Remember Zebra’s holographic sheets we presented you back in February? Well, Zebra Imaging has released new videos that show how this technology can be used for planners/urban designers (as seen on Seattle’s video above), or to get an accurate preview of HVAC.

Price for this sheets? $1,500 for a 12- x 18-inch version to $3,500 for the largest 2- x 3-foot size.

Another video after the break:

Our favorite browser is now Google Chrome. It works on every platform here at the office (Mac, Windows, Linux), it’s fast, secure, easy to use, helps you search the web and makes our life easier.

ILEK at the University of Stuttgart has shared with us their winning proposal for the “Plus-Energy House with Electromobility” competition run by the German Federal Ministry of Transport. Learn more about this winning design and the ILEK after the break.

Five amazing photos from our readers to celebrate our 25th selection of the Best from Flickr. 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 txmx 2 in Hamburg, Germany. Check the other four after the break.

Croatian architects NFO shared with us their 3rd prize proposal for the competition to design a new soccer stadium in the city of Dubrovnik, Croatia. See more images and architect’s description after the break.

Tex-Fab recently announced their winning entry for this year’s Repeat Competition given to Vlad Tenu‘s, ‘Minimal Complexity’. A new resource for designers, fabricators and students seeking out the innovative application of digital technology to the physical environment, Tex-Fab chose this project for its structural robustness, material efficiency and an inherent logic of assembly. Along with its aesthetic beauty, technical superiority and elegance of detailing put this project above the other 72 entries from across the globe. More project description and photos after the break.

Selecting the most outstanding projects in sustainable construction from several thousand submissions will be the challenging task of more than fifty leading experts on sustainability. The jury members for the 3rd International Holcim Awards competition include architects Bjarke Ingels (Denmark), Keller Easterling (USA) and Michel Rojkind (Mexico) – all independent experts of international stature engaged in the sustainable development of society, building processes, construction materials, and building projects.

Entries in the USD 2 million competition are evaluated using five “target issues” to define sustainable construction. Three of these stem from the triple bottom line of balanced social, environmental and economic performance. The two remaining issues pay homage to contextual and aesthetic impact, along with innovation and transferability. A series of five jury panels will meet in June/July 2011 in each of the five world regions: Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa Middle East, and Asia Pacific.

Paris based INFLUX_STUDIO has shared with ArchDaily their design proposal for the “Connecting Cleveland” urban strategy, a multimodal center built into the infrastructure fabric of the city’s lakefront. Additional images of their strategy and a outline of their conceptualization after the break.

Back on September we featured the Soumaya Museum designed by LAR + Fernando Romero. The museum will house a diverse collection of international painting, sculpture, and object art from the 14th century to the present, including the world’s second largest collection of Rodin sculptures.

Brazilian photographer Fran Parente shared with us some great photos taken in Mexico City. See them all after the break.

A passage from Susan Sontag’s groundbreaking book, On Photography haunts me:

A photograph is both a pseudo-presence and a token of absence. Like a wood fire in a room, photographs—especially those of people, of distant landscapes and faraway cities, of the vanished past—are incitements to reverie (p. 16).

This comes close to explaining my fascination with portraits. It is not necessarily the subject’s fame that draws me to these images. In fact, the portraits selected for this essay were chosen because they did not immediately communicate the aura of fame. They weren’t distorted by fame’s messy narrative.

Portraits of contemporary architects are so self-consciously calculated. Like cover art, they are created to communicate certain attitudes, like confidence, knowledge, and power, toward an audience. Both photographer and image-savvy architect-subject are aware of how to manipulate photography to greatest effect.

A-lab of Oslo, Norway and SEA of Copenhagen, Denmark) have collaborated for the winning design proposal in a competition for a new urban development on Skien Brygge, Norway. The former harbor area, which occupies four hectare, is the site of a new urban community. The site is defined by the water’s edge on the west and a steeply rising landscape on the east.

Read more about this project after the break.

Parson’s New School of Design and the Dean’s Office present The Design and Existential Risk Lecture Series. The event will take place at the Kellen Auditorium at 66 Fifth Avenue at 13th Street in New York City, 6pm – 8pm. The lecture is open to the public, but be adviced that seating is limited. Annie Kown and Adriana Young of The New School GPIA, Crisis Networks along with Michael Chen and Jason Lee of Pratt School of Architecture, Crisis Fronts are scheduled to speak with Mathan Ratinam, who is Assistant Professors at Parsons SDS and Coordinator of the Humanitarian Design Platform.

