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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Macaé, a municipality in the state of Rio de Janeiro with over 266,000 residents, has just extended free public transit to people experiencing homelessness. While free access was already guaranteed for people over 60 and individuals with disabilities, it now also benefits the city's vulnerable population.
Unanimously approved during a session of the Macaé City Council, the measure was introduced by council member Iza Vicente (Rede) following a request from the Rio de Janeiro Public Defender's Office. This is the first law in the state of Rio de Janeiro to guarantee free public transit for this demographic.
About thirteen kilometers from Punta del Este stands the complex known as Casapueblo, a manifest expression of sculpted architecture that has become a cultural and architectural landmark in Uruguay. The work of artist Carlos Páez Vilaró, it was initially conceived as a summer home and studio before eventually becoming his permanent residence and workspace. Today, it is renowned for its museum, art gallery, café, and hotel.
The built environment has historically served humans as a mechanism of environmental control. Through our intellectual capacities and ability to organize, we have used buildings to actively influence and terraform the immediate context in which they are inserted, often treating geography, water, and ecosystems as resources to be extracted and managed. However, more and more, architecture is transitioning from exploiting physical and biological matter to actively collaborating with it. This shift demands that architects explore how buildings and their materials grow, transform, decay, and persist beyond human timelines. This thinking also serves as a starting point for the profession to reflect on how it influences the natural world, as well as the non-human species around it, creating networks and connections between humans, buildings, living organisms, and natural environments.
Some buildings have stood the test of time. After centuries or even millennia, they remain structurally sound, revered as living testaments to history and human innovation. Some are still in use today, many lifetimes after their original designers passed away.
These buildings, whether by design or accident, were built to last—a concept that is increasingly relevant today. Building construction and operations account for a concerning share of carbon dioxide emissions. The embodied carbon resulting from building material production and construction makes up about 11% of all global carbon emissions. According to a new book on long-life buildings, designing structures to stand much longer—and to survive the various twists and turns that come with an extended lifespan—is a new imperative for architects.
As part of the exhibition program of the Museo Experimental El Eco, the call for entries for the Eco Pavilion 2023 was launched, inviting professionals involved in architectural practice in Mexico to engage in dialogue with the museum's space. This edition marks the 13th anniversary of the Eco Pavilion, a competition initiated in partnership with Buró-Buró with the mission of offering a platform for architectural production with an emphasis on experimentation and spatial reflection.
In the heart of the Recoleta neighborhood in Buenos Aires, the building designed by Clorindo Testa, Héctor César Lacarra, and Elena Acquarone stands on a lot with an 8.66-meter frontage and a 42-meter depth. Designed between 1975 and 1978, following the enactment of the horizontal property law, the building's facade reveals a series of terraced balconies, voids, and accessible walkways. These elements create an alternating play of double-height spaces, providing abundant natural light and ventilation to the residential interiors.
This article by Joshua Domínguez Ruelas was originally published in the 17th issue of revista rita under the title "Public Realm Between Online and Offline Space." Following the Chilean social uprising and COVID-19 restrictions, San Borja Park fell into disuse. In response, a community recreated the park in Minecraft, crafting their own version: BorjaCraft. Consequently, two parks coexist within one environment—separate, yet part of the same place. By entering or leaving the space, turning the digital on or off, the public experience unfolds between the online and the offline. If the characteristics of online and offline spaces were linked, how would the public realm of a place expand? This challenges our understanding of the public, which typically depends on the space or medium in which we dwell.
Known for its impressive architecture, Dubai could add a 93-kilometer city-wide bike path to its list of mega-projects. Designed by architecture studio Urb, the mega-structure would be a covered pathway designed exclusively for cyclists and pedestrians, aiming to encourage Dubai's three million residents to swap their cars for more sustainable and healthier modes of transportation.
In December 2022, the Government of the Republic of Costa Rica launched an architectural and urban ideas competition for the area where the first phase of Ciudad Gobierno will be developed—an urban renewal project in downtown San José that aims to transform nearly four city blocks of the capital with office, retail, and public spaces.
At the end of February 2023, the winning proposal was announced from among 28 submitted designs to serve as a model for the building complex that will house 18 public institutions west of Plaza González Víquez. Designed by Venezuela-based Micucci Arquitectos Asociados, the winning project is titled "Metropolitan Civic Park."
The Madrid City Council aims to encourage bicycle use as a means of transportation. To this end, the city has operated BiciMAD since 2014—a public bike-sharing system integrated into the Spanish capital's transit network. Now, the program will be free for trips of up to 30 minutes.
When monitoring the outcomes of a newly built plaza in Porto Alegre, one data point stood out: after playing children, the main users of the space were women caring for them. Set in a vulnerable area of the city, this situation highlights an activity often ignored by urban planning: caregiving.
The monitoring project in Loteamento Santa Terezinha aimed to assess the profile of the users, their perception of the space and its amenities (recently upgraded by several organizations), and the surrounding school routes. Conducted by WRI Brasil in partnership with the Volkswagen Group Foundation, the study showed that children represent 89% of the plaza's users, and that adult women frequent the plaza 4.5 times more than men—usually accompanying the children.
On Jeju Island in South Korea, Spanish architect Fernando Menis is designing the Park Seo Bo Museum of Contemporary Art, dedicated to the legacy of the Korean artist. Inspired by both his introspective work and collection and the volcanic nature of the site, the building aims to merge with its surroundings. Built mostly underground and utilizing local materials, natural light and shadow combine to form the essence of its interior spaces.
Trained in the United States (Princeton and Cornell), young Mexican architect Isidoro Michan-Guindi established his studio in Mexico City just four years ago, in 2019. While Michan-Guindi is relatively unknown within the Mexican architectural scene, his studio is a complex laboratory home to a multitude of projects materialized through cardboard prototypes, pigmented concrete models, electro-robotic pieces, and aluminum molds; these all transform into intelligent architectural proposals ranging from everyday objects, such as doorknobs, to residential towers.
