The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) presents “Marcelo Spina: Wholes, Holes, and All the Other Stuff in Between”, part of their lecture series, this Wednesday, October 7 at 7pm in the W. M. Keck Lecture Hall.

Hasbro, the makers of the Monopoly game, have officially announced a competition that gives Monopoly-lovers the chance to design a building that will be included in the new interactive game Monopoly City Streets.

Amanda Levete Architects shared with us their submission for the extension for the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester.

The form intends to compliment the 19th century gallery, yet still maintain its individuality as a separate element.  The extension, then, becomes not “one building connected to another but as something more abstract: a gesture that merges landscape with building.”   The urban gallery’s setting within Whitworth Park allows the building to merge with the landscape to “create a dynamic and inhabitable” space.  “As the park becomes the folds of fabric, these folds are sliced, peeled, and pulled to house, expose, and articulate the new program of activities of that embodies the new Whitworth Gallery,” explained the architects.  The park seems to be gathered together and drawn into the building, creating an extension that fosters a relationship between interior and exterior, object and landscape.

More images after the break.

The RMJM designed Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School (Duke-NUS), the first collaboration of its kind in Singapore between two of the world’s top higher education institutions – Duke University in the U.S. and National University of Singapore – was opened yesterday, September 28th, by the country’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

The new school building designed by international architects RMJM, will significantly boost the number of highly trained doctors in the country, demonstrating Singapore’s commitment to becoming a world leader in healthcare and biomedical research.

At 26,000 square meters and 11 stories tall, Duke-NUS is a “vertical campus,” housing research offices, wet and dry laboratories, classrooms, lecture halls, a library, student lounges, a café and administrative offices. The placement of the building’s functions and programs were designed to build the academic community and promote scientific collaboration. More description and images after the break.

Architects: Rojkind Arquitectos / Michel Rojkind + ESRAWE Studio / Hector Esrawe Location: Mexico City, Mexico Project team: Rojkind [Tere Levy, Agustín Pereyra, Raúl Araiza, Carlos Alberto Ríos, Isaac Smeke Jaber, Enrique F. de la Barrera] / ESRAWE [Ricardo Casas, Basia Pineda, Ian Castillo, Karianne Rygh, Alejandra Castelao, Jorge Bracho] Program: Japanese Restaurant Client: Dr. Katsumi Kumoto Kawasaki Project Area: 629 sqm Design year: 2008 Construction year: 2010 Images: Glessner Group & ESRAWE Studio

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The global design practice Populous announced this week that they have been selected by the State Corporation ‘Olympstroy’ to design the main stadium for the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sochi, Russia.

It’s Friday. Time to relax. So are these great leisure projects. And in case you missed it, check our first part of leisure Round Up right here.

Rio de Janeiro just won the bid for the 2016 Olympic Games. If we add this to fact that Brazil is hosting the 2014 FIFA World Cup, expect a major dose of architectural projects for these events. This will be another opportunity for the architectural brazilian scene to show the world the high level of their works (see all the brazilian works in AD).

For this games, Rio will use a total of 33 venues, from which 8 correspond to facilities already built for the Pan-American games that will be renovated, such as the National Shooting Center by BCMF. There will be 11 new buildings (judo, wrestling, fencing, basketball, taekwondo, tennis, handball, modern pentathlon, swimming and synchronized swimming, canoe and kayak slaloms, and BMX cycling) and 11 temporal structures. A good opportunity for the local (or international?) architects.

The masterplan shown on the video shows that 4 clusters will concentrate this venues inside the city, connected by new transport systems.

Another aspect that is relevant for architecture, is that the city needs to build accommodations for 25,000 beds for the event. The government said that they can offer 8,500 beds in cruise ships.

The new facilities being built for London 2012 and the projects we saw in Beijing 2008 are good examples of architecture for this events.

As for the FIFA World Cup, I think that more then new stadiums we will see improvements on existant ones (such as the Maracana)… but maybe I´m wrong.

After the jump, the videos with the installations proposed in the Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo bids.

Our friend Xavier Vilalta from Barcelona-based xvstudio sent us his new project: the Melaku Center. The Melaku Center will be new center of learning, working and projection for the inhabitants of Mek’ele, capital of the Tigray, a region of the north of Ethiopia.

The Melaku Center will be a reference model of sustainable development in Africa, from the design of the buildings to the program itself. The whole project will be a ecosystem of knowlegde, development and natural resources.

A common parameter in the traditional African architecture is the use of the fractal scale: small parts of the structure tend to be similar to the bigger ones, for example, the circular villages are made of circular houses. More description and images after the break.

This month, we’d like to share with you another product from Hunter Douglas Contract, that can help you improve the energy efficiency of your projects.

The Nysan aerofoil (fin) louvers deflect thermal gain from incident sun, integrating light control into the building envelope. Not only they deliver outstanding functionality, but will also help architects create a distinctive look for the building surface. Well-designed louver configurations can be as striking as they are effective, shading the facade against low or high sun angles while making an aesthetic statement. As with any system, design considerations such as louver size and composition can affect performance.

Yesterday, through our Facebook Fan Page we launched a new contest for you to participate. We are looking for the best render that you can send us. Only one per person/office is allowed. The best ones will be featured next week on ArchDaily.com.

During these days I´m in Zagreb, Croatia, participating at CIP Talks 2009, an architecture conference organized by CIP Magazine. The list of lecturers at the conference include renowned architects, such as Mauricio Pezo & Sofía von Ellrichshausen (PvE), Jan Neutelings (Neutelings & Riedjik), Mark Lee (Johnston & MarkLee, interview here), Shohei Shigematsu (OMA, interview here), Carme Pinós, Arnaud Billard (Transsolar), Mikkel Frost (CEBRA), STUDIO UP (winners of the Emerging Architect MvE Award with their Gymnasium), Joseph Grima (Director of the Storefront Gallery, interview here), among other european and US architects.

Also, during these days we find the Croatian Architectural Triennale, the launch of Pogledaj.to a new local website for architecture, a new book on Croatian architecture, the opening of a new pavilion on the center of the city… an intense dose of architecture that we will be reporting during the following days.

I will be visiting and interviewing local practices such as 3LHD, Randic Turato, Studio UP, Njiric + Njiric, and more, to bring you more and more projects.

Yesterday I went to the coastal city of Rijeka, and visited three interesting projects by 3LHD and Randic Turato. See the photographs after the break, and expect the usual complete posting with all the info on these projects sometime during this week.

MAD Architects shared their recently completed design for the Taichung Convention Center with us. Conceived as “a continuous weave of architecture and landscape that blurs the boundary between architecture, public space and urban landscape, proposing a futuristic vision based on the East’s naturalistic philosophy,” the convention center is the first project in Taiwan commissioned by the Taichung city government. The project is meant to surpass the traditional metropolitan landmark to become something that pushes Taichung “into the arena of world class cultural cities…. through unique architectural concepts and proposing a new kind of architectural philosophy.”

More about the convention center and more images after the break.

During the AIA Convention 2009 we had the opportunity to interview the AIA President (2008-2009), Marvin Malecha.

The MODULE ARK, by Sponge Architects, is a design for an autarkic (=self-sufficient) ark to live and/or work on. The design is modern, modular and sustainable. Surrounding the ark with glass facades ensures a maximal openness. Despite of these big glass surfaces, the MODULE ARK stays sustainable because of the low energy consumption, realized by means of a simple mechanical principle consisting of individual façade parts that can be closed and opened separately. These parts are utilized in extreme weather conditions against overheating and hypothermia. More after the break.

Observation, organization, and transformation of urban settings.

“Although we will never fully comprehend the entire complexity of a city in one moment, we can understand the urban construct through the interaction of its parts”

The people from Lars Muller Publishers always keep in surprising us with their creations. In this case we are talking about a kind of book… which is not really a book but a series of transparent sheets which allow us to perceive the urban phenomena by isolating and superimposing individual components in order to have a personal interpretation of what the city is (that’s the reason of the title).

