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Russian city dwellers live their daily lives, drive cars on busy streets, sit in front of computers in offices, buy groceries and other goods in supermarkets and shops, bring up their children and watch television at home. This decidedly typical Lebenswelt, routine, everyday, the gigantic and complex world of the ordinary, is under-researched and poorly analysed. The theme for Strelka’s 2013-2014 research school year is Urban Routines.

Student research, public lectures, and talks on Urban Routines constitute an attempt to figure out what the everyday life of Russian cities is made of. 

MAXXI and Insula architettura e ingegneria with Based Architecture present “Cose Turche”, a conversation of six voices about Istanbul, aimed to recognize and trace the pulsating identity of a metropolis, which in its present metamorphosis is able to tell us about significant pieces of third millenium urban culture.

Recently some of Istanbul public spaces as Gezi Park, Taksim square with Ataturk Cultural Center by Hayati Tabanlioglu and Third Bosphorus Bridge became symbol and central places of an intense debate still open, which assumed a global broader connotation.

The Emerging New York Architects (ENYA) committee of the AIA New York Chapter is pleased to announce the opening of its sixth biennial design ideas competition exhibition, QueensWay Connection: Elevating the Public Realm on Thursday, July 17 at 6:00 PM at the Center for Architecture.

Hotel Fjord is the most visible big structure that was conceived and built during the Yugoslav period in Kotor and which is now waiting for more intense use again. Next to it there is at least four major sites and structures in a wide range of different material conditions, but all in a state of minimal use, which can be described as a programmatic void in the center of Kotor.

Focusing on recent acquisitions in MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design, Conceptions of Space addresses how contemporary architects continue to embrace spatial creation as a fundamental focus of their work. The exhibition reveals how, beyond formal traits and functional needs, the conception and articulation of architectural space still defines architecture as an artistic endeavor, and a response to wider cultural issues.

This summer, the art, architecture and design of Finland will be celebrated in London. Reason & Intuition - Alvar Aalto & Ola Kolehmainen in Soane is a new exhibition bringing together the finest works of an acknowledged great of international modernist architecture and design and three collections of images by an acclaimed Finnish photographer.

The Mies van der Rohe Award, today one of the most important and prestigious prizes for architecture within the European competition, was first set up in 1987 by the European Union, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe – Barcelona. This prize which involves a total sum of 80.000 EUR is organised and awarded every two years.

Competing Utopias is a design collision that should never happen. But somehow, in Los Angeles, in 2014, twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it will.

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Hello Wood is an international art program, taking place in Csorompuszta, the countryside of Hungary between July 19 and July 27, 2014.All work, produced there, carries two attributes: it’s mostly from wood and it’s characterized by an interplay of art and social commitment. Hello Wood integrates various fields of art, design and science; it creates community and encourages talent. It brings together students and professionals from across borders, moreover it connects everyday people with the designer community.

This year, participants will have the opportunity to create 12 wood installations. To participate, you need to fill out the application form until May 16. The organization is also having an open call for workshop leaders. 

All the information regarding the event, participation and workshop leaders after the break.

The American architect Louis Kahn (1901-1974) is regarded as one of the great master builders of the Twentieth Century. Kahn created buildings of monumental beauty with powerful universal symbolism.

The Glenn Murcutt Architecture Master Class in Australia has become an major annual event on the international architecture calendar. Started in 2001, architects and senior students from sixty-five nations around the world have now traveled to Australia to participate in the two-week residential studio based program.

For the second year in a row, Indexnewspaper will organize ‘Porto Academy’ at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP) in Portugal from the 21st to the 28th of July 2014.

The academy will consist of a weeklong workshop in which students will have the chance to work closely with: Antón Garcia-Abril, Cecilia Puga, Diogo Seixas Lopes (Barbas Lopes), Emilio Marin, Jan De Vylder (Vylder Van Vinck Tallieu), José Paulo dos Santos, Nuno Valentim, Paulo Providência, Smiljan Radic and Tetsuo Kondo. Participants will attend twelve lectures from those architects as well as three master classes from Valerio Olgiati (and two more architects soon to be revealed).

Porto Academy will take place in the FAUP's famous building, designed by Álvaro Siza. More details, after the break...

The Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs (EUR) of the Department of State requests proposals from private U.S. individuals, firms, associations and organizations for the fundraising, construction, development, organization, and management, and disassembly and removal of a USA Pavilion/exhibition at Milan Expo 2015, which is set to open with an eco-themed fair on May 1, 2015. The USA Pavilion will be situated on a 2790 square meter plot with a building footprint no more than 70% of the plot size on a site northwest of Milan, near the Massimiliano Fuksas-designed Fiera Milano convention center. Proposals are expected to include ‘a food demonstration or exhibition’ to emphasize the ‘Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life’ theme. Submissions are due no later than September 15. For more detailed information, please visit here.

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Back for its fourth year, the creative camp Hello Wood was held last month in Hungary, set in the countryside north of Lake Balaton. At Hello Wood, 120 young designers and architects worked with leading experts to create installations which approach issues of society and community in architecture, ideas encompassed by this year's motto "Step Closer!" Twelve teams had one week to create these installations using timber as their primary material, with the projects being judged and a winner awarded at the end of the week.

Read on to find out about the installations, and which one was judged the winner, after the break

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The University of Cambridge Library, with the Department of Architecture, recently launched a landscape design competition to transform the space surrounding Cambridge University Library. Open to professionals and non-professionals alike, they are looking for bold submissions that reimagine the open spaces and environment of the iconic Giles Gilbert Scott building. A monumental presence both within the University and the city, entries to the competition will be judged on their innovative interpretation of the site, its context, use and history – as well as their ability to integrate contemporary ecological research. Entries should also promote new visibility for the Library and encourage people to think about the role of the site on the western edge of the city. The registration deadline is September 30, and the deadline for submissions is November 30. For more information, please visit here.

STUDIO magazine recently announced their Call for Papers for their forthcoming Issue #5: 'IMPORT><EXPORT,' which is set to examine how these two concepts linked to architecture modify the way to conceive, think and project our cities. This issue aims to explore the unceasing exchange among different realities which has produced a hybrid and heterogeneous urban landscape in which architectural experiences of different sources meet and combine. Structurally organized in different ways of contribution - essays, insights, experiences, images - the issue is meant to be investigated by a multi-disciplinary global perspective in order to define its complexity. The submission process involved two stages with the Stage One deadline on August 31, Stage Two September 30, and publication in November. For more information, please visit here.

Free and open to the public at the ZEZEZE Architecture Gallery in Tel Aviv, the Architactics exhibition by SAYA Design for Change summarizes the approach of SAYA’s mission-based practice. Rather than diving into the details of their specific proposals, it illustrates the channels of influence this practice has defined for design in peace making. SAYA’s pioneering approach termed by its founders as “Resolution Planning” was developed a decade ago to reclaim the architectural responsibility in designing peace. Its goal is to redefine the role and responsibility of architects in conflict resolution, to re-include the city, the people and their joint future space back into the picture. The exhibition will continue to be on display until August 24. More architects' description after the break.

Currently on view until August 30, Unit Architects is presenting their 8-week exhibition in the entrance space of Buro Happold's 17 Newman Street offices as part of Buro Happold’s Emerging Architects event program. A great way to show off some of the upcoming talent in architecture and design, the contribution by Unit Architects to this series focuses on a selection of their work that shares a common approach of engagement with scale, contextual symbology, material presence and considered detailing. More images and architects' description after the break.