A new children’s urban playground has captured the attention and energy of children of all ages in the center of Valparaíso’s Cultural Park (Chile). The metallic structure is 40 meters long and has a colorful undulating path where children can run, jump, hide and slide.

La Serpentina is one of the public space projects designed by ELEMENTAL (Alejandro Aravena). It was built for Somos Choapa in Chile and is currently in Valparaíso as part of the XX Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism of Chile.

La Serpentina follows a similar design to the equipment at the Bicentenary Children’s Park (2012) in Santiago. La Serpentina is one of two interventions entered by Somos Choapa in the Biennial. The second project is a prototype with a series of touch screens installed in the main area of the Cultural Park of Valparaíso, accounting for over 100 concrete initiatives of the project.

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The appearance of people in architectural photography is rare. When they do show up, people are usually added to help the viewer better understand the size and design elements of a building. However, in recent times, several photographers have warmed to the idea of capturing houses with their inhabitants, showing the people who live there and how they inhabit the spaces. After the success of our previous round-up of people photographed with their houses, this week we bring you 10 more houses captured by renowned photographers such as Hiroyuki Oki, Peter Bennetts, and Ricardo Oliveira Alves.

This short excerpt is from Places Journal's article "Prop and Property: The house in American cinema, from the plantation to Chavez Ravine," which in turn was adapted from John David Rhodes' book Spectacle of Property. The article, which investigates the many layers of property inherent in the production and viewing of movies, investigates in particular the films Gone with the Wind and To Kill a Mockingbird, revealing how their themes of race and property are made even more complex by the practicalities of Hollywood filmmaking.

Perhaps the most mysterious and desired feature of housing is the privacy of property, and especially the property of and in the house. Property, however, is fungible and alienable. Whatever is promised by the house is radically susceptible to violation, displacement, and loss. Often the experience of property’s violation or redefinition involves an unwelcome reminder that the house is not a very private place after all. Partly we know this: we have all spent time in living rooms, on porches, or in other spaces of the house in which it is nearly impossible to say where the public ends and the private begins. But when property’s inherent instability is experienced vividly—whether in “real life” or in representation—we are forced to confront the tenuous relationship between public and private, as well as the tenuousness of all property relations as such.

According to The Economist, 47% of the work done by humans will have been replaced by robots by 2037, even those traditionally associated with university education. While the World Economic Forum estimates that between 2015 and 2020, 7.1 million jobs will be lost around the world, as "artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology and other socio-economic factors replace the need for human employees."

It's not science fiction: the MIT Technology Review warns that the current debate over raising the minimum wage for fast food employees in the United States would accelerate their own automation. On the other hand, Silicon Valley personalities and millionaires like Elon Musk and Richard Branson warned that the impact of automation will force the creation of a universal basic income to compensate not only the massive unemployment that would generate these new technologies but also the hyper-concentration of the global wealth.

One advocate of this idea is the British economist Guy Standing who wrote at the Davos Forum that it "would be a sensible precaution against the possibility of mass displacement by robotization and artificial intelligence," but will automation affect architects? Will we really be replaced by robots?

Universal Favourite have developed a range of modular chocolates Complementary that are formed in 3D printed moulds to satisfy any architect with a sweet tooth. The architectural forms have been developed to establish a connection between the two pieces to be eaten as one, complementing one and other.

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CF Møller’s Storkeengen (Stork Meadow) is a landscape solution, bringing the town of Randers closer to the longest river in Denmark, the Gudenå River to prevent the threat of flooding. The storm protection uses the wetland meadows as an attractive nature park to handle the raised stormwater level, whilst a recreational pathway increases accessibility with the nature areas across the river.

At ArchDaily, we're lucky enough to know a fantastic network of architecture professionals, allowing us to share the world's best architecture with our audience. But our articles wouldn't be the same without the many photographers who dedicate themselves to making incredible, inspiring images. For that reason, here we present the 50 most popular architecture images of 2017.

