As a result of three months of training in local engagement within the pioneering COURB Ambassadors Program, mobilizers from various Brazilian cities promoted actions in their territories. Aiming for the collaborative construction of inclusive cities, the Articulation Journey—a highly collaborative effort—took place between August and September and featured three types of actions: roundtables, territorial interventions, and collective proposals. The ambassadors mapped and engaged more than 150 institutions in the program, including city halls, universities, collectives, businesses, and organizations.
https://www.archdaily.com/1122586/three-ways-to-activate-urban-space-courb-articulation-journeyCOURB Brasil
Rua Miguel Calmon has been the stage for significant transformations in Salvador. Until the early 20th century, before the land reclamation that created the left side of the street and a new port for the city, it was called Rua do Cais and was bordered by the sea. A century later, this street in the Comércio neighborhood has become the first Complete Street in the capital of Bahia, standing as a symbol of the interventions revitalizing its historic center.
https://www.archdaily.com/1121568/from-wharf-street-to-complete-street-intervention-in-salvador-restores-vitality-to-miguel-calmon-streetFernando Corrêa e Bruno Batista
A lot can change in a city within one year; from demolitions, to reconstructions and project completions, a city's urban fabric is constantly being altered. During the past 4 years, Chilean architect and photographer Francisco Ibáñez Hantke of Estudio Ibanez has put together a photo-series titled Non-Structures, which focuses on London's urban regeneration and transformation and captures its various moments of ruins, planning, process, and eventually, complete architecture.
Changtteul Church, is an old place of worship in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, that gets its name from the term "changtteul", meaning "a frame containing a window", in Korean. As its name suggests, the building's character lies in its series of windows, giving the visitors both outside and inside a unique experience of light and scenery.
Designers Hanyoung Jang and Hanjin Jang of studio minorormajor utilized the windows of Changtteul as a metaphorical motif for their design concept: the first being the 'window between man and God', and the second being ‘the window between man and nature’, immersing the abandoned religious facility with dramatic experiences.
Mars has been notable for capturing humans' interest, intriguing business moguls such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to go on a "billionaire space race" and settle on the planet. But does humanity have the right to colonize another planet? If so, who does this sky-high ambition serve?
After centuries of using wood for the development of window and door carpentry, the Rationalism of the 20th century began to adopt a new material for these purposes: steel. Driven by industrial production, and promoted by architects such as Adolf Loos, Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier, steel was evolving to generate increasingly thin and resistant frames. However, efficient and low-cost materials, such as aluminum and PVC, gradually began to replace its widespread use, increasing the size of the frames and losing steel's "clean" aesthetic when applied to a growing architecture of large glass paneled facades.
At present, new technologies have refined their production processes, developing minimal profiles of high rigidity and precision, which take full advantage of the transparency of the glass and deliver new comfort and safety features. We talked with Jansen's experts to deepen our understanding of their application in contemporary architecture.
The landscape around the built environment can make all the difference in a project. Natural elements that are integrated into architecture or designed to compose it make a huge difference in the way we experience space. Therefore, designing landscape projects is no simple task. To bring some references for compositions with nature and other elements that help to configure a place, we have gathered fifteen contemporary Brazilian projects that explore simple solutions and the ones that expose the exuberance of the country's tropical flora.
Text provided by MasilWIDE. The Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism was held for about two months, came to an end in great success on November 10. First carried out in 2017 under the theme of 'Imminent Commons', the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (hereinafter Seoul Biennale) gathered 450,000 people in the first year and marked the beginning of the Seoul Biennale. This year, the much-expanded scale and interest of people were able to be seen as the attendance numbers of the first year was already exceeded in October, at the height of the Biennale.
Designed by Snøhetta in collaboration with Clark Nexsen, the new Main Library of Charlotte Mecklenburg Library reinterprets the space through a technologically-advanced approach and highlights the importance of this function in the community's daily life.
Álvaro Siza Vieira can add another award to his extensive list of global honors. The Portuguese master has just been awarded Spain's 2019 National Architecture Prize, announced during the II International Congress "Art, City, and Landscape," which concludes today in Cuenca with Portugal as the guest country.
On November 7, the winners of the National and International Editions of the 2019 CEMEX Building Award were announced during a ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Polanco hotel in Mexico City. Here is the list of winners.
The *Tres Turons* (Three Hills) Park is one of the most important green lungs in the city of Barcelona. Located between the districts of Horta-Guinardó and Gracia and comprising the Turó de la Creueta del Coll, the Turó del Carmel, and the Turó de la Rovira, the park features a complex topography that offers exceptional aerial views of the city. Although the Barcelona City Council has planned to revitalize the area since 1953 by creating a large green zone to serve as a green lung, leisure hub, and rest area, opposition from local residents has delayed its development. Consequently, the site is currently in a state of degradation that threatens its environmental value. To address this, the City Council recently launched a competition under the guidelines of the 2010 master plan. The initiative aims to preserve the park's biodiversity, ensure ecological resource management, redesign pathways and activity zones to encourage public use, improve connections with surrounding neighborhoods, and reorganize the Can Baró quarries area.
