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It's difficult to imagine an uncharted world. Today, GPS and satellite maps guide us around cities both familiar and new, while scanning and mapping techniques are gradually drawing the last air of mystery away our planet's remaining unexplored territories. At one time, however, cartography was based on little more than anecdotal evidence and a series of educated guesses. But map-making in the 16th and 17th Centuries was an art nonetheless, even if these examples testify to the fact that just because you're missing important facts, total fabrication may not be the best way forward.

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Green Lines Institute and the Corpo Nacional de Escutas (CNE), the major Scouts association in Portugal launched an International Competition open to Architecture students from all over the world.

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Steven Holl Architects' new Visual Arts Building at the University of Iowa, completed last fall, has already begun to make its impact on the school's social environment, pairing Art Building West (also designed by SHA, in 2006) to create a revitalized Arts Quad with public spaces the whole campus can enjoy.

These two videos give an in-depth look at the new building. In the video above, Steven Holl and Senior Partner Chris McVoy tour the school while providing commentary about their design process, as well as the history of the site and the building's construction. Also check out the video below to see all the spaces in action.

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Atelier Peter Zumthor has revealed conceptual designs for their CHF 100 million ($100 million USD) addition of the Beyeler Foundation in Riehen, Switzerland, just outside of the city of Basel. Located on land formerly off-limits to the public, the extension will add an array of new event and gallery spaces to the existing museum, designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop and opened in 1997.

Drawing from the “village-like character” of Riehen, the addition will consist of three, relatively small new buildings that blend harmoniously into the museum’s nature-filled setting: a stoic building for administration and service, a glass pavilion for events, and a grand House for Art. Together, their arrangement will help to create a subtle link between the new and old areas of the site.

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MYS Architects has been selected to design a new mixed-use high-rise in the northern business district of Tel Aviv, an area home to the city’s urban skyscraper belt. Called the “Egged Tower,” the project consists of a 65-story tower rising from a commercial podium, constituting one of the largest current construction projects in the city.

The tower will be clad in a unique panelized facade system that employs techniques developed in the “Function of Ornament” research course led by Farshid Moussavi at the Harvard GSD.

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The interplay of tantalizing eroticism continues within Christian Grey’s luxury tower in the recently-released film sequel, Fifty Shades Darker. In the first film, Grey’s plush apartment played an integral role in undressing the personas of Anastasia Steele, who liberates herself from her chaste existence, and Christian, who exposes the seething and fiery carnal desires and fetishism behind his glorified masculine beauty, charm, and appearance.

Grey's penthouse, which resonates with his unyielding and intimidating Heathcliff undertones in the first part of the trilogy, turns over a new leaf in the sequel. There is ambient warmth in the penthouse; nevertheless, the high level of sophistication prevails in his penchant for singular tastes and fastidiously-selected objects and it remains unapologetically lush.

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Architectural landmarks can define a city. A mention of Paris conjures images of the Eiffel Tower, whilst no description of Sydney is complete without mentioning its inspiring Opera House. How disorientating it must be, therefore, to encounter a familiar architectural wonder far removed from the city, or country to which it belongs. As it happens, many of our most famous structures have their own "twins," heavily-inspired by their originals, that you may not have been aware of.

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