The Saudi Arabia Pavilion for Shanghai World Expo 2010, which starts in two days, is a combine effort of Chinese and Saudi designers. The pavilion has a “moon boat” shape and is surrounded by deserts and seas, just like Saudi Arabia. Along with the 150 date palms that are now planted in the pavilion, it’s main attraction is a huge IMAX screen. The 1,600-square-meter screen is larger than any other cinema screen on earth. Short films will be presented on the screen.

You can see more images and a video after the break.

The Regione Calabria Town planning and Territorial Governance Department are promoting an online international competition for Solar Park South. Proposals must provide design solutions for the Solar Park South in relation to both the values of the local landscape and the application and enhancement of renewable energies. By investigating and studying in detail sustainable solutions, the procedure will considerably impact on the diffusion of a culture of sustainability.

It seems that this week everything is about Shanghai. The World Expo 2010 starts in three days and the pavilions are ready. Yesterday, we featured some amazing photos that Chaz Hutton took at the Expo. Today, David Goss shared with us many more, and even a video inside the UK’s Pavilion. Check them out after the break!

Flickr Video

DETAIL is one of my favorite periodic publications in terms of construction inspiration. The reason? It’s packed with highly detailed drawings of contemporary projects.

Each volume features a specific building system (concrete in this case), presented in the form of articles, short reports, new technologies, products, and the most attractive section, recent projects with the mentioned detailed drawings.

For example, in this issue we find an interesting article by Hubertus Adam on the current state of concrete in Switzerland illustrated with photos of Valerio Olgiati projects; and projects such as the Children’s Playhouse by LAN Architecture, the Bus Operation Center by ECDM, or the MAXXI Museum by Zaha Hadid with detailed sections of walls, roofs and more.

This magazine is a good reference material, and even if the projects presented on each issue are very recent, the technical information is timeless.

More info after the break.

100 first year students in the Department of Architecture are developing proposals to design and construct a minimal dwelling unit that they will occupy for a period of 24 hours. Each unit must accommodate an entrance, internal circulation, and sleeping areas for a minimum of three people. Individual units are placed adjacent to one another and share boundaries thus creating a party wall condition between adjoining structures where unique structural and programmatic conditions might begin to evolve.

Suppose Design Office designed a renovation proposal for the Hill of Water and Sculpture in Japan. The project is situated in an industrial area along the Tokyo Bay. In the proposal, existing structures are converted into individual tower like sculptures. The sculptures meet the ground in an interesting manner, as each rests upon a curved base. The structures are connected to the existing beams located in the industrial area and the building’s varying heights create a balanced composition. The interior spaces are formed around the existing infrastructure and create a new type of space for people to experience the existing components of the site, in addition to the new sculptures.

More images after the break.

Anne Holtrop’s Trail House follows a series of trails in the ground that were created by the daily circulation of pedestrians. The house becomes the path and transforms the inside into a “walking home.” As the house branches along the series of paths, it becomes narrower and then wider to provide ever-changing views of the site. In this way, Holtrop makes a specific link with the environment by showing the house as a product of the site.

More images and more about the project after the break.

Back on March we featured a fantastic set of photos of the pavilions for Shanghai World Expo 2010 almost finished. Now, with only three days left for the grand opening to the public, the pavilions seem to be ready for the more than 70 million people expected to visit the Expo between April 30 and October 31.

Chaz Hutton shared with us through Flickr his amazing photos of the pavilions. You can check them all after the break. And remember you can see every pavilion we’ve featured right here.

¿Which one’s your favorite?

Only four days left to the grand opening and the pavilions of the Shanghai World Expo 2010 should be ready to receive thousands of visitors each day. We’ve been featuring a lot of pavilions but there is still a lot to cover, so we hope to bring you more on the Expo in the next few days (like a good preview of many pavilions ready later today). Meanwhile, check some of our latest ones, after the break.

Dutch Pavilion for Shanghai World Expo 2010 The Dutch submission to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai is an exceptional one. This time around, it will not be the classic pavilion with long lines of visitors waiting outside and a presentation inside. The Netherlands is making its appearance at China’s world exposition along an entire street. The submission, entitled “Happy Street”, is the response by designer John Kormeling to the Chinese Expo theme “Better City, Better Life” and the sub-themes (read more…)

In 2009, the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) announced a competition for its new headquarters to be built in a city near Naju, South Korea. H Associates proposal received 3rd place. The new KEPCO headquarters, which would include nearly 120,000 square meters of office space and public ex¬hibition program, will constitute a major anchor point of this emerging city. KEPCO has mandated an ambitious program of objectives for the facilities with its vision to become a genuine Green Energy leader among the world’s utility corporations.

More images and architect’s description after the break.

Expo 2010 Shanghai is the first World Fair to adopt sustainable urban development as its theme. As consequence concepts which legitimise the extensive resource use and major investment of a World Fair must be promoted. The basic concept of “Norway Powered by Nature”, designed by Helen & Hard, directly engages this challenge, placing emphasis and awareness on multiple aspects of sustainability.

More images and architect’s description after the break.

d3:dialog is a hybrid publication that combines the depth and format of a journal with the flexibility of a magazine. Each issue will explore a focused aspect of current architectural theory and production.

