The originator of the virtual building concept, GRAPHISOFT hosts a free one-hour webcast – “Real Time Sharing is POWER. And EFFICIENCY. And PRODUCTIVITY: The Open Collaboration Webcast” on October 21st.

The webinar will show that Open Design Collaboration with ArchiCAD enables the AEC industry to work like they want to right now. It is Interoperability Redefined, so that architecture and engineering teams can collaborate using their own BIM models in a dynamic IFC based workflow. Come see ArchiCAD engage intelligent data exchange with Revit Structure, Tekla Structure, Autodesk MEP, Revit MEP and more.

To register for the event click here. More information after the break.

Photographer Iwan Baan received the inaugural Julius Shulman Photography Award in Los Angeles on October 10th. The Julius Shulman Institute at Woodbury University will honor the legacy of the renowned photographer during a series of events that coincide with the 100th anniversary of the day of his birth. The image.architecture.now exhibit is currently featuring Iwan Baan along with 9 photographers all whose work illuminates a range of explorations into documenting the experience of space. This exhibit is at Ahmanson Main Space at Woodbury University until October 23rd.

French architects archi5 and Omar Kobbité Architectes (OKA), have won a competition to design the National Museum of Archaeology and Earth Sciences in Rabat, Morocco. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Last month we shared with you the six designs from the shortlisted group for the future Victoria & Albert Museum in Scotland:

Delugan Meissl Associated Architects / Kengo Kuma & Associates / REX / Snøhetta / Steven Holl Architects / Sutherland Hussey Architects

The six designs are now on exhibition at the library of Abertay University on Bell Street in Dundee until November 4th.

We now have more photographs and a short description of each proposal plus a video after the break.

We’ve featured quite elaborate projects on AD where project budgets that reach the millions seem almost normal. Yet, this is something we haven’t seen: a house – yes, one house – priced at $1 billion dollars. With a price tag like that, India’s richest man, and Forbes’s fourth richest man, Mukesh Ambani, along with his wife and three childen, will be calling the world’s most expensive residence “home.”

More about the house after the break.

Authors: United Visual Artists Location: Toronto, Canada Commissioners: Cadillac Fairview, Lanterra Developments, Maple Leaf Sports Public Art Consultants: Public Art Management – Karen Mills and Justin Ridgeway Dimensions: 90 metres x 3 metres Project Year: 2010 Photographs: James Medcraft, United Visual Artists, 2010

Architect: Atelier Christian de Portzamparc Location: Paris, France Client: GEREC Project Area: 8,500 sqm Project Year: 2003-2009 Photographs: Patrycja Ogonowska

French architect Olivier Brouillard (Complex City), shared with us his project Poly Morphisme, located in Pregny-Chambesy, near Geneva, Switzerland. More images and architect’s description after the break.

I guess for our next Flickr Round Up (in two more week), we’ll be looking at more than 30,000 photos. For now, check our 21st selection of photos from our Flickr Pool. In case you haven’t seen our previous selections, check them all right here. As always, remember you can submit your own photo here, and don’t forget to follow us through Twitter and our Facebook Fan Page to find many more features.

The photo above was taken by pedro kok in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Check the other four after the break.

“Build a Better Burb”, a design and planning competition sponsored by the Long Island Index with the Rauch Foundation, has named the team of PARK and NetLab as one of five winners. Will Prince of the architecture and planning studio PARK and Kazys Varnelis, the founder of NetLab, collaborated on the winning proposal “Long Division,” a regional strategy that promotes both responsible growth and planned contraction.

More images, a video on the project,  and complete press release after the break.

AJ reports that “It is understood Zumthor has been in the frame for the pavilion for some time and initial proposals resemble ‘a big concrete block with a garden in it’ – though the design is expected to evolve over the coming months.”

Pedro Gadanho is the author of the projects shown in the exhibition that he is curating within the scope of the Lisbon Architecture Triennial 2010, under the heading Falemos de Casas [Let’s Talk about Houses]. The photographs and videos on show confront us with the working process of four visual artists, and a photographer who specializes in architecture.

The authors and the projects: Filipa César, with the video Stereo, featuring Galeria Presença, 1998/2002; João Paulo Feliciano, on his apartment in Lisbon, 2001/2010, photographic collage; Daniel Malhão, on the Ellipse Foundation, 2006, photography; Edgar Martins on Casa GMG, 2010, photography; and Fernando Guerra, on Casa Baltasar, 2007, photography.

Cheungvogl shared with us one of their latest projects, Shinjuku Gardens, in Tokyo, Japan. See more images and architect’s description after the break.

