The ARC competition invites international teams of design professionals to address new design challenges in the coalescent issues of road transportation safety, structural engineering, wildlife conservation and landscape ecology.

Specifically, ARC seeks innovation in feasible, buildable, context-sensitive and compelling design solutions for safe, efficient, cost-effective, and ecologically responsive highway crossings for wildlife. In the broadest context, ARC will challenge competitors to reweave landscapes for wildlife using new methods, new materials, and new thinking. In doing so, the ARC competition aims to raise international awareness of a need to better reconcile human and wildlife mobility through a more creative, flexible and innovative system of road and habitat networks in our landscapes.

Register by: 07-30-2010 / Submit by: 07-30-2010

The OISTAT Theatre Architecture Competition (TAC) is an international ideas competition, aimed at students and emerging practitioners, which is organised every four years by the Architecture Commission of OISTAT (International Organisation of Scenographers, Technicians and Theatre Architects).

Most spaces for the performing arts (drama, music theatre, dance, concerts and other forms) are housed in specialized buildings, built for the purpose.

While there will always be a need for these buildings, there is increasing interest amongst theatre practitioners in the use of existing buildings and settings, which are not purpose built theatres, to present productions. These settings, sometimes known as 'found space', can often provide a unique atmosphere, which resonates with a particular production or style of presentation, in a way that may not be possible in a conventional theatre. While these spaces may lack the technical infrastructure and facilities of a theatre, they can make up for this through the atmosphere provided by the special character of the place, its interaction with the performance and the opportunity to explore less conventional forms of presentation. Many new theatres are also created by converting existing buildings, where the character of the original building contributes significantly to the special atmosphere, and provides a sense of continuity with the past.

These are the basic themes to be explored in this competition.

Register by: 03-11-2011 / Submit by: 03-11-2011

Britain's Energy Coast Cumbria and Magnus Homes invite submissions to a two-stage, International Open Design Competition for a circa GBP ?10m mixed-use development on a prominent site overlooking Whitehaven Harbour.

Britain's Energy Coast West Cumbria has been working in partnership with Magnus Homes to support the development of this key development site on Whitehaven Harbour as this project directly contributes to two of Britain's Energy Coast West Cumbria top priority outcomes: improved quality of business accommodation and to improve the quality and diversity of housing.

The 2,600m2 [0.26Ha] site occupies a fantastic setting adjacent to Whitehaven Harbour and represents one of the most impressive current development opportunities in Cumbria. Over the past decade, the former working port has been transformed into a thriving marina for leisure craft, with significant investment in associated public realm improvements. The redevelopment of the site presents an opportunity to continue this regeneration via the contribution of an active harbour frontage, with improved visual and pedestrian links to the town centre.

The scheme should reinforce the distinctiveness of Whitehaven, and seek to complement, via the use of high quality architectural approaches, the local vernacular rather than necessarily offering a pastiche of it. The scheme should respond to the context of the harbour-side setting and its marina, but should be mindful of its position between the harbour and the Town Centre, to achieve a sustainable development of long-lasting architectural quality.

Whilst allowing Whitehaven to become known as an exemplar of creative, high quality contextual design, the scheme will have to present a commercially viable proposition.

The design competition is open, but not limited to: architects, designers, artists, product designers, and related disciplines. The Architecture Foundation encourages design teams to suggest flexible and innovative yet realisable designs for this permanent structure.

Register by: 09-13-2010 / Submit by: 09-17-2010

The Architecture Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of an open international competition to design a permanent yet flexible, free standing group of kiosks in Meridian Square, Stratford, London, for use before, during and after the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Situated at the front of Stratford Regional Station and hosting a variety of uses, the kiosks will serve as key venues for information, orientation and services within the rapidly changing town centre.

Since 2009 the local authority, the London Borough of Newham (LBN) has embarked on an ambitious programme of public realm works throughout the centre of Stratford with the aim of improving the quality of the town centre for those that live, work, and shop in the area, whilst also preparing to welcome the millions of visitors who will come to the area during 2012. Studio Egret West, working for LBN, has developed a master plan for the area with new public realm designs, consolidated traffic, de-cluttered spaces and major new landmark structures. Design for London has been closely involved in this project as part of the London Development Agency's Olympic Fringe public realm programme.

The design competition is open, but not limited to: architects, designers, artists, product designers, and related disciplines. The Architecture Foundation encourages design teams to suggest flexible and innovative yet realisable designs for this permanent structure.

Register by: 09-01-2010 / Submit by: 09-03-2010

eVolo Magazine is pleased to invite students, architects, engineers, and designers from around the globe to take part in the 2011 Skyscraper Competition.

The annual eVolo Skyscraper Competition is a forum for the discussion, development, and promotion of innovative concepts for vertical density. It examines the relationship between the skyscraper and the natural world, the skyscraper and the community, and the skyscraper and the city.

The exponential increase of the world’s population and its unprecedented shift from rural to urban areas has prompted hundreds of new developments without adequate urban planning and poor architectural design. The aim of this competition is to redefine what we understand as a skyscraper and initiate a new architectural discourse of economic, environmental, intellectual, and perceptual responsibility that could ultimately modify our cities and improve our way of life.

The use of new materials, technologies, aesthetics, and novel spatial organizations, along with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution are some of the multi-layered elements that the participants should take into consideration. This is also an investigation on the public and private space and the role of the individual and the collective in the creation of a dynamic and adaptive vertical community.

There are no restrictions in regards to site, program or size. The objective is to provide maximum freedom to the participants to engage the project without constraints in the most creative way. What is a skyscraper in the 21st century? What are the historical, contextual, social, urban, and environmental responsibilities of these mega-structures?

Register by: 01-11-2011 / Submit by: 01-18-2011

The contest, "Brussels Courthouse, Imagine the Future!" aims at developing a view of the future of the Courthouse in the form of one or more ideas, including the broad lines of an architectural and urban planning project for the Courthouse and the surroundings of Place Poelaert. This is an open and creative international contest. The concepts submitted shall treat the building as a monument and consider the meaning of this place within a contemporary context.

The organizers wish to keep this line of approach as broad as possible. The purpose of this contest is not to submit a finalized urban planning or architectural project to the Belgian Buildings Agency and the FPS Justice but to imagine the future allocation – whether judicial or not – of the Brussels Courthouse and of the surroundings of Place Poelaert.

It is suggested that the participants work on one or on both of the following scenarios:
1. Either a scenario based on a Courthouse (partially) keeping its judicial functions, e.g. the court of appeal (civil section), the Court of Cassation, the Public Prosecutor’s office of the Court of Cassation, the court of assize and the bars.

2. or a scenario based on a Courthouse totally cleared of its judicial functions and to imagine (objective of the contest):
? What appearance would the Courthouse have after an architectural intervention, which must however not damage the heritage it represents?
? How does the above-mentioned proposal integrate into the surroundings of Place Poelaert, for which other development possibilities may also be submitted?
? What would be the Courthouse’s new functions?
? How would citizens and Legal professionals perceive this building once it is modernized?
? What would be the new urban juncture of this building between the upper and lower part of the City of Brussels?

Register by: 10-15-2010 / Submit by: 11-16-2010

The Architectural League is seeking individuals or teams of artists and designers to create light installation and projection mapping projects for our annual Beaux Arts Ball. The Ball will take place on September 25, 2010, at the American Academy of Arts and Letters at Audubon Terrace in Washington Heights. Last year, the event drew over 1000 architects, designers and artists at The Old American Can Factory in Gowanus. Up to ten proposals will be selected for display for the duration of the event, from roughly 7:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Teams may submit one or more proposals for review.

The site, Audubon Terrace, is a landmark complex of approximately eight early 20th Century Beaux Arts buildings in New York City. Home to the Academy, the Hispanic Society and Boricua College, the various architecturally complementary buildings, which take up most of a city block, are arranged in two parallel rows facing each other across an east/west pedestrian plaza. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Images of the terrace and floor plans of the Academy’s buildings are at the end of this document and can also be found at http://archleague.org/bab2010images.

Three of the Academy's buildings and the terrace will house various projection mapping projects and lighting installations.

Register by: 08-11-2010 / Submit by: 08-11-2010

On 27 June 2010, ten men and women were arrested in the United States, accused of maintaining suburban American lives for years as part of a Russian espionage ring. As anachronistic as the Cold War now seems, so too is the seemingly fictitious technology the spies are said to have used: short-wave radio, invisible ink, briefcase hand-offs, clandestine meetings. And true to the spy stories of decades past, the saga includes one so-called Bond girl and ends with a minutes-long swap of secret agents between the two governments staged in Vienna. Did that really happen?

The Cold War is largely responsible for generating the cultural climate that enabled the development, growth, and eventual sprawl of the suburbs. Once created, these suburbs supply an almost ideal setting for an anonymous, innocuous cover for reconnaissance. The goal of the infiltrating spy is not to be noticed, to be normal. Where better to live a normal life than in a normal suburb?

Participants in July's Spontaneous Architecture competition are invited to consider the historical and present relationship between suburbia and espionage in times of culturally pervasive war. In today's War on Terror, what if anything has changed? Today we have terms like Sleeper Cells, but our popular media have painted pictures of these cells sleeping in American bedroom communities, and many still fear that urban density only creates targets. How do where and how we live affect how we fight and imagine our enemies?

Submissions are single images, formatted in 8.5 inches by 11 inches (landscape), 300 dpi tiffs. Images must be anonymous, containing no identification of their creators. Submissions may (but are not required to) include up to 100 words of text. All submissions are due by 11:59PM on 27 July 2010.

Register by: 07-27-2010 / Submit by: 07-27-2010

72 Hour Urban Action is an international real-time architecture and design festival. It is defined by community needs, an extreme deadline, a tight budget and limited space.

We invite teams of architects, students, designers, artists and craftspeople to respond to community needs and wants in relation to its public spaces.