Amazing projects from Europe and South Africa, and even a Herzog & de Meuron special you may have missed last week. Check them all after the break.

Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre / Peter Rich Architects Last year, architectural photographer Iwan Baan took a trip to South Africa to visit the Mapungubwe Interpretation Center designed by Peter Rich Architects. The 1,500 sqm visitor’s center includes spaces to tell the stories of the place and house artifacts, along with tourist facilities and SANParks offices. The complex is a collection of stone cladded vaults balancing on the sloped site, against the backdrop of Sandstone formations and mopane woodlands (read more…)

The Architecture Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of an open international competition to design a New Aldgate, a temporary landmark on the eastern edge of the City of London, to stand for the duration of the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games, to open in January 2012.

What began in a rented townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side has grown to become an internationally recognized preeminent source for exhibitions and publications related to historical and contemporary African art. The Museum for African Art will finally find a permanent home along Manhattan’s “Museum Mile” and will be open to the public next April. Designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP, the museum will bring the prestigious row of museums of Manhattan to Harlem, one of the country’s most important centers of historic and contemporary African-American culture.

More about the museum and more images after the break.

ULHT (Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias) organized an international workshop on the theme of waterfront design (European Workshop Waterfront Urban Design) EWWUD. The workshop was coordinated by Pedro Ressano Garcia.

This event took place between 14 and 28 March 2010 and has several international specialists in nine foreign universities.

The following universities participated: Zachodniopomorski Uniwersytet Technologiczny Wszczecinie – ZUT / Poland Technische Universiteit Eindhoven / Netherlands Hafen City University Hamburg / Germany University of California Berkeley / USA Aristotele University of Thessaloniiki Faculty of Engineering School of Architecture / Greece Universite de Paris La Sorbonne / France Politecnico di Milano Facolta di Architettura e Societa Diap Dipartimento di Architettura e Pianificazion / Italy Gazi Üniversitesi / Turkey

The 47 foreign students with 14 student from Portugal were mixed and distributed into eight different groups, where eight final projects were presented. You can see all the boards after the break.

If you are an usual reader of ArchDaily, you know that I have always said that Mark Magazine is by far one of my favorites. Fresh works and interview with the young practices innovating in design and construction are presented in a dense, visual format.

The latest issue (March-April) brings the usual dose of projects organized on the Notice Board (unbuilt projects, competitions), Short Section (short reports on new buildings), Viewpoint (interviews and projects by selected offices), Long Section (in depth articles of certain projects) and Service Area (technical).

In this issue Viewpoint presents two practices you might already know by their works presented at AD: Chinese based DnA (works at AD) and Chilean based dRN (works at AD).

Full index after the break:

Last week we told you about Christian Bay–Jørgensen’s idea to turn the famous Hollywood Sign into an hotel. Today, we feature another idea designed by Danish and Belgian architects Bart de Lege, Frederique Hermans, Jan Bloemen, Joep Verheijen, and Steven van Esser. You can find more information here.

More images and architect’s description after the break.

International firm Aedas designed a new hotel and mixed-use development for Guangzhou, China. The complex, which will be completed in 2012, is centrally located within an existing exhibition zone. While the project fronts directly onto one side of the water, the location affords views to the water from both directions. “The design strives to be unique and iconic to give the project a strong and comfortable identity within its surroundings, aiding in its success among competing neighbors.”

More about the project and more images after the break.

Planning a little getaway for the weekend? Perhaps you could try one of these amazing places to stay. Check them all after the break.

WISA Wooden Design Hotel / Pieta-Linda Auttila WISA Wooden Design Hotel is an architectural gem of wood situated in the maritime heart of Helsinki, capital of Finland. Around it lie the city and 200 years of architectural history. The work was designed by interior architect Pieta-Linda Auttila. She hopes to spark interest in wood and highlight its role in building and interior design (read more…)

There’s only one week left for the grand opening of Shanghai’s World Expo 2010, and as you may know, we’ve been featuring many pavilion’s (all the pavilions here). One of the first ones was the Brazilian Pavilion designed by Fernando Brandão Arquitetura e Design.

With more than 80 comments, it became one of the most controversial and discussed pavilions. At Fernando Brandão they followed the discussion and now they wanted to show you the complete project. More images, drawings and the architect’s description after the break.

We have been featuring several proposal for the Musée National des Beaux Arts du Québec competition. Along with the winning project by OMA, we’ve featured proposals by Saucier + Perrotte Architects and the submission by BIG + Fugère Architectes. Today, Barkow Leibinger Architekten shared with us their proposal, done with NY based architects Imrey Culbert Architects. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Stephan Jaklitsch is the architect behind Marc Jacobs’ stores around the world, with ongoing projects in Tokyo, Chicago, Macau, Singapore, Mexico City, Thailand and Hong Kong. On this book you will find several store designs (for Marc Jacobs and other brands), with several interior details presented in large format.

But Stephan’s work is not only restricted to the retail area. Residential projects and urban competitions by his practice are also included on this book, sharing a common denominator with the retail projects: good quality of the drawings.

A complete monograph, but also a good reference book for retail inspiration.

More information after the break.

Earth Day today, just in time to annunce the top ten examples of sustainable architecture and green design by the AIA and its Committee on the Environment (COTE). Check them all after the break.