Located in the largest remaining park in Beijing’s central business district, MAD Architects’ Chaoyang Park Plaza opened earlier this to year to much deserved fanfare. With a striking black glass form inspired by traditional Chinese ink landscape paintings, the complex is an immediate standout within its context.

In this photo series, Laurian Ghinitiou captures the series of buildings, drawing attention to their relationships to those surroundings. From the bustling streetscape, to the local residents fishing in the nearby pond, to KPF’s fast-rising CITIC Tower in the distance (soon to become Beijing’s tallest tower), Ghinitiou’s photographs are a reminder that all architecture is a product of the people and buildings around it – even the most dramatic of forms.

Check out the full photo set below:

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The end of 2017 is nearly upon us, and with the start of 2018 comes speculation about who will be the next Pritzker Prize winner. Will the jury honor an influential member of the "old guard," as they did in 2015 when they bestowed the award upon the late Frei Otto? Or will they recognize a young architect who is redefining the profession, as they did when they selected Alejandro Aravena? Will the award go to an individual or to two or more architects working together? And will it reward virtuoso spatial design irrespective of context, or will the selection be more political, as it was last year when locally-focused practice RCR Arquitectes took the prize?

We want to hear from our readers – not just about who probably will win the prize, but about who should win the prize, and why. Read on to cast your vote in our poll, and let us know in the comments whose name you'd like to hear announced in 2018.

Videos

The Modmin has been a go-to for quality videos and tutorials on architectural drawing and sketching. Their newest video tackles a drawing fundamental: the ability to draw a straight line. For many seasoned architects, this is a skill that they mastered long ago. But if you are just starting out, or if you've been hiding behind your computer's ability to consistently draw straight lines, then this hack is for you.

Referring to the first tip in Matthew Frederick's 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School, Themodmin's Umar shares an exercise he was taught for achieving straight lines. 

What happens when an architect is inspired by both the pyramids of Mesoamerica and the modernity of Oscar Niemeyer... and said architect has been tasked to create a master plan for a utopic seaside resort? You get La Grande-Motte, a commune in Southern France. Below, photographers Roberto Conte and Stefano Perego share a selection of images from their pilgrimage to this unique site.

The VELUX Group has announced the esteemed architects that will make up the jury for the 2018 VELUX Award for Students of Architecture. The award, given every two years, challenges students of architecture all over the world to explore the theme of daylight and consider its role in our lives as an ever-relevant source of light, life and energy in buildings. The four internationally acclaimed jury members will elect the winners among the hundreds of daylight-focused project entries from all over the world.

"We are thrilled and proud to present this esteemed jury to the works of engaged students from all over the world and we truly hope that all efforts will be made to showcase explorations and excitement in the two award categories 'daylight in buildings' and 'daylight investigations'," says program manager of the award Per Arnold Andersen, from the VELUX Group.

The members of the jury are:

ArchDaily is an evolving project of the Internet – an experiment in archiving, disseminating discourse and sharing content related to architecture and urbanism on a scale that was not possible as little as two decades ago.

Since our foundation in 2008, we have operated around a single mission: to bring knowledge, inspiration, and tools to the people who are, and will be, designing the urban centers which will accommodate our planet’s (exponentially rising) population.

Most importantly for us, we are continually connecting people from around the developed and developing world by building a platform which operates in four languages—Spanish, English, Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese—to ensure that these discussions are available to the widest possible global audience.

And in order to bring content to our half-a-million daily readers more efficiently, we're looking for a Content Coordinator to help guide and organize the team. Are you meticulous, exceptionally organized and passionate about architecture and the internet? This is the job for you.

ArchDaily is looking for a motivated and highly-skilled architecture-lover to join our team in Santiago, Chile! We are happy to announce a new residency program aimed at identifying emerging talent in the field of online architecture publishing. Participants in the Residency program receive a monthly stipend so that they can temporarily relocate to Chile and work alongside our global team of content producers for a period of four to six months.

Interested in what it's like to be an ArchDailyer? Check out our office life!

