The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has announced that Boston’s iconic concrete Government Center, the Hurley Building, will be getting a complete renovation by architecture firm NBBJ. Originally designed by Paul Rudolph, the brutalist building and its site were listed for sale in 2019. The new mixed-use development will "catalyze substantial economic development on the underutilized and uninviting site with a new life-sciences building, renovated state offices, ground-floor retail, improved public open space, and 200 units of mixed-income housing as part of a dynamic mixed-use development which will enliven and reactivate 5 acres in Downtown Boston".

Grimshaw Architects has revealed the design for a 16-soundstage studio production campus for the independent company East End Studios. Located on a 15-acre former industrial site in the Arts District in Los Angeles, the campus will provide creative workplace buildings and production support spaces connected via a series of outdoor terraces and walkways. The project responds to its location and context by moving away from the traditional studio layout and instead opting to create a “vertical campus”. This composition creates a more open public relationship with the downtown neighborhood while ensuring that all campus facilities are well connected.

Usually, refurbishments are to completely change a space or, in a more surgical way, to bring about improvements in mobility and privacy issues. No matter the number of walls to be demolished, coatings to be replaced and joinery to be designed, the result is always looking for a more functional and beautiful space. In the case of apartments that usually have standard floor plans, intervening in them is also a way of bringing a unique and more personal character to each home.

Understanding the diversity and plurality of people who inhabit and pass through cities on a daily basis, gender-responsive urban planning aims to incorporate all those identities, perspectives and activities that have been invisible for years. Understanding the complexities that surround cities and getting involved in the urban experiences of their inhabitants, public spaces turn out to be the scenario for the development of urban life and, as such, should bring together a series of guidelines and considerations in accordance with this new paradigm that act as planning tools, composing this network of spaces and contemplating all the users of the city.

While the construction industry has been advancing for years in emerging fields like nanotechnology and 3D printing, it remains one of the most lagging in terms of technology adoption. Many innovations never progress past the experimental stage, and while there is a constant push to reverse this trend, we are simultaneously faced with a troubling fact: the construction industry is one of the world's largest producers of pollutants and waste. 

The Chilean lawyer, Juan Pablo Klenner, has dedicated himself to investigating one of the most discussed and least in-depth topics in architecture: copyright in our discipline. Plagiarism, referents or inspirations? It is a discussion that surely falls on deaf ears every time we talk about it among ourselves, but in the legal world it is clearly very well developed. If for some people creativity should not be measured in these terms, for others it is an issue that can go to court.

Following the publication of his book "Architecture too. Copyright for Architects", we talked to Klenner about what we have always wanted to know, but never dared to ask. "The idea of total originality must be rejected, no one is capable of creating something out of nothing, even in the work with the least external influences," he warns.

On September 13, IMS Paulista opens the exhibition Moderna pelo avesso: fotografia e cidade, Brasil, 1890-1930. With free admission, the exhibition features photography from some of the country's major capitals—Porto Alegre, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Recife, and Belém—during the First Brazilian Republic, from 1889 to 1930. The exhibition documents radical urban reforms that took place during this period, addressing the tensions and contradictions of these processes, which altered landscapes and the ways people lived in and moved through cities.

Videos

The Second Studio (formerly The Midnight Charette) is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by Architects David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features different creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions.

A variety of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes are interviews, while others are tips for fellow designers, reviews of buildings and other projects, or casual explorations of everyday life and design. The Second Studio is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.

This week David and Marina are joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning Architectural Critic and Author Paul Goldberger to discuss his journey to becoming an architectural critic; the importance of critics, their role in society, and the challenges of being one; adapting to the digital age; his critiquing process; the state of architecture today; and more.

What relationships between the social field of memory and the construction of the city can be identified during the Brazilian civil-military dictatorship? We begin with the premise that the formation of the city involves a series of disputes and concessions among the diverse entities that make up society. Since, as we know, each social agent possesses a distinct standpoint, their oppressions or privileges are carried over into the realm of memory, which in turn is transcribed into the construction of the urban environment. That is to say, the opinions and desires of certain communities, because they possess more resources, often determine how places will be built and the narratives woven about them.

Cities and communities around the world are stepping up to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and prevent the most dangerous impacts of climate change. Typically, strategies focus on reducing emissions in sectors such as transportation, energy, housing, and waste. Yet, there is another sector that many communities have overlooked in their climate plans: trees and forests.

An increasing number of people live in urban areas. UN-Habitat's World Cities Report 2022 reveals that this share rose from 25% in 1950 to over 50% in 2020, with projections indicating it will reach 58% over the next five decades. The survey also indicates that by 2070, the number of municipalities in low-income countries will increase by 76%, while in high- and lower-middle-income nations, this growth will hover around 20%. Furthermore, the study notes that this scenario highlights the urgent need for cities to be designed and managed so that future growth does not overwhelm existing infrastructure, open spaces, and services—which would lead to unsustainable sprawl.

In 2016, in the commune of Limache in Chile's Valparaíso region, tunnels connecting to various parts of the city—including the CCU brewery—were discovered beneath a hatch in the gardens of the landmark Eastman Mansion. Prompted by uncertainty over why they were built, an investigation was launched, with the findings behind the project's origins finally revealed in 2021.

