Sala Roxy is a historic venue located at 80 Mezquitán Street in the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. For years, this space served as a local symbol of freedom, bringing together alternative artistic and cultural expressions. First opening its doors in 1937, it operated for several decades as Cine Roxy; built in the Art Deco style, it became one of the first theaters dedicated to film screenings in Guadalajara.
This coming April, Costa Rica will host the Latin American Social Workshop for Architecture Students (XVI TSL) for the first time. The event is organized by the Latin American Coordinator of Architecture Students (CLEA) and the local organization Estudiantes de Arquitectura en Movimiento (EAM), with academic backing from the University of Costa Rica.
Under the theme Situated Knowledges, TSL Costa Rica 2019 will welcome 210 participants from 18 Latin American countries and a European delegation between April 11 and 21. During this period, students and young architects will work side-by-side in a series of design-build workshops held in two communities of Santa Cruz, a town known in the Central American nation as the "folklore city."
The Graham Foundation has announced 63 new grants to individuals around the world supporting architectural projects. The funded projects represent diverse lines of research with original ideas that advance our understanding of the built environment. Selected from over 500 proposals, the funded projects include exhibitions, publications, films, and performances that promote rigorous scholarship, stimulate experimentation, and foster critical discourse in architecture. These innovative projects are led by both established and emerging architects, artists, curators, filmmakers, historians, and photographers, among other professionals.
Every October 1st, Mexico celebrates Architect's Day to highlight and recall the collective responsibility of architecture in designing the world's future cities and settlements. Over the years—following its official establishment in 2004—celebrations have varied widely across a massive community that constantly questions its role in society and the world. This has sparked ongoing debates about the meaning of architecture, the role of architects at pivotal moments in history, and above all, what the future of architecture in Mexico holds. Where should the profession direct its efforts to build spaces that improve people's quality of life?
Courtesy of Felipe Vera, Diego Arcia & Andreina Seijas. ImageHermosillo, Mexico
Few may have heard of Hermosillo, a Mexican city of 850,000 inhabitants located in the middle of the desert, just 280 kilometers south of the United States border. It is a city of great strengths, but also immense challenges. In an increasingly urbanized world, cities have become platforms for innovation and change, particularly in developing countries. While megacities like Bogotá, Lima, and Mexico City struggle to distribute goods and services to their sprawling populations, intermediate cities like Hermosillo have the potential to offer a more sustainable alternative.
https://www.archdaily.com/1120492/hermosillo-the-mexican-city-that-became-a-testing-ground-for-urban-experimentation-in-the-desertFelipe Vera, Diego Arcia & Andreina Seijas
In 1986, an urban design competition was held in Argentina titled “Ideas Urbano-Arquitectónicas para Buenos Aires” (Urban-Architectural Ideas for Buenos Aires), more commonly known as “Las Veinte Ideas” (The Twenty Ideas). Organized as part of a cooperation program between the Community of Madrid and the Municipality of Buenos Aires during the mayoral administration of Facundo Suárez Lastra, this call for entries generated a high concentration of design concepts. With the participation of more than 400 architects, it yielded a total of 120 proposals for the city. Although unbuilt, these ideas hold significant theoretical and historical relevance; in many cases, they served as the seed or starting point for the development of subsequent urban projects.
On September 11, the winners of the Provincial Preliminary Project Competition for the design of the new headquarters of the College of Architects of the Province of Santa Fe, District 4 – Casilda, were announced. The competition aimed to develop a new building that would allow the College to accommodate the new needs arising from the recent growth in its members' activity and the evolution of its institutional policies.
Coffee shops are spaces whose history dates back to the 15th century. Originating in Arab countries before the rise of Europe, they began to play an important social role, often described as taverns where significant conversations took place, deals were struck, and political debates unfolded. Over time, these spaces evolved and the concept expanded to European countries like England, France, Italy, and Germany, where they served as highly public gathering spots for merchants, politicians, scientists, academics, philosophers, and poets.
In its 21st edition, Barcelona Building Construmat (BBConstrumat), the International Construction Exhibition of Fira de Barcelona, will feature central spaces designed by an architecture firm for the second time.
'Silogismos' is an architecture and illustration project that bases its research on archives, publications, and photographs tracing the history of modern construction in Mexico. It offers a graphic narrative on the continuity and transformation of seminal 20th-century works through the synthesis, interpretation, and juxtaposition of their ideals. These paired concepts confront thought and form through deductive inference. Ultimately, the sum of these parts reveals critical architectural meanings and motives for future reconstruction.
https://www.archdaily.com/1120503/urban-syllogisms-discover-the-history-behind-ciudad-satelite-and-the-multifamily-housing-complex-in-mexicoJuan José Kochen + Ximena Rios-Zertuche
ALL Arquitectura is a Mexican firm that focuses on developing projects at both urban and architectural scales through methodologies rooted in participatory design. One of these projects is Cancha “LA DOCE”, a collaborative initiative born from a network and a proposal for change driven by the need to develop high-quality public spaces in marginalized areas of various cities worldwide. Drawing on an activity deeply woven into the lives of local residents, ALL Arquitectura leveraged soccer as a design catalyst to encourage participation, observation, and community life.
