This was an unprecedented year for Tsinghua University’s Non-Linear Parametric Workshop with close to 200 students attending. Students of the Advanced Design Unit taught by Daniel Gillen, Xu Feng with assistance by Andrew Haas investigated parametric software, thought processes and strategy with a specific focus on versioning.

The tutors’ sequenced information provided to students to encourage a scientific level of variable testing and analysis.  The nine-day workshop was organized into three parts, beginning with abstract versioning, followed by a pavilion, and concluding with a product.

Designed by Fabiano Ravaglia, Liebert Rodrigues, Vinícius Philot, Fernanda Marx, Tiago Mendonça, and Karen Novaes, the DAF: Designing for Adaptable Futures competition proposal focuses on expansion and flexibility to create a new way of thinking about Brazilian social housing. Based on practices developed by the low-income residents of the social housings of Rio, the team objective is to formulate a set of strategies that could enable and encourage the expansion of housing but in a neatly way. By taking advantage of the existing structure and implantation and inside the constructive knowledge of the population, this will allow the enlargement when it suits them. More images and architects’ description after the break.

ANDO | Andalucía Office, composed by five young architects from the University of Seville, shared with us their 2nd prize winning proposal in the Fourth edition of the “International Mock Firms Skyscraper Competition” organized by Chicago Architecture Today. Their concept, which focused on versatility, let to their NODO project, a tower over 550 meters in Beijing. The most innovative architectural idea of the project is based on the possibility of a constantly changing skyscraper. It is all about developing a mutant vertical city building possibility, which answers to its time, place and inhabitants requirements. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The “Line, surface, space“ installation, by Kawahara Krause Architects, is displayed as part of the architectural triennale in Hamburg this summer. Erected on the plan of three interlocking twisted squares of different sizes, the threads of the outer square suggest the edges of an imaginary space, while the more densely arranged threads towards the middle seem to create surfaces. A fragile structure of threads stretching from floor to ceiling seems to dissolve in space and recompose to ever new appearances. Varying between transparent and closed surfaces, the spatial perception changes with each step taken through the installation. More images and architects’ description after the break.

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According to a local Arizona news channel, a home Frank Lloyd Wright designed for his son, David S. Wright, is on the chopping block.

In his architectural review of the Ronald McDonald House, a home for families with children at the nearby Children’s Hospital, Blair Kamin came up against a moral dilemna:

Designed by J. MAYER H., the ‘Schaustelle’ or ‘show site’ will be a temporary pavilion and platform for the four collections housed at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Germany. The temporary closure has been seen as an opportunity that will give rise to a makeshift exhibition building – the Schaustelle. Set up to hold exhibitions, workshops, talks, performances, film screenings and video installations, and much more, the scheme has been initiated by the Pinakothek der Moderne Foundation. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Welcome back and congratulations for having made it to the final installation of the Olympic City Guide.

So far, in parts I and II, we’ve learned how to design for your post-Games legacy (No White Elephants please) and to revitalize -not demolish- your city’s most deprived “eye-sores” (Don’t Hate, Rejuvenate).

So what’s left? Well, in this post-Recession era of austerity, a huge part of your Olympic Strategy will be justifying the spending – the colossal spending – to your more than skeptical constituents. As I said in the last post, a good starting point is targeting urban renewal and being as transparent as possible, but another big element is how you market the Games – not just to the International Olympics Committee (IOC), but to your own city-dwellers.

So how can you get them both on your side? Simple - Go Green.

If you remember nothing else from Part I of our Olympic City Guide, Your Very Own Guide to Successfully Hosting the Olympic Games, make it the GOLDEN RULE: “The best thing to do if you’re bidding for the Olympics, Is to Not Get the Olympics.”

As we explained in Part I, this take-it-or-leave-it mentality is key to Olympic success. See the Olympics as the Games, and, come autumn, you’ll find your city littered with resource-guzzling, empty stadiums. See the Olympics as an excuse to get your plans for Urban Renewal into hyper-drive, and you’ll get the gold: a publicity-hogging, urban makeover that will continue to make you profit years after the Olympic circus has packed up and gone home.

But Olympic legacy doesn’t just come down to dollars and cents. It often means making a very real socio-cultural impact. Which leads us to our second set of Dos and Donts, starting with DON’T: Be Shady. And yes, we’re looking at you Beijing…

Keep reading for the Dos and Donts of Olympic Hostdom, after the break…

In the second part of our popular series “How 3D Printing Will Change Our World,” we took a look at the work of Neri Oxman, an MIT professor 3D Printing fantastic, nature-inspired designs that actually respond to their environment.

But an MIT colleague and fellow architect, Skylar Tibbits, and his partner Arthur Olson of the Scripps Research Institute, are taking Oxman’s thesis one step further. Similarly inspired by natural properties that allow for interaction with the environment, these two are trying to figure out: ”Could buildings one day build themselves?”

The two recently exhibited the Autodesk-sponsored BioMolecular Self-Assembly at TED Global 2012 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The project? Take the basic ingredients for molecular assembly, put them in individual flasks, and shake well. The result? The independent parts actually find each other and self-assemble various structures themselves.

So – you want to be an Olympic City do you? Well let’s hope you’re going for gold.

First of all, the Olympic bid is no child’s play. You can spend millions just to prove (often unsuccessfully) your worthiness. And, if you do get the bid, who’s to say that your Olympic Dreams won’t be dashed by elephantine debts, colossal inefficiencies, and your own citizenry’s open animosity?

Everyone may think the Olympics is all guts and glory, but frankly, the truth is far more complex. Which is why we’ve come up with a User’s Guide – the Do’s and Dont’s to Hosting Your Very Own Olympics.

