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Oasis mall - Courtesy of Aedas

Aedas recently won 8 prestigious awards at the Asia Pacific Property Awards presentation ceremony, which was held on April 28 in Kuala Lumpur. Center 66 from Hang Lung Properties, a mixed use development of 376,800 sqm straddling across two sites conjoined by a public plaza hosting a cluster of heritage buildings in Wuxi, PRC, won “5 Star Award, Best Mixed Use Architecture for China”, and subsequently won “Best Mixed Use Architecture Award for Asia Pacific”. More information on their awards after the break. read more »

Architects and designers everywhere know the amount of time it takes to get accurate floor plan measurements with a measuring tape, a pencil, and some graph paper,  but now there’s an app that gives you the convenience of measuring right in the palm of your hand in a matter of minutes.  The Magic Plan app, conveniently named, simply asks for certain areas of a specific room and is able to assemble a floor plan for you. The app also includes tutorials on how to use it effectively and get fully adjusted to it. Above is a video to give you an idea of how this magic app works and some images can be viewed after the break. read more »

View from US Capitol Speaker’s Balcony - Courtesy of GGN, © Methanoia

Seattle-based landscape architects Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN) and New York-based architects Davis Brody Bond (DBB) were recently selected as the winners of the National Mall Design Competition for Union Square. Organized by the Trust for the National Mall, a jury of eight esteemed professionals selected a design team for each of the three re-design sites of the National Mall through a three-stage process. The winning design was judged on flexibility, sustainability, and creativity of their design and how well it reflects the established vision and design influences of this historic setting. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

© DPA / Adagp

The winning proposal for the conference and exhibition center in Leon, Spain by Dominique Perrault Architecture stands on the grounds of the old Sugar Santa Elvira and involves the transformation of the main building of the former sugar in Congress Hall (Grand Palais) and the creation of an Exhibition center located to the east side of the Palace of Congress. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of CEBRA

Danish architects CEBRA, along with developers Pihl & Søn and engineers Hundsbæk & Henriksen recenlty won the competition for a new Adult Education Centre of in downtown Odense, Denmarks’s third largest city. The 12.500 m2 / 134.550 ft2 educational institution aims at creating a flexible and diverse learning environment that gives room for individual needs in a collective building. According to the plans, the centre will open at the beginning of 2014. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of gmp Architekten

gmp Architekten shared with us their first prize winning proposal for the Trianel GmgH Corporate Centre in Aachen, Germany. The new building is located along a major road next to the Tivoli stadium. From 2013 on it is to be built in two phases, the first of which comprises 9,600 square metres of gross floor area and will accommodate 400 members of staff. In the second, optional phase the building can be extended by 4,800 square metres to accommodate a further 200 employees. The building’s sustainability concept merits a silver DGNB certificate. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Nimbu

The Sky Light Pavilion, designed by Nimbu for the Architecture Pavilion Competition sponsored by the Serbian Arhitekton Magazine and the company, Kingspan, is universal, timeless and spaceless. The architects believe that a pavilion shouldn’t be connected with the idea of conceiving one construction that is meaningless. Instead, an architecture pavilion, to be contemporary, should be a construction that demonstrates the pursuit of the architecture itself. Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa says that the renewal, whatever it is, means rediscovering its deepest essence, and that architecture is a direct expression of the existence, of the human presence in the world. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

MAD Architects recently launched their 2012 Travel Scholarship, which provides mainland Chinese students with an opportunity to travel abroad and research an architectural topic of their choosing. Established in 2009, and with the support of long-term sponsor VERTU, this year, 5 students will have the opportunity to travel for 7-10 days in their chosen city or region of independent study. Following their trip, the students will give a public presentation of their experience. The application deadline is June 30. For more detailed information, please visit their website here.

© Zwartlicht

With Istanbul as the immutable intersection of vast and diverse mobilities, the rich design by MVRDV + ABOUTBLANK for the Yenikapı Transfer Point and Archaeo Park offer a unique possibility to combine and transpose contemporary transportation intelligence with a remarkable historical heritage. Layers in time will be combined with numerous lines through the city of Istanbul, a myriad of interactions of time and space. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »