Hosted by the faculties of Architecture and of Inter-Media at the China Academy of Arts in Hangzhou, the ‘Made With Bamboo: Architecture, Arts & Crafts’ event will take place Monday, October 29th at 6:30pm. The aim of this presentation is to grow the appreciation of this wonder grass and the most outstanding architects, designers and craftsmen working with bamboo by celebrating their works. The architecture section concentrates first on structural solutions mainly as developed in Colombia and than on aesthetic solutions. The main emphasis of the arts & crafts section is the exceptional Japanese basketry. More information after the break.

Michael Van Valkenburg Associates (MVVA) and Thomas Phifer & Partners have been announced as winners of an international competition set to transform 15 blocks of the neglected Waller Creek in downtown Austin, Texas, into a vibrant local attraction. Co-sponsored by the nonprofit Waller Creek Conservancy and the City of Austin, the ambitious project intends to spearhead redevelopment within the city’s central business district with the 1.5 mile urban scheme that represents approximately 11 percent of Austin’s downtown.

“Today, we glimpse a transformation of Austin through a new community gathering place. This design team selection illustrates our City’s desire for great civic space, unique culture and opportunity for interaction with nature,” Austin Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole said during the City Hall announcement. “We look forward to each new milestone of this development.”

The preservation battle continues over the fate of Bertrand Goldberg’s 1970’s Prentice Woman’s Hospital. As we reported in July, an ever-growing community of prominent architects – such as Frank Gehry, Jeanne Gang, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien – have joined preservationists in the fight to save the late modernist structure that is at risk of being replaced by a new biomedical research facility for Northwestern University.

The seven-story concrete cloverleaf, cantilevered 45 feet from the supporting core and floating atop a glass and steel box, is an engineering feat ahead of it’s time as well as an important icon within the Chicago skyline. As architecture critic Michael Kimmelman argues, “Great late-Modernist buildings, innovative and ruggedly beautiful, deserve respect and, increasingly, careful custody. Prentice is a good example.” However, it is not suited for 21st-century research labs and many Chicagoans hate it. Currently, Northwestern University is leading the debate by arguing that a new building would “bring to the city millions of investment dollars, create jobs and save lives”.

Could there be a compromise? Solutions are rarely black-and-white. Kimmelman has consulted Chicago architect Jeanne Gang to envision a proposal that would satisfy both opposing sides. Continue reading to learn more.

Architects: Nicolás del Rio / Max Núñez Location: Las Condes, Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile Architects: Nicolás del Rio, Max Núñez Associate Architect: Felipe Camus Project Year: 2010 Photographs: Erieta Attali

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Construction has commenced on the US Air Force Academy’s Center for Character and Leadership Development (CCLD), designed by SOM. This new building will be the most recent addition to the Air Force Academy’s Campus in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which was also designed by SOM in 1954. The design and construction of the new facility gives SOM the opportunity to revisit the significant project of the 20th century and incorporate the values of the initial design to the addition.

Join us after the break for more.

Oyler Wu Collaborative was once again asked to design the architecture for SCI-Arc‘s graduation ceremony along with other faculty members. The challenge included rethinking the event of the ceremony while keeping the existing pavilion they had previously designed. Essentially, the challenge called for making the existing pavilion new again. Their stage operates as a hybrid of different elements, incorporating into it a large stage with a central podium, seating that is configured much like a bleacher, and a cantilevered shade canopy. While the center of the actual stage is in alignment with the center of the existing pavilion, the overall structure is positioned asymmetrically, with the bleacher and canopy located off axis. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Located in Rome’s ‘Olympic Village’, the ‘Cube House’ is laid out as a single unit in which a central element, in the form of a cube, divides and distributes its various functional areas without any interruptions: living, sleeping, cooking and bathing. Designed by Studio Schiattarella, their renovation in the original 49 m2 apartment is designed in a way that all the internal partitions could be eliminated, resulting in the formation of a single open space measuring 7m x 7m. More images and architects’ description after the break.

If you are considering turning your designs and business practices into a more eco-friendly, deeper shade of green, then we strongly encourage you to attend the ‘Implementing Green Practices in Your Designs’ free event as part of the How to Make it series. Hosted by UncommonGoods, a brooklyn-based online retailer of unique gifts and creative designs, the event includes a panel of design professionals sharing their advice on how to source more eco-friendly materials and how to set up a studio or workspace with little environmental impact. Taking place October 29th from 6:30pm-9:00pm, attendees will also have the opportunity to discuss their product ideas and designs with the buyers and panelists. For more information on the event, please visit here.

