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.

The student collective Post_Arq from the Leopoldo Rother Architecture Museum at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia has shared with us their interview with professor Pablo Gamboa Samper. This interview is part of a series featuring seven Colombian architects, including figures such as Sebastían Serna, Santiago Pradilla, Lorenzo Castro, and Fernando de la Carrera, whose interviews will be released on their channel.

The renowned International Architecture and Design Festival of Logroño, Concéntrico, will hold its sixth edition—rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic—from September 3 to 6, 2020. The festival invites reflection on 'the urban' and the contemporary city.

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Croquis CDMX is an initiative led by Héctor López, founded eight years ago to foster and strengthen the connections between the eye, the brain, and the hand. The project seeks to portray life in Mexico City through freehand sketches. While architectural education is geared toward training professionals to design and construct buildings, Héctor—who studied at the Faculty of Architecture of the National Autonomous University of Mexico—views university education as “the axis of all elements: I already knew how to draw, and in school I became interested in construction, history, and theory. That was where drawing became disciplined. I would encourage students to draw, regardless of whether they think they can or not, because you discover things that you don't understand when drawing with software.”

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The city of Puebla, located in the central highlands of Mexico, is particularly well-known for its street layout and its predominantly Baroque architecture. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987, it hosts a broad cultural dynamic centered on the preservation of built heritage and its appreciation from afar, as if it were a museum piece. Consequently, on our daily commutes, we notice the monumentality of its facades, while most often overlooking what lies behind the large wooden doors: what we have called “the heart of the Poblano home.”

The student collective Post_Arq from the Leopoldo Rother Architecture Museum at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia has shared with us an interview with Sebastián Serna Hosie, a Bogotá-based architect and member of Taller de (S) and Ciudad Isla. This is part of a series featuring seven Colombian architects, including prominent figures such as Santiago Pradilla, Lorenzo Castro, and Fernando de la Carrera, whose interviews will be released on their channel.

Street safety goes far beyond policing and lighting. While these factors may be important in certain contexts, community engagement and building social capital are key to making cities safer. “Feeling safe is crucial for people to embrace urban space,” says Jan Gehl.

Lockdown and preventive isolation have exposed the obsolescence of models that fail to meet contemporary needs, whether in housing, public space, or rural areas. The Colombian Society of Architects took action, bringing together its regional representatives and professionals from other related fields to rethink social behavior within territories, cities, and housing. 

As part of an initiative by ArchDaily and the Abierto Mexicano de Diseño, a call for entries was launched this year, inviting architects, urban planners, landscape designers, industrial designers, graphic designers, floral designers, and any creative discipline that understands public space as a place for fostering collaborative encounters in cities. Published in September, the call sought unpublished or previously published projects in the form of written essays, research papers, visual essays, lectures, or other digital communication formats that offered a personal or collective reflection aligned with the theme 'Public Space.'

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As part of the 2020 program, and inspired by MUTEK Montreal’s Edition 21—which aligned two network cities in a simultaneous edition and used virtual convergence to expand activities and connect global digital art communities—comes the joint MUTEK MX & MUTEK JP Edition 17+5, featuring a series of hybrid events.

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Rojkind Arquitectos + AmasA Estudio present a new project on a site named "Tres Cerritos" in Valle de Guadalupe, part of the wine route in the Francisco Zarco district of Ensenada, Baja California. The project arises from an understanding of nature's value and its historical use as a sanctuary and refuge, creating a hospitality concept that reconnects the visitor with the environment.

The winners of the "Sustainable Urban Housing" National Ideas and Master Plan Competition have been announced. Promoted by the Municipality of Mendoza (Argentina) and organized by the provincial Association of Architects (CAMZA), the call invited professionals from across the country to reflect on **ways of inhabiting the contemporary city** through the development of ideas for a Master Plan and a preliminary architectural design for housing units. The sites considered in the competition—an urban sector of more than 13,000 square meters—are remnants of railroad lands that, over time, have transformed into urban voids, remaining as vacant areas within the consolidated fabric of the city.

Jointly developed by China Resources Land and Shanghai Land Group, with architectural design by KPF, the Lujiazui Riverfront Center is nearing completion. Located along the Huangpu River within Shanghai's Lujiazui waterfront district, the project spans a total gross floor area of 200,000 square meters. Eight small-scale, standalone commercial buildings run parallel to the shoreline, reshaping the waterfront skyline with staggered heights. Inside the cluster, a network of pedestrian paths and axes links the internal plazas and surrounding buildings, integrating with neighboring historic structures to establish a strong dialogue with the broader urban design.

