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

UNStudio and textile manufacturer MDT-tex have completed the Eye_Beacon Pavilion for the Amsterdam Light Festival. Serving as a ticketing and information booth for event goers, the pavilion’s design draws inspiration from the festival’s 2017 theme of biomimicry, specifically the bioluminescent organisms of the deep sea world.

+ 13

After a career as a professional skateboarder, Helsinki-based Janne Saario has become one of few landscape architects in the world with a practice devoted completely to designing skate parks for young people. Saario’s designs—all of which are located in Europe—diverge from the typical brutalist stereotypes of concrete skate park masses, and rather, are site-specific and heavily influenced by their natural surroundings.

“Young people are our hope and future,” says Saario. “And by offering beautiful and meaningful surroundings to grow, like wonderful skate parks, we can make a positive change on their picture of the world and future behavior.”

The architectural team comprised of Davis Brody Bond and Kieran Timberlake has unveiled its newest updates on the design for 181 Mercer, a 735,000-square-foot complex for New York University that will replace a 35-year-old gym facility and become NYU’s largest classroom building, as well as a space for performing arts, athletics, and students and faculty housing.

The end of 2016 is nearly upon us, and with the start of 2017 comes speculation about who will be the next Pritzker Prize winner. Will the jury honor an influential member of the "old guard," as they did in 2015 when they bestowed the award upon the late Frei Otto? Or will they recognize a young architect who is redefining the profession, as they did when they selected Alejandro Aravena earlier this year? Will they reward virtuoso spatial design, or will they once again acknowledge the role of social impact, as they did in recognizing Aravena and Shigeru Ban in 2014? Will the award go to an individual or to two or more architects working together, as it did in 2010 when SANAA scooped the prize?

We want to hear from our readers – not just about who probably will win the prize, but about who should win the prize, and why. Read on to cast your vote in our poll, and let us know in the comments whose name you'd like to hear announced in 2017.

Following the announcements of the 2017 AIA Gold Medal and Architecture Firm of the Year winners, The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced the winners of three other national awards: the Edward C. Kemper Award,the Topaz Medallion, and the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award.

This here is an architect. The architect is a strange sort of a creature. Typically nocturnal, it survives purely on an unhealthy work-life imbalance. After years of primary research, our experts have finally succeeded in dissecting The Architect...

Here is an anatomy.

Next year the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) will open a seminal new exhibition: Mies van der Rohe & James Stirling: Circling the Square. The show will examine two iconic schemes proposed for the same site in the City of London: Mies van der Rohe’s unrealised Mansion House Square project (developed by Lord Peter Palumbo) and its built successor, James Stirling Michael Wilford & Associates’ No.1 Poultry.

San Franisco-based Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects (LMSA) has been chosen as the recipient of the 2017 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Architecture Firm Award.

“Their passion for addressing some of the profession’s thorniest issues including regenerative design, universal access, social equity and housing for the most disadvantaged has been consistent and impressive,” wrote Bob Berkebile, FAIA Emeritus, in a recommendation letter.

Videos

The team led by light artist Leo Villareal and architects and urban planners Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands has been announced as the winner of the Illuminated River International Design Competition.

Selected from a six-strong shortlist of internationally acclaimed architects and designers, the winning design was lauded by Illuminated River Foundation Chair Hannah Rothschild as “beautiful, ambitious and realisable but always considerate to the environment, lighting levels and energy conservation.”

Unequal distribution of public space when it comes to pedestrians, cyclists and people driving cars is an issue that urban mobility specialist Mikael Colville-Andersen calls "The Arrogance of Space." 

The urban planner and founder of Copenhagenize believe that this term can be applied to streets that are dominated by traffic engineers from last century where streets were made primarily for cars.

To illustrate his position, Mikael analyzed the amount of space allocated to each of these groups, in addition to "dead space” and space for buildings, in the streets of Calgary, Paris, and Tokyo by comparing each sector using different colors. 

Take a look at the findings below. 

Ricky Gui showcases a stunning series of "Hidden Doors" located behind shophouses in Singapore. Working for over a year, Gui highlighted over 600 "Hidden Doors"in his documentation. These doors are usually looked over as they hide behind shophouses and alleyways where people are unlikely to venture into. 

+ 14

"Sense of Motion," NSK Ltd's stunning new exhibition at the Omotesando Spiral, celebrates the prominent manufacturers' 100th anniversary — with lots of color. Designer Emmanuelle Moureaux uses "color mixing" to illustrate the movements of colors.

