On June 15, construction began on the new 'Fábrica de Cultura' in Barranquilla, Colombia. The project will provide spaces and opportunities for various artistic activities, aiming to expand cultural knowledge through community interaction. The facility will offer courses and a diverse cultural program organized across different units.

According to the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, the project was selected as a winner at the International Architecture Awards and will integrate with the city's heritage restoration efforts. Barranquilla Mayor Alejandro Char, along with Atlántico Governor Eduardo Verano and the Secretary of Culture, announced the start of construction. The 24-billion-Colombian-peso (USD 8.16 million) project will accommodate more than 1,000 students per shift.

What happens when we juxtapose two works by two renowned architects, Mies van der Rohe and Rem Koolhaas, completed twenty-five years apart? We find the answer in the following article by the Arkrit Collective.

Encouraging and valuing those who work to preserve the country's cultural heritage is also one of the core missions of the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (Iphan). With this in mind, one of Iphan's main initiatives to recognize efforts to preserve Brazilian Cultural Heritage is the Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade Award, which is now open for applications. Established in 1987 to recognize actions to protect, preserve, and promote Brazilian Cultural Heritage, the award is now in its 31st edition and was named in honor of the institution's first director.

Spanish architect Ángela García de Paredes, of the firm Paredes Pedrosa Arquitectos, has been shortlisted for the Women in Architecture 2018 award. Also nominated are Sandra Barclay of Barclay & Crousse (Peru), Biba Dow of Dow Jones (UK), and Stephanie Macdonald of 6a Architects (UK).

Created in partnership with The Architectural Review and The Architects’ Journal, the award aims to recognize and reward the work and designs of women architects worldwide, promoting role models who inspire other professionals.

Below are the projects for which these four architects are nominated for this prestigious award:

Videos

On May 18, the Superior Council of the Colleges of Architects of Spain presented the Spanish Architecture Awards (PAE) and Spanish Urbanism Awards (PUE), which were decided in October 2017. Along with the Gold Medal, both awards are among the most prestigious honors in the Spanish architecture sector. Through these accolades, the CSCAE recognizes architectural and urban excellence, as well as the determination and perseverance of institutions in promoting high-quality work despite the severe economic crisis of recent years.

The awards ceremony, attended by more than 400 people, was held at the recently opened Wanda Metropolitano stadium. Designed by Seville-based Cruz y Ortiz Architects, the venue served as the home of architecture and Spanish architects for the evening.

+ 5

As the announcement of the next Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate approaches, we interviewed economist and architecture critic André Corrêa do Lago, the first Brazilian to join the jury of the world's highest architectural honor.

Having already recognized two Brazilian architects—Oscar Niemeyer (1988) and Paulo Mendes da Rocha (2006)—it is surprising that in the prize's 40-year history, no Brazilian had ever been appointed to the jury. On this, Corrêa do Lago notes that "it must be acknowledged, however, that there has always been a diverse regional representation on the jury, including from Latin America."

Founded in 1895 as an international art exhibition, the Venice Biennale is currently one of the most prestigious cultural events, aiming to promote contemporary art through events and exhibitions across various disciplines, including visual arts, cinema, dance, music, and theater. The International Art Exhibition and the International Architecture Exhibition alternate every two years. Since 1998, these exhibitions have been organized around three main pillars:

Around 90 countries participate in this exhibition with national pavilions displaying each nation's most outstanding works. The Biennale presents awards in the following categories:

Videos

Three architecture projects are among the 104 winners of the 2019 competition of the Directorate of Cultural Affairs (Dirac) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Chile.

Now in its ninth year, the call aims to promote the internationalization of Chilean artists and creators across a wide range of artistic disciplines. "Our mission is to strengthen and support Chile's foreign policy and our embassies and missions through high-quality artistic projects that foster the participation of our creators and artists," said Maritza Parada, Director of Cultural Affairs.

Videos

What are the exact dimensions of the Royal Palace of Madrid? How many rooms does it have? How many doors and windows? These questions stem from a need for definitive answers. This is exactly what Patrimonio Nacional—the Spanish state institution responsible for managing and preserving its historic buildings—set out to do: create an accurate 3D model of the palace to produce a unified digital record of the building's interior and exterior.

Using Leica Geosystems technology, an "almost millimeter-accurate" model of its interior spaces, facades, and roofs was created, mapping every corner of the building's two basements and six floors—totaling approximately 137,500 square meters of built area that required more than 2,500 scans.

