This year's United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP27, takes place against a backdrop of multiple global crises.
The cascading effects of COVID-19 and Russia's invasion of Ukraine have pushed energy prices to record highs. At the same time, unprecedented climate disasters are causing devastating and widespread disruptions. Historic levels of rainfall, heat, drought, wildfires, and storms are battering virtually every corner of the globe.
Based in Mendoza, Argentina, Estudio Reynals was founded in 2018 by partners and sisters Laia and Cristina Reynals, two architecture and design professionals.
Aiming to recognize initiatives that benefit Brazilian architecture and cities, the 5th edition of the FNA Award (Prêmio FNA 2022) has announced its winners. The national news portal ArchDaily Brasil, the Rio de Janeiro-based non-profit organization Comunidades Catalisadoras (ComCat), and the Fab Social project from Guarulhos (SP) will receive the award on November 26 during the 46th National Meeting of Architects and Urban Planners Unions (46th ENSA) in Brasília (DF). The decision involved former presidents and the organization's current president, Eleonora Mascia, who highlighted the projects' contributions to both the professional community and Brazilian society.
On October 19, 21, and 22, Laguna in Mexico City hosted the second edition of the first design festival created by Coolhuntermx, conceived by and for projects led by cis women, trans women, and dissident communities. This festival was conceived with an inclusive, diverse, and collective approach, curated by designers Andrea Soler and Taina Campos. Following a first edition filled with key learnings and shared knowledge, the objective remains the same: to serve as an inclusive platform for design proposals and other creative expressions seeking alternative dialogues to those taking place during Design Month. This year, various forums were held to address topics such as "Social and Community Impact," "Representation and Decision-Making," "Activism for Transformation," and "Design of Care." In addition, the "Voces Estudiantiles" (Student Voices) exhibition showcased posters addressing various contemporary topics being explored in universities. Similarly, a mural by Artsynonym and Flaminguettes captured some of the core concepts and guiding principles of the festival. The event also featured 'Mujeres de la Tierra' (Women of the Earth), a collective of Indigenous women who defend the land and their lives against violence: "we stand in solidarity with the struggle by planting, cooking, and sharing knowledge." Attendance and participation during the event were highly diverse, enriching the panels to foster a horizontal dialogue addressing specific concerns. It is increasingly necessary to create these spaces to bring visibility to the collective struggles resisting day-to-day dynamics. Therefore, if you were unable to attend, the full talks are available below on coolhuntermx's Twitch channel; simply click on the link for each session. DAY 1
Panel: Social and Community Impact
WATCH THE RECORDING HERE
The panel featured Alessandra Cireddu (Moderator): National Director of the Architecture Program, Tecnológico de Monterrey (@alitac); Talachas Girl (Speaker): EXCLUSIVE SERVICE FOR WOMEN AND LGBTQ+. Remodeling, interior design, recycling, savings, construction, and creation (@talachas.girl); CACEH. Marcelina Bautista (Speaker): Domestic worker for 22 years, currently director of CACEH, a civil society organization that empowers and professionalizes domestic workers (@caceh_nacional); and Colectiva Argamasa (Speaker): A women's collective seeking to coordinate the presence of women in spaces through cross-cutting architectural interventions (@colectiva_argamasa). Panel: Representation and Decision-Making
WATCH THE RECORDING OF THE TALK HERE
The panel featured Vulvísima, Avelina Fonseca (Moderator): Feminist activist, B.A. in Political Science from UNAM, specializing in emancipatory feminist economics and the social organization of care. Creator of Vulvísima (@vulvisima); Ashby Solano (Speaker): Creative Direction. Digital Fabrication Jedi. Multidimensional creative being (@ashbysolano); GirlUp (Speaker): Passionate advocates for gender equality, sexual and reproductive rights, climate action, mental health, and other social injustice issues (@girlupmx); Marbella Figueroa (Speaker): Co-creator and collaborator of Afrochingonas, a self-managed project addressing and problematizing Afro-descent and racism in Mexico (@marbellabrilhinho); and Astra Lem (Speaker): Graphic designer and trans activism (@astra.lem). DAY 2
Panel: Activism for Transformation
WATCH THE RECORDING OF THE TALK HERE
The panel featured Dora Bartiloti (Moderator): Multimedia artist. She explores the material qualities of textiles and electronics as tactical mediums for feminist activism and collective action (@dorabartilotti); Zines por Morras (Speaker): The project aims to share experiences of harassment against lesbian and bisexual women in Mexico City (@zinespormorras); Alina Kiliwa (Speaker): "As a lettering artist, I seek to reclaim the sign-painting tradition and revalue the practice through participatory processes" (@alinakiliwa); Mi calle Nuestra Calle (Speaker): Urban laboratory of participatory futures [futures + feminist urbanism + community art] (@micalle_nuestracalle); and MOFA (Speaker): Feminist collective of young women from the urbanism, landscape, architecture, and industrial design programs at the Faculty of Architecture, UNAM (@mujeres_organizadas_fa). Panel: Design of Care
WATCH THE RECORDING OF THE TALK HERE
The panel featured Sofía Probert (Moderator): Illustrator. Through her work, she invites political and philosophical questioning around socio-environmental issues (@sofia.probert); Jovenas Comuneras de Milpa Alta. Daniela Moreno (Speaker): "We are a space for meeting and constructing action-participation to defend and care for our territories, land, and our existence within them" (@jovenascomuneras); Eli Caballero (Speaker): Environmental care and support for ADHD (@hazcompitas); Madres desobedientes (Speaker): Mothers parenting and transforming the world. Disseminating women's artistic projects and supporting feminist parenting (@madresdesobedientes); and Mariana Robles (Speaker): Gynecologist with a feminist perspective. Non-conscientious objector. Health at Every Size. Mom of two (@dra.mariana.robles). For more information, visit Diseña Mexicana.
