Without a doubt, 2020 was a year defined by transformation and new paradigms. For the first time in more than a century since the Spanish Flu, we faced a pandemic that drove us into complete isolation inside our homes. Within the field of interior design, lockdowns forced millions of people worldwide to rethink their personal relationship with the home and its various spaces. In Brazil, despite a surge in renovations and furniture sales, the segment faced initial downturns. Nevertheless, the construction sector's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is projected to grow by 3.8% in 2021, according to data from the Civil Construction Industry Syndicate (Sinduscon-SP) and the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) published on the Época Negócios website.

Analyzing the Brazilian interior design projects published in recent months, combined with our daily curatorial experience, we have mapped out 22 trends pointing toward the future of interior design in Brazil for 2021 and beyond. To provide a coherent overview, we have divided our selection into five major conceptual categories: Colors; Finishes and Surfaces; Spatial Integration; Efficiency and Space Saving; and Repurposed Construction Materials in Interiors. Read on below:

+ 131

How a work of architecture or interior design looks and ages over time is heavily determined by its materials and the products used. If the choice of materials and products is inaccurate, both the appearance and the performance of the project could be compromised.

This is why specification is essential to achieving the desired outcome at a project's completion, and the professional in charge of this stage must have an extensive knowledge of the materials and products available in their region. But is material specification the same across all architecture firms? Is this project phase given the same importance as the initial design phase? How close is the relationship between architects and materials really?

+ 28

The winners of the Urban Architectural Design Ideas Competition for the Health Innovation Center (CIS) in Ecuador have been announced. Organized by the University Health Company (EUS EP) and the University of Cuenca, the competition invited architecture professionals and students to generate innovative solutions in the medical field to link academia, research, and teaching. The initiative frames health as a set of preventive actions and highlights the importance of social issues, such as comprehensive support for patients with chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, and arthritis.

Alarcia Ferrer is an Argentine architecture firm based in Córdoba, founded in 2009. Focused on medium-scale private residential projects in suburban and rural settings, they have worked for over a decade in close dialogue with the province's landscape, constantly reflecting on the tensions and interactions between nature and artifice. Each project can be read as the result of a material and spatial exercise that serves as a prompt to rethink deeper issues such as permanence, authenticity, and simplicity.

+ 37

In 2018, a flexible and ephemeral space was erected in Mexico City's Alameda Central, demonstrating the luminosity and plastic versatility of joining 2,500 water jugs to form a conical blue oasis. Today, this pavilion is located within the Huerto Urbano Roma Verde, where it has hosted various events and activities, shedding the transience and impermanence that originally defined its essence.

+ 13

Traditional architecture is based on a complex understanding of dwelling, the collective production and transmission of knowledge, and construction through mutual-aid community processes that strengthen the social fabric, cultural identity, and territorial bond. In other words, it is a practice of community self-production where the inhabitants themselves, without intermediaries, manage the multiple processes involved in materializing their habitat, always relying on collective intelligence. Today, architecture has shifted from being a communal asset to an exclusive language of a few where, despite still requiring the organized participation of various actors, its production is credited to a single author: an individual entity who, without possessing the diverse knowledge required to complete a work from start to finish, is recognized as the mastermind behind all processes. The professionalization of architecture has not only individualized its discourse and complicated the transmission of knowledge; it has also discriminated against and rejected the knowledge produced outside of academic, professional, and governmental institutions, labeling it as precarious—thereby opening the door to racism.

Fundación ProCultura is a non-profit organization founded in 2009, built on the conviction of being a people-focused institution where identity and cultural and natural heritage serve as the cornerstones of sustainable development, well-being, and mental health. Since then, through a multidisciplinary team, it has sought to generate development opportunities in isolated territories, strengthening the social fabric and enhancing the well-being of communities.

Lorena Pérez, an architect from the Catholic University of Chile with a Master's in Historic Preservation from Columbia University and a professor in the Master in Cultural Heritage program at UC, is the current director of architecture at the organization. In this interview, she discusses their approach and the challenges they face when addressing heritage and a sense of belonging in remote areas.

Today, our perception of the construction industry has completely changed. We find ourselves in a digital era that drives us to work collaboratively in multidisciplinary teams, making BIM an essential and mandatory tool for professional advancement.

If you are already working with the BIM methodology, read to the end of the article to find out how you can improve and advance.

Have you ever had to convince your friends or family that an exposed brick wall can be more interesting than a plastered surface painted white? Or that exposed building systems can offer major advantages when it comes to maintenance? These are recurring scenarios in the professional lives of architects and design firms.