Just this Monday, Kongsberg City Council announced that Mecanoo Architecten, together with Code Arkitektur and Buro Happold, won the design competition for a Knowledge and Cultural Square in the center of Kongsberg, a former mining town about 75 kilometers southwest of Oslo, Norway. The project comprises of a design for a cultural and teaching building totaling approximately 24,000 m², and includes future expansion of other functions, such as student housing, sports facilities and businesses. More images and architects’ description after the break.

October 24 marks the long-awaited grand opening of the Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) Four Freedoms Park in New York City. Located on a triangular site formed by the southern tip of Roosevelt Island, the four-acre FDR memorial park stands for the “freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear”. It was conceived nearly four decades ago by the legendary architect Louis Kahn, shortly before his death in 1974.

Read our previous coverage for all the design details and get a sneak peak after the break with images from the dedication ceremony.

British-American architect and historian Kenneth Frampton has been confirmed as this year’s winner of the Theory Prize of the Schelling Architecture Foundation. The jury is honoring Frampton for his “fundamental studies on tectonics and the architectonic large-scale form as predominant elements of urban landscapes. His theoretical range encompasses a vastness that no other prominent thinker in architecture has yet achieved. In addition, he will be honored for his accurate studies in which he has been analyzing current construction processes as well as the history of modern architecture since the early 19th century”.

As the winner of the 2012 Theory Prize, Frampton will now participate as a jury member in the selection of the Schelling Architecture Prize winner. Given that of the ten winners of the Schelling architecture prize four of them have already won the Pritzker Prize – most recently Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu – the nomination for the Schelling Architecture Prize is in itself a distinction.

The three nominated practices for the €20,000 Schelling Architecture Prize are:

The outcome of the 2012 United States presidential election will have global economic implications. In the midst of one of the most severe global recessions in history, policymakers around the world are waiting to see which way the United States will go this coming November. Will it stay the course of potential recovery—as yet incomplete—set by President Barack Obama? Or will it veer to the right into the still vague and undefined policies of challenger Mitt Romney?

For architecture specifically there is much at stake in this, the most expensive presidential race in history, where two contrasting visions of government’s role in the economy are boiling over. The Democrats advocate a course of continued federal investment and regulation to steer the country through rough economic waters they say were created by eight years of Republican policies. The Republicans point the finger and say Obama’s policies have not succeeded. They prioritize bringing down the deficit, reducing the size of the federal government and less regulation. Both sets of policies claim to be the answer to get the economy growing again.

Regardless of who wins the chances that economic growth will magically spring back to pre-recession levels are slim to non-existent. But whose policies would be more likely to at least make the long climb out of the well more tolerable?

Vote in our Presidential Poll after the break

Germany’s Leuphana University Lüneburg is venturing into global online learning with the launch of the Leuphana Digital School, a “cost-and-barrier-free” academic platform that offers collaborative web-based learning led by distinguished scholars and experts.

So-called social learning systems are radically changing the field of academic education and setting new standards for the communication of knowledge. Internationally distinguished scientists from the Columbia University New York, the Arizona State University, the London School of Economics, the Goldsmiths University of London, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the ETH Zurich, the Collegium Helveticum and the University of Zurich, the Sun Yat-Sen University Guangzhou and the City University Hong Kong, as well as leading experts from politics, media and economy will be advising students participating in Leuphana’s online-University, starting with the prototype course: “ThinkTank – Ideal City of the 21st Century”.

Thanks to the courtesy of ACME Studio, we are giving you the possibility to win a pen and card case based on Le Corbusier’s 1947 Modulor theory. Le Modulor, accentuates Le Corbusier’s theory on a black background with silver imagery and Ronchamp, an architect’s pencil features his signature drawing of a hand, a sign of “peace and reconciliation”.

Architects: Burgos & Garrido arquitectos Location: Lozoya, Spain Architects: Burgos & Garrido Arquitectos, Alberto Pieltain, Justo Fernández-Trapa Collaborators: Saúl García, Javier Malo, Agustín Martín Project Year: 2010 Photographs: Ángel Baltanás

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For the second time in our section, we propose a Peter Greenaway film. This one has not an obvious architectural name, however the way in which the director works with space results very attractive from an architects’ point of view.

