Josep Lluís Mateo, of Mateo Arquitectura, recently presented his masterplan for the Pôle Multimodal Nice-Aéroport quartier d’affairs Grand Arénas which imagines a city of the future. His brief description and a video can be viewed after the break.

The intention of the design for the School Farm by Felipe Grallert Architects is to enhance the history of the place of Antilhue, once a train station, located in the Los Lagos town. Their design aims to put value on the station area as a large urban public square and create a path along the railroad tracks. Doing so would add history and cultural identity through an urban element capable of enhancing the rural characteristics. This would then translate into concrete action, an element capable of educating and bringing new opportunities based on its own roots, the vernacular and unique place. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Above is a video of NOW presenting their project, Kulttuurisauna, a new public building for the city of Helsinki, the World Design Capital 2012. Their design features saunas, cafe, offices, and a courtyard that opens directly to the sea. Using their model as a reference, you are able to get a sense of the spaces and their relationship to each other, as well as to the city itself which is discussed in the video.

Exhibited from April 6 – Mary 13, the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is pleased to present “Towards Comfo-Veg,” a large scale, site-specific installation designed for the SCI-Arc Gallery by architect and artist Peter Cook and partner Gavin Robotham of London-based CRAB Studio. Building on CRAB’s internationally recognized experimental work, Towards Comfo-Veg introduces an almost completely light-tight, multimedia experiential space welcoming visitors through a single point of entry and leading towards hints of an invented and dreamlike world. More information after the break.

U.S. Department of Energy has announced the date and location of the 2013 Solar Decathlon. Appearing for the first time outside of Washington D.C., the highly anticipated competition will take place in 2013 from October 3rd through the 13th at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, California. Launched in 2002, the biennial event will challenge twenty collegiate teams to design, build and operate a solar-powered house that is cost-effective, energy-efficient and attractive. Participants are judged by their ability to blend affordability, consumer appeal and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.

Continue reading after the break for more information and the complete list of the 2013 teams.

Norman Foster’s Swiss Re Building will soon have a new neighbor! London-based practice Fletcher Priest Architects have designed a 16-story tower that will replace the existing, outdated 1980s office building. Now under construction, the new 230,000 square-foot office building at 6 Bevis Marks will reuse 50% of the original structure and be 80% more energy efficient than the current building. Continue reading for more.

When Apple revealed the plans for their new campus in Cupertino, the responses to the “spaceship” were….varied, to say the least:

“Spectacular would be an understatement” ; “So disappointing…” ; a “…panopti-lawn…” ; and – my personal favorite – “Sphincter?” [1]

The announcement instigated a flurry of analyses and criticisms over the meaning of the design for the world – the Zen-like significance of the circle, the role of architecture in this technologically-driven age, the legacy and hubris of Jobs – but produced very little discussion over its meaning for the company itself.

Meanwhile, months before news of the “spaceship” landed, another internet giant was searching the California landscape for its own space to call home. Still very much under-wraps, the new Googleplex will be the first time Google builds a workplace completely from scratch. [2]

These projects will be the Magnum Opuses, the ultimate physical representations, of the two most influential Tech companies in the world, and the two share striking similarities. So let’s clash the plans of these two titans and take another look at Apple 2 – but this time in the light of Google – and see what they can tell us about these companies’ futures.

The Ministry of Information and Culture of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, in collaboration and sponsorship with the Government of the United States of America and the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, has announced an International Architectural Ideas Competition for a new National Museum of Afghanistan (IAIC_NMA) in Kabul. The one stage ideas competition seeks to generate new and creative design proposals for the museum. Applicants may be invited to provide full design serves, or may be asked to partner with other design firms to produce the documents for the planning phase. This is seen as a great opportunity between the international and local design communities to collaborate and envision a museum that represents Afghanistan in the 21st. The top three winning proposals will win a cash prize up to 50,000 US$. Continue reading for more details.

Lebbeus Woods is well known for his conceptual drawings that bring new worlds and spaces into the eyes of their viewers. In four decades, Woods has shared his imagined worlds, expressing ideas about spaces, inhabitation and technology, and outlined alternate futures. Through April 6th, Friedman Benda Gallery will be exhibiting Lebbeus Woods: Early Drawings from the 1980s, many of which have never been displayed before. The gallery is located 515 West 26th Street in New York City. A preview of the exhibit after the break!

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The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), Montréal, announces the launch of the book and website related to its current major exhibition, Imperfect Health: The Medicalization of Architecture, on view in the CCA’s main galleries for an extended run until 15 April, 2012.

Produced by the Canadian Centre for Architecture and Lars Müller Publishers, the book, in French and English editions, bears the same title as the exhibition and is available from March 2012. Edited by exhibition curators Giovanna Borasi (Curator of Contemporary Architecture, CCA), and Mirko Zardini (Chief Curator and Director, CCA), the book extends the research produced for the exhibition and includes essays by leading academics Margaret Campbell, Nan Ellin, David Gissen, Carla C. Keirns, Linda Pollak, Hilary Sample, Sarah Schrank, and Deane Simpson.

The book investigates the historical connections between health, design and the environment, bringing to light uncertainties and contradictions in cultures informed by Western medicine. Within this framework, the essays it contains reflect on themes related to the exhibition such as the relationship between the built environment and human health; pollution; modernism and hygiene; planning strategies for dealing with urban disease; the challenges of the urban environment on health; the relationship between physical health and the built environment; urban design in an ageing society; and the impact of sun on health.

More about the book, the microsite and the exhibition after the break.

European real estate investment firm, Orion Capital Managers, teamed with development company, Groveworld, and received permission to move forward with a 30-storey tower for 257 City Road Basin in London. Designed by UNStudio, the tower will become a new landmark residential development with waterside vistas. Aref Lahham of Orion Capital explained, “The Canal Basin is being transformed into one of London’s most stylish waterside residential quarters…With such an exciting design, 257 City Road will be a highlight of this regeneration effort and a landmark for the area.”

More after the tower after the break.

Representing the future development of Venice, the LINK Solar Power Skyscraper aims to provide the geographic area of the laguna of Venice with a new landmark: a link between architecture and urbanism, between the ancient city of Venice and the industrial area named Marghera. A link between function and emotion. Designed by LED Architecture Studio, the project is an architecture-infrastructure, a crucial urban development responding to the present and future needs of this locality. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The CEDEI Nursery School, designed by +K Arquitetos, was conceived with urban dwelling in mind, and with a facade that resembles the manufacturing plants of the neighborhood where it is located. The separate buildings and spaces, each with its specific and exclusive purpose – administration, nursery, atelier, multiple use rooms, eatery and kitchen, etc – are interconnected by wide sidewalks, plazas and skywalks. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Today, the Chicago Tribune has reported James Corner Field Operations Team has been selected to redesign the 3,000 foot-long Chicago landmark, Navy Pier. Blair Kamin stated that the pier’s governing board approved the recommendation from the pier’s strategic planning committee to hire the JFCO team as they favored the team’s practical, yet still creative approach over the other, somewhat grandiose, schemes. It has been a big week for JCFO, as James Corner and Rich Scofidio’s latest ideas for the third section of the High Line were released on Tuesday. Continue reading for more information on the latest news regarding the winners of the international Navy Pier redesign competition.

Jan Schevers and Heleen Herrenberg met with Peter Märkli in Zürich, Switzerland to discuss his personal perspective on education, research and practice in architecture, considering what the art of building means to society and the individual today. Enjoy the video and join the discussion after the break.

Located in rolling hills of Durbanville wine valley on the outskirts of Cape Town, Vissershok Primary School is a rural school dedicated to the children of farm workers and underprivileged communities living in Du Noon – a poverty-stricken township several kilometers away. Sponsored by three South African companies – Woolworths, Safmarine and AfriSam – the Vissershok Container Classroom is a 12 meter recycled container that was converted into an independent classroom for 25 Grade R (age 5-6) students. Continue reading for more.

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Studio BANG shared with us their design proposal for the competition for Ny Våler Kirke, a new church in Norway. Through creating a perceivable tribute to the old wooden church, their concept results in an upward focus that transports light into the holy space. More images and a brief architects’ description after the break.

With the Simon Family Tower addition still under construction at the Riley Hospital for Children, the installation for hospital is complete, after over a year in the making. Designed by PROJECTiONE, ‘Riley Sunrise’ was designed with the hope that the super-graphics can serve as a pleasant distraction for visitors of the hospital and lead to discussions that can re-focus a conversation towards something positive and uplifting. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Taken by Clement Guillaume, the photographs in this post include projects by the 2012 Pritzker Prize winner, Wang Shu, Chinese architect and founder of Amateur Architecture Studio. The projects featured here include Campus Hangzhou, CIPA Nanjing, Five Squared Houses, Ningbo, Zhongshan Lu, and Vertical Houses. Shu’s projects present a contemporary and progressive approach that acknowledges the rich tradition of Chinese architecture and as one of the jury members for the Pritzker Prize stated, ‘produces an architecture that is timeless and deeply rooted in its context and yet universal.’ A gallery of images can be viewed after the break.

The project proposal for the Student’s Residence on U.L.E Campus by MACA Estudio + VIRAI Arquitectos is designed as a system rather than a building. Unable to design a solution based on the conditions associated with a given plot, the project offers an independent and isotropic system, with its own “domestic” rules, which does not depend on where it is located and responds the same way to the different physical conditions that can be found. More images and architects’ description after the break.

In order to compete in an increasingly competitive global market and address long-term development needs, the University of Cambridge is undertaking an ambitious new urban extension in North West Cambridge. The master plan for the development, prepared by Aecom, lays out the framework for a new district centered on a mixed academic and urban community. With aspirations of achieving place that is well balanced, long-lasting and sustainable, the University is focused on creating a high quality of life for its residents that will enhance both the City and the University.

The University is now looking to appoint a number of architecture and landscape firms to design and deliver each proposed lot as part of the first phase of the extension. The shortlist consists of internationally renowned architects, including Bjarke Ingels Group and David Chipperfield Architects. Continue reading to learn more information on the extension and review the complete shortlist.