Selected teams will have three days and three nights to plan and realize their projects in response to missions assigned to them on takeoff day.

Selected projects will remain on site permanently.

The first 72 Hour Urban Action will take place in Bat-Yam, Israel as part of the Bat-Yam Biennale of Landscape Urbanism.

YOU GET
Up to $ 2,500 for materials
Central prefabrication camp
Sleeping accommodations + Food
Angels Team: Construction and Safety Engineers
Truck + Documentation

FUN + FAME + FORTUNE*
*1st prize $ 3,800

YOU NEED Design and work tools (drill, saw, hammer etc.)
Your favorite materials (optional)
A portable computer + CAD software
Friends (individual applicants will be invited to join a team)

Register by: 08-08-2010 / Submit by: 09-25-2010

As a celebration of our school's 10th anniversary and in commemoration of the 200 years of the independence movement in most Latin American countries, ISTHMUS (Escuela de Arquitectura y Dise?o de Am?rica Latina y el Caribe), is sponsoring a competition to submit, through creative far-fetched proposals, new images for the Panama Canal.

This construction is one of the modern wonders of the world and one of the most important symbols of our continent. The crossing between the oceans is an exceptional and unforgettable experience.

How can it be enhanced? What can be done to make it even more memorable?

The competition is open to all and has no inscription fees. Up to three proposals of the intervened image of one of the Canal Locks (Miraflores) can be submitted. The image should be accompanied by a short explanatory text.

There are no cash prizes, but an effort is being done to include all the submissions in a final publication, and to obtain funding for awards which will be announced as available.

Register by: 10-01-2010 / Submit by: 10-01-2010

An abundant range of potentialities for visualizing information has emerged. Data is increasingly being used to generate complexity in the design of graphics, packaging, objects, exhibition spaces, interiors, and architecture. Across the allied disciplines, shaping an experience by marrying visual metaphor to information has taken on deeper meaning in our globally connected world. Inducing complexity to frame a particular point of view that connects, addresses, inspires, or confounds can offer new portals into a project. By seeking such complexity, designers engage critical opportunities to define, frame, and focus seen and unseen forces operating across time, space, and context. Thus, an ability to simultaneously convey simplicity through greater complexity offers new territory for both author and audience. Today, research and diagramming are being applied in unconventional ways. Aesthetically and procedurally elaborate, such methods – on occasion approaching art, offer sophisticated and stimulating tools that provide clarity through visual richness. post fact:visualizing information seeks work in graphic design, industrial design, exhibition design, interior design, and architecture that showcases various research-based methodologies employing data-driven design and information visualization. The exhibition seeks trans-disciplinary work that illustrates the potential for complexity, simplification, and readability by employing techniques and forms of expression that expand the role of information in conceiving contemporary design.

Curators:
Diego Padilla Diaz de Leon
Professor, Department of Art and Design
DAAD, Universidad de Monterrey

Gregory Marinic
Professor, Department of Architecture
DAAD, Universidad de Monterrey

Please send the following:
CV and up to 10 JPEG images to:
postfact@d3space.org

Deadlines:
Call for Submissions Deadline: September 15, 2010
Accepted Submissions Annouced: October 1, 2010
Accepted Submissions Deadline: October 15, 2010
Exhibition Opens/Monterrey, Mexico: TBD Nov/Dec, 2010

Register by: 09-15-2010 / Submit by: 10-15-2010

Morro Santa Teresa, an area of 87 hectares, is knitted into the urban fabric of the city. At present, the area contains media installations, a social reintegration institution for young people, a home for elderly poor and a football sports center. It is an urban area subject to constant social tension due to these buildings, facilities and upper class residences being closely located to low income neighbourhoods. The proximity to Gua?ba Lake provides the site a physical and visual landmark, which makes it one of the most significant areas of the city of Porto Alegre. The view of the historic center of the city along with the rich landscape that opens up from the highest point of the area makes Morro Santa Teresa a strategic spot for formulating innovative proposals that take into consideration urban scales at the street, neighbourhood and city levels.

It is expected that the projects submitted for the International Student Competition will propose answers to the complex reality described above, especially in relation to:
? Interconnection of the territory with the surroundings and between parts within the territory itself - the road structure, morphology of adjacent centers, relationship with vegetation areas, view of the city and Gua?ba Lake, etc.;
? Informal occupation within the area (slums);
? Preservation and enhancement of the vegetation;
? Preservation and enhancement of the area's architectural elements of historic and cultural value.

Participants are free in what way they wish to present their ideas/designs/plans, there are however some guidelines:

The work should be submitted in PDF format to the following e-mail congresso2010.ifhp@pucrs.br together with the following supplementary documents:
? Registration Form and Assignment of Copyright Agreement, completed and signed by each author;
? Proof of the authors’ student status;
? Copy of proof of registration/payment to the 54th IFHP World Congress 2010 from one member of the team.

Please send the supplementary documents by digital means at the same time the work is submitted. The Organizing Committee of the 54th IFHP World Congress 2010 will send each team participating in the competition an e-mail confirming receipt of the project and supplementary documents.

Register by: 08-30-2010 / Submit by: 10-01-2010

Mashtab Development Company is announcing a masterplan design competition for a new residential development located near Moscow.

The development will create a comfortable urban environment with over 1 million sq m of housing, services and open spaces on a 127 ha site.

The development is a part of the ?Project A101? - a new town of around 150.000 people and 13 million sq m of housing located south of Moscow.

The competition will consists of two stages: the first stage is an open selection procedure for architects and urban designers based on portfolios, the second one a closed competition among four selected participants with a total fee of 400.000 USD.

The competition aims at preparing a masterplan for a new residential development with 1,1 million sqm of housing plus services (schools, retail) on a 127 ha site near Moscow. The competition concerns both the urban infrastructure (streets, squares, parks) and the housing blocks proper.

Designs should take into account that this concerns a low budget housing area that should be built is a short time span.

The design should be in accordance with Russian norms and standards concerning architecture and urban planning. The four selected participants will be informed on the specificities of Russian rules and legislation in comparison with West European practice during a special seminar.

The competition is based on the Block City concept that was developed by Bart Goldhoorn and Aleksander Sverdlov in the context of the International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam in 2009.

Register by: 07-14-2010 / Submit by: 07-14-2010

Professional architects and town planners from around the globe are most welcome to participate in this exciting event.

This competition is also open to students from the school of architecture or town planning. Closing date of the competition is 15 September 2010.

The main objective of this competition is to get creative ideas and a practical solution to redeveloping an existing housing area in Rifle Range, Penang into a vibrant, sustainable and well-planned residential and commercial area.

The State government hopes that through this exercise, the quality of life of Rifle Range community, in particular, will be significantly improved.

This international design ideas competition for 'Urban Renewal For Rifle Range, Penang' is jointly organized by the Penang State Government, Penang Municipal Council, Malaysian Institute of Architects (Northern Chapter) and Malaysian Institute of Planners (Northern Branch).

Register by: 08-15-2010 / Submit by: 09-15-2010

Playa Santa Rosa is a luxury oceanfront land development located on the pacific coast of Nicaragua.

The development has 175 lots. All lots have full infrastructure. Half of the project lots are sold with the majority of lot owners at Playa Santa Rosa being from Europe and the United States.

This upcoming winter the development will start building beach houses on some of the unsold lots and offer them for sale.

The lot sizes that we will be building on are 14m wide facing the ocean and 30 meters deep. The lots are facing west on a small hill overlooking the ocean.

We are looking for concept drawings of beach houses that can be built. One story open concept two bedroom designs between 70-90 square meters in living area. Designed in a contemporary or tropical design.

Concept drawings can be done by free hand or software such as Sketch-up and should be submitted as visual jpg. or pdf. files to this email address. m_siniarski@hotmail.com

The deadline for submissions is July 15th. The owners of the development will decide the winning design with a winner announced before August 15th. The winning design along with all the submissions will be displayed on the internet.

The winner of this competition will receive $2000 cash award and will be invited to Nicaragua to see the realization of their design in the upcoming winter.

There is also a possibility that the winner and other contest applicants will have a possibility for additional design work at project.

Register by: 07-15-2010 / Submit by: 07-15-2010

In 1971, the Cairo Opera House caught fire resulting in its total destruction, followed by many important heritage buildings in Ataba square falling into disrepair, while others were demolished, and the Opera site itself became occupied by a multi-storey garage.

Moreover, an ugly elevated road was constructed cutting through al-Ataba Square's skyline and encroaching on al-Azhar Street in the heart of the Historic Fatimid city and greatly degrading the area.

Azbakiyya Garden -one of the largest gardens in Egypt by the end of the 20th century and lying near by- was first bisected by a road, then parts of it were demolished, trees cut off, and slowly new buildings with new functions came to occupy parts of it such as the National Theater and Marionette Theater to name but a few.

The result today, is an inhomogeneous remnant of what was once the pride and joy of a glorious "Paris of the East."

(NOUH) a subordinate organization of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, is taking the lead and responsibility for the management of Cairo's urban and architectural legacy conservation efforts. Following up on these efforts, NOUH is currently tendering its international competition for the Urban Design and the Historic Conservation of Opera and Ataba Squares, Downtown Cairo.

Register by: 07-10-2010 / Submit by: 10-31-2010

This Is Not A Gateway is seeking submissions for its 3rd annual festival. Proposals are welcome from anybody whose point of reference is 'the city'. Forms can be downloaded from our website; there is no fee to propose a project for the festival.

http://thisisnotagateway.squarespace.com/2010-call-proposal/

The festival is entirely participant lead. Previous festivals have included discussions, soapboxes, workshops, book & project launches, guided walks & tours, exhibitions and film screenings.

http://thisisnotagateway.squarespace.com/2009-festival-programme/

Participants have come from the fields of urban regeneration, economics, government, visual art, psychiatry, archaeology, activism, medicine, journalism, literature, technology, architecture, planning, environmental protection, law, property, theory, housing, film, finance, engineering, human rights & social justice. Furthermore participants have included resident groups, youth-workers and local politicians.

