The international architecture and city festival Open House will take place in Madrid from September 21 to 24, 2023, inviting residents to visit and explore some of the capital's most iconic buildings. Extending beyond Madrid to open several spaces in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, this ninth edition will open the doors of over 120 buildings and studios, while also offering 13 outdoor routes and itineraries to discover Madrid's architecture.
Mexico City, considered one of the largest and most populous urban areas in the world, is in fact the largest city in the Americas and the Spanish-speaking world. Given this vast footprint, its immense population has led to sprawling peripheral settlements, highlighting the urgent need for a denser, more inclusive city. Various factors—such as the abandonment of downtown buildings following historic earthquakes like the one in 1985, compounded by a lack of basic habitability—have drawn the attention of diverse actors. Through clear, targeted interventions, they seek to restore a cohesive urban fabric that empowers residents to reclaim their city.
The artwork Corolla by artist Inés Esnal is inspired by the rich and vast natural landscape of Colorado, where it is currently on display at The Coloradan building in Denver. The installation interprets Colorado's state flower, “the blue columbine,” as a network of vibrantly colored cords, where warm central tones and cool hues at the outer edges evoke the flower’s pollen and petals. Viewers are invited to explore the piece through their own movement, which triggers and unfolds multiple perspectives and optical effects.
More than 500 people attended the opening of the 21st Chilean Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism in Santiago. This year, the curatorial team presented the event as a "Free Architecture Fair" focused on the "everyday and ordinary," spanning the entire country with more than 250 public activities in Iquique, La Serena, Santiago, and Puerto Montt.
"The Value of Medialab-Prado as an Original Work on Urban Heritage and Institutional Good Practice." This is the title of the open letter written by the movement defending a cultural center with nearly 20 years of history in Madrid—housed in the historic Serrería Belga building in the Barrio de las Letras.
As it does every year, Arquitectura Viva has dedicated its AV Monografías yearbook 'Spain 2018' to the finest buildings completed over the last twelve months: a selection of 24 works offering an overview of the country's most recent architecture, showcasing its characteristic high quality despite the crisis that still affects the sector.
This double issue opens with a compelling essay by Luis Fernández-Galiano, who reviews the major milestones in the world of architecture over the past year. Amid a backdrop of natural disasters and political upheavals that marked a year in which Spain celebrated a Pritzker, a work by Piano, and the arrival of the Foster Foundation, Fernández-Galiano invites us to reflect on territories of risk:
Territories of Risk
By Luis Fernández-Galiano
Adolf Loos, Joaquín Vaquero Palacios, Fernando Moreno Barberá, Norman Foster, and the bicentennial of the Museo del Prado are just some of the key names and milestones set to take over Spanish museums in 2018.
Here are 10 highly recommended architecture exhibitions for the new year that offer a rich and compelling cultural lineup. They span Spanish and international architects, iconic buildings from Spain's architectural history, and the profound impact of emerging technologies—such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality—on the field of architecture.
The publisher Arquitectura Viva recently released the monograph 'España 2018'. As it has every year since 1993, the AV Monographs Yearbook brings together, in a double volume, the best buildings completed in Spain over the past twelve months: a selection of 24 projects that provide an overview of the country's most recent architecture, taking stock of its characteristically high quality despite the crisis still affecting the sector.
As architecture moves beyond human-centered design, new practices are rethinking coexistence as an ethical and ecological framework. From political infrastructures to habitats, these approaches invite us to imagine architecture as a shared living system.
Modern architecture has long been written through an anthropocentric lens, placing the human at its center and rendering other species invisible. Yet this paradigm continues to shift, as architects and researchers redefine the role of design in more-than-human worlds. Studios such as Office for Political Innovation, Studio Ossidiana, and Husos Architects are questioning human-centered narratives and reframing design as a shared practice between species. In this context, architecture is no longer a tool of control but a medium for coexistence, a discipline that mediates between species, environments, and cultures.
In the interview conducted by Louisiana Channel, architect Andrés Jaque discusses his foundational interest in architecture and his perspective on its role in shaping society. Jaque, founder of the Office for Political Innovation, emphasizes the creative potential of architecture to intervene in reality and reconnect all elements of the environment. He also goes into perspective on the political aspect of architecture, an interest from which the name of his office derives, as well as his perspectives on the true meaning of sustainability.
The Santiago Bernabéu Stadium is now recognized as a symbol of Madrid, Spain. Home to the Real Madrid football team, the stadium built in 1947 occupies a key position in the city, adjacent to a major transit artery. The stadium went through several refurbishments since its inauguration, most aimed at increasing the seating capacity. A major modernization process began in 2012, following an international competition. The winning design team is L35 Architects, in collaboration with GMP and Ribas & Ribas. The refurbishment project aimed to redefine the building’s relationship with the surrounding urban spaces, to improve accessibility, and to integrate more activities, from sporting to leisure, commercial, and socio-cultural functions.
The Youtube channel Never Too Small boasts 2.25 million subscribers — a platform featuring the imaginative manipulation of space in tiny footprints. Videos of micro-apartments, in Paris, London, and beyond, get views in the millions. Clearly, there is a demand for content geared towards living small, as a global housing crisis has precipitated the ever-dwindling availability of affordable, larger-footprint residences in urban areas. Architects, working in this constrained contemporary reality, have been necessitated to make the most out of limited space, configuring sub-40 square-meter floor areas to create a non-claustrophobic spatial experience.
How relevant is the use of color in architecture? Throughout history, we find various scenarios where color takes centre stage in its integration with the architectural work. Nowadays this is no exception. This is because colour is a medium that can be used to provoke deep and immediate emotions and reactions in the person observing. Because of this, colour plays an important role in the architectural reading, as it has the power to clarify the components that make it up or, on the contrary, to change the perception of the work or space.
The following list shows various Latin American housing projects that have had a particular approach to color in their composition. In them, we see the conception of color as the integrator of the work, or as a means of enhancing a particular element, be it interior or exterior.
It has become evident that the spaces we inhabit have changed. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to appreciate values as lighting, ventilation, and comfort when working in home.
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Choice of building materials and the inherent continuous reflection about the reach and capabilities of architecture are an interesting alternative way to approach this issue. The materials used in social housing should address local and economic possibilities and the real needs for access to housing in the contemporary context.
In this article, we analyze different projects published on our site to identify some of the predominant materials used in social housing, both for the formation of structures or enclosures. The intentions of this are two-fold: firstly, to create a worldwide panorama of different case studies with different construction styles from a range of geographical locations, and secondly, to provide inspiration and tools to architects to make better social housing.
Below we present 15 social housing projects and their diverse materials and construction styles.
One of the most important cities in the world –and the most populated in the United States of America–, New York is home to a great mix of cultures and history that has been shaped over the years, while art and architecture play a fundamental role in this development.
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