Archinect - News

UNStudio completes first South American project in São Paulo

2024-09-26T19:04:00-04:00

UNStudio has shared its design for the new EZ Parque da Cidade apartment complex in São Paulo. Built at approximately 883,200 square feet, the building incorporates unique rotated windmill-shaped floor plans and series of eight intertwined sky gardens.

Image: © Joana França

Each of its four apartment types has a 19.5-foot-deep terrace that comprises up to 25% of the unit size. Approximately one-third (31%) of the complex’s surface is made permeable to mitigate the effects of urban heat island, which is a growing problem in the city whose urban footprint has been expanded by 40% over the last 30 years. São Paulo, which is pursuing a new mini forest initiative, will benefit from the addition of 83 new trees

Image: © Joana França

At the complex’s ground level, the firm established a pavilions-in-the-park concept that contributed to its overall placemaking strategy, encouraging a healthy and more active lifestyle based around community engagement. A linear park connects with the develo...

Brazilian city proposes world's tallest residential tower

2024-08-04T08:00:00-04:00

Planning officials in the coastal Brazilian city of Balneário Camboriú have just entered the race for the world’s tallest residential building after approving plans from an unnamed architect for the new 100-story, 1,785-foot Triumph Tower.

The project, which has yet to commence or set a completion date, would surpass Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill's 1,550-foot Central Park Tower in New York City to become the new world record holder. Another contending scheme, part of the Boardwalk at Bricktown development from Architects Orange in Oklahoma City, will determine its final reported height of 1,907 feet later once its leasing picture takes better shape. The 984-foot Gran Torre Constanera in Santiago, Chile, designed by Pelli Clarke & Partners, currently holds the record for South America's tallest building.

MoMA exhibition on 20th-century Latin American design is a 'gem' says Michael Kimmelman

2024-04-05T13:31:00-04:00

The show is a gem. It focuses on domestic design from six countries (Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Venezuela), produced between 1940 and 1980. Latin America had entered a period of transformation, industrial expansion and creativity. Across the region, design was becoming institutionalized as a profession, opening up new avenues, especially for women.

Critic Michael Kimmelman has heaped praise on the 'Crafting Modernity: Design in Latin America, 1940–1980' MoMA exhibition in a new piece for The New York Times. As we reported in December of last year, the show looks at the growth of modernism through an industrial and entrepreneurial lens, using a selection of examples from well-known and revered architects and designers such as Joaquim Tenreiro, Lina Bo Bardi, and Oscar Niemeyer.

"The role that women and immigrants played in shaping professional design and developing a national design vocabulary in Latin America will be emphasized, including the work of designers such as Clara Porset in Mexico, Cornelis Zitman in Venezuela, and Susi Aczel in Argentina," MoMA said about their exhibition at the time.

ARQBR Arquitetura e Urbanismo brings a circular concrete church to Brasília

2023-06-26T17:41:00-04:00

Brazilian firm ARQBR Arquitetura e Urbanismo’s Church of the Holy Family is a striking new circular, concrete structure that seeks to connect Brasília’s urban and natural landscape.

Image: Joana França

The church is located on the edge of the capital’s EPIA (Park Road of Industry and Supply), which was one of the main components of the radio-centric road system implemented by Brasília’s planner Lucio Costa.

Image: Joana França

The structure’s architectural concept aims to adopt the relationship between spirituality, nature, and community. It brings together a collection of simple, concrete monoliths, reflecting the three core principles of Brasília’s design.

Image: Joana França

They are the ability to open to the horizon, the inseparability between public and private spaces, and the use of the landscape as a structuring and fundamental element of the architectural configuration.

Image: Joana França

The church’s circular volume is suspended by six pillars. This forms a small opening ...

Reimagining the convent typology to blend spirituality and social engagement

2023-06-12T15:27:00-04:00

Italian architecture and landscape firm Mixtura has designed a wood-structured conventual complex in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, that provides both a space for worship and philanthropic services.

Image: Cesare Querci

The approximately 57,000-square-foot building, called the convent of the Franciscan Fraternity of Bethany, was completed as part of a social project that the Bethany Foundation Onlus has been carrying out in Brazil since 2010.

Image: Cesare Querci

The initiative has so far seen the construction of a kindergarten for 120 children from the neighboring favelas. It also includes the construction of a school complex for more than 500 children living in conditions of serious hardship.

Image: Cesare Querci

The complex’s design was formed via a participatory method that involved architects and clients with the shared goal of creating a space that would establish a positive relationship between the users, the built environment, and nature.

