2013

The City of Orlando's Mayor, Buddy Dyer, has challenged the community to develop a plan that would transform Orlando, within a generation, into one of the most environmentally-friendly, economically and socially vibrant communities in the nation. In an effort to do so, the city is introducing the Envision 2040 competition, which aims to illustrate what the city will look like in the future. Participants are being called to visualize what Orlando, the most sustainable city in the southeast, will look like in 2040. If all the goals and objectives of the plan were implemented today, what would our city look like in the future? The deadline for registration is March 18 and the deadline for submissions is April 15. For more information, please visit here.

Taking place this Thursday, March 14th at the Sapienza, Università di Roma's School of Architecture, OBRA Architects' Pablo Castro and William O'Brien will be delivering the lecture where these two Rome Prize Fellows at the American Academy in Rome will discuss their research with Francesco Garofalo and Antonino Saggio. Pablo Castro's design direction at OBRA Architects has produced a body of award-winning projects: four AIANY Design Awards, 2008 ID Annual Design Review Award, and two 2004 Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Awards. He is a 2006 NYFA Fellow in Architecture/Environmental Structures and a 2003 Society of Architectural Historians de Montëquin Senior Fellow.The lecture begins at 6:00pm. For more information, please visit here.

Organized by Building Green Magazine, the MEA2013 Awards competition aims at highlighting projects that follow the principles of sustainability in architecture during the last five years in the Mediterranean zone, mainly through environmentally responsive passive design solutions. The goal is to enhance the exchange of ideas on environmentally conscious design, and enrich the ecological sustainability approach. MEA2013 covers all buildings that have been completed in the Mediterranean zone in the following categories: Civic, Urban, Residential, Healthcare, Cultural, Leisure, and Commercial Design Projects. The deadline for submissions is April 5. To apply, and for more information, please visit here.

The American Institute of Architects UK Chapter recently announced its call for entries in their annual Excellence in Design Awards. Entries are sought from architects based in Britain, and from architects throughout the world for built projects in the UK. Students of architecture who are currently enrolled in UK Universities are also strongly encouraged to apply. The winners of this year’s Excellence in Design Awards will be announced at the Excellence in Design Awards Gala Tuesday, April 23. The deadline for submissions is March 22 at 5:00pm. For more information, please visit here.

Organized by Note Gallery in Lisbon, a platform for dissemination, discussion and debate in architecture in partnership with the Camara Municipal de Lisboa, the conference of architects Maria Manuel Oliveira and João Mendes Ribeiro is part of the exhibition "VIII Bienal Iberoamericana de Arquitectura e Urbanismo". Taking place this Thursday, March 14th, at 9:00pm, architect Maria Manuel Oliveira awarded with the project of Renovação urbana em Guimarães, and architect João Mendes Ribeiro will be awarded the project Reabilitação da Casa do Arco. For more information, please visit here.

Between March 15^th and March 27^th 2013 the Central House of Architects will host the Nordic Wood festival of wooden architecture in Moscow where the most interesting examples of wooden architecture in Scandinavia, the Baltic states and Russia will be on display. The festival is being produced by the nationwide ARCHIWOOD project. The main event of the festival is the photographic exhibition. Works by recent winners and runners-up of prizes for wooden architecture from Norway, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Russia will be on show, along with other works by architects building in wood from these countries. More images and information on the event after the break.

Curated by Bart Goldhoorn, publisher of Project Russia magazine, the Belgorod City Centre International Competition is asking participants to design a large urban block (around 300 x 200 m) in the heart of the city in order to replace the low rise buildings that now occupy the site with a more dense development. Though the construction of high towers is very popular in Russia with developers, the city would like to limit the maximum building height limited to 15-20 meters. The main task is to find the optimum between density and quality and offer the city a recipe for redeveloping the city center as a whole, making it at an attractive place to live and work. The deadline for submissions is May 10. To register, and for more information, please visit here.

Focusing on water and sustainability, the Roca London Gallery will be hosting for the We Are Water Foundation. Their program, which going on now until March 23^rd, includes the exhibition 'Water for Thought: Life-Changing Design' and exciting events during the month including Water as a Source of Inspiration, with Zaha Hadid Architects, on Thursday, March 14^th and World Water Day, which will help Roca raise £2,500, on Friday, March 22^nd. The exhibition aims to generate awareness of global water problems through a mixture of design, technology and video. Demonstrating how people can use their creativity to create awareness and provide solutions to water-related problems, some of the World’s most innovative product designs for accessing, transporting or purifying water in developing countries will be on show. For more information, please visit here.

Expanding on the capabilities of the parametric tool, Grasshopper, Kangaroo provides creative professionals with the ability to integrate physics-based simulation techniques into their workflow. In applications ranging from architectural to product design, Mode Lab's 2-day intensive workshop taking place March 9-10 from 10:00am-6:00pm will cover advanced techniques for modeling adaptable components using dynamic constraints and forces in a performance-oriented environment. In a fast-paced and hands-on learning environment, you will learn techniques for using Parametric Design, Physics-Based Simulation, and Component Detailing for Digital Fabrication. To register, and for more information, please visit here.

Videos

Currently on display at the Portland Museum of Art until May 19, 'Voices of Design: 25 Years of Architalx' showcases the power of design through an interactive exhibition featuring work of some of the world's leading architects and designers. The display, designed by architects Tim Ventimiglia and Jennifer Whitburn of Ralph Appelbaum Associates, includes a 17-foot-tall tower with three levels of images that alternately reveal themselves and disappear. A dynamic image projection will light up two sides of the tower by using projectors embedded in the interior of the tower and will feature infrared light sensors, creating touch interactivity for visitors. More images and information on the exhibition after the break.

Coming up this Friday, March 8th, from 2:00pm-4:30pm EST, Mode Lab will be hosting the Organic Modeling: Precision Sculpting with TSplines for Rhino webinar offering guided curriculum and continuous support with the goal of providing you with an in-depth and personal learning experience. The principles and rationale behind T-Splines will be covered, providing students with the resources to model shapes of any complexity as a single smooth, water-tight surface. Additionally, this intensive course will introduce techniques for working with polygonal and box modeling, direct surface editing, and local definition tools interchangeably. To register, and for more information, please visit here.

Who should design public spaces? Should they even be designed at all? Can public space make a meaningful contribution to solving the world’s environmental problems? How should the success of a public space be measured?