With the main objective of creating a model for the architectural design of daily child care facilities in Turkey, the 'Child-Play-Learning-Space-Environment' concept by ddrlp consists of creative components for a building while being formed by multiple relations. Ranging from 75 to 150 children between ages of 0 and 6, the main form generators of their design included social interaction spaces: individually, by group, for crowded uses, the relationship with sun, sky and seasonal-natural cycle, and the sensual interaction with light, colour, texture, material, shape and structural components. More images and architects' description after the break.

The ‘Great Sky Visitor Center’ is a shimmering mirrored disc floating above the flat horizon of the Great Fen atop a shallow cone of fenland planting - a dramatic profile and marker in the landscape, but also one camouflaged when seen from the air. Designed by Nicholas Hare Architects, the silvered surface, that seen from within, dematerializes its edge against a reflected sky, intends to patinate and change over time in sympathy with the landscape it reflects. More images and architects' description after the break. Their design is a spherical surface reflecting 360 degree views of the continually evolving Fen landscape. In place of selective framed views, all views would be accepted into the heart of the Center from this ever changing landscape. A shallow landscaped cone provides added drama on approach to the upper viewing level: a device that allows the circular structure to act as a compass, allowing orientation and a literal and metaphorical sinking into the landscape from any chosen point of departure.

'MonsterScape', an exhibition display design for Monster Exhibition 2013 organized by Recover & Rebuild Japanese art & design, was a concept created by Hannat Architects to exhibit monsters as a metaphor of disaster and to prevent people’s consciousness of disaster from diminishing. On display this past February, the organizer of the event wanted this exhibition to be something not to tell the misery of disaster but to recall “important things" that tend to be forgotten in everyday life, and visitors to enjoy art and design. More images and architects' description after the break.

Scott Tallon Walker Architects just won the competition to design the new £35 million 5G Research Centre for the University of Surrey which will be the world’s first center for research into the next stage of mobile technology at the University. Their concept for the new building creates a flexible space with a circular atrium that acts as a central lung and focus, to ensure maximum interaction amongst researchers. The building will house the UK’s largest academic research center for mobile communications with 130 researchers and around 90 PhD students. The project has been given an urgent status and it is being undertaken immediately/ The project is expected to be completed well before the end of next year. More images and architects' description after the break.

Titled, 'The Fenland Beacon', this proposal for the Great Fen Visitor Center is rooted in the landscape; responding to the inherent qualities of the Great Fen. Designed by Nicholas Hare Architects, the expansive sweep of the timber façade that ventures out and dissolve into the landscape is punctuated by the tower dramatically rising above the Fenland horizon, anchoring the visitor centre within the wider context; an orientating beacon within the expanse of the Great Fen. More images and architects' description after the break. Visitors are invited to embark upon a journey, aiming to elevate their understanding and deepen their relationship with the Great Fen. The linear sequence of experiences through the site, pavilion and tower distil the beauty of the environment into their elements whilst silencing the others, allowing the appreciation of each individual aspect that makes up the whole. Culminating in the ascent of the tower, the visitor is rewarded with a unique 360-degree panorama of the Great Fen.

Designed by Tarh O Amayesh, their proposal for the Central Mosque of Pristina, the fundamental principal of the project comes from the definition of Mosque, which is a place for praying and going from body to soul. The prayer is someone who connects the earth to the sky, while the mosque is a space for the becoming. Becoming is a symbol of movement and movement is the source of the mosque (the house of god). This plan is shaped in this framework as the mosque is a symbol of ascending sprit from soil to the sky, from city to the Kiblah. More images and architects' description after the break.

Housing Corporation VANKE recently asked NL Architects to make a proposal for a Super Market as part of a big resort in Sanya, the southernmost city in China. Renowned for its tropical climate and for being a popular tourist destination, the site of the resort will consist of three clusters of large residential slabs of 21 stories high enveloping semi enclosed gardens. The public space plays a crucial role in the atmosphere of the area as a whole so a lot of consideration is going into creating a pleasant environment. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Mandaworks and Hosper Sweden were just awarded this past week with the third prize in the open international architectural competition in Mikkeli, Finland. From 107 proposals submitted last October, Mandaworks and Hosper Sweden were one of five teams selected to continue work in the second stage. Mikkeli is a medium-sized municipality with 80,000 inhabitants, most of whom live in the urban area Mikkeli. Their challenge was to find a model for how Mikkeli can densify around and best utilize the lakefront in an ecologically sensitive & holistically sustainable way. More images and architects' description after the break.

