Architecture is a discipline that connects diverse fields and practices, manifesting in the physical and theoretical conceptualization of strategies for intervening in the human environment. This spatial intervention involves applying artistic, social, and technological knowledge which, when combined, inevitably reflect a given culture or dominant ideology. In this sense, architecture is also an image that conveys meaning.
In many ways, observing rural areas and their communities can offer valuable lessons for implementing sustainable dynamics in cities. By studying ecovillages specifically, key aspects of the relationship between humans and the biosphere become clear—particularly in a space of central importance to all of them: the kitchen.
In Western capitalist culture, the dichotomy between nature and humanity is stark. Humans shape their identity as something external to nature, and more often than not, superior to it. As a result of this conceptual rupture, spatial divides also emerge. The city is seen as a human product, where residents must seek out remnants of nature in parks or plazas to connect with it. "Voids" of human occupation, such as forests, are viewed as gaps—spaces that humanity has yet to transform.
Years ago, the construction industry was among the most technologically lagging; today, however, we can confidently say that automation is here to stay.
No País dos Arquitectos é um podcast criado por Sara Nunes, responsável também pela produtora de filmes de arquitetura Building Pictures, que tem como objetivo conhecer os profissionais, os projetos e as histórias por trás da arquitetura portuguesa contemporânea de referência. Com pouco mais de 10 milhões de habitantes, Portugal é um país muito instigante em relação a este campo profissional, e sua produção arquitetônica não faz jus à escala populacional ou territorial.
No episódio desta semana, Sara conversa com os arquitetos Cristina Veríssimo e Diogo Burnay sobre o projeto da Residência Universitária do campus da Ajuda na Universidade de Lisboa. Ouça a entrevista e leia a transcrição da conversa, a seguir:
William Morris was one of the leading figures of the 19th-century Arts and Crafts movement. Guided by his political ideals, his practice spanned architecture, decoration, and design, eventually extending to writing—always striving to foster workplaces as spaces of pleasure and contemplation.
Crises typically spark shifts in how we move. Post-war prosperity turned the automobile into a household staple and a lifestyle. The global fiscal and oil crises of the 1970s brought a short-lived bicycle boom alongside a withdrawal of municipal funds from public transit. Meanwhile, the 2008 financial crisis paved the way for Silicon Valley venture capital to surge, backing new platforms like Uber and Waze.
“Since the Industrial Revolution, assembly lines have dictated a world made of parts, framing the imagination of architects and designers who were trained to think of their projects as the result of pieces with distinct functions.” These were the words of Israeli architect and MIT Media Lab researcher Neri Oxman during her TED Talk entitled “Design at the intersection of technology and biology.”
Oxman emphasizes that our traditional way of building has remained unchanged for millennia and must be reinvented. Indeed, we have been taught to construct buildings and cities in a rationalized, piecemeal manner, without considering the whole. To this day, this logic is still taught in universities.
The Brazilian Center for Steel Construction (CBCA) has launched its 2021 call for proposals for its Undergraduate Research Scholarship. The nationwide selection process is open to undergraduate students in architecture and civil engineering, who must be supported by an advising professor from the same higher education institution.
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 showcase the professionals, projects, and stories behind landmark contemporary Portuguese architecture. With just over 10 million inhabitants, Portugal is a highly compelling country in this professional field, and its architectural output far exceeds what its population or territorial scale would suggest.
In this week's episode, Sara talks with architect Ricardo Bak Gordon about the design of the National Coach Museum in Lisbon, developed in partnership with Paulo Mendes da Rocha and the office MMBB Arquitetos. Listen to the interview and read the transcript of the conversation below:
A capsule-based transportation system that runs on magnetic propulsion, moving people and cargo at speeds of up to 1,200 km/h using renewable energy, could soon become a reality in Brazil. This futuristic concept is being brought to the country by Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HyperloopTT), which develops and licenses the Hyperloop—the urban mobility technology originally conceived by Tesla entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Resembling a wingless aircraft without turbines, the Hyperloop has a capacity of up to 50 passengers and operates in a low-pressure environment, allowing it to travel at high speeds with virtually zero friction.
Are there more homes without people than people without homes? This recurring claim had already been described as a “myth” by urban planner Nabil Bonduki in 2018, but the persistent suggestion of a simplistic formula for solving the housing crisis deserves to be addressed once again. Recently, an article in Folha de São Paulo by urban planner Alexandre Benoit suggested that the approximately 300,000 vacant properties in São Paulo could be designated to “eradicate the city’s housing deficit.”
In Jacques Tati's classic film *Mon Oncle* (1958), the house—as the scenographic embodiment of the "machine for living"—is the protagonist. Its technological devices, occasionally untameable, dictate the rules. The homeowner, Madame Arpel, is a typical technocentrist, marveling at the technology surrounding her and believing it to be the solution to all her daily problems. In contrast to Madame Arpel is her brother, Mr. Hulot, who arrives for a visit and struggles to cope with all this innovation. Throughout his stay, we are introduced to a house that proves to be highly complex, while simultaneously denying the user any control.
To bring together innovative, sustainable social housing architectural designs that reduce energy consumption. This was the goal of the National Competition of Architectural Ideas for Energy Efficiency in Social Housing, organized by the German government cooperation agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
As the Covid-19 pandemic altered urban landscapes and drew more people toward active mobility, there is a heightened urgency to make streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Many cities are now tasked with protecting the most vulnerable users, while also creating safe public spaces that enable economic recovery and allow people to enjoy the outdoors. At the same time, there are long-term reasons to support this transition.