Buildings hold stories, but those who built them are the ones who tell them. Mañungo, a Chilote carpenter, narrates through his notebooks the cultural, identity-defining, and architectural history of 12 rural communities in the archipelago of Chiloé. Through ethnographic research, the study reveals the attributes and qualities of the churches belonging to these territories and their connection to the lives of their inhabitants.
In 1972, Caetano Veloso announced in the song Triste Bahia that “the steamboat from Cachoeira no longer sails on the sea.” Indeed, ours is a generation unfamiliar with Salvador's nautical capacity, since most of us have not had the opportunity to experience the daily rhythm of a port city. A brief look at the records of photographers such as Marcel Gautherot, Pierre Verger, and Lázaro Roberto, from the 1950s to the 1970s, reveals that the daily dynamics along the waterfront were vastly different from those of today.
No País dos Arquitectos is a podcast created by Sara Nunes, who also runs the architectural film production company Building Pictures. The podcast aims to profile the professionals, projects, and stories behind leading contemporary Portuguese architecture. With just over 10 million inhabitants, Portugal is a highly compelling country within this professional field, and its architectural output punches far above its weight relative to its population or territorial scale.
In this episode of the fourth season, Sara talks with Graça Correia and Roberto Ragazzi, from the firm Correia/Ragazzi Arquitectos, about the Marechal 720 project, in which the architects sought to reinterpret "the new bourgeois house of Porto." Listen to the conversation and read part of the interview below.
The Library of the Torcuato Di Tella University (UTDT) and the Center for Contemporary Architecture Studies (CEAC) of the School of Architecture and Urban Studies (EAEU, UTDT) have announced the complete digitization of all articles from Block magazine in the Torcuato Di Tella University Digital Repository, located in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Celebrating 25 years since its first edition, they have decided to make all nine issues freely available online in an effort to contribute to the construction of an architecture with meaning and identity.
Earthquakes, tsunamis, mudslides, and wildfires are just some of the natural disasters that Chile has experienced throughout its history. Every November 5, the UN-declared World Tsunami Awareness Day is observed to promote a global culture of preparedness and awareness around this issue. Following the 27F earthquake and tsunami in 2010, Chile had to maximize its efforts to improve its emergency management and construction regulations, streamline reconstruction plans, and place greater emphasis on the strategic planning of its cities, given the country's vast number of coastal urban settlements. This opened up new possibilities for waterfronts. Below, we invite you to reflect on the future of the urban image of Chile's coastlines through the example set by the city of Constitución.
The Fiesp Cultural Center (CCF) is hosting the exhibition Built Landscape: São Paulo and Burle Marx through February 2023. Curated by Guilherme Wisnik, Helena Severo, and Isabela Ono, the exhibition features works from the Burle Marx Institute collection, highlighting urban ecology projects conceived by Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994) and his collaborators in the city of São Paulo. It also showcases dialogues between his work and that of renowned architects like Rino Levi and Paulo Mendes da Rocha, alongside unbuilt proposals for public spaces such as Trianon Park, Ibirapuera Park, Vale do Anhangabaú, and Praça da Sé. The exhibition highlights his environmental activism and pioneering advocacy for the preservation of South American biomes through green city planning.