Olson Kundig Architects will be breaking ground this year for the construction of the Gethsemane Lutherane Church in Seatle. The $20 million project includes the remodeling of the church’s main sanctuary, design of a garden, chapel and a new parish life center that includes offices, a library, fellowship hall, kitchen and social services. Above the parish life center, a five-story, fifty-unit complex of affordable housing, designed by SMR Architects, will provide the final addition to the Church.

More about the remodeling of Gethsemane Lutherane Church after the break.

We have now over 200 Round Up! And with amazing project featured months and even years ago, there’s still a lot to come. Check our sixth selection of previously featured restaurants after the break.

Paladares da Quinta Restaurant / Arquitectos The restaurant and bakery is located in a farm composed of different arborean species of a certain age. Its main purpose was for the visitors to enjoy nature’s changeable and irreverent environment during their stay. For this reason, the area’s history and the existing species’ location was respected and a building was drawn so that it coexists and dialogs with its surroundings, allowing for the present and human experience’s concept and language evolution to be revealed (read more…)

Danish architects BIG shared with us their 7,000 sqm school project for the city of Asminderød in Denmark. More images and architect’s description after the break.

LAVA has shared with us their current window installation, Digital Origami a product of parametric modeling experiments and digital fabrication methods. Additional images of this sculptural work, a brief video and a description from LAVA after the break.

Australian architects David Neustein and Adi Atic shared with us their proposal for the Atlantic City Holocaust Memorial Competition. See more images and architect’s description after the break.

The design think tank FLaT has shared with us their submission for the 2010 eVolo Skyscraper Competition, The Floating States of Maldives. This hypothetical project was undertaken with the aspiration of what can be without constraints, as an experiment of imagination. Continue after the break for additional images and an architects description.

INFLUX_STUDIO shared with us their new project for Newark’s Visitors Center. See more images and architect’s description after the break.

M&A Architects has shared with us their Bubble Skyscraper, a study on new typologies for futuristic architecture by the young international studio. A description of the process that lead them to the bubble solution and additional images after the break.

Architects: LAR / Fernando Romero y Mauricio Ceballos Location: Mexico City, Mexico Project Team: Ana Medina, Herminio Gonzalez, Omar Gerala Félix, Sergio Rebelo, Ana Paula Herrera, Mario Mora, Juan Pedro López, Guillermo Mena, Libia Castilla, Raúl García, Manuel Díaz, Alan Aurioles, Ana Gabriela Alcocer, Luis Ricardo García, Ivan Ortiz, Tiago Pinto, Laura Dominguez, Juan Andres Lopez, Olga Gomez, Hugo Fernandez, Jason Sidelko, Eddy Slim, Nicola, Davolio, Lee Warren, Alexander Pena, Jacqueline Hernan- dez, Kosuke Osawa, Francisco Javier de la Vega, David Hernandez, Jorge Hernandez, Joaquín Collado, Mariana Tafoya, Eduardo Benítez, Pe- dro Lechuga, Thorsten Englert, Luís Fuentes, Luís Flores, Rodolfo Rueda, Víctor Chávez, Max Betancourt, Wonne Icks, Dolores Robles-Martínez, Sappho Van Laer, Ophelie Chassin, Elena Haller, Abril Tobar, Diego Eumir Jasso, Albert Beele, Homero Yánez, Cynthia Meléndez, Hugo Vela, Susana Hernández, Gerardo Galicia, Alberto Duran, Camilo Mendoza, Dafne Zvi Zaldívar, Cecilia Jiménez, Ángel Ortiz, Raúl Antonio Hernández, Alma Delfina Rosas, Wendy Guillen, Raúl Flores, Daniel Alejandro Farías, Jesús Monroy, Saúl Miguel Kelly, Iván Javier Avilés, Cesar Pérez Client: Grupo Carso / Museo Soumaya Façade: Gehry Technologies Engineer concept: ARUP Los Angeles Project Regency: Inpros Civil Constructor: PC Constructores Project Area: 17,000 sqm Project Year: 2010

Recently reported in El Economista, Apple has chosen to team up with Norman Foster for its new Apple Campus in Cupertino, California. Steve Jobs and Norman Foster have been working together for months developing the design for the new campus. The future headquarters will seek to utilize Foster’s innovative vision for sustainability, ability to perfect a building for its users down to the finest detail, and ideas to maximize efficiency in the workplace.

Madrid-based GilBartolome ADW shared with us their proposal for the Taiwan Tower Competition which placed fourth in the competition. See more images and architect’s description after the break.

Multinational design firm, Office Feuerman, in conjunction with Thomas DeMonchaux have shared with ArchDaily their proposal for the Atlantic City Boardwalk Holocaust Memorial competition, Ascent/Aliyah. Additional images of their entry and a description of intention after the break.