The world of gastronomy is about far more than just food; space plays a vital role in the overall dining experience. To achieve this, architecture transcends mere functionality to cultivate distinct atmospheres through the meticulous curation of light, acoustics, color, texture, and form, ensuring both intimacy and comfort for diners.

The city of Lima—capital of Peru, a preeminent culinary destination—features a diverse array of restaurants and cafés that reflect the country's rich heritage. Below, we present a selection of 10 restaurants and cafés offering unique dining experiences across the city.

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Following the 60th anniversary of the iconic Casa en Jean Mermoz—a precursor to the ideas of Ciudad Abierta in Ritoque—Igor Fracalossi, PhD, proposed a reconstruction of its wooden formwork system. He knows the building well; since 2012, he has dedicated his research to studying "the most complex residential project in Chile to date.”

While walking through the exhibition of the reconstruction in the gardens and galleries of the Centro Cultural Las Condes in 2022, he explains in detail the innovative and unique construction aspects of this demolished work. The house was originally designed by Fabio Cruz Prieto, architect and founding master of the School of Architecture and Design at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso.

Concrete, in its various facets, exhibits an interesting duality thanks to its aesthetic and technical qualities, which have been explored by architects and designers in different typologies and contexts. On the one hand, reinforced concrete displays the strength and durability required for large-scale construction, efficiently withstanding adverse weather conditions. On the other hand, the malleability of stamped concrete allows it to elegantly adapt to complex shapes and imprint patterns on the surface, utilizing texture and pattern to cultivate a distinct atmosphere within the built environment.

Stamped concrete has gained prominence due to its durability and versatility, offering options and designs that adapt to different architectural styles. However, while we are familiar with its use and applications, specifying it requires a meticulous approach to ensure optimal results. Below is a practical guide covering the essential considerations from Melón Hormigones for specifying this innovative material, from pattern selection to proper care and maintenance.

From January 14 to 22, 2023, the XXII Chile Architecture and Urbanism Biennial will finally take place in the area surrounding Palacio de La Moneda, Santiago. The theme of this edition, "Vulnerable Habitats," seeks to address the country's urgent challenges surrounding the housing deficit and access to housing, along with the vulnerability of cities and territories reflected in their public spaces, heritage, and environmental issues.

The Architects Association of Chile along with the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage, organizers of this event—which held its previous edition in 2019—have recently announced the results of their open calls: 50 works and projects will be part of the National Architecture Exhibition, and 36 initiatives will join the Meetings and Debates Program. See the complete list below.

Responsibly sourced, wood is a renewable, low-emission resource that, in addition to storing carbon within its composition, features low thermal conductivity and high acoustic absorption, creating comfortable, well-insulated spaces year-round. A well-designed timber building will not only enhance these properties but will also be aesthetically pleasing for its occupants and highly energy-efficient.

Founded by architect Marina Canhadas in 2018, the practice [entre escalas] emerged from the intersection of professional practice, academic research, and international experience. With a career shaped by competitions, collaborations, and tenures at firms in Brazil and Mexico, Marina has consolidated an approach that values context and building history, particularly in projects dealing with pre-existing structures—one of the firm's primary areas of focus.

[entre escalas]' work stands out for its sensitivity to time and building memory. Renovations of historic townhouses, such as Casa Saracura and Casa Apiacás, reveal a kind of architectural archaeology that seeks to recover original techniques, materials, and even natural flows, reinterpreting these elements to foster new possibilities of use and connection with the surroundings. The act of removing layers—both physical and symbolic—is seen as a way to reveal hidden histories, connecting past and future.

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Architects Smiljan Radic and Nicolás Schmidt designed an inflatable structure for the XXII Chilean Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism. Located in the urban setting of the Palacio de La Moneda in Santiago, it served as a temporary venue for meetings, debates, and lectures that brought public discussions to the forefront regarding the event's central theme: "Vulnerable Habitats."

The Exhibition Pavilion for the 2023 Chilean Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism was located in the Plaza de la Constitución, just steps from the Palacio de La Moneda. The structure references and reinterprets a pavilion designed on this very site in 1972 by architect Montserrat Palmer for the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) to mark the opening of UNCTAD III—the headquarters of the Third United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in the Third World.