Sixty-two years separate the inauguration of Brasília and the opening of the 22nd edition of the FIFA Men's World Cup, hosted in 2022 in Qatar. Of course, it is not only their placement in time and space that differentiates these two historical occasions; we must also add the geopolitical context, the character, the actors, and the interests surrounding each. What, then, remains as a link between them? Beyond the fact that the emirate now has its own model city (Lusail)—built in the wilderness of the peninsula under the playbook of the latest urban and technological trends, echoing to some extent the avant-garde spirit of Brazil's Federal District at the time of its construction—the inextricable link between the two events lies in the construction sites that materialized the architecture hosting them.
In September, the Rio de Janeiro City Hall began construction on the new Journalist Susana Naspolini Realengo Park, located in the West Zone of the state capital. Developed by the urban planning and landscaping firm Ecomimesis, the new park includes community gardens, a cultural route, a sports area, rain gardens, and an ecopoint (recycling station) for collecting and sorting all solid waste from the park.
Last September, Corporación Ciudades alongside Fundación Mi Parque presented the guide "Water Efficiency in Green Spaces: Best Practices," aiming to provide concrete examples and solutions for maintaining parks, plazas, and gardens within Chile's current water context. The guide is an interactive document covering three major areas: Design and Maintenance Initiatives; Educational and Public Awareness Strategies; and Regulatory and Planning Strategies. You can access more information and download the guide for free at the following link.
Modular units will house people experiencing homelessness in São Paulo. The project, named Vila Reencontro, was launched in the Bom Retiro neighborhood—though the proposed site is currently being analyzed for potential soil contamination—and is now expanding to Ladeira da Memória Street, near the Anhangabaú Metro station in the city center.
Led by SMADS (Municipal Secretariat of Assistance and Social Development), the initiative provides temporary housing made from shipping containers, functioning as modular metal homes.
Much has been said about the power of artificial intelligence and how its rise could transform the architectural profession. This topic has already been explored in previous articles here.
The primary tool causing concern among industry experts is DALL-E, a machine learning-based software that generates images from text prompts entered by the user. Other platforms offer similar capabilities, such as Midjourney and Stable Diffusion.
Brazil is currently the sixth country in the world most affected by climate disasters, according to the United Nations. The primary issues are waterlogging and flooding, as they bring windstorms, landslides, and flash floods. One in three disasters in Brazil falls into this category — with more than 10,000 official occurrences recorded between 1991 and 2010.
After at least five years of study, the time comes for Architecture and Urbanism students to present their final graduation projects—often referred to as TCC, TFG, or final thesis projects. In choosing their topics, students highlight civil, urban, or theoretical projects of great importance, sparking crucial debates about the future of our cities, the built environment, urban infrastructure, mobility, and many other essential topics shaping how we inhabit space.
In November 2022, Augusta Park celebrated its first anniversary of reopening to the public. The park reached maximum capacity on its opening day and, today, has welcomed over 1.5 million visitors. The site went through a long journey before reaching consolidation. The nearly 50-year struggle for the park deserves to be highlighted, and public participation in its creation must be recorded and shared so it can inspire new campaigns for public spaces across the city.
Located in the Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires, the Mariano Moreno National Library stems from a national design competition launched in 1961. Built on the site of Argentina's former Presidential Residence during the presidency of Juan Domingo Perón (the Unzué Palace), the competition—which closed in April 1962—sought to shake up the architectural scene, serving not only as a mandatory step to develop the project but also as a platform for formal and programmatic experimentation.
In October 2022, Fundación Patrimonio Sustentable, alongside the Downtown Valdivia Trade Association and Sercotec Los Ríos Region, launched the Barrio Cochrane Guide: Heritage and Commerce of Valdivia. This publication highlights the heritage, human, and architectural value of the neighborhood, featuring stories of local businesses, historic trades, and iconic buildings in the area.
As part of their latest release, architect and visual artist Erik López (IMGN) and electronic music producer and composer Edgar Mondragón have unveiled their new piece "Santuario," which is described as "a remote experience that connects with the existence of a physical space that cannot be visited." This audiovisual piece consists of a 3D model of the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), designed by Mexican architect Teodoro González de León for the Centro Cultural Universitario.
As part of Open House Buenos Aires, the themed photography competition Open Foto 2022 was held with the support of Wikimedia Argentina. Its goal is to highlight the architecture of Buenos Aires through the routes taken by visitors during the architecture and urbanism festival on October 1 and 2, 2022.
The 7th {CURA} Award has announced the winners of its competition, which focused on designing support facilities for app delivery workers. The competition invited participants to design across three scales — city, building, and furniture —, offering a comprehensive response to the needs of these professionals whose work grew more widespread yet increasingly precarious during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Rooftop farms and urban gardens are popular options for providing food in cities while mitigating heat islands, increasing building thermal insulation, and improving air quality. However, these plants often end up smaller and less healthy, as they suffer from higher solar radiation, wind exposure, and low soil moisture.
