World Cities Summit is a premier event that brings together practitioners and policy makers with leading experts in their field to identify innovative solutions to the most pressing challenges facing cities today. The inaugural summit in June 2008 brought together 800 senior delegates including leaders, mayors, policy makers and the civil society. To build on its success, the next Summit in 2010 will offer a strategic platform comprising a high-level summit, plenary sessions, networking forums and technical workshops.

The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum will celebrate outstanding achievement in design this fall with its 11th annual National Design Awards program. Yesterday, Cooper-Hewitt Director Bill Moggridge announced the winners and finalists of the 2010 National Design Awards, which recognize excellence across a variety of disciplines. The Award recipients will be honored at a gala dinner Thursday, Oct. 14, at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York. First Lady Michelle Obama serves as the Honorary Patron for this year’s National Design Awards.

See the winners after the break.

Field Operations and DS+R’s High Line has been enjoyed by many ever since its opening, but we’ve been waiting patiently for the next segment to be finished. And, thanks to Curbed.com, we’re able to share some recent construction shots of the progress being made.

Check out more photos and more about the second phase after the break.

Architects: Guerin Glass Architects Location: 223 Saratoga Road Honolulu, Hawaii 96815, USA Associate Architect, Honolulu HI: Benjamin Woo Architects LLC Interior Design: SN Design Completion Date: December 2009 Mechanical/Plumbing Engineer: Notkin Hawaii, Inc. Electrical Engineer: Albert Chong Associates Civil Engineering: Wilson Okamoto Corp. Environmental: Clayton Group Services Geotechnical Engineering: Professional Services Industries Landscaping: Brownville & Lee Waterproofing: Specialized Architectural Services Telecommunications/Security Design: Communications Consulting Services Client: Irongate Azrep Beachwalk LLC Floor Area: 575,000 sf Total built area: Total height of the building: 700,000 sf Photos: Andrea Brizzi

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Arquitectum and the Istituto Nazionale di Architettura want to bring a new element to the city’s debate and enigma: a hundred meter high tower, next to the Coliseum, which would present itself as an “important” element, but not necessarily monumental, which would expose Rome’s complexity by being a “vertical” Rome, which would assemble the facts and the enigmas lived and surviving in the Eternal City.

Architects: Eskew+Dumez+Ripple – Guidry Beazley Architects Location: Key West, Florida, USA General Contractor: BRPH MEP Engineer: Associated Design Group, Inc. Structural Engineer: McKee and Deville Consulting Engineers Civil Engineer: URS Group, Inc. Cost Management: Atkins HF+G Year of Completion: 2006 Client: U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Division Project Size: 30,000 square feet Software Implemented: AutoCAD Photography: Timothy Hursley

These days, everything seems to be about soccer. Our friends from abitare knew this, so some months ago they conducted a series of short interviews with four Brazilian architects so they could share their ideas about soccer and architecture.

As workers labor over the newest development at Ground Zero,  moving, bolting and welding the 46,074 tons of steel can be tiresome and, well, make a person hungry.  With an allotted 30-minute lunch break, workers wait anxiously for the hoist that descends dozens of stories, making their 30 minutes often times extend to 60.  The solution – bring the lunch to the workers. The new sandwich shop, built by DCM Erectors (the same company that is putting up the steel girders and beams), is a movable pod made of stacked cargo containers which sit on either side of two tower cranes.

More images and more about the new restaurant after the break.

Architects: archimania Location: Memphis, TN, USA Building area: 11.25 sf Total cost: $1,554 Completion date: October 2009 Photography: Chad Mellon Photography

Graduate architects and designers are invited to create an innovative, easily constructed shelter for remote communities affected by natural disaster as part of The University of Western Australia’s 2010 Pavilion Project Design Competition.

It’s the place where your little kid will spent most of their time outside your house. Shouldn’t it be nice? Here’s our third selection of previously featured kindergartens. Check them all after the break!

Medo Brundo Kindergarten / njiric+ arhitekti How to design a kindergarten on a too small plot ? What if the plot is overshadowed by a massive nine-story block on it’s south side ? What if the plot is surrounded by the heavy traffic? The kindergarten is initially conceived as a single-story mat building – compact, introverted, autocatalytic, with clearly defined borders. Due to the context, the mat is pushed away from the shadow and folded up towards the sun (read more…)

The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservations (GSAPP) at Columbia University have announced its Summer Lecture Series 2010. Here are June events:

In Paris, France, BASE has created an environment for the imagination with their latest playground design. Working with children and adults in different workshops, BASE was able to understand the users’ wishes and visions for the project. ”Our work then consisted in synthetising and interpreting the public’s expectations to provide a spatial response both truthful and original,” explained the designers.

