This past July Philip Enquist of SOM spoke to the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota as a part of TEDxTalks Mill City series. His focus was to raise awareness and also challenge the Great Lake and St. Lawrence watershed residents to “imagine there are no borders”. This video hits close to home, as I grew up in the Great Lakes watershed region. His lecture is informative and revealing of the responsibility there is to utilize and protect this great resource of the United States.

At the end of the video you find yourself wondering why haven’t we already created a plan for the Great Lakes region.  Possibly the size of this region or the international boarder running through it has failed to put it on many people’s radar screens.  Either way Enquist lays out an achievable ten point plan (overview after the break) to focus on where this 100 year vision could be a global example of human balance with nature, beyond two nations.

Following Enquist’s lecture the mayors of the Great Lake and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative voted to approve a regional sustainability program.

The project transforms a picturesque urban pond from the 19th century into an ecological habitat buzzing with life. With the design’s improvements to water quality, hydrology, landscape, accessibility, and shelter, the site is able to function as an outdoor classroom in which the co-existence of natural and urban surroundings is demonstrated.

Architect: Studio Gang Architects Client: Lincoln Park Zoo Project Area: 4 acres Project Year: 2010 Photographs: Beth Zacherle and Studio Gang Architects

Here is a video about one of Zaha Hadid‘s latest project, King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSRC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This project has a holistic approach unifying architecture and engineering, landscape and building artist expression and environmental responsive design. It is intended to not only be a leading research facility, but also a LEED Platinum certified building upon its completion.

This video is just a sneak peak of the exterior projections to be expected on the facade of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum in New York this evening. It will be a full live streamed event 8pm ET where 25 videos selected by the jury for YouTube Play: A Biennial of Creative Video will be featured. This is the inaugural event held by YouTube Play: Live from the Guggenheim.

Sliced Porosity Block, CapitaLand China’s new Raffles City in Chengdu, is a hybrid of different functions like a giant chunk of a metropolis. It will be located just south of the intersection of the First Ring Road and Ren Min Nan Road. Its sun sliced geometry results from required minimum daylight exposures to the surrounding urban fabric prescribed by code and calculated by the precise geometry of sun angles.

Architects: Steven Holl Architects Location: Chengdu, China Design Architect: Steven Holl, Li Hu Associate in Charge: Roberto Bannura Project Architects: Lan Wu, Haiko Cornelissen, Peter Englaender, JongSeo Lee Project Designer: Christiane Deptolla, Inge Goudsmit, Maki Matsubayashi, Sarah Nichols, Martin Zimmerli Project Team: Justin Allen, Jason Anderson, Francesco Bartolozzi, Guanlan Cao, Yimei Chan, Sofie Holm Christensen, Esin Erez, Ayat Fadaifard, Mingcheng Fu, Forrest Fulton, Runar Halldorsson, M. Emran Hossain, Joseph Kan, Suping Li, Tz-Li Lin, Yan Liu, Jackie Luk, Daijiro Nakayama, Pietro Peyron, Roberto Requejo, Elena Rojas-Danielsen, Michael Rusch, Ida Sze, Filipe Taboada, Manta Weihermann, Ebbie Wisecarver, Human Tieliu Wu, Jin- Ling Yu Model Photographs: Iwan Baan Under Construction Photographs: Steven Holl Architects

[blip.tv ?posts_id=4142907&dest=-1]In front of the Mediterranean Sea and with close proximity to the Peñíscola Castle, a National Heritage Monument and a park, architects Paredes Pedrosa decided to focus on providing visual connectivity between all inner spaces to both the park and sea in front of it. The result is a building that displays an open front face towards the park, allowing views of the sea from the upper level. Meanwhile, the rest of the perimeter isolates the building from its surroundings.Video: Studio Banana TV

Architect: Exhibit Arhitectura Location: Brasov, Romania Client: The Evangelic Church C.A. (Augsburg Confession) Project Architect: Johannes Bertleff, Dragos Oprea Design Team: Adrian Ianchis, Edmund Olsefszky, Andreas Klement Structure: Bodor Csaba Photographs: Vlad Slavic

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Celebrating its third project with the same development team in the maturing neighborhood of Orestad, the construction of the 61,000 sqm 8 House has come to an end, allowing people to bike all the way from the street up to its 10th level penthouses alongside terraced gardens where the first residents have already moved in.  Follow the break and you can find images of 8 House at night, interiors, gardens, and diagrams along with a more detailed project description and quotes from the architects.

You can also check our previous feature on the construction of this amazing project.

Architect: BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group Location: Copenhagen, Denmark Collaboration: Hopfner Partners, MOE & Brodsgaard, KLAR Partner-In-Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Thomas Christoffersen Project Leader: Ole Elkjaer-Larsen, Henrick Poulsen Project Manager: Finn Norkjaer, Henrik Lund Project Team: Dennis Rasmussen, Rune Hansen, Agustin Perez Torres, Annette Jensen, Carolien Schippers, Caroline Vogelius Wiener, Claus Tversted, David Duffus, Hans Larsen, Jan Magasanik, Anders Nissen, Christian Alvarez Gomez, Hjalti Gestsson, Johan Cool, James Duggan Schrader, Jakob Lange, Kirstine Ragnhild, Jakob Monefeldt, Jeppe Marling Kiib, Joost Van Nes, Kasia Brzusnian, Kasper Broendum Larsen, Louise Heboell, Maria Sole Bravo, Ole Nannberg, Pablo Labra, Pernille Uglvig Jessen, Peter Rieff, Peter Voigt Albertsen, Peter Larsson, Rasmus Kragh Bjerregaard, Richard Howis, Soeren Lambertsen, Eduardo Perez, Ondrej Tichy, Sara Sosio, Karsten Hammer Hansen, Christer Nesvik, Soeren Peter Kristensen, Lacin Karaoz, Marcello Cova, Luis Felipe González Delgado, Janghee Yoo, SunMing Lee Client: St. Frederikslund Holding Project Area: 61,000 sqm, 476 residences Project Year: 2010 Photographs: Dragor Luft, Jens Lindhe, Ty Stange, Maria Gonzalez

Architect: REX Location: Incheon, Korea Client: Songdo Landmark City (SLC) Program: Residential towers with a total of approximately 2,000 units, community facilities, retail, and underground parking Area: 342,900 sqm Project Status: Completed Concept Design Landscape Architect: Bureau Bas Smets Executive: HYUNDAI Architects & Engineers; SAMOO Architects & Engineers Key Personel: Adolfo Albaisa, Haviland Argo, E. Sean Bailey, Keith Burns, Nicolas de Courten, Rob Daurio, Jeremiah Joseph, Hui Lee, Katharine Meagher, Clinton Miller, Roberto Otero, Michelle Petersen, Joshua Prince-Ramus, Jacob Reidel, Nikolas Rychen, Tal Schori, Hala Sheikh, Nuo Xu Consultant: Magnusson Klemencic Associates

[blip.tv ?posts_id=4142731&dest=-1]The “Casa del Condestable” is a building listed as an Asset of Cultural Interest. It was built from 1548 by Luis de Beaumont, 4th Count of Lerín and Constable of the Kingdom of Navarre. In the year 2000, in a state of ruin, it was acquired by the City Hall to prevent it being demolished and it was then decided to refurbish it for use as a civic centre in the Old Town of Pamplona.Tabuenca & Leache chose to recover as much as possible of the character of the mansion palace in its foundational state, without having to give up the necessary installations to allow it to function. The new elements, though easily recognisable, do not seek contrast but continuity from what was built before, with the natural appearance with which interventions on buildings have historically succeeded each other. The project limits itself to assigning uses to the most suitable available spaces, in the conviction that the new functions will merely represent another episode in its history.Video: Studio Banana TV

[blip.tv ?posts_id=4133671&dest=-1]The Auditorium and Convention Centre in Expo 2008 located in Zaragoza, Spain was designed by architects Nieto Sobejano. A fractional and varied profile – ascending and descending – the building's exterior expressed the different spaces housed in its interior and introduced a large amount of natural light into the exhibition areas. Three main blocks house an auditorium, a multi-purpose pavilion, and modular halls will be connected to each other via a large common vestibule which links the different areas.Video: Studio Banana TV

[blip.tv ?posts_id=4151677&dest=-1]The Santa Caterina Market is Barcelona's oldest market, built in 1848. Nearly the entire market was recently renovated by Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue of EMBT Associated Architects. The very expressive arc roof, mosaic tiled designed by artist Toni Comella, displays vivid colors and figures that represent vegetables and fruit.Video: Studio Banana TV

Vimeo Festival + Awards was held over the weekend in NYC. Check out this architectural projection mapping performance on the facade of the IAC Building, designed by Frank Gehry in 2007.