You don´t need to be in Venice to witness its Architecture Biennale 2010.

By downloading Biennale App for free, you can navigate through the different events and exhibitions, from the Vernissage to the conclusion of the Biennale.

More information after the break.

It’s been a while since our last selection of previously featured educational projects. With many more to choose from, there’s still many more selections to come. Check our fourth part after the break.

UQAM’s Campus / Tétreault Parent Languedoc & Saia Barbarese Topouzanov The urban planning of the campus acknowledges the diverse urban character of the immediate context at the heart of Montreal’s historic cultural artery. The master plan sets out to reweave a tattered piece of the urban fabric, with the eastern portion of the site previously occupied by a parking lot now engaged in the vital life of the city with the addition of three new pavilions containing the faculty of Biological Sciences, TÉLUQ, and a new student residence (read more…)

Five Academy of Art University Architecture students built more than confidence when they won a citation from the American Institute of Architects, East Bay (AIAEB). Students Justin Ackerman, Mary Telling, Justin Hanan, Shaum Mehra and Shanay Moghbel put their design skills and ingenuity to work creating a free-standing office space for a client.

More images and information after the break.

Roosevelt University will soon feature a new vertical campus, courtesy of VOA Associates. The existing campus layout makes it nearly impossible for the college to grow outwardly – so the only solution was to expand vertically. The 32 storey building is quite slim in profile, yet its wavy glass façade provides a distinguishing aesthetic touch.

More about the tower after the break.

The Buckminster Fuller Challenge is an annual international design Challenge awarding $100,000 to support the development and implementation of a strategy that has significant potential to solve humanity’s most pressing problems. It attracts bold, visionary, tangible initiatives focused on a well-defined need of critical importance. Winning solutions are regionally specific yet globally applicable and present a truly comprehensive, anticipatory, integrated approach to solving the world’s complex problems. For more information, visit the competition’s official website. Seen at Bustler.

There are few things that are more annoying than sitting in bummer to bummer traffic. Yet, as cities are expanding at rapid rates, our infrastructure simply cannot support the number of people, and so congestion becomes an every day obstacle we have to face. As Bettina Wassener reported for the New York Times, for one China-based company, Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment, the vicious cycle of a growing population which leads to more vehicles – and hence, more traffic – needed to be addressed. And, along came their super functional, extra-wide (20 ft) and extra-tall ‘Straddling Bus’. The vehicle runs along fixed tracks and its main compartment is elevated to leave the street clear for cars driving underneath. Plus, the vehicle is partially powered by the sun via panels on the roof and at bus stops.

More about the Straddling Bus after the break.

Tadashi Kawamata, a Japanese sculptor and installer, is known for creating urban spaces that utilize simple materials. Often times, Kawamata selects an single item, whether it is a material or an object, that becomes the basic module of a huge construction. His latest spaces are occupying the external façade of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. These timbers huts, which are lined with cardboard, attach on to the existing structural framework, like a parasite, and morph into something entirely new.

More about the huts after the break.

TCA International Student Design Competition: The Concrete Classroom is sponsored by the Tilt-Up Concrete Association and the Tennessee Concrete Association.

When we started with our Flickr Pool, we never thought it would get to more than 23,000 photos so soon. This is our 16th selection of the best, so you may have missed a few, so check them all right here. 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 d.teil in Berlin, Germany. Check the other four after break.

BIG has proven in the past to be a source of innovating projects. Their idea is far beyond the superficial: it´s about improving the city, as you can see on this presentation by Bjarke Ingels for 8 House.

For this project -which will open in October-, BIG has been honored by the Scandinavian Green Roof Association as the Best Green Roof in the Scandinavia for its 1.700 m2 sloping green roof at an award ceremony held at 8 House in Oerestad, Copenhagen.

More information about this award after the break.

Slovenia-based OFIS arhitekti (see their projects here) are looking for a local office around Minsk, Belarus and Sochi, Russia to work with two sports projects (a football stadium and a building for Winter Olympics).

NL Architects’ winning cultural stage proposal will activate the Port of Amsterdam as its unique configuration is suited for a variety of activities. Situated on the Haparandada near the IJ River, the flexible and movable base will accommodate different forms of art such as film, fashion, sculpture, dance, etc. “The versatility of the assignment is the ultimate challenge for Architecture: how can one single spatial given host all these functionalities in a credible way?” explained the architects.

