Produce personalized presentation boards that distill complex concepts into simple visual representations with a few helpful tools and effects.

Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban has mobilized his Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN) to aid victims of recent devastating floods in Southern Japan. At least 210 people have been killed by flooding and landslides which occurred last week, with a continuing heatwave further hampering recovery efforts.

Ban, along with members of the VAN and student volunteers, is constructing a partition system in evacuation centers made from paper tubes and cloth curtains. The temporary structures intend to offer privacy for flooding victims, forming a modular unit of 2 meters by 2 meters.

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Fentress Architects has been chosen to design the USA Pavilion for Expo 2020 Dubai. The American Pavilion 2020 will sit within the 438-hectare masterplan designed by HOK, pictured above.

The U.S. Department of State selected the consortium containing Fentress Architects, led by Big Things Group, to deliver a pavilion based on the theme “What Moves You,” featuring highlights of American culture and technology. The team will seek to use the program as “a showcase of the innovation, creativity, and diversity that defines the United States.”

OOPEAA (Office for Peripheral Architecture) has won an invited competition for the design of the Allas Sea Pool Family in Helsinki, Finland. Constructed on floating platforms, and designed as a modular, flexible, adjustable system, the Allas Sea Pool Family is intended to be a new global typology for coastal sites, where building on land is not feasible.

The invited competition asked entrants to submit proposals which responded to varying environmental and seasonal conditions, with OOPEAA ultimately chosen for their “strong concept that places the floating spa in a central location in the city.”

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Studio Gang founder Jeanne Gang has long been an advocate for change within the architecture field. Her studio's designs push boundaries all over the world, but Gang has recently used her firm to transform architectural practice in a different way—attacking the gender wage gap.

In a recent article from Fast Company, Gang writes about "discrimination and prejudice" throughout the US, but more specifically in the field of architecture.

Read on for more about how she closed the gender wage gap at her firm and is calling on other architecture firms to do the same.

Earlier this year, LEGO announced that they were beginning production on a new line of botanical-themed pieces made from sugarcane. This new line is just the start of the company's goal to only use sustainable materials in all major products and packaging by 2030. Here we will explore the process behind LEGO’s “going green” initiative, and the challenges they’ve faced in making more environmentally-friendly building blocks along the way.

LWK & Partners (HK) has recently released their design for “Olympic Vanke Centre” in Hangzhou, China. Occupying 13,969 sqm at the city’s CBD and next to its 2022 Asian Games Village, the Centre, to be completed in 2021, includes two office towers sharing one podium for amenities and underground service area. The design features the rotating, lifted podium that opens up cascading outdoor terraces that extends further into the towers.

Acting both as a “visionary landmark and an urban catalyst,” C.F. Møller Architects’ proposal for a new train station development in Altona, Hamburg, emphasizes the significance of green space within the city’s urban fabric. The project will have several uses, ranging from cafes, restaurants, and shops to offices and fitness centers. Its unique undulating roof landscape “embodies a collective and progressive vision of reinforcing Hamburg’s green credentials.”

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‘A Space For All’ by Hawkins\Brown has been announced as the winner of London Festival of Architecture (LFA) and Architects LGBT+’s Pride Float Competition, the design representing architecture in Pride London 2018. Forming a crucial part of the LFA’s 2018 program, the competition was open to students, graduates, emerging practices and established offices alike, with 'exploring identity' being the brief's core theme. The winning float advocates for increased LGBT+ acceptance and presence within the construction industry, combining “the dual identities of LGBT+ and being an architect.”

The guiding principles and priorities that drive the professional practice of architecture are the subject of abundant philosophical ideas and entrenched opinions—but how can we understand the current state of the profession without sweeping generalizations? Towards that goal, OfficeUS (the experimental institution born from the US Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Biennale) has published a book examining the realities of today’s architectural workplace culture based, like countless works of cultural studies across many academic disciplines, on the documents produced by that culture. Specifically, the OfficeUS publication compiles information from office manuals and workplace handbooks spanning the last century of architectural practice to offer a practical but insightful portrait of how architects organize, run, and view their own profession.

In a new interview with Metropolis Magazine, OfficeUS Manual editors Eva Franch i Gilabert, Carlos Mínguez Carrasco, and Jacob Reidel explain their motivations for the project as well as their perspective on what this unique approach reveals about the culture of today’s architectural practice.

A new public pavilion from MoedersheimMoonen Architects is set to be built in the old 'Leuvehaven' port in Rotterdam. Located near the Erasmus Bridge, the pavilion intends to bring new life to the historic port of Rotterdam. The municipality of Rotterdam is also set to invest in a bustling residential climate, with this new pavilion housing multiple programs that will contribute to a "lively" and "greener" Maritime District.

The building will replace three existing pavilions, providing a new perspective for visitors to the Leuvehaven. Much of the structure and foundation from the existing buildings are reused in the new design, promoting sustainability, honoring the present conditions of the site, and bringing high-tech design elements to the historical context.

The various programs for the Pavilion will include "the Port Information Point of the Port of Rotterdam, two publicly accessible workshops from the Maritime Museum Rotterdam and two catering establishments with terraces by the water," with the surrounding exteriors space also to be renewed in phases.

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German photographer Hans Georg Esch has released a new video offering sweeping footage of Zaha Hadid Architects’ King Abdullah Petroleum Studies & Research Centre (KAPSARC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The 7-minute-long video celebrates the scheme’s “hexagonal prismatic honeycomb structures” through interior and exterior moments.

