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Sou Fujimoto’s House of Hungarian Music is set to begin construction in an idyllic natural setting beside Városliget Lake in Budapest’s largest park. Having won a competition for the scheme’s design in 2014, the Japanese architect has designed a “modern and extravagant home for music” drawing inspiration from both the natural and musical worlds.

The scheme forms part of the Liget Budapest project, one of Europe’s largest museum developments, which also includes the striated Museum of Ethnography by French firm Vallet de Martinis DIID Architectes and the cuboidal PhotoMuseum Budapest and Museum of Hungarian Architecture by Hungarian firm Középülettervező Zrt.

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Renzo Piano has offered to donate the design of a bridge to replace the one which tragically collapsed in Genoa on 14th August. Piano, who was born in Genoa, said he has been deeply affected by the tragedy which claimed the lives of 43 people.

The project, reported by Reuters, was announced following a discussion between the architect and the governor of Liguria, who accepted Piano’s offer.

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Hello Wood has revived its highly-successful POP-UP Park, bringing a touch of vibrancy to an underused square in downtown Budapest. Having built the structures in the summer of 2017, the park has returned one year later to provide “a democratic space for all social groups embedded within the everyday movement of the city.”

Open 24 hours per day, the park acts as a free-to-use space for people from all walks of life. Supported by the Municipality of Budapest, the scheme is situated in a frequented though empty spot beside the Budapest City Hall.

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Dubai has launched 3D Printing Strategy, a global initiative to make the city the world's leader in 3D printing. The initiative is designed to promote the status of the UAE and Dubai as a leading hub of 3D printing technology. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has created the plan for one quarter of new buildings to be 3D printed by 2025. The strategy hopes to utilize 3D printing to cut costs in the medical and construction sector and restructure economies and labor markets.

Galaxies, quasars and gas clouds are a little bit closer, thanks to China's Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope, or FAST. Built as the world's largest telescope, the project was made to sense radio waves from space. Sited in the Dawodang depression, a natural basin of the Guizhou Province in southwest China, the telescope was completed in September 2016. Now two years later, the telescope has begun to radically transform tourism and the urban evolution of Guizhou.

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Located in south-east Turkey, the 11,000-year-old Göbekli Tepe is considered to be the world’s oldest temple, greatly surpassing England’s Stonehenge, and the Egyptian pyramids. The ancient site, awarded Unesco World Heritage status in July 2018, predates pottery, writing, and the wheel, leading archaeologists such as its discoverer Klaus Schmidt to ask if Göbekli Tepe may, in fact, be not only the world’s first piece of architecture but a crucial catalyst for the onset of settled societies.

Spread across eight hectares near the city of Sanliurfa, the Göbekli Tepe is an artificial mound hosting a series of sunken circular structures adorned with limestone carvings, believed to have been occupied for thousands of years before their abandonment.

The Ministry of the Environment has launched an online guide to urban agriculture. The booklet compiles techniques, reading recommendations, initiative mapping, and other resources on urban gardens.

The guide aims to encourage new initiatives and support existing ones, including through an interactive map that showcases inspiring preservation, restoration, and food production projects in cities.

On March 31, Mexico-based firm LANZA Atelier exhibited three projects at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: 'Mesa Nómada', 'Shared Structures', and 'S/N (sin número).' The latter—created with support from FONCA—reclaims the city's 'Security and Citizen Participation Modules,' converting them into functional urban installations. Following the success of the exhibition, the museum has announced that 'S/N (sin número)' has joined its permanent collection. Read on to learn more about the project.

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The last five stories of the Torre de David in Caracas have tilted 25 degrees following the largest earthquake to hit Venezuela in 100 years. The well-known building gained infamy as an unprecedented vertical "slum" when its construction was abandoned and squatters began to inhabit the unfinished structure.

The 190-meter skyscraper with 45 stories became Latin America's 8th tallest tower in the 1990s, but it was never completed. Officially known as the Centro Financiero Confinanzas when construction began in 1990, the project succumbed to Venezuela's 1994 banking crisis.   

Celebrating Paddington Central’s first year as a Design Route at the London Design Festival, the design practice Snøhetta created a rotating book pavilion for British Land. Snøhetta wanted to create a project that would reimagine the traditional principles of a library through a mechanized pavilion that generates varied spatial types. Designed for visitors to immerse themselves into a world of books, the pavilion encourages exploration, interaction and reflection.

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As part of the first phase in an extensive rebuilding project, the Empire State Building Observatories have a newly renovated entrance. Created by a team of architects and designers, the renovation aimed to transform visitor experience of the Art Deco skyscraper and its history. The 34th Street entrance was renovated for better flow, and to showcase a technology-driven lobby space. The project is the first in a multi-part rebuilding of the tower, which will be completed by late 2019 and include both digital hosts and a new lighting ceremony installation.

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While cemeteries have long served as a place in which we can honor and remember our loved ones, they are also often places that showcase architecture, and landscape design. In the late 19th century, cemeteries evolved from overcrowded and unsanitary urban spaces into rural, park-like social centers. In cities that lacked public parks, cemeteries became popular destinations for picnics, holidays, and other family gatherings.

With 486 applicants and 249 conceptual plans received, MUDA-Architects stood out from the 20 finalists and won the first prize in "The Most Beautiful Bookstore in Chengdu" competition. The competition was sponsored by the Chengdu Tianfu New Area Investment Group, China Southwest Architectural Design and Research Institute, and co-sponsored by Chengdu Yi Zhu Yi Shi Culture Communication Ltd.

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A proposal described as "a new esplanade guarded at its four corners by four new clearings: two public buildings and two programmed public spaces" is the winning design for the future Biobío Civic Esplanade in Concepción, Chile. 

The project is the result of a competition launched last February by FESUR —the southern subsidiary of the State Railway Company in Chile— for the land that will be freed up once Concepción's railway line is placed underground. "Removing the railway barrier allows us to envision a system of significant, hierarchical public spaces capable of articulating the city's new relationship with the river," the organizers explained in the competition brief.

The future Biobío Civic Esplanade will integrate the current Plaza España, the Regional Government building, Plaza Bicentenario, Parque Bicentenario, and Parque Ribera Norte, as well as the Memorial to the Detained and Disappeared, the Biobío Regional Theater, the 27F Memorial, and Chile's second Museum of Memory, whose construction was recently postponed.

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The Barbican, London’s iconic Brutalist estate designed by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon Architects, has launched a range of jewelry and homeware designed by creative studio Tom Pigeon, paying tribute to the vibrant aesthetic which put the scheme on London’s architectural map.

As reported by Creative Boom, the Surface collection draws inspiration from the geography of the Barbican estate, communicating its color, pattern, and shape in a range including earrings, mugs, and greeting cards.

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Photographer Stefanie Zoche of Haubitz-Zoche has captured a series of vibrant images showcasing the “hybrid modernist” movie theaters of Southern India. The images below, also available on the artist’s website, capture the large number of cinemas built in both rural and urban areas of South India in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, all conveying an “unconventional mix of local building styles and Western influences."

As Zoche describes, the colorful facades, “suggestive of theatrical sets, provide a foretaste of the cinematic experience in the hall itself, in which extravagant shapes and ornamentation are continued and put the viewer in the right mood for the cinematic world before the screening itself.”

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The IHA is considered the world's most important architectural prize for high-rises. It is aimed at architects and developers whose buildings are at least 100 meters tall and were completed in the last two years. The jury consists of architects, structural engineers, real estate experts, and architecture critics. They evaluate the nominated projects based on the following criteria: future-oriented design, functionality, innovative construction technology, integration into the urban context, development schemes, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness. This year, the five finalists chosen from 36 nominees across 15 countries have finally been announced; among them is Torre Reforma, designed by Benjamín Romano.

Following up on the AIA's recent update of guidelines regarding school safety, architect Jay Brotman, designer of the new Sandy Hook Elementary School, testified in front of the US Department of Education this week to urge the government to adopt safer standards for design. While not unheard of, it is not typical for architects to stand in front of Congress.