The Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) Competitions division and Islington Council have announced that Pollard Thomas Edwards Architects has been selected as the winners of a design competition for the new Finsbury Leisure Centre at St Luke's Area in South Islington, London. The winning proposal, chosen from a shortlist featuring 5 top architects including Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and Grimshaw Architects, will reinvigorate the site with new council homes, improved public space and a new civic building that will house recreation, childcare, healthcare and energy facilities all under one roof.

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In this video, Ben Uyeda of HomeMade Modern demonstrates how to build a sleek, contemporary spiral staircase using just a standard schedule steel post, plywood and a CNC router (along with a healthy amount of wood and construction glue). To build the staircase, Uyeda uses the CNC to cut out 12 shapes of incremental size from a plywood sheet, which he then stacks and fits around the post to secure into place.

HomeMade Modern has also made the CAD files available for free, so handy woodworking types can attempt the construction themselves.

In this interview, presented in collaboration with PLANE—SITE, Ali Karimi and Hamed Bukhamseen, curators of the Kuwait Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Biennale, discuss the architectural identity and potential of Kuwait and the Middle East region as a whole. The duo explain how they approached the pavilion design by asking themselves the question: “How do we imagine a conversation between the different countries of the Gulf?”

In the late 20th century, restricted by an a small landmass and extreme terrain, the Hong Kong urban area grew to become one of the densest and most vertical places on the planet, with more buildings taller than 500 feet than any other city in the world. But instead of the steel or aluminum structures used as scaffolding in Europe and the Western Hemisphere, the majority of skyscrapers built in Hong Kong and much of Asia used scaffolding systems constructed out of bamboo.

To create the structures, the high strength, lightweight material is strapped together with plastic ties by construction crews, who also use the structure as a ladder for scaling the building. Despite using few safety restraints, crews are able to construct up to 1,000 square feet of bamboo scaffolding in just one day. To protect the structure, nylon gauze is sometimes draped along the outside.

Check out a series of GIFs and images showing how it works after the break. And if you're interested in learning more about bamboo construction materials, check out our Materials catalog.

LEGO® has unveiled the newest kit in their Architecture series: The U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Originally designed by architect William Thornton in 1793, the building has gone through several iterations, including the addition of its iconic white, cast-iron, neoclassical dome in 1866. The 1,032 piece LEGO® set portrays the building in its current form, with its “striking white, columned façade with its famous steps and lawns.” The kit also features a removable dome, which, when lifted off, reveals “a detailed interior depicting the famous National Statuary Hall, complete with columns, statues and tiled floor.”

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Snøhetta has released new images of their MAX IV Laboratory Landscape Design as it opens in Lund, Sweden. Winning the commission for the project in 2011, Snøhetta’s design transformed 47-acres (19 hectares) of formerly agricultural lands northeast of the city into an undulating earthwork aimed at “creating a functional landscape solution for the high-performance synchrotron radiation laboratory MAX IV.”

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Thinking about investing in some new technology? Creativeboom has compiled a list of 20 dream gadgets for designers that will either make your workflow more efficient or just be a whole lot of fun to play around with.

Michael Maltzan Architecture has released new images of their design for the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University in Houston, Texas, coinciding with the announcement that the building will open to the public on February 24, 2017. The building is conceived as a multi-disciplinary lab for creativity, which will contain “an experimental platform for creating and presenting works in all disciplines” as well as a flexible teaching space and a forum to host partnerships with visiting national and international artists.

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Videos

The Sydney Opera House has revealed designs for a $202 million renovation project, the largest upgrade program to the Jørn Utzon-designed building since it opened in 1973. Announced by New South Wales Deputy Premier and Minister for the Arts, Troy Grant, the project’s main goal is to “improve access and ensure it meets the needs and expectations of audiences, artists and the 8.2 million people who visit each year.”

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Hainan Airlines Group has announced an international competition between 10 top architecture firms to design the master plan and central buildings of the South Sea Pearl Eco-Island, an island located in Haikou Bay, on the island of Hainan, China. Featuring teams from China, Europe and the United States, the competition calls for the creation of an 250 hectare eco-tourism hub, which will contain housing, hotels, tourist attractions and a port with capacity for two large cruise ships.

The BIG-designed Grove at Grand Bay is now complete, becoming an new architectural icon for South Miami. Residents will now put the finishing touches on the units before a grand opening and move-in next month. The two twisting 20-story towers have been completely sold out, and mark BIG’s first completed condominium building in the United States.

Last week, Architectural Record released their list of the top 300 Architecture Firms in the US, based on architectural revenue from 2015. But what can we learn from those numbers and the firms generating them? In this post for ArchSmarter, Michael Kilkelly dives deeper into the figures that have made these firms so successful, comparing numbers based on firm type, firm location and project location.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has elected Ben Derbyshire, chair of HTA Design, to become their next president. Beating out other candidates Alan Jones and Andrew Salter, Derbyshire will take over from current president Jane Duncan for a two-year term beginning on September 1, 2017.

Derbyshire has been a partner at HTA since 1987, where he has penned several essays including a recommendation on solutions to London’s Tall Building Boom, and has played an active role in RIBA activities for a number of years, including calling for an overhaul of the RIBA election process in 2014. He has held a number of Board positions throughout his career, including at RIBA Enterprises, and Design for Homes, and is a trustee of The London Society.

University College London (UCL) has selected Stanton Williams and Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands to design buildings for two sites as part of the first phase of the new UCL East campus. The campus will be constructed at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London, adjacent to the London Olympics Stadium, Zaha Hadid’s London Aquatics Center and the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower by Anish Kapoor, and is anticipated to contain facilities for a major new school of design.

Snøhetta has won a competition to design the new headquarters for Banque Libano Francaise (BLF) in Beirut, Lebanon. The building will feature a geometric facade and several large outdoor terraces carved from the built volume to create a vibrant workplace community. The project marks Snøhetta’s first ever commission in Lebanon.

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Videos

The Henning Larsen Architects-designed Danish Pavilion has opened to the public on Ipanema Beach to celebrate Denmark's participation in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The pavilion is the only national pavilion at the games, and contains displays featuring Danish companies and products. The design takes inspiration from the nation's seafaring and yachting traditions, while programmable LED lights allow the pavilion to resemble a number of different flags from bird's eye view.

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Foster + Partners' Apple 2 Campus is racing towards its December 2016 completion date. As seen in this drone video captured by aerial videographer Matthew Roberts, the exterior of the spaceship-like main building is nearly finished, with many of the campus' other buildings, such as the auditorium, the research & development center and the 100,000 square foot corporate fitness center, also approaching full realization.