It is easier said than done, and when it comes to the practice of architecture—an activity heavily conditioned by countless external factors—this statement carries even more weight. Few professionals are willing to help solve problems in remote, relatively isolated communities facing social and environmental vulnerabilities. However, this is precisely the focus of Noelia Monteiro, an Argentine architect working in Brazil who, along with Christian Teshirogi, founded Estúdio Flume in 2015.

Developing projects alongside multidisciplinary teams that include professionals from architecture, engineering, social sciences, geology, and anthropology, the architect's approach is, nonetheless, deeply personal. In fact, it requires a significant degree of community engagement, bringing people close to the design process from the very beginning to completion. The results of this practice have been recognized with major national awards, and more recently, ArchDaily selected Noelia for its list of Best New Practices of 2020.

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In a past life, I completed a master's degree in semiotics, where I learned to pay attention to the words we choose. For example, open any book on Brazilian architecture and you will find subtitles that help organize our built environment chronologically: Indigenous Architecture, Colonial Brazilian Architecture, Imperial Brazilian Architecture, Brazilian Modern Architecture, Contemporary Architecture in Brazil. Notice the subtle difference: the word *Brazil*, which names this land, appears in every post-colonial period, but is absent from the one representing the original way of building in this place. 

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Exponential population growth versus a lack of affordable housing is a challenge affecting urban areas worldwide. To address this issue, the Italian firm Mario Cucinella Architects proposes a new circular housing model: a 3D-printed home made from organic materials.

The prototype uses regionally sourced materials, such as local clay, making it the first printed house of its kind. This reduces emissions from transporting materials and also ensures the building process is zero-waste.

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How is the housing deficit calculated? Did the Minha Casa Minha Vida program improve housing affordability? What is the Onerous Grant of the Right to Build? To answer these and other questions, Caos Planejado hosted Tainá Pacheco and Vanessa Nadalin for a conversation.

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In recent years, public agencies, architects, and urban planners worldwide have increasingly debated the future of cities, reflecting on the directions contemporary urban planning must take to address a complex web of urban and social challenges. However, one question continues to dominate professional discourse: how can we create spaces capable of improving quality of life and health in the public realm without relying on large-scale infrastructure projects?

In response, several movements have emerged, attempting to implement simple actions that foster the development of “new” public spaces to meet the immediate demand for high-quality urban environments. These initiatives suggest that future cities will become increasingly inviting, championing a closer relationship between pedestrians and the street. Examples of these interventions include the implementation of parklets; the temporary closure of avenues to vehicular traffic, opening them to pedestrians and turning them into open areas like temporary urban parks; the installation and expansion of bike lanes; urban vertical gardens; and pocket parks.

Developed by the Brazilian studio Democratic Architects, the O-SI - Immediate Health Bus (Ônibus de Saúde Imediata) was conceived by designers and doctors focused on creating a modular platform to provide public healthcare services in a modern, safe, and efficient way, based on cutting-edge technology and contemporary concepts of mobile healthcare, sustainable reuse, and social inclusion.

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To live in the city and to experience the city is to be open to any and every event. Within a single day, we pass through different places and spatialities, with distinct compositions and tempos. No day is like another, as we are in constant motion, facing a random combination of events that affect both objects and subjects—shaping the spaces we traverse and the perceptions we experience. In light of this reflection, a discussion emerges on the effects of architecture and urbanism beyond the visual realm, linked to the individual's sense of belonging to space and based on urban form and dynamics. How can we grasp the effects of the object on the subject and vice versa? What is the materialized reading of the city as a reflection of societal actions?

A brief preview of Uncertainty, the Spanish Pavilion for the 17th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, which will take place from May 22 to November 21.

As an overwhelmingly hegemonic field in which cisgender white men have historically held, and continue to hold, the majority of prestigious positions—from the leadership of major firms to international accolades like the Pritzker Prize—architectural practice has traditionally rendered invisible the careers and professional experiences of many women architects.

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Motivated by the enrollment of a classmate with a disability at the Dona Escolástica Rosa State Technical School (Etec), logistics students at the institution developed a project that could transform public transit in the city of Santos, São Paulo. The project consists of an audio system designed to assist and offer autonomy to passengers who face mobility challenges.

The latest episode of Arquicast features Gabriela de Matos, who was named 2020 “Architect of the Year” by the Institute of Architects of Brazil – Rio de Janeiro Department (IAB-RJ). She is also one of the invited speakers at the 27th World Congress of Architects, organized by UIA2021 RIO.

Videos

The Terra Preta Cidade collective has published an excerpt of an interview conducted by Natália Alves with Ricardo Aleixo—who is a poet, visual and sound artist, performer, researcher of intermedia poetics, singer, songwriter, essayist, and editor. In this special encounter, Ricardo shared his entanglements with the city, urban space, the body, performance, and racial issues, among other themes.

