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Focusing on water and sustainability, the Roca London Gallery will be hosting for the We Are Water Foundation. Their program, which going on now until March 23^rd, includes the exhibition 'Water for Thought: Life-Changing Design' and exciting events during the month including Water as a Source of Inspiration, with Zaha Hadid Architects, on Thursday, March 14^th and World Water Day, which will help Roca raise £2,500, on Friday, March 22^nd. The exhibition aims to generate awareness of global water problems through a mixture of design, technology and video. Demonstrating how people can use their creativity to create awareness and provide solutions to water-related problems, some of the World’s most innovative product designs for accessing, transporting or purifying water in developing countries will be on show. For more information, please visit here.

Expanding on the capabilities of the parametric tool, Grasshopper, Kangaroo provides creative professionals with the ability to integrate physics-based simulation techniques into their workflow. In applications ranging from architectural to product design, Mode Lab's 2-day intensive workshop taking place March 9-10 from 10:00am-6:00pm will cover advanced techniques for modeling adaptable components using dynamic constraints and forces in a performance-oriented environment. In a fast-paced and hands-on learning environment, you will learn techniques for using Parametric Design, Physics-Based Simulation, and Component Detailing for Digital Fabrication. To register, and for more information, please visit here.

Videos

Currently on display at the Portland Museum of Art until May 19, 'Voices of Design: 25 Years of Architalx' showcases the power of design through an interactive exhibition featuring work of some of the world's leading architects and designers. The display, designed by architects Tim Ventimiglia and Jennifer Whitburn of Ralph Appelbaum Associates, includes a 17-foot-tall tower with three levels of images that alternately reveal themselves and disappear. A dynamic image projection will light up two sides of the tower by using projectors embedded in the interior of the tower and will feature infrared light sensors, creating touch interactivity for visitors. More images and information on the exhibition after the break.

Coming up this Friday, March 8th, from 2:00pm-4:30pm EST, Mode Lab will be hosting the Organic Modeling: Precision Sculpting with TSplines for Rhino webinar offering guided curriculum and continuous support with the goal of providing you with an in-depth and personal learning experience. The principles and rationale behind T-Splines will be covered, providing students with the resources to model shapes of any complexity as a single smooth, water-tight surface. Additionally, this intensive course will introduce techniques for working with polygonal and box modeling, direct surface editing, and local definition tools interchangeably. To register, and for more information, please visit here.

Who should design public spaces? Should they even be designed at all? Can public space make a meaningful contribution to solving the world’s environmental problems? How should the success of a public space be measured?

Architectural Competitions may be regarded as an opportunity or a burden. There are numerous architectural practices that gained significant attention for their submissions and winnings in highly publicized competitions, but the reality is that architectural competitions are expensive and do not guarantee reward. And yet, they are an opportunity to engage in a critical dialogue about the projects at hand, and may be approached with more creative and imaginative risk than when working directly with a client, which is probably why they are so popular and numerous. They are also an opportunity to bring the public into conversations about architecture in the public forum . These are just some of the considerations that The Architecture Foundation hopes to tackle in its new series, "And the Winner is...?".

Slant is inviting contestants to participate in this year's competition, themed 'Evoking Memories', which calls for a design for a show garden which, if selected will become part of SlantFest, their new on-line garden festival for summer 2013. Open to any global location of your choice, you may choose to represent a memory of a place or event, childhood memories, or opt to commemorate or to celebrate a person or persons, even a nation. It’s up to you to decide, and your inspiration could be either well known, or perhaps just personal to you. The deadline for submissions is May 20. For more information, please visit here.

As part of Cornell University's Rome 2013 Lecture Series, Pablo Castro, founder of OBRA Architects will be delivering the 'Hexameter' lecture this Thursday, March 7th, at the Palazzo Lazzaroni in Rome at 6:00pm. A 2012 Rome prize winner, Castro's design direction at OBRA has produced a body of award-winning projects including four AIANY Design Awards and two Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Awards. He is also a 2006 NYFA Fellow in Architecture/Environmental Structures and a 2003 Society of Architectural Historians de Montëquin Senior Fellow, which are just some of the many awards received. For more information on the event, please visit here.

Taking place this Thursday, March 7th, at 6:00pm, the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) will present the first 2013 Mellon Lecture, a free event, featuring Japanese architect Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, founding partner of Atelier Bow-Wow in Tokyo with Momoyo Kaijima. Yoshiharu Tsukamoto will present his concept of Architectural Behavior, which investigates the physical responses to natural elements such as light, air, heat, wind, water, human behavior related to custom, and the way in which buildings relate to the city and their surroundings. For more information, please visit here.

Open to anyone from anywhere, it's that time of the year for the 2nd annual Life of an Architect Playhouse Competition All are being called to flex your design chops to benefit needy kids with the design of a fun playhouse to bring out a positive experience. The intent is that these playhouses will be constructed and ready for delivery to Dallas CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), a nonprofit organization of community volunteers trained and supervised to serve as voices in court for abused and neglected children, by July 30th where they will be installed for display and raffled off. The deadline for submissions is April 15. To register for free, and for more information, please visit here.

Videos

The topic of this year's Tallinn Architecture Biennale Vision Competition, Recycling Socialism, seeks architectural ideas and methods to envision the future of an iconic circular block-housing district in Tallinn – Väike-Õismäe ("Little Blossom Hill"). Väike-Õismäe stands apart from other similar neighborhoods in Tallinn by way of its concentric plan derived from the idea of a circle-city. The district is positioned circularly as a single, complete solution around a pond in the middle and the environment and modern-day life are still searching for a common language. More information and a video after the break.

Design saturates every facet of our lives. As the new MoMA exhibition states: design is a fundamental tool in helping people respond to change. Applied Design, running from March 2nd to January 31st, focuses on the various means and methods by which we design and the product of those varied paths that lead to innovation.