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As another year comes to a close, the ArchDaily team looks back at the year's architectural highlights, compiling a selection of projects to review the content featured in 2022. As part of this retrospective, our curation team presents one of our readers' favorite categories—residential architecture—bringing together the projects that represent the very best of a vast year of architectural production, as chosen by our audience.

At a time marked by anticipation for the future of architecture, yet also by reflection on what has been accomplished over the past year, we present the 50 most-visited houses on ArchDaily in Spanish in 2022. In doing so, we continue our ongoing mission to provide tools, inspiration, and knowledge to everyone working toward a better built environment.

On Friday, November 19, 2021, the Official Association of Architects of Tarragona and the Alejandro de la Sota Foundation recognized the team at GCA Architects for their Alzheimer's Day Care Center project, as part of the 12th Tarragona Architecture Exhibition.

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For much of the twentieth century, architectural culture was shaped by the pursuit of lightness. Steel structures and curtain walls reduced the building envelope to a thin layer separating interior from exterior, while façades became smooth, continuous surfaces where windows were cut as precise openings within an abstract plane. But for centuries, buildings were conceived as bodies of mass; walls possessed depth, windows were recessed within thick masonry, and space was often experienced as something carved from the solidity of construction. In recent years, several contemporary projects appear to revisit this older spatial logic, reintroducing thickness as an architectural condition through deep openings, monolithic volumes, and heavy envelopes.

This shift does not imply a rejection of modern construction technologies, nor does it represent a nostalgic return to historical forms. Instead, it reflects a renewed interest in the fundamental relationship between material, mass, and void. By reintroducing thickness into the architectural vocabulary, these buildings reconnect contemporary practice with long-standing traditions in which space was inseparable from the weight and depth of construction.

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Italy's rich history, evident in its monuments and cities, has created a unique context for architectural renovation. Italian architects often embrace this heritage by engaging in a dialogue between old and new, rather than aiming for a complete transformation. This approach intentionally avoids an imitative style. Instead, they use contemporary materials like steel, glass, and new wood to frame and highlight the existing historic stone and brickwork. This juxtaposition turns the original materials from simple structural elements into featured decorative and narrative ones. The result is a layered experience where the history of the space remains visible, ensuring it is preserved rather than erased by the renovation.

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Videos

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The history of the use of lime in the construction industry dates back thousands of years, spanning cultures and communities worldwide. In fact, around 4000 B.C., the ancient Egyptians used quicklime mixed with water as a building material for their pyramids. Although lime has multiple applications in the food and agricultural industries, as well as in chemical, mining, and steel industries, in architecture it is one of the main construction materials due to its versatility, adhesion, waterproofing, workability, performance, setting, and durability, which allow for the creation of masonry mortars, interior or exterior plasters, among other functions.

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According to the climatic conditions of each region and its implantation environment, exterior enclosures play a fundamental role in providing the necessary climatization and ventilation conditions to make indoor spaces habitable and comfortable. While there are various bioclimatic strategies and designs that can be applied to achieve energy efficiency, the determination of materiality, the choice of hardware, and the definition of opening and closing technologies contribute to the performance of facades, providing functionality and a high degree of adaptability to contemporary uses, among other factors.

When a brief to design a new office space asks for something fresh, energetic, and modern – a space where employees enjoy being and, crucially, enjoy working in, which helps them to focus on individual tasks but also to relax, collaborate, and create – there are few better places to begin than a color wheel. As the world of work and the varied environments it takes place in become less formal and restricted in their design, architects, designers, and, more importantly, their clients are handing the boring, monotone office its redundancy papers and looking outside the establishment at more expressive colorful options.

While blue’s ability to improve concentration, stimulate thinking, and provide mental clarity helps to increase productivity, the human body needs regular periods of rest and relaxation, too. For this, warm colors like yellows provide relaxation through warmth and comfort – perfect for break-out areas. Meanwhile, reds and oranges promote creativity and expression, meaning they can be useful for areas designated for social collaboration, whilst green encourages a calmer, more balanced approach, for a different kind of meeting.

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In Spain, the implementation of integrated kitchens in homes has become increasingly common in contemporary architecture. Although there are various configurations and designs that are applied according to the customs and cultures of societies, as we saw in Argentina or Uruguay, the essence of conceiving the kitchen space as a hub of activities and a gathering space among its inhabitants and visitors is a common factor. This has led architects to try to find innovative ways, technologies, or materials that achieve an aesthetic and harmony capable of providing functionality, spaciousness, and flexibility to homes.

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