With the challenge of defining a new residential typology on the outskirt of a historic Prague zone that combines a pathway to cross the river and residential units over the Vltava River, Rasha Kiani and Mahdi Kamboozia proposed a new extension to Prague's urban space. Their concept, which won an honorable mention, makes a lively and vibrant community that joins both sides of the Vltava River by means of social activities in a dynamic space. More images and architects' description after the break.

Designed by Appareil, their proposal for Naves, a temporary pavilion for the city of Mons, Capital of Culture in 2015, addresses a contextual relationship to the gothic surroundings as an exploration on lightness and transparency. Inspired by this historical context, this project explores structural and material logics to revisit the gothic arch; the ‘curve’ is examined as a bending element caught within a woven collaborative structure of glass fiber tubes, in which the use of compression is exchanged by the one of tension for the building to achieve maximum lightness. More images and architects' description after the break.

The idea behind the proposal for the Central Mosque of Pristina comes from the first religious needs and the study of the earliest styles of mosque architecture in Kosovo. Designed by Maden GROUP, the concept is to convey tradition through contemporary architecture while combining in the best mode of architecture and religious rules. Therefore, the architects developed in geometric foundations, by combining simple geometrical elements. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Located in a strategic point in Heiden, where different urban conditions come together, the Hotel Park and Seeallee Heiden proposal is shaped by the surrounding landscape. The landscape continuity crossing the plot area, the particular building density, and its relevant position from the main entrance to the city are all used to achieve a perfect urban integration. Designed by Kubota & Bachmann Architects + Martinez, this strategy enhances the environmental qualities, while staying within the strict respect of urban regulations. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Set for completion in 2014, Winnipeg’s “Flying Saucer” condominium project 62M, designed by Winnipeg-based studio 5468796 Architecture, will occupy the corner of MacDonald Avenue and Waterfront Drive, close to the Exchange District. Named after its address, 62M will be a two-storey, circular building lifted up on 35-foot stilts. Its circular design is spatially efficient and will provide each unit with a view. As a whole, the 360° plan provides the widest possible perimeter for glass with the smallest amount of exterior envelope to construct. More images and architects' description after the break.

Following OAC’s win in the international design competition and completion of the master plan for the Famen Temple Zen Meditation Center in 2012, the architects recently completed the schematic designs for the buildings, landscape, and experiential features and art installations for meditation in the first phase of the project called the ‘Eightfold Path Forest’. As part of the new cultural master plan development on the site of the renowned 1,800 year-old Famen Buddhist Temple (aka Dharma Gate Temple) outside Xi’an, China, this project is one of the largest architectural and landscape commissions in the world focused around an historic religious temple.More images and architects' description after the break.

Designed by Gil Even-Tsur Architecture Workshop, their concept for the new National Library suggests that the architecture should be critical, strong, but also deferential and contextually responsive. Their intent is to display an almost aesthetic neutrality in terms of its form, assemblies, and materials by providing an architecture that acknowledges this complexity. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Organically revealing itself from the ground, the Crone Partners' winning design for the Orange Regional Museum aims to respectfully integrate a new building and program to the existing cultural precinct. Additionally, the architects intend to create a new identity whilst strengthening current civic conditions within the site. More images and architects’ description after the break.

HOBRO – a city finds its lake, is the 1^st prize winning proposal by Holscher Arkitekter, which aims to tie the historical center of Hobro to the harbor area. The philosophy behind the strategy is that the urban and landscape spaces are created first, then the streets and at last, the buildings. The architects wish to create a robust frame for a long lasting urban development. A strategy that allows the urban plan to exert itself and be experienced as completed in all phases of the development. More images and architects’ description after the break.