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The Experimental Center for Affordable Housing (CEVE) is a research, experimentation, development, and transfer center for construction technologies and comprehensive management, focusing on the social production of habitat. Founded around 1967 by architect Horacio Berretta within the Faculty of Architecture of the Catholic University of Córdoba (UCC), CEVE is jointly affiliated with the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and the Affordable Housing Association (AVE).

Can you imagine a world in which the built environment around us is 3D printed from living materials? That buildings will germinate, bloom, wither, produce new kinds of material, and eventually return back to the soil? To Grow a Building is a performative lab space that 3D prints - in real time - a live structure. The project presents a new approach to integrating flora into the design process, by developing a novel material for 3D printing, through which seeding is an inseparable part of the fabrication process. To Grow a Building is a gate into a future world in which there are people who build buildings, and there are people who grow them.

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On Wednesday, August 17, the Senate Infrastructure Services Committee approved a bill establishing a regulatory framework for offshore energy generation—including wind, solar, or tidal—in Brazil's open seas, lagoons, and other bodies of water. The Bill (PL) 576/2021 regulates authorizations for harnessing offshore energy potential. Authored by Senator Jean Paul Prates (PT-RN), the bill was approved in a final vote by the committee and will now proceed to the Chamber of Deputies for review.

In sloped topographies, factors such as rainfall and excess water promote surface runoff, triggering a series of impacts that lead to the loss of soil, water, nutrients, and seeds, consequently reducing agricultural productivity (Posthumus, 2005). In Andean mountain environments, this is compounded by water scarcity and variability, alongside the challenges of water retention (Canziani, 2007). To address these challenges, territorial transformations and modifications known as terraces and andenes emerged, representing some of the oldest infrastructural practices for soil and hydrological conservation and management. Their physical presence, productive use, and cultural relevance remain vital in many parts of the world today.

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The architectural identity and urban fabric of the old city of Frankfurt has grown organically over centuries. Shops, bars, and craftsmen's workshops have always attracted a lot of visitors to the area between the Cathedral, or "Dom" in German, and the Römer, the main square in the center of Frankfurt. Historically, the area included buildings of many different styles, such as Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Classical architecture, which most locals only knew about from black and white photographs, the town’s famous miniature model in the historic museum, or stories passed down through generations.

However, the quarter’s picturesque buildings and alleyways, were almost entirely destroyed during the Second World War, but the collaborative work of the community and local authorities have made it seem as though time before the war stood still. The entire quarter was reconstructed exactly as its original plans, bringing Frankfurt’s medieval history back to life and creating what is now known as the Neue Alstadt, a project considered by some to be controversial.

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Ennead Architects has revealed its competition design entry for the Chilean-Argentine border complex along the Cardenal Antonio Samoré Pass, one of the most heavily-trafficked mountain passes through the southern Andes and between the two countries. Dubbed Samoré, the project is designed to serve as a welcoming station and refuge for travelers, complementing the Patagonian tradition of remote mountain shelters that are commonly found across the southern Andes.

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Those interested in purchasing low- or zero-emission transportation options can now access a new line of credit. This month, Banco do Brasil (BB) launched the BB Crédito Mobilidade line, which will finance items such as bicycles, kick scooters, electric or manual scooters, and motorcycles under 125cc, with repayment terms of up to five years.

Boston is the latest city to announce a city-wide plan that, if passed, would eliminate the use of fossil fuels in new constructions and major renovation projects. This measure expands upon the commitment to enact climate action and make Boston a Green New Deal city. Other US cities like New York, Los Angeles, San Jose, Seattle, and Berkeley have all imposed similar measures in recent years. Seven European cities - Bilbao, Bratislava, Dublin, Munich, Rotterdam, Vienna, and Winterthur - have also developed a project to phase out fossil fuel from urban heating and cooling.

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In the midst of programmatic diversity and experimentation, the Rio de Janeiro office gru.a is an encouragement to those who wish to venture into the expanded field of architecture. Formed by partners Caio Calafate and Pedro Varella in 2013, gru.a demonstrates the potential of the profession when it dialogues with other disciplines.

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Entries to the annual Architecture Drawing Prize are judged in three categories, hand-drawn, digital and hybrid. Last year, Dafni Filippa, a post-graduate student studying for a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture (MLA) at the Bartlett School of Architecture, won in the hybrid category and was also judged overall winner of the Prize with her Flood-responsive landscape performance, a virtuoso drawing created through a variety of rendering and modelling techniques produced by hand, in plaster and through and across multiple software platforms.

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Since 2009, World Photography Day has been celebrated every August 19, commemorating the presentation of the daguerreotype to the French Academy of Sciences. The daguerreotype was the first photographic process, a milestone invention for human history and, of course, for our own discipline. Discussing architecture through photography is, in the words of Beatriz Colomina, one of its primary means of dissemination.

São Caetano do Sul, in São Paulo's ABC region, tops the ranking of the country's most sustainable cities. The unprecedented survey reveals that the city, already known for leading the HDI (Human Development Index) in Brazil, is now first among the 5,570 Brazilian municipalities regarding the implementation of the UN's SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals).