The main challenge DCA (Design Crew for Architecture) faced in their proposal for a family and childhood house, located in Saint Julien en Genevois, France, was the resulting compactness from the tight ratio between the net area planned to be built and the buildable area allowed by regulations. Despite their extremely restrictive lot, they aimed for great quality spaces while instilling some generosity to create project that moves toward consistent urban characteristics. More images and architect’s description after the break.

We’re always excited to bring you news on the latest awarded architects for their contemporary achievements and advancement of the field – whether it be our coverage of the Pritzker, AIA Honor Awards, or the Aga Khan awards, to name a few. Yet, the Richard H. Driehaus Prize is one prize that recognizes architects whose work embraces the ideas and theories of the past. Specifically, the prize is bestowed upon those who work ”embodies the principals of traditional and classical architecture and urbanism in contemporary society.” Robert A. M. Stern, dean of Yale School of Architecture and principal of his firm, has been named the 2011 recipient of the Driehaus Prize for his commitment to incorporating classical theories into his projects of all scales. According to Stern, the firm is grounded in the belief of “…continuity of tradition and strive in our work to create order out of the often chaotic present by entering into a dialogue with the past and with the spirit of the places in which we build.”

More about the award after the break.

Spring 2011 marks the opening of “Metropol Parasol”, the Redevelopment of Plaza de la Encarnación in Sevilla, designed by J. MAYER H. Architects. After finishing the concrete works in 2008, the parasols are under construction now. Visiting the site at the moment gives an impressive imagination of the final dimension and appearance.

The project becomes the new icon for Sevilla, – a place of identification and to articulate Sevillas role as one of Spains most fascinating cultural destinations. “Metropol Parasol” explores the potential of the Plaza de la Encarnacion to become the new contemporary urban centre. Its role as a unique urban space within the dense fabric of the medieval inner city of Sevilla allows for a great variety of activities such as memory, leisure and commerce. A highly developed infrastructure helps to activate the square, making it an attractive destination for tourists and locals alike.

Our friends from Manhattan-based Weiss Manfredi have shared their museum design for Ithaca, New York’s Paleontological Research Institution, which houses one of the United States’ largest paleontological collections. Situated in the Finger Lakes region, the natural landforms of the site inspired the architects to take advantage of the existing gradual 40 ft slope – a feature which resulted from a receding ice sheet more than 20,000 years ago. Rather than considering the site as distinct and separate from the museum, this project creates a new topography: a continuous, terraced landscape that fuses architecture and ecology into a cohesive expression of the geologic processes involved in the region’s formation.

More images and more about the museum after the break.

We’ve just had an amazing week. And for the best, we have three beautiful projects, our first chapter on the Architecture City Guides and a very interesting interview with Hani Rashid, from Asymptote Architecture. Check them all after the break.

Fogo Island Long Studio / Saunders Architecture Fogo Island lies outside of Newfoundland, Canada and is home to a gentle, independent people who have lived for centuries between wind and waves in pursuit of fish. Fogo Islanders live in the untamed landscape of the North Atlantic. The people are subtle and unpretentious yet have seen their traditional way of life by threatened by forces largely beyond their control (read more…)

Archdaily presents another competition entry from the Taiwan Tower Competition in Taichung City by Aedas R&D in collaboration of Thornton Tomasetti and Phaconsult. T he conceptual development for the project came from the geometry of a pebble dropped into the sea, and the shape of the tower was derived from the patterns that emerge on the surface of the water as the concequence. The rippling effect on the water was taken to develop the landscaping around the tower, as well its extrusion into the wrapping skin of the tower.

More on this project after the break.

Four days until Christmas, so we’re just in time for Hometta’s Gingerbread House! For this year’s house they used Min | Day’s Wedge House. You can download free PDF plans for this project right here. And you can see last year’s gingerbread house here. More info at Hometta’s official website.

In Arthur Toth‘s, A Room for London competition entry, the main impetus for the use of computational geometry is the ease it introduces into computer-aided design and most importantly into manufacturing. This computational geometric algorithm leads to a balanced subdivision of the outer shell of the room and also to a matching coherent organization of the space inside. Planimetric issues also subscribe to this inner logic, as well as structural and detailing processes. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Egyptian architect, Ahmed Zayed has shared his design proposal for the 2012 London Olympic Games, a interactive installation along one of the iconic structures of London. Additional images and a brief description after the break.

Los Angeles-based HMC Architects shared with us their proposal for the Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Service Terminal Competition in Taiwan. They were selected as one of the five finalists. More images and press release after the break.

D3 Architectes has shared with ArchDaily his proposal for the Guyane Memory Center in Cayenne, French Guiana. Read more about this project after the break complete with additional images.

Salvaged Layers; a Collaborative Site Specific Performance project was an interdisciplinary collaboration between two groups of students from separate Universities. The studio challenged students to explore issues of craft, making and place through a series of full scale built interventions in a historic Indianapolis theatre which had been gutted in anticipation of a planned renovation. The raw state of the theatre’s interior gave students a rich and evocative palette to engage while simultaneously liberating them from the conventional notions of stage and audience.

