In 2007 I visited one of the most talked about autism buildings at the time, the Netley Primary School Autistic Unit in London, England. To my surprise, the building did not look or function in the way the publication material had depicted it. The teachers I interviewed said the views from the nearly wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling windows were too distracting for the students. Their solution was to cover ¾ of the windows with paper. On top of making the building look somewhat rundown, this solution appeared to hinder the lighting design that originally depended on more daylight. The lesson for future projects seemed obvious; limit views and adjust the lighting accordingly. That is the conclusion I drew, and apparently so did Haverstock Associates, the firm that designed Netley.

After Netley, Haverstock Associates adjusted their approach for the recently finished Kentish Town School Autistic Resource Base. At Kentish Town, Haverstock scaled back the amount of exterior views by employing opaque walls that allow light in but limit views out. There are still a few large views to the outside, and the opaque walls are punctuated every so often with small clear glass windows, mostly above eye-level, but the approach is noticeably different from the one used at Netley (for Kentish Town project images see here). But is the conclusion about limiting views correct? Perhaps, but it might be something else. Maybe what is viewed matters more than how much is viewed.

“White”, a gallery installation produced by the 20 students of Studio 400, a fifth-year architectural design studio at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, served to present each of the student’s research books. The installation was designed, developed, fabricated, and installed by the studio in a collaborative effort. The students developed the design over a period of about a month, with fabrication and installation occurring over a five day period. 80,000 square feet of plastic sheeting was sliced, loomed, woven, stapled, taped and tied to provide a climbable and malleable surface in the 4,500 square foot gallery. “White” supported a variety of interactive experiences above and below this dynamic surface, opening and exploring the relationships between book, user, material, space, and collective group. More images and the studio’s description after the break.

The winners of the Global Holcim Awards 2012 were recently announced which asked participants to design a project for a school in Gando, Burkina Faso, a community center in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and a plan for urban renewal in Berlin, Germany. These outstanding sustainable construction projects were selected from 15 finalists by a panel of independent experts led by Enrique Norten. More images and information on the winning designs after the break.

The semiannual journal SOILED, published by CARTOGRAM Architecture + Urban Design, has released its third issue, entitled Platescrapers, which probes edible encounters at the intersection of inhabited spaces and the processes of cultivating, peddling, and devouring. It posits that foodstuffs can become extensions of physical places. Platescrapers is at once a narrative and a rallying cry, commingling food culture with established power structures and political agendas. Along this trajectory, Platescrapers navigates itinerant fare, comestible politics, and gastro-ritual to purvey stories about social issues and exaggerated realities; each story illustrates food as a monument to galvanize the public. More images and information on the issue after the break.

d3 is pleased to announce the winners of the 2012 Housing Tomorrow competition. The annual competition promotes the exploration of contextual, cultural, and life cycle flows that offer new housing strategies for living in the future. Sponsored by New York-based d3, the competition invites architects, designers, engineers, and students to collectively explore innovative approaches to residential urbanism, architecture, interiors, and designed objects.

d3 recognizes innovative strategies that challenge conventional housing typologies with emerging planning strategies, advanced technologies and alternative materials. Competition submissions for 2012 reflect forces of globalization and adaptation, as well as the changing nature of visualization in academia and professional design practice. As an annual competition, d3 Housing Tomorrow seeks to identify and celebrate emerging voices and visionary proposals that connect housing with people, context and ecologies.

Continue after the break to view the three winners and twelve honorable mentions selected by the jury.

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Receiving second-place in the Classic Siftung Weimar international competition for the New Bauhaus Museum, the proposal by Architekten HRK (Klaus Krauss and Rolf Kursawe, Cologne) enhances the public access into Weimarhallenpark. The distinctive form of the museum creates a strong impression in the urban setting and is characterised by the cleverly staggered arrangement of the elongated structures. The proposal is also impressive in terms of its interior design qualities. The central interior space creates a unique, independent and attractive flair for the New Bauhaus Museum. Continue after the break for more images.

If you could construct your house out of materials made, recycled, or found within 100-miles of your lot, would you? And if you did, would you feel proud that you never once stepped into The Home Depot? Would you tout the fact that you took an environmental stand, that you did your bit to help the world?

Would you have?

As we mentioned in February, The Architecture Foundation of British Colombia has launched a competition to construct the 100-mile House. Inspired by the 100-mile Diet of locavore fame, in which you only eat what is grown or harvested within 100 miles of your home, the 100-mile house challenges you to construct historically, “using only materials and systems made/ manufactured / recycled” within a 100 mile radius.

But is this method truly better for the environment? Or just another example of pretentious pseudo-greenery?

More after the break…

Janine Benyus, president of the Biomimicry 3.8 Institute in Missoula, MT, will be giving a lecture at MIT on the theme of ‘Evolved to Fit: Biomimicry in the Built Word’. Janine Benyus is a natural sciences writer, innovation consultant, and author of six books, including her latest − Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. In Biomimicry, she names an emerging discipline that seeks sustainable solutions by emulating nature’s designs and processes (e.g., solar cells that mimic leaves, agriculture that models a prairie, businesses that run like redwood forests). The event, which is free and open to the public, takes place Thursday, April 5th at 6:30pm at MIT Building 10, room 250. For more information, please visit here.

The design of this project by Studio Providence LLC, a partnership by Friedrich St. Florian Architects and 3six0 Architecture, was the result of an international competition. Awarded by the Boston Society of Architects with an esteemed Unbuilt Project Award, the proposal uses three piers that are evocative of the fishing piers of New England.

