After finishing his Hollyhock House and the Imperial Hotel, Frank Lloyd Wright began to push his ideas concerning patterned concrete blocks. Utilizing the textile block, Wright built four houses – La Miniatura, the Ennis House, the Freeman House and the Storer House – as a way to truly challenge himself, as he explained in Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer and Gerald Nordland’s book, Frank Lloyd Wright: In the Realm of Ideas, “ “What about the concrete block? It was the cheapest (and ugliest) thing in the building world. It lived mostly in the architectural gutter as an imitation of rock-faced stone. Why not see what could be done with that gutter rat? Steel rods cast inside the joints of the blocks themselves and the whole brought into some broad, practical scheme of general treatment, why would it not be fit for a new phase of our modern architecture? It might be permanent, noble beautiful.”

More on OMA’s winning entry for a new library in Caen, France, presented last week at ArchDaily.

This conference promises, with the help of a fantastic line-up of speakers, to draw out ground-breaking ideas in the realm of interactivity in architecture.

Great projects from Thailand, USA, Spain and The Netherlands you may have missed last week! Check them all after the break.

Autostella Showroom / Supermachine Studio From early period of the last century, automotive industry have always influenced architecture (but not so much the other way around). In modern history, different aspects of “automobile” has been inspiring architecture, whether as a material, shape, speed of the way cars are manufactured. We learn so much from the classic examples of architecture like Fiat’s Lingotto factory in Turin, (Mattè Trucco1923) in which the testing track is located on the roof top of the building (read more…)

Swedish architects We Are You shared with us their latest project “Jönköping by Bike”, a gift they offered along with Super Sustainable to the city of Jönköping. It is a proposal for a sustainable future development where biking is one of the leading aspects. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Architect: Jesus Davila arquitectos Location: Aguascalientes, Mexico Client: Karla Judith Medina Design Year: 2009 Construction Year: 2010-2011 Project Area: 125 sqm (25 sqm each floor) Photographs: Ignacio Herrera

The Global Design Competition of Seattle, WA USA calls for entries of integrated function, high efficiency, low carbon restaurant designs toward the goal of creating a shareware reference resource of design solutions and services directory for participating design teams. Our design objective is low carbon restaurants, by any means possible, including but not limited to reduction in the need for electricity, food menu and ingredient choices, localized power generation and waste energy capture and reuse.

Renzo Piano’s Shard is quickly climbing up London’s skyline. The 1,016 ft high skyscraper will provide the mixed use density the city needs, as it incorporates apartments, office space, a spa, hotel and restaurants within its sleek pyramidal form. Inspired by perhaps a ship’s mast from the Pool of London, or a modern take on the church spire, the Shard will become a prominent fixture in the skyline as it nears it completion. Check out these images illustrating the Shard’s progress – the crisp aesthetic commonly found in Piano’s projects is becoming evident as the low-iron glazing is applied to the structure.

More images after the break.

Trained as a landscape architect, W. Garett Carlson has designed a 1700 sf residence entitled the Joshua Tree Boulder House. Situated on 2.5 acres in Joshua Tree, California, the residence is intended to seem as though it is emerging from the ground. This conceptual idea stems from the site’s proximity to the Joshua Tree National Park which contains some of the most fascinating boulder shapes in the world, according to Carlson.

More images and more about the residence after the break.

Last week, we featured the winner of the Museum of the Second World War Competition in Gdańsk, Poland. The project was designed by Studio Architektoniczne Kwadrat. Now, French architects Brochet Lajus Pueyo shared with us their proposal for the competition, designed with associates architects Alice Wijnen & R-architecture. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Istanbul-based Nüvist shared with us their proposal for the Opera House Design Competition in Izmir, Turkey. More images and architect’s description after the break.

For JDS Architects‘ Encants Market in Barcelona, the firm employs their conventional strong geometry to create an open market place. The occupiable roof measures 7 meters in thickness and contains about half of the market’s activity (the other half occurs between the roof and the parking level). Inside, a ramp brings visitors to ground level, echoing the same circulation ideas found in Frank Lloyd Wright’s New York Guggenheim. From ground level, the open sides of the market create a feeling of permeability, allowing easy access for those passing by.

