Numerous studies have examined the relationship between gender and urban mobility, concluding that women face greater challenges in exercising their right to the city and accessing urban opportunities. The unequal division of domestic labor places a heavier burden on women, who shoulder tasks such as school drop-offs and pick-ups, caring for elderly or sick relatives, and grocery shopping. Consequently, this largely shapes a travel pattern characterized by trip-chaining—making multiple, sequential stops—and relying heavily on walking and public transit.
https://www.archdaily.com/1114890/women-and-urban-mobility-indicators-for-the-formulation-of-gender-sensitive-urban-policiesITDP Brasil
The city of Hiroshima, Japan, has selected prominent Chilean visual artist, architect, and filmmaker Alfredo Jaar as the winner of the 11th edition of the prize (Hiroshima Art Prize).
Jaar, who studied architecture at the University of Chile before permanently leaving the field in 1980, worked during the Chilean military dictatorship on projects such as Studies on Happiness(1979-1981) and Opus 1981 / Andante desesperato performance (1981), before settling permanently in the United States. Jaar's global recognition is reflected in his participation in the 1987 and 2002 editions of Documenta, as well as the retrospectives dedicated to his work in 2012 by the Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NGBK) and the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin.
In late January, the forum “Chillán: Paisaje Moderno/Territorios en transformación” took place in Chillán. Jointly organized by the Spanish Cultural Center (CCESantiago), the Alfonso Lagos Extension Center of the University of Concepción (CECAL), and the Heritage Unit of the Municipality of Chillán (UPA), the event featured three days of conferences and workshops open to the community.
https://www.archdaily.com/1114894/paul-birke-and-pablo-brugnoli-the-modern-legacy-of-chillan-and-its-projection-into-the-futurePola Mora
In this year's edition, the Electrolux Architecture Competition addressed the challenges of vertical architecture for sustainable cities, promoting new ways to generate innovative programmatic design, public benefit, and community integration. With a focus on contextual relevance, the initiative sought to enhance both public space and quality of life for urban residents.
First prize was awarded to architecture students Mateo Loayza Montalvo, Gabriel Ceballos Melillán, Sebastián Quiroz Lara, and Francisco Beltrán Ayala, from the School of Architecture at Universidad Andres Bello, under the guidance of professors Juan Agustín Soza and Mauricio Bruna and external professor Eduardo Maldonado. Located opposite the historic Patio 29, the project proposes a vision for the relationship between the cemeteries of the future and high-rise structures.
Read more about the project in the authors' own words below.
Stadium, Chile's pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale, is presented through a large-scale model of the National Stadium of Santiago, aiming to illustrate local housing policies.
The exhibition, curated by architect Alejandra Celedón, aims for these elements—both fragile and heavy—to tell the story of the moment when citizens 'without homes' became homeowners for the first time, serving as "symbolic fragments of this transmutation."
On Tuesday, March 20, the board members of the College of Architects of Chile met with the newly appointed Minister of Housing and Urbanism (MINVU), Cristián Monckeberg, along with Paz Serra, Head of the MINVU Urban Development Division, and journalist Sebastián Zúñiga, Chief of Staff.
They shared their professional experience in urban development and architecture and invited the Minister to establish a joint working group that could include other government agencies, civil society, and the private sector. The association presented six key areas of focus for this new presidential term:
This Saturday, May 26, the Peruvian pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale will open, and Lima's huacas will never be seen in the same light again—or at least they shouldn't be—thanks to "En Reserva" (In Reserve), the curatorial proposal by Marianela Castro de la Borda, Janeth Boza, and Javier Lizarzaburu, which manages to synthesize 4,000 years of architecture in a 250-square-meter space.
Through a poetic reading, the curators guide us through an ancient Lima and its contested huacas as a "knot city," seeking to rediscover its infinite potential as a "living city" that develops while respecting all its historical layers. The curators' goal is to highlight the existence of 447 neglected and dormant huacas in the Peruvian capital, while simultaneously revealing their potential to become the public spaces that Lima's residents so eagerly need and desire.
After seven days of voting, we are pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 Building of the Year Award. This architectural prize highlights projects chosen by our readers, who filtered through thousands of built projects in Portuguese-speaking countries and, after selecting 15 finalists, voted for the top three works published on ArchDaily in 2017.
Our expert jury—namely you, our readers—did an outstanding job selecting three projects that represent an architectural production deeply rooted in material conception and closely tied to their built and social contexts.
Recognizing that well-designed and high-quality sidewalks encourage walking in cities, the City of Florianópolis has launched the Calçada Certa program, aiming to ensure legal guidelines for sidewalk design are followed and to guide citizens in designing and building public walkways.
