On November 15, the finalists for the Social Habitat and Sustainability Award of the BAQ2022 Competition (Pan-American Architecture Biennial of Quito) were announced. The winners, along with those of the National Award and Pan-American Award, will be announced on Friday, November 18, during the closing and awards ceremony at the National Theater of Ecuador.
No País dos Arquitectos is a podcast created by Sara Nunes, who is also behind the architectural film production company Building Pictures. The podcast aims to profile the professionals, projects, and stories behind leading contemporary Portuguese architecture. With just over 10 million inhabitants, Portugal is a highly intriguing country in this professional field, and its architectural output far exceeds its demographic and territorial scale.
In this episode of the fourth season, Sara talks with architect Pedro Bandeira about the Rotating House (Casa Rotativa) project and the essential synergy between architecture and engineering required to develop this residence, which actually rotates around a vertical axis. Listen to the conversation and read an excerpt of the interview below.
On Friday, November 18, the winners of the XXVIII Colombian Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (BCAU 2022) were announced across nine categories: Architectural Project; Interior and Ephemeral Architecture; Urban Design and Landscaping; Dissemination; Social Habitat; Heritage Intervention; Research, Theory, and Criticism; Urban and Regional Planning; and Single-family, duplex, and triplex housing.
Combining art, nature, and architecture, Barcelona-based practices Mendoza Partida (Héctor Mendoza and Mara Partida) and BAX studio (Boris Bezan) have joined forces to design Art-Sauna, an experience conceived as a continuation of the emotional journey at the Gösta Serlachius Museum of Contemporary Art in Mänttä, Finland. With a subtle, intimate, and domestic scale, this new space joins the complex, harmonizing the dialogue between these three variables and integrating the building into the journey by merging it with the terrain and making it part of the landscape.
Among the various problems stemming from the excessive use of cars in large and medium-sized cities, traffic congestion and time lost in transit are undoubtedly those that receive the most attention from the media and society.
Drivers tend to overlook other issues, however severe, such as traffic fatalities and tragedies, air pollution, the stressful noise generated by motorized vehicles, urban sprawl—which makes cities dysfunctional, expensive, and far-flung—or the hydrological problems caused by the excess of asphalt and concrete dedicated to cars. Generally, these issues are ignored or seen as inevitable, whereas gridlock is highly visible, instantly perceived as a nuisance demanding immediate solutions.
Archiplan S.A. has won the Industrialized Social Housing Competition organized by Chile's Ministry of Housing and Urbanism. Part of the government's Housing Development Plan, the initiative includes the construction of 60 homeownership units in the Lo Espejo district and 103 fair-rent housing units in the Renca district.
Systems change. Transformation. Deep transition. These terms are used so frequently that they risk becoming buzzwords, obscuring their actual meaning.
Yet, to curb rising global temperatures, conserve nature, and build a fairer economy that benefits everyone, we indeed need deep change across all aspects of our economies—at a pace and scale never seen before.
The Chilean project Bío Bío Regional Theater by architects Smiljan Radic, Gabriela Medrano, and Eduardo Castillo, along with the Mexican project Music House designed by Colectivo C733, have been jointly awarded the Grand Prize at the Pan-American Architecture Biennial of Quito BAQ 2022.
The illustration above is a famous image by the artist Imperial Boy (帝国少年), who works in the anime industry. I sometimes claim that the entire *solarpunk* genre was inspired by this image. That is an exaggeration, of course—some people have thought very seriously about *solarpunk* design principles—but the influence and appeal of Imperial Boy's design are undeniable. Moreover, other *solarpunk* art, though often lovely, tends not to immediately resemble the kind of cities you would actually want to build; it is either an image of a high-tech farm, or some variation of "slap a tree on the side of every building."
Young people from the Quebrada Agroecógica collective received the ImaGen Ventures award during COP-27, the world's largest climate change summit, held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. The collective brings low-cost mini-cisterns to informal settlements and low-income communities.
Mired in a housing crisis for about a decade, New Zealand has modified its zoning laws to allow more medium-density housing to be built in the nation's largest municipalities.
The initiative comes in response to a shortage of housing units, soaring property values and rents, and is aimed at narrowing the widening “chasm” between household incomes and housing costs, as detailed in a report by The Guardian.
Hostile architecture's days may be numbered in Brazil. The Chamber of Deputies has approved a bill that prohibits public authorities from using any material, equipment, or construction technique that deters people or restricts access to public spaces. Bill PL 488/21, named the Padre Júlio Lancelotti Law, now goes to President Jair Bolsonaro for approval.
