Architecture and urban planning in Latin America face deeply rooted social, environmental, and economic challenges shaped by historical inequalities, rapid population growth, and unplanned urbanization. Addressing these issues requires innovative solutions that balance housing needs, ecological preservation, and respect for local identities. Amid this complex landscape, several visionary female architects are making a difference with creative and impactful approaches.
Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO: The Latest Architecture and News
Designs Worth Emulating: Discover the 2024 Icons of Award-Winning Architecture
Every year, design competitions unwittingly push the creative envelope, setting new benchmarks for architects and designers worldwide. These contests don't just celebrate innovation—they fuel it, inspiring the next wave of boundary-breaking projects. Thanks to such platforms, we get to witness the extraordinary fusion of beauty, ingenuity, and craftsmanship that ripples through the creative industry.
The German Design Council has certainly joined the fray, recently revealing the winners of the prestigious ICONIC AWARDS 2024: Innovative Architecture—and the results were nothing short of spectacular. This coveted competition honors the full spectrum of architectural and creative disciplines, from visionary spatial concepts and groundbreaking building projects to cutting-edge product design, remarkable brand communication, and inventive uses of materials.
Graham Foundation Reveals 2024 Grants for Organizations Researching Emerging Architectural Ideas
The Graham Foundation, based in Chicago, has allocated $390,000 in grants to support 33 innovative projects worldwide. These initiatives include exhibitions, publications, and presentations aimed at enriching the discourse in architecture and its role in society. The projects, undertaken by architects, artists, curators, and educators, span various cities such as Johannesburg, New York, Chicago, and others, reflecting a global perspective on contemporary architectural issues.
Tatiana Bilbao Designs “Tasting Room” for Tequilera Casa Dragones at Art Basel Miami Beach 2022
Mexico City-based architecture firm Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO presented its design for the Casa Dragones Tequila Tasting Room, which took place at Art Basel Miami Beach from December 1st to 3rd in the second year of its multi-year partnership. Founded in 2009 by Bertha Gonzalez Nieves to create tasting tequilas produced with the utmost care and expertise, Casa Dragones has become the first tequila brand to be an Official Partner of Art Basel Miami.
Community and Identity: Central Topics in Ephemeral Architecture in 2022
Staged stories on community and identity, ephemeral architecture showed that in 2022 it doesn't have to be permanent to be powerful. A direct and popped-up public installation can shift from preparation to action, reclaiming and defining what makes a community unique. Highlighting installations to acknowledge linguistic diversity in NYC, a giant table to celebrate culinary in Barcelona, and a large-scale net in Dubai to represent the local culture, among others, these initiatives seek to understand ways in which local and regional expressions can help cities to be more equal and diverse.
Globalization has connected the world boundaryless. While it has also made information more accessible, it has led to homogeneity and identity crisis at melding unique societies and cultural expressions. Cultural differences are undeniable as globalization grows. Hence, as architecture produces common living standards, it can also highlight singularities. Festivals, installations, and pavilions, 2022 was the year to express local memories to be recognized and celebrated, setting Community and identity as central topics in ephemeral architecture throughout the year.
"A Room of One’s Own": Tatiana Bilbao, Siv Stangeland and Débora Mesa Contemplate the Position of Women in Architecture at Danish Exhibition
The “Women in Architecture “exhibition by the Danish Architecture Center aims to open the conversation about women in architecture and showcase their often overlooked, yet substantial contributions to the field. The historical part of the exhibition celebrates untold stories and forgotten accomplishments of women in Denmark from the 1920s to the 1970s. The exhibition also gives the floor to contemporary architects, asking them to share their experiences as architects in Denmark today. To further explore this position, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, Siv Helene Stangeland from Helen & Hard , and Ensamble Studio explore the theme of the event inspired by Virginia Woolf’s 1929 essay, “A Room of One’s Own”, in which she asserts that women must be financially independent if they are to be able to create works of significance. They must have a room of their own, in both a physical and metaphorical sense.
New Exhibition at the Danish Architecture Center Celebrates Women in Architecture
The Danish Architecture Center (DAC) has opened its latest exhibition titled "Women in Architecture", which showcases the contributions made by female architects across the years. The exhibition highlights women in architecture across time, age, and geography, and explores projects designed by Danish architects such as Hanne Kjærholm, Karen Clemmesen, Lene Tranberg, Dorte Mandrup, and others, along with installations by international architectural studios such as Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, Helen & Hard, and Ensamble Studio.
Tatiana Bilbao Estudio to Design New Residential Development in Ecuador
Mexican firm Tatiana Bilbao Estudio has unveiled Botániqo, its new project in collaboration with the Ecuadorian firm Uribe Schwarzkopf in Quito, Ecuador. With over 12,000 km2, the project will cede 4,000 km2 to create a new transportation hub expected to service over 60,000 people per day, in addition to the creation of green space around the residential units.
Tatiana Bilbao: “Architecture Should Benefit Every Single Human Being on This Planet”
As part of a generation of designers that have, in recent years, put Mexico on the map, Tatiana Bilbao is an architect that is increasingly part of the profession’s global consciousness. But, while some Mexican architects have made their mark with spectacular architecture following the international trend of “iconic” architecture, Bilbao opted instead for a more people-focused approach. In this interview, the latest in Vladimir Belogolovsky’s “City of Ideas” series, Bilbao explains how she got into this type of community-building architecture, her thoughts on architectural form, and her ambitions for the future.
Vladimir Belogolovsky: The more I talk to architects of your generation or my generation, the more it becomes apparent that architecture has absolutely no boundaries. In other words, architecture is not just about buildings. More and more, architecture is about building communities.
Tatiana Bilbao: Absolutely. For me, that is the most important part of architecture. Architecture is not about building a building; architecture is about building a community.
Tatiana Bilbao: Creating Spaces with Relevance Means "Enhancing Someone's Life"
In the second film from this year's series of PLANE—SITE's Time-Space-Existence videos, Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao shares her philosophy of how architecture should be designed with the user’s experience in mind, rather than for standalone aesthetic qualities. In the video she discusses how architects should to some extent let go of their artistic intentions for a more practical approach to serve the needs of people, discussing how architecture has become detached from its key purpose over the last fifty years due to the influence of capitalism.
How Architects in Chicago Are Making New History
"We are at a moment of great cultural transition," Jorge Otero-Pailos argues. "The kinds of objects that we look to to provide some sort of continuity in that transformation is often times architecture, [...] one of the most stable objects in culture." This short film, in which an number of participants of the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial reflect on their work and those of others, tackles the theme conceived by artistic directors Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee: Make New History.
In "Vertical City," 16 Contemporary Architects Reinterpret the Tribune Tower at 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial
In a large-scale, central installation at the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial, the likes of 6a architects, Barozzi Veiga, Kéré Architecture, MOS, OFFICE KGDVS, and Sergison Bates—among others—have designed and constructed sixteen five meter-tall contemporary iterations of the renowned 1922 Chicago Tribune Tower design contest.
A Success Story of Architecture and Art in One of Mexico's Most Violent Cities
What becomes of public space once violence is normalized in a city? Though it is naive to believe that architecture by itself can present absolute solutions to complex social and political issues, it is also important to explore and understand its possibilities as an agent of social change, however small.