The SENSEable City Laboratory at MIT has developed a new tool with Ericsson to better understand human behavior. "ManyCities" is a new website that "explores the spatio-temporal patterns of mobile phone activity in cities across the world," including London, New York, Los Angeles and Hong Kong. Taking complex data and organizing it in a intuitive way, the application allows users to quickly visualize patterns of human movement within the urban context down to the neighborhood scale. You can imagine how useful a tool like this can be for urban planners or even daily commuters, especially once real time analytics come into play. Take a look at ManyCities yourself, here.

Today in Moscow, Asymptote Architecture unveiled plans for the new Hermitage Modern Contemporary, alongside a 150-meter tower planned for ZiL - the city's oldest industrial area and former Soviet automotive factory. The State Hermitage Museum's newest outpost, the 15-story satellite facility was said to be inspired by El Lissitzky's "Proun" painting, which informed the building's "terraced interior."

“With so much museum work over the years, we’ve dress-rehearsed for the Hermitage,” Hani Rashid of Asymptote told the New York Times back in July. “We’ve done a lot of thinking about how art might be seen in the future, about how the museum building itself can provoke artistic responses.”

Arcaid has shortlisted 20 of the year's best architectural images for their 2015 awards - the annual Arcaid Images Architectural Photography Awards. The images will be presented in four categories - Exteriors, Interiors, Sense of Place, and Building in Use - and judged by an esteemed panel on their atmospheric quality, composition, use of scale and more. The winners will be considered for the Photographer of the Year Award, won last year by Hufton + Crow who now serves as a judge.

The photographs will be showcased at World Architecture Festival 4-6 November at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, where the overall winner will be announced. All 20 images include:

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AL_A has completed Melbourne's second annual MPavilion. The temporary installation, initiated by Naomi Milgrom Foundation, was unveiled today in Queen Victoria Gardens. For the next four months, the public is welcome to populate the artificial "forest canopy," whose translucent petals were developed using aerospace technology to demonstrate how an ultra-lightweight structure that can "sit lightly on the landscape and gently respond to the climate." "Each petal is fitted with LED lights that are activated by the sunset to give a light performance synchronized with music," says the organizers.

A jury led by David Chipperfield, Kengo Kuma and Pôle Muséal Support Foundation President Olivier Steimer has announced Aires Mateus & Associados winner of an international competition to design the new Pôle Muséal of Lausanne. The Portuguese architects, chosen over 20 other practices, were lauded by the jury for designing a proposal that was "coherent, simple and bright."

Their design, "One museum, two museums" is comprised as a single exterior shell made up of two parts: the Musée de l’Elysée (Museum of Photography) and mudac (Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts). Both museums are connected by a shared entrance that "forms a natural extension to the public esplanade." By 2020, the design will be realized, transforming a former railroad site into a premier section of the city's art district. 

Perkins+Will has been selected to masterplan a major mixed-use development adjacent to undergoing Istanbul New Airport - soon to be one of the largest airports in the world. The 690-hectare scheme, "Airport City" will feature a "central innovation district," hotels, retail and commercial office space, logistic centers, an expo and convention center, public space, and metro and high-speed rail connections to Istanbul and beyond.

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NASA, who recently confirmed evidence of flowing water on Mars, has deemed SEArch (Space Exploration Architecture) and Clouds AO (Clouds Architecture Office) winners of the 3D Printed Habitat Challenge for Mars. Sponsored by NASA and America Makes, the teams were asked to use indigenous materials and 3D printing techniques to build a habitat for four astronauts on Mars. SEArch and Clouds AO's first prize proposal, ICE HOUSE was awarded $25,000, ahead of 30 other shortlisted practices.

"Recognizing that water is the building block to life, the team used a ‘follow the water’ approach to conceptualize, site and construct their design," said SEArch and Clouds AO. "[Our] proposal stood out as one of the few entries not to bury the habitat beneath regolith, instead mining the anticipated abundance of subsurface ice in the northern regions to create a thin vertical ice shell capable of protecting the interior habitat from radiation while celebrating life above ground."

Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) has been selected to design the new Tianjin Juilliard School. The same practice that expanded Juilliard's New York home in 2009, DS+R plans to build the new facility in Tianjin by 2018. The project has already received preliminary approval of a graduate degree program from China’s Ministry of Education.

