The architecture of Latin America and Spain is a testament to the rich and diverse cultures, traditions, needs, and solutions that define these territories. With more than 700 completed projects in Spanish-speaking countries published on ArchDaily en Español, the time has come to explore, debate, and choose your favorites for the Obra del Año 2026 award.

Now in its seventeenth edition, Obra del Año reaffirms its position as the premier architecture award in the Spanish-speaking world, decided entirely by its community. Starting today, March 24, our readers will take on the responsibility of choosing the best architectural works of 2025.

Over the next three weeks, the collective intelligence of our community will navigate through hundreds of projects built across Spanish-speaking nations: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Ten years ago, ArchDaily Brasil launched the inaugural edition of the Obra do Ano Award. Over the past decade, hundreds of architectural projects have been recognized as the best in the Portuguese-speaking world, thanks to the collective intelligence of ArchDaily Brasil's readers.

Today marks the start of the 2026 Obra do Ano Award, and once again we are relying on the ArchDaily Brasil community to select the best built projects in Portuguese-speaking territories. Over the next three weeks, you will be responsible for choosing the 15 finalists and the 3 winners of this edition.

All projects published during 2025 from the following countries are eligible: Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Macau, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe. In this first phase, readers can nominate one project per day to advance to the finalist stage, which will be announced on April 8.

With just five days remaining until the finalists for the 2026 Obra del Año Award are announced, there is still time to vote for your favorite projects of the year. As the largest architecture award in the Spanish-speaking world decided by its community, the Obra del Año exists to recognize the most influential architectural projects published each year on ArchDaily en Español.

On April 8, the 15 finalists chosen by the ArchDaily community during this two-week nomination period will be revealed. By nominating projects, each reader becomes part of an impartial global jury, bringing visibility to the best architecture across Spanish-speaking countries.

With only five days left until the finalists are announced, there is still time to choose your favorite projects for the 2026 Obra do Ano Award. As the largest architectural award in the Portuguese-speaking world decided by popular vote, the Obra do Ano is dedicated to recognizing the best architectural projects published every year on ArchDaily Brasil.

On April 8, the 15 finalists chosen by the ArchDaily community over these two weeks of nominations will be revealed. By nominating projects, each reader becomes part of an unbiased network of jurors, bringing visibility to the best of architecture in Portuguese-speaking countries.

A week ago, we announced the 15 finalist projects of the 2022 Building of the Year award —the prize for the best architecture in Spanish. Our jury of experts—you, our readers—made an initial selection of 15 from nearly 1,000 architectural works built in Latin America and Spain to proceed with the final vote for 3 projects that represent the best of the architecture that inspires, defines, and shapes us.

Today is the day to announce the winners of ODA2022!

We are pleased to present three projects located in Colombia, Cuba, and Chile that demonstrate the relevance of thinking of architecture as a solution to specific and local needs in order to improve the quality of life, at any scale or program. 

The 2022 Building of the Year Award is presented to you by Dornbracht, renowned for its leading designs in architecture, which can be found internationally in bathrooms and kitchens. See the selected projects below.

Today is the day to discover the finalists of ODA2022: the award for the best Spanish-language architecture. Our expert jury—meaning you, our readers—has selected 15 of your favorite projects from nearly 1,000 architectural works built across Latin America and Spain.

This award has become a true tradition, now in its 14th edition. It is an invitation extended to all our readers to recognize the works published during 2021 that inspired them and represent the identity of their local contexts in a globalized planet, shaping the way architecture is made in Latin America and Spain within an increasingly heterogeneous and multicultural world.

Starting today, and until next Wednesday, March 30, at 11:59 PM (GMT -3), you can explore each of the finalists in detail and vote for the work that best represents the Spanish-language architecture that inspires us, defines us, and leaves a mark on us. Discover all the finalist projects below.

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

At ArchDaily en Español, we recognize the need to stay in constant contact with architecture students, who will be responsible for designing and building the cities of the future. For this reason, we periodically open a call for applications to join our editorial team through our internship program.

If you currently reside in Latin America, this could be your opportunity to contribute local content to the most-visited architecture platform in the world, which inspires and informs hundreds of thousands of architects globally. If you are interested, read on.

The Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (Mitma), through the Directorate-General for Urban Agenda and Architecture, has launched a project competition with a jury for the contract to provide curatorial services, exhibition design, and touring curation for the Spanish Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition, the 2023 Venice Biennale, as indicated on the State Contracting Platform.

"Architecture and urbanism have the opportunity to offer solutions that involve looking beyond the discipline itself, so that the margins and boundaries of necessity lead us to seek actions outside of standard practice. Positioning ourselves on the margins allows us to see new alternatives, expand the practice, and have a perspective that is not central, but peripheral," say Anna Vergés and Guillem Augé (UNDO), curators of the XII Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism, whose central theme is "Habitar al margen" (Living on the Margins).

Raúl Cárdenas and Ana Martínez (ToroLab), alongside Anna Vergés and Guillem Augé (UNDO), are the curators of the XII Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism. In 2022, under the theme "Living on the Margins," the biennial set out to showcase the work of those who are providing solutions to growing social, environmental, and economic needs outside the mainstream system. To this end, they fostered a space for reflection on the use of individual and collective space—bridging the home and the street—sparking an optimistic and timely debate on the urban challenges facing the Ibero-American landscape.

