Just a reminder that the registration deadline for the eVolo 2011 Skyscraper Competition is approaching. Register by January 11, 2011, here, to participate in eVolo’s forum for the discussion, development, and promotion of innovative concepts for vertical density. eVolo is pleased to invite students, architects, engineers, and designers from around the globe to take part in the 2011 Skyscraper Competition.

More after the break.

The proposed extension to the Central University Library by EXHIBIT Architectura in Cluj Napoca, Romania is an exercise in the design of a contemporary civic, monumental structure among historic, and grandiose institutional buildings. The proposal is an extension, as well as a link between the existing library storehouse and the new building, while creating an outdoor room, or plaza, between the two structures.

More on this project after the break.

The Warming Huts competition called for a collaboration between artists, architects and designers to put forward ideas for shelter and to be constructed along the Assiniboine River in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Noa Biran and Roy Talman submitted the Woodpile, an interactive and practical shelter, that responds to both the needs required by the climate and its users.

More on this project after the break.

Alexandros Avlonitis’s proposal for the in 2008 is a program for an urban market in the neighborhood of Castle Hill in The Bronx, NYC. The “What We Are Is What We Eat” project responds to the growing population that is migrating from rural areas to urbanized cities. This population shift, which is estimated to reach 80% in 50 years, challenges the norms of food production world-wide.

With a smaller population directly responsible for agriculture, food production is becoming more industrialized with an added burden of the transportation necessary to keep it fresh. What Avlonitis’s design proposal addresses is the creation of a communal and collective food culture in an urban setting where people cannot afford organic and nutritious goods.

Read on after the break for more information and images about this project.

Luis Banazol submitted this proposal for the International Competition for the design of the Intercontinental, a hotel and business center in Yerevan, Armenia. The concept for the building comes from the perceptions of the connection between art and technology. It is derived from the architect’s own reflection on art that expresses the way people live and think, and technology as that which transports us beyond that expression. The Intercontinental is an architectural proposal in space and light with the users as the net of expressions that gives technology the meaning to exist.

More on this project after the break.

The International Garden Festival at Les Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens presents temporary gardens at the cutting edge of garden design, landscape, architecture, design and environmental art. This year’s theme for design was “Secret Gardens.” First launched in 2000, the International Garden Festival is host to innovative ideas and has presented over 80 gardens by more than 200 designers from fifteen countries and has attracted more than 800,000 visitors. This showcase of a wide range of projects has featured budding designers from a range of different fields. Out of a total 194 proposals submitted by over 500 architects, landscape architects, designers and artists from three countries, the jury selected the following three designs.

After the break, images from 2011′s three selections of “Secret Gardens” from The International Garden Festival.

dEEP Architects have developed a design concept for the development of an art-based hotel that will be constructed just north of the Beijing National Stadium (The Bird Nest) as part of Beijing’s “Post Olympic Commercial Strategy.”

The design concept, which the architects call “A Fluid Dream,” borrows from several sources. The surrealism of Salvador Dali is a driving force of formal fluidity of the design, while the concept of a nest egg is the source of privacy for the hotel units, derived from the affectionate nickname of the nearby stadium.

Read on for more on this project after the break.

FUTUREPROOF, a dynamic architecture firm that combines design, communication and strategy, was commissioned in September 2010 by Østfold Fylkeskommune to design a master plan for the surrounding areas of Moss Airport Rygge in Norway. The proposal incorporates a regional strategy of physically developing the region surrounding the airport itself and strengthening the airport as a main infrastructural hub without contributing to urban sprawl.

The architects were able to accomplish this by maximizing the density of development with necessary functions, such as hotel and conference facilities.  The regional strategy emphasizes that future development should be interventions in the existing city centers.

More images and information about this project after the break.

Sandra Janser and Elisabeth Koller won first prize in the design competition: Design Month Graz 2010 project, “Ready. Steady. Go.” that called for a catalyst for the resettlement of the Jakomini district, in Graz, Austria, through the promotion of activities and attractiveness of the neighborhood through its revitalization. Their proposal was the installation of a visual frame, one that would serve as a marker for significant design areas with a visible and positive identity.

For more on this project continue after the break.

The Pentagonal House designed by Kazuya Morita Architecture Studio is conceived as a house that maximizes site usage and the space within the structure, while keeping true to the characteristics of the Japanese traditional construction of the neighborhood.

More images of this house after the break.

This competition entry for the Kaohsiung Cruise Terminal and Port Service Center in Taiwan comes from Forrest Fulton Architecture. The architects approached the design of a new gateway as a challenge to design a contemporary version of the traditional city gate.

For more on this project come back after the break.

C. F. Møller Architects has won the competition to design a New State Danish Prison that will be in construction until 2016. The facility is designed to house approximately 250 inmates and is conceived as a small village that is integrated with landscape features, animal husbandry and housing within the confines of the perimeter walls.

Read on for more images and information after the break.

Archdaily presents another competition entry from the Taiwan Tower Competition in Taichung City by Aedas R&D in collaboration of Thornton Tomasetti and Phaconsult. T he conceptual development for the project came from the geometry of a pebble dropped into the sea, and the shape of the tower was derived from the patterns that emerge on the surface of the water as the concequence. The rippling effect on the water was taken to develop the landscaping around the tower, as well its extrusion into the wrapping skin of the tower.

More on this project after the break.

This competition entry for a settlement in Russia by F A S(t) concentrates on the vernacular of traditional Russian architecture. The five building volumes follow Russian building tradition by flaunting accentuated profiles that stand out and are noticeable in the skyline. In addition, they all have an internal organization and relationship to one another that provides for social events to flourish at ground level, also an aspect of Russian design strategies.

For more on this project come back after the break.

IVANISIN. KABASHI. ARHITEKTI won the open international competition for their design intervention at the River Piva in Mratinje, Montenegro in 2009. The design strategy was to illuminate the natural and engineered elements of the site, located at the Piva-Mratinje Hydro-Power Plant, built in 1975 at the narrowest point of the river. As a whole, the intervention is located on the sunny end of the damn in front of the concrete reinforcement of the cliff.

Conceived in five phases, the architecture is designed in such a way that it can become occupiable at any stage of completion. The project consists of five elements: Tower-Down, Plateau, Tower-Up, Bridge, and Floating Platform. These magnifiers of natural and technological elements seek to address the humility of architecture in this sublime junction of the natural and man-made.

Read on for more on this project after the break.

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) and the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) is challenging architecture students in its eleventh annual steel design student competition for the 2010-2011 academic year to explore a variety of design issues related to the use of steel in design and construction. The design competition is carried out in two categories.

Back in 2007 Kiss + Cathcart Architects were awarded the New York City Design Commission Award for the River House that is to be situated on the Bronx River on the last stretch just before it empties into the East River and is to be operated by the Bronx River Alliance on behalf of the city. The River House is designed with sustainability as a top priority, developed to be a living element of the park.

More information on the Bronx River Boat House after the break.