We’ll begin with the GOLDEN RULE: “The best thing to do if you’re bidding for the Olympics, Is to Not Get the Olympics.”

Want to know the Cardinal Sins of Olympic Hostdom? Keep reading after the break…

Two years ago, we featured David Adjaye’s affordable housing project for Harlem which was designed as a way to integrate urban and cultural offerings alongside 120+ units of affordable housing. Construction began on the building yesterday, and was celebrated by a ceremony attended by New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. “Sugar Hill represents a new social engagement, which is at the heart of my practice. It is a symbol of regeneration for the community of Harlem that will integrate housing with a cultural and educational element – this is a real reinvention of the traditional model and I am thrilled to see the project break ground,” explained Adjaye.

More about the project after the break.

Taking place at the Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture Institute (SPSI), from July 25 to August 25, the ‘Foster + Partners: the Art of Architecture’ exhibition is the first major survey of the studio’s work to be held in China. It reveals details of a number of new projects underway in the region, including headquarters for Citic Bank in Hangzhou, a new tower in Nanjing and the Vantone development in Shanghai. It is also an opportunity to see the original models and sketches for high-profile completed buildings, such as Beijing International Airport, the Millau Viaduct in France, Hearst Tower in New York and the Swiss Re headquarters in London. More architects’ description after the break.

With this year’s theme being “Big Tree Paradigm” Akihisa Hirata, Shelter Corporation of Japan is inviting under-graduate or post-graduate students at universities or at tertiary institutions (including: junior colleges, colleges of technology, and other relevant vocational schools) as of November 17, 2012, to participate in their annual Student Architectural design Competition. Participants are challenged to design a house that has an attractive quality that is somehow similar to the attractiveness of big trees. It is not necessary that the house imitates the shape of trees. Rather, it is good if the idea starts from the attractiveness of big trees and develops into an unpredictable outcome – the form does not need to look like a tree at all. Submissions are due no later than September 28. To register and for more information, please visit here.

Ground was broken early this month in Singapore for the new Yale-NUS College campus, designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects in collaboration with Forum Architects of Singapore. Jointly created by Yale University and the National University of Singapore, Yale-NUS College is the first college campus established by Yale outside of New Haven, Connecticut. The campus opens in 2015 and is designed to achieve the highest rating under the Green Mark, Singapore’s benchmark for sustainable design Comprising three residential colleges for 1,000 students, the campus balances the traditions of Yale with the cultural and climatic influences of Southeast Asia. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Only hours have passed since Governor Jerry Brown signed the controversial bill providing initial funding for California’s $68 billion High-Speed Rail project, which will connect Sacramento to San Francisco to Los Angeles, but already another plan has emerged that could blow all of California’s efforts out of the water.

Turning shipping containers into low rent apartments? As architects we have the ability to visualize bold ideas that can improve our cities and environments. Ideas with impact. One that is worth backing. And Ketel One has $100,000 to stake the one who’s got it.

July 27, 2012 marks the opening ceremonies of the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games. As the Olympics approach closer, the eyes of the world will inevitably turn to London and its new infrastructure. Over the past 12 months, the Olympic Park in London’s struggling east side has changed dramatically. With the structures of the main sporting venues complete, you can now get a real feel for the layout of the park and the compact nature of the site. More images and information after the break.

Neutelings Riedijk Architects has made a design for a 180 m high office tower, ‘Le Cinq’ in Paris, commissioned by Brussels developer Buelens NV as one out of four teams for the international competition organized by the City of Paris. The new skyscraper serves as the focal point for the east of Paris in the new urban development of the XIIIth arrondissement, near to the Grande Bibliothèque. The tower consists of a stacking of five separate volumes of six stories each, cantilevered from two vertical cores with open space between the volumes. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Today, 3D Printing technology lives in the realm of small plastic tchotchkes. But economists, theorists, and consumers alike predict that 3D printers will democratize the act of creation and, in so doing, revolutionize our world. Which poses an interesting quandary: what will happen when we can print houses?

Last week, I discussed the incredible capabilities of 3D Printing in the not-so distant future: to quickly create homes for victims of disaster/poverty; to allow the architect the freedom to create curvy, organic structures once only dreamed of. But, if we look a little further afield, the possibilities are even more staggering.

In the next few paragraphs, I’ll introduce you to Neri Oxman, an architect and MIT professor using 3D Printing technology to create almost-living structures that may just be the future of sustainable design. Oxman’s work shows how 3D Printing will turn our concept of what architecture – and the architect – is, completely on its head.

With the success of the Tate Modern (the museum hosts approximately 2 million visitors a year), in 2005, the museum selected Herzog and de Meuron to expand its gallery space by nearly 70%. Since that time, we have shared the transformation of the design which began as an irregularly stacked pyramid of glass boxes to a geometric faceted volume clad in perforated brick. Yet, the expansion plans also include a vital component that is buried underground – the Tanks – which opened earlier this week.

More about the Tanks after the break.

The semifinalists were recently announced for the 2011 Open Architecture Challenge: RESTRICTED ACCESS competition. Launched by Architecture for Humanity, the competition asked architects and designers to partner with community groups across the world and develop innovative solutions to re-envision closed, abandoned and decommissioning military sites. After a hard week of voting, during which time jurors had to make tough decisions between the 200 uploaded entries, the semifinalists have finally been determined with the five winning places . They thank all of the participants for their hard work. For a complete list of all the semifinalists and their projects, please visit here. More images can be viewed in the gallery after the break.

Public voting started this past week and will go on until July 22 for the inaugural George Matsumoto Prize for North Carolina Modernist residential design, a unique architecture competition sponsored by nonprofit Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH).