The site where this new plaza will be created is currently underutilized as a public parking lot, failing to leverage the favorable pedestrian conditions of this location, which is surrounded by housing and commerce and strategically located at the intersection of Calle 3 Sur and Av. Del Parque Sur. This gave rise to the National Ideas Competition: Design of Plaza 3 - San Isidro, organized by the College of Architects of Peru alongside the Municipality of San Isidro, with the goal of promoting the development of a reclaimed public space for the benefit of the district's community by creating a welcoming gathering place. At the same time, the urban design proposal is expected to serve as a benchmark for future related competitions.

With over 11,000 Instagram followers, industrial designer Juan Cristóbal Lara (@eljuancri) has transformed his account into a photographic essay of Santiago, Chile. His main subjects are the Andes Mountains, San Cristóbal Hill, and the Mapocho River, all bathed in the rich palette of colors that the sky paints as the hours pass.

Here, we invite you to take a closer look at his work, his personal interests, and his vision of the city he photographs. "On Santiago's hills, you can grasp the magnitude of where you live; they offer the true scale of who each of us is in the city," Lara says.

Biomimicry in architecture does not prescribe form, nor does it strive for literal resemblance. Rather, the goal is to develop architectural solutions that execute strategies observed in nature. It is not about form for form's sake, nor is it about copying shapes; instead, it seeks a deeper reasoning behind those forms. Indeed, it goes far beyond merely drawing inspiration from shapes. It examines context, systems, and interrelations, and the true beauty of biomimicry lies in these connections. Architectural creation remains free, as it is guided by a design principle—the strategy of how nature achieves the performance a project requires for a specific demand. It is a process of co-creation between biology and architecture, making it truly transdisciplinary.

Books help us grow, tell us things we would never otherwise think of, show us places we would never visit, and teach us. Yet, someone can live their entire life in a city without ever truly seeing or understanding it. That is where books come in. In this post, we have selected 26 titles by Brazilian and international authors—works with diverse aims, but all centering on two main themes: cities and urban mobility. Through books, we can describe every street, building, or public space, reflecting on what life is like in the urban environment, how we move, and how it is all planned (or unplanned).

The upcoming opening of the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale—taking place starting May 26—is the perfect occasion to begin unveiling the layers of the Peruvian pavilion. Curators Marianela Castro, Janeth Boza, and Javier Lizarzaburu share new images in this feature to offer a closer look at their vision. Meanwhile, commissioner José Orrego, who has led Peru's participation since 2012, highlights the great enthusiasm sparked by the originality of the national competition's winning proposal, chosen from among 40 entries.

The focus of this international exhibition highlights issues central to local architectural discourse, opening the door for these reflections to become proposals that enrich the understanding of our cities. Under the curatorial direction of Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, the main theme of the Venice Biennale is "Freespace," defined as "architecture's ability to find additional and unexpected generosity in each project." Through this collection of images and ideas, we explore what the curatorial team reveals about this concept.

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Conéntrico is an International Architecture and Design Festival that proposes to reflect on the city of Logroño (Spain) through the revitalization of undervalued public spaces. Its latest edition, Conéntrico 04, takes place between April 27 and May 1, 2018, in the Historic Center of Logroño. The festival invites visitors to explore the city through installations, exhibitions, meetings, activities, and performances that connect venues, plazas, streets, courtyards, and hidden spaces that usually go unnoticed in daily life. Fernando Cruzado, Julia Días, Francisco Javier Fernández, and Ane Villaverde bring meaning to the landscape of La Rioja, highlighting its textures and rhythms to raise awareness of the territory.

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'We Are an Event' is a fictional persona born from the collaboration of Quentin Laurens-Berge and Lambert Moiroux, both of French nationality. The true moral and visual identity of this project was created to address questions about the city where it is based. This character serves as a sphere of exchange and a tool for creating distance from the work produced. Quentin and Lambert's work questions the modes of architectural production within the discipline, describing their projects as an oscillation between porno-chic and class struggle, as the aesthetics of their representation allow for a deeper exploration of themes like the Saint-Étienne International Design Biennale.

Currently, 'We Are an Event' is based in the tentacular—as they choose to call it—Mexico City, where they continue their practice with a social, moral, and cultural focus that addresses urban and spatial needs. Faced with a new territory, their goal is to deepen the practice of a different architectural discipline: real-time architectural performance.

Led by Cazú Zegers and GrupoTalca, AndesWorkshop 2017 took place last May and June in Patachoique, Lonquimay (Chile), in collaboration with the Arenales Mapuche community. The project aims to design the Mirador de la Corona alongside students and local communities, a structure that has already had a significant impact on Pehuenche communities, serving as a catalyst for the macro-project Ruta Pehuenche.

