The participants should take into consideration the advances in technology, the exploration of sustainable systems, and the establishment of new urban and architectural methods to solve economic, social, and cultural problems of the contemporary city including the scarcity of natural resources and infrastructure and the exponential increase of inhabitants, pollution, economic division, and unplanned urban sprawl. More information on the competition’s official website.

At a screening of The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: An Urban History in New York City, a man in front of me wondered aloud “Do you think there are more urban planners, or St. Louis people here?” The film’s crowd drew heavily from both and also attracted people with interests in social housing, modernism, racial tensions, architecture, and documentary films. Prior to the screening, the crowd was easily divided into two groups: those with an interest in Pruitt-Igoe as a case study, and those with a personal connection to St. Louis city’s triumphs and struggles. By the end of the show, The Pruitt-Igoe Myth left every viewer knowledgable about the city’s past, as well as invested in St. Louis’ future. More after the break.

Entries from across the globe have flooded in, with some of the world’s most iconic buildings being shortlisted to set the benchmark for the Architectural world in 2011. This year looks set to be the toughest competition yet. With practices flying in from all over the globe, The Emirates Glass LEAF Awards 2011 is now regarded by many of the world’s architectural community as the annual event for viewing quality international design and build projects.

The awards will be celebrated and honored at London’s Landmark Hotel on September 16th, 2011 for the buildings and design solutions that are setting the benchmark for the future of architecture and design. The Architectural community from across the globe will gather at The Emirates Glass LEAF Awards which will double up as an international networking event. This gathering of industry experts will include a judging panel comprising of key individuals drawn from various areas of the international architectural design and construction community. More images and the complete shortlist awards after the break.

Although often criticized for being especially liberal in its approach to crime and punishment, Norway focuses intensely on ensuring that ”doing time” is done in a dignified way, and inmates’ sentence should be a dress rehearsal for living a life without crime once they have completed their sentence. The Halden Prison in Halden, Norway by HLM arkitektur in collaboration with Erik Møller Arkitekter is considered to be the world’s most humae prison and it will be the new home for Anders Breivik, the Norwegian right-wing extremist responsible for the deaths of 76 people last week.

More after the break.

Amazing architecture photography from our Flickr Pool. As always, remember you can submit your own photo here, and don’t forget to follow us through Twitter and our Facebook Fan Page to find many more features.

The photo above was taken by toxophilite in Sheffield, England. Check the other four after the break.

I am constantly amazed by the extremes architects go to to realize their “vision” or to impress or even merely serve a client. Clients demand so much and architects seem to willingly bend to insane schedules that tax their people to the maximum. In the age of extreme everything, architecture is extreme working.

Of course sometimes good things can emerge from the pressures of compressing schedules. There are synergistic flows that can magically occur when people are working under the pressure of an impending deadline. Granted, sometimes pressure is a good thing that allows creativity to emerge.

Voted the most important building of the 20th century in a poll conducted by the American Institute of Architects, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater this month celebrates its 75th anniversary. This residential mountain retreat masterpiece by Wright was designed in 1935 for legendary Pittsburgh department store owner Edgar Kaufmann Sr. and his family. Drawing crowds of 160,000 visitors a year to Western Pennsylvania’s picturesque Laurel Highlands, Fallingwater redefined the relationship between man, architecture, and nature with Wright’s integrated design of the existing waterfall and the house itself. Commemorating the anniversary, Rizzoli has published a 382 page book entitled Fallingwater complete with specially commissioned photography just for this book.

The Jabotinsky Institute, designed by Chyutin Architects Ltd, engages an archival collation and display of materials connected with Ze’ev Jabotinsky and with the underground Jewish nationalist movements prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. The building will be erected on a triangular plot with roads on either side of it and its apex pointing to an intersection. More images and architects’ description after the break.

With nearly 23 million people, Shanghai is China’s biggest and most populous city. It is the financial and commercial capital of the country and a leading cultural center in Asia. Throughout the 1990′s and 2000′s the city underwent immense growth and redevelopment, thriving on international business. The futuristic and ambitious skyline of Pudong is the heart of Shanghai’s business district, and is growing swiftly with towering skyscrapers and an advanced urban environment. More pictures and information after the break.

On the waterfront of Flekkefjord, a town on Norway’s south coast, Helen & Hard incorporates a theater hall, cinema, library, gallery, youth club and cultural school for their design of the Flekkefjord Cultural Center. Designed for their client, Flekkefjord Kommune, it has recently been approved for construction. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Architect Stephen Bender with MWBa LLC., Gretel Castillo, and Lance Moore (aka Co-tain) recently finished a proposal for the AIA Competition to design a Case Study House for Florida. The competition aimed to re-define the notion of the ‘Florida House’ for the 21st century and called for the design of a sustainable 1500 square foot single family home that could withstand the harsh Florida climate while staying affordable. More images and Architects’ description after the break.

For the 2011 Xi’an International Horticultural Exposition, the Berlin-based landscape architecture office Topotek1 “dug” a hole to the other side of the world. From its edges visitors to this garden in China can peer into a real or imagined world at the end of the tunnel. Whether these are the cows from the pampas of Argentinas, commuters rushing among transit through New York City, the maritime life of Stockholm, and layers of history so audible among the streets of Berlin. These soundtracks pique the imagination of the visitors, transferring them away from China, away from the garden,” and into a far-off place.

