The Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne, in association with the University’s Property and Campus Services department, is seeking to appoint an architect or architectural team to design a new building for the Faculty, to be located on the Melbourne University Parkville Campus. The process of appointment will be via a limited competition to be held in 2009. Architects and architectural teams who wish to be considered for selection into the competition are invited to submit an expression of interest.

Los Angeles is often portrayed as the example of the car-friendly city. The traditional image of the town is an endless pattern of single family dwellings, interconnected by traffic-clogged freeways, where transit is undeveloped and the air is choked with smog.

However, Los Angeles is changing. The city’s Transport Authority has planned in the last years a series of measures aiming to improve quality of life through improving transit and walking and providing alternative to car commuting.

The Smithsonian Institute has announced the finalists for the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. The museum will be located at the end of the Washington Mall, being the latest addition to this location. The design concepts will be on show at the castle building until April 6. The, a jury will select a winner. The museum will open in 2015, at a cost of 500 million dollars.

Finalists are: Foster + Partners and URS Diller Scofidio + Renfro in association with Klingstubbins The Freelon Group, Adjaye Associates and Davis Brody Bond Devrouax & Purnell and Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Moody Nolan in association with Antoine Predock Architects Moshe Safdie and Associates in association with Sulton Campbell Britt & Associates

Seen at designboom. More images after the break.

The second part of Trimo Urban Crash international competition for students of architecture is underway, as the short-listed projects were just selected. The public can already rate the 19 short-listed projects on the competition website. The students were asked to design a venue performed with Trimo products in the center of Ljubljana.

The International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) 2009 in collaboration with Ikatan Arsitek Indonesia (Indonesian Institute of Architects Jakarta Chapter) is pleased to announce an idea competition on the theme of ‘Gotong Royong City’ in the context of the extended metropolitan region of Jakarta. Three winning entries will be selected by an international jury for exhibition in the IABR 2009 and awarded prizes totaling 7,000 euros.

On the occasion of the first edition of its Public Design Festival, esterni announces an international call for entries to search for ideas and projects for public spaces; among all submissions, 10 projects will be selected, carried out and presented during the festival, that will take place in Milan on April 18-26 2009. This unique opportunity to design a planned intervention on an urban parking area is open to different types of approaches, from community service to urban furniture.

The AIA Committee on Design (COD) invites architects, students, and allied design professionals to submit sketches to the international 2009 COD Ideas Competition, entitled “Listening to the Past, Looking to the Future: A House for Today.” In this unique sketch competition, submitters are asked to explore the legacy of modernist design, through a concept design problem.

The Open Architecture Challenge is an open, international design competition and is hosted every two years on the Open Architecture Network. This year, the challenge invites architects, designers, students, teachers and parents to propose the classroom of the future. Anyone can participate and the winner will receive $50,000 for their school.

Juan Herreros (from former Abalos & Herreros) won the 2nd place on the international competition for the new builings of the CEA Cadarache Research Center. Long buildings reduce the impact of the construction in order to keep the forest density.