Chilean architect Sandra Ili has been selected as the winner of the 2019 Marta Scheu Award, an annual recognition granted by the Institute of Architecture and Urbanism of the Universidad Austral de Chile (UACh) to outstanding professionals in the fields of architecture and urbanism in Chile, regardless of their nationality.
The article series by Nikos A. Salingaros, David Brain, Andrés M. Duany, Michael W. Mehaffy, and Ernesto Philibert-Petit investigating social housing in Latin America continues by exploring the choice of building materials. Read all past articles and the new piece below.
1- Design Capable of Establishing 'Emotional Belonging' 2- Anti-Patterns of Latin American Social Housing 3- Geometry of Control 4- Biophilia, Connectivity, and Spirituality 5- Using the Work of Christopher Alexander 6- Construction Strategies for Social Housing 7- Examples of Patterns and Generating Codes 8- Design Strategies 9 - Design Sequence 10 - Practical Suggestions for Successful Projects
The article "A Decade Without Direction in Downtown Lima" published in El Comercio presents a discouraging scenario for urban renewal and architectural preservation in Lima.
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The ICO Museum (Madrid) has extended Francis Kéré: Primary Elements, the first exhibition in Spain dedicated to the Burkina Faso-born, German-trained architect. Originally scheduled to close on Sunday, January 20, the museum has pushed the closing date back to Sunday, February 3.
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The results of the National Catalog of Modular Schools Competition in Peru were recently announced, with a single winning team unanimously selected for all five categories across their respective bioclimatic zones: Coast, Rainy Coast, Highlands, Frost, and Rainforest. Remarkably, this team was formed by an alliance of several highly influential architecture firms in the country, as evidenced by the caliber of their proposals. What made this outcome so compelling was that unity and diversity prevailed in a competition that seeks to foster those very principles through architecture and education.
However, there is an important detail in the competition's process—and processes are journeys worth remembering. The project developed by the architecture offices leonmarcial + Ghezzi Novak was awarded first place by the jury in the Highlands Catalog category; however, it was disqualified for failing to meet the required documentation. Such situations are common in architectural competitions, where regulations must ultimately be upheld.
Beyond the outstanding projects that ultimately won, what happens to those left behind? What becomes of all that valuable material? They, too, deserve visibility, as they represent efforts that should lead to some outcome. We are committed to sharing quality architecture, and this project, given its winning caliber, is undoubtedly one of them.
In Barranquilla, we spoke with Manuel Moreno, dean of the School of Architecture, Urbanism, and Design at the Universidad del Norte, on the occasion of the VIII International Seminar on Project Representation, organized jointly with the Universidad del Valle and the Universidad Nacional's Medellín campus.
The theme of the event, which explored Web 2.0 in architecture, prompted us to ask whether students today are learning what they should, or if there is a gap between academia and the professional world.
Ciudad Juárez is an industrial city located on the northern border with the United States, specifically bordering the city of El Paso, Texas. Over the years, Juárez's economy has been dominated by the ‘maquiladora’ assembly industry, and the city was once considered one of the most violent in the world due to a wave of crime between 2008 and 2012. In response to these conditions, in 2014, a group of friends from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, eager to contribute to their city's resilience and recovery, came together to discuss and pitch ideas for reclaiming streets, plazas, and parks through sociocultural projects and public space interventions, ultimately giving rise to Nómada Laboratorio Urbano.
As part of its 175th-anniversary celebrations, the British Hospital of Buenos Aires, Argentina, launched the “Idea Raiz” competition, an initiative aimed at revitalizing the green spaces of its headquarters. The project seeks to enhance the institution's spatial and landscape qualities, creating therapeutic and recreational areas for patients, families, and staff. The hospital selected projects with a distinct identity that aspire to serve as a legacy for its future. Discover the winning team's proposal below:
Architect Alberto Campo Baeza has been awarded the Gold Medal for Architecture, Spain's most prestigious architectural honor, which has been presented by the professional association of architects since 1981. Established by the Superior Council of Architects' Associations of Spain (CSCAE), the Gold Medal recognizes the dedication of individuals and institutions whose work elevates the field of architecture.
Exhibited in a parallel exhibition at the 2018 Venice Biennale, the Tropi-Co-Re Housing project by SUMA Arquitectos reflects on the intersection of urban and architectural design within the low-income residential context of an equatorial/tropical climate, investigating alternative material systems for its construction, such as bamboo truss structures and folded metal plate roofs.
Read on to explore the project in detail, in the words of its designers.
Promoted by the Uruguay River Administrative Commission, organized by the Society of Architects of Uruguay (SAU) and the College of Architects of the Province of Entre Ríos (CAPER) —and sponsored by the Argentine Federation of Architect Associations (FADEA)— the call for entries is now open for the binational preliminary design competition to develop a Control Laboratory for the environmental analysis of the Uruguay River.
Ecosistema Urbano, after winning a public competition, has developed the Landscape Design Project for the Louis Pasteur Boulevard and the main public spaces of the Teatinos University Campus in Málaga, Spain.
