The Architectural Association and Foster + Partners are pleased to announce the award of the Foster + Partners Prize, which is presented annually to the AA Diploma student whose portfolio best addresses the themes of sustainability and infrastructure. The recipient is selected jointly by the AA and Foster + Partners at the end of each academic year. This year’s prize has been awarded to Aditya Aachi, of Diploma Unit 7, for his project Haiti Simbi Hubs. The project proposes sanitation infrastructure for Haiti and draws on the unprecedented need for cooperation between the Haitian Government and NGOs to combat cholera outbreaks. Read more at Foster + Partners.

Brothers Daniel and Maximilian Zielinski shared with us their winning proposal for the modernization of Paris in the Living City Design Competition. Organized by the International Living Future Institute, in partnership with The National Trust for Historic Preservation, Daniel and Max were given the challenge to visualize the transformation of existing towns in cities of the future by translating the highest standards of ecological fund included in the Living Building Challenge 2.0. Desired solutions were possible with existing technologies that could be applied in the near future. As a competition open to all, more than 80 teams addressing 69 cities from 21 countries submitted their ideas for the contest. More images and project description after the break.

Designed by Nabito Arquitectura, the QR ROME PROJECT is a new open Coliseums , a media building mixed use that works as an International multiple hub. It is located in Rome, Italy. One of the goals is to collects opportunities from the society, to feedback ideas and creativity, to give people solutions of a better quality. In this sense the building is the concrete translation of its program and goal.

Outside the Intelligent coliseum is both a infrastructural gateway to Rome and a linked way-out from Rome, it is a detectable building.

The facades of the building are QR (quick response) codes open to flexible contents and remind the user to different portals of information.

Architects: Mateo Arquitectura / Josep Lluís Mateo Location: Prague, Czech Republic Project Year: In Progress Project Area: 1,500 sqm Photographs: Courtesy of Mateo Arquitectura

After winning the Restricted Competition in 2004 the construction of the new central access to the National Gallery in Prague began in late 2009 and works are ongoing, it will be completed by the end of this year.

Three great projects and two Classics for our 8th selection of previously featured libraries. Check them all after the break.

Vasconcelos Library / Alberto Kalach The project integrates the public library with a botanical garden. A 250 meter steel, concrete and glass structure surrounded by greenery and water. The design is based in four fundamental considerations (read more…)

Miralles Tagliabue (EMBT) was recently awarded first prize in the International Competition for the New Campus of Fudan University School of Management in Shanghai, China. Fudan is part of a network of universities and their respective buildings located in Shanghai, Fudan is also a very special and unique university with an extensive history and a very unique character. Besides the main campus, there are two new components. These components are not closely located, they are separate pieces, so in order to establish the connection the buildings must convey the identity of Fudan and contemporary life.

The research presented here was conducted by Jan Kudlicka, who spent the last year studying slum dwellings, known as “favelas,” in Brazil. The breadth of the research delves into the living conditions that these urban and suburban developments create and the feasible ways in which their problems can be addressed through the regeneration of the spaces. Jan Kudlicka studied the “little farm” of Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro, which is one of the largest slums in the city.

To find out more about the research click through after the break.

This LEED Gold building is now the headquarters for the Wildlife Conservation Society. Designed by FXFOWLE, the Global Conservation Center sits in the middle of the Bronx Zoo. The building harmonizes so well with the site that the wild animals hardly give notice to its presence; they treat it much like they treat a natural rock outcropping in the landscape. This makes for interesting employee lunches where they spend their time observing wild turkeys, swooping Inca terns and many other creatures. The design capitalizes on this wonderful opportunity by drawing staff outside with generous terraces and a patio the size of the staff dinning room. From more information check out the video and read Laura Raskin’s article at Architectural Record’s website.

Cornell M. Arch student, Kellen Qiaolun Huang recently received a special mention in d3′s Housing Tomorrow international architecture design competition for 2011 ,winner in Interior Architecture category for his project, X-House. For a description of the project as well as the associated graphics, please follow us after the jump.

