This essay explores the capacity of vernacular types to engage not only the climatic and ecological dimensions of a place, but also its social and cultural commonalities. Starting with the need for an experiential approach to architecture, an initial passage explores the multisensory dimension of the human body. This leads to the everyday life experience of the inhabitants of a given place. Every place reveals common behaviours that are shared among its inhabitants, and ecological types offer disciplinary tools for attuning these questions to architecture. This essay tentatively aspires to redefine the concept of typology, overlaying the formal and material questions considered by previous definitions with performative, behavioural, and phenomenological ones.
Far from constituting a specialization, and far from being reduced to the principles of simple 'sustainability', the environmental approach to architecture has a long history that can be traced back to Vitruvius and has passed through various treatises until reaching modernity. Architecture manipulates form, matter and energy to shape environments with a certain cultural imprint—it is both matter and environment as well as form and symbol—and this definition not only enlarges the heart of the discipline, but also enriches it with its own values but also with its own contradictions. These values and contradictions must be taken into account when understanding the complexity of the architecture of the last hundred years, determined by the succession, conjunction and mixture of a series of environmental paradigms that are still largely in force: the hygienic, technocratic, bioclimatic, thermodynamic and sustainable paradigms.
Modern Brazilian architecture offered a fertile territory for experimenting with the most varied forms of mediation between exterior and interior, such as brises, shutters, wooden trusses, hollow elements and wide eaves. The application of these elements to the façades of high-rise buildings raised questions about the very nature of the facade in the modern era. In addition to the practical role, defining and offering basic conditions for carrying out the activities for which the buildings are intended, and to the operative role, reducing the internal temperature, the facades also perform a symbolic role, giving a face to the institution or the function that is developed there. This article seeks to develop this argument, through a closer look at two buildings of the Escola Carioca, the headquarters of the Brazilian Press Association (ABI) (1936–1938), by MM Roberto, and Parque Guinle (1948–1954) by Lucio Costa. It shows that these façades not only delimit the uses and made them possible, but also help the building to engage with the surrounding milieu through elements of climatic adaptation while representing the uses which took place there.
This essay delves into the course programme of the Atelier Mayol at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio 2023–24. The atelier focused on the topic of the summer house, understanding summer as a moment where daily routine is temporary suspended and conventional domestic spaces are questioned. The semester was an occasion to collectively discuss living and to re-think the way we approach the theme of habitation. Learning to doubt. To think the building as an ecosystem. To approach the house as part of a territory. To observe, understand and interpret the local tradition and identity of a place. To work locally. To make responsible use of local resources. To value the logic of construction. To understand that form follows climate. Learning from tradition to revert the global warming tendency. The atelier worked in three different places located in three distinct areas of Mallorca. Banyalbufar, a terraced landscape in the north of the island. Sant Joan, a flat landscape in the centre. Es Salobrar de Campos, salt flats next to the sea. Three locations that explain Mallorca.
The utopian essence of modernity was centred on a triumvirate—built on the congruence between the sovereign state, the techno-science establishment, and the globalized market economy. This triangle of power has commodified nature and created a fragmented, pragmatic, and operative world culture, which has led us to the crossroads we are collectively facing. The Anthropocene, from a philosophical point of view, is thus the time of the emergence of a dystopia that was born, not from any piecemeal feature of modern history, but from the uncritical and disproportionate fulfilment of modern utopian agendas.
The aim is to add a reflection on the theme of this edition, based on practical cases, that is, with publications on already-constructed works. Projects were selected from studios operating in a Mediterranean environment, with one exception that can still be placed within the geographical limits set out in the call for articles, despite its location outside the Mediterranean basin and its harsher climate. The selection criteria implied a focus on buildings which are unique in character; when published together, they offer a comprehensive and complementary response to the questions raised in this issue of Joelho, namely the urgent need for a move towards sustainable architecture. This response can be found in the architectural language of each case, arising from specific considerations at the stage of designing and building in each setting: . 6×6 block in Girona, by Bosch+Capdeferro . 25 Endowed Housing Units in Palma de Mallorca, Mallorca, by Harquitectes . Six Social Housing Units in Santa Eugènia, Mallorca, by Carles Oliver Barceló & Xim Moyá (IBAVI) . K.118 in Winterthur, by Baubüro in Situ
“Environment-Trouble" is a satirical commentary on "A Home is not a House," a 1965 article authored by Reyner Banham and François Dallegret that included a now famous cross section through an imagined, self-contained, "Environment-Bubble." In 2024, a group of five friends decided to build the Banham bubble on the rocky shores of Capri to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the publication. Pretty soon, of course, the men ran into all sorts of trouble, thus the title of the piece: "Environment-Trouble." The article describes what the Office of Uncertainty Research learned when its members went to Capri to interview the men, in particular about the material contingencies, social forces and planetary and cosmic realities that derail even the best-laid plans. "Environment-Trouble" was on view at the Palazzo Diedo, May 8 to November 23, 2025 as part of an exhibit called 'Core Samples', curated by Ana Miljacki, and was part of the Venice Architecture Biennale (2025).
This article covers the evolution of the balcony archetype since the late nineteenth century when this element, identified as cellular and isolated, a private space above the public and collective realm, took on a significant role in housing buildings. Using analysis of the literature and primary sources, the aim of this overview is to understand the main paradigms and concerns that conditioned the design of balconies and to contribute to the redefinition of the Mediterranean balcony. In this study, a division of recent balcony design history is proposed into three key periods: the rise of open balconies in the nineteenth century related to the new health and hygiene standards; the mid-twentieth century reinterpretation of the traditional shading systems for sunlight and ventilation control on balconies; and the popularization of the glazed balconies on the 1970s in response to the energy crisis. This understanding of how the exploration of balcony design was shaped by the search for comfort and well-being at each moment could contribute to more sustainable housing models in Southern Mediterranean countries.
Contemporary urban planning is a highly complex process, often spanning many years and involving many different types of stakeholders. Western countries and cities are increasingly conducting construction and involvement processes along the same lines. However, there continue to be significant cultural and geographical differences in how designers, planners, developers, and citizens understand those concepts. This paper aims to give a practitioner’s perspective on how the design and planning process works in a Danish context. It does so by contextualizing Danish planning and elaborating on the tricky choices faced by designers and planners, elaborating on the specific philosophy of SLA. It then finishes by going through some of the projects that SLA designed to give the reader an understanding of the involvement process, design, and learnings.
Contemporary urban planning is a highly complex process, often spanning many years and involving many different types of stakeholders. Western countries and cities are increasingly conducting construction and involvement processes along the same lines. However, there continue to be significant cultural and geographical differences in how designers, planners, developers, and citizens understand those concepts. This paper aims to give a practitioner’s perspective on how the design and planning process works in a Danish context. It does so by contextualizing Danish planning and elaborating on the tricky choices faced by designers and planners, elaborating on the specific philosophy of SLA. It then finishes by going through some of the projects that SLA designed to give the reader an understanding of the involvement process, design, and learnings.
In a revolution, governors can no longer govern, and the governed refuse to be so. In this sense, the experience of the Portuguese Local Support Service (Serviço de Apoio Ambulatório Local—SAAL) epitomizes the national revolution of 1974–5, allowing poor city workers to reclaim the right to housing and the city. This essay discusses the Catujal Workers Estate, built in this context, in Loures (Lisbon Region) with a plan by the brigade led by architect Francisco Pires Keil do Amaral. Most information is derived from the reports and drawings of the original SAAL intervention, with the aim of presenting an observation of this case and trying to highlight the process of cooperation that linked those designing the habitat with those who were to live in it.
Although it did not achieve all the intended objectives, the #OcupeEstelita movement left a significant legacy in Recife, Brazil, including the relatively unnoticed inspiration for young architects to organize themselves into urban collectives. These groups sought to explore new forms of action and new territories through emerging collaborative practices such as tactical urbanism. The impact of these collectives’ work led to the integration of their methods and members into municipal institutional projects, such as Projeto Parque Capibaribe (PPC) and Mais Vida nos Morros (MVNM). Through interviews with members of local collectives who later became involved in the mentioned institutional projects, we can assess the motivations, conditions, limitations, and challenges of collaborative practices, as well as the risk of distortion of these emerging practices in addressing the severe infrastructure and urban maintenance deficiencies that characterize Recife.
Jane Drew and Minnette De Silva made significant contributions to the architectural field, namely to the broader frameworks of the mid‑twentieth-century Modern Movement and tropical architecture. They also pioneered inclusive design processes, in line with the discussion of human factors that was just starting to fuel the architectural agenda. Peons’ Village in Chandigarh and Watapuluwa in Kandy are housing schemes resulting from participatory methodologies where both architects promoted dialogue with the populations and integrated regional specificities. The collective engagement, which occurred at different project stages, effectively involved future inhabitants in decision-making and is reflected in the outcome of the projects. Drew and De Silva’s socially engaged architecture envisioned project design as a co‑creation process, contributing to redefining the architect’s role, and aiming to foster a more equitable urban environment toward a better society.
