Architects: GAas architecture studio Location: Guadiana Street, 16. 06230 Los Santos de Maimona, Badajoz, Extremadura, España. Design Team: Raúl Gálvez Tirado, José Algeciras Rodríguez Project Year: 2009 Photographs: Fernando Alda

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Designed by 109 Architectes, their proposal in the Zaarour Club Competition, which won the second prize, takes advantage of the natural setting while creating a distinctive yet unobtrusive project identity. Consequently, the primary challenge with the Zaarour Resort is to construct the density required while still respecting and incorporating the rich natural environment. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Not long ago the library was thought of as a huge archive, a storage of human knowledge. Now, all human knowledge is just information that after being digitalized can fit into the pocket. Therefore, FORMA aims toward the accessibility of information and etherealization of knowledge. Also, the concept of information (being shared) is wider than the concept of knowledge (being rather stored than shared), which means the space and activities in the library should become significantly more diverse. Not only does it share information, but also provides an intelligent pastime for local community and sets space for live communication between people. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Designed by, the proposal by Harmonic + Masson Architects and Comte Vollenweider Architects for The Masséna is emblematic of the new Left Bank, which has spread along the Seine in Paris. Created to be symbolic move, the Left Bank has always been the public face of Paris, but it is now expressing that in height terms. The first and only 50-metre projects in Paris for many years are both being built in the same part of the city. Height is staking a claim as a possible planning tool in a “new” urban environment – and at the same time marking out new city limits. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Twenty cities from across the U.S. are competing for nine million dollars in grant money that could fund their innovative solution to some of the major urban challenges that face our communities today. These Top 20 finalists were selected from 305 teams, formed by mayors, architects and local professionals, representing a city of 30,000 or more residents that responded to Mayor Bloomberg’s Mayors Challenge with a bold idea that could potentially make our government more efficient, solve a serious problem, or improve city life.

The five boldest ideas with the greatest potential for impact will win funding as well as national and local recognition. The winning city will receive a $5,000,000 grand prize and four other cities will receive $1,000,000 to help implement their ideas.

The Top 20 finalists are…

Architects: Moscato Schere Todo Terreno Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina Design Team: Agustin Moscato, Joaquín Moscato, Ramiro Schere Project Year: 2007 Photographs: Ramiro Schere

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In April, Mayor Villaraigosa and City Council Member Huizar announced an international design competition to redesign the historic, 80-year-old Sixth Street Bridge in Los Angeles. The decision to launch the competition came after engineers warned that the bridge was at risk of failing during a major earthquake due to a degenerative structural problem known as “concrete cancer”. After careful consideration and entertaining the idea of constructing a replica of the 1932 icon, the city committed to moving forward with a major redesign. In mid-October, the national infrastructure firm HNTB, along with team members Michael Maltzan Architecture and AC Martin Partners, were announced as winners of the international competition.

Continue reading to learn more…

Architects: GAas architecture studio Location: Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain Design Team: Raúl Gálvez Tirado, José Algeciras Rodríguez Project Year: 2011 Photographs: Fernando Alda

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The Friends Center at Angkor Hospital for Children was designed by COOKFOX Architects as an accessory to the existing Angkor Hospital founded by Kenro Izu. The pediatric care facility provides free, quality medical services to over 500,000 patients in Siem Reap, Cambodia while also training health care professionals. The center is an outreach pavilion to welcome visitors to the hospital without compromising patient privacy. The center is a space of exchange where visitors, learning about the program may also experience elements of Cambodia’s heritage through exhibitions of art work and the architecture itself.

On view at the Yale School of Architecture Gallery from November 8-February 2, the ‘George Nelson: Architect, Writer, Designer, Teacher’ exhibition and symposium examines Nelson’s work in the context of both its own time and its legacy today. The event includes a comprehensive retrospective and symposium of one of the most influential figures in American design during the second half of the twentieth century. It will feature more than 120 three-dimensional objects including furniture, cabinets, lamps, and clocks, as well as fifty-plus historical documents in the form of drawings, photographs, architectural models and films. The symposium, ‘George Nelson: Designs for Living’ will specifically be held November 9-10. For more information, please visit here.