On July 7, from 6-9PM, A+D will host THE PARTY! – to celebrate the COME IN! artists with an A+D skate park, live band, good music and art in action with murals and screen printing. CI! 2:Surf.Skate.Bike will remain on view through July 24. In addition to the installations, a pop-up shop will offer limited edition works and items for sale from COME IN! participants AND additional museum programming including film and music.

The National Gymnastics Centre Pegan Petkovšek, designed by Enota, is part of the comprehensive renovation of Svoboda Sports Park in Ljubljana. It is the first of the three sports halls that are to be built on the western edge of a belt between an access street on one side and a large greened park layout with sports grounds on the other. The building of the gymnastics centre is placed on the northernmost part of this belt. The northern and western edge of the building reference the building line regulated by the spatial acts, which also stipulate the greatest built ratio and the height of the building. The strict urban regulations necessitate a very compact design that allows for little deviation.

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One more and that’s 50 Flickr Round Up! Almost 250 of the best architecture photography out there. Remember you can submit your own photo here, and don’t forget to follow us through Twitter and our Facebook Fan Page to find many more features.

The photo above was taken by p r k b k r in Okayama, Japan. Check the other four after the break.

“Made in China.” For so many in Western nations, this phrase conjures up a plethora of horrific images. There is the Human Rights argument: low wages, inhumane working conditions, and so forth. Then there is the issue of quality, as in, there is none.

First let’s talk about human rights in terms of manufacturing. The favored discourse is that Chinese factories exploit their employees and hence the resultant quality of the goods is far inferior. Sensational stories that support this conclusion always seem to cross international lines. Moreover, there are basic protestations of Human Rights’ violations and then the specter of Tibet is raised.

Sky Courts is a 20,000 sqf corporate club house that incorporate short-term housing, office space, and entertainment facilities utilizing the logics of the courtyard and sloped roof. The project packs several courtyards into a defined perimeter and utilizes the sloped roof to accommodate program in the wedge between courtyards, allowing the project to read as 100% courtyard from above. The complex lacks a single center; instead it is a network with multiple centers, and multiple paths, edges and liners. The sequence through these precincts creates a series of layered spaces that line exterior spaces, and views from one courtyard might look through perimeter spaces and into other courtyards.

The American Institute of Architect’s (AIA) Young Architects Forum (YAF) and Committee on Design (COD) have selected the recipients of the second annual YAF/COD Ideas Competition, sponsored by TOTO. Results in addition to images of the awarded projects with brief narratives from the designers can be found after the break.

Network_LA Transit is a conceptual design response by Gensler Los Angeles to an open invitation by Sci-Arc, The Architect’s Newspaper and LA Metro to shift people from their cars to public transit.

More after the break.

Sydney based Tyrrell Studio has collaborated with Daniel Griffin to create a first prize winning entry to the 2011 international design competition Ideas on Edge Parramatta. The competition received over 150 entries, 40% international and the remainder from around Australia. There were 3 equal winners. Images of the winning entry and a narrative from the architects after the break.

Mateo Arquitectura just sent us a video of the PGGM Headquarter building we recently featured. If offers some splendid imagery of the design. Check it out.

Little Tokyo Design Week: Future City (LTDW) celebrates the power and energy of cutting edge design and technology emerging from Japan and its intersection with current trends materializing in Los Angeles. The four day festival open to the public, July 14th to July 17th, will present a series of programs that integrate Little Tokyo’s Big Three cultural institutions (Japanese American National Museum (JANM), Japanese American Cultural and Community Center (JACCC), and The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, community partners, retailers, and restaurants and will engage local and international designers, artists, architects, filmmakers, corporations, and students from the Southern California region to explore possible scenarios for a ‘New Urban Lifestyle.’ LTDW is produced in collaboration with Community Arts Resources (CARS). More information can be found here.

