The eruv divides the public from the private, the secular from the sacred, and labor from the shabbat. This essay aims to understand how Jewish cultural traditions have adapted over the centuries and coexist today with the dynamics of the metropolis, leaving identity markers on the urban space. Ultimately, we seek to examine the tension between community, identity, and belonging, which construct alternative readings, understandings, and modes of sharing in the city's public spaces.
Organized by the Central Society of Architects (SCA) and sponsored by the Argentine Federation of Architectural Entities (FADEA), the Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (GCBA) commissioned a preliminary design for a “Memorial Space for Covid-19 Victims” to be located in the southeastern area of the City of Buenos Aires, specifically in Florentino Ameghino Park in the Parque Patricios neighborhood.
Matilde Ucelay Maórtua was born in 1912 in Madrid into a bourgeois, professional, and enlightened family, as the eldest of four sisters. Her father's family, Enrique Ucelay, of Basque origin, had held a prominent economic, political, and professional position in 19th-century Madrid, closely tied to political liberalism. Meanwhile, her mother, Pura Maórtua, also of Basque descent, came from a wealthy family as well. Though she lacked formal academic training, she possessed an insatiable desire to learn and was fortunate to travel extensively, visiting museums and architectural works.
On Wednesday, August 17, the Senate Infrastructure Services Committee approved a bill establishing a regulatory framework for offshore energy generation—including wind, solar, or tidal—in Brazil's open seas, lagoons, and other bodies of water. The Bill (PL) 576/2021 regulates authorizations for harnessing offshore energy potential. Authored by Senator Jean Paul Prates (PT-RN), the bill was approved in a final vote by the committee and will now proceed to the Chamber of Deputies for review.
Since 2009, World Photography Day has been celebrated every August 19, commemorating the presentation of the daguerreotype to the French Academy of Sciences. The daguerreotype was the first photographic process, a milestone invention for human history and, of course, for our own discipline. Discussing architecture through photography is, in the words of Beatriz Colomina, one of its primary means of dissemination.
"Harmonious Contradiction" is the third and final summer exhibition at Sotheby's East Hampton Gallery New York and the first collaboration between MASA and Sotheby’s. Running from August 24 to September 18, this group exhibition features brass and polished bronze floor works by eight contemporary artists from Mexico City-based Masa Gallery, in conversation with a curated selection of contemporary and post-war works from Sotheby's.
What if policymakers, when deciding how to allocate public investments, looked beyond massive concrete structures and also turned their attention to forests?
Viewing the conservation, restoration, and management of native vegetation—in other words, nature-based solutions—as viable investment alternatives to improve urban infrastructure is an innovative approach that can yield major benefits for society. A prime example lies in the water treatment and supply sector: forests can play such a crucial role that they can be considered a form of natural infrastructure.
In the northern area of Greater Buenos Aires, Nordelta has been developing a new urban project across its 1,700 hectares for around 30 years. Initially conceived for low-density residential use, it now also includes medium- and high-density housing, educational, recreational, and service facilities, as well as production and supply hubs, among others. Area Beta is located in the southern part of Nordelta, designed to complement this mixed-use and service urban sector.
Those interested in purchasing low- or zero-emission transportation options can now access a new line of credit. This month, Banco do Brasil (BB) launched the BB Crédito Mobilidade line, which will finance items such as bicycles, kick scooters, electric or manual scooters, and motorcycles under 125cc, with repayment terms of up to five years.
In Brazilian cities, we see new residential buildings being constructed with cantilevered balconies—that is, extending beyond the building's perimeter and encroaching upon the minimum required setbacks (referred to as afastamentos in Rio de Janeiro). However, what we have seen in recent years is a growing trend of enclosing these balconies with glass panels, consequently expanding the adjacent rooms. But what is the reason behind this enclosure? If there is a need to enlarge these spaces, why aren't they designed this way to begin with?
Real or imagined, houses and cities are always present in cinema. In this episode, the Betoneira Podcast hosts art director and set designer Vera Hamburger to discuss how professionals like her appropriate urban space to create illusions, capture the public imagination, and bring the magic of cinema to life.
Rubber from discarded tires can replace 100% of conventional aggregates used in manufacturing concrete. This is what engineers at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, have discovered. The concrete made with the material meets building codes and promises to boost the circular economy.
This “greener concrete” uses rubber from discarded tires instead of gravel and crushed stone. According to the team that developed the material, the new concrete is lighter and promises to significantly reduce manufacturing and transportation costs.
