In commemoration of the International Year of Glass, VASA (Vidriería Argentina SA) commissioned the Central Society of Architects (SCA) to organize, run, and promote a national preliminary design competition for the construction of an Urban Pavilion. Sponsored by the Argentine Federation of Associations of Architects (FADEA), the initiative aimed to design a VASA Urban Pavilion that uses glass as its predominant material and is situated in a green public space, either urban or waterfront, within the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA).

Iris Barrel is a designer born in Queens, the only child of a Russian mother and an American father who owned a mirror company. She studied art at the University of Wisconsin and began her career at WWD, a benchmark publication in the fashion industry.

In 1948, alongside her husband, Carl Apfel, she founded a successful textile brand that was even featured in the White House decor during the administrations of nine US presidents. Although they sold the company in 1992, the couple continued working for the brand for another 13 years—until 2005. Iris Apfel was fully retired from the interior design industry when, at 84, she was invited by Harold Koda—curator of the Met’s Costume Institute—to exhibit her collection of clothing and accessories.

On October 10, 2023, more than 200,000 Brazilian architects and urban planners will choose their representatives for CAU Brasil and CAU/UF for the 2024–2026 term.

Activities related to the 2023 CAU Elections begin on January 1, starting with a campaign to update professional registration data, ensuring everyone can vote and run for office. The deadline to complete the update is May 31.

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'Los Ríos Territorio Arquitectura' is a program that seeks to highlight the value of architecture in Chile's XIV Region, while bringing visibility to the work of the territory's architects through three short films featuring interviews with 15 professionals across 22 different locations.

The "Public Spaces in the City of Hope" competition in José Carlos Mariátegui - San Juan de Lurigancho has announced its winners. Promoted by the CENCA Urban Development Institute in partnership with Ocupa tu Calle, the initiative is part of the project "Promoting sustainable, fair, and participatory social and environmental transformation processes on the hillsides of San Juan de Lurigancho, Lima, Peru," led by CENCA and supported by the German Ministry and the "City of Hope" institutional strategic proposal.

Furniture is essential to enhancing the quality of residential interiors. The choice of colors, textures, and materials applied to each design is crucial to a successful spatial composition. Whether through a curated selection of furniture or a standalone piece that takes center stage, each item helps shape the spaces and the circulation flow of a project.

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Jointly organized by the Central Society of Architects (SCA) and Clarín ARQ, the call for entries for the 2022 Clarín-SCA National Award for Architecture Students has concluded. Year after year, this award aims to establish a launching pad to boost the development of future architects, accepting preliminary projects developed either individually or in groups during the final two years of the degree (on this occasion, 2021 and 2022).

COP27, held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, concluded with a historic breakthrough to help vulnerable countries cope with the loss and damage resulting from climate change. However, negotiations also disappointed many stakeholders by failing to include any significant new measures to reduce emissions, which is essential to keeping global temperature rise below 1.5°C. Regarding adaptation, despite some positive signs, progress also fell short of expectations.

Scottish startup Kenoteq has launched the K-Briq – a more sustainable building brick that is unfired and made of 90% construction waste. Developed by engineering professor Gabriela Medero at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, the K-Briq generates less than a tenth of the carbon emissions during manufacturing compared to a standard brick.

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On December 29, 2022, the regional governor of the Metropolitan Region, Claudio Orrego, announced an investment of 7.7 billion Chilean pesos (9.4 million USD) for the construction of the Mapocho Pedaleable y Caminable Urban Promenade. The announcement is part of a public space recovery initiative and the master bike path plan promoted by the Chilean capital's regional government.

On the east side of Puerto Madero in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the monumental structure of the Silos stands as one of the few port buildings still remaining in the area. To creatively reimagine the rehabilitation of the General Grain Board Silos, TerraViva Competitions organized this non-binding ideas competition, proposing the revitalization of the building through original concepts capable of enhancing both its interior spaces and its image within the city.

From the outset, several questions were raised regarding what type of intervention could be developed: what program could adapt to the building, how an obsolete structure could be transformed into a mixed-use space open to the community, and what functions could enrich the neighborhood and enhance its surrounding public space.

On Saturday, January 14, the latest edition of the Chilean Architecture and Urbanism Biennial opened in the area surrounding La Moneda Palace in Santiago. The theme explored through the exhibitions, lectures, and panel discussions is 'Vulnerable Habitats,' addressing the country's pressing issues surrounding the housing deficit and access to housing, alongside the vulnerability of public spaces, heritage, and the environment in Chilean cities and territories.