Next week we will be taking our Architecture City Guide to London and we need your help. To make the City Guides more engaging we are asking for your input on which designs should comprise our weekly list of 12. In order for this to work we will need you, our readers, to suggest a few of your favorite modern/contemporary buildings for the upcoming city guide in the comment section below. Along with your suggestions we ask that you provide a link to an image you took of the building that we can use, the address of the building, and the architect. (The image must be from a site that has a Create Common License cache like Flickr or Wikimedia. We cannot use images that are copyrighted unless they are yours and you give us permission.) From that we will select the top 12 most recommended buildings. Hopefully this method will help bring to our attention smaller well done projects that only locals truly know. With that in mind we do not showcase private single-family residences for obvious reasons. Additionally, we try to only show completed projects.

Israeli designers, Chyutin Architects have shared with their proposal for a fashion and art graduate school in Tel Aviv. The proposal was created for a open architectural competition for the project, in which Chyutin Architects were a noted finalist. Additional images of their work and a description from the architects can be seen after the break.

by Steve Sanderson

A lot has happened in the world of sustainable design since my last post, all the way back in April. I had the pleasure of attending my first AIA National Convention, in my second favorite city in the US, New Orleans. In between my time sampling the local culture with the Davids (don’t let the prep school attire fool you, these guys know how to throw down), I managed to attend a number of sessions, all of which strongly adhered to the theme of Regional Design Revolution: Ecology Matters. One of the unexpected threads that emerged in nearly all of the sessions that I attended was the role that architects can, and should, play in energy conservation by more accurately predicting and measuring building energy performance. As a topic that has enjoyed scant attention outside a relative fringe audience since I’ve been alive (I came on the scene just in time for the second oil crisis), it was pretty exciting to see it so prominently featured. It appears the relentless efforts of organizations such as Architecture 2030, USGBC and the AIA, are finally beginning to pay off, with many architects becoming aware of their role in averting (or contributing to) greenhouse gas emissions. Politicians (from both sides!), are even beginning to pay attention. Without a doubt, this confirms it… the Mayans were right. The world will end in 2012.

A 30-day Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the continued development of + Pool is underway. From the creative minds at Family and PlayLab, + Pool is a collaboration to design a floating riverwater pool for everyone in the rivers of New York City. Beginning the next phase of the project, material testing and design, the online fundraising campaign hopefully will raise the initial $25,000 needed to begin physically testing the filtration membranes providing results to determine the best filtration membranes and methods to provide clean and safe riverwater for the public to swim in. A preliminary engineering feasibility report was initially conducted by Arup New York, which assessed the water quality, filtration, structural, mechanical and energy systems of + Pool.

Family and PlayLab launched a Kickstarter online fundraising campaign this month with the ultimate goal of generating enough support to prototype the filtration system by building a full-scale working mockup of the one section of + Pool. Research, design, testing and development will continue through the year in conjunction with permitting, approvals and building partnerships with community, municipal, commercial and environmental organizations.

Donation levels for the Kickstarter campaign range from $1 to $10,000 with the hope that everyone interested in cleaner public waterways can get involved. Donors can choose from a variety of incentives and gear up for a day at the pool. For more information about the project and the campaign or to donate click here. Or write to info@pluspool.org.

Follow the break for more details about this project and the history of floating pools in New York City, which date back to the early 19th century.

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ALA Architects has proposed to plant a Magnolia tree for Tampere. An intelligent glass dome will provide this tree with a more southern climate, complete with ventilation, shading and lighting. The air exhaust of the parking garage will provide additional heating during the cold, dark months. This dome will have its own microclimate fine-tuned using the technical abilities provided by its glazed surface. The Magnolia will be nurtured to burst into a magnificent bright pink blossom by the first of May annually. Its strong perfumed scent will fill the pavilion, on some spring days the scent might even flow down to the parking garage.