To promote the key, transformative role of architecture in improving quality of life and contributing to a better world, the Higher Council of Colleges of Architects of Spain (CSCAE) is revamping the awards it has presented since 1981 with the launch of the first edition of the ARQUITECTURA Awards.
Architects and designers, as well as psychologists and sociologists, recognize that aesthetics and its underlying philosophy have the power to change how we perceive the world around us. Consequently, a deeper understanding of what is beautiful holds the powerful potential to alter how people respond to their environment.
Exploring the different meanings of aesthetics in architecture, from 'form follows function' to the aesthetics of the metaverse, can help us understand the potential of our physical and virtual environments on the path toward a better world.
Much has been written on the subject, from Alberto Pérez-Gómez's "The Beautiful and the Just in Architecture" to Pablo Caldera's "The Failure of Beauty." Now, however, we want to open up the debate and invite you, our readers, to share your perspectives on what makes a building or a city beautiful.
Share your thoughts in the form below. Selected responses will be published in an upcoming article.
In 2019, the Governing Council of the URJC (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos) approved an infrastructure plan to remodel several of the university's campus buildings, including the classroom and departmental building on the Madrid-Vicálvaro Campus. This led to an agreement with the COAM (Official Association of Architects of Madrid) to organize an ideas competition to select the final design for the building, which was launched in February 2022.
Every year, the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA), through the National System of Art Creators (SNCA), recognizes those who represent excellence in national culture through the Jóvenes Creadores Program. By providing grants, the program supports the creative and training processes of young Mexican artists, fostering favorable conditions for the development of original, significant, and positive creative projects.
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This article was originally published in La Joven Cuba on June 28, 2022.
A few weeks ago, I visited the rooftop observation deck of the hotel Paseo del Prado and marveled at its immense beauty during the sunset. Ahead, the entrance to the bay and the Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro; turning left, the silhouette of the Malecón; turning right, the Paseo del Prado, with the massive Capitol building crowning the perspective. Few cities in the world possess such architectural and landscape beauty, such history and monumentality.
Yet, looking back, what I saw was nothing to be proud of. Though it still held a certain beauty, it was a sad, gray sight: the vast, faded, and deteriorated expanse of the city stretching behind the facades of Prado and the Malecón.
As is well known, the year 2015 saw a boom in coworking spaces—a type of shared office that typically operates in an open environment (though some companies offer closed offices), located either across entire floors of high-rise buildings or in repurposed historic sites adapted for these new ways of living and working. These new setups speak to a professional community in the midst of self-reinvention, where an increasing number of entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small businesses seek affordable spaces that offer networking opportunities in cooperative environments. These shared workplaces provide access to resources such as high-speed internet, desks, chairs, lamps, filing cabinets, printers, copiers, kitchens, and phone booths in strategic urban locations.
Architectural works from around the world are the primary inspiration for Erika Moreno, the creator of HUAJJE, a digital illustration project. The project was born in 2019, a year after Moreno completed her architecture degree in Tijuana. “The project started by accident; my only goal in making these drawings was to learn how to use more Photoshop tools—it was a personal challenge.” To document her process, she decided to open an Instagram account, which has since fostered an organic community that shares and supports her work. This has encouraged her to overcome her fears and even host workshops on the subject in various formats.
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For the third time since its founding in 2002, Colombia will host the Latin American Social Workshop for Architecture Students under the name 'Tejiendo Paisajes: TSL Manizales 2022'—the first edition of the event since the onset of the pandemic.
The ARQUITECTURA Awards, organized by the Higher Council of Colleges of Architects of Spain (CSCAE) and officially sponsored by COMPAC, concluded their inaugural edition with a celebration at CaixaForum Madrid, where the nine winning projects were announced. The awards recognized and celebrated social, cultural, and sustainable values in architecture and urbanism, with a particular focus on the projects' impact on human health, well-being, and safety, as well as planetary sustainability.
The professional network Soy Arquitecta, the Feminist Urbanism, Architecture, and Design Research Group, and the Observatory of Urban and Territorial Phenomena (FAU-UNT) organized the Argentine Female Architects Survey within the collaborative framework of CONICET, PICT "Design, Architecture, and Urbanism with a Gender Perspective in Argentina," and the Gender, Cities, and Territories Diploma program. The survey aimed to diagnose the employment status of Argentine female architects across the country's different regions, reflecting on the challenges they face in various professional environments and proposing new lines of action and transformation to improve their current situation.