Image: Cesare Querci

"As architects, we s...

Tetro’s new residence floats and weaves through the Brazilian rainforest

2023-06-12T11:49:00-04:00

Brazilian architecture studio Tetro has offered a look inside their completed residential project in the Atlantic Rainforest. Named Casa Açucena, the development was constructed on a steep slope amidst a landscape of dense trees and shrubs.

Photo credit: Jomar Bragança

The scheme was designed to occupy the space between existing trees without removing or altering the topography. The design team’s dedication to preserving the existing landscape also saw the house elevated off the ground to allow animal and plant life to develop underneath.

Photo credit: Jomar Bragança

“The project is a response to a sensitive reading of the terrain, where first contact dictated the need to maintain its natural characteristics,” the team explained. “The act of looking upwards, from the ground to the fifteen-meter canopy of the trees, was decisive for the creation of a concept addressing the challenge of building in a place with such steep topograph...

Oscar Niemeyer’s masterworks become the backdrop of Pro-Bolsonaro violence in Brazil

2023-01-09T13:26:00-05:00

At least 1,200 protesters were detained for questioning in the wake of the storming of Brazil’s capital buildings, a spokesman for the civil police said on Monday, as the authorities began dismantling the tent city where supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right former president, had been camping out since he lost October’s election.

Among the buildings designed by Oscar Niemeyer reported to be damaged are the Palácio do Planalto (Presidential Palace), National Congress building, and the Supreme Court, which several outlets reported were the primary target of protesters that had camped out in the capital for weeks following the disputed election.

Commentary and videos on social media showed rioters smashing windows and surmounting the roof of the Congressional building, where they unfurled an appeal to Brazil's military to stage an intervention.

The Planalto Palace, considered an architectural jewel by late Oscar Niemeyer and home to .@LulaOficial, is being destroyed by deranged Bolsonaro followers, mockingly known in #Brazil as “Bolsominions” pic.twitter.com/s9HZtnLM6S
— Robert Valencia (@rvalentwit) January 8, 2023 Assault on presidential palace, congress challenges Brazil’s democracy — Oscar Niemeyer’s modernism as stage for right wing insurrection https://t.co/gUffN1aWko
— Carolina A. Miranda @cmonstah@mast...

Soccer legend Pelé is laid to rest inside world's tallest cemetery in Santos, Brazil

2023-01-04T11:49:00-05:00

Pelé was a footballer like no other, and his final resting place will be exceptional too: a large replica stadium complete with artificial turf inside the world’s tallest vertical cemetery. The Brazilian football great, whose funeral was held Tuesday, bought his mausoleum 19 years ago inside the Memorial Ecumenical Cemetery, a high-rise building that holds the Guinness world record as the tallest cemetery in the world.

The “King of Football’s” 2,152-square-foot crypt is located inside the 32-story, 430,000-square-foot first-ever vertical cemetery in the world that features amenities like a 24/7 restaurant and indoor aviary.

Pelé said the apartment block-esque building offered more “spiritual peace and tranquility” over traditional graveyards. He was laid to rest alongside a former teammate, other family members, and the building’s 16,000-plus residents.

The funeral also provided Brazil's new President first public appearance while his predecessor watched in exile at a lesser-known sports champion's manse in Orlando.

Brazil has turned a corner in its yearslong National Museum restoration project

2022-09-02T18:34:00-04:00

Four years after a devastating blaze wiped out the majority of its incredible 20 million-object collection, the rebuilding of Brazil’s fire-damaged National Museum has reached an important construction milestone in Rio de Janeiro.

According to The Art Newspaper, local firms Velatura Restaurações and Construtora Biapó have now completed the restoration of the historic facade and expect the building to be completely reopened sometime in 2027. The upgraded facilities will eventually include an extra 2,100 square meters (22,604 square feet) of exhibition space with capacity for the display of up to 10,000 items.

Previously on Archinect: National Museum in Rio De Janeiro suffers massive fire after reported neglect

H+F Architects, the team behind its interior restoration, said of the eventual finished product: “There will be a more contemporary atmosphere, with a mixture of elements conserved and restored.”

They also mentioned that the fire apparently served as a “violent intervention” ...

Pulling influence from Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian firm designs residential building with distinct v-shaped pillar and aluminum facade

2022-08-01T18:38:00-04:00

A unique hexagonal residential building equipped with a distinctive aluminum “second skin” by Gisele Borges Arquitetura has risen in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Influenced by Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer, the architects created a V-shaped pillar in order to place the geometric structure atop a single point on the ground.

