This guide covers a workflow that moves from project parameters to generated floor plans, 3D perspective views, exterior design exploration, and site context visualization, using AI tools in place of preliminary CAD and rendering work.

Videos

As part of the programming for the exhibition Infinito Vão, Casa da Arquitectura invited a group of architects from different generations featured in the exhibition on 90 years of Brazilian architecture for a series of talks hosted at the Instituto Moreira Salles in São Paulo. Architects Ruy Ohtake and Marcos Acayaba participated in this event, moderated by one of the exhibition's curators, Guilherme Wisnik. 

The Council for Architecture and Urbanism of Brazil (CAU/BR) has decided to deny professional registration requests from Architecture and Urbanism graduates of distance learning (EaD) programs. The resolution, dated March 29, was based on the fact that the field of Architecture and Urbanism is directly linked to the preservation of life and human well-being, the safety and integrity of property, and the preservation of the environment, with direct impacts on individual and public health. 

The City of Jundiaí, in partnership with IABsp, organized an ideas competition for the Jundiaí River Valley with the goal of promoting a new design proposal for the site, considering both the regional context within the urban agglomeration and its relationship with the life of its immediate surroundings.

In another episode of the Architecture and Cinema series, Arquicast brings the film Paris, I Love You to the discussion. In addition to the usual podcasters, the episode features advertising professional and journalist Janaina Pereira, who holds a postgraduate degree in Cinema and contributes to various entertainment outlets. Janaina previously participated in episode #58 on the film Her. Another returning guest on Arquicast is cinematographer and cinephile Kiko Barbosa, who always brings engaging insights to our conversations.

This week, the São Paulo municipal government resumed the bidding process for the concession of six public parks to the private sector. Suspended since July of last year due to disagreements with the state government, the project was revived by current mayor Bruno Covas.

In addition to Ibirapuera, the city's largest park at 158 hectares, the bidding process also includes the concession of Lajeado (east zone), Eucaliptos (south zone), Jacintho Alberto (north zone), Tenente Brigadeiro Faria Lima (south zone), and Jardim Felicidade (north zone) parks.

On flat terrain, where the horizon is visible in every direction, buildings with over forty stories rise across different areas of the city. Recently, a fifty-story building was completed; at 191 meters (626 feet) high, it is the tallest in the country. While some criticize this development model for its impact on the landscape, in a capital with rapid population growth, one would expect the cost of housing to rise steadily, along with the housing deficit. This, however, is not the case in Goiânia.

Students, faculty, and staff of the Faculty of Architecture & Urbanism & Design of Alagoas, led by professors Adriana Capretz Borges da Silva Manhas and Josemary Omena Passos Ferrare, alongside student Cecília Oliveira do Nascimento Rossé, have organized an online petition to award professor Zélia de Melo Maia Nobre the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from UFAL (Federal University of Alagoas).

Although more than 1.35 million people lose their lives in traffic crashes every year, these fatalities do not receive the same attention from politicians and the media as airplane, train, or ship disasters. Some believe that deaths from vehicle crashes are simply a part of daily life or inevitable—but they do not have to be.

Boxing Boxes is a project resulting from two years of architectural research by Carlos Ortega Arámburo and Daniel de León Languré that combines boxing, as a tool for self-discipline and violence control, with a structure that activates civic space in marginalized areas. For this year's Lisbon Architecture Triennale, the Mexican architect, along with a local interdisciplinary team, installed the equipment in the Portugal Novo neighborhood, in Olaias, Lisbon.

Imagine Lagos, Nigeria, a city of 22 million people. What was once a small coastal town just a few decades ago has exploded into a sprawling megacity stretching over more than 1,170 square kilometers. This rapid growth has strained municipal services to their limit: less than 10% of people live in homes connected to sewer networks, and less than 20% have access to running water. Many homes are in slums or informal settlements on the city’s periphery.

Now imagine Lagos twice as large.

Many buildings pique the curiosity of passersby about what lies behind their doors. Instead of merely imagining the uses and privacy of these typically inaccessible spaces, next weekend—June 29 and 30—visitors will be able to explore the interiors of various architectural works in the cities of Porto, Matosinhos, and Gaia during the Open House Porto festival.

WRI Brasil has launched a free online publication detailing the benefits, costs, and barriers of adopting sustainability measures in social housing developments. Jointly produced by Lara Caccia, Henrique Evers, Luana Betti, and Camila Schlatter, the study examines simple, low-cost actions and technologies aimed at reducing water and electricity consumption in buildings.

