The Western Red Cedar Lumber Association (WRCLA) is calling for entries in the 2010 Western Red Cedar Architectural Design Awards program. The awards recognize innovative design using one of the world’s most unique building materials, Western Red Cedar.

Spanish architects Mateo Arquitectura have shared with us their project for the official residence of the Spanish Embassy in Canberra, Australia.

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

Christensen & Co architects (CCO) were announced as winners of an international competition for the new city council building in Lund in Sweden. Transparency, staff/visitor synergy, innovation and sustainability are the key ambitions behind the new city hall due to be completed in 2012.

More images and architect’s description after the break.

From Norway, Spain, Mexico, USA, and Chile. Fantastic hotels for you to enjoy your stay! See the First Part and Second Part. Check the other four after the break.

Turtagro Hotel / JVA The old Turtagrø Hotel, which has been the starting point for climbing in the Hurrungane Mountains for more than a hundred years, burned down in 2001. The owner wanted to create some of the atmosphere of the old building – a recognisable scale, spatial sequence, colours and materials, relating to a nearby timber annex. Outside of this the requirement was for a hotel with a new architectonic expression and an efficient layout (read more…)

d3 is pleased to announce the winners of the Housing Tomorrow competition for 2010. The program, developed by co-directors Gregory Marinic and Mary-Jo Schlachter, promotes investigation of housing typologies toward determining new architectonic strategies for living in the future. The competition invites architects, designers, engineers, and students to collectively explore, document, analyze, transform, and deploy innovative approaches to residential urbanism, architecture, interiors, and designed objects.

The competition awarded three prizes and eight special mentions, with first prize captured by Liminal Projects for their project: Home Spun: Water Harvesting Prefab Urban Housing for the Great Lakes Region. See the three prizes after the break. Special Mentions projects can be seen in the competition’s official website.

With Valentines Day barely a week away, the Times Square Alliance is eschewing flowers and candy yet again. Instead, they’re sending New Yorkers a giant designer valentine for the second year in a row, as Moorhead & Moorhead will stage an installation adjacent the TKTS Booth beginning today.

At ArchDaily we know weekends are for you to rest, enjoy your time, and relax. However, we keep working and featuring the best projects we have, so we are afraid you may have missed some really great stuff. Fortunately for you, starting today, every Monday we’ll feature the very best of our weekends. Check the other two after the break.

Charred Cedar House / naf architect & design The site is located in a district where many traditional sake breweries preserve good old Japanese street with plaster and charred cedar walls. In winter, during sake brewing season, a cloud of steam comes out from red brick chimneys of the breweries and the scent of sake wafts in the air. “Charred Cedar House” stands in such neighborhood (read more…)

Naturum Laponia, a visitors center in Laponia, Sweden, was a competition entry designed by Tham & Videgård Hansson Arkitekter last year. A naturum is a visitor centre with activities and exhibitions, located in connection with several of Sweden’s national parks and nature reserves.

More images and architect’s description after the break.

The exhibition ”Eurovisions”, designed by Fantastic Norway, features the winners of Europan 10. It recently opened at the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture in Oslo.

“Eurovisions” consists of a vast number of hovering cityscape profiles, portraying the three current Europan sites. Together the silhouettes create a vast graphical landscape, creating a pseudo-3D or “two-and-a-half-dimensional” effect as you walking through it. This technique was widely used in early Disney movies (as well as in classic theatre scenography) to create the sensation of depth and movement through 2 dimensional drawings.

Runner up – and winner projects were exposed at the back of these silhouettes. In addition to this the exhibition features an educational area where information, facts and models of the Europan cities are exposed. Projected onto the walls, fake TV-news clips (set in a not to distant future) reports a variety of stories portraying possible futures for the cities at hand.

More images after the break.

GOOD has teamed up with PRE and Studio X to inspire designers through the monthly Spontaneous Architecture competition. This month, they want you to come up with creative solutions to help Haiti in its rebuilding efforts.

Some really amazing lake houses from Norway, Switzerland, England and New Zealand for today’s Round Up. Check the first part of this selection right here. And have a look at the other four after the break!

House in Scaiano / Wespi de Meuron This house for vacations is located at the border of a small historical village, which is still quite good preserved. There is a beautiful view over the lake and towards the mountains. It’s only possible to reach the house by foot. There isn’t a street leading close to the site, what made the construction more difficult (read more…)

Every week we have so many good posts that we don’t want you to miss anything. That’s why starting today, every Friday, we’ll have a look at the most interesting projects or interviews of the week for you to see. The other four after the break.

Fujitsobo / Archivision This beauty parlor stands in the Omote-sando area of Tokyo, which represents one of the trend setting centers for this metropolis. The building has three roof openings which pours light into the interior and, which, by slit-like openings in the floor is led into the floors below, reaching the ground floor, which in turn can be seen from the street level through its large glass windows (read more…)

The Nelson Mandela Bay Multi-Purpose Stadium located in Port Elizabeth is the third stadium designed by gmp architekten for South Africa’s World Cup. It will host eight games, including the 3rd and 4th place match. Check our recently featured stadiums by gmp architekten (Moses Mabhida Stadium / Greenpoint Stadium), and decide which one you like the most!

More images and architect’s description after the break.

Latvian architects Mailītis A.I.I.M., were selected to design the Latvian Pavilion for this year’s Shanghai World Expo. Construction started in the end of 2009.

More images and architect’s description after the break.

Almost six months till the 2010 South Africa World Cup kicks off. A while ago, we told you we’ll be featuring the stadiums that will host this huge competition. We started with Soccer City Stadium, designed by Boogertman Urban Edge and Partners in partnership with Populous. This week, we’ll be featuring three stadiums designed by gmp architekten. We’ll start with the Moses Mabhida Stadium, in the city of Durban. The stadium was also designed by Theunissen Jankowitz Durban, Ambro-Afrique Consultants, Osmond Lange Architects & Planners, NSM Designs, and Mthulisi Msimang.

More images and architect’s description after the break.

Frank Harmon, FAIA, will deliver the annual Harwell Hamilton Harris Lecture on February 15 at 7 p.m. in the Burns Auditorium of Kamphoefner Hall at North Carolina State University’s College of Design in Raleigh.

Paris-based Fontaine-Vanhaesebrouck Architects shared with us their project Macro-Micro, one of the winners in Europan 10.

More images and architect’s description after the break.

Greenpoint Stadium was the name of the previously stadium located in Cape Town which hosted a maximum capacity of 18,000 spectators. Designed by gmp architekten, the new Cape Town Stadium will host more than 65,000 soccer fans that will enjoy eight World Cup matches.

As a reader told us, several architects were involved in the design of the stadium. Stadium Architects JV, a joint venture comprising: gmp architekten, Louis Karol architecture, and Point Architects (a joint venture of Jakupa Architects, Munnik Visser Architects, Comrie Wilkinson Architects & urban designers, and Paragon Architects).

More images and architect’s description after the break.