Completed in 2021, the Caramirador Savassi residential building features 14 lofts and 24 studios across nine floors atop a narrow lot roughly 42 feet wide. As stated by the firm: “The challenge of its volumetric mathematics, to respect distances, was one of the factors that influenced non-obvious decisions resulting in architecture created with its own identity.”

Photo by Juliana Berzoini

The building’s most identifiable feature is its aluminum façade, painted in an "earthly reddish" sepia tone that references the abundance of raw ore in Minas Giras. In order to obtain lightness and transparency, the aluminum sheets received perforations in varying ...

Safdie Architects completes Albert Einstein Education and Research Center in São Paulo

2022-07-25T17:13:00-04:00

Safdie Architects has completed a new verdant medical school and research building with a distinctive domed glass roof in São Paulo.

Conceived as an urban oasis, the Albert Einstein Education and Research Center (AEERC) is the latest initiative of Brazilian healthcare institute Sociedade Beneficente Israelita Albert Einstein. It is slated to be one of Latin America’s most advanced institutions for medical research and study.

Photo by Timothy Hursley. Courtesy of Safdie Architects

The Center is located in São Paulo’s Morumbi district, adjacent to the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein. The AEERC is the first medical school established by a private hospital in Brazil. Safdie Architects also worked in collaboration with Perkins&Will, who led the programming and interior planning of the classrooms and labs.

Photo by Timothy Hursley. Courtesy of Safdie Architects

The integration of nature throughout the spaces of the facility is at the core of the project’s design. The centerpiece of the...

Perkins&Will unveils designs for an ecumenical pavilion in Brazil's Minas Gerais region

2021-09-13T16:54:00-04:00

A symbolic new communal space is coming to the Brazilian city of Varginha, Minas Gerais State thanks to a new design from Perkins&Will.

The 85-year-old firm is responsible for a new pastoral pavilion that it says will become an ecumenical space within the country’s coffee capital.

Image courtesy Perkins&Will

Featuring a corten steel structure and organic design elements that pay homage to the region’s economic and material history, the open-ended triangular design creates a dramatic, bench-lined interior while alluding to the Catholic influence around Minas Gerais and represented in the state’s official flag.

Image courtesy Perkins&Will

“Symbolisms in materials and shapes were a simple, smart solution, where the main piece does the entire project work,” Design Principal Douglas Tolaine said in a statement.

Image courtesy Perkins&Will

The São Paulo office of Perkins&Will has completed numerous projects within the country that have designs informed by local plant life and traditions. This...

Carlo Ratti on Brasília's future

2021-09-02T15:22:00-04:00

Brasília’s design limitations offer a crucial lesson for many other cities. By resisting the temptation to fill every square inch of space on their paper and instead leaving as many blank areas as possible, architects and urban planners can allow people and changing times to co-create a city as spontaneous as life.

Carlo Ratti revealed plans last year for a one-million-square-meter extension of Brasília dubbed BIOTIC. Oscar Niemeyer's UNESCO World Heritage Site has been in disrepair for several decades. The whole text of Ratti's essay can be found here.

Paulo Mendes da Rocha, pioneer of Brazilian architecture, dies at 92

2021-05-24T10:39:00-04:00

Paulo Mendes da Rocha, one of the most acclaimed architects in Brazil and around the world, has passed away at 92. The pioneer of “Brazilian Brutalism” died in São Paulo on Sunday May 23rd, following a battle with lung cancer.

National Coach Museum, 2015. Lisbon, Portugal. Photo: Aménio Teixeira. Courtesy of Paulo Mendes da Rocha

Born in 1928, Mendes da Rocha’s career began at the age of 29 when he won a competition to design the gymnasium of the Paulistano Athletics Club. Following the Paulistano Athletics Club, Mendes da Rocha designed many notable projects including the renovation of the Pincoteca do Estado de São Paulo, the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, and the Patriarch Plaza redevelopment project with its iconic portico. He is considered one of the exponents of the “Paulista School”, a group of modernist architects formed in the 1950s that embraced exposed concrete surfaces, rough finishes, and heavy, brutalist massing.

Paulistano Athletic Club Gymnasium, São Paulo

His cont...

