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The New York Public Library has revealed plans for the transformation of their iconic main branch on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Led by Mecanoo with Beyer Blinder Belle, the $317 million masterplan will increase accessibility to the library as well as increase public space for research, exhibitions and educational programs by 20%.

“For over a century, the Schwarzman Building has been a beacon of open access to information and a tireless preservationist of the world’s knowledge,” said New York Public Library President Tony Marx. “We have a responsibility to preserve its architectural wonder and its role as an important civic space, while also preparing it for the future, and another century of best serving the public. We believe this plan does just that.”

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Day 2 of the 2017 World Architecture Festival is now complete, and with it, 14 more projects have been announced as category winners of the event’s 2017 awards.

The world’s largest architectural award program, the WAF Awards year saw its biggest year yet, with a total of 924 entries received from projects located in 68 countries across the world. The finalist projects will be selected live at the festival by a Super Jury made up of jury chair Robert Ivy, Chief Executive Officer of the American Institute of Architects; Nathalie de Vries, Director & Co-founder of MVRDV; Ian Ritchie, Founder of Ian Ritchie Architects; and Christoph Ingenhoven, Founder of Ingenhoven Architects.

Check out the Day 1 winners here, the full shortlist here, and see the Day 2 winners after the break.

Following her decision to abandon plans for an OMA-designed, upstate New York museum, artist Marina Abramovic has spoken out in response to allegations that her institute may have improperly utilized funds raised through a crowdsourced fundraising campaign.

The World Architecture Festival (WAF) has announced the Day 1 category winners of their 2017 awards slate. Winners selected among 32 categories over the first two days of the conference will then continue on to compete for the title of the World Building of the Year 2017 to be announced on the final day of the event on Friday.

The world’s largest architectural award program, the WAF Awards year saw its biggest year yet, with a total of 924 entries received from projects located in 68 countries across the world. The finalist projects will be selected live at the festival by a Super Jury made up of jury chair Robert Ivy, Chief Executive Officer of the American Institute of Architects; Nathalie de Vries, Director & Co-founder of MVRDV; Ian Ritchie, Founder of Ian Ritchie Architects; and Christoph Ingenhoven, Founder of Ingenhoven Architects.

You can check out the full shortlist here, and see which built and future projects took home awards after the break.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) has been selected by Discovery Place and the City of Charlotte to design the new Discovery Place Science center in uptown Charlotte, North Carolina. Partnering with architect-of-record Jenkins•Peer Architects (J•PA), the team will create a masterplan and conceptual design for the museum, one of the state's most popular cultural attractions.

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Adjaye Associates has revealed the design of the latest building, a new public library and events center located in the city of Winter Park, Florida, as the project has been granted unanimous approval from the city commission.

The $30 million project will replace existing, dated library and civic center structures with a series of three red-hued pavilions described by the architects as a “micro-village.” Each pavilion will house a different program element, but will share a common formal language including structural arches inspired by local fauna and the region’s vernacular architecture, vaulted roof lines, and sweeping windows. These elements will allow natural light to penetrate deep into the buildings and create a sense of a unified local civic center.

The mayor of Strasbourg, Roland Ries, has announced the winner of the architectural design competition for a residential tower. The site is located near the Rhine, within the ‘Strasbourg, Presqu’ile--Citadelle’ neighborhood -- dense with low-rises, not exceeding five levels. The winning design by KCAP Architects & Planners and OSLO Architectes is commended for its contextual sensitivity and formal relationship with Germany which sits just on the other side of the Rhine river.

An investment firm run by Microsoft founder Bill Gates has paid $80 million for 25,000 acres of Arizona desert to serve as the site of a new “smart city.” To be known as Belmont, the city will be made up of 80,000 residences, as well offices, retail spaces and civic amenities such as schools and police stations. The city will serve as a test ground for the latest in logistical and infrastructural technologies.

Performance artist Marina Abramovic has ended plans for her OMA-designed upstate New York art institute, leaving questions about what happened to the $2.2 million she raised from a slate of celebrity patrons and nearly 5,000 Kickstarter donors.

When Abramovic first announced the project in 2012, she touted the plans as transformative for the town of Hudson, New York. To be known as the Marina Abramovic Institute (MAI), the facility was intended to create a new space for the “collaboration between art, science, technology and spirituality.”

Abramovic tapped OMA’s Rem Koolhaas and Shohei Shigematsu to design the space, located within an old 33,000-square-foot theater. Early architectural concepts were daringly experimental – ideas included a theater with seats that could be individually rolled away if visitors were to fall asleep during planned hours-long performances.