2018 has been a special year for ArchDaily in Colombia: not only did we celebrate the first three years of our local site in Bogotá alongside prominent architects, and are now poised to set a new annual traffic record, but we also launched ArchDaily Colombia's Instagram account—which, thanks to you, has already reached 10,000 followers in just six months.

To wrap up this great year, we have selected the most popular projects—measured by total engagement, excluding reposts—on @archdailyco:

One of the most traditional festivals in Brazil's South region, Oktoberfest has launched a sustainability-focused initiative. In addition to serving thousands of liters of draft beer, the event's 2018 edition will support the environment by transforming plastic cups used during the 19-day festival into bricks and furniture for community gardens.

Dubbed "Oktober Consciente" (Conscious Oktoberfest), the initiative was created by the Instituto Gigantes da Ecologia (IGE), a non-profit civil association based in Blumenau, Santa Catarina. The project aims to raise awareness and promote environmental best practices among attendees of what is considered one of the largest German festivals in the world.

The Municipal Cultural Foundation of Belo Horizonte has launched a call for proposals to occupy the Casa do Baile, designed by Oscar Niemeyer in Pampulha. Submitted proposals must address the themes of architecture, urbanism, and design.

Fundación Arquia has published a new issue of its digital magazine Arquetipos, featuring an interview with sculptor and artist David Bestué, conducted by architect Moisés Puente with photography by José Hevia. The issue also includes articles on Olympic urban planning, the relationship between architecture and sculpture in the work of Chillida, Enric Miralles, Sert, Kiesler, and much more.

In the interview, titled "Language as Object," David Bestué (Barcelona, 1980) discusses how he approaches architectural space in his work, the influence of artists such as Dan Graham, Robert Smithson, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Juan Muñoz, and his interest in the formal qualities of work by architects Enric Miralles and Carme Pinós (the "local modern").

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More than 50,000 people visited the Casa da Arquitectura – Portuguese Center for Architecture during its first year in the rehabilitated Real Vinícola block, in Matosinhos. To celebrate this first anniversary, the institution is organizing three days of free activities for everyone on November 16, 17, and 18.

Featuring guided tours, conferences, talks, presentations, book launches, and concerts, Casa da Arquitectura's anniversary program offers about 30 events for all audiences, including families and children. The block's outdoor space will also host various artistic performances. 

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Lake Verea is composed of Francisca Rivero-Lake Cortina (Mexico City, 1973) and Carla Verea Hernández (Mexico City, 1978). They have worked as a duo since 2005. Their practice focuses on experimenting with photographic techniques and formats to achieve a personal and intimate perspective. They live and work in Mexico City and around the world. Their research interests center on the portraiture of architecture and the architecture of portraiture, the search for modern ruins, and the emotional interpretation of the spatial journey.

Their latest contribution is a series commissioned by Gabriela Etchegaray for the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. Featured in the Mexican Pavilion, “Echoes of a Land,” they conceive architectural portraits through an intimate approach, using fragments to compose a narrative where the architectural subject is personally reinterpreted.

Bamboo construction—locally known as guadua—is, without a doubt, one of the regional techniques that defines contemporary Colombian architecture. As an environmentally friendly resource, it serves as a highly functional and practical building material, easily sourced in Colombia due to its rapid growth.

Farmers, architects, and builders have adopted this "vegetable steel" in many of their projects, which blend seamlessly into the landscape. With proper treatment, it performs exceptionally well across the South American country's diverse altitudinal zones. In addition, it offers varying textures and color tones, bringing a brilliant yet subtle aesthetic to these buildings.

For this feature, the Fundación Arquia Blog, alongside architect Sabrina Gaudino Di Meo, brings us a conversation with architect Nerea Calvillo on how the project "In the Air" came to be. This multidisciplinary work, bridging data and ecology, visualizes urban air components to understand the behavior of microscopic agents and the implications of their concentrations for navigating the city.

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Olivia de Oliveira completed her doctoral thesis on architect Lina Bo Bardi at the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) and is the author of the book "Lina Bo Bardi. Built Works," which grew out of a 2002 visit to Lina's constructed buildings alongside photographer Nelson Kon. In this work, she presents the full architectural complexity and the cultural, political, and social visions of the architect. The book has just been re-released in Brazil in Portuguese by Editora Gustavo Gili.

In the following interview, we delve deeper into the story behind the book and into Lina Bo Bardi's legacy through the author's perspective. Oliveira touches on crucial topics such as the construction site, the surrealism present in the architect's work, and the ongoing preservation of her buildings.