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According to announcements on the UNESCO website, the World Heritage List represents an invaluable legacy of monuments, natural beauty, and cultural treasures belonging to all humanity. The sites inscribed on this list serve as milestones on our planet, symbolizing regional and national awareness of the significance of place and shared wealth, while preserving this collective heritage for future generations.

At the 2019 AIA Conference on Architecture, Turkish architect Emre Arolat (EAA) shared insights with ArchDaily regarding architectural technology, how the future role of the architect will evolve, and the significance of building materials in his projects.

Western philosophical tradition has long placed culture in opposition to nature. This dual thinking has shaped the canon of the sciences and humanities, and architecture was not left aside. Under that logic, everything that is not human exists to be exploited by them and is named "natural resource". This extractivist mindset has shaped the development of many parts of the world in the last centuries, leaving deep—sometimes irreparable—marks on the planet. Nevertheless, other ways of living have always existed. From West-African religious practices based on animism to the herbal sciences of the masters of the Sacred Jurema in Brazil; from indigenous communities in India whose life rhythm mirrors the monsoons, to the Arctic's Inuits who can see dozens of shades of white: humans and nature bear no distinction, what exists is life.

Contemporary authors bring this discussion to the realms of philosophy and, more specifically, architecture. Donna Haraway, Antônio Bispo dos Santos, Achille Mbembe, and Beatriz Colomina are only a few whose work has helped expand the narrow Western perspective, shedding light on alternative ways of living together—with other humans and more-than-humans—on this planet.

Cobe and ArchDaily invite you to the launch of the guest-edited edition of Cobe Notes x ArchDaily, on June 10, 2026. Focused on the theme of Thresholds, the event will explore architecture as a condition of ongoing transition.

Hosted at the Cobe Bookcafé, the public launch will feature a live conversation with Christele Harrouk, Editor-in-Chief of ArchDaily, Mads Birgens, Head of Urbanism at Cobe, and Jacob Blak, Head of Sustainability, moderated by Kristoffer Lindhardt Weiss, CEO and Publisher of the Danish Architectural Press. 

Walking into an electrical store can be intimidating. At first glance, all the lights are on, and the thousands of chandeliers and lamps are blinding. When you walk toward the shelves, you see dozens of options, shapes, colors, prices, and uses. On each package, informational tables display numbers that can seem confusing at first. Lumens, color temperature, wattage—there are many unfamiliar terms. Before defaulting to the cheapest option, only to find that it creates an uncomfortable or poorly balanced atmosphere, understanding a few key concepts can make a significant difference.

Lighting design plays a fundamental role in shaping how spaces are perceived and used, influencing comfort, atmosphere, and even productivity. Poorly designed lighting, on the other hand, can compromise these qualities. Rather than approaching lighting as a purely technical decision, it can be understood as an integral part of architectural design. To help clarify these choices, the following overview introduces the most common types of light sources and key concepts associated with them.

In our current cities, urban density and rising land values often force a choice between large-scale civic buildings and open public space. Traditionally, plazas have been treated as areas surrounding a building's footprint, but this strategy was modified when pilotis were introduced by the early 20th-century modernist movement. While the original intent was to create a sense of lightness that would allow circulation and light to flow beneath a structure, contemporary requirements for seismic loads, fire egress, and heavy occupancies render thin columns insufficient for the needs of current large-scale civic projects.

However, the pursuit of architectural lightness is not a strictly contemporary phenomenon. Following the modernist introduction of pilotis, several mid-century projects began experimenting with the illusion of suspension to achieve civic transparency. In 1953, the National Congress of Honduras in Tegucigalpa, designed by Mario Valenzuela, applied these principles to a legislative setting. The building consists of a solid assembly chamber elevated on a series of slender columns. Because the site sits on a terrace at the end of a sloping street, the resulting void does more than just provide circulation; it frames views of the city, creating the impression that the heavy legislative mass is lightly suspended above the urban fabric.

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ArchDaily is looking for a proactive and curious architect to be part of our Projects Collaborator Program. As a part-time program participant, you will be working with the team in charge of curating and coordinating all built project publications on ArchDaily.

Much more than merely as a protective skin, the building envelope functions as a thermal regulator that influences operational energy demand, indoor comfort, and long-term efficiency. And before renewable systems or mechanical strategies are introduced, performance begins in section. The way walls, roofs, windows and floors are layered determines how much heat is lost in winter, gained in summer, and ultimately how much energy a building consumes. At the center of this evaluation lies a fundamental metric: the thermal transmittance, or U-value. Understanding how to calculate it is essential for assessing whether an envelope conserves energy or allows it to escape.

Conceptually, thermal transmittance relates heat flow to both surface area and temperature difference. It expresses how much energy crosses one square meter of envelope for each degree of thermal gradient between its two faces.

If we divide 1 m2 of our envelope by the temperature difference between its faces, we will obtain a value that corresponds to the thermal transmittance, also called U-Value. This value tells us a building's level of thermal insulation in relation to the percentage of energy that passes through it; if the resulting number is low we will have a well-isolated surface and, on the contrary, a high number alerts us of a thermally deficient surface.