Designed by NAÇO Architecture, Monaco’s Pavilion for Shanghai World Expo 2010 will feature a movie that will take visitors on a lap of Monaco Grand Prix and show a luxury ecological car prototype of the new Venturi Volage.

The 2,000-square-meter pavilion will invite visitors to explore the evolution of casr, city transformation and KERS system from Monaco Grand Prix’s beginning in 1929 in a special area dedicated to Formula One. The Monaco leg is the only city in the world to have a circuit inside it. Upon entering the pavilion, visitors will see a six-minute animation movie “Monaco, a rock for eternity” exclusively produced for the Expo. An extraordinary adventure will be unfolded, which will send visitors back to prehistoric times.

The cinema can accommodate 250 people and will be equipped with a high definition screen of 56 meters. A walk along typical old streets of Monaco will allow visitors to discover the city and its flora and fauna. More images after the break.

Since 2006, The Festival des Architectures Vives tries to make people aware to architecture giving them tools to understand it by allowing people who live in town to meet people who draw the town.

In an interesting article from the New York Times this week, different families completed not so typical renovations. A few years ago, the Sleeper family moved from their crowded Missouri ranch house when they saw an eBay offering for three acres with an empty sandstone cave in Festus, Missouri. The initial idea to build a larger home on the land was soon abandoned as the family realized the potential the former quarry offered. With 15,000 feet of naturally insulated space, the Sleeper family took up a new residence – inside the cave. The older family members helped add more “home” touches to the cave and since the cave’s bare walls shed sand, the Sleepers placed interior roofs or umbrellas over areas like the kitchen that need to stay sand-free. Other than that, the family truly enjoys the natural feel of the space and have created a comfortable home. “The inside of the house feels like you’re outdoors without the discomfort of hot or cold,” Mrs. Sleeper states.

More images after the break.

NeoStudio Architekci shared their completed design for a residence in Garby near Poznan, Poland. Located on a sunken site, the building rests on a steep southern slope. With the client’s desire for a double height, two-level living room, the home takes its form around that central room. The back of the home has been fitted to the existing slope and makes the form read as ”soaking into the surroundings” as an attempt to make the form dissolve into nature. The house also includes the standard amenities for a family of four, such as a kitchen, dining area and bedrooms.

More images after the break.

March 11 marked the groundbreaking celebration at the historic Beverly Hills Post Office for the new Wallis Annenberg center for the Performing Arts, designed by Studio Pali Fekete architects (SPF:a). The historic building will be restored and adapted, and the spaces that were once used for mail sorting and postage purchases will be redesigned to become a theater school, a flexible studio theater, sculpture garden, café, gift shop and more. Complimenting the historic building will be the 500-seat contemporary Goldsmith Theater.

More images, a video, and architect’s description after the break.

The Dutch submission to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai is an exceptional one. This time around, it will not be the classic pavilion with long lines of visitors waiting outside and a presentation inside. The Netherlands is making its appearance at China’s world exposition along an entire street. The submission, entitled “Happy Street”, is the response by designer John Kormeling to the Chinese Expo theme “Better City, Better Life” and the sub-themes:

- Urban cultural diversity - Urban economic growth and prosperity - Innovation in science and technology in urban contexts - Remodelling urban communities - Interaction between urban and rural areas.

Find out more about Holland’s pavilion right here. More images and a video after the break.

Architects: studioMAS architects + urban designers Location: Forest Town, Johannesburg, South Africa Landscape Architect: Sonja Swanepoel, from African Environmental Design Project Year: 2005 Photographs: Mario Todeschini & studioMAS

+ 7

A museum in Portugal, Nestlé offices in Chile, a restaurant in USA, medical housing in Sudan, and updates on the Shanghai Pavilions! What a week we’ve had. Don’t miss our selection of the best of the week, after the break.

