This guide outlines how to implement structured templates effectively, maintain design quality, and support firm-wide governance.

Lebanese architecture practice PARALX has won the AIA in Los Angeles' Merit Design Award for its T3 high-rise tower in Beirut. The tower is a part of a larger development scheme in the burgeoning Beirut Digital District (BDD) that will include 12 buildings and over 150,000 square meters of office spaces, apartments, hotels, shops, and entertainment facilities.

T3 will host cafes and restaurants on the ground level, with residential apartments located throughout the upper floors, all targeted towards the creative class that is moving into the area labeled as “Lebanon’s Silicon Valley.”

London-based Eric Parry Architects have unveiled a design proposal for a 73-storey office tower in the heart of London's financial district. Named '1 Undershaft', after its street address, the building will be one of the tallest in the city (standing at 294.6m) competing only with Piano's Shard (306m). Having been commissioned by Aroland Holdings (Singapore), the tower will contain 90,000sqm of internal space and feature "a new public square at its base" and "the capital's tallest free public viewing gallery at the top," according to Parry. It will stand in place of the existing 'Aviva Tower'.

The Cradle to Cradle Innovation Institute (C2CPII) has announced the winners of its 2015 Product Innovator Awards. Focusing on leaders in industries that are designing with upcycling and closed-circuit lifespans in mind, the award recognizes innovation in the practice of sustainable, circular-economy design. See the winners after the break.

Following the demolition of the original lifeguard station at the La Jolla Shores beach in San Diego, RNT Architects was commissioned to design its replacement. The project began with several models proposing different directions for the project – its final iteration began with a single, miniature staircase leading to a small shelter on top.

After reimagining famous landmarks with paper cutouts, photographer Rich McCor is back, this time with holiday-themed scenes based in London’s Covent Garden.

In light of the recent kickoff of Art Basel Miami, Marc Fornes / THEVERYMANY has shared its Labrys Frisae Pavilion, which was installed at Art Basel Miami from 2011 to 2014. Constructed from aluminum less than one millimeter thick, the installation sought to blur the distinction between edge and space through “an immersive, multisensorial experience.”

“The structure’s interior leads a visitor to lose their time as they peruse the curves and try to understand the space,” which changes as viewers move throughout, especially at night, when shadows emerge through the shell’s intricate perforation.

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Bergamo, Italy-based architect and artist Francesco Ravasio has launched Archiposters, a series of minimalist architecture posters, on Kickstarter.

Drawn from his own point of view and style, Ravasio has utilized graphic design to represent architecture from 1931 through 2013, featuring buildings like I.M. Pei's Louvre Pyramid and Zaha Hadid's Riverside Museum.

The Archiposters project is not only comprised of A2 sized posters, but also includes A5 sized postcards. 12 buildings are featured on the designs:

"A counteraction to what is happening today in China," OPEN Architecture's Garden School in Beijing seeks to reconnect its students with nature. Located in a new town that, as founding partner Li Hu says, was built "too fast," the school serves as one of the few spaces students can interact with nature. The school is designed like a garden, from its sloping "floor zero" to rooftop gardens, offering unconventional spaces for teaching and inviting public areas that encourage social interaction.

“What is problematic is that these new towns are designed too fast, without much thinking about how the spaces are going to be used, and what kind of space they are going to create. I think it is a problem for human psychology. Living in a new town with not enough good green space, good social space, we’ll become very problematic urban animals,” Hu told Spirit of Space.

Read on for a conversation with the architects. 

The Noguchi Museum has selected Tadao Ando, alongside artist Elyn Zimmerman, as recipient of the third annual Isamu Noguchi Award, "given to recognize individuals who share Noguchi’s spirit of innovation, global consciousness, and East-West exchange." Complimenting Ando's "minimalist approach, sensitivity to light, and incorporation of natural elements," the judges believe the self-taught Japanese architect's "unparalleled work with concrete" embodies many of the principles embraced by Noguchi.

"Like Noguchi’s sculpture, which gave equal importance to the object and the space it inhabited, Ando’s work harmoniously integrates edifice and environment, while interior and exterior are intimately connected through his incorporation of water, light, wind, sky, and landscape into his building designs," the museum described in a press release.

Alongside the release of this year's Gold Medal and firm award winners, the American Institute of Architects has named recipients of three other national awards: Edward C. Kemper Award, Topaz Medallion, and Whitney M. Young Jr. Award.

Honored for being a "tireless advocate for social justice and diversity within architecture," R. Steven Lewis, AIA, has been selected to receive the 2016 Whitney M. Young Jr. Award. "Steve enlightened a generation of architects on the importance of knowing the history of those who came before them. He built bridges that they crossed," Purnell wrote in support of Lewis's nomination for the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award. "He has mentored minority architects through his brilliant leadership by example.”

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) announced the President’s Medals Student Awards at a special event yesterday in London. The awards, recognised as the world’s most prestigious in architectural education, were inaugurated in 1836 (making them, including the RIBA Gold Medal, the institute's oldest award). Three medals in particular – the Bronze for a Part I student (Bachelor level), the Silver for a Part II student (Master level), and the Dissertation Medal – are awarded to “promote excellence in the study of architecture [and] to reward talent and to encourage architectural debate worldwide.” In addition to these, the winners of the Serjeant Award for Excellence in Drawing and the inaugural RIBA Research Medal alongside a rostra of commendations have also been announced.

See the winning projects and a full list of commendations after the break.

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FR-EE / Fernando Romero Enterprise, a global architecture and design firm founded by Fernando Romero that is known for its radically diverse portfolio, is currently working on designs for Mexico City's new international airport. Watch the video above, filmed by German photographer Yannick Wegner and his colleague Julián Cáceres Aravena, for an introduction on the massive project and insight on the firm's overall design approach.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has named Skene Catling De La Pena's Flint House the winner of its annual "House of the Year" award. A "marvel of geological evolution and construction," the home was formed within the "flint-layered fields" of Rothschild’s estate at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire. As the judges say, the home's clever use of a locally prevalent materials and intelligent layering of space "delivers a stunning piece of livable, provoking, modern architecture that marries into the earthly yet beautiful countryside."

The Nordic Pavilion, representing Finland, Norway and Sweden, has selected David Basulto as curator for their exhibition at the 2016 Venice Biennale. Responding to Biennale director Alejandro Aravena's theme for the 2016 event, Reporting from the Front, the exhibition organized by Basulto and the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design (ArkDes) will use Nordic architecture, urbanism and landscape architecture as "a springboard" to understand the future challenges which architecture and the built environment will face. The announcement is accompanied by an open call for completed projects that address these challenges. Selected projects will be displayed in the Sverre Fehn-designed pavilion at the Venice Biennale from May 28th to November 27th 2016.

LMN Architects, a 145-employee firm based in Seattle, has been chosen as the recipient of the 2016 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Architecture Firm Award.

“LMN Architects exemplify the best in architecture firm culture,” said 2015 AIA President Elizabeth Chu Richter, FAIA. “Not only is their work proof of this, but the amazing talent they are cultivating will have a reverberating impact on the profession for years to come.”

The six concept designs for the Tintagel Castle footbridge, the practices behind which were announced earlier this year, have now been revealed. With a shortlist featuring design consortiums led, among others, by WilkinsonEyre and Niall McLaughlin Architects, the proposals all respond to English Heritage's ambition for "a bridge that is of its place, [...] that, with its structural elegance and beauty, is in harmony with its extraordinary setting and landscape."

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