The video's release comes weeks after the KAPSARC was shortlisted for the World Architecture Festival Awards 2018 in the Completed Higher Education and Research category.

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“The Colour Palace” by Pricegore and Yinka Ilori has been chosen as the 2019 Dulwich Pavilion in London. A temporary structure to open at Dulwich Picture Gallery during the London Festival of Architecture in June 2019, “The Colour Palace” is a celebration of color, pattern, and light, drawing from European and African cultural traditions.

The scheme was chosen from a competitive shortlist of six emerging architecture firms, compiled from 150 entries. PUP Architects were the winners of the on-site public vote, which represented one vote at the panel judging.

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That’s the goal, at least. Mecanoo has released designs for a large-scale development in Utrecht inspired by “blue zone” regions - areas where residents tend live atypically long and healthy lives. Currently there are only five recognized blue zones worldwide: Sardinia, Nicoya, Loma Linda, Okinawa, and Ikaria.

▶ Así se derrumbó una sección de la plaza comercial Artz Pedregal https://t.co/IMnqtfIiZy #CdMx pic.twitter.com/mYzYowaZVP

— Milenio.com (@Milenio) 12 de julio de 2018

Videos circulating around social media show at least a partial collapse of Plaza Artz Pedegral, a project built in 2012 by the Mexican architecture office Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos. At the time of reporting the cause of the collapse has not yet been confirmed.

According to the online version of the Milenio newspaper, The Secretary of Civil Protection (secretario de Protección Civil) in Mexico City stated that, at the moment, there are no reports of people injured or trapped.

Video from 2016 shows part of the site collapsing around the roads adjoining the site.

Videos

The Lakhta Center, a 400,000-square-meter complex which includes Europe's tallest skyscraper, is approaching completion in St Petersburg. Designed by RMJM (authoring team led by Tony Kettle), the complex provides a new landmark in the northwest of the city—an area on the coastline of the Gulf of Finland which has seen significant development in recent years with the completion of the St Petersburg Stadium, a passenger seaport, and a number of park spaces including the Park of the 300th Anniversary of Saint Petersburg.

The centerpiece of the development, the 462-meter-tall Lakhta Center Tower, is not only the tallest building in Europe, but also the first supertall skyscraper in St Petersburg, the world's second-tallest twisting skyscraper after the Shanghai Tower, and the world's northernmost skyscraper.

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What does it mean to be a true architecture lover today? It's probably not too far off to conclude that taking pristine, Instagram-optimized photos ranks high in the assessment. With this in mind, the Fondation Louis Vuitton launched a photo contest to highlight the best photos of the building that were taken by inspired visitors and shared on social media.

Videos

Pioneering radical Richard Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller (July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983), an inventor, architect and the second president of Mensa, had a massive impact on the architecture and popular culture of the latter 20th century. Most famous for popularizing the geodesic dome, Fuller is also known as the father of sustainability, and was driven by his intention “to make the world work for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or disadvantage of anyone.”

Beautifully integrating graphic design and architecture, the newest release from Blue Crow Media's transit series recognizes a selection of the most unique public transit stations in Moscow. Moscow Metro Architecture & Design, the second installment in the series, was curated by architectural historian Nikolai Vassiliev with photography by Alexei Narodizkii. It features the most unique and influential examples of architecture and decoration across what is widely considered to be "the most impressive network of stations in the world."

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The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the 49 winners of the 2018 RIBA National Awards. From skyline-altering buildings to sensitive small-scale sculptures, this year’s top projects showcase a wide-ranging selection of scales, featuring designs from Foster + Partners, Hawkins\Brown, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, and Niall McLaughlin Architects.

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DSGN (Design Student Global Network) has unveiled the winners of the Innovation Hub Competition, its first international design competition and part of its participation at Fuorisalone Milan Design Week this past April. The winning proposal — an Innovation Hub development scheme for a rural community site in Bali, Indonesia— will be built in a series of international design workshops starting in 2019. The hub will be used by the local Five Pillar Foundation to host classes focusing on community development and social entrepreneurship in the region.

HUBBALI, the winning design by Hanna Haczek & Ewelina Andrecka (Poland), was selected by the Five Pillar Foundation community and DSGN for its focus on participatory design and social development. Based on a 6x6 meter timber construction module, HUBBALI takes up an 18x18 meter area and is flanked by porches on entry sides side for gathering and relaxation. The design will be further developed with the Five Pillar Foundation and the surrounding Pejarakan community in Bali during construction.

French architect Christian de Portzamparc has been named the 2018 laureate of the the Praemium Imperiale Arts Award for Architecture. The prize, given by by the Japan Art Association (JAA), recognized de Portzamparc for his “imaginative architectural style...known for its distinctive features such as bold designs, an artistic approach and the creativity that comes from his work as a watercolor painter.”

Group Project, a student group from MIT, is helping GrowingChange, a non-profit that works with previously incarcerated youth, to transform an old North Carolina prison into an agricultural community center. GrowingChange looks to take advantage of the small, decommissioned prisons scattered throughout the state's landscape. They see these sites as "places where communities can work together to provide clinical support, education, and vocational training as a means to divert youth from the criminal justice" system.

Read on for more about how prison flipping intends to "counter a legacy of incarceration."

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Are you in the market for a new set of minimalist earrings or a necklace inspired by the constructivist movement? You can now own all of this and more, with RIIA's line of minimalist-inspired jewelry. This Los Angeles-based jewelry designer is removing the overly decorative elements in jewelry and bringing to light the beauty of pure forms.