Museum of Art and Archaeology of the Côa Valley / Camilo Rebelo The Palaeolithic art in the Coa Valley is perhaps man’s first land art manifestation. The Museum is conceived as an installation in the landscape. The monolithic triangular form is a direct result of the valley’s confluences. Its materiality evokes the local stone yards and reflects two different natures: the concrete’s matter, and the local stone’s texture and colour (read more…)

Property development group Euroboden is building a unique apartment house at Johannisstraße in Mitte, Berlin’s downtown district. J. MAYER H. Architects’ design for the building, which will soon neighbor both Museum Island and Friedrichstrasse, reinterprets the classic Berliner Wohnhaus with its multi-unit structure and green interior courtyard.

More images and description after the break.

Curbed SF previosuly reported on the shortlist for the 225,000sqf expansion of the SFMOMA. The unconfirmed shortlist of the 8 practices include David Adjaye, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Steven Holl, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), Snøhetta, and Renzo Piano. The other 2 remained unknown, but they stated that there are no local firms included.

When is was a kid, the futuristic alternative world featured in Tron blew my mind.

Here’s an open invitation to Julien De Smedt (JDS Architects) lectuer and agenda book launch in Tokyo, Japan.

Iseppi-Kurath‘s winning competition for a highway service area intends to act as a “window towards the region”. Located next to the exit Thusis-Nord at the highway A13 in Grisons, Switzerland, this service area boasts an expressive roof that “combines the architectural prelude of the building and brings together the entrance and exit of it.”

More about the service area and more images after the break.

It’s been more than two months since our latest Flickr Round Up and our pool has grown to almost 13,000 photos! You can check our previous selections 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 picture above was taken by pedro kok in Barcelona, Spain. See the other four after the break.

Whatever the uses and abuses of climate research lately, buildings are still said to cause 40 percent of carbon emissions. As such, architects see themselves at the forefront against global warming. But why do most contemporary solutions involve evermore constraints? Indeed, it is now common to hear the argument that more restrictions aid creativity. Doesn’t more freedom aid creativity?

On Friday, April 23, 2010, top UK, European and American industry leaders will gather at the Architectural Association in London for a day-long Think Tank to explore solutions that could change the building industry for the better.

Land used by the former Bethlehem Steel Corporation in Pennsylvania is now being transformed into a dynamic arts, culture and education campus known as SteelStacks. Anchoring the 4.5 acres campus will be Spillman Farmer Architects’ ArtsQuest Center, a four-storey glass and steel structure with 68,000 sq ft of distinctive venues to showcase the arts.

More about the ArtsQuest Center after the break.

Greenpeace is holding an Open Ideas Architectural Competition to find a winning design to fortify the Airplot. The competition is open to architects, landscape architects, architectural students and architect-led mixed disciplinary teams.

Today, thousands celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day throughout the world. Named after the most commonly recognized of the patron saints of Ireland, we didn’t want to be left behind in this celebration. So for today’s Round Up, we bring you previously featured architecture projects in Ireland. Don’t forget your green shirt, drink responsible and check five great projects from Ireland after the break.

Dwelling at Maytree / ODOS architects

There’s still a little bit more than a month till the opening of Shanghai’s World Expo 2010, scheduled for May 1st. Many construction workers are still working to finish the pavilions that will receive up to 800,000 visitors every day, expecting a total of 70 million visitors till October 31, when the Expo will close its doors. So are the pavilions ready? Check the updates on several countries after the break.

Seen at The Big Picture.

It’s getting closer and closer. Shanghai World Expo 2010 is around the corner and we want to remind you some pavilions we’ve been featuring in the post. Check our fourth selection after the break!

French Pavillion

Jacques Ferrier Architects were selected to design the French Pavillion at Shanghai Expo 2010. Their project ‘The Sensual City’ is a simple building with a big style French garden inside. Surrounded by water it appears to be floating. The 6000 square meter pavillion will use advanced building materials and environmental protection technology including solar panels on top of the roof (read more…)

Harvard University Graduate School of Design hosts some great lectures featuring some of the world’s most important architects. We will be telling you about their events on a monthly basis, so here are the dates of their March events:

The AIA Arizona Design Awards program recognizes excellence in design, planning, and construction of projects located anywhere in the world that are designed by AIA Arizona architects registered and licensed in the State of Arizona.

Last week I read this tweet by our friend @fedenegro from CASE:

Why do architects always base their marketing strategies based on their peers instead of potential clients? I blame it on studio