An alternative for students who choose to study away from their hometowns, student housing acts as an extension of educational institutions. Emerging almost concurrently with the first universities, these spaces have evolved over the years to adapt to societal shifts, such as the rise of co-ed dormitories.

From March 12 to 15, 2019, Expo Revestir brought together a vast array of national and international exhibitors along with over 60,000 visiting professionals. As Latin America's largest finishing solutions trade show and a well-established event in the construction and surface materials market, many companies take the opportunity to launch new products and showcase industry innovations.

Designing and mastering every part and stage of a project is inherent to the practice of architecture. Here at ArchDaily, we have previously featured architects who have developed designs for furniture and various other objects. Among this year's launches at Expo Revestir, several prominent architects have designed bathroom fixtures. This is the case for Angelo Bucci, Gui Mattos, and Tryptique, among others, in partnership with the manufacturer Docol.

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A seven-story residential building collapsed this morning in Fortaleza, Ceará. Located in the upscale neighborhood of Dionísio Torres, the building was over 40 years old and was undergoing renovations. A video recorded yesterday by a resident shows the precarious state of the structure's support columns, with exposed and corroded rebar.

The firm Bloco B arquitetura, led by architects Camilla Ghisleni, Gabriela Favero, and Júlia De Fáveri, in partnership with Laura Rotter's landscape architecture firm Giz de Terra, has won the national competition organized by the municipality of Veranópolis (Rio Grande do Sul) for the urban redevelopment of a stretch of Júlio de Castilhos Street. The objective of the competition was to select "the most appropriate proposal addressing the necessary infrastructure and the improvement of the urban space." Discover the winning proposal below.

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"I Saw a Brazil on TV" was the theme of the debate that, on November 8, 2018, brought together a group of architects participating in the exhibition "Infinite Span - 90 Years of Brazilian Architecture" at the Instituto Moreira Salles in São Paulo.

Since its founding in 1937, and despite recent controversies surrounding its administration and leadership, the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (Iphan) has built one of Brazil's largest bibliographical, documentary, and iconographic collections. In total, 13 interconnected libraries house over 500,000 books and periodicals, which are also linked to the country's main libraries. A significant portion of this rich material is available online—free of charge—on the Institute's online platform.

Who hasn't wished to experience the settings of Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory up close? Adding layers of desire and enchantment, fiction seems to have inspired a series of projects designed specifically for the production, presentation, and sale of chocolate.

At least two major avenues (23 de Maio and 9 de Julho) mark the footprint of the 1932 Constitutionalist Revolution in the city. Yet, across the capital's landscape, numerous other sites evoke the memory of an armed conflict that became the defining myth of São Paulo's history, commemorated as a state holiday since 1997.

The Alto Minho region in northern Portugal had its landscape transformed by a series of site-specific artistic interventions that were part of the DESENCAMINHARTE program. The initiative aimed to promote artistic creation in the region through a collaborative network designed to foster recognition of its local identity.

Five years ago, São Paulo approved its Master Plan, a social pact to transform the city by 2029. While a significant portion of the planned actions have been carried out or are currently underway, just as many remain on paper. Assessing this period is essential to achieving the ultimate goal of this entire process: improving the quality of life for its residents, especially those who need it most.

Sometimes, residential projects are structured around specific elements of the brief, exploring their sculptural potential as a defining feature of the design. Swimming pools are a compelling case in point: they often become the focal point of a project, allowing for a high degree of creativity and inventiveness while seamlessly bridging landscape and architectural design.

C40 Cities, a global coalition of cities, launched a competition to select the best solutions for transforming underutilized urban spaces into resilient, carbon-neutral developments. Named Reinventing Cities, the competition selected 15 innovative ideas poised to "reinvent" the future of cities. 

Design is a critical act, and architecture is an inevitably political discipline—no matter how much one tries to deny it. This is the view of Andrés Jaque, a Spanish architect and founder of the Office for Political Innovation, based in Madrid and New York. Jaque dedicates himself to architectural practice, research, and activism as if they were inseparable. In this interview, conducted during the 12th São Paulo International Architecture Biennale, Jaque discusses how queer perspective can contribute to community engagement and how architecture is "unfolding into a trans-scalar activity and a multi-media practice."