The publication offers an original approach to the study and comprehension of the complex urban systems, networks and connections. In words of the publisher it is “a mapping tool that creates a framework for understanding the continually changing configuration of the city. With transparent slides, the tool allows one to superimpose various realities like layers and build new urban connections. It invites readers in short to immerse themselves in the complexity of our cities”.

The author of this remarkable publication is Petra Kempf, a New York based Architect and Urban Designer.

We are always looking forward to see the results of an awarded competition. As we feature a lot of them, we might as well do a second part of our awarded competitions Round Up. Check out the first one here!

On September 29, Storefront for Art and Architecture will inaugurate a new exhibition showcasing research conducted over the past 3 years at ETH Zurich by Swiss architects Gramazio & Kohler into full-scale digital fabrication in architecture using industrial robots. At the same time, construction work will begin on Pike Loop, the first architectural project to be built on site by an industrial robot in the US.

Located on Pike Street, the robot, R-O-B, will work for up to four weeks—in full view of the public— to construct a brick wall, a highly sculptural response to the specific identity of the site. The same robot unit recently built the award-winning installation, Structural Oscillations, at the 2008 architectural biennial in Venice. For the Pike Loop installation, more than seven thousand bricks aggregate to form an infinite loop that weaves along the pedestrian island. In changing rhythms the loop lifts off the ground and intersects itself at its peaks. The installation was coordinated through the New York City Department of Transportation’s Urban Art Program.

More images and a video after the break.

Allied Works Architecture was selected to design the National Music Center project in Calgary’s East Village. The firm, led by Brad Cloepfil, will have the opportunity to “invent a new kind of institution,” as the center will be the first of its kind for Canada and will be part museum, part education and part performance. The proposal is comprised of a five-storey building that will incorporate the historic King Edward Hotel, a legendary house of blues, and provide 80,000 sf of new space for the Cantos Music Foundation’s growing collection. This project marks the first stage of the redevelopment of Calgary’s East Village and the creation of a new music district in the historic heart of the city.

More images and more about the winning proposal after the break.

Last month, we featured a post about James May, a toy fanatic (and presenter of the television show James May’s Toy Stories), that built a house using LEGO bricks. The house was complete, but unfortunately, it’s now demolished after a deal to sell it didn’t quite go well.

Because the home didn’t have planning permission on its site, the builder was hoping to find a buyer to transport the house elsewhere. LEGOland theme park showed interest, but the high cost of transportation didn’t make seem like a good deal. The 3.3 million LEGO bricks used to build the home will be donated to charity once the home is teared down.

Seen at designboom. More images of James May with the completed house and demolition process after the break.

Alison Brooks Architects, one of the leading talents in the UK, was awarded first prize for their master plan for the University of Northampton. The two stage master plan will play a vital role in enabling the university to meet both the need for short term accommodations and longer term plans for future growth. “The School of the Arts embraces new technologies in a dynamic cross-discipline mix that will drive our vision for a creative technologies campus. I believe the chosen proposal will provide a powerful statement which captures and projects our collective values and ambitions,” explained Paul Middleton.

More about the master plan after the break.

Controversy is surrounding the latest design of the 400 meter tower for Gazprom, a Russian energy company. Designed by RMJM, the tower, known as Okhta Center, will dominate the skyline, towering over the spire of St. Peter and Paul Cathedral. The new design may actually become the tallest building in Europe, which begs the question that even though we have the capability of building taller and larger, should that be our priority?

More about the tower after the break.

In the post-parametric era, one key challenge for architectural design is the acquisition, processing, and integration of data. Designers already have an enormous amount of computable data from building simulations, physical sensing, geometric form, construction techniques, cost and location of materials—and the mountain of numbers shows every sign of rapid expansion.

MONU – magazine on urbanism is a unique bi-annual international forum for artists, writers and designers that are working on topics of urban culture, development and politics.

Each issue collects essays, projects and photographs from contributors from all over the world to a given topic. Thus MONU examines topics that are important to the future of our cities and urban regions from a variety of perspectives.

They have just released their latest issue on the topic of “Clean Urbanism”. You can see more about the articles on their official website. Also, you can browse the entire issue YouTube (video after the break).