This guide covers a workflow that moves from project parameters to generated floor plans, 3D perspective views, exterior design exploration, and site context visualization, using AI tools in place of preliminary CAD and rendering work.

Today is the day to announce the finalists for ODA2021. Our expert jury—meaning you, our readers—has selected 15 favorite projects from nearly 1,000 works of architecture across Latin America and Spain.

Now in its thirteenth year, this award has become a true tradition. We invite all of our readers to recognize the projects published during 2020 that inspired them and represent the identity of their local contexts in a globalized planet, shaping architectural practice in Latin America and Spain within an increasingly heterogeneous and multicultural world.

Starting today and until next Wednesday, March 31, at 11:59 PM (GMT -3), you can explore each of the finalists in detail and vote for the work that best represents the "Spanish-language" architecture that inspires us, defines us, and leaves its mark on us.

This week's featured career opportunities come from two design firms based in Beijing and Shanghai: IN.X Design and SLT- STUDIOLITE. Specialized in projects of varying scales and themes, both practices are highly active across diverse design sectors and are looking to recruit like-minded design talent to join their teams.

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Architect Martín Luis Gutiérrez Martínez was born in Gómez Palacio—a city in the state of Durango, Mexico—in 1927, and he never left behind his Northern roots or any of his lifelong convictions. During the brief and cherished time I shared with him, our conversations were always filled with his exceptional memory, enlivened by an untiring passion for living and feeling architecture.

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Cars remain one of the primary modes of transportation and a major contributor to the climate crisis, as the vast majority consume fossil fuels and generate emissions—particularly carbon dioxide, which intensifies the greenhouse effect and, consequently, global warming. As such, World Car-Free Day is celebrated internationally on September 22 to encourage people to spend a day without their cars and reflect on car dependency. To offer new perspectives on this issue, we highlight the work of Latvian architect Oto Ozols, who envisions cities designed for people rather than cars through videos that demonstrate how public space can be improved from this perspective. 

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Today, August 13, commemorates two pivotal events in Mexico's history: the approximate founding of Tenochtitlan, capital of the Mexica civilization, around 1325 on an island in Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico; and the fall of this empire in 1521 to the Spanish army led by the conquistador Hernán Cortés.

These are just a few of the many events that shape today's Mexico City, making it nearly impossible to summarize them all. Nonetheless, revisiting some of these milestones helps us understand the very ground we stand on and, above all, reflect on the future of our actions as architecture professionals: from the pre-Hispanic period, colonization, Independence, and the Revolution, to the foreign influences of the Modern Movement and the diverse interpretations that culminate in what we recognize today as contemporary architecture.

Archivo de Ideas Recibidas is an interdisciplinary research and dissemination project that seeks to document and connect the ideas of people contributing to the contemporary creative ecosystem through art, design, and architecture. It is built on conversations between the team and various creators, exploring themes related to memory, academia, cultural context, main influences, and working methodologies.

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For the eighth time, the MEXTRÓPOLI Architecture and City Festival held the Arquine No. 23 | MEXTRÓPOLI 2021 Pavilion competition, a platform where architecture, urbanism, and art meet to reflect on and celebrate Mexico City. The event also aims to engage citizens by occupying public spaces with architectural interventions that can be activated by visitors. Celebrating public space and offering a fresh perspective on everyday pathways is precisely why MEXTRÓPOLI showcases these ephemeral works of architecture.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic postponed COP26 to November 2021, UN negotiators were still hard at work throughout 2020. Following a series of virtual events in June of last year, more than 3,000 national delegates concluded the Climate Dialogues, a series of 80 virtual meetings in which countries shared, reviewed, and discussed outstanding issues in international climate negotiations.

From the outset, countries agreed that the dialogues would not include the formal negotiations that typically occur at COPs and would not lead to any official decisions. Instead, they addressed events that countries had previously scheduled for 2020, alongside other informal exchanges. The dialogues served as a platform for countries and non-state actors to take stock of overall climate action progress in 2020, offering an informal space for negotiators to better understand outstanding issues as they prepared to resume negotiations in 2021.

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On October 5, Design House opened in Mexico City. As in previous years, the event showcases a series of installations integrating disciplines like design, architecture, and interior design. For nine years, across various venues, it has presented cutting-edge proposals from more than one hundred participating firms in collaboration with the showrooms of the Design Route, which provide the furniture and accessories that make up each space.

The Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires has submitted a bill to the Legislature to create the Sustainable Urban Development Fund (FoDUS), aiming to carry out plans, programs, and projects designed to incentivize urban development in several of the city's neighborhoods through public, private, or mixed initiatives.

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According to 2018 data from INEGI's National Survey of Demographic Dynamics (ENADID), the child population under fifteen in Mexico represents 25.3% of the overall total, which stands at 125 million people. The reality is that this population, despite representing just over a quarter of the total, has few to no spaces dedicated to their entertainment and development. With this figure in mind, this article reflects on public space and childhood in Mexican cities.

On December 13, the groundbreaking ceremony was held for the new Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) building, one of the first projects to kick off the transformation of the hospital campus into a new "research city" concept, designed by architecture firms BAAS Arquitectura and Espinet / Ubach.

