Designed by GRAFT Architects, Vertical Village is a residential, hotel and entertainment development in Dubai that harnesses the most powerful renewable energy source in the desert, the sun. Organized to reduce solar gain and maximize solar production, the buildings are massed as self-shading slabs at the north of the site on the east-west axis to reduce low-angle sun penetration. At the southern end of the site, a vast solar collector array optimally angles itself toward the sun and faces the main public strip as a potent gesture to the developments sustainable intent and minimum LEED Gold rated performance. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The aim of Enforma and AIM Studio in their design of the Salt Tower, located in Budva, Montenegro, was to carefully analyze the specific location and the possibilities that this place offers to the users. Inspired by the old town of Budva, while integrating energy efficient strategies, their transformation from rectangular form to a tall crystal grain reflective structure on the Mediterranean coast justifies the project’s name. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The proposal for the Kyiv Urban Wildlife Park by Katya Larina, Yevgeniya Pozigun, Irina Klixbull, and Roman Pomazan responds to what the place means for the thousands of people who cross the area which is nestled between two fast developing banks. Therefore, the design becomes a development of a decision-making instrument which is intended to guide the future development of Kyiv Islands. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The proposal by BudCud for the Osiedle Przyjaźń 2.0 is an innovative university campus located in the center of Bemowo district in Warsaw. Founded in the1950s as a habitat of small wooden houses, filled with an abundance of green areas, the campus is a crucial factor for city development. It is an element, which significantly affects the attractiveness of a district or even a whole city. While retaining its small scale character, their urban arrangement is clearly divided into function zones. Each zone works as a separate unit of a bigger network – sustainable, modern and pro-social estate. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The ‘Now Boarding: Fentress Airports + The Architecture of Flight’ Exhibition, taking place July 15 – October 7 at the Denver Art Museum, will allow visitors a rare opportunity to explore the evolution of airport design and to discover the creative processes that lead to their functionality and beauty. The exhibition takes visitors on a journey through the history of airports aided by film, digital art, animation, models, drawings, photographs, and full-scale architectural elements. Visitors will travel through six airports designed by Denver-based Fentress architects: Denver International Airport, South Korea’s Incheon International Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Mineta San Jose International Airport, Raleigh-Durham International Airport, and Los Angeles International Airport. For more information, please visit here.

A powerful and expressive design it itself, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin is still admired as a concrete, steel, and glass landmark today. Dedicated to culture and the fine arts, the building will be going through a major renovation, which will be overseen by British architect, David Chipperfield who has recently worked extensively in Berlin, finishing work on the war-ravaged Neues Museum on the Museum Island complex in 2009. The renovation will start in 2015 and last three years, during which time the museum will be closed. The building, completed in 1968, is Mies van der Rohe’s only work in Germany after World War II and is in need of thorough modernization after 40 years. Restoration of the glass facade, stone terrace and concrete and steel structure, along with new security and fire technology are included in the project.

A complementary and mutual beneficial partnership, Hong Kong and Shenzhen will join the globalization as an integrated image and get benefit. With intimate collaboration, the proposal for the Hong Kong-Shenzhen boundary control point by WAU Design will serve as a symbol of close communication. The scheme concept comes from “link”: many single units can be twisted into a solid and integrated form. This scheme, a twisted link, indicates multi-level and deep cooperation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen on economic, cultural, and multi-faceted levels. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Mecanoo architecten, in cooperation with local partner Cafer Bozkurt Architecture, shared with us their proposal, one of the competition’s three winning proposals, in an international design competition for Yenikapı Transfer Point and Archaeo-Park Area in Istanbul, Turkey. Yenikapı, ‘New Gate’, consists in a railroad and maritime transfer centre that connects Europe with Asia, as well as the inner city with the surrounding megapolis and the rest of the country. More images and architects’ description after the break.

