MAXXI, MoMA and their new Chilean partner CONSTRUCT have kicked off the 2012 edition of YAP MAXXI, following this past summer’s successful first edition named WHATAMI by stARTT. Together the U.S. and Italian jury chose five finalists, from the 43 invited designers, who may still have the opportunity to reinvent the square of MAXXI in Rome. The winners of both YAP MAXXI in Rome and MoMA PS1 in New York will be announced in February and the installations will launch simultaneously in June 2012.

The Museum of Tolerance, designed by Bracha Chyutin, Michael Chyutin, Jacques Dahan, and Ariel Noyman is located at the heart of modern Jerusalem, in its rejuvenated city center, on the borderline between the spacious Independence Park, and the urban built environment. The location is a meeting site of three main streets which differ in character and function. Hillel street: a bustling commercial zone; Moshe Ben Israel street: a road crossing the park; and Moshe Salomon street- Nachalat Shiva’s pedestrian mall, a tourist hub, full of restaurants and shops. More images and architects’ description after the break.

In the beginning of December, we shared the news of Steven Holl‘s 2012 AIA Gold Medal award; a prestigious honor given to those who continually push the field forward with their “humanist approach to formal experimentation.” A few short weeks later, Holl’s Cité de l’Océan et du Surf (translated to Museum of Ocean and Surf) has received a 2011 Annual Design Review Award. This new museum in Biarritz, France is a collaborative effort with Solange Fabião and has attracted international attention for its spatial duality of crafting an atmosphere “under the sky” and “under the sea”.

More about the award after the break. 

At the competition’s program, the concepts square and park take turns, describing a project of multiple uses and of a mixed texture. The primary target of architects, Yannis Kizis, Costandis Kizis, Thymis Dougkas, and Gregory Patsalosavvis is the change of the scenery: a green land expanded in relieved territory, with strong character, with the dominance of nature, a new experience of a specific public space. More images and architects’ description after the break.

As the world’s largest mobile phone provider, China Mobile is seeking for a universally valid company representation. A part of china Mobiles company philosophy is the client company relationship, which is also reflected in the building configuration design by Synarchitects . The Pingdinshan China Mobile Building combines the company’s global image with local context and meaning, custom tailored for the location. The industrial and historical background of Pingdinshan is interlaced into the building and finds its representation in one of the two volumes standing for past, history and local tradition. More images and architects’ description after the break.

109 Architectes recently took home the third prize at the 12th annual ThyssenKrupp Elevator Architecture Awards with their design for for the Disaster Prevention and Education Center in Bakırköy, Istanbul. A total of 287 projects from 59 countries were submitted to the competition. Participants were required to propose an Istanbul Disaster Prevention and Education Center on a 27,000m2 piece of land. The center will be equipped with educational resources including audiovisual equipment, simulation systems to recreate the experience of natural disasters, first aid supplies and emergency communication systems. In the center, a planetarium, library, information boards and meeting halls will serve to inform visitors. More images and project description after the break.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is set to announce Cornell University and its partner, the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, winner of the intense, yearlong competition to build a New York City Tech Campus on Roosevelt Island. The announcement follows Stanford University’s unexpected withdraw from the competition after tense negotiations with the Bloomberg administration. Meanwhile, last Friday Cornell received a $350 million donation in support of their proposal, being the largest gift the University has ever received.

The main challenge of [Inter.National.Design] and Erginoğlu + Çalışlar for this project is to arrive to a proposal that could articulate not only an interesting and comfortable life for the users of the campus, but to take this opportunity to improve the urban articulation of this site located in front of the famous city wall, near the frozen zone of the tourist strip of Varosha and next to a potentially dynamic avenue. The campus should also serve as a place of social and cultural encounter open to all citizens, in that sense it should be a campus of excellence qualities of public space and accessibility. Finally, their last goal is be able to arrive to a formal scheme that can also integrate the dispersed and mixed presence of historic buildings and turning them from nuisances into assets of the university life. More images and architects’ description after the break.

With a unanimous vote by the City Council on December 5, the Combined Properties, Inc./Hudson Pacific Properties, Inc./Ehrlich Architects team was awarded the 9300 Culver Boulevard (Parcel B) Development Project in Culver City, California. More images and complete press release after the break.

Openarch

The Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) was commissioned by the Government Services Administration (GSA) to conduct a post-occupancy evaluation of 22 “green” federal buildings from across the United States. The report stats reveal that not only does these “green” buildings emit 34 percent less carbon dioxide and are using 11 percent less water, they cost on average 19 percent less to maintain. In addition to the environmental and economical savings, the evaluation reports that the occupants are more satisfied in the “green” buildings by 27 percent.

Continue reading for more information.

