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.

Bookshelves are one of the elements present in almost every interior space, whether in homes, retail, offices, or even pavilions. Yemail Arquitectura, a Bogotá-based firm, shares its exploration of this element, which plays a key role in the spatial configurations of its multi-use projects.

Along with Zhongguancun Science City and Future Science City, Huairou Science City has been designated by the State Council as one of the capital's three major science cities dedicated to establishing a national center for scientific and technological innovation. With the official establishment of the Beijing Yanqi Lake Institute for Applied Mathematics in Huairou Science City, the area has become a focal point for domestic and international architectural firms. In the international competition for the conceptual planning and design of the Beijing BBMG Xingfa Cement Factory transformation project (which includes the Institute for Applied Mathematics), HPP, in collaboration with the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD), has emerged as the winning team.

The project covers a total site area of 61.35 hectares, with a total above-ground gross floor area of 182,200 square meters. The landscape surrounding the factory has already undergone initial transformation: the adjacent quarry, retaining its excavated rock formations, has been converted into a mine park; leftover tailings from the factory's closure have been transformed into landscape walls; and a new viewing pavilion built of weathering steel has been added, infusing the mountainous landscape with a strong industrial character. Within the factory grounds, 54 structures have been designated for preservation—including cement silos, elevated pipe galleries, and red-brick workshops—totaling approximately 70,000 square meters.

Why stay in the city?

For many urban dwellers, the answer is obvious: “It’s hard to find a job in a smaller town. Plus, there’s not even a movie theater, restaurant options are limited, and the schools aren’t that great.”

Still largely overlooked by the international media, Angola's contemporary architectural production faces, much like many of its African neighbors, social and economic realities that do not favor its dissemination. When the typical challenges of architecture are compounded by others stemming from an intense process of neocolonialism, taking good ideas off the drawing board and actually building them becomes a formidable task. Stretching the relationship between the physical and the digital, the Angolan collective Banga turns to virtual space to bring to life projects that blend architecture, sensory experiences, and art.

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CCPM is an architecture studio founded in 2017 in Buenos Aires. With a body of work initially focused on small- and medium-scale projects—particularly renovations and additions to existing PHs—they have developed their own reflections on domestic living and urban densification, exploring various technological and material inquiries. In parallel, they have also undertaken socio-territorial research centered on water and technology, conceiving urbanity from a hybrid perspective that blurs the boundary between nature and the city.

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

Colombia has an immense territory with some of the greatest biodiversity in the world thanks to its privileged geography, and human presence spans the majority of this territory, regardless of how far it is from urban centers. Below, Sebastian Contreras of Estación Espacial Arquitectos presents the experience and both the human and architectural challenges of building a Maloca with and for the Ticuna community deep in the Colombian Amazon.

On July 31, during the 103rd Ordinary Plenary Session, the CAU/BR Temporary Commission on Gender Equity released the 1st "Gender in Architecture and Urbanism" Diagnosis. Conducted online from July 2019 to February 2020, the survey was answered by 987 professionals (767 women and 208 men), with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.11%.

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

The following article is the result of a thesis research project by Colombian architect Sebastián Rojas (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana), which explores the materialities and vernacular construction techniques across 23 prototypes from regions such as the Coffee Axis, the Colombian Amazon, the Cundiboyacense Highlands, and the North Coast.

In today's world, where the urban footprint is expanding rapidly and construction costs severely impact the planet, alternative solutions have emerged that return to essential principles. During the 2020 Academic Housing Forum at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, key issues surrounding the critical housing situation in a developing country like Colombia were presented.

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The National Social Distancing Campaign in Mexico began on March 23, 2020. However, even a couple of weeks prior—despite the federal government's recommendation to continue daily activities as normal—social media users were already choosing to replicate the European model of self-isolation. Some architecture firms immediately decided to close their physical spaces and transition to remote work, while others took several weeks to adapt. Ultimately, this period of social and physical (spatial) distancing is experienced differently in every home. The months of this pandemic have exposed not only the systemic inequalities regarding basic needs in dense urban areas, but also the fragility of our established social order. Whether at a macro or micro scale, these experiences are shaped by the built environment, positioning architecture as both a witness to and a defining factor in this equation. 

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One of the most interesting challenges and boundaries in architectural design revolves around the conceptualization and design of ephemeral spaces. Ephemeral architecture is communication at its core—a spatial, three-dimensional format that drives and generates perceptions to connect with visitors and convey specific messages.

Naturally, the word "ephemeral" implies a finite lifespan, which introduces unique constraints across the entire development process of a project. This ranges from the initial concept and design phase, through the construction of the budgeted executive project agreed upon with the client, to its eventual disassembly and the recycling of its materials.

This article by Alberto Bravo de Laguna Socorro was originally published in the 12th issue of revista rita_ under the title "Transgression, experimentation and communicability of the graphic in collective architectures: Indices of an engaged graphic expression."

PRODUCTORA is a Mexico City-based architecture studio founded by Abel Perles (1972, Argentina), Carlos Bedoya (1973, Mexico), Víctor Jaime (1978, Mexico), and Wonne Ickx (1974, Belgium). The firm is characterized by its emphasis on precise geometries in an effort to generate legible projects with clear gestures, as well as its pursuit of timeless material and spatial resolutions.

Brutalisim is an architectural movement that emerged in Europe in the 1960s and became one of the most controversial yet popular styles worldwide. This was due to various factors, including its use of raw concrete and, more broadly, its ideals focused on public service through monumental works. Furthermore, it became a new medium for expressing contemporary political stances through functional public spaces.

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The Lisbon Architecture Triennale has released on its Vimeo channel the Talk, Talk, Talk debate series, held as part of its 5th edition under the general curation of Éric Lapierre. Divided into five major exhibitions, one of the Triennale's showcases addressed the relationship between agriculture and architecture, which is the theme of the debates featured here.

Indian architecture firm Manoj Patel Design Studio has designed several award-winning projects that make creative use of clay roof tiles. In one of them, named Ridge Clay Roof Tile Plantation, a vertical garden was created using these tiles.

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

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The La Carcova Educational Park project is defined as an ongoing, long-term collaborative effort, initiated by the creation of a university network united by a common goal in a specific territory with many unmet basic needs.

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Driven by a personal quest to explore heritage and preserve Mexican traditions, architect Ana Ibañez has created a collection titled “Barraganescas,” featuring jewelry pieces inspired by the houses designed by architect Luis Barragán in the city of Guadalajara.

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Chuchín is that endearing figure whom you always remember despite the passage of time, whether you are a student, architect, professor, staff member, or fellow worker. Felipe de Jesús Cortés Guevara—or Chuchín, as he is commonly known—seems to go nowhere else; he is always watching over what he considers his second home, the UNAM School of Architecture.

In the early hours of January 11, 1967, a polar air mass swept into the country, bringing snow to Mexico City and blanketing the entire capital under a soft, pristine white layer. One day, more than 50 years ago, our urban sprawl woke up covered in white. It was not smog, nor the pollution of an unrelenting beltway; it was pure snow. The last time it snowed in Mexico City was January 11, 1967. That day, schools closed, people went outside to build snowmen and throw snowballs, and emergency services were overwhelmed by the beautiful catastrophe of so much snow.

Charlas de Terraza is an initiative hosted at the office of OPUS in Medellín. It features conversations that extend beyond architecture and, adapting to the COVID-19 lockdowns, is currently being held virtually. Alongside these talks, there is another initiative dedicated to sketching called Club de Dibujo (Drawing Club). In this session, both formats merged as the Medellín-based practice, along with Alejandro Enriquez from Bogotá, discussed the sketch and its process.