The practice of the dérive is a subject that sparks great interest among urban scholars and professionals. The Situationists, a social critique movement founded in 1957, used this practice to propose new interpretations of the city based on individual lived experience. Jacopo Visconti, curator of the 34th Bienal de Artes de São Paulo, analyzed in his doctoral thesis artistic practices that incorporate the act of walking, seeking the characteristics that defined the Situationist practice of the dérive. Advised by Prof. Dr. Luis Antonio Jorge, Visconti defended his thesis in 2012, which was later published as a book by Martins Fontes. Read the thesis abstract below.

More than 36 tons of organic vegetables are grown on New York City rooftops every year. Beyond providing food, these green roofs also prevent pollutants from reaching the city's rivers.

More than 600 million people lack access to clean drinking water. Droughts affect over 35 million every year. And by 2050, 1.3 billion people will live in flood-prone areas. Many believe that building dams, water treatment plants, and other built infrastructure are the only solutions to these challenges—but that is only because the many benefits of natural (or green) infrastructure have not been considered.

Videos

Within the scope of The Poetics of Reason, this year's Lisbon Architecture Triennale explores the nexus between Agriculture and Architecture, two complementary fields that emerged around 10,000 years ago during the Neolithic Revolution and, later, in the Anthropocene. Given the current environmental crisis, the core hypothesis of the exhibition Taking the Country's Side: Agriculture and Architecture, curated by Sébastien Marot, is that no consistent thinking can develop in the future of either discipline unless they are once again allied and fundamentally reconsidered together.

Applications are now open for the 6th Instituto Tomie Ohtake AkzoNobel Architecture Prize. The initiative continues to map contemporary architectural production by highlighting, for the sixth consecutive year, significant projects built in the current Brazilian landscape that demonstrate a commitment to their site and sustainability, as well as design and constructive inventiveness. 

On October 19, a workshop on implementing an ecological sanitation system will be held. The event will take place in São Paulo's South Zone and is open to anyone interested. The workshop is organized by the social-environmental project cooperative Sapiência Ambiental in partnership with the UFABC Agroecology Center.

One of Italy's most important culinary hubs, Bologna is aiming to encourage its residents to adopt cycling, public transit, or simply walking as their primary means of transportation—leaving their cars at home. To achieve this, the city has launched an incentive program. 

The urban public space between two architectural masses is defined as a street. It is where we establish the relationship between motorized vehicles, non-motorized transport, and pedestrians. In managing this relationship, public space requires a series of systems to guarantee active occupancy, in addition to infrastructure and safety. Consequently, the proper design of roadways and their immediate public surroundings becomes essential. Beyond what meets the eye, water, gas, electricity, and telecommunications networks are laid out beneath our feet, completely unnoticed.

Led by the Portuguese duo Isabel Ruas and Gonçalo Ruas, the studio Oficina de Mosaicos will create a mosaic reinterpretation of the work War and Peace, the monumental panel painted by Candido Portinari and donated to the UN in 1956. The piece will be permanently displayed at the USP campus in Butantã. The project has the support of the artist's son, João Portinari, and is currently in its fundraising phase.

Videos

Discovering the stories behind architectural projects and urban interventions is the premise of ARQ.DOC, a new series set to premiere in January 2019 on YouTube. Produced in a documentary format, the episodes explore the creative diversity of Brazilian architecture.

The construction industry drives considerable economic activity worldwide, generating countless jobs and substantial revenue. At the same time, it also carries significant negative impacts, ranging from the depletion of natural resources to high levels of waste generation during both construction and demolition phases. To put this in perspective, in Brazil, Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) is estimated to account for 61% of all waste generated, while household waste represents 28% [1].

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Conceived by architects Vinicius Andrade and Beatriz Vanzolini, along with the team from the Arq.Futuro platform, the course “Aprendendo a viver na cidade” aims to awaken young people to the importance of understanding the city, while also discovering how to influence it. The course is delivered in a book format—which is already available in bookstores—and will be officially launched at Escola da Cidade on February 27. The course features videos and audio from the “Cidade Cidadão” series, accessible via QR Code or on the Arq.Futuro website. Teachers who wish to implement it in the classroom will have access to a digital Teacher's Guide (Caderno dos Professores) with pedagogical suggestions and activities.