Amazonia | Tag | ArchDaily

Amazonian Cities: What It Is Like to Live Close to the Largest Tropical Rainforest on the Planet

April 28, 2024

The world has its eyes on the Amazon. Geographical data about this vast territory, spanning 6.74 million square kilometers across eight countries in Latin America, is constantly featured in national and international media. Headlines often highlight its sheer magnitude as the largest tropical rainforest in the world, home to 10% of the planet's biodiversity, and responsible for 15% of the Earth's freshwater. However, little attention is paid to what transpires beneath its canopy, on the ground where people live.

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Traditional Techniques Applied to Contemporary Architecture in the Amazon

November 05, 2023

The architecture of indigenous peoples is deeply rooted in their surroundings, in the sense that materials are locally sourced and empirically tested, to discover the construction techniques and dwellings that best respond to the values of the community and their understanding of housing. The situation in the Amazon is no different. Many different groups of people have settled on the land and water, developing many unique building skills that attract a lot of architects working in these regions. As a result, there is an exchange of knowledge, combining native cultures and novel architecture.

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“Earth as Ancestral and Future Technology”: An Interview With Gabriela de Matos and Paulo Tavares, Curators of the Brazil Pavilion and Winners of the Golden Lion at the 2023 Venice Biennale

May 23, 2023

Questioning the canonical history of architecture and shedding light on long-invisible spatial practices, Gabriela de Matos and Paulo Tavares propose the exhibition “Terra” [Earth], at the Brazilian pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023. "It's our way of shaking things up," say the curators, who turn their attention to ancestral ways of dealing with the land, aiming for more fair and complete possibilities for the present and future.

Addressing "earth" in all its meanings, the curators overlay issues related to soil and territory with the planetary problems. They propose an approach to reparations and decoloniality - emerging in Brazil - with broad topics such as decarbonization and the environment, decisive in the contemporary global debate. The Brazilian Pavilion titled Terra [Earth], won the Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, on Saturday 20th of May, selected by a jury comprising Italian architect and curator Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli as president, Nora Akawi, Thelma Golden, Tau Tavengwa, and Izabela Wieczorek.

Construction Progresses on BIG’s High-Rise Building in East Side Berlin

October 10, 2022

The third tallest building in Berlin, a 142 meters high-rise by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), is expected to be completed by 2023. Located close to the Warschauer station and the Mercedes-Benz Arena, The EDGE East Side will be a vertical hub of 65,000 square meters that connects two of Berlin's most vibrant and artistic suburbs: Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg.

Blending contemporary urban requirements and natural elements, the structure will feature 360 views of East Berlin and 36 floors of shared and dedicated workplaces. Some building sections will serve organizations or individuals focusing primarily on sustainability, education, or social issues. The tower will also host Amazon's offices, with room for up to 3400 employees.

Living in the Amazon in the 21st Century: A Planning and Urban Design Guide for Cities in the Peruvian Lowland Rainforest

August 04, 2022

Addressing the universe of the world's largest tropical forest, the book 'Living in the Amazon in the 21st Century: A Guide to Urban Planning and Design for Cities in the Peruvian lowland rainforest', has been selected as a finalist in the category of publications at the 12th Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism. The issue, published in 2019 as part of the PUCP Architecture Publications, in the framework of the CASA (Self-Sustainable Amazonian Cities) project of the Climate Resilient Cities initiative of IDRC, FFLA and CDKN, focuses its research on the department of Loreto, presenting itself as "a guide for architecture and urban design, for settlements in the Amazon forest, including the social processes to be considered".

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Brooks + Scarpa's Quantum Computing Lab Under Construction in California

March 24, 2021

Architecture and design practice Brooks + Scarpa have created a new 25,000 square foot research and development facility under construction in Pasadena, California. The project is designed for scientists and engineers seeking to develop future quantum technologies. In turn, the experimental and theoretical quantum science and technology lab will be an incubator in the emerging field of quantum engineering and quantum computing.

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Brazilian Maps from the Venice Biennale 2018 On Sale To Fight Coronavirus in the Amazon

August 30, 2020

The recently launched non-profit initiative TomorrowAnew (Amanhã (de)Novo) is selling 10 large-scale maps produced for the Brazilian pavilion’s exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2018 to help fight COVID-19 in Brazil.

The cartographies reveal different facets of Brazil and examine the nature of the visible and invisible walls that define the country. They were produced by the exhibition’s curators Gabriel Kozlowski, Sol Camacho, Laura González Fierro and Marcelo MaiaRosa in collaboration with 200 professionals from 10 different disciplines

Plant Prefab Announces Flexible ADU Line for Sustainable Living

May 29, 2020

Prefabricated design and manufacturing company Plant Prefab has announced their new lightHouse line, a set of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) available in multiple sizes. Working with designers Alchemy Architects, the LivingHomes concept joins a roster of work with partners that include KieranTimberlake, Koto Design and Brooks + Scarpa. With a size ranging from 310 square feet to 600, the newest line was inspired by Alchemy’s previous work on small-space living.

