Today at 1pm SCI-Arc will feature Mohamed Sharif: Recent Work. Sharif, principal of Sharif Studio is also a faculty member of SCI-Arc. Prior to joining SCI-Arc, he was Assistant Chair of the Architecture/Landscape/Interiors department at Otis for two years and has taught at schools including his alma mater and RISD since 1994.

Lectures and discussions are held at W.M. Keck Lecture Hall and are broadcast live online. Parking and admission are free, no reservations are required.

Designer of UK Pavilion for the Shanghai World Expo, Thomas Heatherwick was one of the speakers featured at the recent 2011 TED conference. Heatherwick and his design team won the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) commission to create the Pavilion following a competition that attracted a shortlist of ambitious architectural proposals. Exploring the relationship between nature and cities Heatherwick Studio sought an approach that would engage meaningfully with Shanghai Expo’s theme, Better City, Better Life, and stand out from the anticipated trend for technology driven pavilions, filled with audio-visual content on screens, projections and speakers.

The Huffington Post sat down with Thomas Heatherwick following his TED talk. Discussing China’s building boom and his creative process the full interview is featured following the break.

The Green Building in Louisville, Kentucky incorporates a variety of green energy sources to achieve the city’s first LEED Platinum rating. Designed by (fer) studio, the building has geothermal, ice storage, solar panels, and a energy recovery ventilator. Watch the video to find out more.

Architects: Manuel Graça Dias + Egas José Vieira (Contemporânea), & Gonçalo Afonso Dias Location: Almada, Portugal Collaborators: José Silvestre, Ricardo Gama, Nuno Moita, Rui Cunha, Susana Alvarez, Carmo Pulpo Correia, Filomena Vicente, Lourenço Vicente, Duarte Correia, Vasco Teodoro, Pedro Coelho, Sara Baptista, Sofia Sanches Models: José António Aires Pereira and Nuno Jacinto Structure: Talprojecto – Tiago Abecassis, Francisco Cima Gomes, Rui Nunes da Silva and Paulo Freire Construction: A. M. Mesquita e Filhos S.A. Video: Vitor Gabriel

St. Patrick’s today, and it’s all about green! So for today’s Round Up, we have our sixth selection of previously featured green roofs! Check them all after the break.

Welham Studios / Mark Merer Welham Studios started with the study of placement, watching objects in clay and sand creating shapes through the interaction of the wind and rain. The work is looking for a union of object and environment (read more…)

“Architecture is too insular.” How many times have I heard this? Too many times to count. I’ve heard it from architects and non-architects, alike. It is not necessarily insular in the strict sense. It is more the case that it appears insular because it is self-referencing and self-validating. OK, so on second thought maybe it is just insular no matter how you define it. But my definition has more to do with the inward gaze of the profession that makes it a world unto itself. Like all worlds it has a need for celebrities.

More after the break.

Dutch duo, Benjamin Feenstra and Jelmer Frank Wijnia, were successful in the eVolo 2011 Skyscraper Competition where they were awarded an honorable mention for their entry, On Demand Experience. The two designers, who recently graduated with a Bachelor’s degree, are the second Dutch team in the history of the prestigious competition to receive such an honor. The award seeks to discover young talent, whose ideas will change the way we understand architecture and its relationship with the natural and built environments. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Luzern Stadtarchive is conceived as a marker in the landscape. XTEN Architecture‘s entry for a library competition in Switzerland the design was driven by orienting the public areas to the landscape, the site topography and adjacent mountains.

Architects: XTEN Architecture Location: Luzern, Switzerland Principals: Monika Haefelfinger & Austin Kelly Project Team: Scott Utterstrom, Jae Rodriguez, Tina Rothermund, Annie Ritz, Qichen Cao Project Area: 4,750 sqm Renderings: Courtesy of XTEN Architecture

AllesWirdGut wins architectural competition for Embelgasse vocational training school for administration with a project that makes learning a part of public life again. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Milos Vlastic, Vuk Djordjevic, Ana Lazovic, and Milica Stankovic shared with us their proposal for the eVolo 2011 Skyscraper Competition which was awarded an honorable mention. The Hydra-Tesla research facility is a skyscraper that investigates the possibility of creating a power plant that uses hydrogen as source of energy. More images and architects’ description after the break.

In view of the earthquake in Japan, dEEP wants to share their early design proposal called ‘DE_PLO’. It’s a research based design proposal by Li Daode from dEEP Architects, cooperated with architects Ana Cocho Bermejo and Andrea Balducci Caste. More images and architect’s description after the break.