MIT develops interactive digital environment to understand Brazil’s favelas

2021-04-26T18:47:00-04:00

The MIT Senseable City Lab has unveiled their “Favelas 4D” project, dedicated to mapping the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Using 3D laser scanning technology to analyze the urban landscape of Rocinha, the project seeks to understand and quantify the architectural logic of one of Brazil’s famous informal settlements.

Brazil’s favelas consist of dense, multilayered, informal settlements that dot the hills of large cities such as Rio de Janeiro; their urban chaos contrasting starkly with the planned neighborhoods surrounding them. This spatial complexity makes the favelas a difficult terrain for typical open-source mapping tools such as satellite imagery and Google Street View, leaving much of their labyrinthine cityscapes unmapped and misunderstood.

Favelas 4D. Image: MIT Senseable City Lab

On the importance of mapping these informal settlements, the MIT team explains; “The global trend of urbanization is not limited to shining downtown districts and masterplanned developm...

She exemplified 'the perseverance of the architect,' Lina Bo Bardi awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement

2021-03-10T16:30:00-05:00

The late Lina Bo Bardi is a prolific architect, designer, editor, and curator. Even after her passing, her work continues to be an example for others to take note of. Her legacy reminds the industry that at the center of design is bringing communities together. Hashim Sarkis, 2021 curator of the 17th Biennale Architettura, stated, "it is her powerful buildings that stand out in their design and in the way that they bring architecture, nature, living, and community together. In her hands, architecture becomes truly a convening social art."

Familiar with her impactful career spanning decades of iconic work, it was no surprise that the famed multi-talented architect had been awarded the Special Gold Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Sarkis, who recommended her for the award, shared, "if there is one architect who embodies most fittingly the theme of the Biennale Architettura 2021, it is Lina Bo Bardi. Her career as a designer, editor, curator, and activist reminds us of the role of the a...

Oscar Niemeyer's Brasília turns 60 this year

2020-02-04T19:54:00-05:00

This is a good year to visit Niemeyer’s work since it marks the 60th anniversary of the inauguration of Brasília, the gleaming new capital of Brazil masterplanned by Lúcio Costa and designed by Niemeyer, built from scratch in barely four years and completed in 1960. I finally had my chance to visit the mother lode.

For The Guardian, Chris Hall on Oscar Niemeyer's modernist architectural legacy in Brazil, and arguably his greatest achievement — designing (with Lúcio Costa) the country's built-from-scratch capital Brasília six decades ago.

"If Rio is a creased duvet with the built environment and nature entwined in its folds, then Brasília is a crisp white sheet laid neatly across the savannah bed," Hall writes.

Aerial view of Brasília's central avenue, the Monumental Axis. Image: Wikimedia Commons.

Bjarke Ingels issues statement explaining meeting with Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro

2020-01-23T14:39:00-05:00

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels has released a statement explaining his reasoning behind the decision to meet with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro last week.

In the statement, Ingels, founder and creative partner at the multi-national architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), explains that his decision to meet with Brazilian officials was aimed at avoiding "oversimplification of a complex world" while also pushing for "active engagement, not superficial clickbait or ignorance" in terms of the work the firm undertakes. The meeting with Bolsonaro, Ingels explains, came as part of a larger research mission undertaken with the sustainable tourism developer Nomade Group aimed at investigating the possibility of bringing green tourism initiatives to the northeast coast of Brazil.

SOM proposes interlocking, trapezoidal towers for a Buenos Aires development

2019-10-16T18:54:00-04:00

This week Consultatio Real Estate and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) released renderings for Catalinas Rio, a waterfront office building designed to become the center of activity in Buenos Aires' Catalinas Norte business district expansion.

As two adjacent towers, one rising 29 floors and the other 22, connected by multi-story undulating terraces, the new building will take up sizable portion of Buenos Ares' new Catalinas Norte II master plan and include retail, public green space, and two intertwined trapezoidal towers connected by "skybridges" and green terraces.

“The building itself is conceived as a vertical campus,” SOM Director Kim Van Holsbeke said in a recent press release, “It is a single structure that continues the vibrancy of the urban square up to the office floors.”

The new development will also include an outdoor urban space that connects to the street waterfront, and to the building as a whole. The building is projected to achieve LEED® Gold Certification and ...

Using data visualization to understand the Amazon rainforest fires

2019-08-23T16:00:00-04:00

For the past few weeks, the media has slowly increased its coverage of the devastating fires being intentionally set in the Amazon rainforest. Besides the politically charged issues and highly questionable leadership in Brazil, matters like this can quickly become headline news that leaves people 'social media-aware' but not necessarily informed.

