Videos

Desde la periferia is an audiovisual project directed by José Luis Uribe, PhD in architecture and professor at the School of Architecture of the University of Talca, Chile. The project consists of three documentaries to be released progressively over the next two years, exploring various aspects associated with contemporary Latin American architecture. The first installment, Volume I: Ugly, Dirty & Bad: A Contemporary Architecture in Latin America, is an audiovisual essay that gathers some of the initial thoughts on its current state through the oral accounts of a group of architects in a hotel room in Asunción, Paraguay.

To promote the key, transformative role of architecture in improving quality of life and contributing to a better world, the Higher Council of Colleges of Architects of Spain (CSCAE) is revamping the awards it has presented since 1981 with the launch of the first edition of the ARQUITECTURA Awards.

Organized by the Colombian Society of Architects - Bogotá and Cundinamarca Chapter (SCA BC) and the Administrative Department of the Public Space Ombudsman (DADEP), the II Bogotá Public Space Biennial 2021 (BEP BOG) aims to recognize and showcase projects that contribute to the creation, recovery, and sustainability of public space in the city of Bogotá.

The New Municipal Swimming Pool of La Calera project in the Valparaíso Region is about to begin construction, as announced by the firm Gubbins Polidura Arquitectos on social media.

The city is in constant flux: monuments disappear, landmarks are forgotten, and new symbols emerge, prompting streets, plazas, and walls to redefine the urban landscape. In doing so, they offer new reference points, narratives, and ways of understanding the city, our history, and our society.

Thinking, discussing, and reconfiguring the city through art involves a series of processes. Researching territories, their inhabitants, sociocultural environments, and relational dynamics are essential pillars when designing and implementing installations that impact the city. The proliferation of large-scale artistic interventions that prioritize the purely aesthetic forces us to reflect on what we encounter in public spaces and how these encounters affect our daily lives.

August 19 is World Photography Day. To mark this occasion, we present the winning entries of the recent photography competition "Interculturality and Inhabited Heritage" ("Interculturalidad y Patrimonio Habitado").

Videos

The internationally renowned art collective _marina_morón (comprising Dr. Jesús Marina, PhD in History, and architect Dr. Elena Morón, PhD) inaugurated their latest work at the Pabellón de Mixtos of La Ciudadela in the city of Pamplona.
The exhibition is sponsored by the Basque-Navarrese Association of Architects and the Pamplona City Council, and will remain open to the public until March 15, 2022.

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May 3rd is a holiday originating from the Finding of the Holy Cross (also known as May Cross or Feast of the Crosses), which traces its roots back to Roman rites celebrating the Cross of Christ. Over time, this commemoration has evolved and been adopted across cities in Mexico, Chile, Spain, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela, where traditions include floral decorations, processions, and dances.

The IPCC has published its latest report on the environmental crisis, "Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability." The latest findings warn that urgent priority must be given to action on the adaptability of the built environment, noting that, globally, the most rapid growth in urban vulnerability has occurred in informal and unplanned settlements, as well as in small to medium-sized urban centers in low-income countries with limited adaptive capacity. This is a recurring reality across Latin America.

The world of gastronomy is about far more than just food; space plays a vital role in the overall dining experience. To achieve this, architecture transcends mere functionality to cultivate distinct atmospheres through the meticulous curation of light, acoustics, color, texture, and form, ensuring both intimacy and comfort for diners.

The city of Lima—capital of Peru, a preeminent culinary destination—features a diverse array of restaurants and cafés that reflect the country's rich heritage. Below, we present a selection of 10 restaurants and cafés offering unique dining experiences across the city.

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Sponsored by the Argentine Federation of Architecture Organizations (FADEA), the Argentine Center of Engineers (CAI) commissioned the Central Society of Architects (SCA) to organize and run the binding National Preliminary Design Competition for the Argentine Center of Innovation: Conservation, Preservation, and Adaptation of the CAI Headquarters, located in downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Could a space be one and many at the same time? Under the name Minimum Common Multiple, Estudio BNAA has designed a space of minimal footprints—typically used for commercial premises or offices—with the unique feature of being able to transform into multiple spaces simultaneously. Located in San Luis, Argentina, the project references the mathematical concept of the least common multiple (LCM) but from a different approach and function, combining movement, flexibility, and the use of magnetism as a construction system.

In this conversation for LA ESCUELA___, Miguel Braceli and Cecilia Vicuña reflect on the artist's pedagogical experiences, her understanding of architecture as a transformative force, and the potential of precariousness in Latin America as a source of creation.

Cecilia Vicuña (Santiago, Chile, 1948) is a Chilean visual artist and poet; throughout her extensive career, she has explored themes related to nature, ancestral knowledge, and feminism. Based in New York, Vicuña safeguards and shares a deep wisdom regarding her Indigenous roots, as well as her experiences from nomadic journeys around the world, where acquired knowledge takes on intangible, "virtual," and collective forms through oral tradition and listening, weaving, and ritual.

