Videos

Shopping malls were a major trend in the early 1980s and '90s, when almost every major city around the world began investing in massive, climate-controlled retail complexes complete with food courts and movie theaters.

In Brazil, this shopping mall boom as a development model still persists in major cities and even in the country's interior. Shopping malls have acquired crucial importance for the development and maintenance of the logic of capital. Every city that "develops" has one or more malls woven into its urban fabric.

Economic crises, health emergencies, and natural disasters, followed by social conflicts, political instability, and the search for new places to live, have historically driven the displacement of hundreds of millions of people. Consequently, entire populations have had to adapt to changes in residence, habitat, and culture.

Videos

Using 3D laser scanning technology, the Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in collaboration with BRTech 3D and Washington Fajardo, Rio de Janeiro's Municipal Secretary of Urban Planning, is conducting a comprehensive morphological analysis of Rocinha, Brazil's largest favela, which has around 100,000 residents across 838,000 square meters and nearly 26,000 homes.

Located 60 km from Belo Horizonte, Caeté is the latest Brazilian city to adopt free public transportation. The initiative took effect on July 1 and will undergo a six-month trial period, with the potential for permanent implementation. Approved by the City Council, the bill allows residents to use the municipality's six bus lines free of charge. Previously, the fare was R$4.

The program is funded through a monthly subsidy of R$90,000 paid to Transcol Caeté, the transit concessionaire operating in the city, which had previously considered suspending services due to financial difficulties. 

Under construction since 2014 and scheduled for completion in 2022, the TransBrasil BRT has the potential to become one of the highest-capacity BRT corridors in the world. The corridor could redefine the land use and occupation of Avenida Brasil, one of Rio de Janeiro's main thoroughfares, which last year led the ranking of traffic collisions involving casualties. The avenue cuts through and divides several predominantly low-income neighborhoods, segregating them and hindering access between both sides of the roadway. Completing the TransBrasil corridor is an opportunity for the urban restructuring of these neighborhoods and the improvement of public spaces for residents, workers, and visitors in the region.

Brazil's participation in the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia will be marked by the exhibition (RE)INVENÇÃO, curated by architects Luciana Saboia, Matheus Seco, and Eder Alencar of the collective Plano Coletivo. The initiative, organized by the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo in partnership with the Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs, invites a reflection on the connections between nature and the city, exploring ancestral infrastructures and their potential reinterpretation in contemporary Brazil.

The Federal District of Brasília and Casa da Arquitectura in Portugal have signed an agreement to share the digital archive of Lucio Costa, the urban planner behind Brasília's Pilot Plan. The signing ceremony took place on February 18, 2025, at the Buriti Palace, in the presence of the governor of the Federal District, Ibaneis Rocha, the executive director of Casa da Arquitectura, Nuno Sampaio, and the Portuguese Minister of Culture, Dalila Rodrigues.

Nicolás Valencia speaks with Chilean architects Matías González Ulloa and Sofía Carrión Bobadilla, creators of Área Verde and leaders of ⁠Arquitectura Maulina⁠, a digital platform focused on the architecture, territory, and reflections of Chile's inspiring Maule region.

Nicolás Valencia speaks with Chilean architect Germán Valenzuela about the book ⁠Del territorio al detalle⁠ (Bifurcaciones), a selection of the most interesting contemporary architects in Latin America, from Al Borde to Rozana Montiel, including Mauricio Rocha, Inés Moisset, and Solano Benítez.

Houses are the most intimate structures we as architects can design. It is no coincidence that intimacy, security, and privacy are recurring concepts in residential architecture. Yet, like all architecture, houses are inevitably embedded in a context—an environment with which they must engage. There are many ways to achieve this, particularly within highly dense urban fabrics, as is the case in many Brazilian cities.

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As of July, 11 new Brazilian cities will join the Urban95 initiative. In total, 24 cities in Brazil have already committed to creating and strengthening actions focused on early childhood in public spaces, data management, programs, and services, ensuring these initiatives are transformed into public policies.