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Architects: Students of Ball State University Department of Architecture; Faculty Coordinator Timothy Gray, Gray Architecture Location: 5505 E Washington Street, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA Project Team: Mark Vanden Akker, Austin Lucari, Jay Weeks, Brad Wanek, Veronica Eulacivo, Eric Jenson, Michael Neizer, Paul Reynolds, Greg Hittler, Luke Haas, Ben Greenberg; (Butler University) Jacqueline Vouga, Jeff Irlbeck, Jill Harman, Amanda Lynn Meyer, Amanda Miller, Joe Esbenshade, Chris Ziegler, Jessica Conger, Steph Gray, and Butler University Faculty Coordinator Melli Hoppe Client: Dale Harkin, Irving Theatre Project Year: 2010 Photographs: Greg Hittler, Courtesy of Gray Architecture

Authors: Aksel Karcher, Martin Krautter, David Kuntzsch, Thomas Schielke, Christoph Steinke, Mariko Takagi Publishers: Tim Henrik Maack, Kay Pawlik First Edition: 2009 ISBN: 978-3-9813216-1-6

More info after the break.

Hungary based studio Atelier Architects recently received a special mention for their Artist’s Colony Market design in a “market of the future” competition organized by Spanish architectural network Opengap. Details of the competition can be seen HERE and additional images and a description of Atelier Architects proposal can be found after the break.

Sao Paulo-based AUM arquitetos have won a competition to design the Regional Council of Administration in Santa Catarina, Brazil. More images and architect’s description after the break.

The partnership of Ian Douglas-Jones and Ben Rousseau has created the Legacy of the River Suite at this years Ice Hotel to commemorate the release of Disney’s new film, TRON: Legacy. You can follow the progress of the suite at the project’s website, Extreme-Design, as well as reading on after the break for additional photos and a brief description.

Five amazing housing project back from 2009 for you to remember, and enjoy. Check them all after the break.

Quinta Monroy / Elemental The Chilean Government asked us to resolve the following equation: To settle the 100 families of the Quinta Monroy, in the same 5,000 sqm site that they have illegally occupied for the last 30 years which is located in the very center of Iquique, a city in the Chilean desert (read more…)

This article is co-authored by Sherin Wing

It’s the season for end-of-year juries before everyone escapes to the sanity of real life. And true to expectations, horror stories abound about instructors and jurors.

Here is one story: a student at a well-known Southern California program said that after spending five straight days at studio without returning home once (he clearly didn’t read The 101 in re: change your underwear and it’s not medicine), his instructor approached him and said one thing: “You’re F%#@$!”

Hey, thanks for that helpful and really insightful advice!

And if that weren’t enough, this same instructor had embarked on a campaign of concerted humiliation of this student, teasing him not just to himself, but repeatedly in front of his entire studio class regarding another student he supposedly had a crush on. That is clear harassment and she should not only be fired, but she is opening up the entire school to a lawsuit.

More after the break.

Here is a short clip from SO-IL about their MoMA P.S.1 installation in motion. Pole Dance was the 2010 P.S.1 Competition winner, and ArchDaily visited the installation and interviewed the Brooklyn based firm. We featured the video interview with SO-IL last month, take a look.

A project for Downtown Fargo: an urban infill competition in North Dakota, F9 Productions began with the question: what would make Fargo grow? They are asking people to imagine if a prairie could become a building’s coat, what could it look like? Can the mighty Red River inform how pedestrians flow though the site? And what form can symbolize the regions enduring strength?

Their solution is to capitalize on the very resources that have been fertilizing this area for the past 100 years – its people and its local businesses. The proposed design is to infuse downtown Fargo with two big box stores that have, that in the recent past, fled to the suburbs. By bringing in Scheels and Trader Joes, along with a much needed Children’s Museum and prominent public plaza they aim to resurrect the downtown life that was once there. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Studio Mode/modeLab is pleased to announce the third installment of the coLab workshop series: Hybrid Prototypes. Hybrid Prototypes is a two-day intensive design and prototyping workshop (with an optional third day) to be held in New York City during the weekend of January 08, 2011. Further information and registration can be found below. We hope to see you next month!

Rotterdam based Studio Marco Vermeulen has shared with ArchDaily their recent proposal for a housing block competition in Moscow. Additional images and a brief architects description after the break.

Amanda Levete Architects, AL_A, has just shared the news that their Central Embassy building is set to start on site this February. Situated along Ploenchit Road, Bangkok’s primary commercial artery, the 1.5 million sq ft project merges a 7 storey luxury retail podium and a 30 storey 5 star hotel tower into a twisting shape. The form marks a grand gesture for the city, as the curved mass climbs high into the sky creating an identifying mark for the area. The interiors are flooded with natural light as the form wraps around two vertical light wells, revealing stepped terraces and vertical gardens.

More about the project after the break.

Located in Kenmore, Washington the new Bastyr University Student Village accommodates 132 students amongst 11 three-story free-standing cottages. The design-rich and eco-friendly village, by CollinsWoerman, was originally designed to meet LEED Gold, however the project exceeded expectations and earned LEED Platinum certification while being completed under budget and ahead of schedule. The student village achieved 34 percent energy savings over more traditional multifamily projects and diverted 97 percent of construction waste from landfills through careful teamwork and planning. The award is the top honor the USGBC makes for multifamily projects.

Bastyr University student village was awarded the Outstanding Multifamily Project in the 2010 LEED for Homes Awards from the US Green Building Council.

More photographs and drawings of this project following the break.

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Architects: CollinsWoerman Location: Kenmore, Washington, USA Design Team: Pat Logan, John Aldredge, Sarah Reisenauer and Brian Walters Project Year: 2010 Photographs: Lara Swimmer and Karen Steichen/CollinsWoerman