Beautiful China is the title of the Chinese government’s broad policy to ensure the traditions and esthetics of Chinese culture not only survive as heritage but apply to contemporary society and to the future. Beautiful China is also nested within the larger policy concept of creating an “ecological civilization.” Applied to a nation of over 1.3 billion people and the second most powerful economy in the world, these policies are arguably the most fascinating socio-political experiment taking place anywhere in the world today. This book is the first serious consideration of this policy and what it means for the design professions in contemporary China.

’ORTE Architekturnetzwerk Niederösterreich’ annually grants a studio apartment in Krems as well as a scholarship financed by the Federal Province of Lower Austria to three artists focusing their work on building culture. The duration of stay is selectively one to three months.

For the 28th annual Tile Competition, Ceramics of Italy is currently accepting submissions from top North American architects and designers who have used Italian ceramic and porcelain tile to create unique installations in built projects around the world. An international jury of design experts will review submissions from all over the continent and select winners in five categories: Commercial, Institutional, Residential (Multi-Family), Residential (Single-Family), and Student. Projects must have been completed between January 2016 and March 2021 and feature tile from one or more Ceramics of Italy manufacturers.

The City of Culver City will implement a permanent Public Art Program for the Washington/National TOD (Transit Oriented Development) District. The Washington National TOD Gateway Public Art Program will inspire artists in the creation of world-class, aesthetically rigorous artwork(s) that respond to the natural, cultural, and infrastructural resources present at the site. Formerly the site of the Hal Roach Studios, the Washington National TOD gateway has continued to be a site of artistic and entrepreneurial activity. This Public Art Program will offer artists the opportunity to aesthetically respond to the past, present, and future of this unique cultural site.

With the world constantly evolving, there is a ton of information being formulated out there. The human civilization is expected to keep up with this change and evolve with this developing world to open up multiple possibilities for a better future. Despite all the information available around us, the only way to best access it, is through reading and self-learning. As a major tool for the 21st century, self-learning is an important skill that is to be refined for future generations as they journey through education and beyond.

The guidelines for the Building Arts Awards, organized by INTBAU with the support of the Richard H. Driehaus Charitable Lead Trust and the Ekaba Foundation, and in collaboration with the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Rafael Manzano Prize, and the Spanish Council of Architects, have been published. Submissions are open until February 16.

The Foros lecture series at the UIC Barcelona School of Architecture, an essential annual event in the fields of architecture and urbanism, is launching a new edition in an online format that will run from January 27 to April 28.

The call for papers for all sections of the second issue of the Journal of Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism is now open until March 15, 2021.

“Our lives unfold through an exchange of nutrients with plants, even if we only remember them when it is time to water them. In one way or another, they are there, allowing us to continue existing here on this planet. However, forty years after the television broadcast of the series Cosmos, it seems we still do not understand plants as a fundamental part of our lives. We continue to view them as a mere source of energy or a raw material to be exploited (capable of defining vast economic sectors); we instrumentalize them when asked to explain the origins of architecture, or we even use their color to tint our projects and ventures with labels like “green,” “ecological,” or “sustainable”; yet it is not common for us to think about them—and with them—when designing. Perhaps to begin settling that debt, in this issue of ARQ magazine, we are seeking essays, projects, and research that challenge the secondary role we have assigned to vegetation, or that demonstrate new ways of including vegetation in architecture, with the minimum condition of moving beyond the paradigm of the primitive hut, as we believe it is time to take a step beyond their mere allegorical instrumentalization.”

The Design Educates Awards recognize, showcase, and promote globally the best ideas and implementations of architecture and design that can educate. The design itself may provide an informative and educational layer that guides us through the increasing complexity of our environment. The objects in our surroundings can communicate important values and guide us through desirable, positive practices.

The WAPW Academic Association and the Faculty of Architecture of Warsaw University of Technology cordially invite you to the next lecture of the "About Architecture" series. Mr. Philip Beesley will be our guest.

We invite you to examine plant with an eye towards all or any of its associated terminology; farmer, laborer, migrant, worker, wage earner, employee; sun, shade, climate; energy, power, nuclear; rhizome, root, germ; programming, automation, mechanisation; seed, spud, pip; manufacture, generator, infrastructure; genealogy, lineage, pedigree; fordization, plantation, systematization; soil, bed, earth; factory, facility, mill; harvest, crop, cull; toil, labor, manufacture; nurture, care, keep; assembly, processes, forge; germinate, accumulate, pollinate; produce, stockpile, multiply, pullulate.

History will likely remember 2020 as a turning point. Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the relentless advance of the Anthropocene and cast doubt on the capitalist development model. Locally, meanwhile, the principles that have governed us for the last four decades were also called into question, to the point of necessitating a new beginning.

We are pleased to announce that in partnership with the University of Toronto eSports we are continuing to deliver our Saturday/Sunday half-day online Minecraft program for Winter 2021.

The Equity Matters II Leadership Summit, a panel on reimagining campuses to ensure inclusive resiliency after the pandemic, will tackle these significant challenges facing university and college campuses. The open dialogue will culminate in third program in summer 2021 and a new study to be published next year.

In the book “La Silla de la Discordia” (Ediciones Asimétricas), Pablo López Martín explores how the tubular steel cantilever chair, whose patent was claimed during the same period by Mies van der Rohe, Mart Stam, and Marcel Breuer, transcends its own scale to serve as a vehicle for conceptual, formal, constructive, and structural exploration in the work of each of these European architectural icons.

FRONTS uncovers a growing geography of codependence between the global security complex and the urban morphologies of the developing world, which it increasingly incriminates. Military training sites provide a lens through which we can better understand the shape of the city to come. Military doctrine has recently and dramatically shifted to view the world's cities as suspect sites of potential aggression. As the majority of new urban life will manifest in informal development, the world is now more than ever explicitly divided in two camps--those who view the informal city as an opportunity, and those who view the informal city as a threat. This paradigmatic shift has set the stage for impending conflict between security and development interests, which use the informal city as their site.

Largely self-taught as an architect, John Yeon (1910–1994) designed some of the most beautiful and influential structures in the Pacific Northwest, among them the Watzek House of 1937, which received national acclaim as a new paradigm of modern regional architecture. Several of Yeon’s buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places or have National Landmark status. At the same time, he built an important legacy as a tireless advocate for parks and for the protection of sweeping natural landscapes of the region, including the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. This book is devoted primarily to his residential architecture and his unique approach to their design. Yeon’s own descriptions enrich the Illustrated with Yeon’s own drawings and contemporary photographs, there are many new drawings and diagrams made for this book.