From using linguistic theory as an analytical methodology in architecture to understanding buildings as mediums of communication, the intersections between language and architecture are closer than they might first appear.
Understanding the building as a medium of communication can occur in various ways—such as integrating paintings, engravings, sculptures, and ornamentation into the architecture—but also through the literal incorporation of letters and symbols as architectural elements.
Icon, an American construction robotics startup, was founded with the promise of building emergency housing using 3D printers. A model home was built in Austin, Texas, in 2018. Two years later in the same city, the company began delivering a series of homes for the unhoused.
A recovering heroin addict, Tim Shea was previously homeless, with his last home being a van. The 70-year-old American was the first to receive the keys to a printed home in September 2020.
With the aim of getting to know the architects, projects, and stories behind landmark Portuguese architecture, Sara Nunes, from the architectural film production company Building Pictures, launched the podcast No País dos Arquitectos, where she talks with leading names in contemporary Portuguese architecture.
In her first episode, Sara spoke with architect João Luís Carrilho da Graça about his Lisbon Cruise Terminal. Now, for the second interview, she welcomes João Mendes Ribeiro for a conversation about heritage, the adaptive reuse of historical structures, and landscape architecture, focusing on the rehabilitation of the greenhouse at the Botanical Garden of Coimbra, the city where the architect is based. Read the full interview or listen to the podcast below.
Designed to allow light to pass through spaces while ensuring greater privacy for users, the use of reeded glass expands the possibilities of applying glass in architectural projects.
The grooves that characterize reeded glass are produced through the drawing process of flat glass, fragmenting the image passing through the surface into vertical or horizontal bands, depending on its orientation.
Arquigrafias. Guido Guidi and Álvaro Siza is the exhibition marking the public reopening of Casa da Arquitectura after the lockdown. Curated by Paula Pinto and Joaquim Moreno, the exhibition of photographs by Italian photographer Guido Guidi of the work of architect Álvaro Siza is on display at the Casa Gallery from April 17 to October 3, 2021.
The curators selected eight projects located in Lisbon, Porto, and Matosinhos, represented through 97 images captured by Guido Guidi's lens. Arquigrafias thus offers a “dialogue between the photographic work of Guido Guidi (Cesena, 1941) and the architectural work of Álvaro Siza (Matosinhos, 1933), constituting a unique encounter between two singular figures in their respective fields.”
Applications are now open for the National Wood Architecture Award, PNAM’21. Submissions for this prestigious Portuguese architecture award are open until June 30, 2021. Held biennially, PNAM aims to encourage and promote Portuguese forest reserves through innovation, enhancement, circularity, and the promotion and use of wood and wood-derived products in buildings.
The Arquicast Interview series aims both to showcase the work of architectural practices from different regions of Brazil and to shed new light on established architects. Through casual conversations about daily professional life, behind-the-scenes insights, and stories behind their projects, it explores the personal experiences that have shaped their worldviews.
In this episode, the team speaks with Francisco Spadoni, from Spadoni & Associados Arquitetura. Founded in 1996 upon his return from Paris after working with Kenzo Tange, the firm is led by Spadoni and Tiago de Oliveira Andrade. The practice regularly participates in architectural competitions in Brazil and abroad, earning recognition in several of them. Their projects are characterized by confronting challenges and complexities across multiple scales, always from a reflective and critical standpoint.
The Center for Studies and Research in Indigenous Technologies, Tecnoíndia—founded by UFMT professor José Afonso Botura Portocarrero, an architect with a PhD from the School of Architecture and Urbanism at USP, and retired UFMT anthropologist Maria Fátima Roberto Machado, who holds a PhD from the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro—is releasing a new book that compiles articles produced over 20 years of research and teaching on Indigenous technologies and architecture in Mato Grosso.
While working on Raid on Bungeling Bay—a game about bombing cities—legendary game designer Will Wright discovered he had more fun designing the cities than destroying them. He then wondered if players would enjoy having that same opportunity.
Four years later, the result was SimCity, a game that broke away from traditional gaming conventions by swapping levels for open-ended gameplay and clear objectives for a sandbox—a blank slate for creativity. Players were given an empty plot of land, a pile of cash, and a few basic planning tools, and then left to do as they pleased.
Far beyond mere repositories for books, libraries are spaces that, through the preservation of culture and knowledge, transform into places for gathering and exchange. Much like a book, they provide fertile ground for cultivating new ideas. To mark World Book Day, we present a selection of recently built libraries from around the world.
The Ordem dos Arquitectos proposes a dialogue regarding current challenges for a post-pandemic future, intersecting architecture, art, the city, and politics in response to the European Commission President’s call for a New European Bauhaus. The event serves as a debate on new ways of inhabiting space, grounded in the premise of sustainability.
In primitive huts thousands of years ago, humans used animal skins and tree branches to build their shelters—the very same materials used to protect their bodies from the elements. From clothing to housing, these textile elements have accompanied human history, evolving alongside technology and securing a place in architectural production that goes far beyond membrane structures made of polyester/PVC and canvas. Today, they can be seen in other applications such as facade panels, interior partitions, openwork canopies, and more.
Art Nouveau, or new art, was an artistic movement that emerged in Belgium in the late 19th century and rapidly spread across several European countries and the United States. It was "new" art because it rejected academic canons and marked a break with the past. Spurred by the developments and societal changes brought about by the Second Industrial Revolution, the movement's artists sought to create a visual language that aligned with the advancements of their time, transcending antiquity, academicism, and aesthetic conservatism. Consequently, their works combined classical elements with contemporary details, merging different styles to form an original whole.
The Ipiranga Museum, located in São Paulo's south zone, has launched a virtual tour that allows users to follow the progress of the restoration and expansion of the building and its immediate surroundings. The digital tour features 360-degree camera footage captured across various spaces of the building and construction site, providing an overview of the renovation's progress.
At a time when urbanization has become planetary and humanity has become a geological force capable of profoundly altering Earth's thermodynamic cycles, it is urgent to reinvent the urban way of life and rehearse other forms of coexistence between humans, animals, and plants—between cities, forests, rivers, and mountains. Furthermore, it is urgent to design, with our feet on the ground and in collaboration with the peoples and sciences of the Earth, the conditions for future habitability.
France is investing in initiatives to combat climate change, including shifting to more sustainable modes of transport. Owners of older cars can now receive a government subsidy of up to 2,500 euros to trade in their vehicles for electric bicycles.
“For the first time, it is recognized that the solution is not to make cars greener, but simply to reduce their number,” noted Olivier Schneider of the French Federation of Bicycle Users.
With the goal of discovering the architects, projects, and stories behind landmark Portuguese architecture, Sara Nunes, of the architectural film production company Building Pictures, launched the podcast No País dos Arquitectos, where she talks with key figures of contemporary Portuguese architecture.
In its first episóde, Sara spoke with architect João Luís Carrilho da Graça about his Lisbon Cruise Terminal, and then welcomed João Mendes Ribeiro for a conversation on heritage, the reuse of old structures, and landscape architecture, based on the rehabilitation project of the Coimbra Botanical Garden greenhouse. In this third episode, Sara talks with architect Inês Lobo about the Public Library and Regional Archive of Angra do Heroísmo. Read the full interview or listen to the podcast below.