When we speak of social production, we refer to processes where community leaders are adults who represent and make decisions for their community; however, we often overlook children, who also enjoy and live in these spaces. They are the ones with limitless imagination and creativity, who create scenarios on Mars on a basketball court. They are the ones who hold the best car races in the loose sand of their backyards. They are children who, due to various family or economic circumstances, cannot write a letter, but instead express what they feel and want through the lines they draw.
Originating as protection against low temperatures around 3,500 years ago, carpets and rugs have, over time, evolved into a true art form, reaching a high level of specialization by the 16th century. Rugs, carpets, and tapestries of various shapes, colors, textures, and patterns are integrated into different areas of the home to meet users' needs and enhance spatial comfort, sometimes extending far beyond their original purpose.
Marcelo Villafañe (1951), an architect from Rosario, passed away on Wednesday, January 26, as announced on social media by the Colegio de Arquitectos Distrito 2.
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Commemorating PAC 3.0 and PAC 4.0, which took place during the quarantine, and launching PAC 5.0, Sto Chile celebrated at "Casa ArchDaily" with competition partners and friends from the private, public, trade, and industrial sectors.
Join the PAC team!
The Association of Architectural Offices (AOA) has partially renewed its board of directors, electing urban planner Pablo Jordán as its new president for the 2022–2023 term. Meanwhile, architect Marisol Rojas has been selected as vice president.
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.
Barcelona is a city that has been studied countless times—for the blocks of the Cerdá Plan, its chamfered corners, its historic center, the wars waged there, and the architecture of the Modernistas and their monumental buildings. However, there is little record of it ever being studied in depth through the lens of a traditional cladding material and artistic medium like sgraffito.
Over the years, interior design has evolved in response to changing needs, and above all, to the experiences it seeks to evoke for the user. Over the last two years, we have witnessed a radical shift and a heightened interest in this field, as the pandemic forced us to pay closer attention to how we configure the spaces we inhabit. This has brought about much more holistic designs aimed at user well-being, combining colors, sensory experiences, technology, and natural elements that promote health.
The Catalan firm Batlleiroig, founded in 1981 by Enric Batlle and Joan Roig, has designed the first residence for the British group Vita Student in Barcelona. With this project, Batlleiroig joins an innovative proposal that aligns with the firm's other works, where the primary focus is urban renaturalization, landscape regeneration, and the creation of healthy spaces. The firm promotes an innovative design seeking a new way of living for students and faculty, featuring increased contact with nature, a strong focus on sports areas, and large common spaces for the entire community.
The contemporary urban footprint seems to expand its boundaries virtually without restriction while increasing in complexity. Major cities like Barcelona have expanded to the point where political boundaries merely represent the lines of administrative jurisdiction—which, in satellite imagery or everyday experience, often virtually cease to exist or are barely recognizable. On the other hand, a contemporary reading of its Metropolitan Area, stretched between mountain ranges, rivers, and the sea, demonstrates that this progressive expansion has always been shaped by its unique geographical enclave.
From April 11 to June 30, the Young Architects Festival (YAF), developed by Constructo, is taking place at the Ruinas de Huanchaca Park and Museum in Antofagasta, Chile. Within this space, Siglo 22 Arquitectos has created an immersive architectural installation activated by a series of events, including international lectures and a free public exhibition.
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, better known as Le Corbusier, is one of the leading figures and great masters of the Modern Movement. Directed by Gerardo Panero, the feature-length documentary “Plan for Buenos Aires” explores the architect's attempts to shape the layout of the city of Buenos Aires with his ideas.
On Thursday, April 7, the Regional Museum of Aysén (MRA) won the LCD Berlin Award 2021/22 for “best new museum” globally in the Latin American category. The accolade was presented by the international organization “Leading Culture Destinations,” which is headquartered in the German capital, in cooperation with VisitBerlin.
The award, which recognizes the museum located in the city of Coyhaique as one of the world's emerging and established cultural destinations, is a recognition of the work carried out by the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage through Chile's National Cultural Heritage Service.
Between October 2021 and February 2022, the Mies Memorial Library Architecture Student Competition was held. With 430 students from around the world participating, 105 projects were submitted to envision a building on the IIT campus in south Chicago that could preserve the history and celebrate the life, work, and legacy of one of the fathers of modern architecture, Mies van der Rohe.
.jpg?1645988130 "Esgrafiado a dos tendidos. Capa superior con pigmento natural extraído de tierras y arenas rojizas. Image Cortesía de Manuela Muñoz Restrepo")