In cinematic works, the architecture chosen and designed to compose the frame can communicate with the viewer in many ways. Buildings and cities can establish the setting through well-known monuments or specific building types adapted to certain climates, as well as indicate the historical period through tectonic aesthetics. Fantasy works offer an endless creative field for architectural composition and interior design.
Viña del Mar Moderna is an investigation into the modern architecture that took root in the 1950s and 1960s in the city of Viña del Mar, Chile. Developed by Karla Silva, a designer from UVM, alongside historian Daniel Briones, the research surveys 10 residential buildings constructed as part of the resort city's urban planning. The result of this project is an engaging publication accessible via a digital platform and an open-access book, both presenting historical analysis and context of Latin America, Chile, and the Modern Movement.
Escola da Cidade hosted journalist Juca Kfouri for a conversation on the relationship between society, politics, and soccer. Juca spoke about the presence of soccer in society and how it also serves as a political medium, emphasizing that it is a cultural, economic, and educational force. He also addressed topics such as the recent events at Pacaembu and the significance of the Maracanã.
“If I said that Brasília is beautiful, people would immediately see that I liked the city. But if I say that Brasília is the image of my insomnia, they see this as an accusation; yet my insomnia is neither beautiful nor ugly — my insomnia is me, lived, it is my astonishment.” — Clarice Lispector
In 2020, Brasília turned 60. The anniversary almost slipped by, but in times of isolation, I recalled the walks I had the opportunity to take there last year — walks that opened my eyes to the beautiful, the unbeautiful, and the “unobvious” in this famous modernist city. That said, I would like to share my astonishment in exploring this machine-city on foot.
Juliana Terra, Fernanda Sakano, Danilo Terra, and Pedro Tuma are not typical Paulistano architects. At least, not to the extent that the recognition of the firm they lead—Terra e Tuma Arquitetos Associados—might suggest. Rejecting the figure of the genius and dispensing with that of the entrepreneur, the quartet runs the firm as craftspeople shaping the object. "We see ourselves as a craft-based practice," says Danilo, who explains the design process as a continuous remaking, free of hierarchy, involving four heads and eight hands.
The public can now experience the virtual version of the traveling exhibition 7 Povos – Retratos de um Território. This is a restaging of the exhibition that has already taken place in person at three venues across the country: the Memorial do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre (RS); the Sítio Arqueológico de São Miguel Arcanjo in São Miguel das Missões (RS); and the Paço Imperial Cultural Heritage Center (CCPPI) in Rio de Janeiro (RJ). With the launch of the online version, the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (Iphan) aims to bring the exhibition to an even broader audience, both in Brazil and internationally.
The award ceremony for the 11th edition of the Interceramic Architecture and Interior Design Award was held at the Cabañas Museum in Guadalajara. With more than 1,000 entries this year, the prize promotes and recognizes projects that reflect contemporary design and represent the state of architecture and interior design, while also honoring creativity in the use of Interceramic ceramic materials.
Mujer ArquitectA is a collective that seeks to bring visibility to, strengthen, and promote the work of women in architecture. Among its initiatives are the MA Awards, which in their inaugural edition highlight the work of contemporary women architects in Chile across two categories: Emerging, highlighting new generations, and Established, recognizing the country's leading architects.
With the rapid urbanization of our cities, animals that once called these environments home have been displaced, forced to seek refuge elsewhere.
Birds are perhaps among the species hardest hit by urban growth, as they are drawn during flight by stimuli like artificial light and wind currents—both of which can be radically altered by how a city is built and laid out.
As part of the celebrations for its 158th anniversary, Campina Grande, Paraíba, has launched a national design competition for the revitalization of its Central Market. The competition is promoted by the City of Campina Grande and organized by the Institute of Architects of Brazil (IAB), with support from the Council of Architecture and Urbanism of Brazil (CAU/BR), the Council of Architecture and Urbanism of Paraíba (CAU/PB), the Institute of Architects of Brazil – Paraíba Department (IAB/PB), and the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN).
The Association of Architects of the Province of Buenos Aires District VIII launched a provincial preliminary design competition for the design of its headquarters in the town of Saladillo.
In 2020, Trenzando launched the “Ideas for the Rehabilitation of Railway Stations” competition, designed as an opportunity to showcase the richness of this heritage, which includes 170 stations connected to the country's railway network. The open call received around 100 proposals for the rehabilitation of the San Rosendo and Yumbel stations in the Biobío Region, Rungue in the Metropolitan Region, and Ocoa in the Valparaíso Region.