The Rifa Housing Competition is an annual call that invites successive generations of architecture students from the Universidad de la República to propose new ways of living. The goal is to build a home based on their own design strategies, optimizing resources and construction times. Reflecting on living, architecture, and the pedagogy of the discipline, the competition offers the opportunity to experience a design process that extends far beyond the classroom.
The end of the rubber monopoly, the economic crisis of the 1920s, demographic growth driven by the migration of river dwellers and northeasterners to Manaus, and a scarcity of resources all contributed to a housing crisis in the city.
Amid this adversity, in 1920, João Aprígio, a native of Paraíba with a wife and children to support, faced immense hardships. His meager earnings were barely enough to feed his family. Lacking a home of his own, Aprígio gathered two açacu logs from an igapó (flooded forest) and towed them behind his canoe to the Educandos waterfront, which he deemed the most suitable location to build his dwelling. For twenty days and nights he worked, eventually erecting what would become the first floating house in Manaus.
On September 13, IMS Paulista opens the exhibition Moderna pelo avesso: fotografia e cidade, Brasil, 1890-1930. With free admission, the exhibition features photography from some of the country's major capitals—Porto Alegre, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Recife, and Belém—during the First Brazilian Republic, from 1889 to 1930. The exhibition documents radical urban reforms that took place during this period, addressing the tensions and contradictions of these processes, which altered landscapes and the ways people lived in and moved through cities.
In sloped topographies, factors such as rainfall and excess water promote surface runoff, triggering a series of impacts that lead to the loss of soil, water, nutrients, and seeds, consequently reducing agricultural productivity (Posthumus, 2005). In Andean mountain environments, this is compounded by water scarcity and variability, alongside the challenges of water retention (Canziani, 2007). To address these challenges, territorial transformations and modifications known as terraces and andenes emerged, representing some of the oldest infrastructural practices for soil and hydrological conservation and management. Their physical presence, productive use, and cultural relevance remain vital in many parts of the world today.
Concrete, metal, or wood—all building materials degrade over time when exposed to water and moisture. Moreover, every building element is exposed to weathering to varying degrees, from the foundation to the roof. Consequently, protective layers must be incorporated to prevent water from contacting raw materials—a process known as waterproofing—ensuring the structure's maintenance and longevity.
BIM methodology is currently booming and on the lips of every industry professional, making it essential for any sector expert to keep in mind. In this article, we review the five most relevant factors to help you assess your compatibility with BIM, according to Editeca.
As part of a new collaboration between the Mexico City-based firms, Esrawe Studio and Francisco Pardo present "Biodynamic Community," a new project in Los Altos de Jalisco, Mexico. The development will be built on an 820,000-square-meter site and will have a total built area of 29,700 square meters.
Carolina Maria de Jesus and Clarice Lispector are among the most prominent Brazilian writers of the 20th century. This essay analyzes the representations surrounding them and, above all, offers an approach that complexifies the comparison between the two, reflecting on body and city from an intersectional perspective.
As part of the traveling exhibition and book series developed by Saint-Gobain, “El material de lo construido”, Catalan architect Josep Ferrando presented his exhibition "The Infinite Grid," inaugurating the Bisman Ediciones Architecture Gallery and Residency. The space is located in the “Casa de Estudios para Artistas”, one of Argentina's most iconic modern architecture buildings, designed by Antonio Bonet, Horacio Vera Barros, and Abel López Chas around 1938.
What are the stories, processes, and hidden messages behind murals in urban contexts? How do they relate to the communities that live alongside them? “Urban Murals: Solidarity Infrastructure Plan (PISO)” by Bisman Ediciones compiles the work of Saint-Gobain, highlighting the urban interventions they have driven since 2005 through their Solidarity Infrastructure Plan (PISO) program across the 24 Argentine provinces.
In 1972, the Italian Embassy left the historic mansion it had occupied since 1919 in Rio de Janeiro, at 154 Rua das Laranjeiras, and moved to the new capital, Brasília. Released on August 29, the book and photographic exhibition aim to offer a journey through the headquarters' photographic history, organizing and showcasing an important part of its historical memory to preserve it.
The history of the Embassy is the story of a construction within a construction. Alongside the building of a new city, a visionary and futuristic capital, the headquarters designed by the great engineer Pier Luigi Nervi was also built. A space for work and diplomatic representation, the building encapsulates the best of Italy's celebrated architectural and engineering traditions, fitting harmoniously into Brasília's urban planning and monumental style.
In Brazil, urban policies are commonly assumed to be the responsibility of either municipalities or the federal government. However, there is another level of government that cannot be overlooked: the states. State urban policies are just as important as municipal and federal ones.
