Crafted from pure silver and standing at 40-centimeters-tall, the Loa and Vesu vases by Zaha Hadid Architects are as bold and dynamic as the firm's architecture. In this fascinating video, watch Austrian silversmiths Wiener Silber Manufactur handcraft the ornamental vases in their Viennese studio using a combination of traditional and modern techniques. Designed by Zaha Hadid, Patrik Schumacher, and a team of four designers, the vases reference "the volcanic forces of expansion and compression, subtle fluctuations and distortions of ripples", and are both as functional as they are sculptural.

Watch RNT Architects discuss The Quad, their new Business, Arts & Humanities building for San Diego City College in this short video from Breadtruck Films. The result of seven years of "doing the drawings...watching the construction... building the volumes and the spaces," The Quad brings together two faculties that are "different in purpose and function differently" to create a "place for learning and social interaction."

A photo posted by ArchDaily 🏠 (@archdaily) on Mar 27, 2015 at 3:30am PDT

With the planned demolition of Hotel Okura in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games fast approaching, architects and designers have rallied around the Modernist icon, calling for its preservation. In the latest and most high profile campaign, Japanese architect Toshiko Mori and Bottega Veneta's Tomas Maier have joined forces to span a breadth of platforms from a symposium held last November to an Instagram hashtag (#mymomentatokura) sharing images of the beloved hotel. Most recently, Mori sat down with Architectural Digest to discuss her passion for Hotel Okura, the origins of the campaign, and Japanese Modernism. Read the full interview and see why Mori says Hotel Okura is "a very beautiful orphan child," here.

Videos

Thirty-two projects have been announced as the winners of the Inaugural Knight Cities Challenge, sharing in a prize pool of $USD5 million. An initiative of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the challenge received an overwhelming number of entries, with winners selected from a pool of over 7000 submissions. Each of the projects proposed strategies for the civic and economic development of one of the 26 cities in which the Knight Foundation invests, including Detroit, Akron Ohio, San Jose California, Lexington Kentucky, and Biloxi Mississippi.

The winning proposals each addressed one or more of the Knight Foundation’s “three drivers of city success”: (1) Talent: Ideas that help cities attract and keep the best and brightest, (2) Opportunity: Ideas that create economic prospects and break down divides, (3) Engagement: Ideas that spur connection and civic involvement.

Montreal-based photographer Chris Forsyth doesn't see his city the way others do -- that much is evident from his body of work, which includes rooftop photos of the Montreal skyline, nocturnal shots taken from the arm of a crane and now, images from the underground. The Montreal Metro Project is Forsyth's latest series, documenting the often overlooked architecture of the urban subway since October 2014.

Composed of 68 stations, each designed by a different architect between the 60s and 70s, the Montreal Metro system is as diverse and idiosyncratic as the city it underpins. Forsyth captures the stations empty of passengers, highlighting their architecture and reframing them in a manner rarely experienced. ArchDaily spoke to Forsyth about the series and the creative process behind it. Read his responses and view selected images from The Montreal Metro project after the break.

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Daydreaming about that round-the-world trip you've been planning for years? Covering over fifty countries and seven continents, Google Street View allows you to embark on the journey from the comfort of your own desk, no passport necessary.

Learn more and view our must-see destinations for a Street View "World Tour" after the break.

Warsaw-based firms KAMJZ and Kurylowicz & Associates have shared their proposal for an office building in Poland, as part of the Gdańsk Central Business District Development Strategy. Centrally located at the interchange of several arterial roads and public transit routes, the complex will house a mixed-use program combining office spaces with retail, leisure, sport, and civic functions.

Learn more about the project and view selected images after the break.

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Recent graduates Bumjin Kim of MIT and Minyoung Kim of Columbia University have won first place in ARCHmedium's Lisbon Open Room competition for their project "Urban Platform".

One of 67 teams to enter the competition's "Young Architects" category, the team developed a modular urban intervention for Lisbon, Portugal, with the intention of "[providing] a more flexible space" for the city's urban centre. Learn more about the winning project and view selected images after the break.

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London firm Leslie Jones Architecture has received a commission from Dubai Airports for Al Maktoum International Airport at the yet unbuilt Dubai World Centre. The latest firm to join development on the 140-square-kilometer site, it is hoped that Leslie Jones will deliver a mixed-use transit hub to cater for burgeoning local tourism and aviation industries.

Learn more about the project after the break.

Envisioned with a height of 130-meters and comprising a combined total of 41 floors and 63,800-square-meters, the bipartite Mennica Legacy Tower project in Warsaw has been slated for construction, to commence in the last quarter of 2015. Featuring two adjacent towers designed by Chicago-based international firm Goettsch Partners, the project is located at the site of the former headquarters of the Mint of Poland.

On completion, Mennica Legacy Tower will function predominantly as an office complex, integrating secondary retail and commercial functions. View selected images and learn more about the project after the break.

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