Polish architects, Hermanowicz Rewski Architekci, recently placed second in the Architectural Competition for the Sinfonia Varsovia Concert Hall and have shared their proposal with us here at ArchDaily. A description of their submission and images of their materials after the break.

Featured here on ArchDaily are the recently unveiled designs by Foster + Partners for the Zayed National Museum. The monument and memorial to the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding president of the UAE, is located on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE, and will be the first museum completed for the island.

Architecturally, the aim has been to combine a highly efficient, contemporary form with elements of traditional Arabic design and hospitality to create a museum that is sustainable, welcoming and culturally of its place. Celebrating Sheikh Zayed’s legacy and love of nature, the museum is set within a landscaped garden, based on a timeline of his life.

Architects: Foster + Partners Location: Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE Foster + Partners Project Team: Norman Foster, David Nelson, Gerard Evenden, Toby Blunt, Martin Castle, Ross Palmer, Dara Towhidi, Karsten Vollmer, Barrie Cheng, Ho Ling Cheung, Sidonie Immler, Joern Herrmann, Andrew King, Gemma Owen, Jillian Salter, Marilu Sicoli, Daniel Weiss, Bram Van Der Wal, Simon Wing Engineers: WSP/BDSP AKT Local Architect: Planar Landscape Architects: Atelier Dreiseitl Lighting Designers: Claude Engle Cost Consultants: RLB Facade Access: Lerch Bates Specification Writers: Schumann Smith Air Flow Consultants: RWDI Environmental Engineers: Transsolar Auditorium Consultants: Shen Milsom + Wilke People Movement Consultants: Intelligent Space Programme Managers: AECOM District Master Planners: TDIC Master Planners Museography: The British Museum Client: Tourism Development + Investment Company Project Area: 66,042 sqm Renderings: Courtesy of Foster + Partners

We hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving last week and enjoy a couple days off your regular duties. We understand you may have missed some great projects we featured so just in case you did, check our selection after the break.

Dwelling In Avila / A-cero A dwelling of generous proportions developed over a single storey to facilitate the indoor-outdoor connection and to make the most of the environment in which it stands. Surrounded by meadows, tree groves, chestnut, pine and oak trees and wildlife represented by stags, wild boar and roe deer, the edifice establishes a recognised link with the traditional architecture and vernacular customs (read more…)

Earlier this year, French photographer Stéphane Chalmeau shared with us “Manny”, a project by Tétrarc. Now, we are featuring Chalmeau’s first movie about this project. Enjoy it!

And this years rankings are in…

In it’s 12th year of publication in DesignIntelligence, James Cramer and the Greenway Group have compiled the 2011 America’s Best Architecture & Design Schools ranking. Cornell University repeated as the No.1 Undergraduate Architecture program. The most significant switch among the universities this year, the University of Michigan Graduate program grabbing the No.1 spot, nudging out Harvard (No.2) who had consecutively held the top position for the last six years.

James Cramer answered the ever popular question, why rank schools, “At university, students’ experiences can significantly enhance or diminish their interests as well as their likelihood for future success. This gives schools both tremendous opportunity and huge responsibility, since what happens in them has the potential to change the careers of individuals as well as the architecture profession as a whole.”

Cramer continues, “Another answer is given by the architecture firms that employ recent graduates. If the purpose of a professional degree is to prepare students for professional practice, then how well are degree-granting institutions performing the task? Ongoing research by the Design Futures Council and Greenway Group shows that architecture firms and related professional practice careers are being deconstructed and reinvented at an accelerated pace. Beyond the economy, for example, the profession is being shaped by profound changes in technology, such as building information modeling. Can educational institutions keep pace with the changing needs of 21st-century practices? And so we ask in our survey, “In your firm’s hiring experience in the past five years, which schools are best preparing students for success in the architecture profession?”

After the break you can find the complete rankings divided into the following categories: analysis and planning, communication, computer applications, construction methods and materials, design, research and theory and sustainable design practices and principles as seen at Architectural Record.

