2013

Young Architects Competitions (YAC) recently launched their latest challenge, 'Smart Harbor', which calls all architects, students, and designers 35 years and younger to create an urban transformation of dismissed shipyards. Deep and controversial economical transformations have been hitting Europe. On one side they show a highly destructive potential; on the other side they are the key to undiscovered scenarios once unimaginable. Beneath the remains of ancient systems often lays the opportunity to write new cultures. YAC aims to promote a field of research focusing on such contemporary living axioms: in synthesis it shall be smart. Modern technologies can provide users quick information and discretional points of view like never before. The deadline for submissions is June 24. To register, and for more information, please visit here.

Designed by STRATO, the project proposal for the Collider Activity Center has two primary objectives: visual identity and vitality. Conceived as a sort of natural formation, the entire building is emphasized by the folding panels of the walls, the placement of the volumes and the power that this arrangement represents. Since it is placed in a context of ongoing evolution, their version of the activity center aims to be the driving force of the transformation of the whole district of Sofia, Bulgaria by becoming a symbol for the entire city. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The renowned Montpellier architecture firm A+ Architecture has been entrusted with the project of building a new site at the domaine d’O, the Jean-Claude Carrière theatre. A unique and environmentally friendly project, the project is based on a global environmental approach aiming for general energy efficiency and for environmental quality standards. Other than the slab that supports it, the entire structure could be dismantled and rebuilt on a different site. The unique design is enhanced by a light wooden lozenge structure recovering the entire building. More images and architects' description after the break.

Chosen as one of the five finalists in MOMA’s Young Architectural Program (YAP), Yalin Architectural Design’s proposal ‘IM-Debris’ focuses on how Istanbul and all the other cities in the world have to come up with local solutions to their own problems in global standards. The main purpose of this design is to be within the rubble which we are usually used to observe from a distance, to form a place with every possible material that is left from a construction and to have the visitors re-discover where it came from, in a place designed by it in the first place. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Providing services to 80 residents with developmental intellectual disabilities, the Day Care Village proposal by PRAUD sits on a site on the north-west side of Beer Sheba. The city provides facilities and community services to 700 people with developmental intellectual disabilities of various levels, and the project is part of their aim to support and assist those in need. Hence, the project must not only address the demand of day care center but also suggest a typology for day care center so that it can influence future development of service facilities in Beer Sheba. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Open to all architects, designers, urban planners, and landscape architects from any of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Arhitext design Foundation, editor of Arhitext magazine, recently launched an open call for projects to be presented at the Trans(ap)parencies Thematic Exhibition, at the 2013 East Centric Architecture in Bucharest, Romania. Inheriting a common history, the architecture of this region defines its identity today by making renewed use of local resources and by taking a critical stance with respect to international mainstream trends. For this reason they feel the need for a thematic exhibition. The deadline for submissions is April 11. For more information, please visit here.