Urban95 begins with the following question: "If you were 95 cm tall (the average height of a three-year-old child), what would you do differently in the city?" With this vision in mind, the proposal is to design and implement urban transformation and service policies. The goal is to build cities that are good for children and, consequently, for everyone. 

Professionals and students from several countries are about to participate in an unprecedented way in the world's largest architecture and urbanism event. The main program of the 27th World Congress of Architects (UIA2021RIO), which was scheduled to take place in July 2020 in Rio de Janeiro and postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, begins on Sunday, July 18, in a 100% digital format for the first time in history. Through July 22, attendees will watch lectures by twenty of the most prominent names in global architecture and roundtables with more than one hundred internationally award-winning architects, as well as paper presentations, cultural activities, and awards. Since March, nearly 90,000 people from over 180 countries have been following the preparatory panels—an absolute record in the more than 70-year history of the event, which is held every three years by the International Union of Architects (UIA).

What happened at the conventual Church of Saint Francis of Assis in Salvador is yet another sad chapter in a process afflicting Brazilian cultural heritage, which has intensified in recent years with the fires at the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, the Cinemateca, and the Museum of the Portuguese Language in São Paulo. Consequently, over the last few days, there has been intense debate regarding who is to "blame" for what occurred in Salvador, or who bore the "responsibility" to prevent this disaster, which also claimed the life of a young tourist: whether the church administrators, IPHAN (the National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage), or local cultural and heritage agencies. This is a difficult and indeed important issue to discuss, demanding careful investigation into the causes of the incident. Yet the debate must be broader, aimed above all at considering how we can prevent such events from happening: greater investment, greater appreciation of artistic and architectural heritage, stricter and more effective safety protocols, preventive conservation, and heritage education. In the days following the incident in Salvador, numerous colonial-period buildings were closed across the country under the claim that they, too, might collapse. Our heritage demands attention—in many cases, urgently.

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"There is coconut candy and peteca
Let the child play
Today is a day of celebration
The ibejada comes to bless."
— Song for the erês

Streets come alive when they belong to the erês and die when they belong to cars. I dream of a project that I intend to put into practice when time allows: writing a manual of the fabulous rules of hopscotch, carniça, button football, preguinho, capture the flag, ring-around-the-rosy, lenço-atrás, slope soccer, dodgeball, and the variations of marbles. The title is already set: "The Loving Ecology of Street Games."

Since 1895, the Venice Architecture Biennale has taken place across various venues in the Italian city, bringing together the most representative examples of architectural production from around the globe. What is commonly known as the Venice Architecture Biennale is, in fact, the international architecture exhibition that forms part of a broader group of multidisciplinary showcases. As both an institution and an event, the Venice Biennale involves the simultaneous organization and promotion of international festivals and exhibitions spanning art, cinema, contemporary dance, and theater. 

“Waking up early, waking the kids, making and serving breakfast, showering, bathing them, heading to the bus stop. The bag drops, the child throws a tantrum, the bus is late. Arms, backpack, child... you lose track of the order. First task of the day: the first bus and the kids arrive at school; then, rushing to another stop and another wait until the second bus arrives. Boarding, standing, dodging fatigue and harassment on the way to work. At lunchtime, a quick run to the pharmacy, and maybe the nearby open-air market. Or is today the day to stop by the butcher? Heading home from work: bags, purse, and exhaustion. A stop along the way to pick up the kids, and an inconvenient reminder of what's missing at home drives a detour to the grocery store before finally arriving back home as the day ends—though not before making dinner. Phew!”

This excerpt recounts a fictional day. However, this routine is the daily reality in many households, especially low-income ones, in peripheral areas, and in single-parent homes headed by women, where the drama of constant back-and-forth travel can be intensified by intersectional factors such as gender, race, social class, generation, territory, physical ability, and sexual orientation.

Today, Paulo Mendes da Rocha would have received the highest honor from the International Union of Architects at the World Congress of Architects (UIA 2021 RIO). To mark the occasion, the IAB São Paulo sent a letter to the city's mayor and councilors proposing a tribute to the architect.

