the open calls for city installations, as well as the selected practices for the European Cities Ahead program and the new award from the Mayor's Office of Medellín.

The National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (Iphan), along with representatives from the institutions involved and affected by the January 8 attacks, began coordinating efforts last week to restore Brazilian Cultural Heritage in Brasília (DF).

During the meeting, representatives from the technical departments of infrastructure, restoration, and architecture outlined the damage, ongoing actions, and immediate needs—specifically regarding funding and specialized restorers—as well as proposals for joint initiatives. Discussions also covered potential funding sources for emergency actions and medium- to long-term restoration projects, including private donations and resources from UNESCO.

Cristóbal Tirado and Doering Pardo were awarded first place in the public competition “Architectural Design and Profile of the Chile Chico Town Hall.” Organized by the local municipality's Secretariat of Communal Planning in the Aysén Region, the competition aimed to select a distinctive and iconic architecture for this extreme region, while incorporating energy efficiency criteria, openness toward General Carrera Lake, and outdoor spaces for civic gatherings.

The selected project proposes “to articulate a dialogue between the present day and its technologies, and the historical past and foundational building traditions of Chile Chico.” With this in mind, the materials—brick, wood, and glass—were adapted to current technical and spatial requirements to create a modern civic building. 

São Gabriel da Cachoeira (AM) is considered the most Indigenous city in Brazil, home to 23 peoples belonging to five language families — Eastern Tukano, Arawak, Yanomami, Japurá-Uaupés, and Tupi. There, at two small excavation sites, archaeologists have found evidence proving a dense, continuous, and ancient settlement dating back at least two thousand years. 

The findings challenge the common narrative that characterizes the region by depopulation, isolation, and disconnection from the rest of the Amazon. The area is one of the best-preserved in the Amazon and has been studied since 2019 by Parinã (Intercultural Archaeological Program of the Northwest Amazon), which has just compiled its first reports on the recovered archaeological fragments.

Various experts in the design, construction, and monitoring of sustainable buildings in Latin America come together on Emisor Cero, the new podcast from Proyecto CEELA produced by podcastera.mx. The show aims to highlight the concrete challenges and actions capable of mitigating the climate crisis affecting us all, while simultaneously exposing and debunking various myths about green architecture.

The community of Caleta Tumbes in the commune of Talcahuano, a few kilometers from Concepción, suffered severe damage from the 2010 Chile earthquake and tsunami. Nearly a decade later, the local municipality launched a public tender for the opportunity to rebuild one of the most affected structures, the F-495 School.

The winning project was designed by the firm 6280 Arquitectos, led by Pablo Arellano and Patricio Lopetegui. Below, the team describes the proposal in their own words.

Paulo Mendes da Rocha will be honored with two major exhibitions this year by Casa da Arquitectura in Matosinhos, northern Portugal. Geografias Construídas: Paulo Mendes da Rocha, uma Retrospectiva is curated by Jean-Louis Cohen and Vanessa Grossman, with exhibition design by Eduardo Souto de Moura and Nuno Graça Moura, while Paulo is curated by Rui Furtado and Marta Moreira, with exhibition design by Ricardo Bak Gordon. Both open on May 26.

The International Contemporary Art Fair of Spain, ARCOmadrid, is taking place at IFEMA, Madrid, through February 26, 2023. As one of the main platforms for the contemporary art market, the 42nd edition of the fair features the program "The Mediterranean: A Round Sea," which involves the art scenes of the countries surrounding this sea. It is curated by Marina Fokidis and features advisory support from Bouchra Khalili, Hila Peleg, and Pedro G. Romero.

With the rise of social media, we have entered an era of a multimedia "society of the spectacle," where the influence of images on the public grows year by year. Visually-driven media platforms are increasingly dominating the market, serving as an alternative form of travel that allows people to experience breathtaking scenes from around the world without leaving home. Dedicated to bringing design inspiration to the public, ArchDaily established its presence on Instagram years ago. In 2022, we expanded onto China’s Xiaohongshu (RED), hoping to share exceptional projects with a broader audience. As expected, the influence of star architects remains strong, while playfulness, aesthetics, and relevance emerge as key terms guiding reader interest. Here, we present the top 20 most-liked architectural projects of 2022 on ArchDaily’s official Xiaohongshu and Instagram accounts. Read on to discover the public's architectural preferences.

As part of the Mexico City Art Week lineup, a monumental mural was unveiled on Wednesday, February 1, transforming the facade of Frontón México—a historic downtown building that customer-exemplifies Art Deco architecture in the country, originally designed by architects Teodoro Kinhard and Joaquín Capilla and later renovated by Moyao Arquitectos. The installation was created by Spanish artist Okuda San Miguel in tandem with an immersive experience running inside the venue until March 11.

Established in Shanghai in 2016, Atelier tao+c’s practice spans a diverse range of typologies and scales, from a single pendant light to an entire neighborhood, from micro-apartments in the city to the renovation of old rural houses, and from street-front shops to youth communities. Alongside our design practice, we are dedicated to research initiatives focusing on the renewal of existing buildings and the spatial organization of objects within residential environments.

Unconstrained by typology or scale, our projects focus on scale, construction, proximity, intimacy, and the dialogue between the past and the immediate. Through an exploration and deep understanding of typologies, we seek to uncover the latent potential within each site.

Our design methodology begins with a retreat to the interior, allowing space to grow outward from within, breaking boundaries and forging connections within the often-overlooked interstitial spaces between architecture and interior. We employ elemental forms, clear proportions, and unexpected sectional variations to cultivate a nuanced and cohesive sense of scale across interior and exterior realms. By elevating direct, everyday local materials and vernacular construction methods into a profound expression of craftsmanship and detail, we aim to allow life to unfold in all its complexity within a framework of simplicity.

The studio's work has been featured in books by prominent publishers such as Gestalten and Phaidon, and widely published in leading international design media, including The Architectural Review, Domus, The Plan, AIT, Azure, Wallpaper*, ArchDaily, Dezeen, Yellowtrace, and Divisare.

Website:   www.ateliertaoc.com

WeChat:  西涛设计工作室

Instagram:  atelier_taoc

One of the greatest difficulties when studying is understanding how to apply the concepts presented to us. In structural engineering education, it is common to use symbols and abstractions to understand the forces involved in a structure and how they work. Another major challenge is translating this abstract information into something tangible: the actual building elements. 

Engineer Matheus Borges has been creating illustrations on his Instagram to help decode this information. Below, we look at what these support types are and how they behave.

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Às vésperas de embarcarmos, coletivamente, à bordo de mais uma aventura conhecida como carnaval, o primeiro propriamente dito após o longo e difícil período da pandemia de Covid-19, é importante falarmos sobre um outro aspecto da folia, menos abordado e visibilizado nas narrativas dominantes sobre o tema. Num recorte temporal mais recente, é possível perceber que em algumas cidades, com o aumento da escala, proporção e engajamento dos festejos carnavalescos, aliado ao grande interesse turístico e econômico disparado pela festa, o carnaval passou a mobilizar engendramentos cada vez mais amplos de logísticas, equipamentos e estruturas. Esses elementos passaram a tensionar uma série de espacialidades e outras dinâmicas urbanas existentes, incorporando-se, cada vez mais invasivamente, na relação entre essa importante festa popular e determinados espaços das cidades.

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At the recently concluded Asian Games, the Architectural Design and Research Institute of Zhejiang University (UAD) participated in the design of numerous competition venues. Among them, the Hangzhou Asian Games Baseball and Softball Sports Cultural Center is the largest newly built venue for this edition of the Games, as well as the largest, most advanced, and highest-standard baseball and softball sports center in China to date. For this edition of Spotlight, we interviewed UAD's Qian Xidong to discuss his design philosophy shaped by years of professional practice.

There is a clear reason why the circular economy is becoming increasingly central to debates on architecture and urbanism: the global population living in cities is projected to reach 68% by 2050. The environmental challenge will be significant as the demand for natural resources, such as materials and energy, increases, and circularity seems to offer key opportunities to mitigate this impact.

How can we move toward this more sustainable model in our cities? We posed this question to our readers. After reviewing a vast number of comments and opinions from construction professionals, students, and architecture enthusiasts alike, it was surprising to find such a strong consensus on policies and programs that promote responsible consumption and cross-sector collaboration.

Discover the main perspectives below.

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Pelourinho, located in the Historic Center of Salvador, Bahia, is one of the most well-known, publicized, and visited landmarks of the Bahian capital. With an urban and architectural colonial heritage of great cultural significance, it was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985. Spanning over four centuries of history, the district has hosted a wide range of activities, functions, and dynamics, its trajectory deeply intertwined with that of the city itself. Today, it is one of Salvador's primary tourist attractions, hosting a variety of tourism facilities such as hotels, restaurants, and museums in addition to its colonial architecture.

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OUTIN. DESIGN
A multidisciplinary, collaborative design firm. Its services span architecture (social and community interaction, innovative retail spaces, exhibitions, co-working spaces, boutique hotels), residential and lifestyle spaces, FF&E design and installation, and product design and fixture R&D. The four design teams under OUTIN. DESIGN operate independently while frequently collaborating on cross-disciplinary projects.

R.E.C
The team responsible for architecture (social and community interaction, innovative retail spaces, exhibitions, co-working spaces, boutique hotels), art direction, and strategic consulting. Its name stems from reflections on "Time Recycle"—the "long-term cycle" of 24 hours, 1440 minutes, and 86400 seconds. From understanding the essence of things to designing solutions, the team integrates the cycle and symbiosis of time. This ensures our projects are both poetic and pragmatic, combining research-driven design with the sustainable commercial performance of each project.  

WMT
The team responsible for residential and lifestyle sectors. Its core concept, "inspiring turning points in life," embodies new inspirations and forms while stimulating new lifestyles. All of our designs express a flexible, practical approach to relaxation and personalized concepts, ultimately creating warm and welcoming living spaces. Over the years, this has formed WMT's core value—"Comfortable life comes from WMT."

SIBAN
The team responsible for interior FF&E design services. It focuses on the intersection of social architectural spaces, innovative commerce, and daily life. SIBAN has years of experience in FF&E design and master planning for international home brand exhibition spaces, giving them a global vision and deep understanding of brand display. In residential FF&E styling, the team focuses on reflecting non-replicable, unique living states within private spaces, rejecting purely formalistic, decorative arrangements.

JEDI 404
The creative incubation team responsible for product design and fixture research and development. JEDI 404 seeks to construct original design concepts through "non-existent" and unconventional paths, perceiving and gathering raw emotions from design practice and multidimensional spaces. JEDI 404 builds a boundaryless platform where diverse imaginations converge to co-create infinite possibilities of objects.

Throughout its existence, architecture has continuously reinvented itself, driven not only by the emergence of new techniques and trends, but also by a deeper understanding of the human being. In recent times, the field of neuroarchitecture has yielded valuable research into how built environments influence our brains and, consequently, our behavior and well-being. This interdisciplinary approach suggests that interior design—specifically materiality and surface design—can play a crucial role in modulating individuals' neural and behavioral responses.

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Highly beneficial in climates with wide diurnal temperature ranges, where there is a significant difference between day and night temperatures, thermal mass is a key concept to consider when designing for optimal thermal comfort. As a passive strategy for temperature control, it eliminates the need for additional energy consumption, making the building more sustainable.

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