Alongside the general open call, submissions are sought from across the globe that interrogate and contribute to a better understanding (and re-use) of ?Central Business Districts/The Corporation/Downtowns':

http://thisisnotagateway.squarespace.com/2010-statement/

This Is Not A Gateway's role is that of a facilitator. It provides the infrastructure to enable participants to hold their own activities. Support includes securing venues, equipment, publicity, audiences and installation assistance.

In 2009 over 1200 festival-goers took part in 60+ activities, organised by 160 individuals from across Europe. The knowledge generated at the festival is built upon and widely circulated in the annual book Critical Cities: Ideas, Knowledge and Agitation from Emerging Urbanists (Myrdle Court Press, London).

Register by: 07-12-2010 / Submit by: 07-12-2010

Crack the Enigma and win up to GBP 1,000.

To celebrate the opening of the London Festival of Architecture, the Enigma is finally revealed. If you can relate this form to the storyline of the Architect, by Charles Bancroft before anyone else, you could win up to GBP 1,000.

Contestants from all over the world have been reading Bancroft's London set thriller in preparation for the shape's release. They now have the onerous task of being the first to find the link.

Each week, the prize fund will double and a further clue will be released.

NB - COMPETITION ENDS WHEN THE CODE IS CRACKED! For updates, please refer to website.

CLUE ONE:

"As Rob Gilbert attempts to map out his life, his penchant for the finer things in life relentlessly haunt him? "

Timescale
Friday 21st May: Open for registration. Simply purchase a book from any of the sources listed and register your participation online at worldarchitecturenews.com. You will receive an email confirmation with details of how to claim the prize.

Saturday 19th June: The "shape" is revealed at the London Festival of Architecture and on worldarchitecturenews.com. A GBP250 prize is awarded to the first person correctly guessing the link between the shape and the story.

Saturday 26th June: Prize money doubles to GBP500 and the second clue is sent by email and revealed on worldarchitecturenews.com 24 hours later.

Saturday 3rd July: Prize money doubles to GBP1000 and the third clue is sent by email and revealed on worldarchitecturenews.com 24 hours later.

Saturday 10th July: Fourth clue is revealed as before.

Register by: 09-01-2010 / Submit by: 09-01-2010

Masshtab Development Company is announcing a competition for the design of urban blocks for A101 Block City: an area of 127 ha with over 1 million sqm of housing in the A101 project. The A101 project is a new town of around 150.000 people and 13 million sq m of housing located south of Moscow.

The Urban Block competition is a one stage competition open to all architects.

The competition is based on the Block City concept that was developed by Bart Goldhoorn and Aleksander Sverdlov in the context of the International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam in 2009.

The Block City concept aims at combining the advantages of standard design with the qualities embedded in the traditional city with its clearly defined urban spaces. This is done by defining a standard for the plot size of the urban block. When this standard is applied both in the design of urban areas and in the design of housing blocks, it is possible to use identical projects for housing blocks in different places while keeping their urban qualities.

The client is looking for projects for housing blocks with standard dimensions that can be applied in the Masterplan.

A second competition for the Masterplan has been launched on June 24.

The urban Block Competition program will be made public on July 14

Register by: 09-15-2010 / Submit by: 10-11-2010

Preservation Pittsburgh is seeking creative ideas for an adaptive reuse of the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – a structure with conflicting legacies as both a monument to Pittsburgh's engineering prowess and a memorial to past human injustices. Through the power of imagination, we hope to engage the community and demonstrate to the local political leadership that viable alternatives to demolition exist.

Register by: 07-29-2010 / Submit by: 08-13-2010

Hatch Space 2010 presents the fifth annual architecture competition for current architecture students and students who have graduated within the last year. Any project completed while in school or within one year of graduating from Architecture school will be eligible. Participants will compete for a cash prize and to have their design displayed at Hatch Fest 2010 and various media outlets. All projects will be submitted digitally on CD Rom to the HatchSpace coordinator.

The Competition
The Integration of Art and Architecture is an open competition focusing on the celebration and unification of multiple artistic disciplines through architecture. Any project that integrates multiple art disciplines into a single project is eligible.

Jury
Hatch Space Panel participants comprised of local, national and international known architects, professors from Montana State University School of Architecture.

Judging Criteria
1) Innovation of materials and systems
2) Environmentally responsible
3) Community integration
4) Successful integration of multiple art disciplines

Entries are encouraged to utilize "Green" building practices.

The winner of the HatchSpace Competition will receive:
1) A cash prize of $200
2) Personal portfolio review with Architectural headliner
3) Private dinner with the headliner and panel members
4) Be featured on the Hatch website
5) Hatch will provide $500.00 USD towards a plane ticket to fly you to the festival if you are not within driving distance and pay for your hotel while attending the festival
6) All access pass to the entire festival

Register by: 09-06-2010 / Submit by: 09-06-2010

Utopia...a dream of a dream! A word more ethereal than specific or objective. A state of perfect being in totality, which perhaps can not be achieved. Having accepted the fact, can we talk about a more realistic approach to try and achieve as much as possible of this dream and make it realistically possible through architecture?

Is it possible to create a structure which is more ethereal than concrete?....at least in early stages of conception and then slowly it can be transformed to more concrete forms.

How do we, as an individual, perceive this state of perfection knowing that in its ultimate true sense it is unattainable.

Lets take a simple example of day and night.. Physical nature of things-never changes! Physical nature of space-never changes! Yet the addition of light or the lack of it or the intermediary stages create different dimensions in our perception! Can we play with this or similar thought?

Students should first try to understand and define the true nature of a utopian state and then try to translate the same into physical forms and shapes.

So.....
Can we create a structure which at different times of the day, or whatever, APPEARS DIFFERENT?

Register by: 07-31-2010 / Submit by: 08-23-2010

In 2010, to commemorate 25 years of the Robert Auzelle seminar, the discussion topic recalls "the importance of the void in urban art" evoked by Robert Auzelle1, who adds "It seems to me that an empty space, whether it be void, landscaped or grass-covered, constitutes the essential aspect of urban art - city architecture being nothing but the numerous walls that enclose a space". Thus, to improve the framework of our urban life, Robert Auzelle invites us to participate in the quest by Gaston Bachelard when this philosopher tells us: "In fact, we want to examine very simple images, the images of the fortunate space...".

Each country has to deal with the difficulty of creating a framework of life that respects the dignity of human beings. The era of globalisation has seen the disproportionate, disorganised and unrestricted growth of urban sprawl. The fragmentation of territories constitutes an obstacle to the continuity of a soft traffic under pleasant conditions. Whether in large urban cities or in small towns, numerous empty spaces have been forgotten. They may be termed residual, interstitial, abandoned, intermediate, industrial wasteland or waste ground... there is no lack of synonyms and other expressions for them. They often abut defined public spaces, such as streets, places, squares, boulevards, esplanades, pedestrian malls, etc3. Based on all these existing spaces, the operations that are candidates for the National Prize arturbain.fr and the projects submitted to the International Competition arturbain.fr shall highlight the improvements they make to the framework of life. These concern:

- The link of these spaces with the urban fabric to create continuity between them and facilitate their accessibility to pedestrians and soft traffic.

- The programmes for these operations and projects are attentive to citizens' expectations while coordinating with the municipalities.

Under these conditions, the quality of the framework of life will be assessed as a priority with regard to the following criteria and references:

Architectural quality: Insertion into the surroundings and taking the landscape into account. Identity of the place and its heritage

Quality of social life: User-friendliness and accessibility Respect for the environment: Respecting biodiversity (green and blue belt systems), waste management, management of nuisance, pollution and congestion due to cars.

Register by: 01-01-2011 / Submit by: 03-01-2011

National Memorial that will honor all United States Military Personnel who sacrificed their lives in The Gulf War, Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, and all peripheral operations on The War on Terror. This includes all that have died as a result of combat or non-combat related injuries, suicides, and/or trauma.

Register by: 09-30-2010 / Submit by: 09-30-2010

Building Back Better Communities has been initiated by the Government of Haiti to investigate alternative forms of permanent housing for displaced citizens. A prototype housing Expo will take place in Port-au-Prince from early October 2010. The development of an exemplar housing settlement will follow shortly after.

The Government of Haiti wishes to attract as wide a response as possible from across the world. Designers, architects, contractors, consultants and suppliers are all warmly invited to participate.

Register by: 06-28-2010 / Submit by: 06-28-2010

The American Academy in Rome invites applications for the Rome Prize competition. One of the leading overseas centers for independent study and advanced research in the arts and the humanities, the Academy offers up to thirty fellowships for periods ranging from six months to two years.

Rome Prize winners reside at the Academy's eleven-acre center in Rome and receive room and board, a study or studio, and a stipend. Stipends for six-month fellowships are $13,000 and stipends for eleven-month fellowships are $30,000.

Fellowships are awarded in the following fields:

- Architecture
- Design (including graphic, fashion, interior, lighting, and set design, engineering, urban planning, and other related design fields)
- Historic Preservation and Conservation (including architectural design, public policy, and the conservation of works of art)
- Landscape Architecture
- Literature**
- Musical Composition
- Visual Arts
- Ancient Studies
- Medieval Studies
- Renaissance and Early Modern Studies
- Modern Italian Studies

For further information, or to apply, visit the Academy's website. Please state specific field of interest when requesting information.

The Rome Prize competition is underwritten in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Register by: 11-01-2010 / Submit by: 11-01-2010

Open International architectural contest for creation of the project of the memorial complex "Babiy Yar" to commemorate the memory of victims of Holocaust of 1941 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The memorial zone should include the building of the museum; total area is about 1500 square meters. Besides it is necessary to make provision of the place for memorial and service events, parking place and also make the suggestions of landscaping and site finishing.