The project presents a new campus that is both open to the natural landscape and digitally connected, allowing users to interact, view real-time information, and adapt various public space elements to their needs, including the configuration of bioclimatic conditioning systems.
The third edition of the “Architecture and Wood” exhibition was held in Puerto Montt, Chile. This edition aimed to continue expanding the range of exhibitors by once again inviting prominent professionals to participate in an architectural commission, exploring and speculating on the constructive and formal possibilities of the material. The event serves as an invitation to showcase the value of timber architecture in the southern part of the country.
After receiving 216 proposals from 39 countries, the international ideas competition 'Viewpoint of the Fjords' (VOF), organized by arquideas, has announced the winning projects. VOF aims to provide a new space of contemplation for visitors, located near Homlungsaetra in the area surrounding the Geirangerfjord in Norway. The competition seeks to promote values such as appropriate integration into the landscape, alongside sustainability and energy efficiency criteria.
The jury consisted of Peter L. Wilson, Atxu Amann, Magüi González, Svein Lund, and the four winners of the previous arquideas competition (BaBH San Francisco). Following an initial evaluation phase in which 15 proposals were selected as finalists, a second round of judging was held to determine the 5 honorable mentions and 3 winning entries.
These are the winning projects:
On Friday, September 13, the 24th National Architecture and Urbanism Prize was awarded to the project Pasajes residenciales by Taller de (S). The awards ceremony concluded the 36th Colombian Congress of Architecture and Urbanism in Barranquilla.
As part of the activities taking place at LIGA, Espacio para Arquitectura in Mexico City, the Mexican-Bolivian duo Escobedo Soliz has created an installation titled Tórax. Built from wooden posts, the piece forms a rhythmic oval structure whose construction evokes the ribcage of a great whale, trapped inside LIGA's gallery space.
As part of the 2nd Placemaking Latinoamérica gathering –organized by Lugares Públicos A.C.– which took place in Mexico City during the first and second weeks of November, various activities were carried out, including the restoration of eight public spaces led by Mexican and Latin American participatory urban planning specialists in the boroughs of Cuauhtémoc, Iztacalco, and Miguel Hidalgo.
Rodrigo Schiavoni and Adán Yenerich, founding partners of SY arquitectos, have won the open competition organized as part of the eighth International Congress of the Spanish Language, held in the city of Córdoba from March 27 to 30, 2019. This competition called for the design of an urban-scale commemorative landmark to serve as a civic symbol.
Organized by the Córdoba Province Chamber of Tourism and open to artists, designers, and architects, this interdisciplinary competition called for the creation of urban-scale pieces to intervene in the public space of a prominent sector of the city: a portion of the historic founding district located just steps from the Jesuit Block, a site designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
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To mark World Architecture Day, the architects' collective efimerARQ, alongside the Association of Architects and the School of Architecture of Valladolid, developed a design exercise involving collaboration between students and professionals. The activity, titled “Ephemeral Architecture as a Pedagogical Device,” took place at the Patio Herreriano Museum of Contemporary Art in Valladolid, Spain, aiming to create an open-air classroom that allowed students to study current and past trends through fieldwork, viewing the discipline as a medium for exploration, research, discussion, and collaboration. The base structure used to build the three installations was a fundamental "auxiliary" construction material: scaffolding.
Together with a group of researchers, over the last five years we have been studying working-class housing developments in southern Chile: the coal basin in Lota, Schwager, and Pilpilco; the textile towns of Bellavista and Carlos Mahns in Tomé; and the working-class settlements in Valdivia and Magallanes.
Within the framework of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25), the Official Association of Architects of Madrid (COAM) will host, from December 2 to 13, the conference “Architecture Facing Climate Change: Time to Act,” as part of the Castellana Verde Axis. The objective of this initiative, which stems from a collaboration between COAM, the Higher Council of Colleges of Architects of Spain (CSCAE), and the CSCAE's “Observatorio 2030,” is to raise public awareness about the key role cities play in the fight against climate change and to promote shared strategies within the building sector to help curb global warming.
One could say we have waited for sunset to rekindle the warmth of this experience—and thus blend nostalgia with the newly arrived autumn.
The end of summer has arrived in the southwestern hemisphere, and among the many new lessons each climate leaves behind in these parts, in one of Peru's warmest regions, TSI 2019 left footprints and works that sooner or later we would be ready to reveal. All, or most, of those who participated have already returned to their school or work routines, yet at the end of the season, this remains a place to return to.
A few months ago, we witnessed how one of the most iconic Gothic monuments in Paris and Europe was consumed by a massive fire that broke out shortly before sunset. The fire reached the north tower of the cathedral's twin belfries, claiming the cathedral spire, which was part of a 19th-century addition built with a timber and lead structure.
On August 30 and 31, 2019, the Encuentros 2019 Festival was held in Cancún under the theme Let's Talk About the City, featuring various activities that established a dialogue between residents and key stakeholders in urban development. This was the first time the event was held in Cancún and the second time nationwide, in an effort to decentralize and bring knowledge to citizens and architecture students to help them rediscover their own city.