More images after the break.

During the summer, we introduced Lindsay Brown and his San Diego Waterfront revitalization plan. While Brown continues to push forward his scheme that brings a new life into the area’s urban edge through the implementation of a pedestrian public realm, his firm has designed some great smaller scale projects, such as his Island residence. The project, which is situated in St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, was inspired by the client’s passion for sailing and utilizes the site’s climatic conditions to drive many design elements such as breezeways, pools, covered areas and orientation.

More images and more about the residence after the break.

Italian architects MORQ recently won a competition to design the University of Canberra Campus in Australia. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Are you an architect, an urban designer, a social entrepreneur, a government official, a foundation or simply an individual or group engaging in the sustainable future of our cities?

New York’s Sukkah City competition was a great success, as both the winning entries and the other proposals developed creative and thoughtful spaces. Check out Studiometrico’s proposal for the competition which is more of a do-it-yourself sukkah. People can build their own space using a triangular module that folds over itself to provide a sheltered condition. Interested in the actual construction of the sukkah, the studio built a 1:1 scale prototype to test its feasibility and decided to present the idea to the Citizens of New York by telling the story of how it was built once upon a time, in a hypothetical place, by three imaginary boys.

More images and information about the sukkah, including a short video after the break.

Netherlands-based Hoogte Twee Architecten shared with us their project B(h)uis, a small pavilion built with PVC tubes. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Two medical care facilities, two dental clinics, and one nursing home. It’s our health architecture selection, part IV. Check them all after the break.

Kemang Medical Care / Aboday Architects When this project started in 2007, the original land size of 2600 sqm is barely enough to build a women and children clinic with 52 wards. The building programme is complex, which include one floor dedicated for in vitro treatment. The 5 storey building sits on an elongated site, located in a junction of Jalan Ampera Raya in South Jakarta, and 6 m width neighbourhood alley. It has an inward tapered shape with a frontage of only 20 meter in width (read more…)

This morning, we featured BIG’s proposal for the Audi Urban Future Award. Now, we show you the winning proposal by German architect J. Mayer H. More images and architect’s description after the break.

“(Driver)less is more”, BIG’s proposal for the Audi Urban Future Award was one of the five finalists of the competition won by J. Mayer H. More images and architect’s description after the break.

A few weeks ago we were discussing on Twitter how OMA has developed several innovations in cultural and educational buildings. The Wyly Theater (in partnership with REX), the Seattle Public Library, and on projects such as the MNBAQ extension or the West Kowloon Cultural District master plan.

Today we got the news that OMA has won the competition for a new regional library (Bibliothèque Multimédia à Vocation Régionale) in Caen, France. The 12,000m2 project will be OMA’s first cultural building in France, and was led by associate-in-charge Clément Blanchet.

Check out this temporary installation, entitled “Life Will Kill You”, for the Revolve Clothing showroom in West Hollywood. For the installation, Molly Hunker and Gregory Corso of Sports used the standard zip tie to create a floating volume nestled below an existing soffit. The simplicity of the system highly contrasts the high fashion boutique clothing, which will be displayed in the space, as a way to show how the two extremes can compliment one another. “The design is intended to explore the edge between aggression and elegance through material sensibility, overall form, and visual effect,” explained the designers.

More images and more about the installation after the break.

Shawn Swisher, architecture student at the USC School of Architecture, is currently on a traveling research fellowship focusing on the work of Peter Zumthor. The research centers around Zumthor’s ability to create visceral reactions through his architecture, work that is based on fundamentals of architecture that seem to be fleeting in some emerging architectural trends. Here you will find periodic updates from his journey.

There are many ways that architecture can stimulate us. We can be enthralled by theoretical concepts that intend to revolutionize how we interact with our buildings. We can be overcome by the metaphors underlying a project’s design. And, at times, we are able to separate ourselves from these more cerebral desires and draw intrigue based solely on our reactions to space and form.

NOVAE Architecture has been recently selected as one of the 10 Young Italian Architects under 35 at the “Architects Meet at Fuori Biennale”, for the Venice Biennale. For the event, they presented their project “Teritorial Dissonances”. More images and architect’s description after the break.