Characterized by its low-density layout, the development features specialty retail, shared conference spaces, sunken plazas, and rooftop gardens. By connecting with nearby luxury hotels, art venues, and high-end residences—all within walking distance—it creates a 24-hour elite lifestyle hub, establishing Shanghai's first workplace that seamlessly integrates garden-style offices with the Lujiazui CBD. Additionally, the project features a generous 4.5-meter floor-to-floor height, yielding a clear height of 3 meters for standard floors and 3.5 meters for executive floors. In terms of floor plate design, the column-free interior spaces offer unobstructed, panoramic views of the Huangpu River.

Podcasts are a relatively recent medium in Brazil, but they are on the rise and growing rapidly in popularity. A survey by the Deezer platform showed that podcast consumption in Brazil grew by 67% in 2019. Far from a passing fad, this format is being used for entertainment, information, and even as a pedagogical resource for educators.

Among the wide variety of topics available, many shows have fostered debates about the environment, especially regarding the Amazon—considered one of humanity's most valuable natural heritages and the largest natural reserve on the planet.

For nearly two decades, Wienerberger AG has hosted the biennial international Brick Award, providing a stage for outstanding brick architecture and its designers. Architects from around the world showcase their innovative concepts using ceramic materials: 644 projects from 55 countries were submitted for this year's award. The winners of the Brick Award 20 impressed the jury with bold, creative architectural concepts for sustainable, forward-looking spaces.

As part of the annual CEMEX Awards, the recipient of the Arq. Marcelo Zambrano Scholarship has been announced, reaffirming the commitment to the development of architecture in Mexico. CEMEX awards the Arq. Marcelo Zambrano Scholarship in honor of the exemplary professional dedication and leadership of Architect Marcelo Zambrano, aiming to support young Mexicans in pursuing postgraduate studies at prestigious international universities.

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Brazilian architecture firm Estúdio Leonardo Zanatta has received an honorable mention in the international competition "Cool Abu Dhabi," which challenged participants to design creative solutions to tackle climate change and mitigate the urban heat island effect in Abu Dhabi. Titled Abu Dhabi Skins - (Bio)Reactive Urbanscape, the proposal is the only selection from the Americas.

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This October 2020, the Memory and Tolerance Museum by Arditti + RDT Architects in the heart of Mexico City marks the tenth anniversary of its founding—a space designed to raise awareness and showcase the terrible consequences of hatred and indifference. Over these ten years, the museum has welcomed 5,000,000 visitors, hosted more than 4,000 free workshops and courses benefiting 470,000 people, generated 1,500,000 scholarships for vulnerable students, and spearheaded countless initiatives that have successfully fostered a culture of peace and tolerance. It has become a national and international benchmark in matters of historical memory and Human Rights—a voice that gives visibility to diverse causes, a bridge for conflict resolution, and an ally to various sectors, including schools, civil associations, institutions, and socially responsible corporations. Above all, it serves the individuals who wish to transform their environment through knowledge, introspection, reflection, and social action.

The student collective Post_Arq from the Leopoldo Rother Architecture Museum at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia has shared this interview with Leonardo Álvarez Yepes. This is part of a series featuring seven Colombian architects, including leading figures such as Sebastían Serna, Santiago Pradilla, Lorenzo Castro, and Fernando de la Carrera, among others, whose interviews will be released on their channel.

The Santiago Metropolitan Park is currently conducting a survey on user mobility. If you visited Parquemet before the quarantine, you can help by responding here: https://www.parquemet.cl/ayudanos-a-mejorar-parquemet/.

"La Ciudad como Texto" (The City as Text) was the theme of the Arqfilmfest panel discussion, where designer Carola Ureta detailed her project focusing on public space and its transformations: facades, historical figures, and walls serving as a canvas to immortalize the social sentiment following Chile's October 2019 social uprising.

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"Traveling Without Leaving Home" is a project by artist and designer Jorge Cejudo, also known as “Cejas.” Over the course of seven months, he shared a pandemic-born series of over 200 drawings on his Instagram account @soyelcejas, reconnecting with his followers after the emergency lockdown by inviting them to join him in imagining journeys through various cities around the world.

Following the conversation ArchDaily hosted on Instagram Live during the quarantine with Pablo Forero, one of the founders of Taller Architects (formerly Taller 301), we present this interview, in which he discusses the principles and approaches of this young practice based in Bogotá and Amsterdam.

The following article proposes rethinking architecture in social housing in Colombia. Natalia Carrero Rojas and Pablo González delve into the subject as educators and through their practice 57Uno, where they constantly balance high-quality housing with real estate viability.

When we think of architectural visualization, sketches, drawings, and 3D renderings usually come to mind. This association is natural, as "visualization" is typically equated with imagining a project before it is built—whether to validate aesthetic and functional decisions or to communicate concepts to clients unfamiliar with technical drawings. However, beyond superficial elements like materials, layouts, textures, and colors, architects must also address highly technical, invisible factors that directly impact a building's performance.