Despite strong opposition from preservationists and architects world-wide, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has announced his decision to support the demolition of Bertrand Goldberg’s Prentice Women’s Hospital. In a op-ed piece released by the Chicago Tribune, Emanuel supported his stance by arguing that Northwestern’s new biomedical research facility would “bring 2,000 jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in investment” to Chicago. Emanuel believes Goldberg’s “vision is alive in Chicago beyond one building” and allowing Northwestern to build the new medical center is crucial in keeping Chicago at the forefront of scientific innovation.

The redevelopment of Sydney’s an inner-city waterfront precinct of Barangaroo is making progress, as the Barangaroo Delivery Authority (BDA) has announced the five teams shortlisted for the master planning services for Barangaroo Central. The project will complete the long term vision for Barangaroo, which was masterplanned by Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners, by forming the “heart of the site” that will be the transition along the waterfront walk from the southern urban and commercial spaces to the natural form six hectare of the Headland Park.

The full shortlist includes:

Tadao Ando and the Japan Sport Council (JSC) have announced the eleven finalists who will compete in the final round of the international competition for the New National Stadium Japan. With the reconstruction, the National Stadium hopes to attract world-class events with the world’s largest spectator capacity and the world’s finest hospitality. The new stadium is already committed to hosting the 2019 Rugby World Cup and is slated for competition in 2018.

Tadao Ando describes: “Our wish is to see a stadium designed by someone who shares this earth, with wisdom and technology that looks to the future of out planet.”

The finalists after the break…

This week we propose a much lighter film but that still linked with our profession since it shows most of the domestic issues of an architect’s life. Deadlines, unexpected changes of schedule, and overnight work become a routine on the main character’s work. In the comedy, this lack of hours for sharing with the family and rest of social life is beaten through a new device able to control time.

Does this issue of time sound familiar to any of you? Let us know your comments about how you deal with time and architecture.

Loisos + Ubbelohde just received the highest award at the 2012 Architecture at Zero competition for their proposal, ‘Silver Streak’. The contest, sponsored by PG&E and AIA San Francisco, was conceived as a response to the lofty zero net energy targets set out by the California Public Utility Commission. As the recipient of one of two honor awards, their design for the University of California, Merced campus features an administration building that acts as both a threshold to campus and an energy field in the large plane of the agricultural valley. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Focused on ‘Cambodian Sustainable Housing’, the new Building Trust International Open International Design Competition looks into designing affordable, flood resistant housing in the South-east Asian country. In partnership with Karuna Cambodia, Habitat for Humanity & the Cambodian Society of Architects (CSA), proposals will have to keep below a budget of $2000 and deal with the yearly flooding that effects most residential areas. The winning design will be built by Habitat for Humanity Cambodia and will influence the way they build housing in the region. This competition is a real chance to make a difference to a large group of working Cambodians lives. Submissions are due January 15. To register, and for more information, please visit here.

Designed by PAR (Platform for Architecture + Research) and SES (Sériès et Sériès), their stage two finalist entry for the Keelung Harbor competition adopts a form that resists easy classification to free-associate with successive symbols of the utilitarian, the industrial, the poetic. Becoming a landmark in the harbor city, it combines maximum artistry with maximum efficiency. The new harbor project is only one piece in a larger green network that links public open space with waterfront amenities throughout the city. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Architects: Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas Location: 401, rue le Titien 34000 Montpellier, France Year: 2007-2012: competition 2007, won competition April 2007, building site January 2010, Inauguration September 2012 Project Team: Damon Belusco (project leader), Michele D’Arcangelo, Nicola Cabiati (model), Ana Gugic (interiors) Client: Région Languedoc-Roussillon Contractors: GFC – structure, SMAC – façades, BARSALOU – frames Consultants: ALTIA – Acoustics, NEVEUX-ROUYER – Landscape Architects, ALMA Consulting – Kitchen design Net surface: 23,600 sq.m. Gross surface: 25,736.80 sq.m. Area surface:16,500 sq.m.

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Urban planning is delicately intertwined with government. As much as architects and designers try to avoid the overwrought laws and codes and prescriptive government policies that guide the construction and development of the urban landscape, they are very much a shaping force in cities such as New York. Ask any architect working in a such as NYC and they will likely describe the bureaucratic hassles of working with outdated zoning regulations and restrictive building codes. In this NPR segment Leonard Lopate interviews New York Magazine’s architecture critic Justin Davidson to discusses the impact of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s planning policies on New York City’s urban development.

Join us after the break for the link.

It began with the relocation of the Zappos Headquarters, now owned by Amazon, from its offices in Henderson, Nevada, to the former city hall in downtown Las Vegas: an idea to transform the struggling part of downtown Las Vegas into a vibrant community with economic opportunities for young professionals along with an incentive for a variety of companies to build their foundations providing jobs and income for the city. Despite America’s association with the Las Vegas strip, the downtown has a metro area dominated by unemployment, foreclosure and bankruptcy. Zappos CEO Tony Hseih saw this area, filled with vacant lots, liquor stores and motels, as an opportunity to develop something new and enriched that could foster an economy, bring young professionals and inspire natural growth of community and industry. Hseih’s Downtown Project aims to develop a community by listening to what people want and need from their physical environment, that is also dense, diverse and inspires economic growth.

Join us after the break for more.