Here, the ARKRIT Collective presents three hypotheses that stabilize and support the potential liberal logic behind the Quinta Monroy project by the firm ELEMENTAL, in light of the current reality of this social housing complex fifteen years after its construction—a reality that begs the question: did this project succeed in addressing inequality in Chile?

The close relationship between architecture and landscape in Latin America is undeniable. This is due not only to the region's geographical, climatic, and ecological diversity, but also to how these countries have built and shaped their cities amidst progress and setbacks. Among these ongoing achievements is a growing respect for the landscape, an architectural language tailored to its context, and solutions designed for its diverse climates.

For this selection, we have chosen 10 projects in Colombia that have successfully adapted to their landscape, both in form and construction, across both urban and rural contexts.

Can we discuss architecture through the lens of memory and reconciliation? "How do we create spaces of memory? What is living memory?"

This event stems from the conviction that it is possible to debate memory and reconciliation through architecture and urbanism. As we mark the 15th anniversary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final report, it is essential to create a space where these topics can be presented and discussed.

The LUM of the Ministry of Culture, the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Sciences and Arts of Latin America (UCAL), and Red Arquitectura present the "Architecture, City, and Memory" forum to engage in a dialogue about memory through architecture and urbanism, from both professional and academic perspectives. The event will take place at the Lugar de la Memoria this Tuesday, November 27, at 2:00 PM. Admission is free, with prior registration required.

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Smiljan Radić's architecture often begins elsewhere: in a memory, a journey, a material, a stone, a half-seen structure, or a situation not yet organized as an architectural idea. In "Architecture: Distraction and Knowledge," his 2026 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate Lecture, distraction does not appear as a lack of focus, but as a way of receiving the world. It is through these peripheral encounters — travel, ruins, cities, stories, industries, and materials — that architectural knowledge slowly accumulates.

When Radić was announced as the 2026 Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate, the recognition did not simply confirm a body of work already known for its material strangeness. It also clarified an architectural position that has long resisted easy translation into theory, or style, or spectacle. Radić's work is often described through oppositions: heavy and light, primitive and industrial, fragile and monumental, shelter and object, ruin and apparition. Yet these terms only partially account for the force of his architecture. What makes the work difficult, and increasingly necessary, is its refusal to become fully legible as a claim of certainty.

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On March 12, the Chilean architect of Croatian descent, Smiljan Radić Clarke, was awarded the 2026 Pritzker Architecture Prize. The jury highlighted his "unorthodox approach to design," which "may initially appear unusual, unexpected, even rebellious; yet, far from producing alienation or estrangement, his anti-canonical stance feels fresh and unprecedented. It conveys the unmistakable sensation of encountering something new." This recognition will be celebrated with the annual Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate Lecture and Panel Discussion, to be held in Mexico City at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), at the Faculty of Architecture's Teatro Estefanía Chávez, on May 12, 2026.

The 2026 Pritzker Price Award has been awarded this year to the Chilean architect of Croatian descent, Smiljan Radić Clarke. Born in Santiago, Chile, in 1965, his practice evokes a geography of extremes, shaped by the tectonic tension between the staggering weight of the Andes and the seismic instability of the territory. After graduating from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and pursuing further studies in aesthetics in Venice, Smiljan Radić Clarke established his base in Santiago. From there, he has developed one of the most singular visions in contemporary architecture. His work privileges the intensity of the moment through a fragile architecture. Within it, the building operates as a temporary and tactile refuge that places the spectator in a state of aesthetic uncertainty, oscillating between ancestral ruin and avant-garde artefact.

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Across South America, architecture endures through the materials it uses, those that persist over time. Bamboo, brick, wood, and concrete appear across regions, connecting climate, labor, and culture in ways that ensure their persistence through generations. Their continuity does not depend solely on preservation or heritage. It depends on use.

In this context, cultural memory does not reside primarily in monuments or images, but in practice. It survives in repeated gestures: laying bricks, tying guadua joints, assembling wood frames, casting slabs that anticipate another floor. These actions are transmitted less through manuals than through participation. Over time, they form systems of knowledge embedded in habit and necessity. Materials endure not because they symbolize the past, but because they continue to work.

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