Video

Why did the "box house" become a standard in Brazil?

Over the past two decades, Brazil’s residential landscape has quietly transformed. Roofs with generous eaves gave way to hidden slabs, balconies disappeared, and glass façades began to symbolize modern living. The white or gray “cube” became shorthand for what feels current and sophisticated.

But form is never neutral.

Traditional Brazilian architecture evolved in direct response to the tropical climate: deep shading, cross-ventilation, pitched roofs, and transitional spaces between indoors and outdoors. These features were not decorative choices. They were technical solutions to intense sun, heavy rainfall, and high humidity.

By removing them, we often trade climate performance for visual impact.

Large glass surfaces without external shading, exposed slabs, and the absence of eaves increase heat gain, accelerate material deterioration, and heighten dependence on air conditioning. What appears to be an aesthetic preference directly affects energy consumption, thermal comfort, and long-term maintenance.

There is also a clear economic rationale. Simplifying construction reduces upfront costs and speeds up delivery. But part of that investment shifts from the building phase to the operational phase. The bill comes later through higher energy use, increased maintenance, and hotter urban environments.

This is not about rejecting contemporary architecture. It is about questioning whether we are labeling as modern a model that overlooks basic principles of climate adaptation.

Want to dive deeper into this topic?

Watch the full video to understand how this housing model became dominant and which alternatives make more sense for Brazil’s climate and context.

Disclaimer: The video is in Brazilian Portuguese, but simultaneous translation and subtitles are available in multiple languages.

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News

Amsterdam has its first commercial building “disassembled” instead of demolished

In 2026, Amsterdam made it clear that the future of construction is no longer about demolition. It is about disassembly.

Today, the building sector accounts for roughly 40 percent of global energy-related emissions, consumes close to 50 percent of extracted materials, and generates about one third of the world’s waste. Even so, only 1 percent of demolition materials are reused in their original form. The rest becomes debris or is downcycled into lower-value applications.

The city has become a benchmark by proving that entire buildings can be taken apart with 80 percent to nearly 100 percent of their components reused. Projects such as Matrix One, a 13,000 square meter office building with more than 120,000 reusable elements, were designed from the outset with mechanical connections instead of irreversible glues or welds. Structure, façades, and interiors can be separated without being destroyed.

Renovations have followed the same logic. The retrofit of the Alliander headquarters preserved more than 80 percent of existing surfaces. Even a temporary courthouse was dismantled and reassembled as a university building in another city.

This shift has accelerated what is now called urban mining. Companies like New Horizon Urban Mining recover sand, aggregates, and even unreacted cement from concrete, achieving emission reductions of 60 to 80 percent compared to conventional cement production.

The technical foundation behind this transformation is Design for Disassembly, known as DfD. Buildings are conceived with bolts, pins, and reversible joints so that structure, systems, and interiors can be separated without total loss. Regulatory support comes from the Digital Product Passport, required in the European Union since 2024. Each component must carry data on origin, composition, performance, and embodied carbon, enabling safe and traceable reuse.

Under this model, the climate equation shifts quickly. Reusing structural steel can reduce emissions by 95 to 97 percent compared to new steel. In concrete, urban mining can cut emissions by up to 80 percent. In engineered timber, the balance can even become carbon negative when forestry is responsibly managed.

By 2026, regulatory pressure and rising material costs pushed the sector to treat buildings as material banks rather than demolition liabilities. Steel, glass, and aluminum are no longer waste. They are future assets.

It is important to recognize that construction emissions cannot reach net zero simply by switching energy sources. Without reducing embodied carbon in materials, the numbers will not align. One of the only scalable ways to achieve that is to stop destroying buildings and start taking them apart.