José Neves recenlty won the first prize in the competition for the project of the Centro de Artes do Carnaval in the city of Torres Vedras, Portugal. The jury noted that the design organizes the spaces for public use in an optimal way, allowing for a visitor’s path which is logical, organized and consequential. The proposal suggests the building as a unifying idea for the site starting from a balance between the contest specifications and the site characteristics, an innovative approach to the Slaughter House building, a relevant interpretation of the existing urban language and the consequent formulation of an architectural language which reinvents the site. More images and architects’ description after the break.

After three days of inspirational keynote sessions, informative seminars, exclusive tours, invaluable networking opportunities and an impressive expo, the American Institute of Architects concluded the 2012 National Convention with a special tribute to the architects responsible for the post-9/11 memorials and rebuilding efforts. These “Architects of Healing” tirelessly worked together to transform the darkness of grief brought on by the 9/11 attacks into the triumph of hope in the wounded areas of Shanksville, Pennsylvania; the Pentagon; and the World Trade Center site.

Broadway Malyan recently secured a brief to provide a full range of design services for the delivery of a global headquarter, research and development, hospitality and visitor centrer in China. They will provide masterplanning, architectural and landscape design services for the project, from concept to detailed design and onsite delivery, with the center set to become a global center for hybrid rice research, a showcase for sustainable development and an international leisure destination in the Qixianling area of Hainan, China’s southernmost province. More images and architects’ description after the break.

One of the most impressive pavilions at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 was the UK Pavilion, designed by Thomas Heatherwick. In this book, we can see not only the impressive pavilion, but also a comprehensive overview covering the studio’s entire history. Over 150 projects are represented, each fully illustrated with images selected from Heatherwick’s personal and studio archives.

More information after the break.

Located in a privileged area in the city of Lima with views towards the golf course, DCPP Arquitectos sought to create an icon for the future in their design for a new luxury housing concept in Latin America. They do so by combining the idea of incorporating the exterior space to the interior life of the apartments and creating a new relation between public and private areas. More images and architects’ description after the break.

An outstanding group of buildings in Shropshire recently won development funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the regeneration of a former flax mill and maltings. FCB (Feilden Clegg Bradley) Studios have been acting as strategic advisors and architects to English Heritage and Shropshire Council since 2003 and have advised them through all stages of the project to date. In November 2010, they gained full planning and listed building consent for a £20m phase of works which includes a heritage-led mixed-use development with the potential to create 120 new homes on the site. The total development value is estimated at £52m. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Skandinavia’s largest architecture prize, Nykredit’s Architecture Prize of DKK 500,000, is this year awarded to the architectural practice COBE based in Copenhagen represented by architect, Dan Stubbergaard. In its choice the jury emphasised the fact that COBE spans the full professional spectrum from minor construction and urban space design to strategic planning and research. Currently, COBE is most renowned for the design and realisation of the new Nørreport Train Station and is currently detailing the development of the Nordhavn harbour area – one of Scandinavia’s largest and most ambitious metropolitan development projects, says the chairman of the prize jury, Mette Kynne Frandsen, Architect and CEO.

The competition winning proposal for the Terrace 9 Housing Complex in Nanterre, France by Atelier Zündel Cristea aims to restore the human scale and legibility necessary for creating large and enjoyable public spaces, capable of attracting people from beyond the city and the Hauts de Seine region. They do this by taking into account the urban project’s varying relief, both natural and artificial, with the coexistence of road and rail transportation networks and the structures of colossal scale such networks required. More images and architects’ description after the break.

AIA President Jeff Potter welcomed everyone this morning by restating his promise that the 2012 convention would inspire all who attend. With a consistent theme focusing on the architects commitment to service, President Potter welcomed Shaun Donovan – the 15th United States Secretary for Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – as today’s keynote speaker. However, before Secretary Donovan took the stage, the 2012 AIA Vice President and 2013 President-elect Mickey Jacob invited the crowd to come, stay and explore the mile-high city of Denver for the 2013 National Convention.

Architect: REX Location: Seoul, Korea Built Area: 115,500 sqm (1,240,000 sqf) Completion year: 2016 Program: 47,800 sqm of luxury housing for short-term residents, 27,000 sqm of retail, and 929 parking stalls Renderings: Luxigon and Rex

+ 32

Defined by a continuous volume snaking around two semipublic courtyards, the Connecting Riads residential complex by AQSO Arquitectos adapts to the different conditions of the plot to combine a domestic and urban appearance. Its simple gesture is defined by the particular context of each side of the site in a way that the different heights of the elevations become a contemporary and expressive form to which the roof is formed by staircase shaped green terraces. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Earlier this week at a meeting given by the Eisenhower Memorial Commission, Frank Gehry unveiled a revamped design for the controversial Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial for the Mall at the base of Capitol Hill, Washington D.C. This redesign responds to strong family objections in which Gehry’s vision had been criticized for largely misrepresenting the strength and achievements of the former Commander in Chief (check out our previous coverage of the controversial memorial and its heated meeting on March 20 here). After being selected to design the memorial in 2010 by the Eisenhower Memorial Commission, Gehry looked to highlight the President’s great achievements as a source of inspiration to children, to “give them courage to pursue their dreams and to remind them that this great man started out just like them.”

The original design featured an 80-foot high colonnade from which large metal tapestries hang, and a statue depicting Eisenhower as a youth gazing upon his future accomplishments.  To Gehry, the memorial celebrated a hero who was deeply proud of his Kansas roots and an icon children could identify with; to Eisenhower’s surviving family members, particularly granddaughters Susan and Anne Eisenhower, the design diminished the President’s accomplishments by depicting Ike as a “dreamy boy”.