World of Chlorophyll, a project by IAMZ Design Studio, is an idea for a conceptual skyscraper containing the form of residential units in the near future. Their main concept involves the units taking the form of leaves, stemming mainly from the columns, based upon all residential units. This way, the building mimics nature, and in conformity with it, also makes for an easy configuration. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) is launching the 2012 program to stimulate curatorial opportunities for students and young professionals: the Young Curator Program and the Power Corporation of Canada Curatorial Internships Program. The Young Curator Program offers the opportunity to propose and curate a project on the contemporary debate in architecture, urbanism, and landscape design, from exhibition in the octagonal gallery or online, publications, seminar, series of events and more, during a residency of 3 months at the CCA. The Power Corporation of Canada Curatorial Internships Program encourages students and recent graduates in design disciplines, arts and humanities to become acquainted with the CCA’s collection, exhibition, and research programs through an internship of 6 to 9 months in Montréal.

The proposal, Schools in the Sky, by Filipe Magalhaes, Ana Luisa Soares, and André Vergueiro for the ‘Rooftops, Why Not?’ competition asks the question, ‘What if suddenly the education would become the highest, most visible value of a society?’ The American education system is sustained by the private sector. As a result, many colleges and schools have become, over time, ghettos for rich people, leaving a huge part of the students out of options. Assuming the will to fix, or at least to discuss, a biased system, it is proposed to offer public schools in places that are usually closed to society. More images and architects’ description after the break.

LETH & GORI was recently awarded the third prize in the open international competition with their proposal for an extension to Music Gymnasium Salzburg. Their design creates a new extension to the school without stealing space or light from the existing densely built site which is done by digging out the northern part of the site and inserting the extension as a one storey building with courtyards and skylights. Furthermore, the roof of the building becomes a new playful urban landscape for the students. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Organized by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) Chair of Architectural Theory, the “Brutalism. Architecture of Everyday Culture, Poetry and Theory” symposium will be taking place in Berlin May 10-11. Their position on this topic is that Brutalism’s critical review of classical modernism and post-war modernism gave rise to a unique laboratory situation, in which modern architectural trends still of relevance today were developed and tested for the very first time. More information on the event after the break.

Chicago based Saltans Architects_Intl., ltd (SA_I) and Shenzhen based Jaeger and Partner Architects, Ltd. design collaboration was recently selected for the second stage international design competition for the Skolkovo Technopark District D2 Residential Area. Their master plan design envisions the “concept of the city at human scale with a strong relationship with nature”. Five distinct Districts comprising this planning strategy are separated and linked by natural landscapes, while each District’s master plan is designed specifically for function. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The design of the two high-rise towers for the Donau-City in Vienna by Dominique Perrault Architecture represents the concluding phase of a development extending over several decades: on what was originally a municipal rubbish tip the UNO-City was erected (1973–1979), tentative plans to hold the 1995 Vienna-Budapest EXPO here were soon abandoned, as a result architects Krischanitz and Neumann (commissioned by WED AG) produced an urban design masterplan for the area in 1992. The outcome is an entirely new urban district with a diverse range of functions. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Alejandro Aravena, based in Santiago de Chile, will be giving a lecture at MIT on the theme of ‘Elemental Recent Projects: Monoliths and Trees’. After the 8.8 earthquake and tsunami that hit Chile in 2010, they have worked in the reconstruction by proposing a mitigation forest as the main infrastructural work, but also dealing with housing, public buildings, productive activities and transportation. In 2011 they were called to perform a similar redesign of an entire city in the Atacama desert, where the Chilean Copper Company, Codelco, commissioned them to intervene at the whole scale of Calama where they are proposing an oasis.

The exploratory mud structure project, designed and built by Architecture for Humanity Tehran (Rai Studio) + Architecture Faculty of Razi University, demonstrates a strong focus on humanitarian design through sustainable and low budget construction methodologies. The workshop not only provided the students with an enriched academic experience, but the opportunity to reach out to an underdeveloped region. More images and their description after the break.

The New York office of top international architecture and design firm Perkins Eastman shared with us their design for the Lekhwiya Sports Complex—a mixed-use sports venue that will be the home stadium for Qatar’s premier football team, Lekhwiya Club. The 19,529 sm (210,210 sf) complex also will be used as a training site and home base for a guest team participating in the 2022 World Cup. More architects’ description after the break.