Industry leaders recently came together to announce the winners of the 2013 Architecture at Zero competition, which included five professional and one student awardee. The competition, which is co-sponsored by AIA San Francisco and Pacific Gas & Electric, focuses specifically on the design of zero-net energy structures.

While zero net energy is easily achieved in smaller buildings, it's a challenge in larger structures - and the competition challenged entrants to think big. With the aim of being as close to zero net energy as possible, competition entries had to be a mix of affordable and market rate housing units and include a full neighborhood-serving grocery store on the ground level.

Read more for the winners...

Although university is meant to be a place of educational exploration, paths, particularly for architects and designers, tend to be extremely prescribed. In "Notes from the Dean," originally published in Metropolis Magazine, Executive Dean Joel Towers describes how the Parsons New School for Design is pioneering a new design program that is more reflective of modern design approaches: "The world has changed; the role of design has changed. And the way that designers are taught to engage with the world must change, too."

Every generation is presented with challenges specific to its time and place. We live in a world changing in ways that were unimaginable at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, when design education first began to take shape. Technology (aided and abetted by design), advances in scientific knowledge, and shifts in social and cultural norms shaped design in the twentieth century. Our problems today involve more complex and interconnected systems—climate, cities, resources, networks, flows—and call for a new paradigm. Design in the twenty-first century is of critical importance in both addressing these challenges and transforming them into opportunities to remake the world around us. To do so, design education must change.

Design schools have traditionally adhered to a model that builds programs based on a foundation year, a well-defined and contained introduction to the basics of material, form, and color. And while that foundation is an important cornerstone of design education, it leaves little room for the more exploratory methods of cross-disciplinary and technology-based learning, and for understanding and applying design in the context of the larger world. That old model needs to evolve to reflect design’s enhanced role as a catalyst for innovation and creativity.

Although it went largely unnoticed until Wang Shu was awarded the Pritzker Prize, China's going through a major cultural boom. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal notes that, since 2012, hundreds of (often privately established) cultural institutions have popped up across the country, honouring everything from the famous Terracotta Soldiers to the local city planning department. We've rounded up a couple of these projects for your pleasure: Jean Nouvel's winning design for the National Art Museum, Steven Holl's mind-warping Sifang Museum, the seemingly extra-terrestrial Ordos City + Art Museum by MAD Architects, Trace Architecture Office's small museum of handcraft paper in the countryside, and a regional museum by Rocco Design Architects that takes inspiration from traditional Chinese lacquered boxes. Enjoy!

The finalists of the 2013 ONE Prize, a competition exploring the social, economic, and ecological possibilities of urban transformation, have just been announced. The 2013 competition focused on severe climate dynamism, calling for innovative and thoughtful design proposals and urban interventions that intend to alleviate storm impact and answer the question: "How can cities adapt to the future challenges of extreme weather?"

Exploring the intersections of architecture, urbanism, and the world beneath our feet, SOILED is a journal that serves as a space for investigative discussion. The publication toes the line between serious and not-too-serious, aiming to instigate mischief and a close examination of the quotidian. Published by CARTOGRAM Architecture and Urban Design, the semi-annual journal has just released its fourth edition, Windowscrapers.

Beloit College has chosen Studio Gang Architects to convert a century old power-plant into a campus recreation and activity center. The project was born out of an ongoing partnership with Alliant Energy Wisconsin, the local utility company that currently holds the space, who has been in talks within the college for over a year.

“The Studio Gang team is very excited to partner with Beloit College,” stated Jeanne Gang. “Together we can transform this historic structure into a new hub for wellness, green power, and great architecture. By reflecting Beloit’s core values in the design, values shared by our team, we will create a model that will bring many benefits to the college, city, and region. This is a project that has the potential to inspire other communities around the globe.”