How often are spontaneous, primitive, radical actions implemented in large urban centres? Siempre Fiesta (or Always Party) by Andrés Carretero and Carolina Klocker was recently voted by the We-Traders community as their favourite in the recent Open Call Madrid competition. Viewing the city through children's eyes, where the order of the day is primarily playing or making, and using the concept of "free movement of our body in space" as a key driver, Carretero and Klocker developed a playful scheme that proposed filling a niche in Madrid's urban grid with sand as a way of managing the environment to create "comfortable space."

Elliott + Associates Architects (EAA) has been commissioned to design the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center’s new home on 4.5 acre site at NW 11 and Broadway along Automobile Alley. Once complete, the new center will serve as a “gathering place for all ages to enjoy all forms of art” in addition to providing studios for artists, whether they are dancers, painters or ceramicists. More information, here.

To accommodate for the inevitable growth in population, Tampere, Finland’s second largest city has shortlisted five teams to reimagine its largest railway station. With of vision of the Tampere Railway Station becoming a lively multi-functional city area by 2030, competitors have been asked to design an overall masterplan that will guide future development for the travel and service center area. The following architect-led teams have each received €80,000 to participate:

The University of Michigan (UM) has commissioned Preston Scott Cohen and Integrated Design Solutions to design a $28 million expansion for its 40-year-old design building. Primarily planned to be used by the school’s architecture program, the new addition will include classrooms, studios and offices, as well as the renovation of existing studios. The news comes five years after schematic designs for the original expansion were abandoned. More information, here.

Videos

TED2014 commenced yesterday at the Vancouver Convention Center within a temporary 1200-seat auditorium designed by David Rockwell. Built from 600 wood components, and assembled in just 4.5 days, the pop-up theater was designed to be easily disassembled and reused by TED for years to come. Viewers are presented with sixteen seating options, from beanbags to lounge seating and traditional theater chairs, to ensure they are provided with the optimal listening, and sharing, experience. More images and a time-lapse video of construction, after the break.

Melbourne newspapers are reporting on an argument breaking out over the preservation of the city's postwar modernist buildings, centering (as ever) on the dispute between their value as cultural heritage vs their 'ugliness' (you can see all the contested buildings in a neat graphic at The Age). While many are in favor of preservation, Alan Davies, in anarticle for Crikey, warns that the cultural benefit in protecting these buildings should always be weighed against the cost of preventing the developments that would have taken their place. Read the full article here.

On view at La Galerie D'Architecture until April 9, Jarmund / Vigsnæs Architects, Constructing Views 2011-2014, will exhibit 16 projects completed by the Norwegian architects in the last three years.

The Hague government officials have named KAAN Architecten’s design for the Facilicom Consortium PPS B30 as winner of the PPP contract for the Bezuidenhoutseweg 30 project. Originally built in 1917 for the Department of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries, KAAN is expected to transform the existing National Heritage Site facilities into a vibrant and open “modern day think tank” for the Dutch government.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall this autumn, Germany planned two memorials, one in Berlin and one in Leipzig. However, as Der Spiegel reports, not only are they almost certainly not going to be complete in time for the anniversary, they have both proven highly controversial with the local people. Will these designs turn out to be monuments to German reunification, or just monumental failures? Read the article on Der Spiegel to find out more.

The AA Visiting School is a satellite programme of the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, and will be taking place in Los Angeles for the first time, from June 16 to June 27. The programme is broken up into research clusters that will be led by individual tutors based on the theme of “Machining Adaptive Living.”

The Chicago Architectural Club has named Christopher Marcinkoski and Andrew Moddrell of PORT Architecture + Urbanism and Grant Gibson of CAMES/gibson winners of this year’s Emerging Visions. Since its inauguration in 1998, the portfolio competition has sought to recognize significant endeavors by young architects, designers and new practices in Chicago. Works designed by the recipients will be on display at the 2014 AIA National Convention in Chicago. More information, here.

This year’s 120 HOURS competition challenged young architects from around the world to design a communicative icon of sustainability for the festival grounds of the Norwegian Øya Music Festival. With 2989 participants from 83 countries, it claims this year’s title for the world’s biggest architecture competition, for and by students. Enough drum-rolling, let’s take a look at the winning designs after the break…

New York-based Selldorf Architects has been summoned to the West Coast to design an expansion that will triple the size of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s (MCASD) campus in La Jolla. Chosen after a competitive country-wide search, Selldorf is expected to add an addition 20,000 square feet of exhibition space, which will provide opportunities for temporary exhibitions and large scale installations, as well as house the museum’s 4,571-piece permanent collection.

According to the museum, Selldorf was ultimately chosen due to her reputation of designing spaces that enhance, rather than upstage, the subject it serves. 

The Museum of Fine Arts Budapest and the Városliget Zrt. 100 % owned by the Hungarian State announce an open, international, two-stage design competition for the design of museum buildings within the framework of the Liget Budapest Project on the territory of the City Park Budapest. The construction of the new buildings, the complete renewal of the green area of the City Park, and the renovation of the institutions already present Liget Budapest will be one of Budapest’s leading, well-known tourist and cultural destinations and a unique family park recognised as such all over Europe.

The Abedian School of Architecture at Bond University released their complete lecture series for 2014. The cycle began in January and had its formal opening on February 8 with Peter Cook and Gavin Robotham, who designed the building. It will continue throughout the year with lectures by Kristen Whittle, John Wardle, Paul Minifie, Dagmar Reindhart, Lindsay and Kerry Clare, and finally Andrew Kudless on November 20.

Ma Yansong, founder of MAD, has been named the 2014 Young Global Leader. The award, bestowed each year by the World Economic Forum (WEF), aims to "recognize the most distinguished leaders under the age of 40, nominated from around the world." Winning the title from a collection of 214 young leaders from 66 countries, Yansong is the first Chinese architect to be awarded this honour. According to the WEF, Yansong "commits himself to exploring the future of architecture by combining the city density, function, and the spirit of Shanshui, to reconnect the emotional link between human and nature." Watch our interview with Ma Yansong here.

Porto Poetic, an exhibition covering the career and work of notable portuguese architects, started March 6 and will keep on going until April 13. The exhibition, which includes the work of Pritzker Prize winners Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura, will show sketches, plans, models and photographs of their most important work.

The Civic Trust Award scheme, established in 1959 to recognise "outstanding architecture, planning and design in the built environment", has revealed their 2014 recipients. The thirty one projects, ranging from urban masterplans on the former London 2012 Olympics site to a waterfront landscaping project in Aalborg, have all been recognised for their "positive contribution to the local communities that they serve." See all of the recipients of the 2014 award here.