The interactive artwork ‘Lotus Dome’, by artist and architect Daan Roosegaarde of Studio Roosegaarde, was opened in Sainte Marie Madeleine Church in Lille, France. The project, which will be on view until January 13, 2013, is a living dome made out of hundreds of ultra-light aluminium flowers that fold open in response to human behavior. When approached, the big silver dome lights up and opens its flowers. Its behavior moves from soft breathing to a more dynamic mood when more people interact. The light slowly follows people, creating an interactive play of light and shadow. More images and architect’s description after the break.

RUA Arquitetos shared with us their design for the Olympic Golf Course Clubhouse in Rio de Janeiro which is organized like a comfortable veranda, dissolving the limits between the landscape, the building, and the users. As Rio citizens, the architects wanted an architecture that expressed the city’s lifestyle, one that was tropical, open and generous, like a big varanda leaning over the golf course. They reconfigured the concept of ‘veranda’ with a large, extremely light roofing around which the clubhouse’s activities are organized. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Designed as a social landmark, the proposal for the Daegu Gosan Public Library by Group8 is to be seen as an open entity, welcoming and willing to share its content. Located in a district with high educational standards, the library will become one of the main cultural facilities of the neighborhood, open to everyone. It will offer all the classic functions of a library but with a strong community identity and convenient amenities. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Architects: Burgos & Garrido arquitectos Location: Albacete, Spain Architects: Francisco Burgos & Ginés Garrido / BGAA Collaborators: Javier Malo, Myriam López, Agustín Martín, Elena de las Moras Project Year: 2007 Project Area: 7,254.85 sqm Photographs: Ángel Baltanás

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Architect: Dan Brunn Architecture Location: Beverly Hills, California General Contractor: Ken Nishio of Tokyo Construction, Inc. Graphics / Logo: Julie Priceman of 6 Degrees LA Audio Video: Jon Komen of Swayd Systems Exterior Sign: Ruben Cielak of Tako Tyko Chairs: Crassevig Srl Custom table fabrication: Global Source Industries, Inc. Bathroom tile: Iris Ceramica Bathroom plumbing: Duravit & Toto Counters: CaesarStone USA

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Eric Höweler and J. Meejin Yoon of Höweler + Yoon Architecture have been announced as winners of the Audi Urban Future Award 2012, an international architecture competition focused on the future of urban mobility in the five metropolitan regions Boston/Washington, Istanbul, Mumbai, Pearl River Delta, and São Paulo. With “Shareway”, the Boston firm’s winning proposal called for the reinvention of the Boston-Washington, D.C., metropolitan region called “Boswash”.

Höweler+Yoon Architecture was one of the five architectural offices that were selected for the competition. Other participating firms were Superpool (Istanbul), CRIT (Mumbai), Node Architecture & Urbanism (Pearl River Delta), and Urban-Think Tank (São Paulo).

We had the chance to interview the practices and ask them about the role of the architect in our society. We also talked to Eric Höweler about this project during the awards ceremony, video coming soon.

Project Description by Höweler+Yoon Architecture:

With the library as one of the most ancient architectural types that symbolizes human strive to fixate, collect and preserve knowledge, this proposal for the Daegu Gosan Public Library is based on the concept of a stone monolith as storage of the most important cultural knowledge and historical heritage. Designed by Viktor Kopeikin, Pavel Zabotin, Anna Kosharnaya, and Andrian Sokolovsky, the building of the library is synthesized due to symbiosis of the traditional (identical) and transnational (globalistic). More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) chose world-renowned architect, Zaha Hadid, as Chief Architect of its new “Innovation Tower”. The project, located at the northeast side of the university campus, will serve as a driving force in the development of Hong Kong as a design hub in Asia. The tower will also provide additional space to facilitate inter-disciplinary research and education in the field of design. The topping-out ceremony was held on September 24. On completion, it will be home to PolyU School of Design (SD) and the newly established Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The proposal by Aétrangère for the Bangalore International Center Complex Open House seeks to show a unique path to allow a soft transition of values from urban to nature and from modernity to local culture. Hybridizing the urban space with landscape and ecology, their design introduces and enhances new ways of urban, cultural and natural dialogue and fosters a shared sense of belonging and a strong sense of place and ‘ownership’. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Designed by Studiomobile, the ‘Networking Nature’ installation is on display until November 25th as part of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012, within the exhibition, “Traces of Century and Future Steps”. Their project is a living machine where it is impossible to see the dividing line between naturalized architecture and artificial organism. It deals with the issue of desalination of seawater and its integration into a Smart Water Network. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Taking place 6:30pm-8:00pm on Tuesday, October 30, the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. will be presenting a lecture by Madrid-based studio Ábalos + Sentkiewicz arquitectos. The event, which is part of the ‘Spotlight on Design’ series, focuses on their integration between architecture, environment, and landscape. This “thermodynamic beauty” is seen in a variety of international projects, including the Highspeed Rail Station in Logrono, Spain; Atelier Albert Oehlen in Bühler, Switzerland; and plans for a performing arts center in Taipei. Presented with the Embassy of Spain as part of Preview: Spain Art and Culture. The ‘Spotlight on Design’ speaker series is sponsored by Lafarge, the world leader in building materials, with additional support from the American Institute of Architects. For more information on the event, please visit here.

Toronto-based practice Lateral Office has shared with us their proposal for the Warming Huts v.2013 competition, entitled “Drift-Pass”. Inspired by the act of manipulating a snow fence, the plywood pavilion offers ice skaters shelter alongside the longest naturally frozen trail in the world in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Continue reading for the architects’ description.