Digital artist Miguel Chevalier has transformed the ceiling of the Saint-Eustache Church into a dynamic, imaginary sky chart for the 2016 Nuit Blanche Festival in Paris. The installation, titled Voûtes Célestes, illuminates the soaring ceilings with 35 different colored networks to create glowing webs of light that highlight the church’s gothic architecture.

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Homerton College, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, announced today the five firms shortlisted in the competition to design a emblematic £7 million ($8.5 million USD) centrepiece building to house a 300-person dining hall for the school. The finalists were selected from an original pool of 155 architects, from which 24 were selected for the longlist.

The competition, organized by Malcolm Reading Consultants, is a part of the College’s wider plan to improve and expand school facilities. Homerton boasts one of the largest student communities at Cambridge, and is one of a few of the University’s colleges capable of housing all undergraduate students in on-site facilities for all four years. To be located on an attractive wooded site, the commission has the potential to determine the character of the school for years to come.

The 5 finalists are:

Videos

Santiago Calatrava’s Tower at Dubai Creek Harbour has broken ground, and in just a few short years, will be breaking records, too.

At the ground breaking ceremony this week, officials including His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Excellency Mohammad Al Gergawi, Chairman of Dubai Holding, and Mohamed Alabbar, Chairman of Emaar Properties, and Micael Calatrava, CEO of Calatrava International announced that upon its completion in 2020, the landmark observation tower will measure in at a height slightly taller than Dubai’s own Burj Khalifa, making it the tallest tower in the world.

“The design and architectural features of The Tower demand unique engineering approaches that are currently being implemented on site. Extensive studies were undertaken in preparation for the groundbreaking, and the learning that we have gained from the experience will add to the knowledge base of mankind,” said Santiago Calatrava.

“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”

This well-known quote, most often attributed to comedian Martin Mull, compares attempting to explain music’s complex auditory intricacies with words to trying to interpret architectural forms through the motion of the human body – the underlying implication, of course, that it’s fruitless. 

But take a closer inspection of the analogy. Music and writing may be media for disparate senses, but, at their height, dance and architecture share a realm of space and light; both perform as formal exercises that relate to the human proportion of the body. Must dancing about architecture truly be an exercise in futility?

A year after premiering at the 2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial, last week Steven Holl and dance choreographer Jessica Lang’s “Tesseracts of Time” made its New York debut at the City Center mainstage. The 21-minute performance, designed as a part of Holl’s ‘Explorations of IN’ project, explores the relationship between performance and environment through four phases, which the designers liken to the passing of the four seasons.

Videos

The British Council for Offices (BCO) has announced the winners of the 2016 National Awards. The BCO Awards program was established to recognize “ top quality office design and functionality and sets the standard for excellence across the office sector in the UK,” providing a benchmark for excellence in design and functionality. This year’s ‘Best of the Best’ winner was The Enterprise Center at the University of East Anglia by Architype.

“This year we have once again seen a fantastic range of diverse and innovative workplaces, highlighting Britain’s position at the forefront of the global office sector. The Enterprise Centre stands tall as both a dynamic and collaborative work and event space, and as a benchmark in sustainable design," said Emma Crawford, Managing Director of Central London Leasing at CBRE and BCO National Awards Chair.

Continue reading to see this year’s winners.

MVRDV and Zhubo Architecture Design have won a competition to design the Xili Sports and Cultural Centre in Shenzhen, China. The new experience center will consist of four distinct volumes housing a theater, a basketball and badminton arena, a multi-function arena and a swimming pool, as it seeks to “transform the lives of the different generations of people living nearby, through offering a more humanistic model for sports and culture.”

FXFOWLE has unveiled their design for a new Statue of Liberty Museum on Liberty Island in the New York Harbor. Set into a new landscape and lighting plan, the 26,000 square foot (2,415 square meter) museum will feature an exhibition experience by ESI Design, giving the island’s 4.3 million yearly visitors an opportunity “to learn about and honor the Statue’s history, influence, and legacy in the world.”

BIG’s planned residential complex along the High Line in New York has gone through multiple iterations since its unveiling last November. Now, in its latest form of two twisting towers rising from a split podium, the project is receiving a new name and key program piece.

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The Fundació Mies van der Rohe has announced a list of 30 projects that will compete for the inaugural Young Talent Architecture Award (YTAA) 2016. The award was established this year to “support the talent of recently graduated Architects, Urban Planners and Landscape Architects who will be responsible for transforming our environment in the future,” and joins the Foundation's European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award “in promoting high quality work amongst emerging and established architects through the acknowledgement of the value of good buildings.”

More than 200 projects were submitted from over 100 European architecture schools, which were narrowed down to a shortlist of 30 projects by an esteemed jury of architects and curators. Three winners will be selected at the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale in Venice on October 28th 2016 as part of the 2016 Venice Biennale.

The shortlisted projects are:

As the winner of the 2016 RIBA Stirling Prize is set to be announced later today, Architects’ Journal has released a documentary looking at the award’s 21-year history and its impact on the buildings and architects that have been named to the prestigious list.

The video, commissioned by AJ’s Laura Mark and filmed by Jim Stephenson, features exclusive interviews with Richard Rogers and Sheila O’Donnell & John Tuomey, and profiles past winners and each of the 6 buildings shortlisted for this year’s prize. The film also reveals AJ’s pick for this year’s winner.

Watch the full video above or check out AJ’s videos on each of the finalists, below.

OMA has released new images of their design for Axel Springer’s business and digital division, in Berlin, Germany. One of the largest digital publishing houses in Europe, Axel Springer officially launched the project to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the company’s publishing building.

OMA’s proposal was selected in a 2014 international design competition, beating out finalist entries from BIG and Büro Ole Scheeren. The brief called for a new modern work environment to house Axel Springer’s growing business and digital divisions.

Designer and architect Neri Oxman and the Mediated Matter group have announced their latest design project: the Synthetic Apiary. Aimed at combating the massive bee colony losses that have occurred in recent years, the Synthetic Apiary explores the possibility of constructing controlled, indoor environments that would allow honeybee populations to thrive year-round.

On Friday, September 30, 2016, the US Fish and Wildlife Service added seven species of bees to the Federal Endangered Species list, after a UN-sponsored report released in February found that nearly 40 percent of invertebrate pollinator species (which includes bees and butterflies) are now facing extinction. Bees play a vital role in the reproductive cycle of many plants, including those used for human food production, and according Mediated Matter, losses continuing at these rates could have dire impacts for both human and environmental well-being.

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2016 New York State Firm of the Year WXY Architecture + Urban Design has been commissioned to masterplan and develop a 130-acre former shipyard into a modern “innovation district” featuring flexible workspaces and a modern maker hub at Kearny Point, New Jersey. Working with owner Hugo Neu, WXY’s plan calls for the adaptive reuse of several former maritime industry buildings that once served as factories for warships.

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Videos

The competition to design a new flagship factory and bottling plant for San Pellegrino has been narrowed down to two firms: BIG and MVRDV. Searching for a “truly innovative project that not only conveys an artistic vision, but also sets new standards in terms of efficiency and compliancy to environmental sustainability,” the jury committee selected the two final proposals from a 4-firm list which also included designs from Snøhetta and aMDL Michele De Lucchi.

“The judging committee were so impressed by the four proposals that they decided to narrow their selection to a shortlist of two and deliberate further before announcing the winning project early next year,” explained San Pellegrino in a press release.

San Pellegrino also released video proposals of the designs, explained by firm founders Bjarke Ingels and Winy Maas.