More about the winning proposal after the break.

What is FutureShack? While many think of architecture as grand, historic buildings or the latest artistic showpiece, it is more often found in the dwellings that we see every day. What is the future of home design? How will it affect you and how can you get involved? FutureShack helps us discover, through examples around our city, what makes good design work. A panel of design professionals and public advocates will lead a discussion focusing the key issues facing our communities when it comes to design.

Continuing our coverage of Herzog and de Meuron’s Elbe Philharmonic Hall, we just found some interesting news regarding the construction site. Currently around 80 meters high, the music hall still has a few years of construction left. As huge cranes rise high above the building, Michael Batz, a scenographer, has taken advantage of the cranes and turned an ordinary construction site into a tourist attraction. Usually, people come to see a finished building – yet Batz’s idea of covering the cranes with blue LEDs creates a new kind of attraction.

Check out more images of the blue cranes, and a close up shot of the skin after the break.

Following our recent updates about the Architecture Billings Index, the most recent news from the AIA shows a slight increase for the month of July. The American Institute of Architects reported the July ABI score was 47.9, up from a reading of 46.0 the previous month.

For this family house, Vienna-based architecture firm Franz Architekten has divided the typical programmatic elements of a farmhouse – the residence, barn, and stables – into separate entities. Arranged as a series of shifted boxes, the dwelling consists of three independent components measuring 6.6m by 16.6 m. These volumes are connected with the main circulation path, a glazed hallway.

More images and more about the residence after the break.

The next world congress of the International Union of Architects will be held in Tokyo, Japan, from 25 to 29 September 2011. The academic program covers research papers and design works, realized or planned, on the overall congress theme: DESIGN 2050. This theme is the opportunity for designers to express and present their visions of architecture and ideal cities and to imagine the tendencies of urban architecture prefiguring the world in 2050.

Japanese architects MoNo were selected as one of exhibitors for the 5th Festival of Lively Architecture in Montpellier, France, becoming the first winner from Asia in this competition. For 4 days starting June 17th, they opened the installation art work “Ukigumo – Floating Clouds” at one of the certified historical architecture sites in Montpellier old town.

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

Within a budget of 70,000 euros, Propeller Z has completed an addition for a 200 year old farmhouse in Fahndorf, Austria. The addition, which includes a kitchen and living space, extends from one of the farm’s U-shaped arms, quietly peaking out behind its older counterpart. The balance between Propeller Z’s efforts to preserve most of the existing farm while incorporating a contemporary language, yields an elegant and sophisticated result.

More images and more about the addition after the break.

An exciting exhibit opening today in St. Louis, Missouri will display the five finalist teams of The City+The Arch+The River 2015 International Design Competition (check out some previous information about the competition on AD). The competition asked participants to better “frame” the iconic Arch and weave the national park back into the fabric of the city and the region, by rejuvenating connections and re-energizing the area. The construction finish line is set for October 28, 2015 which marks the 50th anniversary of the completion of the Arch.

Check out a brief overview of each project after the break.

What do you think of this crazy stone house tucked into the Fafe Mountains in Portugal? Constructed between two giant stones and linked with a concrete mix, the house is rumored to be inspired by the popular American Flintstones cartoon. Although quite unusual, the prehistoric-looking residence does feature some traditional components such as windows, a front door, and even a shingled roof. As you might expect, the house’s design attracts thousands of tourists each year.

More images after the break.

As we told you a few months ago, AMO (the think-tank inside OMA) played an important role on Roadmap 2050, an initiative by the European Climate Foundation which looks to chart a policy roadmap for the next 5-10 years based on the European leaders’ commitment to an 80-95% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050.

Did you know that the Sears Tower (now renamed as the Willis Tower) is currently the tallest steel building in the world?

Tall steel buildings are possible thanks to Fazlur Khan, SOM engineer behind several innovations in terms of structural design. On Construction Week Online we found this list of the ten tallest steel buildings in the world, with Kahn’s buildings on the 1st, 5th and 10th place.

All the buildings after the break:

Check out these urban farm buildings we spotted on Inhabitat that were designed and built by students from the University of Colorado Denver. The new buildings utilize mostly salvaged materials to create functional, and quite elegant, additions to the working farm. As part the Design Build Program at the University, and under the guidance of the principals of Studio H:T, the students created a Learning Cube and a Dairy House.

More images and more about the students’ work after the break.