To promote their Power Smart month of October, BC Hydro has launched an interesting public campaign for energy efficiency by converting two shipping containers into live experimental spaces in Vancouver. For fours day, actors will live in the 3×6 meter containers “to showcase how – and how not – to live and work in an energy-efficient manner.” The two containers are meant to depict the extreme opposites of energy consumption and show the simple steps people can take to increase their efficiency. As the containers are fully glazed on one side, passersby can see how the actors go about their daily routines – one completely wasteful with a constantly blasting television and all the lights on, while the other actor uses natural daylight for illumination and adds extra layers of clothing for warmth. Displays are fixed to the exterior of each container to provide simulated consumption readings, allowing the public to see the difference in the energy use when comparing energy-efficient living to inefficient and wasteful behavior.

More about the experiment after the break.

Check out Korea-based Chae Pereira Architects‘ latest residential project situated in the crowded urban neighborhood of Sangsu. The neighborhood, which is crowded by slum houses weaving around little alleys, provides a “stimulating landscape both socially and physically” which the architects took aspects of the existing houses to inform their design strategy. The recycled elements of the surrounding houses, specifically their corrugated panel roofs, in addition to Sangsu’s power plant, inspired the architects to experiment with a layer of translucent polycarbonate fixed on a regular steel frame to show the 13MM aluminum-coated insulation and circulations spaces.

More images and more about the project after the break.

Loud music reverberated from speakers. The line at the sponsored free bar spilled out onto the sidewalk. The 2010 AIA/LA Design Award boards were perfectly leveled along the crisp white walls. With all the great design on display, the music, the mingling, the clinking of plastic glasses, one might think architecture was simply business as usual.

But this crowd had gathered to listen to a panel on where things stand with the economy as it relates to the architecture industry. The event was sponsored by Form Magazine and coincided with the release of their October Money Issue. One person I spoke with wondered if the panel would show their cards.

More after the break.

The American Institute of Architects’ Dallas chapter (AIA Dallas) is calling for entries for the 36th annual Ken Roberts Memorial Delineation Competition, the longest-running architectural delineation competition currently in operation anywhere in the world. The competition is open to all architecture students, professionals and architectural illustrators throughout the United States, as well as abroad.

Jean-Paul Viguier et Associés shared with us his project ‘Majunga Tower’, located in La Défense, Paris, France. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Montréal-based Chevalier Morales Architectes shared with us their finalist proposal along with Busby Perkins + Will for the Nouveau Centre Culturel de Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Competition. See more images and architect’s description after the break.

Amazing public facilities projects for the 5th part of our selection. Check them all after the break!

Palomar Welcome Center / Johnsen Schmaling Architects As the harbinger of a large-scale development slated for LEED certification, the Palomar Welcome Center utilizes an abandoned one-story warehouse building on the edge of Milwaukee’s Park East redevelopment corridor. The area, an urban desert formerly occupied by an underused freeway spur, is slated to be transformed into the Palomar District, a series of mixed-use projects that will connect downtown to the adjacent neighborhoods (read more…)

International architecture practice Cheungvogl shared with us one of their latest projects, Sheik-Zayed-Library, located in Dubai. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Hometta is an international collective of designers, architects, builders, writers and editors who have banded together to improve the way residential architecture is designed and delivered today. We have been featuring Hometta’s houses designs in the past, which you can check right here.

Now, Alterstudio Architects, nARCHITECTS, Johnsen Schmaling Architects, Dan Hisel Architect, and nottoscale have submitted new house designs, which are added to Hometta’s collection of modern houses for sale. See all the new designs after the break.

Yesterday, it was announced that Daniel Libeskind will design a landmark building for the UK that will house the new Institute for Democracy and Conflict Resolution. As part of the University of Essex, the UK’s highest ranked university for social science research, this new building seeks to become an “international beacon for democracy” as it will build upon the university’s 40 years of practical and academic expertise in the field of human rights, justice and governance. Libeskind commented, “I consider it an honor to be involved in a project with such visionary humanitarian objectives. I have always believed that democratic openness and conflict resolution is critical not only in the political sphere but in the making of architectural space.”

More about the project after the break.

NRJA shared their competition entry for an extension of the Latvian National Museum of Art with us. The project proposes a reconstruction plan incorporates new features that will not disturb the historical structure of the museum, but will considerably improve its structural and sustainability performance. The museum sits at a dominant location in the center of Riga and NRJA’s extension seeks to link the existing historical building with a new park gallery.

More about the extension after the break.