The Iakov Chernikhov International Prize for Young Architects recently announced its 2010 laureate, Fantastic Norway, recently featured here on ArchDaily and now we have the complete Top Ten nominee list to share with our readers. Among this group of young and promising architects you will find some outstanding works that will hopefully go a long way to shaping the future of the profession. The complete Top Ten and links to their work after the break.

Architects Laurent Didier and Stefano Cerolini shared with us their proposal Cascina Merlata, for a competition in Milan, Italy. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Of a total of 410 projects, five have been selected for the 2010 Aga Khan Award for Architecture at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. The five projects, selected by a Master Jury are:

• Wadi Hanifa Wetlands, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
• Revitalisation of the Hypercentre of Tunis, Tunisia
• Madinat Al-Zahra Museum, Cordoba, Spain
• Ipekyol Textile Factory, Edirne, Turkey
• Bridge School, Xiashi, Fujian, China

For more information on the winners and images read on after the break.

Berlin base Pfeiffer Architekten have designed a simplistic, yet elegant, weekend house on a waterfront site on Arendsee in Saxony-Anhalt. Constructed using humble materials that allow the built to seamlessly become integrated with the natural, the residence takes advantage of its setting by offering great views of the wooded forests. The residence’s dominate pitch roof finds inspiration in the traditional cottages of the 1930s and gives the home a strong identity.

More images and more about the house after the break.

When Brian Harms and Keith Bradley found a competition with such a unique premise, calling for the design of a moon stadium, they were interested in designing for an environment with which they were unfamiliar. The competition allowed them certain freedoms not typically present in an architectural studio project. This was the first time the two fifth year architecture students of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo collaborated on a design project and hope to work with each other again in the future. More images and project description after the break.

Architects Ariel Noyman and Ruth Kedar shared with us their proposal for the Atlantic City Holocaust Memorial Competition. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Henn Architekten shared with us their proposal for the international competition to design the new ‘Nano-Polis Masterplan’ in Suzhou, China where they won the first prize. The proposal was designed by HENN ARCHITEKTEN’s Design & Research Studio HENN StudioB who drew their inspiration from both traditional Chinese urban planning and modern science for their concept on the research and development park for Nanotech. The use of innovative technologies and environmental strategies help to make their design a more comfortable place for its users while decreasing its energy consumption. More images and architect’s description after the break.

For this temporary hotel, IAA Architects created a shelter where the occupants become a form of entertainment to passersby. Designed in collaboration with artists and Aneta Grzeszykowska Jan Smaga, the hotel is part of a temporary installation and envisioned as a piece of art. With five screened bedrooms, a shared gardens and common facilities, the hotel offers an inexpensive place to lodge and creates a simple aesthetic for the Grenswerk Festival of Arts.

More images and more about the project after the break.

Gonatas+Lantavos Architects designed the Social Housing Project for the competition sponsored by the Greek Social Housing Organisation and the Hellenic Institute of Architecture. Located in Axios, a municipality 27 km from the center of Thessalonica in Northern Greece, the residential complex is composed of small buildings that make up the larger complex. The existing landscape and context of the site helped formulate the design approach as an electronic microcircuit of connections.

Read on for more information and images after the break.

To coincide with the launch of their new Personal Factory 4 services, Google SketchUp is announcing the Ponoko 3D Printing Challenge. Basically, the challenge is to produce a piece of instructional content that’s equal parts enlightening and entertaining. Each entry must be titled “How to use Google SketchUp for Ponoko 3D printing,” but aside from that, the format is pretty open. Text, images and video (or some combination of the three) are all fair game.

Turkish Architects METEKIYAN have shared with us their proposal for the Landmark Project on Cebeli Hill in Antalya, Turkey. Additional images and a description of their proposed arboretum after the break.

Designed as a temporary residence for an oyster farmer, French firm Raum Architects have created a simplistic structure based upon an acute attention to detailing and material selection. Located in the countryside of Bretagne, the residence reflects the nature of the site through the large glazing and movable partitions that open the residence to the outdoors. The house is composed of two main areas; a hangar and an office/lounge space that includes a kitchen, dining room and seating area. A patio, which can either be open or closed off, offers the transitional space between the two. The inner patio allows light to permeate through the different interior areas, even when these interior spaces are closed off from the exterior with the large sliding doors. The hangar, an open work space for the oyster farmer, is articulated by its exposed wooden frame. A translucent plastic SITS behind the house’s vertical slatted skin, allowing diffused light into the space. While this component is set aside as a separate ‘wing’ to the dwelling, the space can easily be integrated both visually and physically by opening up the patio area.

More images after the break.

Two more weeks and we have our 25th selection of the best from Flickr. With almost 33,000 photos, we invite you to check them all right here! As always, 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 pedro kok in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Check the other four after the break.

When Thanksgiving rolls around, even the most cynical, edgy writers start spewing sentimental drivel about family or the meaning of being thankful. They are weak and clearly under the influence of this fake holiday—you know it was invented by Abraham Lincoln, right?

Suddenly, all my Twitter tweeters have ceased shamelessly promoting themselves or constructing clever little comments about the great things they are doing, or the great things they are thinking, or something great that someone else is doing or thinking. Now it’s a constant stream of kindness and sincerity. Good Magazine asks, “What are you thankful for?” I am thankful that this insanity will be over by Friday. I’ll also be thankful when they return my calls.

I wasn’t going to write about Thanksgiving. It is not my favorite holiday. You eat too much and have to sit around and talk with relatives. This year, my wife and I were given an alternative: we were invited by a neighbor to eat too much and sit around and talk with her relatives. This sounded entertaining. In fact it turned out to be more entertaining than I ever would have imagined.

More after the break.

ACDF* has shared with us their design for the new library at Saint-Eustache, which is north of Montréal, Canada. The library is founded on the notion of creating a contemporary project that also shares a story that reveals the historic value of its site. The project symbolizes the reconciliation between the urban form of the Saint-Eustache as it is today, and the history of the riverside site. The concept for the project further integrates fundamental ecologically responsible principles which focus on building compactness, energy economy, and the use of high quality, sustainable materials ensuring the permanence of the project. More images and architect’s description after the break.

C. F. Møller Architects, together with SLA and Rambøll, have been selected by a unanimous jury as the winners of a large competition to design an extension to the University of Copenhagen‘s Panum complex on Blegdamsvej in the heart of Copenhagen.

The expansion will make a significant impact in the cityscape, with a science tower which will form an identity-creating, sculptural focal point for the entire Nørre Campus. The project also includes an urban park which will benefit both the Panum building and the surrounding city.

More images and architect’s description after the break.

Department of Unusual Certainties is a Toronto-based research and design collective working at the interstices of urban design, planning, public art, spatial research and mapping have shared with us their contribution to the John Street Ideas Competition, held by the Toronto Entertainment District BIA, entitled StairSpace. The competition called for a new public space concept as the center point of what has been dubbed a major cultural axis in the Toronto – John Street. More details of DoUC’s submission after the break.

Visual artist Nicolás Rupcich shared with us this great video from the XVII Chilean Biennale designed by Emilio Marín.

The Vasquez Rocks Nature and Interpetive Center is a vital gateway to a unique asset in the Los Angeles County Parks system. The high-desert site is one of the most significant natural areas in the region; its sculptural rock formations have inspired generations of visitors.  Its location along the Pacific Crest Trail affords hikers on a 2,650-mile walk from Mexico to Canada an unforgettable point of reference.

The new Vasquez Rocks Nature and Interpretive Center communicates the feeling that it is at one with its environment, treading lightly upon the land but leaving a significant cognitive impact upon the visitor. It is at once visually arresting and subtly integrated – it’s as if it has been there as long as the rocks themselves.

More about this project after the break.

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Architects: Brooks + Scarpa Location: Agua Dulce, California, USA Exhibit Designer: Victoria Biddle Design Contractor: Mallcraft Civil Engineer: Bighorn Consultants Structural Engineer: BPA Group MEP Engineer: IBE Consulting Engineers Landscape Architect: PEG Office of Landscape + Architecture Client: County of Los Angeles, Department of Public Works Project Area: 3,000 sqf Project Year: 2010 Photographs: Courtesy of Brooks + Scarpa