Land set aside to accommodate the projected memorial complex "Babiy Yar" total area of 22 m2 300 - a small ravine, where there is an unfinished building.

Register by: 06-01-2010 / Submit by: 08-20-2010

Building Fashion celebrates cutting edge design through a series of temporary installations under the High Line at HL23.

Building Fashion pairs fashion designers with architects in an installation series exploring the intersection of architecture and fashion through integrated store and exhibition design. With 5 installations, the HL23 Tin (former sales office), will be reappropriated providing a unique glimpse into the work of vibrant and acclaimed designers. With exclusive opening parties and Saturday outdoor summer concert series, these grounds will be trafficked by thousands of visitors this Summer.

Building Fashion will showcase design on par with the caliber, prestige and quality demonstrated by the landmark precedence of Neil Denari's HL23. All installations will be open to the public. Each will reflect the fashion brand's image through expressive voluminous forms engaging both indoor and outdoor elements of the site. Installations commence July 15 and conclude September 19, 2010. The series will be comprised of five, two-week installations, culminating with a grand finale during the New York SS2011 Fashion Week.

Fashion designers are selected based on their ability to attract audiences as well as their benefit to the events. All of the fashion designers asked to participate do not have freestanding stores. This is an opportunity to explore how their vision and brand can be translated into an environment and three-dimensional space by creating a strong and distinguished visual presentation transcending the common pop-up store. Architects will be selected with Architizer through a national search of the leading emerging designers.

Designs should consider: changing, checkout, display, seating, lighting, color, materials, sound, storage, smell, branding, circulation, safety, and interaction. More specific product details will be provided if awarded project. All designs should be minimally intrusive, easily installed and easily removed. Existing built-in storage will not be removed. Designs should consider interior space, exterior shell, and outdoor area indicated in drawings.

Register by: 06-27-2010 / Submit by: 06-27-2010

Design Against the Elements is a global architectural design competition meant to find a solution to the problems presented by climate change. Spurred by the devastation wreaked in the Philippines by tropical storm Ondoy (Ketsana) and driven by a powerhouse multidisciplinary group of organizations from the private, institutional, and government sectors, the project aims to draw together the most innovative minds in the fields of architecture, design, and urban planning to develop sustainable and disaster-resistant housing for communities in tropical urban settings.

The winning design will be built as a prototype disaster-resistant and livable eco-village in Taguig City, Metro Manila. The village will be the first green and disaster-resistant community in the country. It will provide a model that can be studied and replicated in similar areas. The finished project will house a marginalized community living in an environmental danger zone, giving them a sense of security, ownership, and awareness of sustainability that can be practiced at all levels in their everyday lives.

The project also aims to present a definitive green building solution in a truly local context. Too often, home-owners, architects, and policy-makers think of sustainable building as a luxury that only privileged landowners and advanced countries can afford. Design Against the Elements considers green architecture as essential to survival; it has the ability to reduce the frequency and impact of environmental disasters and lessen the cycle of poverty.

Register by: 09-24-2010 / Submit by: 11-19-2010

The Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History is planning a new exhibition called Places of Invention. The exhibition will explore several questions about creative communities, including:

- What social, psychological, and spatial elements spark creativity?
- How do these elements give rise to places where invention thrives?
- How does collaboration affect innovation?

Join the Lemelson Center in making the Places of Invention exhibition itself a hot spot of innovation and an environment for sustained learning. Open for submissions April 30 - June 30, 2010.

Submit your ideas and possible solutions for one or all of these design challenges:

1. Design an interactive space
How can Museum visitors build a miniature place of invention within the exhibition? Design an interactive exhibit space on which visitors can build and model their own ideas about hot spots of invention. Ideally, also suggest a mechanism that enables users of a Places of Invention companion website to view the physical exhibit space in real time, and contribute to or comment on what's being built.

2. Design a collaborative activity
How can Museum visitors practice the collaborative skills modeled by known innovators? Design a game, a scavenger hunt, or other activity that enables Museum visitors to solve a problem or complete a task together.

3. Model your place of invention
What aspects of your environment affect your own creative process? Use a virtual environment, computer-based design tools, or manual design tools to model your own place of innovation?actual or imagined.

Register by: 06-30-2010 / Submit by: 06-30-2010

From the organizer:

2010 AfH Student Health Design Award
Supported by Brookfield

Designing for Death – Heaven, Purgatory and Hell

Why Death?? Because it's common, and also a condition that is poorly dealt with in hospital buildings. If anything, it's a key facility where the building plays an explicitly healing role. There needs to be room for admissions, and also short stays for people needing respite from time at home. While there is an argument for allowing more people to die at home, there are still many who for a number of reasons feel unable to do this.

AfH received a record number of entries to the 2010 competition making the shortlisting process more taxing than ever before. The competition continues to challenge the relationship between the practice of healthcare design and the exploratory academic realm.

The Shorlist can be viewed on the website at http://www.afhawards.org

The award event takes place on the 2th of August at the RIBA in London and is free for students to attend.

Posted by Mario Cipresso

The exhibition features 12 proposals commissioned by the Architectural and Urban Forum (AUFO) of Milano, with support from the Comune di Milano, located on the periphery of the historic city center offering conceptual solutions for the densification of Milano. Each proposal injects 25,000 inhabitants into the existing fabric of Milano for a total population increase of 300,000. The exhibition opens June 16, 2010 at the Politecnico di Milano.

Contributing Architects: Guglielmo Mozzoni Architetto (Milan), Degli Esposti Architetti (Antonelli, Degli Esposti, Lazza) (Milan), ACZ studio di architettura (Agnoletto, Cavani, Zamboni) (Modena), Rojkind Arquitectos (Mexico City), BplusU (Herwig Baumgartner, Scott Uriu) (Los Angeles), Ian+ (Rome), MAD Office (Beijing), Tang & Yang Architects (Savannah GA), Fraschini-Melgrati-Tonoli (Milan), Mystic Brain Region (Milan), Congoritme Architects (Barcelona), NuMi Studio (Milan), Michele Moreno Architetto (Milan), Studio Shift (Mario Cipresso) (Culver City CA), Void_7 (Madrid).

Schedule:

June 16, 2010 (17:00 hours) : Opening and round-table discussion

June 17-30, 2010 (9:00-19:00 hours) : The project MilanoStadtKrone2030 and the previous projects "No-spot City" and the "Aequus Actor" by AUFO will be exhibited at the spazio mostre Guido Nardi - Politecnico di Milano (via Ampere, 2)

Posted by Mario Cipresso

Studio Banana TV interviews Carlos Ferrater and Patrick Genard talking about their project Mediapro tower in Barcelona.

Watch the interview on StudioBananaTV.

Posted by Mario Cipresso

The second issue of eVolo magazine is now available and highly recommended as a worthwhile addtion to any library. In much the same way the premier issue symbiotically merged real projects with the more conceptual sort generated in the course of the eVolo competitions, this sequel does to great success. Creating an admirable sense of balance, oftentimes acting as somewhat of a transitional device between projects are the incredibly varied and thought-provoking essays. The theme centers specifically on skyscrapers and speculates on the future of the typology as proposed through various projects and writing.

With over thirty selected projects from the eVolo skyscraper competition and several case study towers, the publication is sure to provide a current snapshot of critical thinking on tall buildings. Graphically, the book is well-composed and complements the rigorous editing of Carlo Aiello.

eVolo Issue 2 available here.

Interviews with:
Carol Willis
Giacomo Costa

Skyscrapers by:
Herzog & de Meuron
Morphosis
MVRDV
Jean Nouvel
Office for Metropolitan Architecture
Skidmore Owings and Merrill
Studio Shift

Essays by:
Brian Ahmes
Marcos Betanzos
Joanna Borek-Clement
Benny Chow
Mario Cipresso
Elie Gamburg
Arvin Garay-Cruz
Mohamed Ghamlouch
Ted Givens
Maryana Grinshpun
Mathias Henning
Reinaldo Leandro
Andrew Liang
Jos? Mu?oz-Villers
Chad Porter
Maria Prieto
Javier Quintana

2009 Skyscraper Competition:
30 most innovative projects

Aranda / Lasch:
Recent work

Editor's Letter
by Carlo Aiello
It has been a tremendous satisfaction to compile this issue about the past, present, and future of the skyscraper. No other architectural genre captures our imagination and reflects our cultural and technological achievements like these towers that pierce the sky. We start off with the history and evolution of building high, from the Egyptian pyramids, Gothic cathedrals, and first American skyscrapers to the contemporary reality in Asia and the Middle East.

We present two fascinating interviews, the first one with Carol Willis, the founder and director of the Skyscraper Museum in New York City, who explains the true genetics and economics behind the birth and future of the skyscraper. The second one with Italian artist, Giacomo Costa, who shares his vision about "the relationship between the natural environment, human activity, and supernatural reality" with provocative images of an apocalyptic urban future.

Javier Quintana exposes the time gap between new architectural concepts and their built reality – like Arne Hosek's "City of the Future" designed in 1928 and materialized in 1998 by Cesar Pelli as the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur or Sergei Lopatin's 1925 idea for the Veshenka Tower in Moscow, later observed as the Willis Tower (former Sears Tower) in Chicago in 1974.

Another group of essays explore the global influence of Manhattan as a contemporary Babylon to be replicated across the world, or the role of the Italian Futurists, Japanese Metabolists, and Archigram, who influenced generations of architects and designers to push forward the concept of vertical living.

In the 'Opinion' section you will find critiques on some of the latest ideas for skyscraper design by some of the most forward-looking architects – like the concept of pixelated tectonics in Le Project Triangle in Paris by Herzog & de Meuron and Rodovere's Sky Village by MVRDV. On the other hand, Jean Nouvel redefined the Italian loggia towers of the seventeenth century with the Tour Signal in La D?fense, Paris; while Morphosis Architects explores new programs for vertical density with The Phare Tower. Lastly, Studio SHIFT masterfully integrates their Miyi Tower in Sichuan, China, with the existing landscape.