The “blanks” or “options” in the brief are deliberate, and the opportunity on offer to the entrants is that they can fill in the blanks in any way that they choose. For example you can decide the country, the climate and who the occupiers of this property are likely to be, along with what their needs and wishes for the garden might be. Some may see this as a home for a young family; others may see it as a home for adults only. You may want to make this a holiday home or something more permanent. Your imaginary clients may or may not be keen gardeners, they may or may not be big entertainers, but what you must assume is that whatever their preferences might be, they want to make the most of their garden. Making yourself the “virtual client” may be a way to go.

Located in a central area of Madrid, in the district of Chamberí, the new Vallehermoso Sports Centre, designed my ABM Arquitectos, is taking the place of the old stadium complex built in the 1950’s. The former complex included the locally famous athletics stadium and a number of complementary sports facilities. Since closing to the public in 2007 and demolished in 2008, the Town Hall is planning the construction of a new Sports Center which is starting to become a reality after this project was selected as the design winner along with a new athletics stadium that will be developed later on. The construction of the new sports centre will start in 2012. It will be a gentle building in its architectural expression. It will embrace the city and interact with it creating a meeting point and an activity focus. More images and architects’ description after the break.

When one mentions the architecture of Germany during World War Two, the first ideas that come to mind are not the possibilities for new growth in the 21st century. But that is exactly what the Nazi bunkers that were built provide for us today. In Berlin, these bunkers are a monolithic and often oppressive reminder of the past, but are also ripe for intelligent thought about what they can be used for in the future. More information and images after the break.

Next week we will be taking our Architecture City Guide to Amsterdam and we need your help. To make the City Guides more engaging we are asking for your input on which designs should comprise our weekly list of 12-24. In order for this to work we will need you, our readers, to suggest a few of your favorite modern/contemporary buildings for the upcoming city guide in the comment section below. Along with your suggestions we ask that you provide a link to an image you took of the building that we can use, the address of the building, and the architect. (The image must be from a site that has a Creative Common License cache like Flickr or Wikimedia. We cannot use images that are copyrighted unless they are yours and you give us permission.) From that we will select the top 12-24 most recommended buildings. Hopefully this method will help bring to our attention smaller well done projects that only locals truly know. With that in mind we do not showcase private single-family residences for obvious reasons. Additionally, we try to only show completed projects.

Marco Mazzotta shared with us this video, part of his thesis project based on cities changing. The short movie, titled “Consequences”, raises an interesting question at the end. Watch the video and share your thoughts with us!

In collaboration with Christian Müller Architects, Krill Architecture and Archilos Plan Development, Basement project development, who commissioned the project, realized a sustainable holiday park in contrast to holiday parks that promise nature but deliver suburbs. The developers approached the architects to come up with a scheme that allows for contemporary and luxury living as part of the surrounding nature in the German Eifel, North Rhine-Westphalia. More images and architects’ description after the break.

This concrete, clover leaf-shaped structure, which was built in 1975, will likely suffer a fate common to many vacant and disused buildings. After approximately four years of vacancy, this Bertrand Goldberg-designed building will likely be demolished when ownership will revert to Northwestern University this year. Although Goldberg’s organic architectural designs – such as this one – were widely influential, none of his major Chicago works are protected by local landmark designation. Prentice Women’s Hospital was considered groundbreaking for its cutting-edge architecture, advanced engineering, and its progressive design approach to organizing medical departments and services. It received international press coverage and an award from Engineering News Record for its innovative tower and open floor-plate layout that eliminated the need for structural support columns. “You will not find the structural solution to Prentice, which is an exterior shell cantilevered off a core, anywhere else in the world” notes Geoffrey Goldberg, an architect and Bertrand Goldberg’s son. “Prentice was the only one in which this was achieved.”

Roll It, a cool experimental house, resulted from the collaboration among different institutes within the University of Karlsruhe. This cyclindrical design is a modular protype that provides flexible space within a minimum housing unit. Three different sections are dedicated to different functional needs: there’s a bed and table in section, an exercise cylinder, and a kitchen with a sink.

More images and more about the prototype after the break.

Designed by Istanbul and New York based company, GAD Architecture in collaboration with Dara Kirmizitoprak, NLF is a high-rise luxury residential project, located in the Nilüfer district of Bursa, one of the largest and most developed cities in Turkey. The project site is on the main road serving as an axis connecting Bursa and Nilufer to the east and west. This corridor also accommodates the railway system, and is characterized by a number of other shopping centers in the vicinity. More images and architects’ description after the break.

You will understand: *What is intellectual property *Keys to managing your creative knowledge *Ways to re-imagine control for long term success!

With China’s high level of exports and booming real estate market, it is predicted that the country is on its way to becoming the world leader in economic performance. As a result, the Chinese government has been taking steps to show the world its growing economy and the newfound modernity that has come with it. China’s largest cities have already spent hundreds of billions of dollars on new development and infrastructure projects, ranging all the way from from roads, bridges and buildings to new financial districts. In fact, the country is expected to lay down a total of 4.7 billion square feet of construction in this year alone. More information after the break.

[AC-CA] has shared the results of the London Olympic Games Information Pavilion International Competition. This idea’s competition was hosted to generate progressive contemporary design solutions and promote architecture experimentation, specuation and discussion. The site of the competition was Trafalgar Square in the heart of London. The ten winning entries were selected out of a total of 164 proposals that were submitted from all over the world.

Read on for a closer look at the selected entries after the break.