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Elevating a building off the ground using pilotis frees up the ground floor for pedestrian circulation. This solution, identified by Le Corbusier as one of the five points of modern architecture, creates an open area that fosters a stronger connection between the public space of the street and the private space of the building. Today, contemporary projects adopt various strategies to design active ground floors that engage with the city and generously share their plots with the public.

Hiring this week is Shanghai-based Atelier I-N-D-J. Active in the fields of architecture, spatial, product, and furniture design with a highly distinct style, they welcome young talents passionate about architectural design to join their team.

The Rafael Manzano Prize for New Traditional Architecture aims to promote the value of traditional architecture as a proven reference for contemporary architecture in Spain and Portugal. It seeks to do so both in the restoration of historical and artistic monuments and urban ensembles, and in the construction of new buildings that, based on local traditions, integrate harmoniously into these contexts.

We all know that architecture is a complex field that requires input from many disciplines to be realized. While design lies at the core of every project, without technical expertise, many would not be what they are today. What would Brasilia be without Roberto Burle Marx's landscape design? Would OMA's CCTV Headquarters in Beijing stand without ARUP's structural calculations? Would ELEMENTAL's housing projects be the same without the contributions of their future residents?

We want to give you the opportunity to openly share your thoughts and experiences on this particular topic. Tell us what you think multidisciplinary design in architecture is, and share your story. Selected responses will be featured in an upcoming article.

Located at Castelli 3902, this project is the result of a collaborative partnership between the architecture and urban planning organization Proyecto Habitar and COOPTEBA SM/3F, a housing cooperative of education workers from the Province of Buenos Aires, San Martín, and Tres de Febrero. In a world where unequal access to urban goods and services shapes the lives of much of the population, the designers sought to work collectively and interdisciplinarily to address existing social and spatial injustices. Read on to learn more about this experience.

"Domingos Libro" is hosted by Carmelo from Enorme Studio, where every two weeks, he takes a deep dive into forgotten architectural publications, books, and magazines from the '60s, '70s, and '80s that have the most interesting stories behind them.

In this new episode, titled "Foto-reportaje," he discusses a curious way of presenting architecture through a fictional reportage on Coop Himmelb(l)au's Atelier Baumann renovation project, published in issue 245 of the French magazine L'Architecture d'aujourd'hui in 1986.

Since ArchDaily launched its recruitment services, we have received job listings from architecture practices of all scales across China, from Beijing and Shenzhen to Hangzhou. Characterized by their distinct design philosophies, these practices operate across diverse architectural fields, seeking talented professionals to join their teams. Concurrently, ArchDaily and its sister platform, the design and materials database Architonic, are seeking a Business Development Manager for China. Below is a curated selection of nine active openings and representative practices. We invite qualified candidates to apply.

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This article by Sebastián Trujillo Torres (Universidad Nacional de Colombia/CEPT University) was originally published under the title "A Manifesto of Lightweight Infrastructures" in issue 28 (2020) of Dearq journal (DOI: https://doi.org/10.18389/dearq28.2020.03) and is part of a joint publishing collaboration.

According to the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB), the construction industry is the largest consumer of natural resources. To minimize environmental impacts, the concept of sustainable construction has emerged, employing techniques that ensure greater efficiency and responsibility from the beginning to the end of a project.

The first consideration is the layout of the rooms, as each space has an ideal location based on the local climate. “The layout of rooms in a residence can establish baseline conditions for comfort or discomfort. It is the role of the architectural design, through the organization of the floor plan, to ensure the appropriate level of sunlight and natural ventilation for each space,” states the free sustainable renovation guide published by the Ministry of the Environment.

In recent years, wood has gained traction as a renewable, versatile, and aesthetically appealing building material. Its strength, ease of handling, and insulating properties give it advantages that other materials cannot match, making it an increasingly popular choice among designers, architects, and builders. However, while it offers multiple benefits, it is also susceptible to degradation and decay, requiring preservation care to withstand the passage of time and other external threats.

Historically, to address these durability issues, there were two options: applying chemical treatments or using tropical hardwoods. While the former generates harmful toxins, the latter drives deforestation in the context of climate change. Consequently—and driven by an increasing demand for the material—alternative methods have been developed to protect it. One of these is acetylation, a non-toxic process that, in addition to offering high performance, significantly reduces environmental impact.

The National Cultural Heritage Service (SERPAT), with technical advisory from the Ministry of Public Works' Directorate of Architecture and sponsorship from the Chilean Association of Architects and the Association of Architecture Offices (AOA), launched the Los Ríos Regional Infrastructure Design Competition for the Library, Archives, and Collections Repository. The initiative aimed to select the best design proposal to deliver a distinctive and iconic public building for the region while fostering discussion on contemporary local architecture.

"Domingos Libro" is hosted by Carmelo of Enorme Studio. Every two weeks, the series takes a deep dive into forgotten architectural publications, books, and architecture magazines from the '60s, '70s, and '80s that harbor the most fascinating backstories.

In this latest episode, we explore the monograph on Japanese architect Arata Isozaki published by Rizzoli, and his obsession with Marilyn Monroe—an obsession that led him to replicate her body's geometry across several of his buildings.