This week, with the help of our readers, our Architecture City Guide is headed to Amsterdam. With its numerous canals, Renaissance architecture, and bike friendly culture, it is hard not to fall in love with Amsterdam. Also, if you love modern or contemporary architecture one could hardly argue against making this city the first stop on a tour of Europe. Our list of 24 buildings hardly does justice to this amazing city, but it will certainly give those less familiar with the city a starting point. We will be adding to our list in the near future, as we didn’t come close to incorporating all our readers’ suggestions. In the meantime add more of your favorites to the comment section below.

The Architecture City Guide: Amsterdam list and corresponding map after the break.

Recently, we featured Erick van Egeraat’s Chess-club Building in the Khanti-Mansiysk autonomous region, which officially opened on Dec. 7th. Now, we are highlighting Egeraat’s Vershina Trade & Entertainment Centre which officially opened on the same day. The 37.000 sq. meter, state-of-the-art trade and entertainment centre in Surgut, Russia offers space for retail, extreme sports, dance, restaurants, bars and an underground night club. The eight-story venue provides round-the-clock activities for visitors of all ages. The dialectic play of light and dark, night and day form the basis for the concept. More images and architect’s description after the break.

On the 7th of December, Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat officially opened his Chess-club Building in the Khanti-Mansiysk autonomous region. The new 5.000 sq. meter building in Khanty-Mansiysk already hosted the 2010 Chess Olympics in September. Now in December it will officially open for the inhabitants. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Today, FIFA announced their selection of nations for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup™ host at the Zurich Exhibition where it was decided that in 2018, Russia will be hosting the FIFA World Cup™. Designed by Erick van Egeraat and Russian partner Mikhail Posokhin, architects of Moscow’s new VTB Arena are thrilled to hear of this decision. “What wonderful news! What a start for this new Russian masterpiece to be the center of the 2018 FIFA World Cup™!” says architect-director Erick van Egeraat when presented with this latest news. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Erick van Egeraat’s 330,000 m2 proposal for the Dynamo Stadium in Moscow recently placed ahead of four international competitors.  Situated on a 116,000-m2 plot in Petrovsky Park, the competition site has been chosen by the Administration of the Stadium and VTB Bank to be developed in order to meet contemporary international requirements to support Russia’s bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup.  Erick van Egeraat’s proposed “multifunctional urban regenerator” will feature a 45,000-seat Stadium Arena, a 10,000-seat Arena Hall, a Retail and Entertainment complex, restaurants, parking and other facilities.  With these various programmatic activities, the proposed design aims to provide a self sustaining model that will be activated continually throughout the day.

More about the awarded project and more images after the break.

Erick van Egeraat‘s extension of InHolland University in Rotterdam adds more than 15,000 square feet to the growing education center.   van Egeraat designed the original building in 2001 and now has added a volumetric addition which includes study areas, classrooms, offices and space for commercial functions.

More about the extension after the break.

Mark Magazine is by far one of my favourite architecture magazines. Their motto “Another architecture” tells us what we´ll find inside: fresh architecture – the main reason we love this magazine so much.

This bimonthly magazine is structured in 5 sections: Noticeboard (a collage of new projects), Cross Section (short articles on new buildings and architectural subjects), Viewpoint (interviews with architects on the rise), Long Section (in depth articles on buildings) and Service Area (new building materials).

On the August/September issue (October one on the mail, more about that soon) we find an amazing house by spanish studio Ensamble, shown on a collage with embossed textures, something that has become a signature on Mark Magazine covers.

Erick van Egeraat has won the international competition for the design of a new incineration line in Roskilde, Denmark for Kara/Noveren, a local waste management company. Due to its large scale, the incinerator is destined to become an outstanding structure in the wide and open landscape of the Roskilde area. After its completion in 2013, the facility will produce both electricity and heating for the Roskilde district.