The Rigshospital is well-defined by Fælledparken and Amorparken at it’s boundaries, and due to these park areas, the hospital campus exudes a unique ‘green’ potential. The buildings serve as an intermediary between the dense urban fabric on Blegdamsvej and the open natural areas to the north of the site. This interconnectedness strongly influenced the concept and form of this scheme by the team of COWI, WHITE Arkitekter, DEVE Architecture, LAND+ Landskabsarkitekter and Lyngkilde, leading to what could eventually become a hospital nestled within a lush, green, natural environment within the bustling urban center of Copenhagen. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The multi-use office complex proposed by FGMF (Forte, Gimenes & Marcondes Ferras) Arquitectos for this 32.000m² lot aims at creating not only a new architectural reference for the region, but also a new destination for the city. Adding three different uses – retail, office buildings and modular offices – the new complex creates a landmark in the landscape, values the surroundings, and establishes a new shopping destination. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Tired of scurrying under makeshift unpleasant scaffolding hovering over the streets of Manhattan? Back in 2009, Bloomberg launched an urban design intervention initiative calling for designers to provide a “fresh new sidewalk shed” to replace its dingy predecessors. Entitled urbanSHED, the international design competition challenged participants to develop a sustainable and economic prototype to be used for New York’s 1,000,000+ linear feet of sidewalks. Such a prototype must meet or exceed the City’s current safety requirements and regulations, and improve technical and structural performance. The winning shed was designed by Young-Hwan Choi, a student from the University of Pennsylvania. The shed is the first design to be approved under the City’s Buildings Bulletin 2011 and will be installted in Lower Manhattan soon!

More about the design after the break. 

Architecture photographer Fernando Guerra (FG+SG) posted this short video of the renowned Portguese architect and Pritzker laureate (1992) Alvaro Siza, while working and singing to The Beatles. He looks quite inspired!

Dedicated to the life and work of Amancio d’Alpoim Guedes (Pancho Guedes), A Porcura De Pancho illustrates the journey of a solitary student exploring the city of Maputo in search of Pancho. The architect, sculptor and painter spent most of his life in Mozambique, where he designed more than 500 buildings.

In celebration of the 75th anniversary of Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home, studio and architectural campus in Scottsdale, Arizona, Phoenix Art Museum presents Frank Lloyd Wright: Organic Architecture for the 21st Century. The exhibit will explore Wright and his relevance today through a survey of more than 40 projects shown through rarely seen drawings, models, furniture, films and photographs.

The Arizona exhibit will be open to the public from December 18th, 2011 to April 29th, 2012 at the Steele Gallery in the Phoenix Art Museum.

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National land charity the Land Trust and RIBA Competitions launched an international competition this week until the last week in March to find the most inspirational design and funding team to create a new visitor destination and public open space at the former Cronton Colliery in Knowsley. The competition is open to architects and architect-led multi-disciplinary design teams and will be in two stages, judged anonymously in the first stage. A shortlist will then be invited to enhance and present their designs and potential funding propositions at interview as part of the second stage. More information on the competition after the break.

As you well know already we like MARK Magazine, and this issue fails to disappoint. It has projects from many of the architects we have featured here on ArchDaily such as, StudioGreenBlue, Heri&Salli, Clavel Arquitectos, Kengo Kuma, Colboc Franzen, Studio Velocity, Takeshi Hosaka, Fuhrimann Hachler, Toyo Ito, Nieto Sobejano, L3P Architekten, and more. The notice board gives a shout out to the Keret House by Centrala, which was one of our most viewed projects this year.

A garden is not just a beautiful place; it is a place for enjoyment, a place of admiration and a place where we come in contact with and learn about nature, especially food. A garden is also a workplace, where one’s hard efforts are rewarded with a bountiful harvest. In recognition of the intense relationship between growing and eating a garden, Taste the Slope, the winning proposal in the International Garden Festival by Active City Transformation, strives to create a more meaningful public connection to the foods we grow and where they are eaten; a local, hands-on garden café of sorts. More images and architects description after the break.

CLOG recently announced their open call for submissions for their third issue, Data Space. All over the world, data centers are becoming integral components of our 21st century infrastructure. These facilities can range from small portable modules to massive warehouses full of servers, from sleek new constructions to reuse of existing infrastructures. What is the significance of this bridge between the virtual and the physical? How does this new typology affect the discourse of architecture and the shaping of our built environment? As cloud storage and global internet usage increase, it’s finally time to talk about the physical space of data. The deadline for submissions is January 9th. For more information, please visit their website here.

When architects use SketchUp Pro as a tool for making more-accurate bubble diagrams, they create “rooms” whose areas match the ones in the program, group each one, and arrange them three-dimensionally. This is useful until one of the rooms changes size, which can throw off the whole process.

After serving in the U.S. Air Force, Marshall founded The Marshall Group in 1982 and has a long history of providing services to the AIA. In the 1980’s, Marshall became the first African-American to attain board membership with the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS). Marshall is also an active member of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA).

Most of us have heard stories about the life of Frank Lloyd Wright, including the scandalous tale of his mistress Martha “Mamah” Cheney and the tragic murder that took place in their Wisconsin home. The legendary architect has also captured the attention of veteran filmmaker Bruce Beresford and producers J. Todd Harris and Ed Bachrach, as they have signed on to create a film about Frank Lloyd Wright entitled Taliesin.