Materiales: The Latest Architecture and News

Being one of the first construction methods developed by humans, earth has proven its resilience and durability over time. While construction techniques have evolved and been updated over the years, there is still a long way to explore where the understanding of climate, geographic location, sustainability, structural requirements, and other factors determine its degree of application.

With low environmental impact and the ability to be used through a wide variety of techniques, such as rammed earth walls or 'tapiales,' this material offers the possibility of providing not only aesthetic but also thermal comfort, insulation, and other benefits. With the intention of discovering the different ways it has been used, we set out to select 12 projects distributed throughout Latin America, spanning Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Ecuador.

Wood has played an important role in contemporary Mexican architecture due to its versatility, sustainability, and cultural connection to the architectural history of the country. Currently, architecture in Mexico has gained worldwide recognition for its sensitivity and mastery in designing everyday spaces using various techniques that prioritize sustainability, aesthetics, and bioclimatic design.

Over time, the space of the bathroom in the domestic sphere has increasingly gained importance. Nowadays, it is conceived as a space for well-being and health, where one can have an experience that meets the needs and requirements of its users. Beyond the different technologies implemented, the designs applied, or the materials used, architects and designers demonstrate, day by day, the multiple configurations and arrangements that these spaces can adopt through their projects, developing strategies both on an aesthetic and design level, as well as on a technical and functional level.

Brutalism is an architectural style that originated in the 1950s and became popular in the 1960s. Its name comes from the French "béton brut," which means "raw concrete," as this material is one of the most characteristic elements of the style. Its main features are the apparent use of concrete, offering visuals where natural texture and tonality are the protagonists of the buildings. Brutalist buildings often have an austere and massive aesthetic, with simple and repetitive geometric shapes. The use of industrial materials and innovative construction techniques is also common in brutalism.

Although the circular economy involves other principles such as the regeneration of natural systems, the reuse or recycling of materials plays an important role in contributing to the reduction of waste generation by giving a second useful life to elements that could be considered waste. Wood, metal sheets, bricks, and stones, among others, can be reused, bringing sustainability and efficiency criteria to the projects, helping to consolidate this concept that still has a long way to go.

Within the Latin American territory, many architecture professionals have proposed to apply in their design and construction processes the implementation of strategies that collaborate with the use of resources, either by reusing, recycling, or restoring different materials and elements in search of satisfying the needs and concerns of those who inhabit the spaces.