+ 6

"I have two words to leave you with: inclusion and shine," McDormand said at the end of her speech after winning the top award for best actress. From drama to real life, what does that have to do with this? Two words from another discipline that resonate in architecture. Inclusion and shining may not seem related at first, but one way to interpret them (by combining them) is that by including ourselves as a society, we unleash the full brightness of our potential. And that is a small but powerful message for how we interact in the practice of our profession, achieving greater relevance in the pursuit of our social role.

Accordingly, this publication features women with brilliant minds who play an important role in the country, linking architecture and urbanism with other disciplines. They contribute from different angles: one from criticism, another from art, another from education, one from drawing, a few from history... further enriching a profession so deeply connected to ways of living. For Women's Month, in honor of diversity and democracy, we bring them together to share a reflection on the future of architecture in Peru. Although they are different—some opening minds, others generating knowledge, and others building—they share that spark in their eyes when they speak confidently about their work, and that is what we frame here.

Today, 470 cities across 36 countries identify as educating cities and are networked through the International Association of Educating Cities (IAEC), which, in its founding charter, argues that cities possess a raw educational potential waiting to be unlocked. Beyond the IAEC, other municipalities have also taken on the challenge of connecting spaces, people, and actions around learning processes that prioritize the holistic development of their inhabitants.

March 8 is a date established by the UN in 1975 to commemorate the struggle for equal rights and universal suffrage. This commemoration honors the efforts of women who demanded their right to vote, to work, to professional training, to hold public office, and to fight labor discrimination.

Defined as "a space for reflection and showcasing the value of architectural practices," the XIV Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (XIV BEAU) was presented on July 19 in the Pereda Gardens in Santander. Under the theme “More Living, More Humanizing,” a temporary pavilion in the Spanish city brings together the winning professional works alongside the II Research Exhibition and the VII Thesis Project Exhibition (PFC), as undergraduate thesis projects are known in Spain.

Regarding the selected PFCs, the Biennial's organizers highlighted "their approach to intervening in the city, heritage, and landscape with diverse programs through innovative, high-quality proposals [...] as well as the urban commitment of the proposals and their values of social cohesion and environmental efficiency."

Directed by Sara de Giles and José Morales, the BEAU received 196 submissions for this exhibition, from which the jury ultimately selected 36 finalist projects. Of these, twenty have been officially chosen as winners:

In recent decades, architecture and the built environment professions have maintained an insular attitude, separating them from relevant conversations and preventing them from identifying opportunities and new territories to conquer. The future will require leaders with a broad and refreshing vision of our field: leaders, both men and women, with the sharpness and skills to identify real problems across a wider spectrum of fields than ever before, capable of transforming them into innovative, high-impact business opportunities that connect better with society and generate greater value.

The omnipresence of technology, demographic pressure, exponential urban growth, and various environmental threats are transforming how we plan, understand, and interact with space—in short, our way of life. To face this landscape, we must evolve faster than our context. As architecture and design professionals, we possess exceptional talent as a group. We have the capacity to think in systems, naturally combining creative and proactive approaches with strong analytical skills, and we are capable of integrating highly disparate factors into a long-term vision, making us excellent strategists. Leveraging this talent from a much broader professional perspective does not mean discarding our traditional roles, but it does require questioning the status quo: like a tree, the higher we aim to reach, the deeper our roots must grow.

Keeping the following ideas in mind can serve as a valuable guide in this compelling process of redefinition:

The Arquitetas Invisíveis (Invisible Women Architects) Collective is an initiative that seeks to promote gender equality within the field of architecture and urban planning by recognizing and promoting the life and work of women architects who have been historically overlooked. Founded by students at the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Brasília, the group's initial effort aimed to expand the repertoire of architecture and urban planning students and professionals while sparking discussions on gender in both academic and professional spheres. Arquitetas Invisíveis was officially launched on March 8, 2014, in honor of International Women's Day, using Facebook to reach architecture students and professionals across Brazil.

Today, March 8, 2018, the Arquitetas Invisíveis Collective is launching the second edition of the Arquitetas Invisíveis Magazine, under the theme "In the Shadows."

The Government of Catalonia, having finalized its approval of the modification to the Metropolitan General Plan, has approved a new measure requiring 30% of housing in new residential developments and major building renovations in Barcelona to be allocated for social housing.