Zaha Hadid Architects were selected along with Esplan from Estonia to design the new terminal of the Rail Baltic railway at Ülemiste, Tallinn. Their proposal for the starting point of the Rail Baltic line connecting Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius with the European high-speed rail network, has been awarded the first place in the design competition.
The characteristics of Corten steel has been respected by all architects, both for its strength and for its particular color. It corresponds to a type of steel manufactured with a chemical composition that provides an oxidation that protects the piece, practically without altering its mechanical characteristics. The architectural details of Corten steel present a diversity of situations and connections, not only the obvious constructive factor but it also gives an aesthetic value to any architectural project.
We have compiled this list of 6 eye-catching Corten steel construction details that stand out the most.
Dutch design practice Mecanoo has revealed their design for the Konka mixed-use project in Shenzhen, China. As the team states, Shenzhen is searching for new models for urban and architectural innovation to replace the traditional model of large-scale indoor shopping malls and focus on flexible development. The new Kang Qiao Jia Cheng development was made to provide an urban regeneration paradigm and a new icon for the Shenzhen skyline.
Minha Casa, Minha Vida in São Luís. Image: Palácio do Planalto/Isac Nóbrega
3D-printed houses. Prefabricated houses. “Open-source” houses. Minha Casa, Minha Vida. From technological panaceas to government programs, countless solutions aim to resolve the housing deficit by building houses. The problem with this strategy is that the housing shortage is not a shortage of houses, but of apartments.
The Spanish Architecture Prize (Premio de Arquitectura Española) has been awarded biennially by the Higher Council of the Colleges of Architects of Spain (CSCAE) since 1993 to promote the quality of architectural works built across Spain.
The award has recognized built works by architects such as Enric Miralles, Mansilla y Tuñón, Sara de Giles, and Francisco Mangado Beloqui, among others, with projects including the Royal Collections Museum and the Palma Convention Center and Hotel. Explore all the winning projects below.
The large biological reserves located in La Paz, Baja California Sur in northern Mexico have made this destination one of the most significant for ecotourism and its proximity to the United States has accelerated its development in recent years.
The Times Square Alliance has announced that Heart Squared by MODU and Eric Forman Studio is the winner of the 2020 Times Square Valentine Heart Competition. Curated by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, the competition celebrates its 12th anniversary creating proposals for a public art installation celebrating “Love in Times Square” during the month of February.
The Houston Endowment and the organizers of the Malcolm Reading Consultants (MRC) contest announced that the team led by Kevin Daly Architects (KDA) and PRODUCTORA, in collaboration with TLS Landscape Architecture, won the international competition to design the new headquarters for the foundation. The winning proposal stood out as a dynamic response to the architectural and landscape tradition of Houston.
The Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon, Portugal by Amanda Levete shot by Inge Schuster. Image Courtesy of The Architectural Photography Awards 2019
The Architectural Photography Awards 2019 has revealed its shortlisted images under 6 categories: Exterior, Interior, Sense of Place, Buildings in Use, Mobile, and Portfolio. Sponsored by Sto and supported by the World Architecture Festival (WAF), this year’s lineup was selected from nearly 2000 entries from 42 countries.
Countries that are part of the so-called “global south” have undergone many transformations in their cities and urban contexts in recent years due to the economic and social challenges they face. Urban growth, sustainable development, quality of life and health in emerging cities, and the development of their own cultural identity have been some of the issues that local architecture had to incorporate.
Young architects have understood the importance of making an architecture that is deeply rooted in their own territory while giving this architecture a clear local identity. By generating new typologies and using their own resources and materials, they have presented innovative, site-specific, and, above all, solutions with a new fresh focus towards what represents them as creators of this architecture.
The Spanish word medianera carries a meaning that is often translated as "party wall" or "blind wall," yet its significance in Spanish-speaking contexts takes on a deeper cultural and urban resonance when considered in local terms. This architectural element, which simultaneously separates and connects adjacent lots in such a striking manner, is a recurring feature in Spanish-colonized cities across the Americas. In the case of Argentina, Buenos Aires took shape under the principles of those who arrived with gridiron plans and the rigor of orthogonal organization. The city developed within this logic, resulting today in an urban landscape persistently marked by the presence of these rigid, seemingly unavoidable elements known as medianeras.
Foster + Partners have released their design for the new Red Sea Airport, expected to welcome one million visitors by 2030. Inspired by the forms of the desert, the green oasis and the sea, the terminal building aims to provide a new type of experience, diverging from the common hassles of airports.