For starters, forest fires in the Amazon are not uncommon and often related to seasonal temperature and weather fluctuations. However, these particular fires are due to intentional land-clearing methods employed by loggers and farmers rallied by the Brazilian president President Jair Bolsonaro and his pro-business agenda. His blatant aggression against indigenous rights, environmental conservation, and concern for sustainable practices has put Brazil and the rest of the world in a difficult position.

Increased deforestation efforts by the Bolsonaro administration have been propelled by a desire for promoting development and agriculture thr...

Smoke from burning Amazon rainforest drops São Paulo into sudden darkness

2019-08-20T19:29:00-04:00

In the height of daytime, the sky suddenly blackened, and day became night in Sao Paulo. Sure, smog is bad in the Western Hemisphere’s largest city, where traffic jams can stretch for dozens of miles. But not this bad. What was going on? Was the end near?

A combination of meteorological events paired with smoke that had traveled hundreds of miles from intense forest fires in remote parts of the Amazon caused a period of sudden midday darkness in the most populous city in the Western Hemisphere on Monday, reports The Washington Post.

Meanwhile on Twitter, #PrayforAmazonia emerged as a trending hashtag, channeling the global outrage over the lack of media coverage and political action towards the vast forest fires which have been raging in the drought-stricken Amazon rainforest region of Brazil for more than two weeks now.

Fires are burning across central South America. Yesterday #NOAA20's OMPS instrument detected the aerosol index - an index that detects the presence of particles like soot and dust in the atmosphere - in the vicinity of the fires. This can help inform air quality forecasts. https://t.co/lCMwTqWxtA
— Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) (@JPSSProgram) August 19, 2019

Much of the blame for the lack of disaster response i...

The Amazon rainforest is doomed

2019-06-05T12:57:00-04:00

The world’s greatest rainforest – which is a vital provider of oxygen and carbon sequestration – lost 739sq km during the [month of May], equivalent to two football pitches every minute, according to data from the government’s satellite monitoring agency.

Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest has accelerated at a drastic clip since far-right Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro was inaugurated in January 2019. The Brazilian government takes monthly satellite observations to survey the deforestation, and it found that logging rates increased dramatically in May, the traditional start of the logging season, over the same month last year.

Since taking office, Bolsonaro has moved to weaken many environmental protections in the country by knee-capping the nation's environmental ministry. To boot, the president's son, Flavio, serves in the Brazilian senate and is pushing there to eliminate forest preservation regulations for the agriculture industry. The move, according to The Guardian, could open up an area larger than the country of Iran to further deforestation.

Carlos Souza, a member of the independent monitoring group Imazon, told The Guardian, "The government can’t deny these numbers from their own agency. The question now is what th...

UNESCO names Rio de Janeiro as first World Capital of Architecture

2019-01-22T13:46:00-05:00

UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Culture Ernesto Ottone R, Thomas Vonier, President of the International Union of Architects (UIA), and Verena Vicentini Andreatta, Municipal Secretary of the City of Rio for Urbanism, on Friday 18 January announced that the city of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) will be the World Capital of Architecture for 2020.

The new World Capital of Architecture initiative is part of a recent partnership between UNESCO and the International Union of Architects (UIA) and allows the designated city to host the triennial UIA World Congress.

Under the theme "All the worlds. Just one world," Rio de Janeiro is expected to hold a series of events throughout 2020.

National Museum in Rio De Janeiro suffers massive fire after reported neglect

2018-09-05T13:50:00-04:00

Hours after an immense fire consumed the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, a crowd of protestors gathered in front of the wrecked institution on last night (3 September) to protest the financial neglect that led to its demise. The 200-year-old historical building lacked an efficient sprinkler system—a result of years of incremental budget cuts by the Brazilian government—and was quickly gutted when the blaze erupted shortly after the museum closed to visitors on Sunday (2 September).

Current Brazilian president Michel Temer and former president Rousseff are being blamed for a failure to properly maintain the National Museum in Rio De Janeiro after a consuming fire broke out 3 days ago. In the aftermath of the flames the museum's facade has mostly survived, yet aerial shots reveal most of the roof has collapsed with interiors full of rubble.

Only 40 days prior to the fire, an architect wrote to federal authorities reporting the buildings neglect such as exposed wires and other structural issues asking for immediate measures to be taken.

