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New York is the emblematic city of professional progress, great ambitions and large corporations. A place where the idea of success in society is pursued although in many cases it is accompanied by long working hours. People spend a third of the day or more in workspaces and most offices were designed to increase productivity regardless of the spatial quality or well-being of employees. 

Call for Young Architects:
The ARCASIA Travel Prize in Architecture is the travel and research scholarship given to Young Architects of ARCASIA (40 years and under) who are members of the architect institute of their country. The prize aims to promote research in selected fields of study, encourage cross-border education as well as foster cultural exchange between nations and institutes. Sponsored by NS Bluescope (Thailand), this year is the third year of the ARCASIA Travel Prize.

Symposium: “Artificial Natures”
Venice Biennale for Architecture, 2018
27 - 29 May 2018
Palazzo Rossini, Venice, Italy

Artificial Natures
The topic for this year’s symposium is Artificial Natures, ranging from classical ones, such as parks and ideal cities, to garden cities, to new “natural “ environments like social media spaces as new public place. The symposium will take place as a combination of short panels and workgroups. The general questions are:

ARCASIA TRAVEL PRIZE 2018:
KUMIKI

Arquia Social is calling for proposals for the design of a toy to be gifted to hospitalized children, with the goal of making their hospital stay more bearable through play and fostering a more positive mood.

The purpose of this competition is to select the best proposal for the construction of a Biomedical Sciences building at the Getafe Campus of the Carlos III University of Madrid.

A Bridge Over Troubled Water
An Architectural Competition

As part of our 2017/18 research theme discussing the infrastructural implications of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union, the school has launched an international architecture competition for a fixed link connecting France with the UK.

New York’s most highly anticipated cultural venue, The Shed, is giving visitors the chance to preview some of their innovative programming a year before its planned opening at a temporary pavilion designed by architect Kunlé Adeyemi of NLÉ and artist Tino Sehgal.

To be located at the corner of Tenth Avenue and 30th Street in Manhattan – across the street from the rising Hudson Yards development and future home of the Shed – the pavilion has been designed to accommodate a variety of program types with its reconfigurable structure. Events will include concerts, dance battles, discussion panels and more.

Abouthaus is an online platform dedicated to helping self-builders and owner-builders navigate the design and construction process, make informed decisions, and secure high-quality home designs. One of its primary services is adapting the traditional architectural competition model to the residential sector.

Riga Black Balsam is an iconic traditional Latvian drink, created from a combination of 24 ingredients, including herbs, roots, berries, and fruit juices. Its smooth and versatile taste can be enjoyed any number of ways, though it is often taken neat, or mixed into a cocktail of choice. More and more lately, younger audiences have begun to recognize that Black Balsam is great when mixed into cocktails.

For a relatively small country, Ireland has a rich musical history which is incredibly diverse and spanning all musical genres. Connolly's of Leap is a venue which promotes all types of music; from traditional Irish folk music, to the most avant-garde electronic music of today. The IRISH MUSIC VENUE architecture competition focuses on breathing new life into an existing and iconic music venue in the heart of rural Ireland.

Finsa launches its competition for students of Architecture and Design for the second time.

For this year's competition, the interaction between children and the elderly is the new focus.

BACKGROUND
Rapid urban growth and growing inequality has created a global crisis in housing that increasingly segregates the rich from the poor. Though not fully understood, there is a clear and parallel relationship between the size of a city and its level of socio-economic disparity: the larger the city, the less equal it tends to be. Physical and social segregation, which both reflects and perpetuates socio-economic disparity within a city, is a growing concern in cities worldwide - including Mumbai. The long-term success of a city depends on the collective well-being of all its inhabitants. To what extent can architecture support social inclusion and break down spatial segregation within the megacity?

The Pape Nature Park in the south west region of Latvia is a birdwatching paradise, and home to some of the region’s most unique and majestic species found in the wild. In addition to being a home for some 50,000 migratory birds each year, the Pape Nature Park is now renowned for its reintroduction of several large herbivore species into the wild. Most notably was the reintroduction of wild horses, who had been driven from the area by human agriculture and settlements.

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Located between China and India, Nepal is all along the Himalayas. These high mountains offer a range of beautiful landscapes with the eight highest summits of the world. Nepal gets an important profit from the hiking tourism, which represents at least 10% of the GDP of the country. Although well exploited by the country, its environment is a difficult aspect for its development with a complex topography and a rough climate. Seasons rhythm the country’s activities with dry winter and summer marked by important monsoons.
The diversity of its ethnic groups, its castes, and its languages contribute to the richness of the culture of this country. Cults and religions take an important part of the Nepalese daily life; Hinduism, practiced by the majority of the population, has been coexisting with Buddhism for centuries. Architecture, culture and religion are tightly connected in Nepal, where the most beautiful wood or rock sculptures mainly stand in temples and monasteries. Nowadays cities and villages still come alive at the rhythm of religious festivities.
With 29 million inhabitants, more than 85% of the population live in rural area. Nepal is divided in 75 districts, then in «VDCs» (Village Development Committee) who correspond to municipalities. Villages’ structure can differ from one place to another. Some are composed by groups of houses, with a dense typology. Other are more scattered, with houses separated from each other. Time perception is felt differently: it is common to have to walk for a few hours to walk across a village. These villages are sometimes badly connected or even not connected at all to the main cities, which is why education has been hard to access for a long time. Nowadays an important improvement is visible, with 84% of alphabetisation in the young population.
Nepal has been benefiting of its geographic situation between its bordering countries for a long time, being a natural stop for merchants and travellers. Today, it is left behind as compared to its neighbours. There are many challenges to development: drinkable water, electricity support, communication infrastructure, wastewater management, infrastructure for transportation… However, these last years, some aspects of the development have been considerably improved. Electricity support became constant in the major part of the country and communication infrastructure have improved even in really retreated villages.
During the last ten years, Nepal has got through economic and political crisis, but its biggest challenge is to recover from the terrible earthquake that has devastated part of the country on 25 April and 12 May 2015. In the area around Kathmandu, earthquakes have destroyed a huge amount of constructions and caused more than 9000 deaths.
In the aftermath of this disaster, international assistance has worked together to rebuild the country. The outcome was positive but not to the scale of the real needs. Two years after, the mains NGOs are leaving to other assignments, but the damage is still present.

Iceland has a vast, wild landscape, with some of the most unique and incredible natural views in the world. Appropriately known as the land of fire and ice, Iceland’s volcanic fields blend seamlessly into gigantic glaciers and tumbling waterfalls. Iceland is also an ideal location to view the iconic Aurora Borealis, otherwise known as the Northern Lights.

The Nemrut caldera sits cradled within the Nemrut Volcano in Turkey, formed by the collapse of the volcano into itself, creating a large, deep crater. This dramatic formation creates a unique micro-environment, becoming home to plants and animals that thrive in the harsh conditions. Nestled within the caldera is lake Nemrut, a half-moon crater freshwater lake that further adds to the unique biodiversity of the caldera.

As the building production had been limited during the preceding socialist era, buying land for building a house was next to impossible and the society as a whole preferred mass housing construction of block of flats, the idea of a house was wrapped in the aura of scarce goods. Thus, it was no wonder that after 1989 many new designs and building companies responded to the existing strong demand. The individually owned family house, inspired by the image of “happy” lifestyle of the Western countries, represented embodiment of the dream of modern living. It was a dream influenced by the desire to express one’s own individuality and the attempt of the newly forming middle class to present itself. The winner of the free choice contest was usually a turnkey catalog house.