Bringing lighting to those in need using solar energy and affordable materials. This is the mission of the NGO Litro de Luz, which, during a three-day campaign, positively impacted the quality of life of 173 families from riverside communities living along the banks of the Rio Negro in the Amazon.
One of the great theorists of architecture, the city, and nature recently passed away on March 17, 2022, at the age of 85. Born in Vienna on October 4, 1936, Christopher Alexander lived a long life of singular contributions, offering visionary ideas about cities that challenged the mainstream of architectural practice.
From May 5 to 15, the first edition of Model. Barcelona Architectural Festival will take place. Co-organized by the Barcelona City Council and the Architects' Association of Catalonia (COAC), the event will serve as an open, plural, and multidisciplinary space for reflection, addressing key debates in architecture and urbanism to confront the social, political, and climate challenges of the 21st century.
Dating back to 1535, the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Igarassu, Pernambuco, is considered the oldest surviving church in Brazil. This iconic landmark has recently undergone an extensive restoration that preserves its historic features while introducing upgrades to facilitate its contemporary use. The intervention also included the adjacent two-story Parish House.
Alternating between housewife and architect, Lina Bo Bardi appeared in the pages of O Cruzeiro magazine—featured in women's columns for her risotto alla milanese, and in cultural sections as the architect of MASP (Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo). Published weekly by Assis Chateaubriand's Diários Associados, O Cruzeiro enjoyed nationwide notoriety and circulation. Although targeted at upper-class housewives, its content was broad, covering fashion, culture, cinema, politics, and "women's advice sections" (sic).
No País dos Arquitectos is a podcast created by Sara Nunes, who also runs the architecture film production company Building Pictures. The podcast aims to profile the professionals, projects, and stories behind Portugal's leading contemporary architecture. With just over 10 million inhabitants, Portugal is a fascinating country when it comes to this professional field, and its architectural output far exceeds its population or territorial scale.
In this episode, Sara talks with the architects of extrastudio, João Caldeira Ferrão and João Costa Ribeiro, about the Red House project. Listen to the full interview and read an excerpt of the transcript below:
Lacking a clear definition, the term smart cities has become increasingly common with each passing year. Many theorists point out that this conceptual ambiguity is linked to its rapid adoption and expansion by large corporations and institutions, thus turning it into a buzzword. Despite the “innovative” rhetoric, the model chosen to implement a smart city can lead to segregation and privilege specific groups if it is not designed around local specificities and does not involve local leadership (MENDES, 2020). This essay adopts the understanding that innovation and intelligence are not necessarily tied to digital technologies or high-cost resources. Rather, they stem from a fresh perspective on urban problems and the development of non-traditional solutions in decision-making and execution.
One of the most highly acclaimed television productions of recent years, “Severance” (released as “Ruptura” in Brazil), the Apple TV+ sci-fi series released in 2022, establishes an intriguing premise: employees of the mysterious Lumon Industries volunteer to undergo a procedure that surgically separates their personal and professional memories, ensuring that their work and private lives never overlap. The procedure thus creates an intermittent alter ego, mutually unaware of the other self and hyper-focused on its respective domain. The deft direction of Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle, coupled with stellar performances from the cast, does justice to Dan Erickson's brilliant plot. Here, however, we focus on how the show's primary setting—the corporate headquarters in the fictional town of Kier—heightens the distress of the small team of employees through the architecture that houses and alienates them during the workday.
Gentrification is the process by which real estate becomes more desirable and, consequently, more expensive. Rising prices displace long-time residents, replacing them with higher-income newcomers. This should not be confused with the forced removal of citizens through eminent domain or forced evictions. Evicting residents by official decree is a different issue altogether.
"Agostinho de Freitas was an extraordinary artist," says Agnaldo Farias, art critic, professor, and curator of the exhibition “Agostinho Batista de Freitas – Mestre das Ruas,” on view from May 12 to June 11 at Galeria Estação in São Paulo. The exhibition features a selection of about 20 of the artist's canvases from the collection of gallerist Vilma Eid.
Color, Space, and Style is an essential guide for interior designers, students, and anyone undertaking an interior design project. In the world of interior design, information is often scattered across countless inspirational publications that lack a foundation in design principles, or within a few informative design manuals that lack theoretical grounding. Color, Space, and Style gathers the essential information and ideas for planning and executing interior projects of all scales, distilling them into a format that is as easy to use as it is to carry. The topics covered include project planning and management, graphic representation and presentation techniques, space design and sequencing, color characteristics, materials, textures, patterns and motifs, natural and artificial light, building systems, accessibility codes, and sustainability. To demonstrate how these topics can be creatively interpreted in practice, the book features numerous interviews with interior designers.
Urban planning is of interest to everyone, but it is no subject for novices. With this in mind, Arquicast invited professionals who contribute directly to the field through extensive research and practical experience for a conversation. Joining the podcast are Roberto Ghidini, an engineer, urban observer, founder of Sociedad Peatonal, and PhD in Urbanism from UPM (Polytechnic University of Madrid); and João Flávio Folly, an architect with a Master’s in Urbanism from UFF and currently a PhD candidate in Mobility and Urbanism at PROURB/UFRJ.
On May 5, the first edition of the Model. Barcelona Architectures Festival officially opened. Jointly organized by the Barcelona City Council and the Association of Architects of Catalonia (COAC), the event is led by artistic directors Eva Franch i Gilabert and Beth Galí, along with cultural researcher José Luis de Vicente. It brings us closer to experimental architecture, helping us rethink how we want to live together through new urban models and new imaginaries.
Through five temporary architecture installations located along a circuit in Ciutat Vella—starting at Plaza de Catalunya, the Sant Antoni slab, Plaza de Idrissa Diallo, Paseo de Lluís Companys, and Plaza Reial—the festival explores its five major themes under the central concept of "Regrow": Between-Classes, Between-Cultures, Between-Species, Between-Generations, and Between-Materials.
In this context, we present the installation "Reversing the Pyramid" by OJO estudio.