As part of Montevideo's urban housing management framework, the local government, together with the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning, and Environment, launched a national public ideas competition to develop a housing and public space program on the site formerly occupied by the Raincoop company in the La Unión neighborhood.
The objective was for contestants to design, on a nearly 3-hectare plot, a housing development within a public space that promotes the integration of compatible activities and services, thereby ensuring mixed-use land and inclusion. Learn more about the winning projects in the words of their authors.
Proyecto Panorama is a civil association made up of a diverse group of young people from Cancún, who have been actively working for more than two years on public space interventions in Quintana Roo through urban art. These interventions have proven to generate a positive impact on the residents' environment, strengthening the sense of identity and belonging in one of the country's most important developing regions. Since its founding in 2016, and thanks to collaborations with renowned national and international artists, Proyecto Panorama has intervened in more than 30 public spaces, as well as an elementary school in Cancún and another in the Riviera Maya, resulting in 116 murals.
Primer premio. Image Cortesía de Gualano+Gualano Arquitectos
On May 28, the winners of the Binational Public Competition for Preliminary Architectural Projects, organized by the Administrative Commission of the Uruguay River (CARU), were announced. The competition was open to architects from both Argentina and Uruguay, with the support of the Association of Architects of Uruguay (SAU), the Association of Architects of the Province of Entre Ríos (CAPER), and the sponsorship of the Argentine Federation of Architectural Organizations (FADEA).
The project called for the construction of a Control Laboratory for the environmental analysis of the Uruguay River, to be located adjacent to the head of the Libertador San Martín International Bridge, on the eastern bank of the river, in the city of Fray Bentos, Uruguay.
The Mexican state of Oaxaca is one of the most visited destinations in the country, drawing travelers from around the globe with its rich culinary, cultural, and architectural heritage. Located in the southeastern region of the country, it spans 93,757 km² and is divided into 570 municipalities, making it the fifth-largest state in Mexico.
On the occasion of the XI Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (XI BIAU), held for the first time in Paraguay, we spoke with Ana Román and Arturo Franco, curators of the event and founders of the platform redfundamentos and the biannual specialized journal rita_.
In the heart of Palermo, a large iron and glass structure houses species whose origins date back to distant eras predating the dinosaurs. This is the main greenhouse of the Carlos Thays Botanical Garden in Buenos Aires.
On Thursday, June 13, the new Cinemateca Distrital de Bogotá opened its doors to the public, bringing the seventh art to the edge of the Colombian capital's historic center.
CUBO is the name of the installation created by the School of Architecture, Art, and Design at Tecnológico de Monterrey, which was presented in March at Alameda Central in Mexico City. The pavilion was designed as an open, flexible, and itinerant meeting point, hosting cultural events as well as exchanges of ideas and goods. CUBO (Urban Cell for Well-being and Opportunities) is a social innovation project that served as a stage for civic engagement, fostering participatory processes in communities through recreation, reconciliation, and learning.
The new edition of the Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (XI BIAU) poses a different challenge. This time, along the shores of the peaceful Paraguay River, the Ricardo Brugada neighborhood, known as La Chacarita—one of the oldest in Asunción's historic center—takes center stage.
Together with the residents—who also exhibited the biennial's award-winning projects in their own private homes—national curators led 13 working groups to develop proposals for the improvement and transformation of a sector historically overlooked by the city, often associated with crime and unemployment. Some of these initiatives have already been put into practice.
CityMakers is working alongside ArchDaily to publish a series of articles, conversations, and interviews with the key figures of urban co-production behind the Barcelona CityMakers Lab 2019, an event taking place from October 14 to 20.
In this edition, we feature Salvador Rueda, director of the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona, who will give a Masterclass at the Barcelona CityMakers Lab 2019addressing concepts of "Ecosystemic Urbanism," the foundation of a new urban model for the city of Barcelona.
Brick is, without a doubt, the building material most widely validated by the collective imagination; from children's fables to the most experimental narratives, many have drawn inspiration from the diverse meanings shaped by its distinctive character.
So begins "Arquitecturas Argentinas con Ladrillo" (Argentine Brick Architecture), a book edited by Bisman Ediciones and co-published by the Universidad de Morón and Grupo UNICER, with the participation of the Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Conceived as a compendium, it features a meticulous selection of recently built projects in Argentina sharing a clear common denominator: the study and use of brick as a fundamental building material to create architecture.
Through various graphic resources such as floor plans, photographs, and unprecedented construction details, the book functions as a true catalog of typologies, exploring the diversity and versatility of masonry applications in the region. The volume compiles history, technique, and contemporary reference projects, demonstrating how brick has inevitably established itself as a characteristic and defining material of Argentine and Latin American architecture.
Ciudad Salitre. Foto de Santiago Beaumé, María Luisa Cervantes y Federico Chaparro. Image Cortesía de Ciudad Isla
In Bogotá, a third of all households live in gated communities. This phenomenon is a misguided application of the model idealized by post-war American suburbs, which projected an idyllic, safe, happy, and perfect life—a life where mobility prioritizes motorized vehicles, utilizing simple, replicable, and, of course, highly profitable construction models.
Construcciones Modernas, S.A. is a series comprising an album of popular, remembered, and forgotten buildings in Mexico City—a record and the beginning of an atlas. It is a subway line featuring all the architectural icons missing from the train cars, a tribute to the city, its modernity, and its decay.