Articles by Fernanda Castro

March 22 is World Water Day, an annual international celebration launched and organized by the United Nations. The goal of the day is to raise awareness about a wide range of water-based issues from around the world. This year’s theme is “Nature From Water”, which invites everyone to think about how nature can provide solutions to the water challenges we face today. 

Over the centuries green has signified many emotions; love, jealousy, health, and more recently the environment. Particularly in the middle ages, it was used to suggest wealth and riches, being used by Leonardo da Vinci as the color of Mona Lisa’s dress. It has also been part of the important tradition to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day as part of the celebrations, a custom in Ireland that dates as far back as 1640.

Over the centuries green has signified many emotions; love, jealousy, health, and more recently the environment. Particularly in the middle ages, it was used to suggest wealth and riches, being used by Leonardo da Vinci as the color of Mona Lisa’s dress. It has also been part of the important tradition to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day as part of the celebrations, a custom in Ireland that dates as far back as 1640.

Architecture photographer Ana Amado has shared with us a set of photographs featuring Álvaro Siza‘s recently inaugurated Church of Saint-Jacques de la Lande, in Rennes—the first church built in Brittany, France this century.

There are no words to define the concept of Nirvana, a mental state with effects in the physical and spiritual planes. This makes it difficult to explain and only those who practice meditation can understand how far they are from reaching it.

The new Palace of Justice in Córdoba is located in Arroyo del Moro which is characteristically dominated by anonymous housing blocks, products of the rapid urban development of 21^st century Spanish cities. The blocks that characterize the urban fabric of the zone were not capable of generating public space or offering something new to the city, but collectively they form a compact and coherent urban identity. The addition of a public institution to the area creates the opportunity to upgrade the public realm and add a civic quality to this relatively new neighborhood. 

The new Palace of Justice in Córdoba is located in Arroyo del Moro which is characteristically dominated by anonymous housing blocks, products of the rapid urban development of 21^st century Spanish cities. The blocks that characterize the urban fabric of the zone were not capable of generating public space or offering something new to the city, but collectively they form a compact and coherent urban identity. The addition of a public institution to the area creates the opportunity to upgrade the public realm and add a civic quality to this relatively new neighborhood. 

Designed by the Richter Dahl Rocha & Associés firm of architects, the Aquatis Complex is part of the Biopôle, a science park centred on life sciences, developing fast in the northern area of Lausanne. It is a strategic location, where the orbital motorway around the city intersects with the new M2 Lausanne Metro line, opened in 2008. The development consists of an area with a car park and Park & Ride, where there is a hotel and the “Cité de l’Eau Douce” Aquarium/Vivarium, linked by a central mall that offers access both to the “Lausanne-Vennes” metro station and to the car park. Each building has its own identity, but is part of a coherent whole.

This new residential complex is located on Pasteurstrasse, a street in the quiet Bötzowkiez area of Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg. Realized as a joint venture between its future residents, this project comprises of fifty-one units spread across four separate buildings. The complex stands on a site previously occupied by a freestanding supermarket, which has been seamlessly integrated into the ground floor of the building facing the street.

Golestan Residential Building is located in a wide dead end, with a maximum height of 20 meters close to a military area. The quiet atmosphere of the alley, which is due to its proper width and impassability, and also the green mass of the tree in the courtyard, led us to pay special attention to the main pavement of the project, and use this potential for Improve the quality of indoor spaces and make communication with the yard and the city. In this regard, the role of the terraces as the spaces of this communication becomes more remarkable.