Hosted by the Australian Institute of Architects Queensland chapter, the 'Spirit of Place' – 2013 Regional Architecture Conference will focus upon the unique opportunities commonly available to architects practicing regionally, responding to the unique ‘Spirit of Place’. Taking place September 6-7, "the aim of the conference is to excite and inspire the practice of architecture in regional Australia," according to the creative director of the event, architect Stephen de Jersey. The conference features an illustrious set of keynote speakers, whose work responds to this mandate. In addition, there will be a rich range of associated tours and events that explore the extraordinary locality of the Cairns region. More information after the break.

Taking place at the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech August 5-9, the Outside Architecture + Design: Digital Design and Fabrication Workshop is offered to advanced high school students and college students completing their first year of studies in a design field. Building on the well established Inside ARCHITECTURE + Design curriculum, the laboratory/workshop is intended to provide a forum for the exploration of emerging design technologies through a one-week immersion. More information after the break.

The AA Bilbao Visiting School will take place from July 22nd to August 1st in the Alhóndiga Cultural Centre, Bilbao in Spain. Together with the academic activities, there are a series of open lectures that you can attend. The complete list after the break.

This article on io9 counts down the worst architectural disasters in recorded history, from the failure of Yarmouth Bridge back in 1845 to the horrific collapse of Rana Plaza in Savar, Bangladesh this April - revealing the latter as the most catastrophic structural failure in history. Read the article here.

Designed by Jean-Paul Viguier et Associés, in collaboration with Yves-Marie Maurer Architecture and the Atelier Blanchard Marsault Pondevie, their 'Eurorennes Ilot Féval' winning proposal consists of an approximately 22,000m2 office and commercial space, which also includes a theatre arthouse cinema. Located on the south bank of the train station in Rennes, France, the project will be serviced by the TGV (bullet train) with an expected completion date in 2017. More images after the break.

AECOM has published an article detailing the way they helped engineer this year’s Serpentive Pavilion. “A typical building might have between 1-2,000 such steel supports, and it’s estimated that the Eiffel Tower has just over 18,000 steel struts, but the Serpentine’s new pavilion has over 26,000 – each one working hard to lend form and strength…The level of detail nearly brought AECOM’s computer systems to a halt. In fact a system upgrade was required to manage the information.” On AECOM’s website you can read more about the challenges of lighting and fireproofing Fujimoto's complicated structure.

Tomorrow (July 19th) at 1pm GMT, The Guardian will be hosting a live webchat with renowned English architect Richard Rogers. The soon to be 80-year old has already begun celebrating with a retrospective exhibition on his work at the Royal Academy. You can keep the Rogers-fest going by heading to The Guardian's site and posting your questions in the comments section. The next day, you'll be able to see responses from the architect himself. So, what would you ask Rogers?

SCAPE and Rogers Marvel have been unanimously selected from 27 international applicants to create a schematic design for one of the most visited destinations on the Mississippi River: Water Works in downtown Minneapolis. The SCAPE-Roger Marvel Team, which also includes New York-based James Lima Planning + Design and Minneapolis-based SRF Consulting, will be responsible for transforming the historically significant Central Mississippi Riverfront Regional Park, within which the Water Works district exists, with a master plan based on a series of “visionary” parks and trails.

+ POOL, the project (initiated by a duo of young architects) to float a public swimming pool in New York's Hudson River, has reached its latest kickstarter goal - making it the largest civic project to ever be crowdfunded online. As Architizer's Karen Wong reports, it's a remarkable gamechanger for architects (a profession where success often comes well into one's golden years) as well as public space in general: "It's a resounding demonstration of the public’s belief in young architects to rethink public space and manifest the untapped capital of waterways to benefit the common good." Read the full article here.