Central to this issue are thirty projects from eVolo's 2009 Skyscraper Competition which look into the future of the skyscraper with the use of new technologies, programs, and aesthetic expression. Sustainability, globalization, flexibility, and adaptability are just some of the multi-layered elements explored by some the entries. You will find examples of cities in the sky, horizontal skyscrapers that link various cities, or emergency architecture for disaster zones.

Finally, we present the work of Aranda / Lasch, a young New York-based design studio which develops their research on the observation of the patterns of organization in the natural world and its implementation in architecture and design. Their "Quasi-Series" furniture is designed following the assemblage logic of Quasi-crystals, where a structural pattern does not repeat itself.

We would like to acknowledge our readers for their encouraging letters and e-mails that we have received over the last months. It is our mission to continue discovering and promoting new talents and to present a new wave of architecture that will undoubtedly transform our world.

Review By Mario Cipresso

What If this could happen in Boston?

Winner of the SHIFTboston Ideas Competition announced at the SHIFTboston Forum

(Boston, MA, January 14, 2010) Government officials, business, academic, and community leaders converged with artists, architects and design professionals at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston to showcase and celebrate the creative ideas about Boston's future cityscape.

Before a packed auditorium, the finalists of the SHIFTboston Ideas Competition were discussed by a panel composed of local architects Brian Healy and Audrey O’Hagan, joined by Maria Aiolova Co-Founder of Terrefuge and Terreform ONE, NY and Carlo Ratti Director of MIT SENSEable City Lab. Projects presented encompassed a variety of topics ranging from social web technologies, transportation, urban agriculture, energy harvesting and ecological urbanism.

The winning team of Sapir Ng and Andrzej Zarzycki were presented with their US$1,000 prize check for their idea TUTS: Tremont underground theater space. Their concept is to transform the abandoned Tremont Street subway tunnels into an interactive cultural space with experiential theaters and immersive digital galleries. While creating a connection between the Orange and Green subway lines, a trolley museum would celebrate the history of the landmark as North America's oldest subway system. "Compared to what I do on a daily basis and seeing the normative architecture that we have, this is really truly wonderful. I'd like to figure out a way that in city government and in the development community, that we can figure out what are the kernels of brilliant ideas and be able to apply them." Kairos Shen, Chief Planner, Boston Redevelopment Authority.

Visit SHIFTBoston to see the all of the finalists online.

About the SHIFTboston Ideas Competition 2009, http://shiftboston.org, This international competition gathered 141 entries from sixteen states and fourteen countries ideas from visionary architects, artists, landscape architects, urban designers, and others answering the call: WHAT IF this could happen in Boston?

About SHIFTboston
SHIFTboston is here to be the catalyst for change; our goal is to promote the future urban environment and provide a stage for progressive thinkers to present his and her visions. We will push new ideas and innovations that are necessary for Boston to become a model city for the future. Let's start now and have fun doing it.

Posted By Mario Cipresso

On Jan. 12th a powerful 7.0 quake hit the impoverished nation of Haiti. This was followed more than 30+ strong aftershocks. There has been widespread major damage and a loss of life estimated to be between 45,000 to 50,000 according to the Red Cross with some other estimates as high as 100,000. There are projections of 2-3 million without shelter.

Architecture for Humanity has launched an appeal to focus on the long term reconstruction effort in Haiti.

If you can, please support this cause.

For more information about Architecture for Humanity's activities in Haiti or to donate, please visit Architecture for Humanity

Posted by Mario Cipresso

[New application now available in the App Store]

Apple has approved 'Architecture' for distribution in the App Store. A selection of the world's finest architectural masterpieces in pocket size. A one-stop GPS-enabled guide to the world’s greatest buildings from the 20th and 21st century.

Travel to any place in the world and this guide will tell you, where the most interesting buildings are located nearby. It tells you the story behind the building and the architect, shows two images for each project, website and address, and a detailed map with walking or driving directions. It also presents you with a Google Street View where available.

'Architecture' contains projects from 165 different architects, in 270 cities worldwide. It has more than 1000 pictures from buildings stored internally. From Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe to Sanaa and OMA. From Oscar Niemeyer and Frank Lloyd Wright to Morphosis and Peter Zumthor. A selection of 20th and 21st century architecture that spans traditions throughout the world, from the all time favorites to the latest Pritzker Prize winners, from classic icons to hidden architectural gems and oddities.

A great tool for architecture and design lovers, world travelers and city dwellers, to discover great buildings worldwide. Projects can also be browsed by categories ?cities? or ?architects? with no data connection needed, because all information and pictures are stored offline on the end-user’s phone. So no expensive roaming cost when abroad and it can also be used without GPS, in Flight Mode or on the iPod Touch. All projects have a full description, photos and additional details such as the name of the architect, the year it was built and the associated website.

'Architecture' offers a free trial version that lets users try all features for 3 days. After the trial period, it will return to basic browsing mode. Cost of application is USD 3.99 / EUR 2,99.

Download Application

Application Homepage

More Screenshots

Posted By Mario Cipresso

From Studio Banana TV's website:

Studio Banana TV interviews Japanese architect Toyo Ito on the occasion of his lecture at the European University of Madrid. Toyo Ito is one of the world's most innovative and influential architects. Ito is known for creating extreme concept buildings, in which he seeks to fuse the physical and virtual worlds. Interview realised with the sponsorship of the European University of Madrid.

Toyo Ito is a Japanese architect born in 1941. He graduated from Tokyo University's Department of Architecture in 1965. His office Toyo Ito & Associates is a world leading exponent of architecture that addresses the contemporary notion of a "simulated" city, and has been called "one of the world's most innovative and influential architects."

After a brief stint in the Metabolist studio of Kiyonori Kikutake, in 1971 he started his own studio in Tokyo, named Urbot ("Urban Robot"). In 1979, the studio name was changed to Toyo Ito & Associates. Throughout his early career Ito constructed numerous private house projects that expressed aspects of urban life in Japan. His early experiments include the Tower of Winds, the Egg of Winds and the Pao House for nomad women. Later projects include the Yatsushiro Municipal Museum and the Shimosuwa Municipal Museum. More recently he has built the Sendai Mediatheque (2001), the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London (2002), TOD's Omotesando Building in Tokyo (2004), the World Games Stadium in Kaohsiung, Taiwan (2008) or the Torre Fira BCN Building in Barcelona (2009).

Ito has defined architecture as "clothing" for urban dwellers, particularly in the contemporary Japanese metropolis. This theme revolves around the equilibrium between the private life and the metropolitan "public" life of an individual. The current architecture of Toyo Ito expands on his work produced during the postmodern period, aggressively exploring the potentials of new forms. In doing so, he seeks to find new spatial conditions that manifest the philosophy of borderless beings.

Interview by Cornelia Tapparelli. Translation by Yayoi Kawamura.

Watch the interview.

Posted by Mario Cipresso

For those of you unfamiliar with the work of Triple Canopy, you'll find this most recent issue to be an exemplar of the timely critical writing and cultural analysis that has quickly become their hallmark. In reviewing Issue 7, you'll find yourself digging back into previous issues to connect various urban ideas that have been investigated over the first several issues. In this sense, Triple Canopy offers an admirable sense of continuity from release to release.

From Triple Canopy:

Issue 7, Urbanisms: Master Plans

The seventh issue of Triple Canopy has reached its conclusion, and with it a seven-month examination of our current urban situation and what lies beyond it: the city’s past and its future; the suburban, the exurban, the frontier.

Learning from Tijuana by Teddy Cruz with Caleb Waldorf From the graveyards of corporate architecture to the informal settlements of Latin America.

The VPL Authority by Rustam Mehta & Thomas Moran with Keller Easterling Deep in the desert Southwest, a public-private corporation is building a mega-eco-city that will be the hub of a new high-speed rail network.

Divine Wilderness by Nathan Schneider From Thomas Aquinas and John the Baptist to cellular automata and intelligent design: How God taught us planning, and where we went wrong.

Daybreak by Lucy Raven In the suburbs of Salt Lake City, the newest great dead American economy lies in wake atop the last one.

Urbanisms: Master Plans also features work by Zlatan Filipovic with Molly Kleiman, Bryan Finoki, Hovhanness Tumanyan & Vahram Aghasyan, Urban China, Kazys Varnelis, and Zs with Josh Slater.

Read Triple Canopy Issue 7

Posted By Mario Cipresso

The recently launched eVolo magazine is now available digitally on Zinio for a fraction of the price of the print edition and with the added bonus of sparing a few trees from the horror of the paper mill.

Zinio provides an easy-to-use interface with excellent clarity of text and graphics. There are various zoom and viewing controls to help you maximize your reading experience. My favorite features include a clickable table of contents and the ability to search the text.

Have a look at Zinio.com

Posted By Mario Cipresso

From SPFa:
SPF:a presented its design concept in grand style to a packed house at the Grand Theatre in Calgary, along with other finalists, Allied Works Architecture/BKDI, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Jean Nouvel Workshop, and Saucier + Perrotte. The project, which involves building a National Music Centre in and around the shell of Calgary's oldest blues bar is seen by many as one of the country’s most ambitious and important urban-design projects, and is located in the heart of one of Calgary's oldest neighborhoods. The Centre will be part museum, part education and outreach facility, and part performance space, incorporating genres ranging from pop and country to ancient music and contemporary composition. For its presentation, SPF:a delighted the crowd with a stunning documentary film – taking viewers on a journey, not only through the building, but through the entire creative process and soul of the project. Cantos will announce a selection in September 2009.

