CSO Arquitectura   Spain   Designed by CSO Arquitectura, headed by Antón Freile, this expansion of the elderly residence which the same Madrid firm built in 2005 in Camarzana de Tera (Zamora), at kilometer 127 of the road linking Benavente to Vigo, has been shortlisted in the

Luis Vidal   Spain   On an elongated plot parallel to the Avenida de las Universidades, in Dos Hermanas, Seville, the new campus is, along with that of Córdoba, the second largest of Loyola University in Seville. Because of very extreme temperatures in the region, the p

Calderon-Folch Arquitectes Pol Sarsanedas   Spain   The project for the CMCiB Building (Comparative Medicine and Bioimage Center) seeks addressing complex technical and functional issues in a way that is sustainable and sensitive to context and achieves high comfort levels (visual, hygrothermal, and a

Matthew Barnett Howland CSK   United Kingdom   Resorting to simplicity and sustainability, this residential project is a creative response to the particular complexities and conventions of contemporary housing. Instead of the traditional construction with layers of walls incorporating a variety o

Jean Nouvel   France   A delicate bioclimate filter creates a perimetral communal space and gives a distinct character to a mixed-use tower located in Confluence, a new neighborhood in Lyon.

Vo Trong Nghia Architects   Vietnam   Located just 16 kilometers away from one of the main airports in Vietnam and half-way between Danang city and Hoi An old town, this retreat-resort is a center for the recovery of the body and mind, a getaway where long-stay guests can relax in a peac

Coll-Leclerc   Spain   This residential development is located close to the transportation hub of Les Glòries – currently under construction and set to become a space for people, as well as a large green lung for the city of Barcelona. Coll-Leclerc’s project proposes an in

AAN (Arquitectura Anna Noguera) J2J architects   Spain   Anna Noguera and José Javier Fernández Ponce carried out this project that involved building a new multisport center for Barcelona’s Turó de la Peira neighborhood and fitting out the interior of one of its city blocks. The facilities are housed in a

SUMO arquitectes Yolanda Olmo   Spain   Villa Urania is a small residence from the  late 19th century – home of the astronomer Josep Comas i Solà (1868-1937) –, the last example of the garden-city of El Farró in the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district. The redensification of the neighborhood left

Harquitectes   Spain   Not so many jobs begin like this one, with an owners’ list of wishes and hopes for their new home. A list much closer to the principles and values architects usually work with, often secretly, than the ordinary expectations of those couples facing th

Diébédo Francis Kéré Kéré Architecture   Burkina Faso   Following the strategies applied at the Primary School in Gando, the main aim of the project was to design a sustainable school that would adapt to the extreme conditions of Burkina Faso. Its construction was carried out with the help of workers who

The list of Madrid works by the British architect Norman Foster – Cepsa Tower, Axis at Plaza Colón, the Hall of Realms at the Prado Museum – will soon be including an office complex for the Spanish sustainable infrastucture and renewable energy cong

It seems natural to associate the term ‘sustainable’ with the image of greenery, although the connection is not at all inevitable. With regard to the links that buildings establish with the environment (evoking the idea of the planet as a vulnerable

Eduardo Prieto   Energy has become one of the big themes of architecture. Not only because laws, directives, and regulations are increasingly demanding in what concerns standards of comfort and reducing consumption, but also because energy has gone from being a matte

Iñaki Ábalos   Harquitectes is a collective that represents well a way of doing in today’s context. A small collective with a clear focus on an issue at once broad and narrow, and that we could sum up in two words: matter and air. Their work includes an interesting

Felipe Fernández-Armesto   El medioambiente siempre forma parte de la cultura, condicionando las respuestas de la gente, limitando su potencial o estimulando su creatividad. Parece razonable suponer que, en los inicios de la divergencia cultural, la adaptación al entorno fuera

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Scientific research and critical thought on climate and architecture began with early modernity, and multiplied exponentially under the impact of the oil crises of the 1970s.

Luis Fernández-Galiano   Cheap oil is at once temptation and opportunity: the temptation to preserve a land use and technical model that consumes huge amounts of energy, because the incentives associated with scarcity and shortage have vanished; and a historic opportunity to

Ignacio Paricio   I have no doubt that two substantial vectors of the evolution of 21st-century architecture are sensuality and sustainability. Sustainability is unavoidable for obvious reasons, but architecture is also in debt to comfort. Sensuality, the pleasure of

Everyone knows about the paradoxes inherent in the idea of a glazed skyscraper in the Persian Gulf, so it is not surprising to hear of solutions such as those that have been developed by Aedas, in collaboration with Arup, in the Al Bahar Towers, two

Energy flows everywhere but is invisible, as generally are the buildings where it is produced. One exception is the power plant of Wedel, near the city of Hamburg, which is soon to undergo transformation in accordance with a project drawn up by the L

Because they grow quickly, and are evidently sustainable and furthermore easy to cultivate, microalgae are becoming an alternative to the use of fossil fuels in the field of construction (see Arquitectura Viva 140). The upcoming challenge seems to be