The design proposal for the Keelung New Harbor Service Building aims to reject grand architectural gestures that deliberately exist out of context for the sole intent of making a grandiose statement. ACDF Architecture rejects the use of elaborate sculptural forms that are fashionable, or are required to compensate for poorly planned design that does not respond to the local environment. They favor an architecture that portrays a creative, site specific design that is “grounded” in the local context. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Taking place November 11-18, the ‘Emerging Realities’ international student workshop will take place in Venice as part of the Biennale to feature international guest speakers. The event, put on by the Institute for Architecture and Landscape, LANDLAB ia&l, envisions the Venice lagoon archipelago as a prototype for a future metropolitan regional system. The new productive landscape proposes that it is capable of supporting such community while establishing an integrated and environmentally stable system that builds upon existing biodiversity, cultural practice, and production. For more information on the event, please visit here.

Designed by Gemawang Swaribathoro, Indra Nugraha, and Morian Saspriatnadi, their ‘Urban Sponge’ concept aims to unify, organize and manage, in one solution, the inner power of this marvelous city. Prague, an ancient city that has a long history of its own architecture style is no longer an underdog city in the European region. With the city becoming one of the most important places in this continent, the sponge concept can be described as a tool of connectivity to absorb the quality of life, to attract people, to make a better living. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Lord Foster, Dame Zaha Hadid and David Adjaye join artists and fashion icons to create 100 one-off artworks for the 10×10 Drawing the City London exhibition and auction, hosted by Article 25 – the UK’s leading international development and disaster relief charity. 10×10 Drawing the City London is currently taking place in Somerset House’s newly restored West Wing through November 13th.

Winners of the 2012 Land Art Generator Initiative Competition for Freshkills Park in Staten Island, NYC are out. With 4 placed winners and a long list of shortlisted projects, the range of ideas shows how designers are exploring many different options for sustainable energy infrastructure.

The Winners:

• First: Scene-Sensor // Crossing Social and Ecological Flows byJames Murray and Shota Vashakmadze
• Second: Fresh Hills by Matthew Rosenberg, Structural Engineering Consultant: Matt Melnyk, Production Assistants: Emmy Maruta, Robbie Eleazer
• Third: Pivot by Yunxin Hu and Ben Smith
• Fourth: 99 Red Balloons by Emeka Nnadi, Scott Rosin, Meaghan Hunter, Danielle Loeb, Kara McDowell, Indrajit Mitra, Narges Ayat and Denis Fleury

Check out the projects after the break!

On November 5, the Design School at Arizona State University will be hosting a panel discussion centered around the David Wright House and the question of architectural preservation in the city of Phoenix. Speakers will include Burton Barr Central Library architect Will Bruder, The Design School’s director, and more. The conversation will touch on efforts have been underway over the last three months in Arizona to preserve the David Wright House, one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s “ most innovative, unusual and personal works of architecture,” from demolition by developers.

Composed of ten buildings, the proposal by 10 Design for the Badshahpur IT Park is set across a sinuous series of adjacent plots of varied ownership. The challenge was to create a common identity across the site, a hierarchy of amenity spaces, and a strategy for future expansion (or contraction) of the campus. The ambition was to create a vibrant and inclusive work environment that meets the expectations of today’s IT graduate candidate / employee, and the employers that seek to attract the same talent. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Designed by Dietmar Köring, Simon Takasaki and EyeTry, the proposal for the Haus der Zukunft (‘House of the Future’) responds to Berlin’s strict urban context: the concept of the “urban block” is touched upon and developed further. The building is partially lifted off the ground, and takes up the general building height of common Berlin housing. The fluid ground floor concept takes users into the open and dynamic spaces of the building’s interior. The urban block features three-dimensional cuts on the side facing the park, which creates a contemporary, clear structure, blurring the boundaries between exterior and interior. More images and designers’ description after the break.

Designed by Land+Civilization Compositions and Impressively Simple, their proposal for the Daegu Gosan Public Library, titled ‘Open Source’, is consciously not a singular gesture, but more as a series of interpretable spaces. Previously libraries were seen as places to gain access to books, but this library provides places for the dissemination and sharing of knowledge. More images and architects’ description after the break.