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Exhibition in Paris: L'Amazonie en construction - l'architecture des fleuves volants

July 15, 2019

NAMA, Revista Amazônia Moderna and UFAM hold the exhibition L'Amazonie en construction: l'architecture des fleuves volants, from July 19 to August 3 at the Maison du Brésil in Paris, in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of this iconic building designed by Le Corbusier. This is the first time that the Brazilian Amazon will be exhibited in Europe from an architectural point of view. Admission is free.

The Amazon under construction is divided into two themes: the "Fantastic Amazon" and the "Concrete Amazon", which unveil not only a vision of breathtaking landscapes and territories but also the integration between them and the

Amazon Reveals Design for Future Culver City Home

July 05, 2019

Amazon has revealed more details of its new $620-million expansion in Culver City, California. Designed by Gensler to rethink the The Culver Studios, a 100-year-old film studio in Downtown, the project will become the new home of Amazon's Los Angeles area operations. Made for Hackman Capital Partners, the expansion broke ground last year building upon the film studio typology.

Matthew Stewart: Amazon Patents and the Uncanny World of Logistics (Future Architecture Talks)

February 07, 2019

Since 2010, Amazon Technologies Inc. has filed 5,860 patents including everything from drone fulfilment centres, mobile robotic warehouses, augmented reality furniture, inflatable data centres, underwater and flying warehouse facilities, infinitely on-demand clothing manufacturing, automated shopping with image recognition systems and the ever-present spectre of drone delivery.

Amazon Selects Both New York City and Arlington for HQ2

November 13, 2018

Amazon has selected New York City and Arlington for it's next headquarters, set to become two of the biggest economic development projects in the United States. Instead of choosing one site, Amazon will spread over $5 billion in construction and investments across the two locations. The tech giant will house at least 25,000 employees in each city, and could receive more than $2 billion in tax incentives. The new announcement ends a 14-month competition among cities across the country.

Yves Béhar Unveils LivingHomes Accessory Dwelling Units in Los Angeles

November 02, 2018

Swiss Designer Yves Béhar has partnered with Plant Prefab to create LivingHome YB1, a series of Accessory Dwelling Units to be unveiled at the Summit festival in Los Angeles. Designed to address California’s legislation, the ADU aims to encourage increased urban density while limiting the environmental impact of new construction. LivingHomes YB1 is the first in a line of structures made to rethink prefab and increase accessibility, livability, and sustainability.

Amazon Invests in Start-Up Company to Deliver Prefabricated Homes

September 27, 2018

As the tech giant's first move into prefab construction, Amazon has invested in home-building start-up Plant PreFab. Known for smart home technology and sustainable construction, Plant PreFab is based in Rialto, California and is set to become the latest addition in Amazon's Alexa-integrated homes. As CNBC reports, Amazon's Alexa Fund invested in Plant PreFab for their prefabricated single and multifamily houses and their plan to use automation to build homes faster at lower costs.

Resilience and Adaptation

August 04, 2018

The Architectural Association Visiting School Amazon is organising for the fourth consecutive year a workshop in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest open to design and architecture students and professionals in which an experimental floating structure will be designed and constructed in collaboration with Atelier Marko Brajovic and Ecofloat.

Gentrification, Alienation, and Homelessness: What Really Happens When Amazon Moves to Town?

March 06, 2018

This article was originally published by Common Edge as "A Seattleite Reflects on the City in the Age of Amazon."

At first, it was just a crane or two, a little urban renewal down on Westlake, a rumor that Paul Allen was cleaning things up, wanted a huge park with bike trails. I thought that might be nice and didn’t think about it again for a while.

No park happened, but one day I went down to the new Whole Foods below where I work and noticed that a whole habitat had sprung up on Westlake, an expensive Mexican chain restaurant and an expensive Italian place and an expensive Thai place, and some expensive after-work bars. I also noticed small groups of men, all white or Indian and all wearing lanyards. These groups moved around the streets, talking animatedly, freshly out of their cubicles and going to lunch, oblivious to whomever else was on the street.

Amazon's Futuristic Checkout-Free Convenience Store Opens with Just a Few Kinks

January 22, 2018

Amazon’s innovative, checkout-free convenience store concept, Amazon Go, has opened to the public in Seattle.

Located in the base of an existing Amazon office building, the 1,800-square-foot (167-square-meter) store offers grocery and convenience items. To begin shopping, customers simply scan an Amazon Go smartphone app and pass through a turnstile.

Using machine learning, computer vision and artificial intelligence technologies (incorporated into the software powering cameras and weight sensors), the store can then track the actions of customers as they remove items from the shelves, creating a virtual shopping list as they go. When a customer is finished shopping, they simply exit the store through the turnstiles and the user’s Amazon account is automatically charged.

Amazon Names 20 Cities as Finalists for New Headquarters

January 18, 2018

Amazon has announced the list of 20 finalists in the running to become the new home city for their highly hyped second headquarters, known as HQ2.

The tech company, based in Seattle, selected the finalists from more than 238 applications from cities located in Mexico, Canada and the United States, each hoping to raise their global profile and jump start their individual economies with the 50,000 new jobs the company says it would create.

The finalist cities include:

Amazonia: The Latest Architecture and News