VIDEO:
SPFa on Vimeo

More information at:
www.spfa.com

Posted by Mario Cipresso

By now, many of you are familiar with the annual eVolo Skyscraper Competition that has been featured on our Death By Architecture website. In fact, we reviewed the publication, 'eVolo, Skyscraper For The XXI Century' that presented the results of the 2006, 2007 and 2008 editions of the competition and still highly recommend it as a worthy addition to your library.

Like the book, the magazine is thoughtfully edited by Carlo Aiello and the lengths he has gone to publicize the work produced in the course of the competitions is commendable. This premier issue of eVolo Magazine centers itself around selected projects from the 2007 Housing Competition and then complements those projects with a strong selection of notable commissions by architects such as Herzog & De Meuron, Steven Holl, OMA, BIG and Asymptote. The juxtaposition of 'real' and 'conceptual' makes for interesting food for thought especially when you consider the mission of the magazine, which is to highlight the most innovative and inventive ideas that will shape the cities of the 21st Century.

With over 30 projects and articles, the magazine is substantial and of high-quality and you'll surely find yourself returning to it many times. eVolo plans to release two issues a year currently and given the execution of this first issue, I am definitely looking forward to the sequel.

www.evolo-arch.com

Review by Mario Cipresso

BIG wins an International Competition to design Tallin's new City Hall.

An international idea contest was held for Tallinn's new City Hall in Estonia and the best concept was presented by the Bjarke Ingels Group from Denmark together with Adams Kara Taylor of the UK.

The purpose of the international idea contest was to find the best architectural solution for the new administrative building of the city government that will be situated on a 35,000 m2 plot near the Linnahall building. The contest for the new city was met with a great interest, 81 architects and their teams were willing to present an entry. Of those, the international jury chose the best 9 to shortlist as finalists into the second phase of the competition. By May 15 the finalists handed in their final solutions. The international jury's decision to award BIG's entry first place in the competition was unanimous and was presided by the vice mayor Taavi Aas.

Bjarke Ingels, BIG, Partner-in-Charge:
There is a saying that success has many fathers. That is especially true when designing such a crucial public building and public space as a town hall. The design needs to be shaped by input from neighbours and users, citizens and politicians. Paradoxically we architects often find ourselves isolated from this crucial dialogue at the moment of conception, due to the anonymity of the architectural competition.

Since this was a 2 stage competition, we already had our first feedback from the jury – causing us to dramatically rearrange our design to fit the citizens’ needs. As a result we have envisioned a very elastic structure – capable of adapting to unexpected demands. We see it as the first conversation in a design dialogue we look forward to continue.

Public Insight + Political Overview
Good governance and participatory democracy is dependent on transparency in both directions. It requires adequate political overview of the problems, demands and desires of the public, as well as public insight into the political processes. The new town hall of Tallinn will provide this two way transparency in a very literal way. The various public departments form a porous canopy above the public service market place allowing both daylight and view to permeate the structure. The public servants won't be some remote administrators taking decisions behind thick walls, but will be visible in their daily work from all over the market place via the light wells and courtyards. From outside the panoramic windows allow the citizens to see their city at work. In reverse the public servants will be able to look out and into the market place's making sure that the city and its citizens are never out of sight nor mind.

Jakob Lange, BIG, Project Leader
The Town hall is not only surrounded by public space - but literally invaded by the citizens in the form of the public service market place beneath the canopy of the public offices, where the citizens of Tallinn can meet their public servants.

Democratic Tower
The City Council, the heart of the democratic process, is located in the town hall tower visible from the park, the plaza and the podium of the Linnen Hall. The roof of the tower is tilted forming a slender spire. Inside the City Council greeting hall is accessed via the grand stair or elevators directly from the market place, or from the City offices around it. Above the greeting hall, the City Council is located in a generous space illuminated though a large window facing the city. A balcony for press and visitors flanks the space on the level above. The sloping ceiling of the tower is finished in a large reflective material. The mirror ceiling transforms the tower into a huge democratic periscope allowing literal transparency between politicians and public. In ancient times the town hall would have a vaulted ceiling decorated with a sky or frescos of the land and territories under the ruler's government. In the new town hall of Tallinn the ceiling will be a real (reflected) overview of the city both old and new.

Whenever a politician raises his/her glance, he/she will be met with the view of Tallinn's townscape. In reverse, the citizens, rallying protesters or simply people passing by, will look towards the tower, and within it get an insight into the political work. The circular formation of council members will be reflected in the tilted ceiling, and give the surrounding citizens a sense of assurance that the democracy is busy working for them. In a traditional tower only the king at the top gets to enjoy the great view. The periscope is a form of democratic tower, where even the average Tallinn citizen on the street gets to enjoy the overview from the top. From a distance the silhouette of the town hall tower enters the family of Tallinn’s historical spires including those of the Niguliste Museum-Concert Hall, Toomkirik, Kaarli Kirik, P?havaimu Kirik, St. Olav Church and the current town hall.

Hanif Kara, Adams Kara Taylor:
The structural concept reflects the simplicity of the architectural intent; a grouping of "easily assembled individual Frames" that through vierendeel frames free the connection of the city at ground level whilst simultaneously act as a "group" to resist lateral loads. The result is an economic, fast build adaptable solution.

The Jury
The international idea contest was jointly organized by the City Planning Department and the Union of Estonian Architects. The members of the jury were: Head Architect of Tallinn Endrik M?nd, Administrative Director of the Tallinn City Office Viljar Meister, head Architect of Riga Janis Dripe, architect Tarald Lundevall from Norway, architect Peter Wilson from Germany, architects Martin Aunin, Tiit Trummal, Kalle Komissarov, and Andres Levald as a substitute member. The winning project was awarded with 500,000 Estonian kroons. The mayor of Tallinn Edgar Savisaar stated contentment with the results of the competition, thanked all the participants and expressed his hope that the new administrative building of Tallinn will be built sooner or later, despite the hard times in the European economy.

THE TALLINN TOWN HALL CREDIT LIST:
- ARCHITECT: BIG
- CONTRIBUTORS: Daniel Sundlin, Hanna Johansson, Ondrej Janku, Ken Aoki, Benjamin Engelhardt, Maxime Enrico, Joao Albuquerque
- PROJECT: TALLINN TOWN HALL
- CLIENT: CITY PLANNING OFFICE, CITY OF TALLINN
- COLLABORATORS: AKT
- SIZE: 28.000 M2
- LOCATION: TALLINN, ESTONIA
- TYPE: OPEN IDEAS COMPETITION

For further information or high res images please contact:
BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
E-mail: press@big.dk
Website: http://www.big.dk

Posted by Mario Cipresso

Their usefulness and relevance to our purpose is yet to be seen but in hopes of connecting with more of you, I have setup a Twitter account and created a group on Facebook.

Many of you have already joined us online at Linkedin and that's proven somewhat successful. I expect these two venues to create more frequent debate.

I'm definitely open to some feedback in how you think Twitter can best be utilized, I doubt you want to know when I am making a turkey sandwich...well, maybe some of you do. So look me up on Twitter with my name or my user name, "DeathByArch".

Those of you on Facebook, which I believe is everyone by now, please look us up and join the group.

I am looking forward to your participation.

Posted By Mario Cipresso

From the 0300tv.com website:

0300TV visited Sofia von Ellrichshausen and Mauricio Pezo [Pezo von Ellrichshausen Architects] and four of their recent residential projects in Concepcion, Chile: Parr House, Poli House, Wolf House and Fosc House.

So what's the big deal? PvE Architects may have the recipe for operating in developing contexts like -not-so-emerging-anymore Chile.

It’s been almost eight years since they’ve been established in Concepcion, Chile and started to experiment with their subtly restrained method of work formats, trial and error, between art and architecture. Operating in unstable conditions, PvE Architect’s work demonstrates that there’s no room here for grand gestures. It’s all about searching for small ideas, small approximations, which –in addition- will conform the final oeuvre.

0300TV presents Pezo von Ellrichshausen Architects: Context & Work System, featuring an interview to PvE Architects and footage of Forestal and I Was There Installations plus Parr, Poli, Wolf and Fosc houses.

See the video at 0300tv.com.

Posted by Mario Cipresso

VBS.NET is featuring a recent interview with Oscar Niemeyer that is a must-see. The interview is presented in two short segments but it's quite fascinating that after 101 years of life, thus far, Niemeyer believes in keeping it simple although his architecture maintains a certain complexity that has become a trademark over his long career.

He talks briefly about his work but turns to the ocassional outside influence on his architecture, such as a woman. He prefers not to discuss architecture it seems, rather he appears to return to various moments in his life, painting a vivid picture of what he really believes in hindsight is important. A life that he believes is so insignificant in comparison to the magnitude of the cosmos, that no man should consider himself important. It's all about being useful and making contributions to society.

Oscar Niemeyer Interview at VBS.NET

From the VBS.NET site:
In the 1950s, Brazil decided it would be a perfectly reasonable idea to move the capital to the center of the country's interior plateau (read: nowhere). To facilitate this sensible endeavor they enlisted Oscar Niemeyer - an ardent communist and proponent of modern architecture who, alongside his buddy Le Corbusier, had co-designed the UN building in New York - to build a crazy spacepod city in the middle of the planalto.

Brasilia provided Niemeyer the perfect template to test out all the theoretical business he and his modernist colleagues had been cooking up for the past two decades. Together with urban planner Luis Costa, he designed a functionally integrated city full of massive concrete mushroom buildings and swooping aluminum spires and twisty overpasses and skyways and symbolic edifices and designated "sectors" where no one would ever have to watch out for traffic or wait at a stoplight. It's basically the bastard child of Alphaville and Albany, NY, and to this day remains a benchmark in what we really hope the future is going to look like.

It also sealed his reputation as one of the century's most influential architects and certainly its most influential Brazilian. Then an anti-communist military junta seized control of the country and kicked him out.

