The Parador Ariston, on the Atlantic south coast, is the only work by Bauhaus master Marcel Breuer in Latin America. Created between 1946 and 1947 in collaboration with Carlos Coire and Eduardo Catalano, this beautiful structure was used as a restaurant and nightclub in its heyday. It is shaped like a four-leaved clover, with curved glazing that allows maximum sun penetration. The windows also allow a wide view of the dunes for which Mar Del Plata is famous. The building has an elevated floor, and was constructed within just 60 days using volcanic lava tiles, unusual in the region at…

The working party DOCOMOMO Austria and the Austrian Society for Architecture (Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Architektur ÖGFA) wish to raise awareness for the serious endangerment of the iconic piece of architecture VILLA BEER(Wenzgasse 12, 1130 Vienna/Austria) by Josef Frank and Oskar Wlach. This monument of the European and Austrian Modern Movement is in danger because of a conversion which will cause irreversible damage.The Villa Beer (1929-30) is one of the most important buildings of private housing from the nineteen-twenties and nineteen-thirties. Together with buildings by Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, the Villa Beer stands in the European architecture´s first row….

The Civic Center of Guatemala City is endangered because of real estate speculation. The site has a unique patrimonial industrial and modern heritage, and for that it has been declared as modern heritage of the nation in 2014. Unfortunately the Government of Guatemala has promoted a project to accommodate administrative offices for the state. This includes the construction of several buildings in the area of the former Central Railroad Station, which is protected by several ministerial agreements and is situated within the maximum protection polygon of the areas of influence of the Civic Center. The implementation of this project will…

Bidura Children’s Court Updates: “The Sydney Bidura Children’s Court in Glebe has now been nominated for heritage listing. And an independent heritage assessment has been commissioned, alongside a petition to be submitted to council for adaptive reuse to be considered. Docomomo also wrote a submission to the City of Sydney regarding its proposed demolition, but is now more hopeful that the future of this building may be reconsidered.” Image: Bidura Children’s Court, photo by Jenna Reed Burns (2015) More details: website. More updates: website. [by Docomomo Australia]

The project of the clinic was commissioned in 1938 by the Mexican Modern Movement pioneer Charles Leduc Montano. The building was built between 1939 and 1942 in functionalist style as one of the first buildings of its kind in Chiapas. Its main characteristics are functional “H”plan, simple beauty of the architectural volumes without superfluous decoration and long and ventilated corridors that promoted rest areas appropriate for patients in recovery. The building was constructed with at-the-time innovational technique  – reinforced concrete combined with mud wall. It had also featured flattened cement-sand, polished floors, wooden doors and windows and mosquito nets, all…

“Less well known than its European and Latin American counterparts, but unique for its direct relation to a water stadium, the Marine Stadium Grandstand in Miami is a cast-in-place concrete 100-meter long building with an eight-section hyperbolic paraboloid roof (2). It is 33-meter wide with a cantilever of 20 meter over the stands; one third of the structure is built on piers into the water. Used for motorboat racing and various types of concerts on a floating stage, the 6566-seat grandstand was built at the edge of a Circus-Maximus-like water stadium, designed and landscaped to face the stands. Hilario Candela, a Cuban architect…

The Ofir House by Fernando Távora, 1956-1958 Casa Dr. Fernando Ribeiro da Silva, Ofir, Esposende, Minho The Ofir holiday house was the first work by Fernando Távora (1923‐2005) published in the Arquitectura magazine (nº 59, July 1957). It was presented as a work that searched a personal language which reconciled the values of traditional Portuguese architecture and new technologic and material achievements. The house was built during the period of transition between de 50s and the 60s, standing out in its historical context, opening up the path for a renewed Modern architecture and for contemporary Portuguese architecture; between an architecture…