One of the most controversial topics regarding professional ethics in architecture and urbanism is the so-called "technical reserve" (reserva técnica). This widespread practice refers to the payment of commissions to design professionals by construction industry suppliers and companies as compensation for client referrals or project specifications. Despite its questionable nature, this practice is adopted by many architects and has become increasingly common. 

Popular culture is an imprecise concept that lends itself to various definitions. To grasp the traits characterizing the different meanings of popular culture, one must trace the dynamics of how this term has evolved throughout the studies dedicated to the field. 

Emerging in 1981 with the publication of the essay “The Grid and the Pathway” by Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre, it was Kenneth Frampton's 1983 essay “Towards a Critical Regionalism: six points for an architecture of resistance” that brought the term “critical regionalism” wider recognition. The essay was published in the anthology “The anti-aesthetic: essays on Postmodern culture,” edited by critic and historian Hal Foster, initiating a debate later revisited in "Prospects for a Critical Regionalism," also written by Frampton that same year for the journal Perspecta.

Only recently in Brazil has "cultural landscape" emerged as a new category for the preservation of cultural heritage. Understanding its meanings requires, on the one hand, evoking the preservation experience in two different spheres—both international institutions and the work developed in Brazil. On the other hand, this understanding also requires highlighting the specific academic origins of the cultural landscape concept.

With over 1.3 million visits last year, the GeoSampa platform, an open-format digital map of the city of São Paulo, has expanded its reach since its launch in 2016. These results demonstrate that the portal remains a benchmark for geospatial data in São Paulo, thereby strengthening public sector transparency — one of the guidelines of the Strategic Master Plan.

The Ministry of Education (MEC) has released its list of the best and worst architecture programs in Brazil, based on the Preliminary Course Score (CPC). Topping the list is the Architecture and Urbanism program at the Centro Universitário Facvest, in Lages, Santa Catarina.

The significant restoration of the natural riverbed of the Cheonggyecheon River in Seoul, South Korea, and the urban revitalization of its surroundings are a brilliant example of Sustainable Urban Drainage. This deconstruction is based on the premise of renaturalization, which aims to restore the pre-development water balance (increasing concentration time and reducing peak runoff) through high permeability. It also demonstrates the undeniable importance of preserving valley floors and Permanent Preservation Areas (APPs) in Brazil, as defined by the Forest Code.

Alejandro Aravena was in Florianópolis last week, invited by the 2019 NCD Summit to speak on Social Architecture. Founder of the "do tank" ELEMENTAL, the 2016 Pritzker Laureate gave an overview of his work, spanning diverse project typologies, while highlighting the processes that led to the adopted solutions. Before his lecture, Aravena spoke exclusively with ArchDaily Brasil. Read the interview below:

Cities that absorb rainwater and allow it to follow its natural course. It should be simple, yet we chose to channel our waterways, preventing nature from doing its part: absorbing and purifying. For Chinese architect Kongjian Yu, this is the key to solving one of the greatest challenges facing contemporary major urban centers: flooding. 

Architects are increasingly incorporating translucent materials into their facade designs to help control interior light levels, as options like polycarbonate and U-glass, for example, allow only a percentage of natural light to penetrate the building. At nightfall, however, these materials yield an entirely different, striking effect: when illuminated from within, the buildings transform into true lanterns in the urban landscape.

The designer of large-scale projects such as the Sociedade Harmonia de Tênis club in São Paulo, the Centro de Convivência Cultural in Campinas, and Parque Cecap in Guarulhos, São Paulo architect Fabio Penteado (1929-2011), who would have turned 90 this coming June, will have his work revisited in an exhibition in Portugal. 

Curated by Francesco Perrotta-Bosch, Irradiações opens on February 23 at Casa da Arquitectura, located in Matosinhos, a city in the Porto region. The exhibition will feature five radial-patterned projects developed by the architect in the 1960s, highlighting his attention to the collective and public dimensions of space.