The period between the 16th century and the early 19th century in Brazil, known as Colonial Brazil, began when the Portuguese invaded Brazilian territory and imposed the colonization process. In architecture and urbanism, this process established a series of standards that, over the centuries, shaped the country's architecture and cities.

With the arrival of the Portuguese, the first settler installations emerged in Brazilian territory, characterized primarily by their precariousness and inability to defend against other invaders. Following the Portuguese Crown's decision to divide the land into hereditary captaincies administered by donatary captains, villages and urban settlements began to emerge. 

Cities are constantly changing. When guided by biased or outdated premises, changes to urban spaces tend to imprint these mistakes onto the territory. However, when guided by a shared vision that prioritizes safety and active mobility, these interventions can guide the transformation of the city into a more democratic, welcoming, walkable, and safe place. The new São Paulo Urban Design and Road Works Manual points toward exactly this kind of city.

The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), through its Library and Information System (SiBI), has conducted a detailed survey of academic publishers across Brazil's leading universities, compiling a list of 2,650 titles available for free download.

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Once seen as a strictly utilitarian service area, the kitchen has increasingly integrated into daily family life, establishing itself as one of the most used spaces in a home. To seamlessly connect it with the rest of the residence, especially in small apartments, open-plan kitchens have become a favorite choice among clients.

In this episode of the Caos Planejado podcast, the discussion explores alternatives for pedestrian mobility and the occupation of public spaces through tactical urbanism. The guest is Letícia Sabino, founder and director of SampaPé, an organization that has been working since 2012 to transform cities into more walkable environments alongside people.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, educator Camila Regina and cartographer Henrique Lima have noticed a significant increase in kites in the skies over Rio de Janeiro's peripheral neighborhoods. These colorful paper diamonds and deltoids are guided by the hands of children and adults who cannot leave their homes, but can go up to their rooftops to fly kites. 

Inspired by this reclaiming of the skies and their own histories with kites, the two kite flyers founded Pipasgrafias, a multimedia project about the activity. Video, text, and illustrated stories—along with an interactive map—portray what it is like to fly a kite in Rio's various peripheral neighborhoods.

The 27th World Congress of Architects UIA2021RIO will be a hybrid event, featuring virtual sessions starting in March, and in-person activities from July 18 to 22 in Rio de Janeiro, broadcast live online to congress participants worldwide.

The first UIA2021RIO World Architects Week, featuring digital content, will take place from March 22 to 25. During this week, the content will be free to access; afterward, it will only be available to registered Congress participants. The theme chosen to open UIA2021RIO in March is one of the most pressing global concerns today: social vulnerabilities and inequalities.

As previously explained in an earlier article, the concept of modulation in architecture refers to adapting a design to a defined module, whether based on a specific baseline measurement or the dimensions of a given building material.

Closely linked to this concept, yet grounded in other definitions, modular construction relies on the study and planning of transportable prefabricated modules assembled on-site. Consequently, these structures are typically completed faster and more efficiently than traditional ones.

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Currently, one of the most promising fields for design professionals is the planning of open, natural, and urbanized areas that shape the city’s landscape. The fragile balance of urban water systems and the social consequences of the global climate crisis are large-scale examples of how the lack of awareness regarding the importance of natural ecosystems impacts quality of life in cities. It is with this in mind that we must closely examine the role of landscape design and landscape architecture.

Urban resilience was put to the test as the pandemic swept quickly and drastically through cities. Limiting movement, contact, and access to public spaces was the most effective strategy for containing the virus. However, the city's infrastructure, compounded by a lack of emergency public policies, proved far from resilient. This vulnerability was exposed as a large portion of the population was forced to continue commuting long distances on public transit to work in essential services, and as the physical and mental health of residents suffered from a lack of access to safe spaces for physical activity—underscoring the city's precarious supply of public spaces.

In 1979, Rosalind Krauss published her classic article Sculpture in the Expanded Field in the journal October, in which she identifies a certain fraying of boundaries in the field of sculpture, “showing how the meaning of a cultural term can be extended to include almost anything” [1]. The critique, specifically directed at artistic work produced between the 1960s and 1970s, was used 26 years later, in 2005, as the foundation for the publication of Architecture’s Expanded Field by Anthony Vidler.

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Considered an intangible cultural heritage by the State Council of Culture (CEC) of Alagoas, the sururu is a mollusk whose harvesting is the main source of income for several communities in the state. Around the Mundaú lagoon alone, in Maceió, five communities living below the poverty line produce approximately 300 tons of sururu shells annually—a massive amount of waste that previously had no use and ended up in the Alagoas capital's landfills. 

Recognizing its significant economic and social engagement potential, designers Marcelo Rosenbaum, Adriana Benguela, and Rodrigo Ambrósio developed the Cobogó da Mundaú project, which incorporates sururu harvesting waste into the manufacturing of architectural screen blocks.

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