+ 9

The University of California, Irvine has selected LMN Architects and Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction to design and build a new $46 million classroom and office building project. In the campus’s central greenspace, the new 70,000-square-foot building will promote diversity, group learning, and social interaction.

LMN’s creative approach of unlocking the site and rearranging the program led to a bold design solution that enhances the overall experience for both students and faculty, said UCI Campus Architect Brian Pratt, LEED AP. We are delighted with the results.

Videos

STAGE, a protoype for a new chef-led fast food concept, has debuted last week at Design Miami. Designed by internationally renowned architect Ole Scheeren for New York-based gourmet market and food supplier Dean & DeLuca, STAGE highlights interactive preparation, presentation, and consumption of food as a dynamic cultural and social experience. The new service format will become part of Dean & DeLuca’s expansion throughout key north American cities in 2017.

+ 21

Videos

"The Architect", directed by Jonathan Parker, is a film that moves between drama and comedy. It features a humorous (and some would say believable) satire of architects. In the film an egocentric, and grandiose architect named Miles Moss, played by actor James Frain, works with a couple who wants to build their dream home.

Chosen from 81 entries, Office Ou, a Toronto-based architecture and landscape design firm, has been announced as the winner of South Korea's International Competition for the National Museum Complex Master Plan of the New Administrative City (Sejong City). As a proposed self-sustaining city of 500,000 people, Sejong City will serve as South Korea's administrative city, transferring multiple national government functions from Seoul. The Museum Gardens will amplify the cultural landscape of South Korea's new metropolis.

+ 10

Is ARCH has announced the winners of the seventh edition of the ISArch Awards, an international award competition for students of architecture. In an effort to provide students with a “gateway to the professional and corporate world,” the competition calls for students to engage in dialogue and debate within the framework of their university studies.

The three winners of the seventh IsArch Awards are:

PLH Arkitekter has been announced as one of two winners in the international design competition for Rail Baltica, organized by The European Railroad Lines, Ltd. As a part of the European transport network, Rail Baltica will be a multi-modal public transport hub in the Latvian capital of Riga, with a railway bridge crossing the Daugava River.

The focal point of the project will be a train station building “that creates a strong visual identity in the cityscape, strengthening the sense of Riga as a metropolis.” Inspired by the archetypal form of the arch and the Art Nouveau period, the building will feature canopies that resemble arched fern leaves. On the north side of the building, the canopy shape allows for a unique view over the historic city, ideal for travelers entering or leaving the city to create a strong sense of place.

+ 6

Studio Gang has revealed their design for One Hundred, a mixed-use tower to be located on Forest Park in St. Louis, Missouri. Studio Gang’s first project in the city, the tower will rise over 350 feet and include retail, amenities, parking and residential apartments featuring views of the park and the Gateway Arch.

Steven Holl Architects have revealed plans for a new library and campus design in Malawi, coinciding with the project’s approval by The Miracle for Africa Foundation. To be constructed of local stone, bamboo and concrete, the library will provide 66,000 square feet (6,132 square meters) of study and gathering space to the community.

+ 13

Update: We've amended the post with new images from Asymptote Architecture and new quotes from Asymptote Co-founder and Design Partner Hani Rashid.

Asymptote Architecture has revealed renderings of their design for a new Contemporary branch of the Hermitage Museum, to be located adjacent to a new residential district in the area of the former ZIL automotive plant in Moscow. Presented at the V Saint Petersburg International Cultural Forum by Asymptote Co-founder and Design Partner Hani Rashid, the museum will house a collection of contemporary art from 20th and 21st centuries.

Videos

An “alternative Christmas tree” designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) has been erected in the courtyard of the Utzon Center, coinciding with SOM’s current exhibition, ‘Sky’s the Limit’. Located on the waterfront in Aalborg, Denmark, the Utzon Center was the last project to be designed by the center’s namesake, renowned Danish architect Jørn Utzon.

+ 13

Foster + Partners’ designs for the latest tower to be located within New York’s Hudson Yards megaproject have been revealed. Named 50 Hudson Yards, the building will rise 985 feet (300 meters) into the sky in becoming New York City’s fourth largest commercial office tower with 2.9 million gross square feet and the new home of leading investment firm BlackRock.

+ 3