A total of 34 countries will participate in the inaugural London Design Biennale, according to a press release from the organization. Set to open on September 7th, the Biennale will center on the theme Utopia by Design, looking at “sustainability, migration, pollution, water and social equality,” among other issues.

The theme was chosen in honor of the 500th anniversary of the publication of Thomas More’s “Utopia,” and the Biennale will be “the centerpiece” of the Somerset House’s year-long programme celebrating the text. “We chose the inaugural theme, Utopia by Design, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the publication of  Thomas More’s classic, and to reflect on the rich history of the modernist design it inspired,” said Christopher Turner, the Director of the London Design Biennale. 

The Biennale “will present newly commissioned works in contemporary design, design-led innovation, creativity and research,” bringing together “designers, innovators and cultural bodies” to explore “the role of design in our collective futures.” A diverse group of countries from five continents are set to participate: Albania, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Chile, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, SouthAfrica, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, UK and the USA.

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Harvard GSD has announced the four shortlisted architects for the 2016 Wheelwright Prize. Awarded annually, the $100,000 grant is for travel-based architectural research.

Selected from 200 applications from nearly 45 countries worldwide, the four finalists are from Italy, Spain and Chile. Each finalist will present their work and proposal on April 20. This year’s jury includes Eva Franch, Jeannie Kim, Kiel Moe, Rafael Moneo, Benjamin Prosky, Mohsen Mostafavi, and K. Michael Hays.

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More than 6 million courses have been created for Super Mario Maker, a video game where players can create their own game levels with all of the available tools of the Mario universe. The plumber, who has entertained millions of people around the world with his adventures, turned 30 last September, the date of the release of his first solo odyssey, Super Mario Bros. The rest, as we know, is history.

A few months ago, for the premiere of Super Mario Maker at the last Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3 2015), Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, the creators of Super Mario Bros, explained how they designed the levels of the classic Nintendo video game in 1985: on graph paper.

That's right, using graph paper and tracing paper, the Japanese artists drew each level in detail, adding and editing the position of enemies, traps, and even designing the game's cover art.

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Japanese practice Nikken Sekkei, in collaboration with Joan Pascual-Ramon Ausió Arquitectes, has been chosen to design the new Camp Nou stadium for FC Barcelona, according to Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia. The winning team was chosen over three other finalists: HKS + COX + Batell i Roig Arquitectes; BIG + IDOM + BAAS Arquitectes; POPULOUS + Mias Arquitectes + RCR Arquitectes.

The new design intends to compliment the recently unveiled New Palau Blaugrana, FC Barcelona's main basketball arena that will be designed by HOK and TAC Arquitectes. All this is happening alongside the Espai Barça remodel that is expected to begin in 2017 and complete by 2021.

Italy and UNESCO have signed an agreement to create a special Italian task force to protect art, cultural sites, and ancient artifacts that are located in areas of war or conflict around the world. They will also form a center in Turin to train cultural heritage experts. The agreement arose from a proposal presented by Italy last October that was backed by 53 countries and the UN Security Council.

Conceived as the cultural version of the Blue Helmets -- the UN’s peacekeeping forces -- the group will initially be composed of 30 police detectives specializing in art theft, and 30 archeologists and art restorers and historians, who “are already operational and ready to go where UNESCO sends them,” said Dario Franceschini, the Italian Minister of Culture, during the ceremony to sign the agreement.

Argentina has unveiled the theme of its national pavilion for the 2016 Venice Biennale: “experimentAR, poéticas desde la frontera” (to experience, poetry from the border). The pavilion will be curated by Atilio Pentimalli with Alejandro Vaca Bononato as the head of artistic direction.

Where were you when it happened? On February 27, 2010 an 8.8-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck Chile, causing destruction across the country. Ask any Chilean what they were doing at the time, and they will have a story to tell.

Oriana Pinochet Villagra and her family were in Constitución when the ground started to shake. A town centered around the forestry industry, Constitución is surrounded by green mountains, and situated where the Maule river meets the Pacific Ocean.

It was one of the cities most affected by the earthquake in 2010. The ocean water flooded the river, wrecking everything that the earthquake hadn’t already destroyed. Those that lived along the riverbank were left in the street with mud burying their houses -- Oriana's family lost 30 years of memories.

