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Since at least as early as ancient Roman times, humans have recognized the value of what is now known as controlled environment agriculture, allowing farmers to cultivate plants year-round rather than seasonally. Though they were invented hundreds of years ago, greenhouses continue to be the most popular means of controlled environment agriculture today, with innovations in technology and design having improved both the beauty and efficacy of this typology. Below, we will explore in detail the history and structure of the greenhouse, as well as several examples of innovative and experimental greenhouse design.

Dominique Perrault’s proposal has won “the transformation and revival of industrial heritages” or the Hangang district urban design international competition, in Handan, China. Six teams from world-renowned architectural firms, including Coop Himmelb(l)au and UNStudio Team, were invited to participate in the contest and envision the future of the city, through their creative designs.

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The quality of streets and sidewalks is a widely debated topic in Brazil, and the coronavirus pandemic has added another layer of complexity—public health—prompting us to question whether it is actually possible for pedestrians to practice social distancing. This concern led architecture student Conrado Freire to develop a map of sidewalk widths in São Paulo.

Adapted from Meli Harvey's Sidewalk Widths NYC project on New York City sidewalks, Largura do Passeio uses sidewalk data provided by the GeoSampa portal to visually synthesize information about São Paulo's pedestrian pathways that is not typically accessible to the general public. Based on the open-source code released by Harvey—which has also been adapted for cities like Toronto, Washington, Berlin, and Milan—Freire creates a visual mapping of what is often only felt by pedestrians moving through São Paulo's urban space.

SOM and Fender Katsalidis have won an international design competition for Central Place Sydney, a commercial development that will introduce new transformative public space and high-tech towers. Located in Sydney's Central Business District, Australia, the proposed project seeks to transform the western edge by introducing innovative buildings and public realm improvements.

Dorte Mandrup has won the international competition to design the new Exile Museum (Exilmuseum) in Berlin. Located adjacent to the ruins of the historic railway station Anhalter Bahnhof, the museum will tell the stories of those who fled during the Nazi regime and look to today's present displaced populations. The studio’s proposal reinterprets the portico ruins on Askanischer Platz, together a monument and symbol of those driven into exile during the Second World War.

The A’ Design Award is an international award whose aim is to provide designers, architects, and innovators from all architecture and design fields with a competitive platform to showcase their work and products to a global audience. Among the design world's many awards, the A' Design Award stands out for its exceptional scale and breadth; over the eleven years the Award has been given, more than 12,000 awards have been bestowed across 110 categories and 180 nationalities. This year's edition is now open for entries; designers can register their submissions here.

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During the next decade or so, our cities will expand at an inconceivable speed. According to the UN’s 2019 World Population Prospects, our planet by 2030 is expected to have 43 megacities —classified as those with more than 10 million inhabitants. Most megacities will be in developing countries. And by mid-century, almost 70 percent of the world’s population will be urbanised, with today’s rate at just over half. Moreover, 90 percent of the urban population growth is expected to happen in Africa and Asia.

Since its founding in 1937, and despite recent controversies surrounding its administration and leadership, the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (Iphan) has built one of Brazil's largest bibliographical, documentary, and iconographic collections. In total, 13 interconnected libraries house over 500,000 books and periodicals, which are also linked to the country's main libraries. A significant portion of this rich material is available online—free of charge—on the Institute's online platform.

Concrete is a key symbol of a highly celebrated era in Brazilian architecture. To this day, it remains one of the preferred materials for architects and designers seeking to explore the flexibility and expressiveness it brings to their work. Although primarily associated with building structures, concrete can also take center stage due to its materiality, thermal feel, color, and other qualities that transcend its structural role. When left exposed, concrete imparts a striking character to interiors, establishing a dialogue with the other elements that shape the space.

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Videos

The inertia of politics and governance in a time when major societal changes occur at an increasingly faster pace and the dissatisfaction with the decision process makes room for bottom-up actions, activism and bold endeavours. In the light of so many examples of social activism, do architects have the tools to make their own stand? Does architecture have the power to disrupt the status quo?

With seven years of professional practice, the Rio de Janeiro-based firm Gru.a Arquitetos has built works and interventions in different parts of the world. These architectural, urban, and art installation projects collectively set the group's work apart from traditional practice.

The Midnight Charette is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by architectural designers David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features a variety of creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions. A wide array of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes provide useful tips for designers, while others are project reviews, interviews, or explorations of everyday life and design. The Midnight Charette is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.

This week David and Marina are joined by James Lord, Landscape Architect & Founder of Surfacedesign, to discuss the homogeneity of our streets and public spaces, his transition from architecture to landscape architecture, stories about Pierre Koenig and saving endangered frogs, the most common struggle Landscape Architects face in projects, storytelling in design, and much more. Enjoy!

The series of articles developed by Nikos A. Salingaros, David Brain, Andrés M. Duany, Michael W. Mehaffy and Ernesto Philibert-Petit researches the peculiarities of social housing in Latin America. This time, examples of strategies and planning in their construction are reviewed, such as the importance of collaborative social processes and the specific sequences of stages.