Ana García, architect and founder of NeuronaLab, recently interviewed Aureli Soria-Frish from the company Starlab. They discussed how the latest technological advances are increasingly being used to objectify neural activity and the emotional states associated with architectural spaces. Below, she shares her key reflections.

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Mexican interior designer and artist Olga Hanono has been invited to present her latest exhibition, DREAMVILLE, at La Biennale de Venezia Modigliani Opera Vision, from May 1 to July 31, 2022. The collection is inspired by the human capacity to dream, reflecting on imaginary objects that might exist within a dreamscape, along with the variety of colors and shapes found in distant stars, planets, and galaxies. Hanono has created art pieces and furniture using unconventional, luxurious materials.

For the third time since its founding in 2002, Colombia will host the Latin American Social Workshop of Architecture Students under the name 'Tejiendo Paisajes: TSL Manizales 2022', marking the event's first edition since the start of the pandemic.

The Provincial Ideas and Preliminary Design Competition for the development of a prototype for Innovative Social, Urban, and Sustainable Housing (V.I.S.U.S.) was organized by the Architects' Association of the Province of Córdoba. Promoted by the Construction Cluster of the Province of Córdoba and supported by ADEC's Competitiveness Fund, the initiative seeks to address the growing housing deficit by fostering debate on how architects approach multi-family condominium housing as well as single-family social housing in Argentina.

The winning projects of the 2020-2022 edition of the Richard H. Driehaus International Architecture Competition have been announced, aimed at honoring architectural and urban planning practices rooted in the culture, materials, and resources of each territory. With three Spanish sites selected for this edition, the goal is to preserve and promote local traditions and identity, as well as the circular economy, craftsmanship, and the use of sustainable, reusable materials from the surrounding area.

This year we celebrate the fourteenth edition of the Obra del Año 2022 award—the highest recognition in the Spanish-speaking architectural world, where the winners are chosen by popular vote. Starting today, Tuesday, March 8, our readers will be responsible for determining which projects inspired us during 2021, faithfully representing the identity of our local contexts while shaping the way architecture is practiced around the world.

Over the next three weeks, the entire ArchDaily en Español network (Plataforma Arquitectura, ArchDaily México, ArchDaily Colombia and ArchDaily Perú) will serve as the platform to celebrate the best built architecture in Spanish-speaking America and Spain.

With nearly a thousand projects published in 2021, you can easily find your favorites by browsing through each category and using the search engine to filter projects by country and architecture firm. 

The 2022 Obra del Año Award is brought to you by Dornbracht, renowned for its design leadership in architecture, which can be found internationally in bathrooms and kitchens.

Twenty years after its first edition in Colombia, the Latin American Social Workshop returns to the South American country. In this edition, students from across Latin America, alongside architects from Colombia, Ecuador, and Chile, are intervening in three areas in the coffee-growing city of Manizales: a rural settlement in the middle of the mountain range, a self-managed park, and the slopes of an informal pedestrian neighborhood.

Here, we invite you to explore the progress made by the architectural teams participating in the 18th Latin American Social Workshop (TSL XVIII) in Manizales.

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CHINAS CHINAS is a research project conducted by FLORA. It maps a trajectory through the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, based on a typological analysis of Chinese supermarkets. Its objective is to recognize and explore the modes of appropriation and domestic micro-scales that occur within them, demonstrating that urban architecture is shaped by everyday banalities. Ultimately, architecture takes on meaning when living conditions are defined by the people themselves. Inhabiting—beyond mere functionality—is precisely about this.

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During the summer of 2021, the coast of Oaxaca, Mexico, hosted the first edition of a new platform created to discuss, exhibit, and celebrate the national design scene. Mexico Design Fair was established with the primary goal of promoting the acquisition of contemporary Mexican design to strengthen its positioning, while understanding and transcending the dynamics of the international market. This inaugural event featured key figures from today's design scene, such as Proyector and Pablo Kobayashi, who created temporary installations along the coast of Puerto Escondido. Other activities included the "Designer of the Year" award ceremony, presented to Mexican designer Liliana Ovalle.

The fourth season of the podcast Causa Común—a co-production between Fundación Lepe and Fundación Aldea for the OH! Stgo festival, held in mid-January in Santiago, Chile—explores the past, present, and future of the capital, alongside the role of its inhabitants in prioritizing the common good and collaborative ways of making, inhabiting, and imagining our shared home.

Directed and coordinated by Francisca Cordero, Soledad Díaz de la Fuente, Magdalena Novoa, and Trinidad Piriz, the six-episode season examines the everyday stories, communities, monuments, and public spaces we inhabit from new perspectives. Featured topics range from the multiple identities of a public square, female leadership in housing projects, and the construction of urban memory, to island hills as socio-environmental opportunities, Mapuche urban dwelling, and the GAM building as an exponent of architecture and social change.

"Lima La Impostergable" (Lima, Unpostponable) is an initiative by the Lima Regional Chapter of the College of Architects of Peru. It aims to establish a roadmap for priority issues to be addressed by the 2023–2026 municipal administration of Metropolitan Lima and Callao, built through a platform of citizen engagement.