Combining experience, knowledge, tradition, innovation, and experimentation, Estudio Planta, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, focuses on fostering the relationship between architecture and nature by using vegetation as a building material and integrating outdoor spaces into daily life. Addressing the unique characteristics of each site, programmatic innovation, sustainability, care for noble materials, and construction details, the practice defines its identity by proposing ways of living in harmony with its inhabitants and understanding the legacy that architecture can leave for society.
A look at most of the cities within Latin America reveals striking commonalities across countries, from Mexico down to Argentina: most cities have a well-defined area known as "El Centro" (The Center), anchored by a main plaza (Plaza Mayor), flanked by a church on one side and key buildings like the city hall on another. This is no coincidence, as it can be traced back to an urban planning system established during the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 17th and 18th centuries. It gave standardized guidelines for city design across its viceroyalties. Unlike French and English colonies, Spanish settlements adhered to regulations that contributed to the emergence of a shared urban identity, with cities displaying similar spatial logic and architectural cohesion despite differing scales and contexts.
Architectural Classics featured on ArchDaily serve as a record of significant works that have influenced the evolution of architecture and design. These projects represent a range of styles, purposes, and contexts, offering insight into how architecture responds to cultural, social, and environmental factors. By revisiting these influential works, one can better understand the principles and ideas that have shaped the built environment globally over time. These classics highlight moments of design innovation while also providing a broader perspective on architecture's role in reflecting and shaping the world around us.
IR Arquitectura is not just a studio; it defines itself as a platform for exploration that integrates architectural practice with tangential topics such as the city, landscape, technology, and sustainability. Founded by Luciano Intile and Enrico Cavaglià, and based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, IR Arquitectura is an interdisciplinary collective comprising architects, designers, and professionals from various fields. Together, they tackle projects of varying scales and natures, seizing each opportunity to explore new solutions and strategies for contemporary living, particularly in urban contexts and in close connection with the environment.
Around 1949, the city of Buenos Aires led the construction of the Sixth Pantheon in the Chacarita neighborhood. Monumental in character and brutalist in style, this underground necropolis turned out to be the first and largest experiment in modern architecture in the funerary field. Designed by Ítala Fulvia Villa, one of the first Argentine women architects and urban planners, and a pioneer of South American modernism, along with her team comprised of Leila Cornell, Raquel S. de Días, Gunter Ernest, Carlos A. Gabutti, Ludovico Koppman, and Clorindo Testa, this work was discovered by Léa Namer, who conducted an in-depth investigation reflecting on the legacy of a modern utopia and a feminist rereading of history.
The city of Buenos Aires is vast in its area and has a heterogeneous and variable urban fabric in terms of scale. Much of the residential neighborhoods are made up of a mixed-use fabric, where the predominant constructions from several decades ago are the so-called "casa chorizo" and horizontally owned houses, commonly known as PH (Propiedad Horizontal). It is interesting to review how, over the years, these constructions have been modified due to changes in building regulations, which allowed the creation of new typologies, mainly responding to new ways of living within the city. The renovation of these constructions, many of which are used for residential purposes, has also been a conscious response to avoid overbuilding in an already densely populated city. While these projects have been a recurring practice in Buenos Aires for several years now, many young architects of new generations are taking on these challenges, thus generating a trend that seems to have no end and where we find new solutions in each renovation.
More than half of the world's population resides in urban areas, with over 4 billion people depending on cities as their main environment. According to the United Nations’ latest report on populations in cities, this number is expected to continue to increase over the next 50 years, prompting cities worldwide to strive to find better ways to accommodate their growing population while transitioning to more sustainable urban practices. To highlight this responsibility, the United Nations has declared July 11th the World Population Day.
Under this year’s theme, “To Leave No One Behind, Count Everyone,” the UN aims to also draw attention to the importance of data collection for reflecting societal diversity. The growth of world cities is part of this equation as an important measure for understanding global population trends. The following list presents the top 20 cities worldwide in 2024, ranked by the population size of their metropolitan areas. Comparing the results to the previous editions, the only cities to reduce their size are the two cities from Japan, Tokyo and Osaka. The highest growth rates can be observed in African mega-cities, Kinshasa and Lagos, while China continues to be the most present country in the list, with 5 metropolises present in the top 20: Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, Tianjin, and Guangzhou.
In response to the diverse topographies and natural conditions throughout the Argentine territory, the works of Luciano Kruk propose an architecture that works in harmony with the environment, the landscape, and the nature in which they are situated. Whether immersed in a forest, on sloping terrain, or on a rural plain, among other geographies, his intention is to enhance the relationship between the interior and exterior of the architecture, using concrete as the main material in most of his projects.