Posted By Mario Cipresso

Denver, Colorado-based Sprocket hosted an open competition in the historic Highland Square district of Denver to engage the DESIGN community in a public forum. The specific goal was to create a discussion of innovative concepts for designing, occupying and programming public space. The competition endeavored to explore the concepts of community and sustainability through the union of an innovative programming, the exchange of goods and service, and public art.

The program focused on creating a viable concept for programming a 'public space' and entrants were encouraged to go beyond the idea of food and produce. The entrants were asked to expand the historical notion of a ?farmer’s market’ to things such as art display, community venues, music venue, crafts, etc. The concepts were to focus on activating the space with the flexibility to provide year round programming. In addition, each entrant was to create a viable identity for community outreach.

The competition attracted almost 60 entries hailing from both the United States and abroad. All entries are online for viewing at the Sprocket Gallery website.

The winners are:

First Place
Arquitectura, Inc.-(Wisconsin)
Nick Cascarano, Harry Van Oudenallen, Brittany Radlinger, Andrew Herland

Second Place
Andy Stein, Rick Alexander And Mari Suarez (Colorado)

Third Place
Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui, Lorene Faure, Justin C.K. Lau, Jaenes Bong, Jonathan Alotto, & Ana?s Sansonetti (United Kingdom)

Merit Award
Bernie Costello (Colorado)

Colorado Award
Steve Perce (Colorado)

International Honor Award
Carlos Marin And Carlos Avalos (Mexico)

National Honor Award
Ziska Architecture (Ohio)
Rick Ziska And Justin Gustafson

Complete details and jury information at Sprocket Gallery.

Posted By Mario Cipresso

The recent release of the "HYBRIDS" series has proven timely and relevant given the current prevailing environmental and economic issues we face as a global society today. The underlying themes center largely on the need to intensify and maximize land use as a means to develop sustainable systems and societies which is directly connected to the increasing scarcity of available land. These two themes coupled with the recent trends towards re-inhabiting city centers makes the thoughtful consideration of high-density, mixed-use urban solutions more critical than ever. We've seen more large-scale urban proposals in the architecture media recently than ever before, often bordering on the absurd. The authors have done well to select a good cross-section of projects that are largely built (or planned) and have split the two volumes based on horizontal versus vertical strategies.

The authors present the notion of the 'Hybrid' as structures that enable the mixing or combination of different programs and urban uses. They further expand the definition to include the hybridization of public and private interests in the realms of housing, public space and civic amenities as a means to address the aforementioned social and environmental issues.

"Hybrids 1: High-Rise Mixed-Use Buildings" features Steven Holl's Linked Hybrid, OMA's Dubai Renaissance, REX's Museum Plaza and BIG's Scala Tower. "Hybrids 2: Low-Rise Mixed-Use Buildings" features Jakob+MacFarlane's Docks du Paris, Steven Holl's Vanke Center and Office dA's New Kuwait Sports Shooting Club. One may find the scale of these projects somewhat daunting and it remains to be seen how sustainable these high-density solutions are as projects of this nature are largely untested. These projects form somewhat of a laboratory, a new type of social experiment which is largely taking form in Asia and the Middle East.

The projects are presented in typical a+t fashion which is anything but typical. All projects are custom diagrammed which lends to the ease of project-to-project comparison and analysis. Every project is considered and quantified urbanistically, programmatically and functionally. The graphic presentation is very well done and you'll find the books to be well organized.

It's unfortunate that you can't find these easily on Amazon at the time of this review but you can purchase them directly through a+t ediciones.

Review By Mario Cipresso

Although the results were officially announced last week for the international competition sponsored by the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control, the work of all 7 finalists has now been published online at the TCDC competition website. Only the first place entry shows all the presentation panels while all others were limited to just a few images. The entries have also been published elsewhere on the internet in English and Chinese at Forgemind Archimedia where they display some varied materials, but still not all entries in their entirety (see the links below).

The seven finalists were composed of three local Taiwanese firms, who placed first, second and third, and four international firms with local associate architects who all received honorable mentions......hmmm.

First Prize
Ricky Liu & Associates + CUH2A
http://www.forgemind.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=15717

Second Prize
Fei & Cheng Associates + Harvey Ellis Devereaux
http://www.forgemind.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=15718

Third Prize
Domino Architects & Associates
http://www.forgemind.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=15719

Honorable Mentions
TAG Design Works + Kornberg Associates
http://www.forgemind.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=15720

Shuhei Endo + Kunio Watanabe
http://www.forgemind.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=15721

Studio Shift + HOY Architects
http://www.forgemind.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=15722

Manfredi Nicoletti + ARCO Architects & Designers
http://www.forgemind.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=15723

Taiwan Centers for Disease Control Competition Website

Posted by Mario Cipresso

There are many organizations that sponsor worthwhile programs and they of course deserve our support. I recently learned of one such program that has architecture students as its driving force and the group in particular that I am familiar with is the University of Southern California chapter of the Global Architecture Brigades. This is essentially a student initiated effort and it's always inspiring and refreshing when young undergraduate students begin learning about the positive impacts that architecture can have on people and their communities.

The students at the University of Southern California (USC) who in collaboration with the organization Global Architecture Brigades have begun an international project for the impoverished in Panama. They are researching and designing a sustainable and ecologically responsible residential project that will eventually be built in Panama, by us and with the help of the community. Our goal is to construct a beneficial space while teaching the community members construction techniques. Hopefully this will enable and empower the surrounding communities to continue rebuilding their neighborhoods.

You can learn more about the program and students involved, and if you deem appropriate, donate, by following this link to the USC Global Architecture Brigades Blog

More on the Global Architecture Brigades:
Global Architecture Brigades is a volunteer student-based collaborative dedicated to the research, design, and construction of socially responsible, environmentally sustainable solutions to architectural problems in the developing world. A think tank design approach utilizes extensive community dialog and independent research to create efficient, appropriate, and elegant structures to be embraced and utilized by those for whom they were built. Ultimately, extended relationships between brigades and communities would result not only in the implementation of a variety of projects, but also the accumulation of a vast wealth of knowledge from which future students, designers, and communities could learn.

Creating these solutions within the current parameters that the field of architecture has set is simply not possible. Students of design must question, reconsider, and ultimately rewrite every aspect of design that culture has come to accept. Through this counter-cultural approach to design defiance, architecture can become something essential not to the few who want, but rather to the many who need.

Global Architecture Brigades Home

Posted By Mario Cipresso

Recently launched was the new Morphosis website designed by Venice, California media/web firm UseAllFive. More impressive is the connection of the website to the new Morphopedia.com which is quickly becoming an exhaustive resource for all Morphosis work. Every project is documented in photos, drawings and text with specific technical data.

This is a refreshing approach to publishing architectural projects which facilitates the detailed study of a complete body of notable work. Students should find incredible value in this latest endeavor.

morphosis.com

morphopedia.com

Posted By Mario Cipresso

Through an RFQ process, the New South Town of Miyi County in south eastern China selected the Los Angeles based team of Studio SHIFT and SWA Group to create a master plan for the developing area. As part of the new plan, Studio SHIFT has designed a tower containing various programs aimed at promoting the region's heritage and natural amenities. The tower sits at the edge of the Anning River and will mark the transition between the new development to the north and the new wetlands, leisure and agricultural districts to the south.

The Miyi Tower rises from the southern end of a kilometer long promenade that stretches from a high density residential and cultural hub devoted to regional arts. The promenade itself consists of a series of parks and public spaces designed by SWA Group to highlight accessibility to the river. It then tapers between rising paths which form the amphitheater at the tower's base. The paths converge and then continue as a bridge across the river and as an overlook affording views of reclaimed wetlands and the lake beyond. The designers were intent on utilizing natural and mechanical means of filtration to produce clean water, converting a highly polluted river into a usable amenity for residents and visitors. This new amenity takes the form of a series of lakes, wetlands and waterways which lend form to the new districts in the master plan.

The tower itself, which is to act as a major landmark per the Miyi government's request, is designed as an educational building for residents and the multitude of tourists that visit every year. Because the town is known for its abundance of sunshine and temperate climate, only half of the building's program elements are enclosed. These double height spaces alternate with unenclosed areas and rise around a vertical core, their alignment shifting toward different views at every floor. An auditorium, exhibition spaces and restaurants featuring local cuisine can be found on the interior while open-air floors are used as event spaces, gardens and an observation deck. The pairs of lower and upper enclosed spaces are joined by structures which act as light monitors. These light monitors, of which there is a third at the highest level, are aligned to take advantage of different lighting conditions throughout the day.

The tower is sheathed in a very porous yet continuous skin that gives the various programs their unified form. As porous building skins are often treated as opaque modules with subtracted holes (i.e. perforated skins) Studio SHIFT deliberately created the inverse. On the Miyi Tower, rather than defaulting to a technique of perforation, they created a pattern of objects in space mounted to a light frame. This inversion allows the skin to take on a rather ethereal effect and evokes the shimmering surface of the river below.

Architect: Studio SHIFT

Principals: Mario Cipresso and Chris Warren

Project Assistants: Chris Hyun and Andrew Kim

www.studioshift.com

Landscape Architect: SWA Group Los Angeles

Gerdo Aquino, Ying Yu Hung, Patrick Curran and Alex Robinson

www.swagroup.com

Posted by Mario Cipresso

If you've been to DBA over the years, you're by now familiar with an annual competition called eVolo. This ideas competition asks architecture firms and students to present their ideas on the potential and possibilities for the future skyscraper. For a study on typology in the modern era, it seems that there is none better suited than a skyscraper for this endeavor. It is, after all, somewhat bound by its definition. That specificity, and the tenacity with which it is manipulated, is why you'll be very surprised by the contents of this book.