These are interesting times. There is in the English language a curse, purported to have been translated from the Chinese, but most likely of British origin: “May you live in interesting times.” The meaning, of course, is that it is better to live in uninteresting times of peace and stability than to experience the curse of living in “interesting” times of conflict and flux. Such a fate would only be wished on one’s enemies. So, yes, it might indeed seem that we have had the misfortune to live in very interesting times. We are confronted with multiple, intertwined crises of great complexity: climate change, political instability, mass migrations, hunger, and social polarization, just to name a few.

There are no easy solutions to these complex problems, but there are many energetic, talented, and intelligent people trying to address them, from a range of academic backgrounds. Architects, however, have largely been excluded from the conversation, or have, in fact, chosen to exclude themselves. The general public cannot be expected to turn to architects for solutions to today’s complex problems if we, ourselves, do not insert ourselves into the conversation. Following the examples of heroic figures in architecture, both past and present, we often understand the legitimate path of the architect to be a narrow one, limited to the built environment. After all, one might reason, that is what we’ve been trained to do. Isn’t it?

The second edition of the workshop organized by the School of Architecture (EA) of Universidad San Sebastián (Chile) had as main guest the Spanish architect Alberto Veiga, founding partner of Barozzi / Veiga and author of projects such as the Philharmonic Hall in Szczecin and Ribera del Duero Headquarters. In addition to engaging in a series of debates with the participants of the workshop, Veiga had a public conversation with the Chilean architect Pedro Alonso (winner of the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale 2014) and shared the studio’s work and reflections on architecture in a master lecture.

A total of 10 teams from different schools of architecture in the country came together for the 2017 version of this initiative, reaching a total of 67 participants among students and instructors. Seeking to favor the production of projects capable of promoting debate, each day of the workshop dealt with a different topic featuring guest scholars: Ernesto Silva, director of the School of Architecture (strategies), Pedro Alonso, renowned professor and researcher (arguments) and Albert Tidy, dean of the Faculty of Architecture (materialization of the project). For the closing day, on Friday, October 13, there was a joint display with the final projects produced by the different teams (which remained open to the public for the next couple of weeks), and a camaraderie activity to celebrate both the gathering of the schools and the quality of the experience and its results.

For those who want to become a citizen of the UK, they must fulfill all the citizenship process requirements which include passing the seemingly difficult Life in the UK Test. Many of the British population themselves would struggle with some of the questions posed despite living in the UK from birth as they demand historical, geographical and literary knowledge.

The test contains 24 multiple choice questions that can cover anything from the British political system all the way to Glastonbury and a roast beef dinner. As architecture and art take up a large part of British culture, knowledge of such topics is considered necessary for anyone who wants to become a UK citizen. Have a go yourself, and see how well you know British architecture:

Across the world, homelessness in fast-paced metropolises such as New York City is at a record high since the Great Depression of the 1930s, more than 60,000 people are in shelters every night while many others must find a place to sleep on the streets, the subway or other public spaces. The real estate industry has caused the increasing rents and a high demand for any remaining plots; many of the new builds are luxury apartments, rather than the low-cost housing that is so desperately needed. As a result, thousands of people are forced onto the streets and charities struggle to provide adequate help for everyone.

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Letters of recommendations are strange in that we all know what they are, but save for the people who are actually using them to evaluate a candidate, what happens with the letter is shrouded in mystery. Can a stellar recommendation letter make up for a less-than-stellar transcript? Are you going to be removed from consideration because your recommender didn't make you sound like Captain Awesome? It all depends—but as long as these letters are required for admissions processes and grants and other things, we'll shed some light on how to ask for (and/or write) a letter of recommendation.

Whether you're on the asking end or the writing end, there are some basic tips and rules that should be followed. (Why should you trust me? Because I've asked for letters and written letters and things have worked out pretty well for all involved parties.)

A discipline like accounting might seem very different from the world of architecture. In architecture, creativity is revered, but in accounting, it usually entails fraud. Still, you can’t work if your firm is failing, and accounting is vital to success. Beyond the upkeep of your business, though, there are other ways that accounting can affect your work in a meaningful way.