Almost six years after the natural disaster, we visited Constitución where Oriana Pinochet showed us one of the major reconstruction projects in the city: Villa Verde Housing, a residential neighborhood for 484 of the affected families. With partial financing from housing subsidies and based on the idea of incremental housing, the project is designed by ELEMENTAL, the “Do Tank” of 2016 Pritzker Prize laureate, Alejandro Aravena.

Symmetry has always been a source of obsession in architecture. In Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, and later during the Renaissance, symmetry was used as a way to find true beauty, while in the early Modern movement its eradication was an essential part of breaking with history.

Without a doubt there is something beautiful in symmetry, and popular Instagram accounts like @symmetricalmonsters collect photos that best capture symmetry in the architecture of everyday life.

View our selection of images after the break.

At the beginning of 2014, gmp was selected through a competition to redesign Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu stadium, as part of a larger project being implemented by Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez. In addition to expanding the capacity of the stadium and covering it with a metallic, retractable roof, the project consisted of constructing a 12,250 square meter retail center and hotel, and an underground parking lot for up to 600 cars.

Now, however, the Madrid City Council has rejected the current renovation plan for the stadium. Speaking with local media, Chief of Sustainable Urban Development, José Manuel Calvo, explained that the current authorities will only support projects that are “consistent with public interest, [that] don’t involve new uses of public land and that are confined exclusively to the area currently occupied by the stadium’s facilities.”

Alberto Campo Baeza’s Office Building in Zamora, Spain has been selected as the winner of the 2015 BigMat International Architecture Award, with the judges commending how the design combines “the contemporary nature of the building with a respectful understanding of its existing surroundings.”

Recognized with a prize of 30,000 euros, Campo Baeza’s project was selected from 750 projects located in six different European countries. Five national winners and five finalists were also announced, while Samuel Delmas (a+ samueldelmas architects urbanistes) was awarded the Special Mention for Young Architects for his building in Nozay, France.

View all of the award winning projects after the break.

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Chilean art and architecture studio Pezo von Ellrichshausen’s “Finite Format” exhibition is currently on display at one of the most important cultural sites in the Czech Republic: The House of Art of Ceske Budějovice. Composed of more than 480 paintings (Finite Format) and six ink drawings (Infinite Motive), the installation aims to demonstrate the firm’s “underlying method to understand not only the artistic qualities in a work of architecture but also the architectonic attributes of a work of art,” according to the architects.

In parallel, Pezo von Ellrichshausen also carried out a workshop with 14 architecture students from the Technical University of Liberec to conceptualize and construct a twelve-square-meter scale model for the "Infinite Motive" installation. Using the circle as the basic element, the architects reflect on how “architectonic intentions may be diluted by means of the repetition of a single figure with a diverse range of dimensions.”

Funded through Kickstarter, Luke Shepard’s short film Night Vision is a “visual exploration of European buildings, monuments and landmarks after dark.” The film travels through 36 cities across 21 European countries, “creating image sequences of some of the most awe-inspiring European buildings.”

Shepard has also created a series of GIFs in conjunction with Night Vision, revealing in just a few seconds the beauty of 10 European heritage landmarks, ranging from the Metropolis building in Spain (featured above) to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

View the GIFs after the break.

With a “well-balanced” proposal, according to the jury, Spanish firm Rafael de La-Hoz Arquitectos has been selected to design the new corporate headquarters for Spanish soccer team Real Madrid.

Carried out in collaboration with building company Ferrovial Agromán, the winning proposal aims at “unifying all services, modernizing administrative offices and, more generally, addressing the challenges of the future,” according to the firm. 

Sofoklis Giannakopoulos, a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), has designed Pylos, a 3D printer that utilizes a natural, biodegradable, cheap, recyclable and local material that everyone is familiar with: the earth.

In an effort to make 3D printing a “large scale construction approach” even in years of economic and environmental turmoil, Pylos explores the structural potential of soil, a material that has been widely used in vernacular architecture around the world, and particularly in the Global South.

Learn more about the printer after the break.

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133 years since the laying of its foundation, the construction of Antoni Gaudí's Sagrada Família has entered its final phase. This news was announced in a recent press conference by the project's directing architect Jordi Faulí, who will oversee the completion of six new towers that will raise the "Tower of Jesus Christ" to 172.5 meters-tall, making it the tallest religious structure in Europe and Barcelona's tallest building.

The final stage will include the construction of the 172.5 meter Tower of Jesus Christ, as well as five other 135-meter towers honoring the Virgin Mary and the four apostles. 

More information and a video after the break.