Articles by Camila Prieto

Dimensions, textures and colors are not the only factors to consider when designing a space. Choosing the right lighting also rises as a key strategy to create a project’s atmosphere. Appropriate lighting adds new aspects to space. Within the same project, different ways of applying light develops diverse situations, playing with light and shade, warmness and coldness, as well as depth and height.

How does school design influence the process of teaching and learning? Understanding current educational design trends and methodologies is key to designing healthy spaces for students to develop their social and academic capacities.

Hearing – one of the human body’s five senses – enables our interaction with sound, a crucial factor for daily communication and much more. One commonly hears people say a place is noisy, but what exactly is the definition of noisy? Known as situations with unwanted sounds that interfere with daily activities, noisy places also have the potential to negatively interfere in society’s development.

Considering the time, energy, and environmental impact of a construction process, architecture must explore different methodologies that work with the existing built environment. For example: how to give life to a forgotten building? Adaptive reuse gives new opportunities to abandoned buildings, following the idea that good architecture must be durable, innovative and recyclable.

These days, wellness is a commonly-used word in design and other areas, but what does it truly mean? According to the National Wellness Institute, the concept is defined as “an active process through which people become aware of, and make choices toward, a more successful existence.” It can be viewed from different perspectives, such as environmental, intellectual, spiritual and physical factors. Although these elements can be integrated separately into one’s life, they can also complement each other and work together. For example, exercise does not only provide physical benefits; it contributes to emotional wellness as well.

Achieving the perfect bathroom design and layout for each user comes with a lot of very detailed decision-making. One example is the shower versus bath debate, which includes valid arguments in favor of each option, and no objective right or wrong. When designing a bathroom, architects must use their experience and perception to make decisions that will best respond to the layout’s spatial needs. Shower or bathtub standard dimensions, placement of elements, and material selection are some of the factors that must be studied before adjusting to the user’s requirements.

Mies Van der Rohe and Lilly Reich’s German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition is known as the most written-about modern building. But no matter how many times the pavilion is redrawn for analysis, there are always new angles from which to interpret it. Identifying its capacity to redefine the German image, while genuinely introducing new strategies that continue present in contemporary architecture projects are two key elements of the architects’ intentions behind their design strategy.

Flexibility within a space emerges as an architectural concept that follows society’s transformations. As the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright said, “Architecture is life, or at least as it was lived in the world yesterday, as it is lived today or ever will be lived.” In that sense, changing a kitchen’s layout goes further than its aesthetic adjustments; it reflects the way people are living. Opening the traditional closed kitchen creates a more flexible space in which different activities share a visual connection without structural barriers.

Since the 1980’s, 3D-printing has offered new ways of developing architecture, engineering, and objects of daily use. When it comes to digitizing analogue processes, it is vital for users to become familiar with current tech innovations and their benefits. HIVE Project reshapes the art and craft of building in clay by combining traditional ceramics, smart geometry, and robotic precision to construct a masonry wall composed of one hundred seventy-five unique 3D-printed clay bricks.