The center of Tirana is marked by a clear urban layout, but its recent growth filled up a large area around it without any order, structure, adequate services or meaningful public spaces. In this proposal by Cino Zucchi Architetti, in collaboration with One Works, Gustafson Porter, Buro Happold London, and Antonello Stella Architects, the voids rather than the buildings become the catalysts of new urban regeneration. In doing so, their design attracts public and private functions around a sequence of green spaces of high environmental quality. The extension of the boulevard into a lively green promenade progressively opens up to the beautiful landscape of the hills across the Tirana river. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Armin Valter and Joel Kopli shared with us their competition winning proposal for the Memorial of Victims of Communism in Estonia. Situated on/in northern coastal limestone cliff near town Paldiski, which was a closed military nuclear submarine base in soviet times, their design attempts to revitalize the place and bring more awareness to people of the region. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The 12th International Alvar Aalto Symposium will be held in Jyväskylä Finland from August 10-12, 2012. With the theme of ‘Crafted’ – The Ingredients of Architecture’, the question arises: How does architecture rise above the ordinary? Organised by the Alvar Aalto Academy, the international Alvar Aalto Symposium aims to address the complex relationship between material, craft and culture, not simply as a matter of professional practice but also as a sociological and pedagogical imperative. More information on the event after the break.

We at ArchDaily are used to picking the best buildings for you, dear readers, but we felt it was time to turn the tables a bit. The following is the best of you. You didn’t always agree with us, but you opined intelligently, and for that we salute you.

The Top 3 Comments in March 2012

3. From Community-Oriented Architecture in Schools: How ‘Extroverted’ Design Can Impact Learning and Change the World, about the potential of architecture to transform the lives of students in low-income communities.

 ”Imagine if we designed all public space as if we lived in a democracy. Imagine if we treated participation as a right. Imagine if this was part of the core curriculum in architecture schools.”

– Graeme Bristol

Our Number 1 Comment, after the break…

We hope these architectural LOLCats will help you through your Monday. They have been appearing all over the internet and invading all of our favorite architectural icons, courtesy of the students at UC Berkeley. Follow us after the break to view a few of our favorites.

Architects: Söhne & Partner Architekten Location: Albertina Passage, Vienna, Austria Photographs: Severin Wurnig

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From April 8th through the 14th, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) will be hosting National Architecture Week in an effort to increase public awareness on the role architects play as a force for positive change in our communities and to elevate the public’s appreciation of design. With a theme of “Design Connects”, the AIA encourages you to join in an online national conversation. Continue reading to learn more on how you can participate.

A secondary school project in Gando, Burkina Faso, a community center project in São Paulo, Brazil, and an urban renewal plan in Berlin, Germany are the winners of the Global Holcim Awards for 2012. These leading sustainable construction projects were selected from 15 finalist submissions by a jury of independent experts led by Enrique Norten. The finalists were the regional Holcim Awards 2011 winning projects that had been selected from more than 6,000 entries in 146 countries.

All 53 prize-winning projects at the regional level also competed for further prizes based on their contributions to sustainable construction through innovative building materials and construction technologies. The Global Holcim Innovation prizes conferred by a jury of materials and industry experts led by Harry Gugger went to projects in Switzerland, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Continue after the break to view the winning proposals!

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April is Autism Awareness Month, and ArchDaily would like to draw your attention to the architectural coverage we have done on the topic. Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are developmental disorders that affect 1 in 88 children. The spectrum is large and diverse. It ranges from individuals who can be socially withdrawn, have extreme learning difficulties and little to no communication to individuals who can be highly intelligent but socially awkward. Each individual, however, exhibits, to varying degrees, impairments in social interaction and communication, and restricted and repetitive behavior. ArchDaily’s coverage looks at the various approaches architects have taken when designing for individuals with autism. We hope to get your feedback on the articles and your help in spreading autism awareness.

The design intent of Lemay Associés for the Stinson Transport Center in Montreal was to achieve a seamless weaving of the project into the surrounding urban fabric. They then did thus through the introduction of a new dialog element: an interface which will serve as a catalyst for the renewal of the surrounding industrial sector. Characterized by simple and contemporary volumetrics, the project is based on functional principles which give it its geometric singularity. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The sports center’s concept by Côté Leahy Cardas Architects rests on the alteration of the site on which it will be implemented. A site which has been metamorphosed from an industrial field (a quarry) into a landfill and will now be transformed into a park and environmental complex. By its shape, and its feature, its adaptability to the site, by its suggested trails and visual links, the project expresses the whole transformation, the evolution towards a huge environmental park, opened on research and experimentation. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Filmed in 1921, Manhatta reveals a typical day in Lower Manhattan in the early part of the 20th century. Painter Charles Sheeler and photographer Paul Strand created this silent film to discover the relationship between film and photography, while exploring their love to the City. Just as it is today, the City is amidst endless chaos.

Koen Olthuis’s Dutch practice, Waterstudio, has been preparing for the environmental impacts on architecture for ten years now – building a practice on the assumption that a new solution for inhabitation is on the water. Having lived in Amsterdam, Olthuis has intimate experience with the battle against water that people have posed for themselves. In an interview with Jill Fehrenbacher for Inhabitat, Olthuis describes how Amsterdam was settled, what it means to have a city built upon water and the maintenance required. Olthuis’ desire to colonize the oceans is not new, but his techniques, which he touches upon in this TEDx Talk in Warwick, focus on a refined and innovative way of approaching this strategy that is progressive in that it requires far less maintenance.