The University of Washington Board of Regents has approved a recommendation to contract with Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects on a pre-design study for the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Although the 2010 World Cup in South Africa is a little bit less than a year away, in Brazil they already started to prepare for the 2014 World Cup. Brazil has won more World Cups than any other country in the world, so they want to make sure their stadiums are as spectacular as their soccer team.

The 12 cities that will host the World Cup are Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Brasília, Cuiabá, Manaus, Fortaleza, Salvador, Recife and Natal. You can see 6 great stadiums after the break.

Thanks to our reader Luis for sending us this info!

I’ve always like brick houses. There are just so many ways to use brick and make it look amazing on your place. So to show you some really good examples, we bring you our first selection of previously featured brick houses on AD.

Many of us, long before we even knew about architecture dreamed about a fantastic world in a galaxy far far away. Nowadays, Star Wars continue to surprise people all around the world, and we can now see the movie with a different eye. Perhaps, the architect’s eye.

At The Architect’s Journal, they selected the best Star Wars buildings. The top ten, after the break.

Ravello, off South Italy’s coast, is said to be one of the most beautiful spots on earth. And Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer’s all-white curvaceous auditorium is set amongst its luxuriant rocky hillsides and against the backdrop of the refined Amalfi coastal town’s trademark awe-inspiring brilliant blue sea and endless open skies.

Completion is due in September, ready to showcase the new auditorium’s unique feature: its over-hanging canopied roof (or solaio a sbalzo in Italian). More plainly put, this means that while the amenities are set off the entrance piazza or in the floors below, a section of the 1,500m2 canopy, which contains the actual auditorium space, literally and strikingly, hangs in the air supported by nothing.

Seen at Wallpaper. More images after the break (we searched all over the web for more images, if you can find some, please post the links!)

Danish firm 3XN won the RIBA International Award 2009 for their design of Saxo Bank (previously featured on AD), the new headquarters for the Investment Bank.

The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and HP are pleased to announce the 3rd Advanced Architecture Contest, on the theme of THE SELF-SUFFICIENT CITY: Envisioning the habitat of the future.

Summer is here. There’s nothing better than enjoy the sun and relax in your beach house. You don’t have one? So look at the second part of Beach Houses Round Up and imagine how relaxing it would be!

Cliff Kuang from Fast Company has ranked the 10 most creative people in architecture. That doesn’t mean they’re the best, just the most unusual and influential visions in the field.

Be sure to check the architect’s works published on ArchDaily!

The complete list after the break.

AsBEA (Brazilian Association of the Offices of Architecture) and APEX (Brazilian Agency of Promotion of Exports and Investments) have announced the winning project to represent Brazil in the Shanghai World Expo 2010. Architect Fernando Brandão won with a design based on the “Pulsing Cities” of Brazil. The inverted parenthesis on the facade represent that pulsation.

The structure will feature recycled wood painted green which will be leaned on a metallic structure. You can find more information here (in Portuguese). More images after the break.

During the spring 2010 semester (January through May, 2010), Alejandro Aravena will make scheduled visits to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning, focusing a graduate studio on specific challenges in architecture that inspire enduring benefits to Milwaukee’s urban fabric.

Many days, we get to spend more time at the office than in the comfort of our home. Depending on the office, that may not be a bad thing after all. To start this week we bring you our second part of previously featured office buildings.

Architect’s description and more images after the break.

Postscript

With the recent negative feedback on some websites about the winning entry and the initiative of Bustler to publish all non-winners, we have shockingly realized, that we have not been the only ones, who have been Dubai-tized. Even as we started the project, the boundaries of cynicism, architectural integrity and the potential of just doing anything have been extremely blurred by the word alone – Dubai. Given those parameters, we went down a road, which lies on the verge of our own office integrity and agenda and the insanity of an architect’s wet dream. Not that we want to start a discussion about ethics in architecture, but it seems that all of us are responsible for the direction architecture took. Please find here our last project in that direction.

Architect’s description and more images, after the break.

Our friends from XTEN Architecture shared with us their entry to the ThyssenKrupp elevator competition in Dubai. The observation tower is located in a cultural park just off axis from the main skyscraper boulevard in Dubai, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Road.

More images and architect’s description after the break.

An impressive stadium may be well known around the world. The latest example is the Bird’s Nest in Beijing. So to finish this week’s Round Up, we bring you our second part of previously featured Sports Architecture.

Our friends from XTEN Architecture just sent us one of their latest projects. The Saphire Gallery is a residential gallery addition to a private residente in Los Angeles, California. It is designed to display a private collection of contemporary art while also providing for a home office with views to the sorrounding hills.

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

Since we started with AD, many interestings museums have been published. That’s why one of our first Round Ups featured our first museums previously featured on AD. Today, we bring you Part II.