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The city of Hiroshima, Japan, has selected prominent Chilean visual artist, architect, and filmmaker Alfredo Jaar as the winner of the 11th edition of the prize (Hiroshima Art Prize).

Jaar, who studied architecture at the University of Chile before permanently leaving the field in 1980, worked during the Chilean military dictatorship on projects such as Studies on Happiness (1979-1981) and Opus 1981 / Andante desesperato performance (1981), before settling permanently in the United States. Jaar's global recognition is reflected in his participation in the 1987 and 2002 editions of Documenta, as well as the retrospectives dedicated to his work in 2012 by the Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NGBK) and the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin.

Reddymade has been unveiled as the winner of the Valentine Heart Design Competition installation in Times Square, New York. The scheme is inspired by the “history of the iconic New York urban space and its presence in the eyes of the world as a byword for a thriving intersection of people, place, and culture.”

The winning team explored the tectonic possibilities of intersecting shapes, investigating what happens with two different planes intersect. The resulting sculpture created two converging planes merging together to create an iconic ‘X’ which, when intersected by a cylindrical volume, creates a heart-shaped space. 

Africa’s tallest skyscraper is set to begin construction in two weeks time. Designed by Spanish architects Rafael de la-Hoz Arquitectos and Moroccan firm CHB Cabinet Hakim Benjelloun, the 820-ft tall Bank of Africa Tower will take the title of tallest tower from the Carlton Centre in Johannesburg. Aiming for LEED Gold and HQE ratings, the tower will begin construction on November 1 and is expected be complete by May 30, 2022.

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Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects and Architectus have announced the opening of Tūranga, the new central library for Christchurch, New Zealand. Built to address the earthquakes that damaged Christchurch in 2010 and 2011, the library is one of the first public buildings to open downtown after the disasters. Working with Architectus and the indigenous Māori people of New Zealand’s South Island, the design was made to celebrate rebirth in Christchurch.

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The Basilica di Siponto by Edoardo Tresoldi has been awarded the “Gold Medal for Italian Architecture – Special Prize to Commission,” considered the most prestigious award in Italian architecture.

The wire mesh sculpture reinterprets the volumes of an Early Christian basilica which formerly sat on the site of the sculpture, adjacent to an existing Romanesque church. The scheme serves as a “bridge towards the memory of the place” allowing the public to contemplate time and history.

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The Open Museum is a project designed by Mexican architect Fernanda Canales as part of the Arch Days CDMX and Design Week 2018 activities. It consists of three courtyards of different sizes that extend the museum into the park, creating a new meeting point alongside the Tamayo Museum. The pavilion's shape follows the natural flow of pedestrian paths in the area, introducing a new experience based on linked spaces that frame the existing trees, the sky, and the museum's sloped side wall, which is transformed into a new agora.

Anna Liu and Mike Tonkin of London-based Tonkin Liu have developed an innovative medical device for use in patients’ windpipes. The prototype stent is based on the firm’s signature Shell Lace Structure, a “single-surface structural technology designed and developed through a decade of research for architectural and engineering applications.”

The 3D-printed prototype is 500 times smaller than those used by the firm for their architectural applications and was developed in collaboration with Arup and the Natural History Museum.

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This was originally posted on October 17, 2017.

When it's time to dress up for Halloween, Carnival or theme parties, people often choose costumes that resonate with their interests. This is especially true for architects, who are particularly well-suited to designing and building head-turning outfits. For students and young architects, the yearning to construct (and destruct) stems from the will to create elaborate headpieces and ingenious appendages.

Many contemporary design innovations have embraced the growth and expansion of new technologies. BREAKFAST, a Brooklyn-based rapid product and prototype company, has released ‘Brixel’ a product that combines the customizability technology can provide with the most fundamental building block of architecture - the brick.

The Brixel is an infinitely rotating brick controlled by a software app on your phone. The sleek design and variety of available shapes provide the designer or architect with the tools needed to create a 3-dimensional, interactive installation. Brixel’s design flexibility allows it to be used in many applications, such as dynamic wall installations, railings, facades, and sculpture. Andrew Zolty, BREAKFAST's Co-Founder and Head of Design described Brixel:

More than 100 buildings will open their doors during Open House Buenos Aires 2018, the architecture festival that, over the course of two days—October 27 and 28—will grant access to numerous buildings of architectural value that are normally closed to the public.