More images and more about the playground after the break.

Designed by Australian architects TERROIR, the history of the single-family house in Sydney during the last century is a record of changing conditions in regard to their relationship with the landscape. Previous responses range from ignorance, to mimicry, to contrast. Responses have involved the importation of ideas from elsewhere and the futile quest to develop a ‘vernacular’. It is in this context, and aware of this history, that this house has been designed.

More images and complete architect’s description after the break.

A-lab just won a competition to design a military base in Norway which will be situated on the northern border with Russia. The design challenge was to create a cohesive complex where work and private life coexist, and where military services meet the civil community.

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

Working collectively, four graduate students have transformed their clients’ traditional and rarely used fireplace into something completely new. Entitled Radiance, the project is intended to exploit the traditional qualities of the hearth by re-centering the focus of the home around a contemporary ambient environment. The clients’ background, one an artist and the other an architect, allowed this project to become more of “a commissioned artwork rather than a client-based architectural intervention” – an opportunity that truly allowed PROJECTiONE to further their theories and interest in their plyLight sketch prototype.

More about the project, including images, after the break.

The symposium marks the release of the 11 Architects + 12 Conversations issue of PRAXIS: a journal of writing and building. The moderated discussion will invite audience participation in an open dialogue that explores shared and contested territory among this emerging generation of practices.

Architectural photographer Pasi Aalto sent us this photos of the 1:1 – Architects Build Small Spaces exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The V&A invited nineteen architects to submit proposals for structures that examine notions of refuge and retreat. From these nineteen concept submissions, seven were selected for construction at full-scale.

This photos belong to the project designed by Rintala Eggertsson Architects. The exhibition started on Tuesday and will be on display till August 30. You can see more photos by Pasi Aalto after the break.

WE ARCHITECTURE and Sophus Søbye Architects, both young Danish firms, have been awarded first prize for their competition entry for a cultural center in Denmark’s Rudersdahl municipality. “The future Mariehøj cultural center draws a clear profile in the landscape. With a new foyer, the culture center will get a new face that invites in all people in Ruderdahl’s municipality and also a heart that can bring together and highlight the many users and activities in the house,” explained the architects.

More images and more about the proposal after the break.

3XN’s winning proposal for the new structure marking the entrance to Vällingby Parkstad in Stockholm, Sweden, creates a close relation between work life, housing, and leisure. The building’s curved design embraces the area and the lively shaped balconies opens up the structure towards the surroundings thus raising the park up in the air. The dense city structure at the base adds activity at eye level and life thrives on active roof tops and flowering balconies. Construction is planned to begin in 2011.

More images after the break.

In his article about Renzo Piano’s revised vision for the Whitney, Nicolai Ouroussoff explains that the neighborhood’s criticism and the museum board’s indecisiveness have continually provided stumbling blocks for the museum during its attempts to expand. Upon agreeing to realize Piano’s design for a satellite museum in the Meatpacking district, hope were high that finally, after 25 years, the museum would complete its much needed expansion.

Yet, it seems that Piano is in the midst of a new struggle resulting from the global economic downturn. While construction costs have dropped, allowing the cost of the project to slide under $200 million (persuading the board to commit to breaking ground), the museum is still struggling to contain costs and begin building before prices rise.

Check out this master plan video by Vandkunsten for designing sustainable cities. Not only do we love the animation techniques, by the layers of information are presented in a clear manner. Upon viewing the video, the zoning of public space, circulation routes, and green spaces are made evident while great glimpses of zoomed-in perspectives tie the ideas together. The video depicts three different master plan ideas: reusing a shipyard in Sweden, redefining a recreational space in Denmark in an attempt to better integrate the area with the surroundings, and the renewal of a suburban city center in Denmark. Enjoy!

Situated in a residential neighborhood with buildings dating back to 1900, Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter’s new kindergarten was required to have a “contemporary expression.” The school’s placement within the middle of a small park provides a protected outdoor area for the children to enjoy. The design offers two units for children between 1-3 years of age, and two units for older children between 3-6 years of age. These four units can operate both independently and together, as needed. All units share a common area and a kitchen in the heart of the building, while administration on the upper floor separated from the children areas.

More images after the break.

Steven Holl Architects is pleased to present ‘Su Pietra’, an exhibition of recent projects in China and Europe, which will be held at the Castle of Acaya in Lecce, Italy, from July 10, 2010 to January 15, 2011.