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On Thursday, June 13, the new Cinemateca Distrital de Bogotá opened its doors to the public, bringing the seventh art to the edge of the Colombian capital's historic center. 

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After two weeks of nominations in the 16th edition of the 2025 Building of the Year Awards, our community evaluated over one thousand projects to select the 15 finalists. This year's awards celebrate excellence in design, innovation, and sustainability across Latin America and Spain, highlighting an exceptional selection of projects on the shortlist. As a public-choice award, we are proud to say that their choices authentically reflect the current state of architecture, while the quality of this year's finalists further underscores the excellence and diversity present in the field.

Within residential spaces, architects choose to give more or less prominence to certain areas of the program, depending on client preferences. While some prefer to prioritize more intimate spaces, others lean toward social areas—with the kitchen being a primary example.

Although the pragmatic function of a kitchen is to serve as a space for preparing food, there are few homes where it does not also double as a gathering place. Even in traditional dwellings like the Mapuche *ruka*, a central hearth is used both for cooking and for heating, conceptually evoking the same welcoming atmosphere as integrated urban kitchens. Today, fire is managed through stoves—with a strong modern shift toward induction cooktops for their safety and precise temperature control. Nevertheless, the core domestic principle remains the same, and contemporary architecture has allowed the kitchen to once again integrate seamlessly with daily activities and social zones.

Colombia boasts an immense variety of thermal zones that create breathtaking landscapes and dreamlike natural environments. Its flora and fauna vary distinctly depending on region, altitude, and humidity. For architectural practices designing Colombian homes, the natural context is a constant source of inspiration, ranging from incorporating vegetation as interior architectural elements to framing nearby landscapes. When designing spatial perception—whether from within or without—nature is an undeniable component of these projects.

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The Jury of the XXVI Colombian Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism has presented the list of projects and publications selected for the next edition of the event, which will be held once again in Cartagena this year.

Divided into eight categories, the 283 submitted projects were evaluated by an international jury comprised of Iñaqui Carnicero (Spain), Alejandro Beals (Chile), and Fabián Farfán (Bolivia), alongside local architects Germán Fonseca, Julián Rincón, Sara Giraldo, and Diego Aguilera.

The 108 finalist projects for the upcoming Colombian Biennial are:

The use of pigmented concrete in Latin American architecture is growing - and influencing contemporary architectural expression. This can be seen in recent built works ranging from the INES Innovation Center designed by Pezo von Ellrichshausen in Chile to the Teotitlán del Valle Community Cultural Center by PRODUCTORA in Mexico.

Being a region characterized by its wide variety of landscapes, biodiversity and thermal floors, the design of interior patios in Colombian homes accompanies the living, resting, access, and circulation spaces, being, on many occasions, protagonists and a source of contact with the surrounding nature.

In its 2022 edition, the Colombian Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism celebrates 60 years of highlighting projects that preserve and enhance the urban, environmental, social, historical, and cultural values of the contexts in which they are built. Organized by the Colombian Society of Architects since 1962, the event has announced the 97 selected projects competing for the Biennial Award across nine categories covering different fields of architecture: Interior and Ephemeral Architecture; Urban Design and Landscaping; Dissemination; Social Habitat; Heritage Intervention; Research, Theory, and Criticism; Urban and Regional Planning; Architectural Project; and Single-family, Two-family, and Three-family Housing.

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Even as work arrangements, schedules, and environments become increasingly fluid, dedicated office buildings remain a fixture of zoning plans in most cities.

Finishes are the skin of the projects we build, serving as the canvases and frames that contain the atmospheres of the spaces we inhabit. As Pritzker laureate Peter Zumthor expresses in his book Atmospheres, it is through the consonance of materials—by joining, mixing, or altering their formats—that a harmonious effect is created in relation to the spatial atmosphere.

When choosing the structural system for a house, several priority factors dictate the decision, with time and money being two of the most critical. While steel structures may not always be the most economical option, their prefabrication significantly accelerates construction times and, consequently, optimizes the overall budget. Moreover, they contribute to the project's aesthetic, providing lightness and a contemporary character.

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2018 has been a special year for ArchDaily in Colombia: not only did we celebrate the first three years of our local site in Bogotá alongside prominent architects, and are now poised to set a new annual traffic record, but we also launched ArchDaily Colombia's Instagram account—which, thanks to you, has already reached 10,000 followers in just six months.

To wrap up this great year, we have selected the most popular projects—measured by total engagement, excluding reposts—on @archdailyco: