The Student Apartment Studios in Paris by OFIS involves designing a dormitory with 180 studios on the site of the Stade de Ladoumègue in Paris’s 19th district. Currently in construction phase the dormitory is part of an urban development done by Reichen & Robert architects. Scheduled for completion for the end of 2011 the Student Apartment Studio in Paris will coordinate with the Paris tram which will open in early 2012.

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Architects: OFIS arhitekti Location: Rue des Petits Ponts, 19th district, Paris, France Design Team: Rok Oman, Spela Videcnik, Robert Janez, katja Aljaz, Andrej Gregoric, Javier Carrera, Janez Martincic Client: Competition Sponsor and Patron, Regie Immobiliere de la Ville de Paris Project Area: 931 sqm Project Year: 2008 – 2011

Previously featured here on ArchDaily as one of our AD Classics, the National Library of France by Dominique Perrault was built in hopes to be the most modern library in the world. The competition of 1989 that included projects from 244 internationally renowned architects was won by Dominique Perrault, who was only 36 years old. Photographer Franck Bohbot recently shared with us an extremely rare glimpse of the National Library, with a completely empty interior.

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Eduardo Souto de Moura was awarded the Pritzker Prize just last week (our coverage of the ceremony here). This video takes a look inside Souto de Moura’s office in Porto and the surrounding city including his Burgo Tower which has become a landmark. Also taking a look at scale the video displays a wide variety of his work throughout Portugal in varying scales from a single family home to the Braga Stadium.

2010 Pritzker Prize winning SANAA has released renderings to convert La Samaritaine department store in Paris into a mixed-use development. Commissioned by LVMH (client/developer) the architectural concept for the project expresses above all the ambition to restore the La Samaritaine, recognizing the significance of the building and the role the restoration will play in the revitalization of the neighborhood as a whole. The project is schedule to begin July of next year.

Photographer Franck Bohbot recently shared his photos of Anish Kapoor’s Leviathan-Monumenta with ArchDaily. Organized by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, MONUMENTA annually invites an internationally renowned artist to transform the 13,5000 sqm of the Grand Palais Nave with an artwork especially created for the event. Leviathan-Monumenta will be on display until June 23rd.

Follow the break for additional photographs.

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Atelier Raum Architects shared this video of one of their recent projects, an installation for a contemporary art exhibition in France. Accompanied by original music from the french band Mansfield Tya, La Ville Molle was co-produced by the Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Art de Bourges, the FRAC Centre and implemented with the collaboration of the city of Bourges and the Council district downtown. Follow the break for drawings, photographs, and a video showing the installation of the exhibition.

Shown under construction last month, the project is a memorial for the 91 victims of the 17th-century witch trials in Vardo, Norway. Illuminated windows, 91 in total dedicated to each victim, are incorporated within Zumthor’s information centre design which measures over 400′ long with a connective thread of tautly stretched silk sheets.

The Slow Architecture Exhibition 2011 has just gotten underway. Canal Boat 107B will meander its way within Ireland’s canals and inland waterways over the next month promoting slow architecture through its floating exhibition centre and museum. Contributors for the summer of 2011 are Sonairte, Carson and Crushell Architects, Solearth, Architectural Farm with Michael Carroll, and Caelan Bristow. You can see a brief description of their contributions here as well as the full timetable for this year’s exhibition.

The eight winners of the 2011 Small Project Awards were recently announced by the AIA. In its eighth year the program focuses on highlighting good design at any scale. The jurors for this year included: Deborah Pierce, Obie G. Bowman, Randy Brown, Lance Hosey, and Wendy Evans Joseph.

A complete list of winners following the break.

The NewSchool of Architecture and Design has recently announced their summer events schedule including workshops, seminars and study abroad opportunities in Europe and Asia.

ZGF Architects and PoSI teamed up to provide a concept submission for the International Living Future Institute’s 2011 Living City Design Competition which has been recently awarded a People’s Choice Award voted by the attendees of the Living Future 2011 conference.

Their submission entitled Symbiotic Districts: Towards a Balanced City explores the symbiosis between five EcoDistricts in Portland, Oregon as well as regional systems and examines how strategies in a single district contribute to the city’s overall performance.

Competition Team: ZGF Architects, Portland Sustainability Institute, CH2M Hill, David Evans and Associates, Greenworks PC, Newlands and Company, Inc., Portland State University, Institute for Sustainable Solutions, and Sparling

Honoring lasting achievement in American design Cooper-Hewitt announced yesterday the winners and finalists of the 2011 National Design Awards. In its 12th year of celebrating outstanding achievement in design, the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum annually presents this award to various disciplines that demonstrate excellence, innovation, and enhancement of the quality of life.

Garnering first prize for architecture is New York based Architecture Research Office (ARO). A list of winners and finalists following the break.

Preston Scott Cohen‘s winning competition proposal for the Taiyuan Museum of Art is currently under construction. A cluster of buildings unified by continuous and discontinuous promenades both inside and outside. The building responds to the urban parkscape in which it is set; visitors are encouraged to pass through the building while not entering into the museum itself. An exterior ramp threading through the building connects the heterogeneous hardscapes, lawns and sculpture gardens. The integration of building and landscape registers multiple scales of territory ranging from the enormity of the adjacent Fen River to the intimacy of the museum’s own particular spatial episodes.

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Architects: Preston Scott Cohen Location: Taiyuan, China Client: Taiyuan City Government Project Team: Preston Scott Cohen (architectural design); Amit Nemlich (planning); Collin Gardner, Hao Ruan, Joshua Dannenberg (design assistants, modeling, renderings); Yair Keshet(model) Project Consultants: Architecture Design and Research Institute of South East University Project Area: 32,500 sqm Project Year: 2007-2010

Architecture for Humanity’s Kimisagra Football for Hope Center in Kigali, Rwanda has broken ground. This video by Killian Doherty and music by Sophie Nzayisenga features the site location, renderings, and most importantly the communities excitement for the new center.

Steven Holl Architects were approved last week by the board of visitors’ finance committee to design a $19.3 million gallery at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, Virginia.

An existing surface parking lot on the east side of VCU’s campus will be transformed into the 32,000 sqf arts institute. This will provide an opportunity to create a distinctive entrance into the campus from Broad and Belvidere streets. The program for the new gallery includes space for traveling exhibits and student exhibits, archival study area, offices, and an auditorium.

Points of View (POV) is a Herman Miller series sharing architects’ perspective on design. Directed by Hello Design, POV provides five different California architects’ step by step process from approach and design development to materials choices. Architects include Leo Marmol and Ron Radziner of Marmol Radziner, Kim Coleman of Cigolle X Coleman, James Meyer of LeanArch, Jim Jennings of Jennings Architecture, and John Friedman of JFAK Architects.

Is architecture employment improving?  According to C. J. Hughes recent article some firms need for design services has increased providing an opportunity to hire employees.  That being said the employment opportunities are still minimal some firms hiring only one or two employees while others are able to hire in the double digits.  Many principals are tentative about the future and are therefore proceeding cautiously not to over hire employees.

The full article Architecture Employment on the Rise by C. J. Hughes for ArchRecord following the break.

As an all-electric vehicle, the Ecco has no emissions of its own, and can be quickly charged at a standard 240V station. But when used for extended living purposes, even where no electricity is available, its built-in photovoltaic panels and solar sail roof mean that it can cut out the middle man, and charge directly from the sun.