The central theme of JOELHO 15 is urban architecture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, with a special focus on the way in which a project is revealed as a space for collective engagement.The processes of producing architecture and urban environments have always arisen from transformations brought about by the collective, i.e. by society.The city, moreover, is the space in which these changes are engraved in our collective memory, their origins embedded in cultural, social, economic-financial, and political phenomena, among others.The intense social and artistic movements that emerged from the political struggles of the 1960s spurred many architects to seek new ways to conceive of the public as the ultimate consumers of architecture.Answers were sought to the challenges engendered by the urgent need to house urban populations who were living in precarious conditions; new paradigms for architectural education were being advanced, and the uses of public space in the city became a prominent concern.In response, architects were motivated to explore design practices that involved members of the public in the decision-making process, especially during certain of its stages.Architecture became more deeply embedded in human concerns with the contributions of Giancarlo De Carlo's pilot projects for Siena and Terni, the housing programmes developed by the Portuguese Service of Local
This paper, divided in five sections, is supported by established theoretical background. The paper points to the idea of human emancipation and to the potential role of architecture in helping the development of a more just and egalitarian society. The terms and concepts that are used in this essay have something in common; although they refer to different intellectual and disciplinary contexts, they have overlapping features which are critical to the understanding of an active, participatory culture in everyday life as a necessary aspect of society. People must take charge of their own lives and of the immediate conditions of living of their surroundings. The idea of co‑creation that is presented more fully in Section 5 benefits from the discussions in previous sections about the private and public space, the right to the city, Michel de Certeau’s views on walking, and Reyner Banham’s concept of the responsive environment. Co-creation is participation in its ultimate form. The fundamental idea is to plan and build a better world and better cities collectively. To make this easier, architects should also co-create more adaptable, controllable, and responsive buildings and urban spaces. Co-creation must be fostered, using intensive participatory processes, to define certain features of what is being done or built. However, this struggles against all odds to become a common practice in public policy. The search for social justice in the city still has a long way to go. Having said this, architecture and urban design are too important to be left out; they may not change the world but may help to make it better.
The aim of this paper is to explain how the “Palace of Imagination” (PI), funded by the Portuguese government programme Bairros Saudáveis (Healthy Neighbourhoods) in 2020, was co-created with its residents, primarily children and young people, in the Emboladoura neighbourhood on the western edge of the municipality of Guimarães. The PI aimed to correct the absence of collective public spaces, particularly covered spaces that can house different groups and host various activities, through the co-construction of the multifunctional collective structures. Starting with an explanation of how the idea first came to us and continuing through the process of realizing it, we outline the methodology, structured in four action verbs (“interdialogue,” inhabit, recreate, and activate), how we engaged residents, the project’s transdisciplinary approach, and the relevance given to aesthetic quality. We conclude by outlining the outcomes and results of the project as well as its potential for replication.
Contemporary urban planning is a highly complex process, often spanning many years and involving many different types of stakeholders. Western countries and cities are increasingly conducting construction and involvement processes along the same lines. However, there continue to be significant cultural and geographical differences in how designers, planners, developers, and citizens understand those concepts. This paper aims to give a practitioner’s perspective on how the design and planning process works in a Danish context. It does so by contextualizing Danish planning and elaborating on the tricky choices faced by designers and planners, elaborating on the specific philosophy of SLA. It then finishes by going through some of the projects that SLA designed to give the reader an understanding of the involvement process, design, and learnings.
To seek a possible means to navigate the apparent divergence between participation and criticality in architecture, this paper returns to the notion of the “realistic utopia,” developed by one of the leading early exponents of participation, the Italian architect, urbanist, writer and educator, Giancarlo De Carlo. Through a close reading of De Carlo’s principal theoretical works on participation, in this paper it is argued that the realistic utopia offers a distinct conception of the interaction between architectural objects, the processes by which they are formed and the societal structures which frame this formation. It shows that beyond being a means to understand the multi-directional relationship between architecture and society, the realistic utopia offers a conceptual tool to aid action within the complex set of forces at work in this relationship. In this way, it locates the realistic utopia as something of importance beyond an assessment of the work of De Carlo, or even the broader project of participation he fostered, and is here opened up for renewed use by practitioners today.
