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The City of Los Angeles has selected a team led by Gruen Associates to design a 12-mile section of the Los Angeles River Greenway as a part of Frank Gehry’s comprehensive master plan. The design team will also include architects Oyler Wu and landscape firm Mia Lehrer + Associates, who recently won a competition for a new park at First and Broadway in downtown LA. Upon its completion, the greenway will allow residents to walk and bike nearly 30 miles between the neighborhoods of Canoga Park and Elysian Valley.

MVRDV has announced plans for Paradise City, a 9,800 square meter entertainment plaza near Incheon Airport in Seoul, South Korea. Designer in partnership with Gansam Architects, the complex will consist of two monolithic forms housing retail and a nightclub, and new public spaces. The connecting element of the project is a giant golden spot at the public square, which the architects hope will become a beacon visible to tourists as they fly into the city.

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The Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI) has announced 19 semifinalists for the 2016 Fuller Challenge. Now in its ninth annual cycle, The Fuller Challenge seeks proposals to address challenges using holistic approaches and problem solving.

Teams of individuals and groups were judged by the Challenge Review Committee, which looked for projects that are visionary, comprehensive, anticipatory, ecologically responsible, feasible, and verifiable.

The 2016 Fuller Challenge Semifinalists are:

In a recent interview presented in collaboration with PLANE—SITE, architect Christian Kerez and curator Sandra Oehy speak about Incidental Space, their exhibition for the Swiss Pavilion in the Giardini at the 2016 Venice Biennale.

Kerez explains, “what we tried to do for this year’s Swiss Pavilion at the Venice Biennale is to really make a building, actually—to build a space, to offer an experience of architecture. Basically, a space at the Biennale doesn’t have to be very functional. You don’t have to live there; you don’t have to work there. It’s really about experience. This is also about the question, how much can you imagine? How can you create a space with the utmost architectonical complexity?”

The municipality of Amsterdam has selected Team V Architectuur with Lingotto, Nicole Maarsen and ARUP to design HAUT, a 73 meter (240 foot) residential tower located along the Amstel River that will become the Netherlands' tallest timber framed building and, depending on construction schedules, is a contender for the title of tallest wooden tower in the world. With construction expected to begin in the second half of 2017, HAUT is another example of the growing timber architecture trend hitting tall building design.

NARTARCHITECTS has released the plans for its Csontváry Museum in Pécs, Hungary, which will feature the work of Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka, a Hungarian painter known for his technical skill and spiritual messages.

The design of the Museum reflects Csontváry’s symbolic and interpretive work. Rather than utilizing the typical “plaza-museum” typology, the Csontváry Museum will be located on the outskirts of the city in a crater of a former coal mine near a lake. Through this location, the space gives a dramatic ambiance suited to its program.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has released plans for a new mixed-use urban district for Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station Precinct. In response to projections showing significant increases in transit activity in the coming decades, the project calls for a transformation of the existing Beaux Arts train station and surrounding neighborhood of University City. The design will improve transportation throughout the city, and will activate the area with new shops, restaurants and public plazas.

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INSIDE World Festival of Interiors has announced the over 60 nominees being considered for the World Interior of the Year 2016 award. Occurring alongside the World Architecture Festival, INSIDE celebrates of the most original and exciting interiors.

Nominations in the 9 categories include projects from across the globe. From bars and retail spaces to schools and hotels, the nominees will present their projects live during the festival in November. Read on for a complete list of the shortlisted projects and check out all of the projects in the image gallery.

KCAP Architects & Planners has won the competition for the design of “Punt de Sniep,” an urban planning project in Diemen, a city in the agglomeration of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Overall, the project will consist of 165 apartments, a marina, and commercial and gastronomy functions over a total of 16,000 square meters.

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Studio Symbiosis Architects is amidst the construction process for Punjab Kesari Headquarters, an 18,000 square meter office space in Delhi NCR, India.

Designed as a fusion of traditional Indian architecture and contemporary office space, the main objective of the project is “to reduce heat gain and optimize façade opening ratio, ensuing no artificial lighting is required on a typical day.”

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Neuman Hayner Architects, in collaboration with architect Gal Karni, has unveiled their proposal to a competition for a new music and dance school in Mevaseret Zion, Israel.

Five lines defining four strips, a frame of a story, a foundation for the creation... fertile ground for learning, a space for work, a stage for talent, a platform for infinite opportunities.

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Architecture and Urban Planning firm group8asia has won third prize in the Seoul Metropolitan Government competition for the design of Nodeul Island with its sustainable project Seoul Green Dot.

Nodeul Dream Island leads with the idea of Neverland in mind, and is designed as “a utopia where nature and serenity are abundant.” Here, it is hoped that environmental economy, and socially sustainable practices can be utilized to create a space to transform the dense urban fabric.

Studio Libeskind has won an international competition for the design of a mixed-use tower and complex in the heart of Vilnius, Lithuania. The 20,000 square meter building will feature offices, a luxury hotel, restaurants and public amenities and will be located at the intersection of the White Bridge, the Neris River and Old Town.

Broadway Malyan has been appointed to design eight towers for the CIBIS Business Park, a 12-hectare development in Jakarta, Indonesia. Previously, the firm developed the site’s original masterplan, as well as the design for Tower 9, and has since then been asked to additionally deliver Towers 1 through 8.

The goal of the overall project is to create a business village that reflects Indonesian culture, as well as international characteristics in order to bring people together in shared and mixed-use spaces.

The additional appointments for the other towers will help us to ensure continuity and integrity of the design approach and further the high quality office space in the area, noted Ed Baker, Director of Broadway Malyan.

Architects for Urbanity has released its designs for Seoul Urban Womb, a mixed-use women’s and family complex in South Korea. Located in Daebang-dong at the former site of the Seoul Women’s Shelter, the project aims to revitalize the current Seoul Women’s Plaza, a space previously described as “gloomy” and “deathlike.”

The new facility will serve as a connection between the Women’s Plaza and nearby train station, as a mix of public and private space, and is hoped to help “form creative culture, [teach] traditions, and expand the value of gender equality in family and community.”

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After discovering a vibrant new pigment of blue by accident, chemists at Oregon State University have brought the compound to market in the form of a paint that looks promising to architectural sustainability.

While experimenting with materials to study applications for electronics in 2009, OSU chemist Mas Subramanian and his team mixed black manganese oxide with other chemicals and heated them to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Little did they know, one of their samples would turn into a brilliant blue color.

The latest stage of the Governors Island Park project, “The Hills,” is set to officially open to the public on this Tuesday July 19th – nearly a year ahead of schedule. Designed by internationally acclaimed urban design and landscape firm West 8, the park will feature ten acres of sloping landscapes that will provide residents and visitors with slides, art and unparalleled views of the New York Harbor.

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