An Oscar Niemeyer house, built for his sister-in-law, gets an ambitious 5-year renovation from Brazilian artist

2018-08-27T14:55:00-04:00

Niemeyer originally designed the property for his wife’s sister, Carmen Baldo. Seven years ago, Baldo’s children sold it to the artist Adriana Varejão and her partner, the film producer Pedro Buarque.

The New York Times shows off a newly renovated home in Brazil designed by Oscar Niemeyer, one of the country's greatest architects. The five year long upgrade was carried out by Brazilian artist Adriana Varejão and her partner, the film producer Pedro Buarque, who dramatically transformed the dilapidated house, adding a pool, an outdoor living space, a patio and a much larger garden.

26-story building in Brazil collapses after massive blaze

2018-05-01T13:29:00-04:00

An abandoned 26-story building in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil, caught fire and collapsed early Tuesday, showering the surrounding streets with fiery embers and killing at least one person, firefighters said. About 150 firefighters were battling the blaze, which started at about 1:30 a.m. local time. It is thought to have been caused by a gas explosion, according to reports.

Though officially abandoned as the former São Paulo headquarters of the federal police, about 50 families were believed to have occupied the building as squatters. Most people have reportedly managed to get out, however at least one person died in the building collapse, firefighters said.

New photos of Oscar Niemeyer's Communist party headquarters in Paris

2018-04-11T16:40:00-04:00

Oscar Niemeyer's Communist party headquarters in Paris was recently captured by photographer Denis Esakov. Take a new look at the Brazilian architect's concrete achievement, one of his first in Europe.

A look at visionary architect Georgia Louise Harris Brown, the first female African-American architecture graduate

2018-02-07T20:50:00-05:00

Pioneering African-American architect Georgia Louise Harris Brown had a knack for seeking out the most fertile architecture scenes in the world during her long career. She practiced in Chicago during Mies van der Rohe’s prime and, from there, moved to Brazil, where a singular modernist language was being created for Brasilia, the most ambitious planned capital of the 20th century.

Georgia Louise Harris Brown has been featured as part of Redshift's Respect series, focusing on architect visionaries. Brown was the first African-American women to graduate with an architecture degree, and the second professionally licensed African-American female architect in the nation. Beverly Loraine Greene was the first, and a role model to Brown.

She studied under Mies at his Illinois Institute of Technology and was heavily influenced by his modernist style. Her first job in Chicago was with Kenneth Roderick O'Neal, an African-American architect and structural engineer who also studied with Mies.

Working with Frank J. Kornacker Associates by 1949, Brown worked on several key projects such as 860–880 Lake Shore Drive. This high-rise was influential in its minimalist grid of steel and glass and constructed with Brown's structural calculations.

Eventually moving to Brazil, Brown became professionally licensed in 1970 leading many firms for over the next twenty years. Read mor...

Oppenheim Architecture opens Emiliano Hotel overlooking famous Copacabana Beach

2018-01-22T15:12:00-05:00

Copacabana has conjured images of beauty, sand and ocean, long before Barry Manilow was singing its praises. Capitalizing on some of the best beach-adjacent real estate north of Havana, the Emiliano Hotel enlisted the help of Oppenheim Architecture for the hotel brands new location on Rio de Janeiro's most famous beach.

The Miami-based studio has designed the hotel to try to make the most of its historic outlook. "The project fronts one of the most beautiful views in the world while being surrounded on three sides by dilapidated apartment buildings from the 1950’s. Through simple yet powerful spatial manipulations, the hotel optimizes its beneficial attributes while subverting its negative forces" the firm stated.

The 90-room hotel features a distinctive façade with weatherproof panels that can open and close to the requirements of each guest. The interiors, designed by Brazilian architect Arthur Casas, feature large windows that allow the flow of ...

Studying a Brazilian favela via VR

2018-01-18T16:00:00-05:00

[...] Penn State landscape architecture professor Timothy Baird and architecture professor José Duarte taught a new studio that engaged students in the study of one Brazilian favela via virtual reality (VR) technology. The studio, which paired architecture students with landscape architecture students, posited VR as a proxy for expensive site visits. “Developing countries can’t always afford consultants because of the distance and difficulty to travel,” says Baird [...]

"Duarte, who has studied informal settlements across the globe, believes in their power to model emergent patterns of more sustainable resource consumption in the developing world, and in the ability for contemporary technology to decode how they work," the Landscape Architecture Magazine writes and quotes Duarte saying: "They are not a problem. They are a solution with many problems."