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Like any port city, Barranquilla, Colombia, has historically turned its back on the Magdalena River, a waterway of over 1,500 kilometers flowing down from the Andes Mountains to empty into the Caribbean Sea. Although its urban fabric overlooks the river, the road known as Vía 40 has been the city's true boundary. Between this highway and the river, industrial zones and vacant lots serve as buffers.

"For many years we had a wall blocking this view for 70 years," said Barranquilla Mayor Alejandro Char last February during the inauguration of the second section of the River Boardwalk, an urban project that seeks to restore the city's relationship with the river, which runs through 11 of Colombia's departments.

It is not common to speak extensively about these ideas in architecture, even if we have fallen back on them more than once. Diagnosis, happiness, rehabilitation, void, sadness, fear, health, patient, save... words repeated over and over, integrating ever more coherently as you read, transforming into a discourse that convinces us of these architectural utopias. It is not about who is behind this proposal, but rather about what they achieve for architecture and society through this multidisciplinary union forged from different approaches—be it philosophy, sculpture, or illustration—all of them medicine for the soul. Ultimately, they are a critique wrapped in the high spirits of the 1950s.

Dialogues of space and time converge in these projects: that a building can move from one place to another, that its atmosphere can evoke another era. It is a philosophy based on healing cities through detachment and happiness. No building belongs entirely to a territory; no spirit is inherent to an era in itself. Much like their sculptural projects, one is born in New York, another remains in Peru, and another ends up in Brazil. All of this is delivered with the cheerful 1950s aesthetic they seek to bring back and popularize through their contemporary illustrations. Here, we present DAD's philosophy and three projects that put their principles into practice.

Without further ado, they happily share the details with us.

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A Portuguese architect from a traditional aristocratic family, Fernando Távora's education was shaped by a profound discursive shift upon coming into contact with modernism. He often said that he "entered university in love with the Venus de Milo and left in love with Picasso," reflecting his intellectual brilliance in recognizing modernist initiatives as something with which he had to establish a dialogue. In 1945, he wrote for the first time about a "third way" for Portuguese architecture, a contribution that resonated both in his teaching—closely tied to the Porto School—and in his practice, finding direct and striking expression in several of his projects.

With more than 350 Colombian projects now published on ArchDaily, we celebrate this milestone with a curated selection that highlights the value of drawings in conceptualizing, designing, and constructing contemporary Colombian architecture.

While drawing is often associated with a project's earliest conceptual stages, Colombian architects continue to use sketching to explain structure, program, and even construction details in an era otherwise dominated by the efficiency of 3D modeling and rendering.

This selection ranges from single-family homes to public parks, including mixed-use facilities, kindergartens, and university buildings across Colombia.

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Prix Versailles is an international recognition promoted by UNESCO that addresses architecture and design—both interior and exterior—of commercial projects across four categories: shops, shopping malls, hotels, and restaurants. Its goal is to foster a better interaction between commercial and cultural spaces, highlighting the few examples that successfully achieve this.

This year, competing against numerous finalist projects from six major continental regions, the Porcelanosa Grupo showroom in Santiago, Chile, by Gonzalo Mardones V Arquitectos received the special prize for its exterior design in the shops category.

Discover the project in detail and read the architect's thoughts below.

Located on São Paulo's most iconic avenue, after eight years of construction, the new Sesc São Paulo unit will open its doors on April 29. With programming based on the triad of “Art, Body, and Technology,” the institution expects to welcome approximately 18,000 visitors per week.

On October 22, the winning design of the 1st Public Design Competition of Conde was announced. A total of 32 proposals were submitted from 11 states, featuring intervention plans for an area of approximately 14,266 m², with projects covering landscaping, urban planning, urban infrastructure, public facilities, and street furniture. The area designated for the competition contains the highest concentration of open spaces and public facilities within Conde's urban perimeter, such as a market, schools, plazas, churches, an open-air market, transit services, and public offices. Among these, the Pedro Alves and Antônio de Sousa Santos plazas, along with Domingos Maranhão and Nossa Senhora da Conceição streets, hold significant urban potential and host major social events in the city.

The jury comprised architecture and urban planning professionals, as well as a local representative. The winning proposal came from Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul) and met several key requirements, including local economic development, commerce, and the creation of public spaces for community gathering. The team consists of Bruno de Moraes Britto, Camila Bellver Alberti, Douglas Silveira Martini, Jean Michel Forte dos Anjos, and Mariana Mocellin Mincarone. See the winning entries below: