Architecture has long been understood as a powerful tool for shaping the physical environment and social dynamics within it. However, its potential to foster social equity is often overlooked. Empathy-driven design invites architects to approach their work not only as creators of space but as facilitators of human connection and community well-being. This approach centers on understanding people's lived experiences, struggles, and aspirations — particularly marginalized communities — and responding to their needs through thoughtful, inclusive architecture. It goes beyond aesthetics and functionality, instead focusing on creating spaces fostering dignity, accessibility, and social equity. By prioritizing empathy, architects can design environments that uplift communities, address disparities, and create inclusive spaces that promote positive societal change in a tangible, human-centered way.
Besides denoting a show of careful thought, in architectural terms, the word ‘considerate' also suggests an emotional and perhaps even empathetic approach. And why shouldn't it?
Good architecture can and should be considerate—in all the varied ways the word embodies. While it could start off with the motivation to do good and require an initial moral approach, this sensibility, combined with a meticulous knowledge of individual/communal needs and transparent communication, generates a well-adapted, and accessible built environment that can promote growth.
https://www.archdaily.com/989415/good-architecture-is-considerateArchDaily Team
Photo by Marlene González y Edgar Macías. Image via Tecnológico de Monterrey
Through a statement from Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico, it has been announced that the Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena will construct a new facility on the Monterrey campus, named "Aulas 10." This facility will house the School of Architecture, Art, and Design (EAAD) with the goal of becoming a space that fosters creativity and knowledge.
ELEMENTAL, Herzog & de Meuron, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), Philippe Starck, and UNStudio are just a few of the internationally renowned architectural firms working with Qatar Museums to establish five new cultural facilities in Qatar. The new constructions will be overseen by Qatar Museums, tasked with maintaining and expanding Qatar's cultural assets through managing the nation's expanding network of museums, heritage sites, festivals, and public art installations.
From Taiwan to the Netherlands to Uruguay, Jakub Sawosko has extensively been photographing concrete architecture all over the world and displaying them on Instagram as @sh_sh_welt.
After living surrounded and fascinated by post-war concrete architecture in Europe in his early years, Sawosko moved to Taiwan where he eventually realized that Modernism had heavily influenced Taiwan as well. "I felt that [Taiwan's distinctive style of architecture] deserved more recognition", explains Jakub in conversation with ArchDaily via Instagram.
Cortesía de ELEMENTAL y Nissen Wentzlaff Architekten
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has just announced that the collaborative project designed by ELEMENTAL (Santiago, Chile) and Nissen Wentzlaff Architekten (Basel, Switzerland) is the winning entry of its international competition to develop its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland.
Founded in 1541 by the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia on indigenous settlements in the valley of the Mapocho River, Santiago is the capital and most populated city of Chile. This South American city is enframed by the Andes Mountains to the east and the Chilean Coast Range to the west, in addition to 26 island hills (cerros islas) scattered throughout the city. Some of these island hills have been converted into urban parks, such as Santa Lucía and San Cristóbal, while Chena, Calán, and Renca are in the process of expansion.
As part of a Tec de Monterrey initiative, this year the First Prize of the 213th Traditional Tec Draw is being held with a work by the Chilean architect who won the 2016 Pritzker Prize, Alejandro Aravena. Elemental House, is the second of the Houses of the 75th Anniversary of Sorteos Tec, which is celebrated this year.
In 2016, Pritzker Prize winner Alejandro Aravena announced that his firm, ELEMENTAL, had released the rights to four of their social housing projects, and all documents would be uploaded to their website for public use. Aravena’s goal was to start a movement in which architects would work together to tackle the world’s challenges around housing shortages and affordability, especially with increased migration. The shared drawing sets and a description of the project’s principles provide architects with the necessary documentation for building a low-cost home, encouraging designers to do the same with their work, contractors to assist in building these homes, and governments to shift their thinking of how they can approach mass urbanization. Six years later, how has the concept of open-source architecture progressed, and how has it impacted the architectural profession ever since?
In New Mexico, irrigation channels that have been in continuous operation for three centuries replenish and nourish the wetlands of the American Southwest. These channels are known as Acequias – communally managed water systems built on democratic tradition. Members of the community own water rights, who then elect a three-person team to oversee the channels. In Cairo and Barcelona, Tahrir Square and Plaza de Catalunya have acted as important sites for voicing political dissatisfaction. The Tahrir Square protests of 2011, for instance, resulted in the eventual toppling of an almost 30-year-old government.
Following Qatar's ambitious museum-building project to further promote cultural institutes in the country, Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums has announced that OMA, Herzog & de Meuron, and ELEMENTAL will be designing three new museums in Doha that explore the themes of Islamic art, contemporary art, and evolution of the automobile industry respectively.
Courtesy of Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism
Under the theme of "Crossroads: Building the Resilient City", the 2021 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism explores cities through architecture, design, and urban planning by highlighting "the virtues and dialogue of crossroads of knowledge" through exhibitions, installations, and events, that tackle the city of tomorrow led by architect Dominique Perrault. With more than 100 participating cities across five continents and installations by world renowned architects and designers, the Seoul Biennale will take place at various locations across the city from September 16 until October 31st, 2021.
The 17th Venice Architecture Biennale invited architects to ponder the question “How will we live together”, eliciting a variety of answers, readings and interpretations. The International Exhibition unfolding in Giardini, the Arsenale and Forte Maghera presents 112 participants in the competition, coming from 46 countries, whose contributions are organized into five scales: Among Diverse Beings, As New Households, As Emerging Communities, Across Borders, and As One Planet. Answering “How will we live together as a community? “ is Chilean office ELEMENTAL and Archdaily met in Venice with Alejandro Aravena to discuss the idea behind the project KOYAÜWE, which creates a space that recovers the tradition of parleys, as a means to address the historical Chilean-Mapuche conflict.
Globalization and its pension for both virtual and physical connectivity has led to the linking of the world's economies, territories, and cultures and nowhere is this more evident than in the field of architecture.
Launched by the Goethe Institut, Habiter Dakar (Living in Dakar) is a virtual exhibition tackling Housing in the Senegalese capital. The study was led by Nzinga Mboup and Caroline Geffriaud, both Architects based in Dakar. They noticed that the current housing offer in the city was particularly far off the needs of its inhabitants, whether on the cultural, societal or environmental level.
The architects analyzed the progression through which the Senegalese capital's Urban Landscape and Housing development had passed, starting from the traditional compound living type to today’s international housing models which seem to be disconnected from the daily reality of most of the city’s inhabitants. The study is concentrated on Housing which is an essential part of the formation and evolution of Dakar and suggests important theoretical and concrete reflections for the future development of the African metropolis.
ELEMENTAL presents a sneak peek of its contribution to "How will we live together?" at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021. Recently, violence has increased in the historical Mapuche-Chilean conflict, that is why the architectural office proposed to build places that recover the old tradition of parleys, spaces to meet in order to settle differences and discuss terms for an armistice.
The Pritzker Prize, architecture’s highest honor, has just announced the appointment of Alejandro Aravena as Chair of the Pritzker Architecture Prize Jury as of March 2021, in time for the award’s 43rd year. Moreover, the announcement also designated Manuela Lucá-Dazio, the Executive Director of the Department of Visual Arts and Architecture of La Biennale di Venezia, as an advisor to the Prize and the next Executive Director.
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