As is the case every year, the festival is completely free, offering a unique invitation and opportunity to rediscover both the architecture of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and the stories of its citizens.

Discover all the buildings you can visit during the event below.

Swiss practice Herzog & de Meuron have released revised plans for the Museum of the 20th Century project in Berlin's Cultural Forum. Designed to house the extensive National Gallery on 20th century art collection, the project was made in partnership with the Berlin State Museums and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Herzog & de Meuron originally won the competition to design the museum building in 2016, and the revised design features new plans and a facade that opens the building to the outside.

Online shop Toffu has produced a stylish content library aimed at architects seeking to improve their Photoshop, Illustrator, or CAD drawings. Hosting a range of vector and cad format packs, the library's vibrant content is markedly different from standard black and white line figures.

The content is available in elevation, plan, and isometric format, featuring people, furniture, icons, vehicles, and vegetation. Check out the Toffu site here to explore their full content.

As a “global capital,” London is home to some of the world’s most influential people, architects included. This fact has recently been laid bare by the London Evening Standard newspaper, whose list of the 1000 most influential Londoners features 30 architects, big and small, who use the city as a base for producing some of the world’s most celebrated architectural works.

Below, we have rounded up the 30 most influential architects in London, complete with examples of the architectural works which have put them on the city and world map.

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A’ Design Award & Competition, the world’s largest and most diffuse international design awards featuring 1,962 Winners from 100 countries in 99 different design disciplines. Among the design world's many awards, the A' Design Award stands out for its exceptional scale and breadth; in 2015, over 1,000 different designs received awards, with all fields of design recognized by the award's 100 different categories. This year's edition is now open for entries; designers can register their submissions here.

There are five different levels of distinction: Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron A’ Design Awards, which are distributed annually in all design disciplines. Designers, companies, and institutions from all countries are invited annually to take part in the open call by nominating their best works, projects, and products for consideration.

CUBO, a local architecture firm from Aarhus City, Denmark, has designed the main entrance pavilion for the firm's native city which will connect two existing elements of Aarhus - the Botanical Gardens and the Old Town. The building is both inviting and welcoming to residents and visitors, alike, providing the city with a gathering space, meeting point, and information hub.

Both the Botanical Gardens and Old Town are major attractions for visitors, playing an integral role in the city’s international reputation. CUBO’s pavilion seeks to enhance and add to what already exists by sensitively integrating the structure in the existing landscape.

They say one cannot separate art from the artist, or perhaps in this case, the artist from the architect. Arguably one of the most criticized architects, Le Corbusier is often portrayed as cold and controlling. Depicting his more dreamy and humorous nature, the Nasjonalmuseet's exhibition titled, “Le Corbusier by the Sea,” draws upon his memories from his summer travels along the coast of southwest France.

Hosted in Villa Stenersen, one of the National Museum's venues, the exhibition showcases Le Corbusier's work as an artist during the period 1926-36. Not only does the exhibition include fifteen of his reproduced paintings alongside a collection of sketches, but also screens two films from Le Corbusier's own footage of his surrounding views.

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The "Single-Family Housing" Architectural Design Workshop, organized by the architecture firm Cota Paredes Arquitectos, concluded its seventh edition, which invited graduate architects and final-year architecture students to develop a Single-Family Housing Project over four weeks, either in-person or online.

The "Bunker" project arises from a lawyer's need for a more private space to practice their profession and meet with clients in a more intimate and secure setting. Consequently, they decided to use their home as a meeting point, making modifications to create a space with character. Grounded in the concept of introspective architecture to maximize privacy, the house becomes a bunker where life and work merge.

As part of its Keeping It Modern initiative, the Getty Foundation announced over $1.7 million will be dedicated as architectural conservation grants to eleven iconic 20th-century buildings this year. Including national and international sites such as Eero Saarinen's recently renovated Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, and Oscar Niemeyer’s Rashid Karami International Fairground in Tripoli, Lebanon, the organization has supported 54 conservation projects since 2014.

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