The story occurs within no more than five locations and it is full of allegories through a strong use of lighting and colours. Enjoy a classic and let us know your comments!

Last year, thanks to a photo essay by architecture photographer Iwan Baan featured in the New York Magazine, the world became aware of a dramatic urban context in Caracas, Venezuela, the result of a lack of available housing: The Torre David (David Tower). The tower, built as the headquarters of the Confinanzas Group during the economic boom of the 90s, was left unfinished after the company went bankrupt in 1994, placing the building in a murky legal void where its ownership was put into question. Since 2000, the tower has suffered looting and decay; the public take-over culminated with the occupation of the tower by more than 2,500 people in 2007.

For over a year, Urban-Think Tank studied how the tower’s mixed-use occupation worked, with improvised apartments, shops, and even a gym on the terrace. The community operates under the strict rules imposed by the informal tenants, who have been accused by many Venezuelans of being nothing more than criminals.

Invited by curator Justin McGuirk, Urban-Think Tank recreated ‘Gran Horizonte’, a restaurant in the Torre de David, at the Arsenale of the Venice Biennale. The restaurant serves the same traditional food as the original, while photos by Iwan Baan reveals tenants’ day-to-day lives, immersing visitors into the tower.

The installation explores how the informal settlement works in ways the building’s architect never would have conceived, and posits that the informal dynamics found in emerging countries could serve as a vital source of innovation and experimentation for urban problems in our hyper-urbanized world.

The project has been highly controversial among the Venezuelan architecture community, as shown by the letters and articles in local newspapers reproduced at the installation, and on the Internet. Most of these letters’ authors claim that the project supports the illegal occupation and depicts a distorted image of Venezuela’s reality. But, on the other hand, the Venezuela Pavilion at the Biennale showed only cheerful paintings and images of propaganda, avoiding its purpose: to critically observe and stir debate. The controversy between the two visions only further highlights the current polarity in Venezuelan society, particularly on this issue of urbanization.

For this project, Justin McGuirk, Urban-Think Tank, and Iwan Baan were awarded with the Golden Lion by the Biennale’s Jury.

More from the architects after the break:

Breadtruck Films shared with us their seven minute documentary on architect Jonathan Segal‘s ‘the charmer’. The project consists of a 19 unit residential complex in San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood and recently won a 2012 project of the year award. By building on the tradition of the California courtyard apartments, he shows how architecture can create community and add a little charm to the neighborhood. The outdoor spaces at complex carry just as much importance with Segal as the buildings themselves. He believes that beauty and livability are crucial, and often overlooked, components of environmental design.

Co-sponsored by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union as part of the program put on by the Architectural League, Mike Taylor of Hopkins Architects will be delivering a lecture on his current work at the Cooper Union in New York. Taking place on Tuesday, October 30th, the leader of the design team for the London 2012 Velodrome, and a senior partner at Hopkins Architects is “guided by deeply-rooted architectural, environmental, and social convictions.” Widely lauded for its elegant carefully engineered form, the Velodrome’s sustainable and flexible design has won awards for its architecture and engineering, as well as its civic presence from the RIBA, the Architects Journal, and the BCI, among others. For more information, please visit here.

The ‘Forest Corridor’ proposal has won one of the 2nd prizes (Professional Category) in the Open International Competition for Noise Barrier/Enclosure organized by the Hong Kong Government. Designed by BREAD Studio, the project gives an alternative insight to the noise mitigation structure design in the dense urban environment of the city. More images and architects’ description after the break.

WORK Architecture Company (WORKac) has won an international competition to design new Assembly Hall in Libreville – the capital city of Gabon – for the 2014 Summit of the African Union. The New York City firm impressed the jury with their proposal L’Assemblée Radieuse, which offers a self-shading, circular structure that maximizes active and passive design while incorporating the vibrant ecology of the Gabonese Republic.

The new landmark is scheduled to break ground in February 2013 and will be completed in June 2014. Continue reading for the architects’ description.

SCI-Arc Masters of Architecture graduates Liz and Kyle von Hasseln have been awarded the inaugural Gehry Prize for developing an interruptible 3D printing method, dubbed Phantom Geometry, that allows designers to make alterations to the design while it is being printed. The Phantom Geometry method is a convenient alternative to the conventional, static 3D printing systems available today. The system’s main components includes a UV light projector, a special photo-sensitive resin, and controlled robotic arms from SCI-Arc’s Robot House.

In their own words, the authors’ describe: