The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservations (GSAPP) at Columbia University have announced its Summer Lecture Series 2010. Here are July events:

In 010, the European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies will inaugurate the first “European Architecture Prize.” The European Architecture Prize is to be given annually to any living architect whose built work exemplifies the highest ideals of European civilization and embodies vision, commitment, and a profound respect for humanity and for the social and physical environment.

The aim of the project is to encourage reflections about the life in a community, an occasion for graphic designers and architects from all over the world to express, demonstrate and imagine possible solutions for a city, capable to improve the life of its inhabitants.

This design awards program recognizes and honors excellence in architectural design by all New England architects and by architects throughout the world who wish to submit projects in New England. Entry deadline July 27. For more information click here. See at Bustler.

The urbancanvas Design Competition is a unique opportunity to challenge professional artists and designers to create printed artworks for temporary protective structures at construction sites that will beautify New York City’s streetscape and promote maintenance of these structures. The competition seeks complementary designs for different types of temporary protective structures located on City-owned property: construction fences, sidewalk sheds, supported scaffolds and cocoon systems.

We have told you in the past about Brad Pitt´s Make It Right Foundation. They have been working with a group of international architects to redevelop the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans, after hurricane Katrina. The name of the foundation addresses the desire of Pitt, architecture enthusiast, to design these houses the best way and not just as a temporary solution, in a process that also included working not only with these renowned firms, but also very close with the community, with a focus on sustainable development.

Tour Sans Faim (Tower Without Hunger) is a special project connecting architecture with pastry. Designed by Jean Bocabeille (collective PLAN01) and the chef Gielles Stassart, the project will enter the Guiness Book of Records by becoming the highest cake in the world.

The work started July 1 and will last until this Sunday, when the finished project will be 10 meters high, made of 850 bricks of sugar and sponge cake, using 628 kg of flour, 508 kg of sugar, 350 eggs and 18 kg of butter. You can see more images after the break (and we hope to have some more on Thursday with the finished project).

This competition attempts to instigate change by challenging the established in a critical but constructive manner. Join us by contributing the questions not yet asked! There are no fixed requirements regarding submitted material. Entries could be in the form of a text, manifesto, collage, illustration, SMS, image, fax, diagram, installation, paper architecture, runners up, brief, historical material, etc. The essential idea is to explore the potential of the architectural competition – it is up to you how to communicate it. Please address the principle question of how to return to a condition where competitions generate ideas rather than simply deliver solutions. The format and material should be in relation to the concept of your submission. We challenge experienced architects to take part and share their perspective on the matter.

A few minutes ago, The Netherlands national soccer team defeated Brazil, one of the favorite teams to win the South Africa World Cup and advanced to semi-finals. We want to congratulate all of our Netherlands fans in this big step to win their first World Cup! And to celebrate, we decided to put together a small selection of five great projects from The Netherlands. Check them all after the break.

Villa Berkel / Paul de Ruiter Villa Berkel in Veenendaal (Netherlands) is built on a site formerly occupied by a bungalow dating from the nineteen seventies. The owners wanted to remodel the bungalow, but decided on the advice of Paul de Ruiter to demolish the bungalow and make room for a completely new design (read more…)

LaN-FLIGHT is a traveling seminar / tour of digital fabrication practices and programs. This immersion experience is intended to draw a diverse group of professionals and students from afar for a full schedule of exchanges with leading practices, fabrication lab visits, & LaN seminars… all while intensely exposed to the urban infrastructure of Boston, NY & in-between.

Preservation Pittsburgh is seeking creative ideas for an adaptive reuse of the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – a structure with conflicting legacies as both a monument to Pittsburgh’s engineering prowess and a memorial to past human injustices. Through the power of imagination, we hope to engage the community and demonstrate to the local political leadership that viable alternatives to demolition exist.

First Prize-winner of the competition for the new cultural center of Meudon-la-Forêt, Serero Architects has designed a building wrapped by an organic concrete shell. The project will be presented at the mediatheque of Meudon until July 10th, 2010.

More images and architect’s description after the break.

Masshtab Development Company is announcing a competition for the design of the masterplan for A101 Block City: an area of 127 ha with over 1 million sqm of housing in the A101 project. The A101 project is a new town of around 150.000 people and 13 million sq m of housing located south of Moscow.

Len-tic-u-lar-is, a new exhibition by Los Angeles and Sendai-based architecture firm Atelier Hitoshi Abe (AHA), will be on view from July 30 to September 12, 2010, in the SCI-Arc Gallery at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc).

Architecture is defined by connections: the method and the material by which an assembly is developed to create enclosure. This process results in an active performative connection, one that is specific and definitive producing an architecture that can be built through iterative means. REPEAT asks that you look first at the connection and then – through repetition – define the whole. In brief, by evaluating the design process from this perspective, what emerges?

Serero Architects shared with us the Saint-Hilaire Du-Harcouët Media Center, a 300-seat performance hall with a foyer, 4 art and music studios, 1 restaurant, a rehearsal hall, administrative offices and associated technical spaces. They received first prize in a restricted competition and it’s expected to be completed by 2012.

More images and architect’s description after the break.

I love how different these five libraries are. From Poland, The Netherlands, Germany, Finland and Turkey, each one has its own unique design. Check them all after the break. Which one’s your favorite?

University of Poznan Library / Consultor + APA Bulat + Neostudio Architects Polish and Classical Philology Faculty Library of Adam Mickiewicz University is located in the heart of Poznan – in the close proximity to historical buildings from the beginning of twentieth century, in the immediate vicinity of the Poznan Opera House and the Prussian Imperial Castle. It was designed as an extension of the Collegium Maius – the former building of “Hakata” – the Royal Prussian Colonization Commission. The parcel is hidden at three sides by the Collegium Maius and by the building of Regional Government Office (read more…)

Pocket luck is pleased to announce that it is now possible to participate in the ninth edition of the International Design Contest Trieste Contemporanea which is promoted by the Trieste Contemporanea Committee under the patronage of the C.E.I. (Central European Initiative).