The CEMEX Building Award recognizes the best projects in Mexico and the rest of the world that use concrete in a creative and innovative way, with a focus on sustainability and social welfare. This year, the award received 545 entries in its Mexican Edition, of which 18 were awarded prizes.

The awards ceremony took place on November 9th in Mexico City, with finalists attending from the Czech Republic, France, the United States, the United Arab Emirates and various countries from South America.

The winners of the Mexico Edition were:

This week, the Portuguese center for architecture Casa da Arquitectura (House of Architecture) celebrates the opening of its new premises in Matosinhos, Porto. In order to mark the occasion, the architecture museum has planned three days full of activities from the 17th to the 19th of November, with guided tours, performance, talks, music and films.

Within the new gallery spaces, Casa da Arquitectura will hold two exhibitions open to the public, including their inaugural exhibition Poder Arquitectura. Organised by the architects Jorge Carvalho, Pedro Bandeira and Ricardo Carvalho, the exhibition will be open until March 2018, with several talks and debates by national and international figures that have been involved in the exhibition scheduled to take place during this time.

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Dutch 3D-printing start-up MX3D has revealed new details about their plans to install the world’s first 3D-printed metal bridge over a historic canal in Amsterdam.

Originally slated to be built in place, further research concluded that the design would have placed too much stress of the canal walls. So it was back to the drawing board, and the studio, where the updated design is now under construction. Featuring complex curves and a 12-meter-span, the bridge is now being constructed by MX3D’s sophisticated 3D-printed robot. And with about one-third of the structure already completed, it is back on schedule for a late 2018 installation on Amsterdam’s Oudezijds Achterburgwal canal.

The Royal Institute of British Architects has announced London-based firm Bisset Adams as the winners of the RIBA Competition to design a new state-of-the-art library and civic space in the southeast London suburb of Thamesmead.

Selected from a shortlist that included Architecture 00, Adam Khan Architects, Keith Williams Architects and Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter, the winning proposal was lauded for its flexibility and iconic design, as well as its connection to the adjacent Southmere Lake and surrounding neighborhood. The new facility will accommodate a contemporary library, learning space, and civic spaces such as health and wellbeing programs.

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In March 2016, the central church of Ylivieska, Finland, was destroyed in a fiery blaze, an act of arson that leveled the 18th-century wooden structure into a pile of ash.

Now, the community is set to start fresh with a brand new church designed by K2S Architects, after the Finnish firm was selected as the winners of a competition for the new Ylivieska Church.

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The CEMEX Building Award recognizes the best projects in Mexico and the rest of the world that use concrete in a creative and innovative way, with a focus on sustainability and social welfare. This year, the award received 70 entries in the 5 categories and 4 special awards of its International Edition.

Creator of London’s Design Museum and columnist for CNN, Stephen Bayley named Le Corbusier’s Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau as one of, “20 designs that defined the modern world.” Before Bayley lays out the list, he gives a brief history and several definitions of design; culminating to his conclusion that design gives life meaning. Bayley writes, “Le Corbusier declared that design is ‘intelligence made visible’. That’s certainly true, but intelligence can take many forms…” [1]

Stockholm-based architecture firm Utopia Arkitekter has designed Skýli, they are bright blue cabins that are popping up in one of the world's most beautiful landscape. The idea came from a desire to develop a structure which could be easily placed along some of the most famous trekking trails in Iceland. Not only are the lodges striking and beautiful in itself, they can be easily constructed and are built to withstand the harshest weather conditions.

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Drones help us see architecture in new ways. Explore Moscow, Georgia, St. Petersberg, and Russian supertall skyscraper Lakhta Center through Timelab’s lense. With the help of drones, Timelab Production’s vimeo profile showcases a wide variety of professional video content. Travel to new places (and new heights) from the comfort of your own home by watching the videos below.

The OMA-designed Qatar National Library has opened to the public in the Education City district of Doha, Qatar, giving residents access to a wealth of top-of-the-line facilities, including computer labs, group study spaces, a writing center, innovation stations offering 3D-printing tools and musical instruments, and of course, a massive library containing more than one million books, periodicals and special collections.

Some stunning shots of the library have already begun to circulate across social media streams, showing off the building’s striking form and expansive interiors, including the open rows of stacks, hanging seating lounges, interactive media walls, and central labyrinth, among other features.

Check out some first looks at the building below, and stayed tuned for professional photos next week.