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The Colombian Society of Architects (SCA) has announced the finalists for the 27th Colombian Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (BICAU XVII) across all categories. The selected projects, which you can explore below, will receive either an Honorable Mention or be named winners of their respective categories; the winner of the National Architecture and Urbanism Prize will also be chosen from among them.

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Bridges and walkways are horizontal circulation elements that establish physical connections between the interior or exterior spaces of a project, articulating their layout and, in some cases, bridging existing level changes. These suspended structures enhance visual connections between different levels and, through more dynamic pathways, enable the creation of intentional framing sequences.

Within residential spaces, architects choose to give more or less prominence to certain areas of the program, depending on client preferences. While some prefer to prioritize more intimate spaces, others lean toward social areas—with the kitchen being a primary example.

Although the pragmatic function of a kitchen is to serve as a space for preparing food, there are few homes where it does not also double as a gathering place. Even in traditional dwellings like the Mapuche *ruka*, a central hearth is used both for cooking and for heating, conceptually evoking the same welcoming atmosphere as integrated urban kitchens. Today, fire is managed through stoves—with a strong modern shift toward induction cooktops for their safety and precise temperature control. Nevertheless, the core domestic principle remains the same, and contemporary architecture has allowed the kitchen to once again integrate seamlessly with daily activities and social zones.

In most architectural works involving level changes, vertical circulation is, almost by implication, a central design feature, with stairs being the most common expression.

Below, we present a selection of projects in Colombia across various typologies where vertical circulation plays a hierarchical, organizing role, and in some cases, becomes the primary driver of the building's space and atmosphere.

The focus of buildings should ultimately be the well-being of the people using them. When we think of our experiences in hospitals, clinics, the dentist's office, and other medical facilities, the feeling is rarely pleasant. Perhaps it's the smells, the dull, monotone colors, or the sound of medical gadgets working away on some unlucky patient. 

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.

During the lockdown, ArchDaily hosted a series of interviews and talks via Instagram Live with some of contemporary architecture's most influential practices. In this installment, we spoke with Giancarlo Mazzanti about everything from the opportunities presented by the pandemic and his architectural philosophy to the notions of foreignness and legacy. Below is the transcript of our conversation.

El Equipo Mazzanti's ongoing commitment to improving spatial quality and the experience of educational environments is one of the defining hallmarks of Colombian practice. Below, they share an in-depth exploration of their project, the modular preschool system - CDI for the department of Atlántico in northern Colombia.

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At the start of the lockdown period, ArchDaily conducted a series of interviews and talks in a more informal format. This allowed us to share a space via Instagram Live with some of the most influential contemporary architecture practices from our local sites and around the world.

Here, we present the conversation we had on our Colombian site with the founders of one of the country's most internationally and nationally renowned firms: Daniel Bonilla and Marcela Albornoz, leaders of taller de arquitectura de bogotá. Below is the transcript of our conversation.

Following the onset of isolation and social distancing, we opened up a space to interview architects, exploring their architectural perspectives through a lens of empathy for our shared global situation. Broadcast live on ArchDaily Colombia's Instagram, one of these conversations was with Antonio Yemail, principal of the Bogotá-based firm Yemail Arquitectura.

The free, publicly accessible online lecture hosted by Cooper Union featuring Daniel Bonilla—the Colombian architect leading taller de arquitectura de bogotá—titled Remote Lecture | Daniel Bonilla: tab>| Praxis & Research is now available on its website.

Nothing is more rational than using the wind, a natural, free, renewable and healthy resource, to improve the thermal comfort of our projects. The awareness of the finiteness of the resources and the demand for the reduction in the energy consumption has removed air-conditioning systems as the protagonist of any project. Architects and engineers are turning to this more passive system to improve thermal comfort. It is evident that there are extreme climates in which there is no escape, or else the use of artificial systems, but in a large part of the terrestrial surface it is possible to provide a pleasant flow of air through the environments by means of passive systems, especially if the actions are considered during the project stage.

This is a highly complex theme, but we have approached some of the concepts exemplifying them with built projects. A series of ventilation systems can help in the projects: natural cross ventilation, natural induced ventilation, chimney effect and evaporative cooling, which combined with the correct use of constructive elements allows improvement in thermal comfort and decrease in energy consumption.

Architecture impacts the context in which it is built. However, the user experience ultimately unfolds within interior spaces. Great figures like Rogelio Salmona and Antonio Gaudí conceived their works across the entire architectural spectrum, ensuring that even the finest finish details were integral to the experience.

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