March 8 marked the beginning of voting for the best student architectural project that will revive the Fužine neighborhood in Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana. Until March 23, visitors to the competition website can vote for the 30 short-listed projects, selected from among all 363 submitted projects by the international ten-member expert jury. The winning solution will be released on location this summer and announced on March 28. More images and competition description after the break.

In September 2010 we featured this social dwellings in Madrid, Spain designed by Estudio.Entresitio. Now they shared with us this HD timelapse video by Diego Hurtado de Mendoza of this project with a total of 132 one and two bedroom apartments, intended to be a first home for young people.

The International Symposium on Projected Light will be hosted by the Department of Architecture at Portland State University on April 9th. The second annual symposium, ‘Illuminated City: A Light with Content Symposium’, will explore the experiential, spatial, technical, political and interactive qualities of projected light media.

Pacific Design Center is pleased to present MonoVisioN, a selection of photographs from design and architectural photographer Scott Frances. The exhibition, on view from March 22nd to April 29th, is located among the Design Loves Art Galleries on the Second Floor of the Blue Building at the Pacific Design Center in Blue Space 231.

The Bankside Bikeshed proposal is a prototype for a lightweight bicycle storage shelter that can be installed through London’s South Bank. The project is by James Khamsi, whose goal was to design a new “MICRON” for London, a ubiquitous and interwoven aspect of the city.

More on this project after the break.

During the earthquake last week this video was taken from the inside of the Sendai Mediatheque. The interior is heavily damaged, however the structure appears to hold up quite well.

Photos and drawings following the break.

This week our Architecture City Guide heads to the “Mile-High City”. In the shadows of the Rocky Mountains, Denver’s architecture can be as dramatic and serene as its surrounding landscape. From the moment your plane touches down at the Denver International Airport you are immersed in state-of-the-art architecture. We have included a dozen places to go once you arrive. Where else would you visit? Please leave suggestions of buildings a Denver visitor shouldn’t miss.

The Architecture City Guide: Denver list and corresponding map after the break!

Alf Naman, Developer, and Erin Boisson Aries, SVP and Director at Brown Harris Stevens, announced that, the eagerly awaited residential tower by acclaimed Los Angeles architect Neil Denari, will be ready to welcome its first occupants on June 1st. Just as the High Line has reinvigorated West Chelsea, HL23 has participated in the radical transformation of the cityscape. HL23 now stands as a new beacon for the district that has firmly established itself as a major cultural hub. All interiors are scheduled to be complete to coincide with the opening of Section 2 of the High Line.

More information and photos of this project after the break.

Recently it was reported that the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) were confronting 200 illicit architects who never obtained any recognized architecture qualification and 100 more who are qualified but have not obtained registration. Believe it or not, Ireland has just started to aggressively protect the title of architect as of late 2009, enforcing the Building Control Act 2007.

Five amazing projects from November and December 2010 for our sixth selection of previously featured industrial architecture. Check them all after the break.

Geothermal Pump Stations / PK Arkitektar In 1990 Reykjavík Geothermal Heating Authority launched an open competition for a housing design for the hot water wells. PK Arkitektrar’s provided the winning design out of over 80 entries. This is the first of these buildings with others scheduled accordingly. These structures will stand as a symbol of the city of Reykjavík’s commitment to the utilization of the natural resources (read more…)

BIG shared with us their project E2 Ecology and Economy, for which they receive 1st Prize in a prequalified competition in Finland. More images and architect’s description after the break.

International architecture, urbanism and design practice Broadway Malyan has completed the design of its first theatre in China, the Kanas Lake Performance Theatre.The new theatre, set in an area of outstanding natural beauty in the Xinjiang province of North West China, is a multi-purpose theatre for the Provincial government. It will house a 1,200 seat auditorium for performance arts including theatre, opera, musicals and dance. The design draws on powerful yet simple forms, with the theatre auditorium enclosed within two protective wings wrapping the shell as if protected within clasped hands. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Architects: Atelier 11 Location: Beijing, China Design Director: Xu Lei Design Team: Ding Liqun, Gao Qinglei, Liu Heng, An Peng Construction Drawing: Xu Lei, An Peng, Gao Qinglei, Ding Liqun, Li Lei, Liu Heng, Zhu Yin, Jin Ding Client: Beijing Shi Ao Co., Ltd. Project area: 51,199 sqm Project year: 2009 – 2011 Photographs: Atelier 11