More about the new design after the break.

The project “Living in the City in the City” by the team composed by Paolo Brescia and Tommaso Principi (architecture), Margherita Del Grosso (architecture), Openfabric (landscape), Marco Manzitti (urban marketing), Buro Happold (energy and environmental strategies), D’Appolonia (infrastructures), and Doro Dietz (visualization) recenlty won the international design competition organized by the Municipality of Genoa for the enhancement of Via XX Settembre. The idea of the project promotes a strong sense of self-identification by the Genoese, recovering the essential meaning of living seen as taking care of their city. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE) recently announced that it will honor architect I.M. Pei with the fourth annual Leonore and Walter Annenberg Award for Diplomacy through the Arts. The award will be presented at a dinner at the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Reception Rooms today, May 15, 2012. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will host FAPE’s members at the event, and FAPE Chairman Jo Carole Lauder, will present the award to Mr. Pei. The award was established to recognize American individuals who have demonstrated long-term excellence and creative innovation, and recent past honorees include: Agnes Gund, and Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg. More information on the award after the break.

Thousands of architects crammed into the grand ballroom of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center this morning to kick-off the 2012 National Convention hosted by the American Institute of Architects. Invigorating speeches, led by AIA President Jeff Potter, urged architects to re-envision the profession and question the role of today’s architect. Although the economic downturn has caused many hardships, it presents a unique opportunity for architects to reshape the profession.

In her recent Next American City article, “An IPO for Cities”, Diana Lind proposes employing the financial mechanisms of Wall Street to fund urban development and maintain public infrastructure. This would be fundamentally dangerous to already fragile municipal finance systems.

Is it possible that, now four years in, we still haven’t learned anything from Depression 2.0? Is Wall Street, the cause celebre of our financial system’s downslide, really a good model for funding our cities? Would this go over well in Europe?

Cities are struggling, but raising capital through a financial tool designed to infuse cash into corporations is not the answer. Cities neither function like publicly-traded corporations nor were they intended to perform in such manner.

Today, over 17,000 architects and designers, contractors and project managers, magazines and bloggers (including us) will converge on the Capital for the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) 144th National Convention, Design Connects. So let’s take a moment to reflect on this Association’s long history, intertwined with our nation’s history, and look at how it’s evolved to become both a vital resource for working/emerging architects and the voice of the architecture profession today.

The new extension for the Crossroad Offices by OFIS Arhitekti acts as a crossroad regulator between the existing villa and its approach from the street on the south side and the underground parking on the east side. The actual form derives from the main logical directions on the site to the main destinations as the new volume is positioned behind the existing villa with individual cut outs, ‘green bays’, in function of the extended external park coming into the pavilion. Inside they form divisions between internal spaces and create dynamic, light and calming atmosphere. More images and architects’ description after the break.

According to its Web Site, The American Institute of Architects (AIA) aims to be two things for the architecture profession: a resource and a voice.

There’s no doubt that as a resource, the AIA plays its part well. But what does it mean to be a “voice”? Can an association speak for a profession? And, if so, what is it saying?

Today, over 17,000 architects and designers, contractors and project managers, magazines and bloggers (including us) will converge on the Capital for the AIA’s 144th National Convention, Design Connects. Over the course of three days, connections will be made, conversations had, and three keynote speakers present.

If the AIA represents how we conceptualize and communicate architecture, then let’s take a closer look at those speakers who will be its living mouthpieces: a famed historian, a member of the Obama administration, and the architects who participated in the 9/11 Memorials. The past, the present, the future. Taken together, they tell a story – of where we’ve been, yes, but, more importantly, where we’re going.

And, we are back with our monthly updates of the Architecture Billings Index. Last month looked promising as March marked the fifth consecutive positive rating. However, April’s index has been calculated as 48.4 – a drop from March’s 50.4. The index has been a roller coaster ride of slight positive trends followed by negative setbacks, and AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, explains, “Considering the continued volatility in the overall economy, this decline in demand for design services isn’t terribly surprising. Also, favorable conditions during the winter months may have accelerated design billings, producing a pause in projects that have moved ahead faster than expected.”

More about April’s index after the break.

‘SHIFTS: The Economic Crisis and its Consequences for Architecture’ is an exhibition currently on display until June 9 at The Architecture Foundation in London. Presented by Rotterdam/Copenhagen-based Powerhouse Company and critic and architectural historian Hans Ibelings (the Architecture Observer), the exhibit illustrates the far-reaching impacts of new economic circumstances on architecture’s recent past, troubled present and unknown future acknowledging the onset of an imminent housing crisis in London, and the continuing shrinkage of the architectural profession in the UK. More information on the exhibition after the break.

The APPLIED Research Through Fabrication competition is seeking proposals that actively connect academia, the profession and the fabrication industry in the Continuing Research category and in the Speculative Proposal category new start-up projects. Through a panel of experts we propose to identify projects that warrant a higher degree of realization and exhibit them to foster a discussion that engages an audience in our region and beyond. From this selection a final project will be selected and optimized with a team of experts for the purpose of full-scale production. The deadline for submissions is June 2. To register and for more information, please visit here.

RIBA recently launched a new photography competition open to entries from all RIBA members in any category. With the theme, Architecture 2012, the RIBA invites images that capture any interpretation of architecture in whatever form – the inspiring, the beautiful, the intriguing or even the bizarre. Ten winning images will be selected by judges including Morley von Sternberg, architectural and portrait photographer and Angela Brady, RIBA President. The closing date for entries is June 6 at 12pm. For more information, please visit here.