Once complete, the new school will offer a Master of Music degree from Juilliard in the areas of orchestral performance, chamber music performance, and collaborative piano; a pre-college program; an instrumental training program; adult education; and public performances and exhibits.

Just as the luxury condominium high rise opens for sales, Zaha Hadid Architects and Related Companies have released a new image of 520 West 28th - Zaha Hadid's first residential building in New York. Planned for a prime location in West Chelsea, alongside the High Line and nearby Renzo Piano's newly-opened Whitney Museum and Diller Scofidio + Renfro's future Culture Shed, the 11-story development is offering 39 distinct residences, some reaching up to 6,391-square-feet.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the High Line and its possibilities for the city. Decades ago, I used to visit the galleries in the area and consider how to build along the route. It's very exciting to be building there now,” said Zaha Hadid. “The design engages with the city while concepts of fluid spatial flow create a dynamic new living environment.”

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Rural Urban Framework (RUF) has been named winner of the 2015 Curry Stone Design Prize at the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial. Addressing China's unprecedented rural-to-urban migration, RUF has (so far) helped 18 depopulating villages throughout the country prepare for their inevitable transformation by building schools, community centers, hospitals, houses and infrastructure in a collaborative process that empowers locals.

“The work of RUF is addressing one of the most urgent current geopolitical issues, how to deal with the imbalances created by large mass migrations,” said Emiliano Gandolfi, the Prize Director. “Their work is exemplifying how architecture should establish a dialogue with the community and the environment in order to built structures that respond to their changing needs.”

Wiel Arets Architects (WAA) has revealed plans for a mixed-use "Bahrain Bay Tower" in Manama. Reaching heights up to 170-meters, the project is comprised of two residential towers connected by a plinth of retail, office, parking and public park space.

"The plinth’s ground floor is publicly accessible and is mostly composed of retail and public lobby space," says WAA. "Due to a division of these ground floor spaces, along the site’s southern edge, a breezeway was created that allows the public to traverse the tower’s entire site - without entering its interior - which serves to infuse the tower’s immediate context with pedestrian life. In this way, the ground level frontages of the tower’s retail spaces are maximized."

Zaha Hadid Architects has proposed an office tower in Beijing that is said to have the "world's tallest atrium." As the Architects' Journal reports, the Leeza SOHO project features a 200-meter-high atrium that extends the building's full height, visually splitting the cylindrical structure in two. If built, it will be anchored by an underground promenade that connects to a subway station below and public park to the west.

Herzog & de Meuron have unveiled plans for a new Vancouver Art Gallery. Aiming to become a "vibrant new cultural destination" that utilizes the last vacant lot in the City's downtown, the new 230-foot-tall facility will serve the Gallery's expanding collection, featuring work from local and international contemporary artists.

Designed as a stacked wooden structure whose bulk is lifted high above the street, the building is comprised of seven public levels that offer a range of uniquely sized galleries. Setbacks and overhangs respond directly to the context, framing views of the city and North Shore Mountains, while allowing light to filter down to the open-air courtyard below. 

Zaha Hadid Architects' Wangjing SOHO in Beijing has won the 2014 Emporis Skyscraper Award. Chosen by an international panel of experts from more than 300 skyscrapers, the three-tower 200-meter-tall development is the first skyscraper in China to ever win the award. The judges were impressed by its "excellent energy efficiency and its distinctive design, which gives the complex a harmonious and organic momentum."

Each year, the Emporis Award honors the world's best new building over 100-meters-tall. Read on to see the top 10 buildings honored this year.

London School of Economics (LSE) has launched a call for expressions of interest for its next major building project; the redevelopment of 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields (44LIF), which will be known as the Paul Marshall Building.

Following its redevelopment, the new building on the site of 44LIF will house a number of academic and research departments including the Marshall Institute for Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship. Paul Marshall is a major benefactor of the School and the Marshall Institute will make its permanent home in the new building at 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields which will take his name.

Rafael Viñoly Architects has presented plans for a two-tower residential project in Chicago's South Loop neighborhood. The phased Crescent Heights development hopes to be home to Chicago's 6th tallest building, rising 829-feet on the south end of Grant Park. If approved, the project would be completed in three phases; the first realizing a 76-story, 792-unit apartment building on the eastern portion of the site.