On Thursday, January 12, 2023, Italian architect Vittorio Garatti passed away in Milan, Italy, at the age of 96. His work was highly influential in Cuba, where he designed significant buildings such as the National Art Schools of Cuba with Ricardo Porro and Roberto Gottardi.

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In an inflatable pavilion designed by Smiljan Radic located in Plaza Bulnes, opposite the La Moneda Palace, visitors can enjoy free screenings of the films selected by the Santiago Architecture Film Festival for the XXII Chilean Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism, themed this year as “Vulnerable Habitats.”

I am a software engineer (commonly called a programmer). Creating software involves many different roles. Different companies have different roles and different names for them, but it typically involves software engineers, product managers, and UX (user experience) designers.

Each role has its own strengths and its own responsibilities. Product managers identify user needs and dictate what we should build. UX designers determine the look and feel of the product — the layout, different screens, copy, images, branding, etc. Software engineers handle the actual implementation: they solve the technical problems required to build the product.

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ZGF Architects, alongside Barcelona-based firms MIRAG and Double Twist, has been selected as the winner of the architectural competition to design a transdisciplinary, net-positive Research Center. The project aims to foster new fields of knowledge and adopt diverse approaches toward achieving planetary well-being. Located on a historic site in Barcelona, the Mercat del Peix Research Center will bring together global experts in experimental sciences, social sciences, and the humanities to address the world's most complex and pressing challenges regarding the future of our planet, including biodiversity loss and the economics and governance of climate change.

Starting in February, Instituto Inhotim will offer free admission on the last Sunday of every month. This promotional initiative is sponsored by B3 (the Brazilian Stock Exchange) and will run through 2024.

The first free-admission Sunday will be February 26. Currently, free admission is offered on the last Friday of every month, except holidays.

The architecture, engineering, construction, and operations (AECO) sector plays a highly significant role in global energy consumption and CO2 emissions, accounting for approximately 40% of the total. In Brazil, buildings (residential, commercial, and public) consume roughly 50% of all supplied electricity, while the cement, metal, and ceramic industries account for about 10% of the country's final energy consumption. Compounding this, the country faces a severe housing deficit of over 6 million homes, alongside a well-documented infrastructure deficit that must be addressed in the coming years.

For architects and urban planners, perhaps the most difficult part of the city development process is dealing with the political strategies used in issues that, to us, should be purely a matter of urban planning. In the past, we imagined that cities were created and transformed solely through the architect's design, even though we knew that multiple forces have always been at play. In the case of Inhoaíba, located in the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro, the forces beyond architects and urban planners are, unfortunately, far more present than we would like, which has prompted me to write this piece.

Structural design is predicated on ensuring the stability of a proposed building based on the chosen materials and construction techniques. To do so, calculations must account for different types of loads, such as the self-weight of the materials, the building's use, and its occupancy patterns, which are classified as either variable or permanent.

Marta Elena Campos Newman is one of the first female architects to graduate from the school of architecture at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. From early in her career, she specialized in interior architecture, building a professional legacy that continues to bear fruit today. Furthermore, throughout her career she has collaborated with Mexico's most prominent architecture firms of the second half of the 20th century, while her work as a professor at UNAM's Faculty of Architecture has allowed her to shape entire generations of architecture professionals.

On Wednesday, January 18, 2023, at 7:00 PM, the exhibition "Sara Topelson: Architecture and Life in Diversity" opened at the María Luisa Dehesa Gómez Farías Gallery of the Faculty of Architecture of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). The event marked the culmination of the 2022 Federico E. Mariscal Extraordinary Chair, which celebrates the outstanding career of architect Sara Topelson.

Within the scope of construction, a budget is a technical planning tool that forecasts project expenses, combining materials, labor, monthly overhead, and indirect costs. Nevertheless, many risk starting a build without a detailed budget, often falling into the traps of an unplanned project—which is invariably more expensive and time-consuming than anticipated.

In civil construction, a budget is a document that outlines all the services to be executed during the project, totaling the necessary materials and required labor. In addition, the budget can factor in fixed monthly operational costs, such as utilities, or include an extra percentage for contingencies.

Registration for the 5th Tomie Ohtake Design Award, aimed at university students and recently graduated professionals from all fields, has been extended until February 16. The initiative has established itself as the leading Brazilian design mapping award, welcoming multiple languages due to its transdisciplinary nature and avoiding rigid categories, as it encompasses projects of diverse natures.