Carlo Aiello does us a favor in the simplicity of his presentation. There are just two blocks of text that introduce us to the aims of the book. These are best summed up in the text:

"In this book we present the top ranked projects from the 06, 07, and 08 Skyscraper Competition. The central conception of these competitions was to speculate as to the reality and future of the skyscraper, posing questions such as; What is the skyscraper in the beginning of the XXI Century? What is the historical and social context of these mega-structures? What is their response to the urban fabric? Is the modern skyscraper a city in and of itself? Is the human scale lost?"

From this point on the reader will find sixty two-page spreads of the entries categorized within the three years of competition covered by the book, beginning each with the first, second and third place proposals. Each spread is neatly edited with the name of the project, team members and country, and followed by descriptive text from the entries' authors. And finally comes the most eye catching feature of any architecture book, some very sexy imagery.

Whether you're a student or a practicing architect, eVolo: Skyscraper for the XXI Century is a good addition to the bookshelves. By omitting the compulsory requirements of most competitions (and sometimes the compulsory requirements of gravity) eVolo is able to provide us with some very inspirational work. This book showcases the freshness of ideas, those from graduate students to some very well established firms, and reminds us of the potential that is found within our art.

Review by Chris Warren

Death By Architecture now has a group on Linkedin.com for your use as a discussion and collaboration forum.

We hope you join us there and look forward to fostering new professional and personal relationships. Look for like-minded professionals in all disciplines to jointly approach competitions or connect with organizers and consultants interested in the competition process.

Join today at Death By Architecture Linkedin

Posted by Mario Cipresso

The RIBA is delighted to announce the shortlist in the competition to design a new foot and cycle bridge crossing the River Soar in Leicester.

151 expressions of interest were received from all over the world including India, Australia, Iceland, Brazil and the USA. Six teams have now been shortlisted for the second stage design phase and those teams are:

Allies and Morrison with Price and Myers
Explorations Architecture, Paris with Buro Happold
Knight Architects with Gifford Bridge Designers
McDowell & Benedetti with Arup
Moxon Architects with Arup
Ramboll Whitbybird

James Sinclair of Leicester Regeneration Company said "We have been delighted by both the quantity and the quality of the submissions received, even though this has made the selection exercise a very exacting process. We now have an outstanding shortlist of design teams and look forward to seeing the results of their design development in the New Year".

The shortlisted designs will be submitted in early February 2009 with final presentations held on 19 February 2009 in Leicester.

More information is available at RIBA Competitions.

Posted by Mario Cipresso

Taiwan Centers For Disease Control Complex Planning, Design, And Construction Supervision Project, Announcement Of Short-List Tenderers (Stage One).

Short-List Tenderers (7 Entries):

1. Number: 1, Tenderer: Domino Architects & Associates / Yi-Yong Yang Nationality: Taiwan

2. Number: 4, Tenderer: Fei & Cheng Associates / Philip T. C. Fei Nationality: Taiwan
Joint Tenderer: Harley Ellis Devereaux / Samuel R Bayne, Jr (Louis Hartman) Nationality: USA

3. Number: 6, Tenderer: TAG Design Works, Inc / Johnny C. Lu Nationality: USA
Joint Tenderer: Kornberg Associates Architects / Ken Kornberg Nationality: USA
Ramer Architecture / Richard Ramer Nationality: USA

4. Number: 12, Tenderer: Ricky Liu & Associates / Ricky Liu Nationality: Taiwan
Joint Tenderer: CUH2A, Inc. Architecture Engineering PLA / James Theodore Hall, Jr Nationality: USA

5. Number: 18, Tenderer: Mario Cipresso & Chris Warren competition website.

Posted by Mario Cipresso

Images 1 & 2 - 1st Prize: Michael Cady, Elba Gil ,David Lillie, Andres Montana: Chicago, IL
Images 3 & 4 - 2nd Prize: Cheyne Owens: Cambridge, MA
Images 5 & 6 - 3rd Prize: Lindsay Grote: Chicago, IL

Earlier this year the Chicago Architectural Club and the Chicago Humanities Festival announced UNION STATION 2020, an international design ideas competition for the conversion of Chicago's Union Station into a high-speed rail hub, regional market, and meeting place. This year's Burnham Prize competition forms part of Burnham 2.0: A Patchwork Plan for Chicago, a composite urban plan that marks the centennial of Burnham and Bennett's Plan of Chicago.

UNION STATION 2020 asked for innovative solutions for the transformation of Union Station into a center of high speed rail traffic and related programs. It was not simply a question of designing an efficient and functional transit hub. How can this intermodal node become more than a mere knot of infrastructure? What role can this project play in the reconfiguration of Chicago's West Loop and of the city and region? How can an existing landmark building be transformed to accommodate and generate a new combination of activities while welcoming an unprecedented level of rail traffic? How can we leverage infrastructure to produce other results, to shape the city and the public sphere? How can a point of exchange generate a regional culture? And what does 'culture' mean, anyway?

The jury included Stan Allen, Doug Garofalo, Geoff Manaugh, Bruce Mau and Zoka Zola.

The Results
1st Prize: Michael Cady, Elba Gil ,David Lillie, Andres Montana: Chicago, IL
2nd Prize: Cheyne Owens: Cambridge, MA
3rd Prize: Lindsay Grote: Chicago, IL

HONORABLE MENTIONS
FRPO Arquitectura + Urbanismo: Madrid, Spain
Gabriel Belli Butler, Pasquale Tuttolomondo: Rome, Italy
Duliao Studio: Beijing, China
Casimir Kujawa, Mason Pritchett, Patrick Johnson: Chicago, IL
Xiao Min Du , Wei Lun Huang : Toronto, Canada
Jeeyong An, Hosung Chun, Sang Hwa Lee of GinsengChicken: New York
Sascha Oroz: Chicago, IL

More information available soon at: http://www.chicagoarchitecturalclub.org/

Posted by Mario Cipresso

Density Projects is the second publication in the 'Density' series by a+t ediciones of Spain. Continuing the mission of the first book in the series, 'Density:Condensed Edition' the intention is to present new collective housing projects that promote density and intensity in architecturally unique ways. The authors specifically look to projects that combine other programmatic uses beyond residential as they're particularly interested in the ability of these combined uses to emulate the urban condition and subsequently their potential to affect and bolster the larger urban environment. Given the global movement towards conservation of resources, these types of projects are more relevant than ever as the increased densities and minimized footprints reduce our consumption of natural resources and our impacts on the physical environment.

As I noted in an earlier review of their Civilities series, the quality and thoroughness of the diagramming presented is quite impressive. The authors not only include the architect's original diagrams and drawings, they employ their own method of analysis for the projects that allow for a one-to-one comparison of key data such as program distribution, density, open space, etc. This strategy, which is a common theme in most a+t publications, is what truly differentiates them from the average compilation of work.

After each project is introduced with this initial level of analysis they are further defined through images of physical models and computer models, line drawings spanning floor plans to construction details, nicely coded diagrams and full-color renderings. It is important to note that the projects featured were in a state of design development or were intiating construction at the time of publication so none of the works were complete at the time of publication in 2007. Beyond the publication's usefulness in raising awareness of new ideas in high-density residential projects, the drawing and diagramming techniques presented are so varied and illustrate trends in architectural representation and the effective articulation of ideas.

I've enjoyed referring back to both books in the Density Series regularly for the manner in which they analyze and present the ideas in each project and expect you will as well.

Review by Mario Cipresso

Completely filmed before 2008's Beijing Olympics and edited right after its ending, "China According to China" presents a set of thoughts by five local architects on China's current situation and history.

Ai Wei Wei [FAKE design], Jiang Jun [UrbanChina], Yu Kongjian [Turenscape], Wang Shu [Amateur Architecture Studio] and Ma Qingyun [MADA s.p.a.m.] are in charge of defining the issues that every Chinese architect has to deal with in today's practice, all of which may set the parameters of future development for Chinese architecture.

At the time of this posting, 4 of 5 video segments have been uploaded to the site in this five-part series at www.0300tv.com

Posted by Chris Warren

In a critical look at current state of mobility and the ubiquitous and multitudinous methods and venues of networked communications, Ted Kane thoughtfully analyzes and documents the resultant transient communities as they manifest themselves in Los Angeles. Kane makes an obvious nod to Paul Virilio's notion of 'polar inertia' where Virilio contends that rapidly developing technologies have the ability to create an instantaneous present that effectively supplants conventional notions of space and sovereignty of territory through unprecedented connectivity.

Through several essays and some quite rigorous photojournalism, Kane focuses on the phenomena of migrating cities and emergent urban systems. Along with constantly evolving networking and communications systems, Kane identifies the increasing popularity of the Recreational Vehicle as an enabler of nomadic societies. Within the 8.8 million RVs on the road live an estimated 1.5 million people, on a full-time basis. Kane argues that the freedom associated with this lifestyle redefines our ideas of community and challenges our conceptions of cities as fixed settlements. Data and communications networks stretch far beyond the freeways and blazed trails, liberating the individual while continually providing that crucial connection to the city.

Although Kane looks primarily to Los Angeles, he acknowledges parallel developments in nearby Las Vegas and Phoenix. Those familiar with the southwest United States will likely think of Quartzsite, Arizona. A small town with a permanent population of approximately 2,000 people, it swells dramatically during January and February as it receives over a million visitors in thousands of RVs for its mineral and gem shows. Quartzsite though is a desert condition where Kane emphasizes the urban. He cites the prevalance of urban street camping in Los Angeles where individuals, for a variety of reasons, live full-time in an RV. In many cases it's not preferred shelter, it's a necessity borne of the sheer economic disparity between income and the astronomical cost of housing in Los Angeles.

The elegant book design, by Henri Lucas & Davey Whitcraft of Los Angeles, is of note as well. Printed in China, half of the publication uses a heavy, brown Chinese postal paper as stock which contrasts nicely with the black text. The extensive photos, which comprise one-half the book and surely required a significant effort, are presented in full-color depicting both urban and desert ideals.

(Published by the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design and may have limited availability.)

Review By Mario Cipresso