Brazilian architects have always surprised us with their architecture. You can see some creative houses from Brazil previously featured on AD with this last Round Up of the month!

The idea “forest and fortress” comes from the literal meaning of the Chinese term for Luxembourg. The pavilion, built from steel, wood and glass, will be an open fortress around with greenery. The 15-meter-high main structure will resemble an ancient castle with large openings surrounded by medieval towers,

“All the materials are recyclable,” said the architect of the pavilion, Francois Valentiny. Also, the outside walls will be translucent, on which Chinese characters will be shown. The exhibition area of the pavilion is about 1,300 square meters. The downstairs hall will stage a satellite video show displaying live scenes from the country. “Visitors will be able to talk with Luxembourg people through satellite. And we will bring live programs of Luxembourg events here,” said Jeannot Krecke, the country’s Minister of the Economy and Foreign Trade.

Seen at Archtracker. More images after the break.

Our friends from F451 Arquitectura, a Barcelona-based office have shared with us their design of a ferry terminal that won a competition in Spain. The terminal will be located in the Mahón Port, on the island of Menorca. More images after the break.

The 6,000-square-meter Canada Pavilion, among the biggest at the site, will feature an exhibition themed “The Living City: Inclusive, Sustainable, Creative.” It is expected to welcome up to 5.5 million people or 30,000 visitors per day during the six-month Expo period.

The pavilion will be anchored by an open public place and surrounded by three large structures. The square will be a performing area, where visitors can watch the performances of Cirque du Soleil before checking out the pavilion, said Gregson.

The overall budget for the Canadian pavilion will be 45 million Canadian dollars (US$43.57 million), she added. Canada has also given environmental protection consideration into the pavilion. Part of the pavilion’s exterior walls will be covered by a special kind of greenery and rainwater will be collected by a drainage system for use inside the pavilion.

Cirque du Soleil created the concept design for the Pavillion and will also create public performances, organize cultural programs and develop strategic corporate alliances for the pavillion.

Seen at archtracker. More images after the break.

Many great projects are a result of important competitions around the world. So to start this week’s Round Up, we bring you previously featured awarded competitions from Croatia, Denmark, France, Spain, and Norway.

Gensler Architects

In this era of change, how do architects remain inventive, agile and break boundaries? Submit your project to the 2009 AIA Seattle Honor Awards. Jurors include: Nigel Dancey, RIBA Foster + Partners, London, Mark Rios, FAIA, FASLA, Rios Clementi Hale, Los Angeles, and Teddy Cruz, eStudio Cruz, San Diego.

Argentinian architects Adamo-Faiden shared with ous a very interesting project. MuReRe houses are social housing project for Buenos Aires that is installed on top of already existing homes.

By doing so, they care about the sustainability of both buildings.

You can see more images (some of them are in Spanish) and the architect’s description after the break.

The Museum of Modern Art presents Bauhaus 1919 -1933: Workshops for Modernity from November 8, 2009, to January 18, 2010. The Bauhaus school in Germany -the most famous and influential school of avant-garde art in the twentieth century – brought together artists, architects, and designers in an extraordinary conversation about the nature of art in the modern age. Aiming to rethink the very form of contemporary life, the students and faculty of the Bauhaus made the school the venue for a dazzling array of experiments in the visual arts that had a transformative effect on the 1920s and 1930s and profoundly shaped our contemporary visual world.

Maybe no other place on Earth has made more notice over the last few years than Dubai. From tall buildings to a houseboat, you can find all sort of architecture in this fantastic city. Enjoy our last Round Up of the week!

Each year, Wallpaper* Magazine bring us a list of 30 emerging practices around the world. This year, they decided to ask each of the 30 practices to create their ideal model home.

You can find the complete list with their model homes after the break. For more details on each project and office profile, click here.

Can’t Park? Reduced parking availability and rising parking costs? Browsing aisle after aisle, fighting over the same parking spot? Got a ticket? Little aesthetic attractiveness of urban parking lots? As much as people love to drive, all good things must come to an end: Parking.

UNStudio’s design has won a competition to build a 21,000 square meter dance theatre in the historic centre of St. Petersburg, Russia. The new complex houses the Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg, headed by choreographer Boris Eifman.

From the four projects presented (Jean Nouvel, UNStudio, Snøhetta & Zao), UNStudio’s design was yesterday unanimously chosen by the jury for realisation.

Seen at designboom. Architect’s description and more images after the break.

To start this week’s Round Up, we bring you previously featured educational architecture from Spain, Portugal, France, and Slovenia. Enjoy!

Our friends from 100 Planos Arquitectura, a Portuguese firm, shared with us their latest project, Flower Power. Here’s the architect’s description:

The objective of this project was to create a structure model, multipliable, capable of creating ephemeral spaces or buildings. The need for a small pavilion at the Vila do Conde’s museum’s garden, where children and adults can have a rest and stop for some time during a visit to the museum, was the ideal starting point for exploring this idea of multiplication.

The basic module is a “flower” of 1.00 m diameter and 0.50 m high, with four petals, constructed of polycarbonate with plates of 5mm and pvc pipe ø 0,10 m. Assembling several modules with different heights we designed a waving horizontal surface, which suspended, creates a covered area.

Here and there the “flowers” go down to the ground and become a pillars, walls or partitions. We decided to call it “flower power”. It is a pavilion / building / structure, shading, under which you may rest, dance, read, sleep, or simply admire the sky cut by translucent flowers.

More images after the break.

BAA is looking to appoint a team to produce a ‘comprehensive masterplan to examine the potential expansion of Heathrow Airport’ – including a third runway and a new sixth terminal.

Architects identify “sustainability” as the most important change in the future of their profession. Sustainable Design: Ecology, Architecture, and Planning is a practical, comprehensive guide to design and plan a built environment compatible with the region’s economic, social, and ecological patterns.

Our friends from FARO Architecten sent us their latest project, a new building school completed in Netherlands. The Koningin Beatrix- en Prinses Marijke school in The Hague was officially opened by a member of the cabinet minister Rouvoet.

In the heart of the Schilderswijk in The Hague, a new school has arisen at the site of the previous school building that had to be demolished. The new building houses two elementary schools, each with 16 classrooms, nursery schools and gymnasiums.

Architect’s description and more images after the break.