As the northern hemisphere says goodbye to the final month of fall and gives thanks for architecture’s splendid (and fulfilling) beauty, the time is ripe for revisiting a selection of canonical projects that look their grandest during “leaf peeping” season. Either the brilliant reds, oranges, browns and yellows of the foliage echo the natural colors of the project’s materials or the reflective properties of ample glass magnify the natural phenomenon. This annual period of transition provides photographers with a “golden” opportunity.

In an exclusive half-hour interview with Graham Stirk, partner at Richard Rogers' London-based practice RSHP (Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners), Monocle's Tom Edwards dives into discussing the complexity of some of the practice’s recent projects. Stirk is best known for designing some of the firm's iconic London buildings, such as the Leadenhall Building (or “Cheesegrater”) and the more controversial NEO Bankside.

A School of Schools, the theme for the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial, will "use, test, and revise a variety of educational strategies to reflect on the role of design, knowledge, and global connectedness" in Istanbul and around the world. Two calls for ideas—one for "schools" and one for "learners"—have been opened to interested parties.

In 1986, Peter Zumthor completed one of his first projects: a shelter over an Ancient Roman archaeological site in Chur, (Graubünden, Switzerland). Now over three decades old, this film by ArcDog captures the building and the preserved excavations that it sits around with a quiet sophistication. With only timber lamella to allow in light and ventilative air, the project stands as a testament to Zumthor's sensitive architectural approach.

The Visitor's Center at Apple's new Cupertino campus has opened to the public. As the public face of a vast complex designed by Foster + Partners, the independent building is "a uniquely designed architectural extension" of the company's new headquarters. "With similar aesthetics in staircases, stone walls, and terrazzo floors," the center’s "cantilevered carbon fiber roof appears to float," supported only "by stone clad cores and no other extraneous columns for support."

Following her decision to abandon plans for an OMA-designed, upstate New York museum, artist Marina Abramovic has spoken out in response to allegations that her institute may have improperly utilized funds raised through a crowdsourced fundraising campaign.

If you live in a hurricane zone, how can you construct a home which can withstand and survive some the strongest winds on Earth? In this film, presented by The Verge's "Home of the Future" series in collaboration with Curbed, designs drawn up by North Carolina-based prefabricated home builder Deltec show a house specifically able to deal with extremely hostile weather conditions. This film demonstrates how it fared against Hurricane Harvey.

The main objective of the BambooU build and design course is to promote bamboo as a green building material, and to provide tools to architects, designers, builders, engineers, and carpenters from all over the world to value this material and increase its use.

The 2017 version of the course invited its participants to be part of a basic carpentry workshop, in which Indonesian artisans—led by I Ketut Mokoh Sumerta—taught them to build the base of a simple structure in Bamboo, without using other materials and by experimenting with the cutting and joining of different pieces.

See the process of this construction below.

Performance artist Marina Abramovic has ended plans for her OMA-designed upstate New York art institute, leaving questions about what happened to the $2.2 million she raised from a slate of celebrity patrons and nearly 5,000 Kickstarter donors.

When Abramovic first announced the project in 2012, she touted the plans as transformative for the town of Hudson, New York. To be known as the Marina Abramovic Institute (MAI), the facility was intended to create a new space for the “collaboration between art, science, technology and spirituality.”

Abramovic tapped OMA’s Rem Koolhaas and Shohei Shigematsu to design the space, located within an old 33,000-square-foot theater. Early architectural concepts were daringly experimental – ideas included a theater with seats that could be individually rolled away if visitors were to fall asleep during planned hours-long performances.

DailyDose—one of ArchDaily's five favorite daily newsletters of 2017—have published a collection of drawings submitted as part of an open competition to sketch a composition of just five lines. To celebrate the milestone of their 1000th newsletter which has, over the course of the last five years, delivered 34,297 collected images to inboxes around the globe, one work (by Roberto de Oliveira Castro) will be made available as a limited edition framed artwork by Desplans.

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Designing a business card might seem to be a straightforward endeavor but if you've ever tried your hand at designing one from scratch, you've probably wished there was a graphic design consultant around. With this in mind, we've rounded up some classy minimalist templates that will help you take the guesswork out of what to include on your calling card. From ace border spacing and text placement to snazzy (and free!) font recommendations, these downloadable business card templates are ready for you to plug in your information. These templates also serve as an invaluable jumping off point if you're looking for some inspiration for your own designs.