“Walking and cycling are among the most sustainable ways to get around cities – but not if they are extremely dangerous options,” says Claudia Adriazola-Steil, interim director of Urban Mobility and director of Health & Road Safety at the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities.
The Neighborhood Plan is an urban planning tool that encourages residents to propose initiatives to improve their neighborhoods. It was established in São Paulo by the Strategic Master Plan municipal law with the goals of aligning local issues with the city's broader structural demands, identifying the need for public, social, and recreational facilities in neighborhoods, strengthening the local economy, and fostering job opportunities.
Liceu Pasteur is a public institution under private law that is part of the network of French schools abroad, present in 135 countries. In São Paulo, it has been located on Mairinque Street, in the Vila Mariana neighborhood, since 1923, occupying a building designed by Escritório Técnico Ramos de Azevedo, which is listed by São Paulo's municipal heritage preservation agency.
Since 2018, the school has been undergoing a phased modernization project aimed at updating the functional and technical aspects of its spaces. In December 2019, four architecture firms were invited to compete for the Lycée Pasteur expansion project: Bloch Arquitetura, Nucci Pietraroia - NPC Grupo Arquitetura, ReadyMake/Andrade Morettin Arquitetos Associados, and Triptyque.
In urban planning, population density is a subject that sparks discussion, doubt, and debate. A common point of confusion, for instance, is conflating built density (the amount of built area in a given location) or even building height with population density (the number of residents in a given location).
In New York, for example, Midtown Manhattan has perhaps the city's highest concentration of skyscrapers, despite having a population density of "only" 18,000 residents/km²—less than half of the Upper West Side, which boasts 44,000 residents/km² with lower but predominantly residential buildings, whereas Midtown has fewer residential buildings. In Brazil, this discrepancy is far more extreme: the densest neighborhoods in major Brazilian cities tend to be the most horizontal, as they consist of informal settlements (favelas) with small housing units, minimal space between structures, and larger families living in (or cohabiting) these units.
A year and a half of the global coronavirus pandemic has—or should have—made everyone realize the importance of national public health systems. Never before has a health crisis and its impact on society, the economy, and public spaces been so widely discussed and reported.
Against this backdrop, to celebrate spaces dedicated to physical and mental health, we have compiled a selection of small- and medium-scale healthcare clinics, medical offices, and therapy centers. These projects, designed for treatment or prevention, prioritize patient well-being above all else.
When entering a dark, unfamiliar room, our hands instinctively grope along the wall, searching for a keypad to turn on the lights—and, with luck, finding it. It is one of those many things we only truly notice when they are poorly designed. When designing a space, placing controllers in accessible and intuitive locations requires careful attention from designers. Keypads belong to that category of objects we want to be easily found when needed, yet prefer to remain hidden when not in use. This is because their design often draws more attention than it should, potentially clashing with the space's aesthetic. But this does not always have to be the case. There are options that seamlessly combine design and functionality, offering customization that allows controllers to fit into any type of project.
The Memorial da Resistência de São Paulo, an institution of the State Secretariat of Culture, opens the biographical exhibition “Yona Friedman: Democracy” on Saturday, June 26, 2021. Curated by Ana Pato, the Memorial's coordinator, the exhibition presents a selection of works by the French-Hungarian architect, artist, sociologist, and anthropologist Yona Friedman (1923-2020), featuring animations, manuals developed with the UN, installations inside and outside the building, urban interventions in partnership with collectives from the central region, as well as public events in partnership with Sesc Bom Retiro.
The sofa is a recurring element across a wide range of programs. Defined by the comfort and coziness it provides, its color, shape, and texture help convey the personality of a room while assisting in its layout. We have searched our archives for twenty examples of how this element can add value to a project through different design solutions.
We are about to enter the coldest season of the year in the Southern Hemisphere: winter. When considering how to heat a home, one of the first solutions that comes to mind is the fireplace. After all, the fire brings warmth and provides a cozy gathering space. In addition, its design and placement can be key to the spatial composition of a room.
En Ribeira da Barca, en el interior de Santiago, Cabo Verde, se está probando un proyecto que propone trabajar con mujeres que se ganan la vida extrayendo residuos inertes de la construcción. Aunque se trata de una actividad ilegal, es donde se basa gran parte del presupuesto familiar local, en un país donde una mayoría significativa de familias monoparentales están representadas por mujeres (alrededor del 32%, frente al 6,5% representado por hombres, datos del INE 2017). El mayor rigor en las prácticas de inspección y la caída de la demanda de materiales inertes naturales en los últimos años ha puesto en riesgo inminente a innumerables familias vulnerables.
Enmarcado como proyecto satélite de la Bienal de Diseño de Porto 2021, impact tiene como principal objetivo trabajar con las mujeres de la recolección de arena en la reinvención de una actividad alternativa, que busca dotarlas de mayor dignidad en su acceso al trabajo y fomentar nuevas formas de vida. .
The maker movement is a philosophy centered on the creative activity of making, which is intrinsic to human beings. This process occurs through the use, adaptation, and modification of existing resources without professional assistance (HATCH, 2013). Moreover, it is rooted in "do-it-yourself" culture, with its main distinction being the use of digital tools that facilitate and enhance collaboration, documentation, and sharing. Consequently, projects remain open and adaptable, allowing anyone to access and modify them.