Amid century-old buildings, a major bus terminal, and a thriving commercial sector, Curitiba has implemented a complete street. Completed in February, the revitalization of Voluntários da Pátria Street has made the thoroughfare safer for pedestrians moving through the central area and more inviting for staying, featuring new benches and widened sidewalks. It is a reclamation of the past that makes the present more welcoming and strengthens the construction of a more humane future for Brazilian cities.

+ 2

While MASP is closed in accordance with World Health Organization guidelines, you can still explore the museum's collection through Google Arts & Culture or via its #maspemcasa digital programming.

Are artists connected to the territory and the community?

Todo por la Praxis presents their project Monumento Residencia, an active research initiative addressing the space of artistic residencies and the resident's engagement with their context.

Flores & Prats, in collaboration with Ouest Architecture, have won first place in the competition to renovate the Ancien Théâtre des Variétés in Brussels, Belgium. The project addresses the transformation of the former theater into an international laboratory for artistic creation, conceived as an open and inclusive public space.

Videos

In the wake of the social crisis Chile is currently experiencing, ArchDaily speaks with urban and regional specialists to understand its impact on our cities.

Videos

At a time when we only have room for immediate priorities, many designers in our discipline work detached from the actual context where their projects will be built. Yet, some still dedicate the time and passion to experience these realities firsthand and build hand-in-hand with the users. 

The 2020 FAD Awards, one of the most prestigious architecture accolades on the Iberian Peninsula, has announced the finalist projects for its latest edition.

In recent months, Legado Lima 2019 has become one of the key organizations collaborating in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in Peru. Thanks to hosting the Pan American and Parapan American Games in 2019, the country was able to apply lessons learned in infrastructure, equipment, protocols, and operations to combat COVID-19, repurposing and transforming modern infrastructure—originally built to host the continent's largest multi-sport event—to confront the pandemic.

Videos

Chiloé is a production by Glaciar Films, directed by Diego Breit and David Guzmán, consisting of five episodes that showcase the architectural identity of the Chilean island and its key figures. Architects, carpenters, artisans, and residents weave together a narrative charting the island’s building history and how it now faces imminent change and the adoption of modern paradigms.

The complete series is available to watch below.

Videos

The Post_Arq student collective of the Leopoldo Rother Architecture Museum at the National University of Colombia shared with us the interview series titled "Siete Imaginarios, Siete Arquitectos" (Seven Imaginaries, Seven Architects). The interviewees include prominent figures such as Sebastián Serna, Santiago Pradilla, Leonardo Álvarez Yepes, and Lorenzo Castro, among others.

Below, you can explore the interviews conducted with these renowned figures of the Colombian architectural scene, several of whom were winners or received honorable mentions at the XXVII BICAU.

For over 80 days of protest, our streets and buildings have been covered daily in slogans, posters, illustrations, and an endless array of visual material referencing the social demands of a country that claims to have awakened from a 30-year slumber. Meanwhile, public monuments throughout Chile are being tagged, altered, destroyed, or removed from their original sites, becoming a primary target for protesters—or, as the newspaper El Mercurio¹ puts it, for “vandals.”

The Chilean historian, monk, and architect Gabriel Guarda, co-author of the Benedictine Monastery Chapel alongside Martín Correa in Santiago, Chile, passed away today at the age of 92.

+ 6

Vacío is a temporary intervention that seeks to redefine the boundaries and experience of the space in which it is located. It is crucial to understand the environmental impact of ephemeral projects. 
To construct this void, we used four floating curtains made of repurposed sheets of paper collected from other architecture firms, bathed in indigo to erase the drawings, texts, and prints of their previous life. 
The installation's lightness allows the airflow to constantly reshape the defined geometry of the prism. Inside, the space mutates and interacts with visitors, almost compelling them to move as the floating sheets seem to breathe.  

One side effect of the global coronavirus pandemic in the field of architecture is a reflection on the future of cities and the built environment. Debate on the topic has perhaps never been so intense, with numerous proposals and visions emerging to address everything from social interaction in public spaces to the details of new uses for private ones. Regarding urban dynamics, programmatic changes may offer a way to ensure that commercial and service districts maintain their vitality.

With more people working remotely, commercial buildings face the potential of becoming partially vacant. Driven by this reflection, architects Matheus Marques, Ricardo Goncalves, Luis Favilla, and Rolando Figueiredo, from the São Paulo-based firm Hiperstudio, developed a proposal to convert single-use commercial buildings into mixed-use complexes, incorporating residential units and public gathering spaces.

This article by Maria Inés García-Reyes Röthlisberger (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana) and Stefano Anzellini Fajardo (Universidad de los Andes) was originally published in issue 24 of Dearq journal on 01/01/2019 under the title "Saberes compartidos del hábitat: una arquitectura para el paisaje rural" (https://doi.org/10.18389/dearq24.2019.03) and is part of a joint dissemination partnership.