This regulatory change is backed by the 2007 Law on the Right to Housing, which already allowed for affordable housing allocations within the urban fabric. Under this framework, the Catalan Minister of Territory and Sustainability, Damià Calvet, and the Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, explained that the Urban Planning Subcommission has amended an additional provision detailing the transition period for implementing this new rule.

Exorcity presents itself as the treatise on millennial architecture. It features 35 radical and subversive projects by daring students, all set within the urban context of Madrid. These are 35 projects in which the city is understood as a testing ground and a playground for thought. Elegance, violence, reason, seduction, chance, desire, emotion, power, dreams, and love come together here to challenge, alter, and stimulate the reader both visually and intellectually. It offers a fascinating, fresh vision from the young architects who will design the future of Madrid and Spain. 

As such, Exorcity represents an effort to give visibility to the necessary transformation that architecture has been undergoing in academia in recent years. This transformation is driven by a new generation of architects—defined as digital natives—who are responding and providing disruptive, intelligent solutions to the complex, difficult challenges of the urban context. 

+ 26

Presenting a project in a clear and convincing manner can be a major challenge—even a torment for many students. When you add high doses of caffeine, sleep deprivation, and a jury ready to evaluate your work, we can all agree that, once the moment arrives, it is impossible not to tremble inside (at best) and outside (in most cases).

The 21st edition of the student competition was titled Home. The brief challenged participants to design a home for their family in their hometown, with the program, location, and project area decided by the competitors themselves. The competition stands out because participants have only 24 hours between the release of the brief and the project submission. The results were announced on January 30th.

Discover the winning projects below:

1st Place

In Bogotá, CEMEX Colombia hosted the 12th edition of the 2018 CEMEX Building Award (Premio Obras CEMEX), celebrating the best of Colombian architecture and construction—projects "capable of creating solutions that promote the social and economic development of countries and, of course, contribute to protecting the environment," explained Ricardo Naya, president of CEMEX Colombia, during the ceremony held at the C. Vilar Auditorium.

Composed of Carlos Campuzano, Rafael Esguerra, Eduardo Rocha, Francisco de Valdenebro, Argelino Durán, and Lorenzo Castro, the jury presented awards in four categories—with the Infrastructure category declared vacant—along with three special prizes for outstanding achievements in Sustainable Building, Construction Innovation, and Social Value. The universal accessibility category was also declared vacant.

The winning architects in each category will travel to Mexico in November to represent Colombia at the international CEMEX Building Award ceremony.

What does it mean for an architecture biennial—especially a Pan-American one—to have reached more than 20 editions? Clearly, it represents a significant accumulation of participants, speakers, coordinators, and projects that over the years have not only showcased the sheer volume of regional production, but have also consistently reminded us of the potential of keeping both Latin American and global debate and exchange active.

For this reason, it is worth highlighting key figures and milestones. Both serve as empirical evidence of the historical development and reach of the Quito Architecture Biennial, helping us answer this initial question and understand why it is considered one of the most important architectural events in the Americas.

Writing for the ARKRIT Collective, architect Carmen Espegel presents an article that exemplifies how the home can serve as a simple refuge for the essence of life—defined by the survivor's austerity, voluntary renunciation, and a rejection of the bourgeois lifestyle.

Originally published as Collaborative Design of Public Space: The Triple Dimension, this new collaboration by Paisaje Transversal proposes a specific methodology for both evaluating the quality of public space and facilitating urban design "if we want to transform public space into a living fabric," the authors explain.

Public space is the fluid that unifies the city, the fabric that stitches buildings together and weaves social, economic, and environmental relationships. It shapes issues as crucial as mobility, coexistence, and a community's cultural exchange, as well as the environmental quality that directly impacts everyone's health.

Public space shapes our daily lives, either offering or depriving us of spaces for socialization. Consequently, it is a priority, both for the sustainability of the city and the lives of its inhabitants—a matter that demands the involvement of not only urban design professionals but also the general public. To achieve this, citizens must understand the factors that determine the livability and functionality of public space, just as they recognize the characteristics of decent housing.

In their classic setup, with a classroom consisting of a blackboard, a standing teacher, and seated students, the interior spaces of a school can easily be mistaken for prisons. Now consider the outdoor, public areas of most educational institutions in Brazil: how often can a place be recognized as a school simply by looking at it from afar?