Aiming to seamlessly integrate into the UNESCO World Heritage site, this proposal for the Museum of Bavarian History is derived from the existing roofscape the building references to history. Designed by Simon Takasaki Architecture + Research Studio, their proposal develops a formal language which is triggered by the existing structures, overlaying the present and the future simultaneously. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Port of Rijeka Authority and the City of Rijeka, in cooperation with Rijeka Architects Association (DAR) just launched the Delta and Porto Baros Area Competition will calls for the urban-architectural concept design for the area's development. Participants are encouraged to investigate into both the "land-use/gross build-up area" framework as well as the spatial/urban context of the site and propose the ideas which could challenge the general guidelines and requirements set by the Master Plan of the City of Rijek. The deadline for submissions is October 22. More information after the break.

Synthesis Design + Architecture (SDA), the forward-thinking Los Angeles-based architecture firm led by architect and USC professor, Alvin Huang, has recently won an international competition to design a rapidly deployable pavilion to showcase and charge Volvo’s new plug-in electric hybrid, the V60.

Volvo’s “Switch to Pure Volvo” competition, organized by international architecture magazine THE PLAN, called for an innovative and original design for a temporary pavilion that expressed a “strong and creative identity” to showcase the car at fairs and open air presentations in Italian squares. SDA’s approach was to use the car’s design as a flexible and sustainable vehicle as the basis to reimagine the typical trade show pavilion. 

More on SDA’s collapsible, lightweight, energy-generating pavilion after the break...

Daniel Libeskind has been selected to design a new “landmark” building for Durham University’s Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics in England. The state-of-the-art facility, which will house the industry-leading Institute for Computational Cosmology and Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology, is expected to “complement” the traditional buildings that surround it while serving as an exemplar for sustainable design. Completion is planned for December 2015, depending on planning permission.

Mies van der Rohe's last constructed skyscraper, the IBM building in Chicago, recently underwent a significant transformation: the modernist office building is now a 316-room luxury hotel. An interesting post on the ArchitectureChicago Plus blog weighs in on the building's history and ponders: will Mies' minimalist aesthetic be compromised by its new lavish furnishings? Read it all here.

Gentrification has been a running theme in the social and economic fluctuations that occur in cities. Between housing booms and busts, the revitalization of small manufacturing and the shifting populations cities grow and change organically, subject to a variety of trends. In an article in Business Insider, Tali Arbel traces urban revival by following the successes of craft breweries that have sprung up in desolate and blighted neighborhoods. Brewers have found a home in cities full of abandoned warehouses and factory buildings where real estate is available and affordable. As these neighborhoods become more affluent, rising in trendiness and popularity, they are beginning to price out these same businesses that helped establish them. Where are these businesses to go and how can gentrifying neighborhoods protect social and economic diversity?

Read on for more.

The 'Sa(ndy)licornia' proposal, which was one of the selected entries in the MOMA PS1 Rockaway Call for Ideas, is a reaction to the fact that in many ways Sandy, effectively, became a brand, and in doing so it provided all sorts of people with various sorts of "meaning". From this point of view, architect Daniel J Wilson focuses on how disasters can be understood to provide a form of social glue, clear-eyed perspectives about "what really matters", and the possibility of rebuilding something from scratch, only better. More images and architects' description after the break.

Since 2007, Jade Doskow has been photographing the remains of World's Fair Sites: once iconic spots that displayed the ambitions/ideals of their eras, now, often forgotten and left to decay. Now, for the 50th anniversary of the 1964 World's Fair in New York (in just a few weeks time), Doskow has a new goal: to shoot all the iconic North American fair sites - from Seattle's Space Needle to San Francisco's Treasure Island. To do so, she's launched a Kickstarter campaign: LOST UTOPIAS. See more of Doskow's stunning images, and find out how to support her Kickstarter campaign, after the break...

Taking place during the National Building Museum's Summer Block Party, the Architecture 101 lecture series explores iconic styles during significant periods in architectural history. The two lectures, titled 'Miesian' (July 20) and 'Expressionism' (July 27) will serve as a refresher course for the professional or student or providing the novice with a chance to learn more about the world of architecture. More information after the break.