In July 2019, the habita-cidade Platform [1] organized the "Ways of Dwelling: Traditional Architectures" Travel-Workshop, which brought students and professors to the Ypawu Village in Kamayurá territory, in the Upper Xingu. The general objective of the "Ways of Dwelling" Travel-Workshops is to foster constructive reflection on the diverse forms of human habitat across the planet. This year, responding to a request from Kamayurá master builders to produce a manual on local architecture, the Travel-Workshop was designed so that the visiting group could support this important endeavor. The idea for the Kamayurá Architecture Manual was first proposed by Kanawayuri L. Marcello Kamaiurá (a local leader) to architect Clarissa Morgenroth (a graduate of Escola da Cidade) and theater director Cibele Forjaz. Escola da Cidade was then invited to join the project, which was taken on by the habita-cidade Platform, an initiative linked to the *lato sensu* postgraduate program "Housing and City."

As it celebrates its 60th anniversary, Brasília has an opportunity to draw inspiration from the anti-racist and anti-colonial movements worldwide that have challenged the monumentality of official history, confronting the memorialization of colonialism within its own urban landscape. Rather than celebratory events that reiterate official narratives, marking the city as a *bandeirante* milestone of national modernity, we should pause—a pause moreover imposed by the pandemic—to reflect on how certain memories are eternalized while others are erased, and thus trace new memorial cartographies onto the urban fabric of the capital.

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When a material runs its course and becomes obsolete, whether because of wear and tear, a change of style, a tear-down, or a remodel, many are tempted to simply toss it into a scrap heap and send it to the landfill. In the grand majority of cases, however, these materials can be repaired, recycled, and reused in a vast array of creative endeavors. Of course, depending on the material and its characteristics, this can also present a challenge. In the case of windows and doors, particular care must be taken to keep them intact throughout the dismantling or demolition process and even afterwards, an inspection may be necessary to determine their viability for future use. Of course, many avoid the path of re-utilization altogether and opt for new materials that make for an easier and more uniform project.

The Institute of Architects of Brazil – São Paulo Department has reactivated its educational platform. In line with the 2020-2022 administration's program, particularly regarding the promotion and consolidation of a space for debate on pressing issues in the training of architects and urban planners, the Institute has undergone a complete restructuring that deepens and strengthens the democratizing spirit of past experiences.

Colombian artist and architect Santiago Pradilla captured my interest through his many passionate pursuits—he has dedicated as much of his life to traveling to and working within small, rural communities and as he has to producing architecture that tells the rich history of Colombian cities.

We discussed the relationship between academia, auto-construction, and rural living as well as the exploration of other artistic disciplines. We even breached the topic of the importance of heritage and projections about the direction of Colombian architecture.

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“Alternative Utility Platforms” is a project that seeks to generate spaces for social innovation in the integrated management of urban waste. According to Giulia Bianchi and Luis Morillo, the authors of the proposal, the city of Barquisimeto, Venezuela, currently generates approximately 21,147 tons of solid waste per month. Only 61.79% of this waste ends up in landfills, meaning the remaining 33.25% winds up on streets, in informal dumps, rivers, and streams, improperly disposed of. Out of this total, ultimately only 4.97% is processed by recycling companies, and the majority of that volume is sorted and supplied by street waste collectors. For this reason, and through their thesis project developed at the Central University of Venezuela, the authors propose to generate new employment models for the collection and treatment of municipal solid waste through an urban and architectural intervention.

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The Mexican state of Oaxaca is one of the most visited destinations in the country, drawing travelers from around the globe with its rich culinary, cultural, and architectural heritage. Located in the southeastern region of the country, it spans 93,757 km² and is divided into 570 municipalities, making it the fifth-largest state in Mexico.

The sharing economy, an economic system that involves individuals renting out or sharing their personal property including their homes and cars, has been severely impacted as the wave of COVID-19 ebbs and flows across the world. Popular companies like Uber, Airbnb, bike shares, and a variety of coworking spaces that we are so accustomed to being essential parts of our lives, have been making adjustments and creating new strategies to ensure that their customers feel safe and reimagine how they might adapt to an uncertain road ahead.

The UK government has released a document that proposes reforms in the planning system, such as speeding up the process of approvals for development. Entitled Planning for the Future, the report suggests “to streamline and modernize the planning process, bring a new focus to design and sustainability, improve the system of developer contributions to infrastructure, and ensure more land is available for development where it is needed”.

Design Core Detroit is launching the 10th annual Detroit Month of Design in September. The event will recognize Detroit’s designation as the first and only UNESCO City of Design in the United States, and will include more than 175 participants presenting over 65 events and special projects. The programming will explore design solutions to the challenges faced by Detroit and the global community since the start of 2020.

Charles Correa Foundation has recently released several snippets of ‘You & Your Neighbourhood’, Charles Correa’s 1955 Master Thesis at MIT, an animation film for which the architect was scriptwriter, animator, photographer and director. The thesis put forward the idea of a participatory process for the betterment of neighbourhoods, with a strong emphasis on creating a framework for improving urban conditions in a bottom-up approach.