The program is accompanied by an illustrated manual presenting recent updates to the ABNT NBR 9050/2015 and ABNT NBR 16537/2016 standards. These address, respectively, accessibility in buildings, furniture, urban spaces, and equipment, and tactile paving design.
Vista interior del gimnasio Colegio Maravillas / Alejandro de la Sota. Image Cortesía de Fundación Alejandro de la Sota
Surprising as it may seem, Spain currently lacks a national Law on Architecture and Habitability to recognize and promote the value of the profession to the country's economic, social, and cultural development.
However, 2017 brought two major developments that can and should provide the momentum needed to advance toward a crucial national law. First, the passage on November 8 of the Public Sector Contracts Law, which, according to Jordi Ludevid, president of the Superior Council of the Colleges of Architects of Spain (CSCAE), represents "a spectacular and highly positive change" for architects. Second, the approval on June 28, 2017, of Spain’s first-ever architecture legislation, the Catalonia Architecture Law.
The Climbing Library, propuesta ganadora del SkyCity Challenge. Image Cortesía de Dan Gamboa
There is no manual on architecture competitions to guarantee success; rather, the specific conditions and the different ways of approaching the problem determine whether a proposal is appropriate and, hopefully, a winner. Some participants push their capabilities to the limit, treating the project as a deeply personal challenge. However, the solutions we find in difficult moments strengthen our confidence, proving just how far we can go. There is nothing quite like the satisfaction of a job well done after hours of effort and dedication.
Below, we share three tips from Colombian architect Dan Gamboa, who won the SkyCity Challenge 17 architecture competition in China. His winning project merges a library with a children's playground. According to Gamboa, the proposal was developed in just 48 hours after his team pulled out of the competition a week prior.
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2017. Diébédo Francis Kéré. Image
Cristina Cabrera, director of the ICO Foundation, has presented the programming prepared by the institution for 2018, the year of its 25th anniversary. She outlined the program's main direction across the Foundation's three areas of activity: Art, Economy, and International.
In the field of Art, she presented the three temporary exhibitions at the Museo ICO focusing on architecture and the promotion of highly relevant but underrecognized figures in the discipline: Joaquín Vaquero Palacios, Carlos Cánovas, and Diébédo Francis Kéré.
https://www.archdaily.com/1114902/francis-kere-and-joaquin-vaquero-palacios-in-the-ico-foundations-2018-programJavier García Librero
Within the framework of Gallery Weekend, which took place from September 20 to 23, Dosa Studio presented an installation at the joségarcía, mx gallery that represents a synthesis of the Casa Palmas project, located in Texcoco, State of Mexico.
In the heart of the Santa María La Ribera neighborhood, this installation—composed of two walls embracing a sunken space within the house where the gallery is located—decontextualizes the design gestures developed in Casa Palmas to shape a new space. This environment transports visitors to that original, 40-year-old home, which was transformed to improve its residents' quality of life through a spatial experience that weaves a close relationship with its context.
Out of 132 cities across 23 countries worldwide, a Colombian city has once again won the One Planet City Challenge, an initiative organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to recognize urban centers taking action for sustainability.
The winning city is Montería, which was recognized during the Global Climate Action Summit held in San Francisco, United States, on September 12. Awarded for the fourth consecutive year, the Colombian city was highlighted for implementing sustainable mobility through urban design modifications, such as the construction of bike lanes and pedestrian pathways. Additionally, Montería was recognized for integrating strategies in its agricultural sector, particularly in cattle ranching, which is known to be a major contributor to the greenhouse effect.
Titled Archivo(s) Centro SCOP reclaims the memory of the former SCOP Center (opened in 1954 and currently the headquarters of the Ministry of Communications and Transportation, or SCT) as well as the future of its artistic and architectural heritage following the September 19 earthquakes. In the mid-1950s, the SCOP Center was one of the most ambitious and iconic public architectural projects of the "Mexican Miracle." Clad in 6,000 square meters of murals and sculptural ensembles by prominent artists such as Juan O'Gorman, José Chávez Morado, and Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt, the building crystallized the ambitions and aspirations of its era, under the direction of architect Carlos Lazo, who led the SCOP from 1952 until his untimely death in a plane crash in 1955.
The Council of Architecture and Urbanism of Rio de Janeiro (CAU/RJ) has open applications for its first call for proposals to support the development and implementation of projects under the Technical Assistance for Social Interest Housing (ATHIS) program, alongside the sixth edition of its Cultural Sponsorship Program.
Applications for the ATHIS call are open until 4:00 PM on September 25. The deadline to submit proposals to the Cultural Sponsorship Program closes slightly earlier, at 5:00 PM on September 21. Both calls are restricted to non-profit legal entities.
On Sunday, April 1, the 15th edition of the Latin American Social Workshop (TSL) concluded in Peru. This annual workshop brings together students and architects from across the Americas to analyze, reflect, design, and build public facilities over ten days in diverse Latin American contexts.
Known as XV TSL Puno, this edition took place in Chucuito, a Peruvian town situated at an altitude of over 3,800 meters (12,400 feet) on the shores of Lake Titicaca, near the city of Puno—the folklore capital of Peru. There, 250 students divided into three teams worked on landscape, public space, and heritage restoration projects, led by ENSUSITIO + Jhony Chávez, Ruta 4, and Lucio Torres, respectively.
Following the workdays, amidst coca leaves and fried trout, a recurring question arose during our conversations with the workshop participants: how can social architecture move beyond the photograph of children drawing and adults talking in a town hall meeting? Below, we present the reflections of four Latin American practices that participated in the TSL between 2017 and 2018.
Last September, we launched our first open call in Spain for architects to submit their final thesis projects (PFC). After a thorough evaluation of 87 submissions, 10 projects were selected, standing out for addressing pressing contemporary issues, developing deep research analyses, and posing challenges in both urban and rural environments.
The selected proposals seek to both validate and highlight the diverse fields that architects can address and practice within a multidisciplinary framework, countering the bias of certain institutions and academics who still believe that architects only design "boxes."
Globally recognized for promoting and manufacturing some of the design world's most iconic pieces, Herman Miller, Inc. launched its new Cosm chair by Studio 7.5—a sophisticated design engineered to instantly respond to body movement and posture to provide complete balance and support.
To mark this launch, Herman Miller Mexico organized a competition to design a building facade based on the core features of the new Cosm chair. The facade design was required to take into account the following characteristics: Auto-Harmonic Tilt, Intercept Suspension, Flexible Frame, and/or the wide palette of available colors.
As an exemplary figure in the production of modern architecture, Lúcio Costa worked on several fronts—from building design to urban planning, as in the case of Brasília. Among his many facets, his role in promoting and establishing policies to protect the country's historical heritage represents a milestone both in his career and for the nation's cultural assets.
The Parques del Río project in Medellín has become the first Colombian representative among the winners at the 2018 World Architecture Festival (WAF18), currently being held in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Self-described as the world's largest architectural awards program, the festival announced on its second day that the project designed by Latitud Taller de Arquitectura y Ciudad won the 'Masterplanning' subcategory under the 'Future Projects' section.
Recent environmental pollution incidents in the Chilean cities of Quintero and Puchuncaví have reignited the debate surrounding the health impacts on residents of so-called sacrifice zones. Last August, the Chilean newspaper La Tercera reported that these cities on Quintero Bay coexist with "15 major energy, chemical, and fuel companies," including a smelter, a natural gas plant, and four thermoelectric power plants.
In response, Chilean architect Leonardo Quinteros has developed "Marine Forest" as his thesis project. The proposal features a decontamination platform designed to bioremediate the bay using cultivated brown algae, drawing on research into methods for extracting and absorbing heavy metals to demonstrate the species' potential as a marine bioremediator.
Quinteros—winner of the 2015 CNPP and currently designing the new Providencia Municipal Building in Santiago alongside Tomás Villalón and Nicolás Norero—based his project on a decontamination plan known as FIC Algas. Developed by the Faculty of Ecology at Andrés Bello University (UNAB) in collaboration with the Regional Government of Valparaíso, FIC Algas
The year 2018 has been filled with achievements and surprises for the architectural community. As the year draws to a close, we reflect on the crucial role competitions play in reinforcing the global image of each region or country. Mexico was no exception, securing nearly 18 international recognitions (including grants, competitions, nominations, etc.) that showcased its key interests and goals for the coming years to the rest of the world. This selection highlights the prominent participation of Mexican architects Frida Escobedo and Rozana Montiel—both invited and recognized on multiple occasions at some of the industry's most prestigious events—as well as outstanding projects like the Teopanzolco Cultural Center by Isaac Broid + Productora, which received several national and international awards.
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.jpg?1523545445 "TSL Canoa 2017: Aula Colectiva Training and Entrepreneurship Center / TACTICO Taller de Arquitectura. Image © Nicolás Valencia")
.jpg?1523546713 "TSL Puno 2018: Hatun Tinkuy / ENSUSITIO + Jhony Chávez. Image © Nicolás Valencia")
.jpg?1523546075 "TSL Canoa 2017: El Atrapasueños / Natura Futura Arquitectura + Ruta 4. Image © Nicolás Valencia")
.jpg?1523548272 "TSL Puno 2018: Taller Cóndor / Ruta 4 Arquitectura. Image © Nicolás Valencia")