The World Stage at UIA2021RIO, the 27th World Congress of Architects, hosted three award-winning architects from its keynote speaker lineup this week: Elizabeth de Portzamparc, a Brazilian-born architect based in France; Anna Heringer of Germany; and Tatiana Bilbao of Mexico.

Elizabeth de Portzamparc discussed the concept of “Nexus Architecture,” which advocates for connecting various elements when thinking about and creating architecture. Meanwhile, Anna Heringer advocated for a working method focused on social justice and community inclusion in projects that can transform lives. Finally, Tatiana Bilbao gave a poetic presentation on the home as a social act, housing rituals that architecture must always consider.

Videos

Designed by Atelier Marko Brajovic, the project ROOTS - mangrove ecosystem is part of the exhibition Future Assembly, curated by Studio Other Spaces, by artist Olafur Eliasson and architect Sebastian Behmann, which responds to the theme How will we live together? proposed by Hashim Sarkis, curator of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. The project features a 3D-printed model, hand drawings, and videos, which remain open to visitors until November 21, 2021, at the Giardini.

Future Assembly aims to introduce the United Nations' alternative multilateral value system to the Venice Architecture Biennale, reflecting on the past 75 years of UN multilateralism and imagining new futures of how we can collaboratively come together. The Atelier believes that a future multilateralism must expand beyond a human-centered worldview to a more-than-human gathering.

The Romano Guerra Editora and the Instituto Tomie Ohtake are launching a new book on the work of Ruy Ohtake, exploring aspects of the architect's career that have received little attention in previous publications. According to editors Abilio Guerra and Silvana Romano Santos, “the nine previous monograph publications lacked consistent technical drawings. Unrestricted access to the architect's archives, however, made it possible to analyze and present the complexity of the designs.”

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The debate on crime and public safety in Brazil has been shaped by polarization between proponents of hardline measures—ranging from stricter sentencing and streamlined legal procedures to legal immunity for police violence—and critics of the public safety and criminal justice systems, who point to systemic abuses and the ineffectiveness of incarceration in curbing crime.

Beyond this often counterproductive dichotomy—which does little to address a problem affecting a vast portion of the Brazilian population whose physical safety and property are threatened daily—crime prevention has been rarely discussed and even less prioritized. Yet, successful initiatives do exist, and they all involve local governments taking a leading role in implementing programs and coordinating police action with other social actors.

A small shelter for people experiencing homelessness has been designed in Ecuador. Combining a sleeping space and a kiosk, the structure features four wheels, allowing it to be moved as needed. 

The project, named “El Ambulantito,” was designed by the firm Natura Futura Arquitectura. The emergency shelter model consists of foldable components. “El Ambulantito was born from a reality we witness every day. A temporary shelter and production device for people who are homeless or in transit from one city to another, it prompts reflection and awareness while public policies address the issue,” the architecture firm explains. 

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Brazil has just gained another World Heritage site. The legacy of one of the 20th century's greatest landscape architects, the Roberto Burle Marx Site (SRBM) was recognized on Monday, July 26, during the 44th Session of the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 

The Site was recognized under the Cultural Landscape category, which includes properties that represent the interaction between the natural environment and human activities, resulting in a modified natural landscape. Brazil now has 23 properties inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, a registry of sites considered to possess outstanding universal value for human culture. 

The winner of the top awards at the 2021 Oscars is the subject of the latest episode on architecture and cinema from Arquicast. Nomadland, directed by Chinese-born, US-based filmmaker Chloé Zhao, portrays the life of a woman who, after losing her husband and her financial stability, moves into a van, traversing the American West and adopting a lifestyle described as nomadic. The film depicts the reality of people who, for various reasons, find themselves in this situation, prompting us to reflect on what it means to belong to a place, the definition of dwelling today, and the emotional connections we forge with the cities and landscapes we experience. Joining us to discuss these issues is Romullo Baratto, who holds a master's degree in architecture and cinema from FAU-USP and serves as the Editorial Manager of ArchDaily.